The Path From Promise to Possession

I'm going to launch into this lesson this morning. I don't know where it will go. I never know where the plane's going to end uh or land if it should land. I try to put things together, but there's this inadequacy of the flesh that um that I always acknowledge that if anything good comes of this, it's because God has touched it and God has anointed his word. And so this morning, uh, I'll just tell you up front, our our lesson today is about persistence, about keeping on keeping on.

Uh just just uh if we make it, it's going to be because God has helped us and given us not only a desire but also the ability and the strength to make it from Numbers chapter 13 verse 19. This is a familiar portion of scripture. As a matter of fact, it's on my refrigerator. My wife put it there. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. He hath he said and shall he not do it.

Boy, we can trust God. We can rely upon God today. Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good. And then from Hebrews chap 10 verse 23, let us, so God promises, then let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful. He is faithful that promised. And then from Galatians 5:7, Paul's admonition to the Galatian church, ye did run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? And my lesson today is the title is the path from promise to possession.

Let me get that first slide if I could, that first panel. Meet Dean Carnases. You may have met Dean Carnases before, but he is a unique man, a genetic anomaly as it were. There is something about Dean that is unique to him that u I just wish I had a portion of what Dean has. Let's go on to the next panel. Here are some of the accomplishments of Dean Carnoses. He ran 350 miles in 80 hours and 44 minutes without sleep in 2005 in Death Valley.

He completed the relay, 199 run from Kalis Stoga to uh Santa Cruz 11 times. Ran a marathon to the South Pole in minus3 degree weather uh without snowshoes. In 2002, he ran a marathon in each of the 50 states in 50 consecutive days. In 2006, he ran 3,000 miles across the United States from Disneyland to New York City in 75 days, running 40 to 50 miles a day. In 2011, he swam across the San Francisco Bay. The unique thing about Mr.

Dean Carnasis is that he does not get fatigued. He has this genetic makeup that flushes the lactic acid from his muscles quickly. His metabolism is such that he recovers quickly. His heart rate is elevated. And so everything about him just just speaks of energy. He does not get tired. I get tired just reading what he did. I need a nap at this point because he he wears me out just reading about the things that he has done because there is Dean Carnazis and then there's us the next panel please.

This is how I keep up with him or how we normally keep up with him. Monster drinks and Starbucks, right? Hypercaffeination. We we we have a society and a culture that runs on these things, these energy drinks because because Dean Carnasses sets the bar high for the rest of us and we just can't keep up because there is him in a class by himself. But may I say to you that that in the spirit even though the outward man perishes there is this anomaly that we have as children of God that while the outward man perisheth and gets tired the inward man is renewed on a daily basis.

Amen. the the fifth tenant of Calvinism. I studied John Calvin at length at one point in my life and uh he came up with these five tenants uh uh total depravity, unconditional election, limited atonement, irresistible grace and the final one was the perseverance of the saints. And it simply states that if you are one of the elect that God has chosen to be saved, that there's no way that you're going to be lost because God is going to provide everything for us who are intended to be saved.

Perseverance of the saints. God is going to make sure uh that there is a special dispensation of grace or strength to those who are supposed to be saved. Now I do not agree. Most mainline religions uh have at least a portion of Calvinis Calvinistic theology embedded in their in their doctrines. I do not agree with John Calvin on many points. But I do believe that if we make it, it's because God has given us the strength to go on. But we must we must make the effort to do so.

Uh even in ourselves we can't just throw everything at the spirit and say here you take care of everything. There are some requisites that are required of you and me if we are going to ever make it to heaven. If we make it through this life with this Holy Ghost in us intact, at the end, there are some things that we have to do because even though the word of God is filled with promises, we still must respond to those promises in kind with putting some effort into the uh the race that we run or this Christian life that we live.

the promise of God. They are sure and they are steadfast. God's not gonna fail on his part. We read that at the onset that God is not a man that he should lie. And when God makes a promise, you can bank on it. He will fulfill his word. He will do what he uh had promised. We we read the history of Israel, that roller coaster, ride, if it was on a graph, it would be ups and downs, highs and lows, and we look at them and uh there are certain parallels that are uh applicable to our own lives with that of Israel.

We are not always on the mountain. We are not always at our best. Sometimes the road gets long. Sometimes the journey gets hard and we get tired. We get tired. Israel, they they live for God. They uh there is there is no doubt in my mind that they love God. But there were times when they would lapse into this uh this low place where God was just another God. They loved God. But he was just among the gods. Uh when Solomon, for example, married many strange wives, the Bible said, and he incorporated those gods.

It wasn't that Solomon had forgotten the God of Israel. It was just that he was just another god among the gods. And so uh we we are like that many times in our our walk with God. We we we love God but there are times when sometimes God gets pushed to the background. We get tired and fatigue sets in and and uh we we forget we forget that that they that wait upon the Lord shall that's a promise of God. The ones that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They're the ones that are going to be born up as on the wings of an eagle. They're going to be the ones that run and not grow weary and walk and not faint. And so, uh, we we depend upon that that during those low periods, we bank on the promises of God that are sure and steadfast. Beginning with Abram called out of the Caldes, there was a promise that was made to him. And uh the Lord spoke to Abraham. This this very strange promise seemingly out of nowhere and and God says, "I am going to make you a great nation."

75 years old. He calls him out of the Caldes and and makes a promise to him and said, "I'm going to make you a great nation as the stars of the heaven." Look up there and if you can count them, I'm going to make your seed more numerous than they and and the sands of the seashore. I'm going to increase you, Abraham, and and I'm going to make you a great nation. This was a promise of God. And and the Bible says that Abram staggered not at the promise of God.

And so that promise that burned in him continued in his son Isaac. And Isaac also latched on to that promise of God. And then it was extended to his son Jacob. And each of them, each of them, what I want to impress upon us today is that each of them had this trait, this this quality, this characteristic called perseverance. They would keep this promise alive. They would persevere to keep this promise going persistently. Abram walked with God. He got up where he from Heron where he was and began a trek and he was circumscribing the the promise of God.

God says, "Wherever you walk, I'm going to give you that land." And so Abram walked in the promise of God. And along the way, he built altars. But all the time he kept on moving toward the fulfillment of the promise. The Bible says in the book of Hebrews that he was looking for a city with foundation whose builder and maker was God kept on walking to keep the promise alive. Describing the borders of that promised land. Persistently Isaac wared to keep the legacy wells of Abram open.

He reopened the wells that Abraham had digged. And not only that, the Bible says that Isa Isaac went ahead and digged even more of those wells. And then we know the story of Jacob. He was the deceiver. But there was a trait and a quality about him that would not give up. It would not give in. It would not back up and it would not be silenced. There was a promise that lived in him and he so desired to be a part of that covenant promise that he was willing to deceive his own father to get him to bless him.

He had already gotten the birthright from his brother Esau, but that wasn't enough. That was the earthly lineage. He wanted to be a part of that promise, that covenant promise that God had made to Abraham. And he would not be dissuaded from that. He his desire to be blessed was so great that he was willing to turn the family on its head in order to get what he wanted from Isaac. He wanted the promise. He wanted the blessing. So he deceived his father and made his brother so mad.

The one who would give up the birthright was about to kill him because he had taken his blessing. Persistence. Jacob wouldn't give up. When Laban kept changing his wages, he wouldn't give up his his desire for Rachel. Even when Laban deceived him and gave him Leah instead, there was a persistence about him. He said, "I'll work another seven years if I have to, but I'm not going to give up on this. I'm going to keep pursuing that." Then one night he got into an allnight wrestling match.

Some say it was a man. Some say it was an angel. Jacob said, "I have seen God face to face." And he called the name of that place penile. I have seen God face to face. and I wrestle with. Let me tell you something. There's something I believe that God is attracted to when somebody just simply makes up their mind to pursue him. Because the Bible says uh that when this wrestling match got got going, Jacob would not turn loose. He grabbed a hold whether it was an angel or a theoph a theophony or or whether it was God himself.

No matter. Jacob said, "I am not going to turn loose until you give me the blessing. I want the blessing." And it was this persistence, this quality that drove him because he wanted, he had gotten it from his father Isaac. But he says, "Now I want the seal of God on my life, and I will not turn you loose." And you know what the Bible says? That Jacob prevailed. Jacob prevailed in his persistence. He limped away from that battle. He was walking differently.

But he walked away with a name that was changed and the blessing of God and the promise of God renewed in his life. And he he Jacob had 12 sons. The 11th of them was one named Joseph. And in Joseph, he was the fruitful bow that would grow over the wall. He was the one who would continue through his children the promise of God. This covenant promise. Joseph, we see this same quality of persistence. I'm talking to a people today that we have got to get some grit and a backbone and stand in a culture that is totally anti-God.

And if we don't latch a hold of this thing, we have exceeding great and precious promises from God. But it is going to require us bearing down and sometimes wrestling for the blessing and the promises of God. Joseph had a coat of many colors. The Bible said he enjoyed the favor of his father. He was the favored boy. And he got a coat. But beyond a coat, he had a dream. He had a dream and a promise was instilled in him that one day all these brothers of yours are going to bow before you.

H I'm talking about the path the promise is called persistence. You got to keep on keeping on. Sometimes you got to just keep walking. When when the coat of favor has been ripped from you and the blessing has been ripped out of your life and it's gone, Joseph still had a dream and a promise that impelled him to go on. when his path led him through a pit and a prison, he persisted and he just kept on believing in the promise and the dream that he had from God.

And when he had reached the pinnacle of the palace and his dream came true, he said, "It's not going to stop with me." After the family had moved to Egypt, he said to them, "There's coming a time. You're not going to be here forever." Why? Because our father Abraham described a land of promise that flows with milk and honey that you are someday going to walk out of this Egypt and you're going to occupy the promise of God. and he prophesied of the return to the promise of the land the the children of Israel.

The Bible says in Genesis chapter 50 and verse 25 and Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel saying God will surely visit you. God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my bones. I'm going to be dead a long time. But the promise of God doesn't stop. When a person dies, when when I am dead, I am not going to squelch this promise of God. There is still going to exist a promise to be fulfilled long after I am gone.

So just don't forget about me. Don't leave me here in Egypt. I want my bones to be interred in the promised land. For some 400 years, the bones of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lay in the land of Canaan alone. Jacob was in tuned in Egypt, and Joseph was in Egypt and and and Israel had been enslaved for generations. the promise of possessing that land of promise. And a people being as numerous as the sand of the sea and the stars of the heaven seemed as distant and as dead as their forefathers.

The writer to Hebrews says, "All these," everybody say, "All these." All of these having ta obtained a good report through faith obtained not the promise. It didn't happen in their lifetime. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, you can name the luminaries of the forefathers of Israel. But it says regardless of all that they did to advance it, they did not obtain the promise. But oh, thank God for the scripture that says, "But the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. What he has promised, he will also perform."

And so the years pass, decades become centuries and Egypt is an incubator where potential of promise is being developed because there in a place called goan. The promise was still coursing in the blood of the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It was still living in them and they were passing it on to another generation saying, "God, our God is the God who was the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." And there is a placeh this is not our home. I have to instill it in the next generation.

This is not our home. Joseph said, "We're going to leave here one of these days, and we are to dig up those bones and bring them with us." Let me speak directly to the church today. This world is not our home. This place is not our final resting place. There is going to come a voice and a trump of God that is going to say, "Han, come up hither." And the church is going to a land that has been promised to us.

Egypt was just an incubator where potential was growing. And when God saw the potential had grown to its fullness, he moved. There's this promise of God in Isaiah chapter 66 and verse 9. It says this, "Shall I bring to the birth and not cause to bring forth? Sayaeth the Lord. shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb, saith thy God? Do you think Do you think for a minute that I don't have the ability out of the deadness of a womb?

I did it for Sarah and I can do it again. He said, "Don't ever forget that my power is not limited by your ability or even your thoughts. I will perform what I promise that I will do." And so when this potential had reached the fullness, when their numerical strength had become such, God sent Moses to Pharaoh with a message. Watch Exodus 4 22 and verse 23. And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, thus saeth the Lord, Israel. Woo! My God. If we could only understand how he views his people, not just Israel, but spiritual Israel, too.

When he looked at them, he said, "Say to Pharaoh, you have touched my son. Israel is my son, even my firstborn. And I say unto thee, let my son go that he may serve me. Pharaoh didn't get it because he wasn't aware of how God speaks. Pharaoh misinterpreted this as a suggestion. He misinterpreted this as simply a request. But when God says, "Let it is a command." 14 times in Genesis 1, God said, "Let starting with let there be light." It wasn't a suggestion.

It was a command. Because the Bible says when God said, "Let there be," there was light. And he said, "Let the light be divided from the darkness, and it became day and night. And let the dry land appear, and let the oceans and and the waters be separated." EVERY TIME GOD said let, it was not a suggestion. It was a command that was to be executed and a promise that was to be fulfilled. So when Moses takes this message to Pharaoh, it was not a suggestion.

God wasn't said if you feel like it, Pharaoh. He wasn't saying if you if you desire to Pharaoh. He sent a command to him and said, "Boy, you better let go of my son so that they can come out and worship me. Woo! Potential gave birth to preparation and God brought them out. after 10 plagues, the Passover, the final plague, Passover. And we we know this story. We're familiar with this, but let me reiterate some things anyway. Exodus 12 11, the Lord speaks to Israel and said, "Here's the way you're going to eat tonight.

It's not a relaxed supper for you. I want you to dress up. Dress up like you're going somewhere. Get your shoes on your feet. Don't kick around the table in your socks and your bare feet. Get your shoes on. Get your clothes on because you are fixing to get out of Egypt. This is going to be the fulfillment of the promise that you have been talking about for hundreds of years now. And here's the way you're going to do it. You're going to the instructions of God that that are to be executed by faith are such absurdities that they would be inconceivable by the mind of man.

Nobody would have thought to get Egypt, Israel out of Egypt the way that God did it. What do you want us to do? I want you to take a lamb, slay the lamb, put the blood on the doorpost. What in the world does this have to do with us getting out of Egypt? Listen, when God gives a plan, don't argue. Just obey. Just do what he says to do. You're about to make a journey. And it begins with the blood of the lamb.

It begins with the blood of the lamb. It said it is the Lord's Passover. There was not many paths out of Egypt. I know of the pluralistic ideologies that exist in our day that said all roads lead to God. I am here to go on record and tell you that there is only one way to God and that is not Allah. It is not Buddha. It is not confusion. It is not Muhammad. It is Jesus Christ. I am the way, the truth, and the life.

When God spoke to Israel, there was one plan, one path, one promise to one people. And the path led every one of them through the portal that had been stained with the blood of the lamb. I told you I don't know where this plane's going to land. But right here, I got to park for a minute and tell you that keep on believing that there's only one way and that the blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can take away the sin of humanity.

There is not a reformation that is effective enough. There is not a program that is effective enough. The only thing uh what can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. There is such a strength of theology in that song. We better latch on to that. Keep on pressing on in the path. We came through the portal that was marked by the blood of the lamb. And when we stand on those golden shores, we're going to stand before a throne.

Revelation 5:6 says it like this. And I behold, and in the midst of the throne, and the four beasts, and in the midst of the eldersh stood a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent forth into all the earth. If we make it onto those golden streets, IT'S BECAUSE WE HAVE ALL COME THROUGH the portal of the blood of the slain lamb. There is no other way. Neither is there salvation in any other.

We can be vilified. We can pe be put down. We can be criticized for this stance. But I stand to tell you along with this congregation. If you believe it, say amen. Uh there is only one way. Neither is there salvation in any other. For there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The path leads through the portal of the slain lamb, of the blood of the lamb. And it's the only way out. Says they all came the same way.

I'm talking about persistently pursuing the promise. It's the name of the path. Persistence. Keep on obeying. Keep on believing. The path led all through the same water. 1 Corinthians 10:12 says, "Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that all are fathers." Everybody say, "All." Ain't no other way, brother Mark. You all got to come the same way. Don't let anybody fool you on this wise. All he says uh he says all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud in the sea.

Listen, God brought them out and he put them in this wilderness of wondering. It was a preparation time. the bodies of a generation of unbelievers would be buried by the time that they entered Canaan land finally. Moreover, but they had all come out the same way. They were all baptized in the same way. I know we belabor the point sometimes, but there is no other method of baptism other than repent and be baptized every one of you, all of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

There is no other way that's given. When God brought them out, most of Israel's preparation took place in isolation. They spent more time waiting than walking. They spent more time wondering than worrying. We think of Israel's history. We think about the battles, the skirmishes they got into. But most of the time, most of the time they were spent waiting for a bunch of us active people, we don't like this part. We listen, we get the idea that all they did was march around the wilderness.

That is not the case. They spent 38 years in one place. Most of the time that they spent walkers when they first came out and when they left Kadesh Barnea, he brought them to a place called Kadesh Barnea. The the wilderness of wandering. But Kadesh comes from the Hebrew term holy or sanctified. He was sanctifying them in this place all the while that they were waiting for him to move them along into the promised land. Bible says, "So ye abode in Kadesh many days according to the days that you abode there."

Most of their 40 years uh in the wilderness was under this tutelage of the school master called the law. Learning what? obedience even to the most absurd things. But faith is persistent and will obey whatever God says to do, no matter how ridiculous it might seem to the onlookers. This entire nation was going through a purggation. Unbelief was dying out and faith was being developed in the people of God. Not among other peoples, but in this secret place that God had them.

He was developing them and moving them from promise to possession. Let me just rush on to the end here because Jacob or or not Jacob, Joshua stands finally at the borders of Canaan after 40 years in this wilderness and he stands up among these people to the remnant. They had watched their relatives, their parents die in this wilderness. Not a person who had come out of Egypt over 20 years of age was now alive. Say for Joshua and Caleb. And Joshua stands up and he gives this speech to these children of Israel.

Let's stand together. I'll let you take a break in a minute. But he stands there on the borders. We're about to enter into the promised land over here. He said, 'You can't serve God. I don't think you can do it. And they said, 'We will.' He said, 'I don't believe you. I don't think you got the the guts for it. I don't think you got the grip for it. We will. He said he said, "As for me and my house, we're going to serve God, but I don't think you can do it."

And they said, "We can." He said, "All right, then. Choose you this day whom you will serve. Choose this day whom you will serve because the promises are only going to be possessed by people who persevere, who have got the faith that will keep pushing them forward. Because right here, you're going to a new dimension. You were baptized in the Red Sea, but this time you're going to be baptized in a river Jordan. You're going to pass through not the blood of the lamb.

This time you're going to pass through the glory of God because that ark's going to be there. I don't even have to guess what the river is all about because Jesus said, "Out of your bellies shall flow rivers of living water and thus spake he of the spirit uh the Holy Ghost." He was talking about the Holy Ghost at this time. They were all baptized again, not symbolically in the waters of baptism from the Red Sea, but this time they were baptized into a spiritual baptism, passing by the glory of God, sign uh s symbolized by the ark of God.

And when they walk into the promise of God, fully into the promises of God, that's when their battles began. And Joshua knew that. We we give the illusion sometimes that when you come to God, all your troubles are going to be over. That's when your battles begin. That's when you're going to have to pick up and follow in faith and begin to fight the good fight of faith. I got to quit. Keep on keeping on. You're doing all right, church. You You've held to the name.

You've held to the patience. You've kept your your shoulder to the wheel. You've pushed on past the obstacles and the trials of life. Thank God that you have persevered. And today you stand in the house OF GOD. YOU'RE STILL STANDING. WHEN OTHERS have fallen, you're still standing because you have persevered and God has given his grace. Let's just thank him together. Father, we thank you for your strength this day that sustains us. Thank you Lord for keeping us in the palm of your hand.

And we will inherit because you have promised and it will come to pass in Jesus name. Let it be. Amen.