Eternal Grace and Transformation: A Dive into God's Promises | James Kline

There are people in this world who cannot make up their minds.

I guess I'm one of them.

They had asked me whether I'd wanted it up here or down there and I did realize it was quite that cramp down there.

Then I also felt it would be a very high percentage chance that I would get hung up in the cord.

They kindly took care of that.

But I'm up here.

It's been a blessing to be here.

It's always exciting to be in the presence of God.

I have felt God's presence very clearly this morning and I just pray that he would continue to be here and to anoint.

You know, the message that God has laid on my heart is absolutely not what I had started out studying.

I had actually sat down at my desk and was digging in to where I thought that I needed to go.

This song came up and it just gripped me.

It's good to not get so set in your ways that you can't have a change of course in midstream, but that's kind of what happened.

This song really speaks to me and it's just a special song.

I'm going to read it off and then later we'll listen to it.

It's called Promises, and I had grown up in a Christian home.

I grew up in the lap of a mother reading Bible stories and I have been taught what is right and what is wrong from my youth and I value that.

But I really didn't quite fully grasp and realize just how many promises that are in the Word of God for us today.

I've scratched the surface a little bit, but let's listen to what the words of this song are, the lyrics.

It says I can always call you father.

You chose me as your child and your word is always faithful.

You will not turn aside and I live in full assurance, for my Savior paid that price.

Every promise that you made me is yes in Jesus Christ.

And the chorus is you are faithful to your promises.

We will trust in what the cross has said Through the ages hallelujah, you are faithful to your promises.

Second verses are you with us in the fire?

Will you keep us in the storm?

Are you still the light to guide us when the darkness overwhelms?

Through the doubts and through the valleys, through the passing years, we find every promise you have spoken is yes in Jesus Christ.

Then the bridge is you will be our God.

We will be your people.

You will be with us.

Keep us from all evil.

Every promise made is a promise kept.

You are faithful to your promises.

You began this work within us.

You will bring it to the end.

You're the one who goes before us.

You will have the last amen.

So we set our hopes upon this and on this we build our lives.

All your promises forever are yes, in Jesus Christ.

And I don't know, maybe I should just shut up and we should all go home, but that's how powerful that song has been to me.

The promises, all the things that God has said for us and to us throughout the entire work, the Bible.

I, just you can't hardly open a page and can't find some promise that God has made.

And we all know, and we have found, that God is faithful and that he walks through these valleys with us and he's on the mountaintops with us.

And I want you to understand that I've probably missed the most obvious ones.

This is not an exhaustive list.

I'm going to be quoting a lot of Scripture, so it's not like I think I've covered half of them.

But in Deuteronomy, chapter 31, verses 7 and 8, he promises that he's not going to forsake us.

Deuteronomy 31:7

He said then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel.

Be strong and courageous, for you shall go with this people into the land that God has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall put them in possession of it.

It is the Lord who goes before you.

He will be with you.

He will not leave you or forsake you.

Do not fear or be dismayed.

He's very clearly there.

He won't leave us, he won't forsake us, and we are not to be afraid.

Then, in Isaiah 26, verses 3 and 4, he talks about keeping us in perfect peace, because our mind is stayed on Him.

Isaiah 26:3

So he gives us peace and he keeps us in that peace.

In verse 4, it says Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord, our God, is an everlasting rock.

That's in Isaiah 26.

In Isaiah 40, 28 through 31.

This is one of my favorite passages.

But he talks about have you not heard?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary.

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint and to Him who has no might.

He increases strength, even youths, the young people.

They shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted.

But they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength and they shall mount up with wings as eagles.

They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and they're not going to faint.

So when we're feeling weak and down, god will renew our strength.

And then in Isaiah 41, in verse 10, he says Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

There's some promises, and then one more, in the Old Testament, and this is found in Ezekiel, in chapter 36.

And I'd like to give you a little bit of analogy, as those of you who know me well know that I love our little dog, daisy.

She is a member of our family, but she is a dog Family or not, and she does some things that you know.

What, if I know would decide to take on some of Daisy's habits, I would be very concerned, and I don't know that I'd love her quite as much as I do.

Some of the less than endearing things that Miss Daisy does is, well, she's a dog, and so she will scratch and lick in places and things that are not appropriate in public she is not embarrassed about it one bit.

She absolutely loves to drag in something that stinks, and the worse it stinks the better, and better yet is to roll in it.

And if you give her a half a chance and you open the door, then sometimes she'll go off in the wild blue yonder, wandering away and you can call, and you can call and she won't come back until she very well pleases.

And there is this mud hole that she has found, and she's a water dog, by the way, and so she loves water and she loves mud even better, and the stinkier the mud, the more she likes it.

So if you'll come back just panting and all happen, tail wagging and covered with sticky burrs and everything, you can't even pet her.

Everything's clumped together and she's just happy as a lark.

And then she wants to jump up on you.

Oh, she smells awful sometimes, and for all that I still love her.

Because, why?

Because she's a dog.

Now, if I would want to take all that away from her and change her into a human, we'd have to do some pretty major surgery, wouldn't we?

Because she's a dog.

But you know, this morning it ties in so well with what I feel.

Led about these promises of God is what about us before we have accepted Jesus as our Savior and before we have acknowledged and felt the power of God?

What were we?

We were something very different than what we are today and, if we aren't, very different than we need to be.

But it talks about lover of money, lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure.

I'm not going to go through that list, but I am so blessed In verse 26 of Ezekiel 36, and I will give you a new heart and a new spirit.

I will put within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules, and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers and you shall be my people and I will be your God.

What a complete transformation.

That's what we really need.

I'm reminded of Romans, in chapter 12, where he talks about the transforming of ourselves and the renewing of our minds, where we can properly think, and we'll get to that a little later.

Another promise that God gives to us is found in Matthew, chapter 11, in verse 28 through 30, where he says Come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11 · chapter mention

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

What price could we give or would we give for rest, were it not available to us?

You know, it is so wonderful to lay down at night, knowing, not hoping, but knowing that our sins are forgiven and that God is on his throne, that he is interceding for us and that our lives are in his hands.

He gives us rest.

What price do people pay for rest?

There's people that are so desperate for rest that they take sedatives and drugs to the point of overdose.

He gives us rest.

It's kind of a paradox here, because he talks about giving us rest and in the next sentence he's talking about taking on his yoke.

But he says his yoke is easy and his burden is light.

We go through life, we're going to face situations, we're going to face hard decisions, we're going to face trouble and we're going to face sorrow.

Now I don't believe that we face any more of those and people walking through life without Jesus do.

But there is, as the saying goes, trouble in this life.

But he gives us rest and we can assure, have assurance.

We can rest assured that that rest in Christ will never go away as long as we remain faithful.

Another thing that God has promised us is that he's going to make us his children.

And not only that, he's not only going to make us his children, but he has.

It says that we are the children of God.

That's found in John, chapter 1, verses 12 and 13.

John 1:12

This is going to be a continuing theme, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of the will of God.

So that's his perfect will for us this morning that we can claim that promise in him that we are the children of Christ and that we can live above the fray and then moving on.

This is one of the most beloved passages in the Bible and that's in John 3, in verse 3.

Actually, this is truly, truly.

I say unto you unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

That too is a promise.

If we expect to be able to experience the glories of heaven, then we have to be born again and we have to put off the old things that we put on the new.

And it says that the old is passed away and everything becomes new.

But then this is a promise.

But then, in the same chapter, john 3, in verses 16 through 18,.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

So he promises us this life and he promises that we do not have to perish, but he also promises that he who does not believe is condemned already.

And as much as God is a God of love, he is also a God of holiness, and not everyone on this earth is going to enjoy the bliss of heaven.

But there is also prepared for those who do not believe a place of torment, and that is a promise as well.

But moving on into John 5.

, truly, truly, I say to you whoever hears my word and believes him, who sent me, has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.

And here again, there are so many examples that we could choose.

But I would like to again take you on a bit of an imaginary journey back into Mark 4.

And of all the Gospels, I think I find myself going into Mark almost more than the others.

It just seems to be so fresh and immediate the way he writes and I can almost feel myself be there.

But they had been ministering and preaching and feeding, and they were tired and worn out, and so they decided that they were going to cross the sea and of course, this fearsome storm arose you know, if you've ever been in a storm and it just felt like Jesus was asleep.

Well, I tell you, it's not the first time it happened, because, without turning to it, but his disciples were, well, let's just say that they had great anxiety and fear for their life, and I can just imagine this must.

I'm assuming, I guess, I don't know this, but this was not a large ship, but this would have been a relatively small boat and I don't know how high the waves were, but these were fishermen that had been born and along the sea and had worked on the sea for all their adult lives and they knew the sea and they were afraid.

So this was not just some little blow and you know three-foot waves, and they were feeling a little seasick.

But they were afraid and Jesus was sleeping and so they woke Him up.

Have we ever been here?

I have.

It's like well, jesus, don't you care, we're going to perish.

And they're yard taking a nap.

I mean, get up.

So Jesus wakes up and kind of I can just see Him stretching Himself and he says, oh ye of little faith.

Peace be still.

And this whole sea just calms down.

So if you're in the middle of this storm and of this sea, he will calm your sea, and if he doesn't calm the sea, at least He'll calm us.

But that's not what I really want to get to.

But talking about the totality of a transformation then follows in chapter 5, where they came across this sea of Galilee and they came to this town called Gereza.

I don't know, but here are the Gadarenes.

But you know the story where this person was in the tombs.

If I have my understanding correct, he wasn't wearing any clothes.

He cut himself.

They tried to put chains and shackles on him and he tore them apart.

I can't imagine what a sight that guy would have been.

Imagine long-haired, he probably would have made Duck Dynasty look cleaned up.

But here this guy comes and he's crying out and he's saying to Jesus he was saying even before he did anything else.

If I'm remembering right, he said come out of him.

To the unclean spirit that had tormented him and he said well, his name was Legion, for they were many.

These were the evil spirits talking and they knew that when Jesus came, that they had no place in this man any more.

And so they said well, just let us go into this herd of pigs.

And you know the story there were 2,000 pigs and these spirits went into them and my, I wouldn't that have been a rush of the bacon heading for the cliff, oink, oink.

Over the hill they went and here was one of the biggest transformations that we read about in the Bible.

It was that later that this man was clothed and in his right mind.

See, that's what happens when Jesus comes in, there's a transformation and there is a renewal.

Everything becomes new.

He changes our entire life and he's not content to do it half ways.

And this person was so badly wanted to go with Jesus and be with his disciples.

And Jesus said no, I've got something else for you, but stay here and tell the people what God has done for you.

And this person did that, and later there was a great many, of course.

Right at this time, the herdsmen of the pig, by this time, had come back into the town and told them what had happened, and the first thing they thought of was exactly what we probably would have thought of, and that was the pocketbook.

And they said well, would you just please kind of keep moving on.

But later he came back and there were very many people saved.

Why?

Because God had transformed this life of this hopeless wreck and wreck we would call him almost See.

God doesn't see us the way we are, but God sees us how we can be, and there's a lesson in that for me, there is not a person that has ever been born that does not have value.

How do I know that?

Because God promises that we are created in His image.

And if we are created in His image, we have value.

So if Satan or the world or anyone else, whether it be friends or parents, or they're telling us that we're not good enough or we're worthless, they're wrong.

We are created in the image of God and have tremendous value.

And when we become transformed by the renewing of our minds and we are filled with the Holy Spirit, then the way we look at things and the way we look at people dramatically changes and it becomes new and we recognize that there is value.

How important is this transformation?

It is very, very important.

How important is this worldview?

People think it's not important to how we see the world and our place in it.

Just a brief history lesson when the Nazis came to power, they talked about their belt on Shaoan, or worldview, and they were able to change the worldview of people who had not had their minds and their lives transformed to the tune of being able to exterminate almost an entire race, over six million souls.

How we see the world is important and having our worldview renewed and transformed and changed into the way that God would have us to go is vital If we are to succeed in life and to enjoy heaven.

Going to read it off Romans 12, verses 1 and 2.

Romans 12:1

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

And let me assure you that this transformation and this renewal is not superficial and it's not for the outside only.

This was actually kind of a shocking sight for me and I have never believed that clothes will save us and all that.

I was taught differently, and yet I remember growing up as a young man I had gone to the Mount Hope auction and there was this Swartz and Trubber Amish guy walking around.

Looked just like your average Joe, I guess, but he pulls a flask out of his pocket and he's publicly intoxicated.

Well, we all know that his clothes didn't make a better difference, but he had not been transformed and he had not been renewed.

And all the clothes in the world can't make a difference.

But I trust that I am speaking to people who have been transformed and renewed In 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9 and 10,.

2 Corinthians 12:9

My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in what it's, not in victories or in strength, but it is made perfect in weakness.

Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

For the sake of Christ, then I am content with weakness, insults, hardships, persecutions and calamities.

Or when I am weak, then I am strong.

Just another wonderful promise in Philippians 4, verses 19 and 20, and my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 4:19

To our God and Father, be glory forever and ever, amen.

So we see that he promises us to meet our needs, the other thing that God gives us, amongst a great many others.

But this is found in 2 Timothy, chapter 1 and verse 7.

2 Timothy 1 · chapter mention

Very familiar scripture.

I'm going to start reading before that, in verse 6.

He says for this reason, I remind you to fan and to flame the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

So I would like to encourage everyone here this morning that if you feel that you are being that have been filled with the Holy Spirit, to fan that into flame.

They says, for God gave us not a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of self-control.

God changes our lives.

We don't have to be afraid.

And then this is a real challenge.

In James, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6.

James 1:5

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all, without reproach, and it will be given him.

But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind and that can be one day it's from the south and the next day from the west, and there's no stability.

But God gives us wisdom if we ask Him in faith.

I see time keeps moving on.

In 1 Peter 1, verses 3 through 5,.

1 Peter 1:3–5

Bless it.

Be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to His great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you who, by God's power, are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

So he guarantees us an inheritance that is a promise, and the beauty of this inheritance is it's never going to fade and it's not going to fade away.

And if we've been there for 10,000 years or we've been there for 10 million years, a bottom's not going to fall out of it, but we are going to be safe and we're going to be secure forever.

And forever is a span of time that my tiny little mind can't comprehend.

In Revelations 3, verses 5 and 6, he says the one who conquers will be clothed thus in white garments, and I will never blot His name out of the book of life.

Revelation 3:5

I will confess His name before my Father and before His angels.

He who has an ear, let Him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

Oh friends, this is the most wonderful thing I could ever talk to you about.

He's not going to blot our names out.

If we have accepted Him as our Savior, we have claimed Him, and he has filled us up with His Spirit, he is going to confess us before His Father and we are conquerors in Jesus Christ.

And there is a battle out there.

There's a war, spirit against spirit, and we need to conquer, but he does that for us.

He's done all of this, all of these things.

He doesn't give us a list of necessarily all that I have to do, but he gives us the list of what he has done for us.

It's all about Jesus.

It's all about Jesus.

And then, in closing, he gives us hope in the midst of sorrow.

This is found in 1 Thessalonians, chapter 4.

1 Thessalonians 4 · chapter mention

One of my favorite passages of the Bible.

I'm not even going to turn to us, but he's talking about that.

We don't have to sorrow as those who have no hope.

We don't have to give up.

We don't have to be hopeless.

But we lose a loved one.

It's hard.

He says that the graves will be opened and those will rise the first, and thereafter, those of us who are alive and remain will be caught up and we'll meet Him in the air and we'll forever be with Christ.

Again, this lasts forever.

Just such a blessing.

I had some more prepared, but I feel led that I have said enough.

I guess I could share.

This is actually from Max Lucado and I'd like to share it.

I won't be long, I promise, but it says Jesus has already extended His grace and forgiveness.

It is up to us to answer when he calls us.

Life is crowded, your life is crowded.

Heaven knows you.

You already have more than you can do.

And because heaven knows, jesus comes not with a list of things for you to do, but with a list of things that he has already done and will do.

Your death has been defeated, your sins they're forgiven.

Your fears, he will give you courage.

Your questions, he will guide you.

Jesus lifts burdens, he doesn't add to them.

But it's too late.

You say no, it isn't.

It's never too late for Christ.

You were never too old, too messed up or too worn out.

Elijah was depressed, but God still came to him.

Abraham was old.

God still led him.

Moses was long retired.

God still called him.

Jonah was on the run God still used him.

Jacob peded his family.

God still had a place for him.

Peter betrayed Christ.

Saul persecuted Christ.

Thomas doubted Christ, but each learned it was not too late for Christ.

It's never too late, as long as we're alive, to come to Christ for help.

Your stack of sins is never too high.

Your list of failures is never too long.

That knock on the door of your heart.

That's Jesus.

Let's open that door.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I just thank you so much for your love for us and that you have bought us and paid for us, that you have given us hope and that you have given us life.

I pray for each one here that we would just aspirefully bless each one.

Be with us throughout this coming week, that we can live, transformed and renewed.

We give you the honor and the glory and pray it in Jesus' name.