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........