Page 6 - Prophetic Word Newsletter Archive 2010

“EVERY PROMISE IN THE BOOK IS MINE,
EVERY JOT, EVERY TITTLE, EVERY LINE”

As I was preparing to write this newsletter, the above little spiritual jingle came to mind. It is an old

song from my early days in the Assemblies of God. Its theme was centered upon the believer’s right to

inherit every applicable promise in the Bible. Many years have passed since I learned that little jingle

about the importance of God’s promises. I would now view every jot, every tittle to specifically include

the multitude of if’s that contain the stipulations and conditions that are attached to the promises of

God. Another thing that was really popular back then were those little quick access

boxes containing the promises of God. Every day you could draw out a card as a

daily reminder of one of God’s exceedingly great and precious promises He has

written specifically for the believer. The only thing wrong with these little boxes of

promises is that the back side of the cards were left blank. What a wonderful thing

it would be if you could turn over the card containing the promise and have the

stipulations and conditions spelled out that are necessary to inherit the promise. I

suspect many of them would begin with the word “if”. I also suspect that my

suggested revised version of those promise cards with the conditions printed on

the back would not sell.

In this age of what Leonard Ravenhill called, “paperback theology”, I suspect that any book
emphasizing the if’s of the Bible will never end up on the best seller’s list. The whole counsel of God
has never been popular. Even Jesus experienced opposition when He gave the whole counsel of God.
Consider this example:

“SO ALL BORE WITNESS TO HIM,
AND MARVELED AT THE GRACIOUS WORDS WHICH PROCEEDED OUT OF HIS MOUTH…”

Luke 4:22

Jesus was speaking some wonderful words of promise in a general sense (see vs. 18-19).
However, when He began to qualify those promises as being selective and conditional

(see vs. 23-27), we find a different response from this same group who previously
“marveled at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth”:

“THEN ALL THOSE IN THE SYNAGOGUE, WHEN THEY HEARD THESE THINGS
WERE FILLED WITH WRATH, AND ROSE UP AND THRUST HIM OUT OF THE CITY…

THAT THEY MIGHT THROW HIM DOWN OVER THE CLIFF.”
Luke 4:28-29

Moral to the story, both then and now, is that promises are popular - conditions are not.

Paul was a minister who preached the whole counsel of God so that he would be innocent of the blood
of all men ( see Acts 20:26-27). In these prophetic passages he warns of teachers who would be as
savage wolves that would not spare the flock, but rather would speak perverse things in order to draw
disciples after themselves ( see Acts 20:29-30). The willful act of separating the promises of God from
their stated stipulations and conditions is a manifestation of Paul’s prophetic warning of what would
come. Today we have the gospel selectively presented with clichés like “believe and receive.” Acts
10:43 is often used as the basis for such a gospel. The volume of other passages with prerequisites
attached to God’s plan of salvation such as the repetitious call to repent are carefully avoided in favor
of selected passages that just state the promise in a general sense such as “believe and receive.”
This purposeful selectivity of verses qualifies as avoiding to preach the whole counsel of God as it was
preached by Jesus and Paul.

If only selective gracious words are spoken as the complete gospel message, then men will marvel at
such words as they did with Jesus. The if’s of the Bible state the conditions and stipulations that are to
be presented as part of the message, even if they provoke people to be filled with wrath as it was with
the above example of Jesus. The deceitful heart of man wants to hear a gospel message that puts all
the responsibility upon God and nothing upon the recipient. There are plenty of men willing to give
them what they want to hear (2 Tim. 4:3-4). Such a one-way gospel does not exist in the Bible. Let me
prove that statement to you as we consider a host of the biggest little word in the Bible-if.