Condition & Promise

From a beautifully encouraging sermon by William Bridge in A Lifting Up for the Downcast:

You may say...I find that God's promise runs upon some condition, and I cannot perform that condition.  I do not find that condition in myself; therefore, I fear that I may not go unto these promises, and that I have no right to them. 

What if the condition required by one promise be the thing promised in another promise?!  Will you then fear the promise does not belong to you?  Now...SO IT IS that the condition in one promise is the thing promised in another promise.

For example: in one promise, repentance is the condition of the promise II Chron. 6:37-38, Joel 2:15-19.  But in another promise, repentance is the thing promised: Ezekiel 36:26, "I will take away a heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh." 

In one promise, faith and coming to Christ is the condition: "Come unto me, all who labor and are weary-laden and I will give you rest."  Matt 11:28.  But in another promise it is the thing promised, John 6:37, "All that the Father gives me shall come to me."

In one promise, obedience is the condition of it, Isaiah 1:19, "If you consent and obey, you shall eat the fruit of the land."  In another promise, it is the thing promised, Ezekiel 36:27.  "I will put my Spirit into you and cause you to walk in my statutes."

In one promise, perseverance is the condition, Matt. 24:13, "He that endureth to the end shall be saved."  But in another promise, it is the thing promised.  Psalm 1:3, "His leaf shall not wither." or Jer. 32:40, "I will put my fear into their hearts and they shall not depart from me."

In one scripture of the Old Testament, the coming of the Deliverer is promised to the Jews upon condition that they turn from ungodliness; Isaiah 59:20, "The Redeemer shall come to Zion and unto them that turn from transgression in Jacob."  But in another scripture in the New Testament, turning from ungodliness is the thing promised; Romans 11:26, "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob."

Now...if the condition in one promise be the thing promised in another promise, will you fear that the promise does not belong to you because you have not performed the condition?

What if the condition of the promise be performed for you better than you could perform it?  The Lord Jesus Christ HAS performed the condition for all His seed!

Now, if all these things be true:

First, that a man may go to the promise, the conditional promise, with acceptance, although he has not performed the condition;

Second, that the condition of one promise is the thing promised in another promise;

Third, that the Lord Jesus Christ has performed the condition promised for you better than you can perform it;

Then, have you any reason to be discouraged and keep off the promise? 

If you put yourself within the compass of the commandment's Thou, God will put you within the compass of the promise's Thou.