GOD KEEPS HIS WORD
Isa. 46:11
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: HOW TO GET THE PROOF
1. A man went to his lawyer and told him, "My neighbor owes me $500 and he won’t pay up. What should I do?"
2. "Do you have any proof he owes you the money?" asked the lawyer. "Nope," replied the man.
3. "OK, then write him a letter asking him for the $5,000 he owes you," said the lawyer.
4. "But it's only $500," replied the man. "Precisely. That’s what he will reply and then you’ll have your proof!"
B. NECESSITY OF KEEPING YOUR WORD
1. Promises are easy to make and hard to keep. The scripture says that the blameless person “keeps his oath, even if it hurts” (Ps. 15:4; NIV 1984).
2. George Jelinek, newly-elected member of the Kansas House of Representatives, distributed handbills during the campaign which promised: “I will work for you.”
3. “One farmer,” said the new representative, “told me he voted for me and now he needed some help putting up alfalfa. By jiminy, I did it. But I’m going to have to watch what I say.”
C. THESIS
1. The world doesn’t understand what the Word (Bible) is: it’s written instructions from the Creator. They don’t appreciate it. Sometimes we can get the same attitude.
2. But God esteems His Word even above His Name (Ps. 138:2 KJV). We should too. It cost a high price for us to be able to have it. Job said, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my daily bread” (23:12).
3. Often times we have problems and disappointments. We lose our job, we run out of money, we have marital trouble, a child dies, or we become physically disabled.
4. That’s when the devil sticks up his pointy head and says, “See! I told you! God doesn’t keep His word! You can’t really trust Him.”
5. So that’s our topic tonight: how we know that “God Keeps His Word.”
I. GOD HAS BOUND HIMSELF TO HIS WORD
A. GOD IS A COVENANT-KEEPER
1. God revealed Himself as a Covenant-Keeper to Abraham (Gen. 15:8-21). This is God’s nature. If He makes a promise, he will keep that promise.
2. “For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not… forget the COVENANT with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by OATH” Deut. 4:31. See also Lev. 26:44; Deut. 7:2; 2 Kgs. 13:23; 2 Chr. 21:7.
3. The writer of Hebrews saw the power of the combination of God’s promise confirmed by His oath to fulfill it; “So that by two unchangeable things [His promise and His oath] in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled [to Him] for refuge would have strong encouragement...” (Heb. 6:18 AMP).
B. GOD’S PROMISES TO KEEP HIS WORD
1. Joshua 21:45 “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.”
2. Isaiah 46:11, “Indeed I have spoken it; I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it; I will also do it.”
3. Num. 11:23 VOICE, “Do you doubt Me? Do you question My power, that I can do what I’ve said?”
II. HISTORICALLY – GOD HAS KEPT HIS WORD
A. PROMISE TO ABRAHAM OF MANY DESCENDANTS
1. God “took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the sky and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’” Gen. 15:5.
2. Twenty-five years passed, and Abram had no child by Sarah. But God hadn’t forgotten His promise. So even when both Sarah and Abraham were past child-bearing, God still gave them a son! Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90!
3. God kept His promise and from that one man and woman produced 10’s of millions of Jews, like the stars (although only 5,000 stars are visible to the unaided eye).
B. TO BRING ISRAEL INTO PROMISED LAND
This actually involved three huge miracles to keep:
1. To break the Israelites OUT OF SLAVERY to the strongest nation on earth. Impossible, yet He accomplished it by sending the 10 plagues and decimating Egypt.
2. Impossibility of wielding a rabble together into an obedient nation and fighting machine, which He accomplished by the 40 years of WILDERNESS wanderings and training under Moses.
3. Impossibility of DEFEATING the more numerous and powerful nations living in Canaan.
4. Ten of the 12 spies said, "We can't do it. It's impossible!”
But Caleb and Joshua climbed on a stump and said, "You know what? We’re not only able to take it, we’re MORE THAN able to do it." Why? Because GOD SAID SO; GOD HAS PROMISED IT. AND THAT SETTLES IT.
C. PROMISE TO CARRY THE GOSPEL TO THE WHOLE WORLD
1. Jesus said, “Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” Mt. 16:18. From the beginning Jesus promised that nothing could stop His Church.
2. This seemed unlikely, because it had no money, no power base, and only a few uneducated leaders who were being put to death by King Herod (Acts 12:1-3). Later, many Roman emperors tried to exterminate them. But it happened just as Jesus said it would.
3. Further, Jesus said, “And this gospel…shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” Mt. 24:14. How could that flimsy church cross all the world’s oceans, translate all the world’s languages, and overcome all the world’s cultures and preach the Gospel to ALL NATIONS?
4. What a preposterous idea! If someone calculated the odds, it would be more than the stars in the whole universe. Yet it has been done just as Jesus promised. And the “End” is about to come too! You better be ready.
III. SO YOU CAN TRUST GOD’S WORD
A. NO MATTER WHAT TROUBLE YOU’RE IN
1. God says, “And call upon me in the day of trouble: I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me” Ps. 50:15.
2. I believe that God allows us to have troubles to help us learn how to draw near to Him and receive His help.
3. The foreign nations were left around Israel to “TEST the Israelites to see whether they would obey the Lord’s commands” (Judges 3:4,2) and to help them get EXPERIENCE in (SPIRITUAL) WARFARE. It’s the same with us.
4. When our circumstances look impossible, that’s when we rely on God and His promises to give us the victory.
B. WHAT DO YOU NEED FROM GOD?
1. If it's salvation, or Divine healing, or relationships, or finances, or deliverance, etc., God says, "Every place that the sole of your foot sets, that have I given you for a possession."
2. God promised it, God keeps His Word. God's Word is truth. I believe it; you believe it. Church, it's time for us to make footprints. We can't stay in the same spot; the fire is moving on. Let's move with it, from Bible experience to Bible experience. Let's let God unfold His purpose for us. Stay in the Bible; listen to the voice of the Spirit.
3. Sometimes it seems like the Church is sinking, but it will never sink. Just like Peter’s boat that night was tossed about and taking on water, when all hope was gone, and it looked like the last hour was come -- all at once Someone came walking on the water, calmly
4. He's always there. He's never late. One more big wave and the ship would've gone down; but Jesus is there. He’s Here with You too!
C. UNCLAIMED BANK ACCOUNTS
1. It’s very common for people to never claim the money their deceased loved ones have deposited into banks, often because they don’t know where the funds are deposited.
2. Cleveland, Ohio built a beautiful 10-story bank building, known as the “Society of Savings,” from unclaimed funds of people.
3. The directors of the bank, after waiting for years for these depositors to claim that which was theirs, turned the money over to the building of this beautiful bank building.
4. Imagine the difference all the unclaimed promises in God’s Word would produce if they had been used! The entire world would probably be very different!
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: FORTUNE IN HIS BIBLE
1. Many years ago an elderly man living in New Jersey made an unusual discovery as he leafed through an old family Bible. Many years earlier, his aunt had died and left it to him. Part of her will read:
2. “To my beloved Steven Marsh I bequeath my family Bible and all it contains, along with the residue of my estate after my funeral expenses and just and lawful debts are paid.”
3. When everything had been settled the nephew got a few hundred dollars plus the old volume mentioned in the will. After the money was used up, his only support was a small pension, and for more than 30 years he lived in poverty.
4. Then one day he cleaned out his attic in preparation for a move to his son’s home where he hoped to spend his old age. There in a trunk was the family Bible he had inherited.
5. Opening it, he was amazed to find banknotes scattered throughout its pages. He counted over $5000 in cash (which was equivalent to $500,000 in our day). [Paul Lee Tan]
4. All that time he had a fortune waiting in his Bible, but had never opened it. How similar that is to many Christians!
B. THE CALL
1. It’s time for us to open our Bibles and claim the promises of God. Whatever your need is, there is a promise for it!
2. Come to the front and stand in for your need and we’re going to pray for it. Some need a job, others - money, some – healing, others have marital trouble, or physically problems.
3. Prayer
