Impeccable Promises & Divine Character

Sermon Transcript

I finally reached an age, though, where perhaps like some of you, I’d be all right with every other year. You know, I’ve gotten to the place, and I know it’s my fault. You’ll tell me that later, but, you know, it’s a little harder to get out of bed in the morning. Putting on your shoes, you get down there, you want to see if there’s anything else that you got to do while you’re bent down there. Just aches and pains that I have never felt, and they don’t go away right away. I mean, just you’re getting older, and you recognize you’re not getting younger. You go, I mean, literally, you wake up in the morning, you look in the mirror, and you think that’s not the guy I remember, you know. It’s just, it’s different, and you know it’s not moving in the right direction.

I remember the Apostle Paul, in dealing with his trials, which not only dealt with his fatigue of getting older, but the increased rapidity of his trials and difficulties and opposition. He gave some insightful words to us in 2 Corinthians 4, the end of the chapter, when he said, you know what, even though the outer man is decaying, remember that text? He says the inner man, he’s being renewed day by day. And then he said this, and here’s why. He said, because I know that all these light and momentary afflictions, they’re producing for me an eternal weight of glory. Then he ended with this big perspective, the last verse in the chapter. He says, you know, the thing is, the things that I can see, like the bruises and bumps and pains and aches of an aging body, he says, those things are temporal. He says, but the things you can’t see, do you remember this text? He says, those things are eternal.

Now, how does a guy who is discouraged, not only because like us, he’s getting older and achier and tireder. How does this guy who’s getting people throwing rocks at him, who’s getting run out of town, who has all kinds of problems in his life, how is it that he can sit there and say, you know, I can be getting worse on the outside, but on the inside, man, I’m being renewed every day? How do you get to that place?

Well, the text tells us right there, he’s hanging his hat on some promises. Promises that all these problems I’m facing, you know, ultimately God’s keeping track, and one day he’s promised it’s going to seem like a blip on the screen compared to the eternal glory on the other side. The only way the Apostle Paul can have that perspective of encouragement in the midst of his discouraging circumstances is that he is hanging his hat firmly. He’s standing firmly on the promises of God without wavering. So much so that the things he can’t see, think about the faith here, he says those things are the things that matter. Those are the things that are eternal.

I don’t know if you make that connection, but sometimes it’s the problems we like to attack in our lives, and we think they’re the real issues, like discouragement and anxiety and worry and timidity, and we think, well, those are the issues. We’ve got to deal with those. But really, those are symptomatic. Even as Paul’s paradigm there in 2 Corinthians 4 tells us, they’re symptomatic of a real problem, that maybe we don’t believe the things that God says the way that we ought to. Because for Paul, eternity was so real to him that he said, I can look at the physical bruise on my body and recognize, you know, no big deal, because I’m going to a place that’s so much better. It was real to him, because he had faith in the promises of God.

We’ve been in the middle of a series talking about God’s promises from Hebrews chapter 6, and if you haven’t opened to that text yet tonight, I’d like you to open your Bibles right now and turn to the middle of the book of Hebrews chapter 6, and take a look one more time at the second half of this chapter, as the writer of Hebrews is giving us reasons to be assured that what God says is true. And the point of it is this. If you will get to the place where the writer of Hebrews is, to get to the place where Paul is in 2 Corinthians 4, you’ll find your attitude, your life is totally turned around. As a matter of fact, you will be, as the text is about to tell us, greatly encouraged.

Take a look at it. We’re coming off the heels of the story of Abraham, who becomes for us a template of how God fulfills his promises. We see that there and we found out last week that he doesn’t, he doesn’t answer right away all the time, but you can be sure he’s going to come through. He said it, he’s going to do it. So much so that in the middle of Abraham’s life he gave him a promise and confirmed it with an oath.

And here’s where the text picks up, verse number 16. The Bible says men swear by someone greater than themselves, and that’s still going on today when people lay their hand on a Bible in a courtroom and say, “So help me God, truth, whole truth, so help me God.” What’s the point there? I mean, you got to have somebody that you’re saying, like the Bible does often, “Hey, if I’m lying to you, may God strike me. May God hurt me. God is my witness, and if I’m lying to you, he, you know, I’m saying, let him get me.” That’s the oath. That’s the, the, I know I’ve said it, but I’m telling you right now, I’m calling in someone greater than me to put me in my place for not telling the truth.

He says, well, that’s helpful. But as we saw last week, God doesn’t have anybody greater to swear by. Who’s he going to say, you know, “So help me who?” Who’s he gonna… well, he’s got to swear by himself, which is exactly what he did. And when he did that, much like an oath in a courtroom, it should be a place where people say, you know what, if he’s doing that, then I guess we’ll believe him. All the disputing, if that’s what he’s saying, if he’s willing to commit to it on oath, okay, fine.

The Bible says God went to that extent with Abraham because, verse 17, he wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear. Not just to Abraham. Here’s the interesting part. To the heirs of what was promised. Now that’s not just Abraham and it’s not just singular Isaac. This is, as the New Testament continually says, everyone who falls into the umbrella of the Abrahamic covenant, which is not only the nation of Israel, but those who through the coming of the son of Abraham, the ultimate son of Abraham, Jesus himself, would be brought into this promise of the blessing. Therefore, the writer of Hebrews sees us, not just Jews, but Gentiles as well, as heirs of the promise. And that’s why, the Bible says, God confirmed his promise to Abraham with an oath.

He did this, here’s the purpose clause, verse 18, so that by two unchangeable things—what are they? Draw a line back, the promise and the oath. I promise Abraham, he promised in chapter 12, he promised in chapter 15, he promised in chapter 17 of Genesis, he confirms it on oath in chapter 22. “I swear,” he says, “by myself, solemnly swear. I’m not lying to you, Abraham. You’ve waited for years, but I’m telling you, your promise of offspring through you and all the world being blessed, that’s going to be true.” He did this so that by two unchangeable things, in this little parenthetical phrase, in which it’s impossible for God to lie—I mean, like he can lie anyway, the writer says. So, here it goes, purpose: we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be—here’s the whole punchline of the whole three verses—greatly, what’s the word? Encouraged. That’s what he wants. God wants us to be encouraged. Encouraged by the fact that what he said is true, and no matter what makes you think it’s not going to happen, you ought to be encouraged because God’s telling you the truth.

No matter what the promise is in Scripture, and we said there’s some 7,000, I didn’t count them, but I’ve been reading 7,487 promises. Great. God, when he makes a promise, he’s going to keep it. God is a God who is faithful to his promise, and because of that, he wants us to be greatly encouraged. Paul could say, “Look at my…” It’s falling apart. “I got all kinds of enemies, people throwing rocks at me. They don’t like my preaching. They’re running me out of town. But you know what? All this stuff doesn’t matter because I know where I’m going. I know who I serve and I know what’s on the other side. And to me, that’s real because I’m banking on the promise of God.” That’s a good attitude in the midst of bad times. Paul experienced the great encouragement.

And in this text, the Bible says he wants all the heirs of Abraham, spiritual heirs as well as physical heirs, to receive that strong encouragement. Number one on your outline, if you found your worksheet, pull it out and jot this down. The whole point of these three verses is, number one, to be encouraged by God’s promises. Be encouraged. Greatly encouraged.

Now, here’s a little Greek study real quick. You’ve heard this word before. That’s the only reason I bring it up, because I know you know it. Most of you know it. The word here that is used as a noun, it’s a word that is used often in Scripture in various forms. One form of it is the name that was given to the Holy Spirit in the upper room discourse where Jesus was telling his disciple, “I’m going to leave you, but I’m going to send another. I’m going to send the parakletos.” Remember that? “I’m going to send the parakletos to you.” And we learn about that in Sunday school or in church somewhere, that para is a compound word. Para, the first part of that Greek word, is a preposition, and it means “beside,” para. A parable—ballo means “to throw”; a parable, it’s a story I throw alongside the point. Parakletos, para means something alongside. And the second half comes from the verb kaleo, and kaleo means “to call.” Someone called alongside. To do what? Well, to help. That’s why some translations in the text call the Holy Spirit in those verses where he’s called the parakletos, they translate it “the Helper.” Remember that? “I’m going to send the Helper.” Some old translations call him “the Comforter.” Remember that?

This text uses this word in a little different form. It calls this word, it translates this word, “encouragement.” You’re going to receive encouragement. In this text, not from the Holy Spirit himself, but by the promises that the Holy Spirit has made. And if we can put our hope in that and grab on that and have any doubt that God is a God of truth and what he says is going to come true, we can be greatly encouraged. Which, by the way, you Greek students, it’s not the word megas, “greatly encouraged.” It’s a different word. It’s the word “strong,” strongly encouraged. We can be strongly supported.

And here’s the problem. Much like Paul, and I don’t know what your problems are, he had a lot, we can get discouraged. And the text is telling us there is something that can prop us up. Cleaning out the garage lately, that’s a fun task, isn’t it? Going through all the junk, and we have all the stuff. You find all kinds of stuff. You want some, come over, get some, bring your truck. We’ll give you all kinds of junk we found. One of the things I found is a set of crutches. That was a fun memory. Not just my set. I got big dad-sized crutches. I got kid-sized crutches. Remembering all the knees blown out and the ankles blown out and the broken foot and all the stuff, and there are all the crutches.

Crutches, think about it, a great example of parakletos. Paraklēsis is this word here. It means something that comes alongside on both sides of me. It holds me up when I’m weak, right? I’m laying on the couch. I got my broken foot, big foot in a cast, blue cast. Some of you remember my blue cast. And there’s the refrigerator 25 feet away. Darn it. You know, slide that over here. It’s the refrigerator and the bathroom. Those are the two things you got to have. And you can’t get there easily because you need to reach over and find those little aluminum crutches and pop them under your armpits, and then you’ve got to stand up, and it’s just, I don’t care how bad you want to get to the refrigerator, which is bad sometimes. You’ve got to have help, because you’re messed up, man. Your leg’s all messed up. Your foot’s messed up. Your foot’s broken. Knees blown out.

What’s the point? Sometimes in our life, man, we get discouraged because of circumstances, and God says, I’ve got some crutches for you. And they’re going to pop right under your armpits. They’re going to hold you up, and you’ll be able to keep on going. They will greatly, strongly encourage you. Parakletos. It will come alongside of you and support you. It is the thing that will keep you going.

And I’m telling you, when I look at Christian’s life, including my own, and we’re discouraged and we’re angry and we’re disappointed and we’re frustrated or we’re timid or whatever our problems are, what we need sometimes is not to read a book on anxiety, but we need to start saying, “Do I really believe God in what he says? I have to. I have to or I’m going to be discouraged.”

This text, remember, is talking about Abraham’s promise. And I’d like you just to put a couple sub-points under this, number one, if you would. The encouragement, and again, I’d love for you all to turn over the worksheet at some point, read those books on the back, and some of the titles, and the last couple weeks as well, you’ll find books that catalog a bunch of promises, the 7,000-plus promises of the Bible. Great. But let me give you the big one that Paul is referring to in 2 Corinthians 4.

Turn with me, if you would, to John chapter 8. Let me just make the connection real quick, and I don’t want to go too deep in this, but the connection between the Abrahamic covenant, the promise to Abraham, and what we are saying is going to be our hope in the 100-year plan. Because all of us should have a 100-year plan. We’re not going to make it. No infants in the room that I can see. We’re not going to be here. This life’s going to end at some point. It’s going to end in a hospital bed, in our sleep, in a car accident, whatever. We’re checking out. Where we’re going to be 100 years from now? We better make sure we know with certainty that the things that we do not see are eternal. If not, you will be discouraged. You will be frustrated.

So what about that? How does that connect? Take a look at Jesus talking about it. He simplifies, as he so often does in the records in the gospel of John. Look at verse 51. John 8. Drop way down to the bottom of this passage. Did I give you the chapter yet, John 8? Or did I just say John? Choose your own chapter. John 8, verse 51.

“I tell you the…” What’s the word here? “Truth.” He’s always saying that, by the way. Remember in your old translations, he would start his little verbiage as he’s going to say something, he’d say, “Verily, verily, I say unto you.” Remember that phrase from Sunday school? Our translations say, “Truly, truly.” It’s a little Greek word, amen. In the Greek, it’s amen. We just transliterate it in English. Amen. What does it mean? “Truly.” That’s true, that’s right. Amen. Truly, I’m telling you the truth.

Sometimes you say, “Truly, truly, amen, amen, I’m gonna tell you. What I’m gonna say is true.” And here’s what he says. Here’s the punchline that means everything, should change everything about our thinking and our lives and our attitudes: “If anyone,” he says, “keeps my word,” which is what? Trust in the Son, “he will never see death.”

Okay, to Lazarus, when he’s sitting there at the funeral of Lazarus, he says the same thing. He says, “Even if you die, you’re not going to see death. Even if you die, you’re going to live, and you’re not going to die eternally.” So you know what? If you can figure that one out, it’s going to change a lot of things. As a matter of fact, we often talk about the place where God makes everything right. Sin, by the way, is where everything is wrong. That’s what sin is—something’s not right. And God said, “I’m going to take all the things that are wrong and I’m going to make them right. And I’m going to welcome you into that place, not because you earned it, not because you’re right, because I’ve made you right. And I’m going to say to you one day, ‘Hey, blessed are you. Welcome into this place, the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Welcome to this perfect place.’ And you get to live here.”

God is going to do that for us. Take all the wrongs, make them right. I said it last week, crooked, straight, rough places, plain. He’s going to do that for us. That changes everything about how we weather the storm here.

They heard this. The Pharisees respond next verse, just like a lot of people today do at this. The Jews exclaim, “Now we know you’re demon possessed. You’re crazy. You’re telling me we got to keep your word and we get to go to a place where there’s no more death? Don’t think so.” And they bring up the most important promise for anybody living in first century Israel. “You know, it’s all about Abraham. And Abraham died and so did the prophets. Those guys died and we’re listening to their words. What do you mean that if anyone keeps your word, he’ll never taste death? Are you,” verse 53, “greater than our father Abraham? Well, he died and so did the prophets. Who do you think you are?”

And Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. But my Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I didn’t know him, I’d be a liar like you.” How tactful Jesus is here, right?

I was listening to the radio this morning. I know, another mistake. TV last week, radio today. The guy said, “Oh, Jesus, he’s so nice.” Trying to respond to somebody’s view of Christ talking about judgment. “Oh, no, Christ never did that. He was a cool guy, always saying nice things. He would never say anything to ruffle anybody’s feathers.” I wanted to call the guy and have him come to church just to hear that verse right there. Look at that. “If I said I didn’t know him, I’d be a liar like you.” A lot of attack there. No, it’s called truth.

“But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father Abraham,” check this out, “rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day.” Why? Remember Genesis 12. What’s the Abrahamic covenant? You got all these things about making you a great nation, blessing you so much so that if people bless you, I’ll bless them. If they’re bad to you, they curse you, then I’ll be bad to them, I’ll curse them. But there’s one more phrase in the Abrahamic covenant. What is it? “And through you, all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” Remember that? There is something about the lineage of Isaac, that would come from that lineage someone who would bless all the peoples of the nations. Not all the peoples without exception, see, but all the people without some exclusion.

The point is this, that there are people in the book of Revelation who fulfill that promise where God sees the great throng before the throne. He says, “People from every tongue, tribe, and nation.” And through who? Through Abraham’s descendant.

Now, how’s that going to happen? Well, we’ve got to come with the person who’s going to somehow reverse the curse. Because the problem of Genesis 3 is we’ve got to pay for our sin. And if we’re going to pay for our sin, we can’t go to a place that’s perfect. And we will experience death. How do we reverse all that? Abraham’s lineage. Someone’s going to come and fix the problem. And look at this, verse 56. “Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day.” Now, remember, here’s someone pre-existing before their birth saying, “Yeah, I hung out with Abraham. And whenever we would talk about me coming and doing this thing and reversing the curse, man, it was like he smiled. He rejoiced. Just thinking about me coming here and doing this stuff, he was happy.”

Can you imagine what these people were thinking at this point? “You are nuts. You’re crazy.” Verse 57. Well, let’s finish verse 56. “He saw it.” Think about it. Somehow Christ is saying, from the rails of heaven, Abraham saw me here doing my work, accomplishing redemption, living the life they couldn’t live that would be credited to sinners. And man, he did see it. And he was glad. Amazing comment.

And they responded, as many people today responded, “That’s nuts. You’re not yet 50 years old.” Verse 57 says, “The Jews said to him, and you’ve seen Abraham? What are you, crazy?” “I tell you the truth,” Jesus answered, “before Abraham was born”—circle the phrase if it’s not already circled in your Bible—what is it? “I am.”

Now, that’s really bad grammar. Can you get that marked off on your English, you know, paper? What do you mean “for Abraham…”? What are you talking about? “Well, you know, I existed. I’ve always been.” Which, by the way, for the Jews, that was just the height of blasphemy. Because the root of God’s proper name, Yahweh, in the Old Testament, is what? It’s the verbal form, it’s a form of the verb “to be.” How’s that for a mouthful? The verb “to be.” Yahweh, “I am.” That’s why that whole discussion of the burning bush was really clear. “I’m Yahweh. I’m the one. I’m the existing one, the ever-existing one. I am the I AM. I am. Tell them I AM sent you.” What? That’s what Yahweh’s name means.

And Jesus says, “Yeah, before Abraham was born.” Who else can claim that kind of pre-existence? “Oh, I was hanging out with Abraham. We were talking about me coming, and man, he was happy. And you know what? And then I’ve been here, and he saw it, and he was happy. Oh, and yeah, before Abraham was even born, I am.” Huge blasphemy. And though today theologians can’t understand that statement, it seems, liberal theologians can’t understand it, the Jews in that day understood it perfectly clear. Look at verse 59. They picked up stones to stone him. Why? It’s blasphemy. But Jesus hid himself, slipping away from the temple grounds.

What’s the point? Abraham promised, or Abraham was promised that he, through his lineage, there would be the reversal of the problem. The curse of Genesis 3 would turn into a blessing for people from every tongue, tribe, and nation, people of all the earth. Well, how? How did that work? Needed Christ. Christ is the fulfillment of it all. And if we can say, “I trust in him,” as we started in verse 51, we’re fixed. The curse problem is fixed. That’s why evangelism is so important. That’s why the message of the gospel is so important. That’s why we call people to trust in Christ. And though people today are willing to kill you because you say the exclusivity of Christ is the only way you’re going to get to heaven—they’ll shoot you for that in the back, we found out this morning, right? For people just even associating themselves with Christianity, they don’t even have to be real Christians—the point, though, is we’re saying, “No, it is true.” And are you either going to believe that, you’re going to be bullied off that position, you’re going to be liberalized to the place in your theology where you’re off that position, or are you going to say, “No, I believe it and it’s true. And I’ve put my faith in him, and because of that, I’m okay. My 100-year plan is taken care of.”

That’s big. The five-year plan may fall apart, but the 100-year plan is intact if you have strong faith in the promises of God.

The book of Hebrews has a lot to say about Abraham. I’d like you to go to the end of the book. And I know you know chapter 11, and I don’t want to steal the thunder there, but there’s so many things said about Abraham himself and how he showed faith and resilience and, on the flip side, how God showed himself to be faithful to the covenant. Not only would there be this great Savior to come from Abraham’s lineage, there would be a blessing. Remember, the point was, “I’m going to bless you.” Not just “will you bless the nations through your descendants.” “You, Abraham, will be blessed.”

Well, he had a lot of problems, I know. Like leaving Ur of the Chaldeans, leaving Haran in southern Iraq, moving to a place he didn’t know, being a nomad, I know. But the point is, in Hebrews 11, God was with him. God blessed him. Even in the crisis of faith on Mount Moriah, when he was told to kill his son, Isaac, when it was all said and done, who was there? God was providing what? A ram caught in the bush. “Here, I’m with you. I’m going to bless you. I’m going to bless you. I’m going to be with you. I’m going to strengthen you. I’m going to be your parakletos.”

You’re going because here’s the thing: some people having financial problems. We already found out in the book of Hebrews that their property was being seized, and they’re going home with stuff or without stuff that they’d worked hard for. And he says, you know, don’t worry about it. Why? Because there’s a promise, Abrahamic promise being fulfilled, not just a hundred years from now, but even right now. And here it is: “I will never leave you and I’ll never forsake you.” That’s true for us, he says, verse 6. So we can say—here’s a great word to circle—“with confidence,” confidence: “The Lord is my helper,” my parakletos. He props me up. He helps me through this. “I will not be afraid. I’m not going to be afraid. What can man do to me?”

Paul’s going to say, “Lots. Sit down and I’ll tell you a story of all the things they’ve done to me.” Oh, but they’re inconsequential ultimately because my 100-year plan is solved. And between here and there, he’s never going to leave me and he’s going to help me. In the midst of my trial, he’s going to give me grace. You’ve got to have faith in the promises of God to get to that place.

And then he gives some examples, and they, I’m sure, flooded their minds back with their leaders, not just the Abrahamic patriarchs—Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph—but guys that actually taught them. He said, “Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you.” Perhaps Paul was one of those. Writer of Hebrews wasn’t Paul, obviously, but maybe, you know, they’d heard of his trials and his struggles. And early on, they’d been exposed to his teaching. He said, “Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their…” What does this take? Circle it. What’s it take? Faith. You’ve got to trust God.

Be encouraged by God’s promises. I don’t have time to get into the details of all the promises of Scripture, obviously, but I would hope that on the back of your worksheet you’d pick one of those—I gave you three or four, just by the titles you can figure them out—and just spend some time looking at all the things God says he will do. When you’re reviled, you’re earning rewards in heaven. When you’re hurt, he’s close to the broken-hearted. I mean, you go on and on and on and on. God is a God who keeps his promises. So be encouraged by his promises. That’s what the whole point of this paragraph is about.

Back to Hebrews chapter 6, or look at your worksheet and jump into the middle of verse number 18. There was a little phrase, and I said it was parenthetical, but I think it’s important for us to pause here and to examine what he’s saying, to try and ponder the implications of this in the middle of verse 18. “God did this.” Did what? He made a promise and made an oath. And those are the two unchangeable things. And then he throws in this phrase, “in which it is impossible for God to lie,” so that we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

That little phrase is worth stopping and saying, now let’s think about that. Because when we were kids on the playground and the atheist son walks up to us and says, “Hey, can God do anything?” We always said what? “Sure.” Then he popped off with that smart aleck question, “Well, can he make a rock so big he can’t move it?” And we’re like, “Oh, darn, I don’t know. No…yes. Yes…no.” And we struggled with that. Because our childish theology was, “God can do anything.”

The Bible clearly says God can’t do anything. There are some things God cannot do. There are some impossibilities with God. And those things, it may seem counterintuitive, are the things that should encourage us the most. They should assure us. The Bible says it is impossible for God to lie. Let’s examine that.

Still part of this concept, and I developed it throughout the rest of Scripture, but John Owen, in his classic 13-volume commentary on Hebrews, he says, you know, just remember this: every promise of God is built on four pillars. And the more I read that and examined that and thought of it, it’s true. How is it that God cannot lie? Well, because his character does not allow it, because there are things his character will not allow. Because the minute he allows those, he ceases to be God. Therefore, we can be assured by that. I put it this way, number two on your outline: be assured by God’s impossibilities. There are things that God cannot do because of the nature of who God is. And that is so important for us to catch. Be assured by God’s impossibilities.

By the way, can God make a rock so big that he can’t move it? Yes or no? Say “no” with confidence. No way, man. Ain’t no way God can make a rock so big… “Well, you can’t do anything then.” And that’s where you say to the grade school bully, “You’re absolutely right, atheist. Punk.” He can’t. And you should say, “I’m so glad he can’t.” Because if God could do anything, see, then we don’t have God. Because God, by the nature of his perfection, he has to limit himself in areas. Including the first one I want to talk about based on a most fundamental attribute.

I got pointy fingers down the middle of this last section, you see those? On the left side of the pointy finger, the first one, I want us to state the most basic attribute of God. The one that if you put angels flying around in the presence of God, they would just start spurting out. They would say, what about God? “Holy, holy, holy.” So jot it down: God is holy. What does holy mean? Holy means you are perfect. You are set apart from sin. You cannot sin.

Now, God lying is a big statement. Picture it this way. Don’t miss this distinction. God lying is a big statement. That means what he says, he does. Okay? That’s the point. Now, the aspects of that are, number one, one aspect of that, and John Owen is right in this, the first pillar is that he’s holy. And if he’s holy, there’s one thing that can lead to lying, or one thing that constitutes lying, and that is—and you need to understand this as a subset—is deception. And if you’re holy and perfect and set apart from sin, you cannot deceive.

Put that on the other side of the pointy finger. God is holy. Therefore, he can’t deceive. Okay? Now think about it. I can say things that aren’t true and not be… I can say things that are not true and not be engaged in deception. Your kids do that sometimes? I mean, and you realize, I know you didn’t mean to deceive me here. You misspoke. You said it wrong. You didn’t have enough information. You couldn’t see how this would be. But whatever, you still said something that wasn’t true.

Now, that’s what we mean by saying God cannot lie. Well, the first part of it is he will never deceive. Why won’t he deceive? Because he’s holy. And if he deceives anyone, he’s not holy. And when he ceases to be holy, he ceases to be God. So he cannot deceive. He has to tell you forthrightly the truth with good motives and good intentions. And so he says to us, “Trust in my Son, and you will march into the kingdom. And I will say, ‘Blessed are you. Come on into this great place prepared for you from the foundation of the world. You do that, and I’ll do this.’”

Now, how do I know he’s not lying? Well, the first thing is I know he would never deceive. The problem with how we view God sometimes is based on our view of God. We start to bring God down to a place where he is a lot more like us. And if he’s a lot like us, then he starts to appear as a guy kind of offering something on an infomercial. Or, you know, he’s got some good thing here and it’s his great product, it’s called Jesus. And so, “Come on.” It reminds me of the swap meet. You go to the Orange County swap meet sometimes?

Now, I don’t mind going to the swap meet, and it’s fine walking down the aisles of the swap meet. But every now and then, you get to the guy who’s there on a little platform of some kind with that little microphone right here. And he’s yelling at you about his shoe cleaner or his pots and pans thing or his wok or whatever. I don’t know what else they sell with the microphone. Mops, right? I don’t know what they got. All kinds of stuff.

Now, those are the things that kind of irritate you. And yet what they say is amazing. And not only is it amazing, they’re trying to show you examples. “Look at this tennis shoe. It looks like that. That’s the left. Oh, that’s amazing. You need some of this.” And so my wife and I walk by and go, “Well, maybe, maybe there’s something there. Oh, I’ll keep your shoes clean for the next two years.” “Ah, it’s too good to be true. It doesn’t sound…” So here you are, you’re just kind of evaluating it. And then you may be so enamored with the pitch that you walk over and say, “Okay, I’ll try. How much is it? Okay, I’ll buy some. We’ll try it out. See?”

Now, someone like God, who makes a promise to us, is not a pitchman at the swap meet where we try his product. And you say, well, nobody thinks that way. No, they do think that way. The little bumper sticker, have you ever seen it? “Try God.” Have you seen that one? “Try God.” Like a tennis shoe cleaner, maybe he’ll work for you. Right? “We’ll just try him out. Come on, I know it sounds too good to be true. Just give it a shot. See?” As opposed to a transcendent God who speaks from heaven, as Isaiah 66 says, and people who hear him speak. And what he says is so true because he’s so perfect and he would never say something that is wrong. We would all, as Isaiah 66 says, just tremble at his word. We don’t go, “Wow, let me evaluate. Let’s put God on trial here and see. Maybe, maybe, I don’t know. Let’s check it out.” We don’t check it out. If he’s God, what he says, we bow down to.

And I’m telling you, sometimes it won’t fit immediately with your reason. Sometimes it won’t fit immediately with what you think God should be, but you better embrace it because God is God. And when people start mixing that up, they start believing things they shouldn’t believe, and they start putting God on trial.

I know this is hard because we’re always taught in Sunday school Job is such a righteous guy. But in the Old Testament, Job—and I know he’s presented to us in the beginning of Job as a righteous guy, and at the end of Job as a righteous guy—but in the middle, don’t things get a little messed up there? Have you really read the book, gotten past the flannel graph story? In the middle, Job is putting God on trial, is he not? “Oh, come on, God, get down here. You said this and that, and you’re not doing it. And I don’t know. God, I want a hearing. Bring God down. Let’s talk to him.” He wants to put God on trial.

And you know how God responds to that? First of all, he listens to all the peanut gallery come, his three friends. And then the fourth one, Elihu, he’s a little brighter, but they’re all sitting here talking about God, God. “Well, maybe God, maybe God.” God’s just, “Fine. Okay, I’m ready. I’ll talk now.” And you remember how the book of Job ends? What’s the last part of the book of Job about? It’s like a walk through the zoo, you know? And the planetarium or something. Have you read the last four or five chapters of Job? God goes off. I mean, he goes off for chapters on dinosaurs and hippopotamus and fish and bizarre—I mean, just the stars and the planets and the earth. What? What’s God doing right there? God spends chapters trying to say, “Who are you talking about here, Job? Can you put me back where I belong and put you back where you belong?”

Do you know how that all ends? Job chapter 40. This is worth looking at. Turn to Job 40. Go to Psalms, turn back one book. Job finally, after all of his debating and wanting to put God on trial, here’s what he says. Really doubting. And that’s what the middle book of Job is all about. It’s about doubt. Look at verse 3. Well, I should say, after all this discussion for chapters about this, God says, “Do you want to do it again?” You know, it’s like a kid who gets in trouble for poking his sister in the eye, and after the discipline, mom says, “Do you want to do it again? Go ahead. Come on. You want to poke her in the eye again?”

He says this, verse 2: “Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct him? You got something to correct me on now? You just had a lesson on ‘I’m God and you’re not.’ Let him who accuses God answer him. I’m waiting, Job. You got something to say? Think I’m not fair? Think things I said aren’t going to come true? Think my promises are in question?” Job answered the Lord. Here’s the only answer Job has: “I am…” what? “I’m unworthy. How can I reply to you?” Here’s the greatest thing that Job did in the book: “I put my hand over my mouth.” And God says, “Thank you.”

“I spoke once, but I have no answer. Twice, I’ll say no more.” And he’s not done yet. God just goes on. “The Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. ‘Brace yourself like a man. I want you to answer a few things for me. I’ll question you, you answer me.’” “Dude, I got the point. You’re God. I’m not. I’ll shut up now.” Do you see how that works? When we get God back to the place where he is God, then we open his book, as Isaiah 66 says, with some fear and trembling, and we believe it. We don’t put it on trial. We say, “This is what God says.”

That’s different, man, than most people approaching Bible study these days. Because God cannot deceive. He’s not going to lead us astray in his words.

One more passage, just to tie this all together real quick. Go to Proverbs 30. You’re close to it. Job, Psalms, Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 30, end of the book. Now, I’m sure because it comes as an appendage to the collection of Proverbs, mostly by Solomon, this guy who adds these to Solomon’s wise Proverbs, who was the wisest of all, right? He’s going to be very humble. And he is here. As a matter of fact, verse 3, he says, “I haven’t learned wisdom.” I mean, I’m not like Solomon. “Nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.” Now, of course, he’s writing in the Bible here. So, I mean, he knows God. But he said, “Man, I don’t have a profound understanding of the Holy One.” And it’s interesting, he calls him “the Holy One,” the perfect one.

“Who has gone up to heaven and come down?” This starts to sound like Job. “Who’s gathered up the winds in the hollow of his hands? Who’s wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who’s established all the ends of the earth? What’s his name, the name of his son? Tell me if you know.”

The next thing he says is a natural complement to seeing God high and exalted. The next thing he says, this is the connection—ready? Verse 5: “Every word of God is flawless.” I’m not going to sit in judgment on it. I’m going to stand back and listen to it, and I’m going to believe it. “He’s a shield to those who take refuge in him. Don’t add to his words. No, don’t do it.” Job did it, and he got in trouble for it. “He’ll rebuke you and prove you a liar.” And then the next thing, practically for his Christian life, if you will, that he says, “Two things I ask of you, O Yahweh, do not refuse me before I die.” Look at the first thing in the list, verse 8: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me.” I want to fellowship with the Holy One. And I know one thing about the Holy One. When he speaks, it’s flawless. It’s perfect.

And read Psalm 119, okay, on the way home. Take the long route home, okay? Have your wife or somebody in the car read this. Just start reading that to you. God’s words, we ought to stand back and say, “Wow.” God can’t deceive us. He’s not going to deceive us. Why? Because he’s holy. If he’s holy and perfect, he’s going to tell us the truth.

That’s why 2 Timothy 2— I know this is way too much for one point—but 2 Timothy 2, verse 11, quotes one of the earliest Christian hymns. When they got together for worship, they started writing some new songs. We had 150 psalms in the Old Testament. In the New Testament, we see them quoted from time to time. And Paul says this to Timothy about a song they were singing in the early church, 2 Timothy 2. You don’t need to turn there. Let me read it for you, verse 11. You know it. Most of you know it.

Paul says, “These lyrics, they’re trustworthy. This is a trustworthy saying: ‘If we died with him, we’ll also live with him.’” Right? If we are—this is a great theology of Romans chapter 6—if we are identified with him in his death, see, then we’re going to live with him. We trust in his death, we’re going to live with him. Verse 12: “If we endure, man, if you hang in there, we’re going to reign with him. And if we disown him, if we reject him—that’s the word reject. If Christ is presented and his message is presented and we reject him, then he’ll also reject us. Last phrase: “If we’re faithless,” and who isn’t? He says, “He will remain faithful.” Why? Here’s another “cannot”: “He cannot disown himself.” He can’t say it and then change. That’s the God we have. Undeceived. It’s not contingent. It’s unconditional stuff we’re talking about in the Bible.

Be assured by God’s impossibilities. First of all, that he’s holy. He cannot lie. Why? Pillar number one, because he’s holy. And if he’s holy, he won’t, he won’t deceive us. Okay?

But there are times I don’t try to deceive my kids. I don’t. I tell them stuff and I mean it. Man, do I mean it. “Hey, this summer we’re going to a Padres game. You can count on it.” Okay. I say that in May. Then it’s September and they say, “Hey, Dad, where’s the Padres game? We’re back to school now, man. We didn’t do it for us.” Now, I’m thinking to myself, “I should have done it.” But it wasn’t because I was mean when I said it, and I was, “I’m going to tell them I’m going to go take them to a game and I’m really not. Ha! Live with that disappointment.” No, I mean it. Just like they say, “Dad, you said we’d go to ice cream this week.” “Oh, yeah. That’s right.”

Sometimes they say crazy things. They say, “Dad, two years ago, you said…” “Two years ago?” “Two years ago, you said we could take five kids to Disneyland for our birthday. That’s what you said.” “What? I would never have said that.” “Dad, you did. You did.” “Now, when did I say that?” “You said that we were at a restaurant. You were at the pizza place. Yes, we were in the back corner, with a booth right there. You were wearing a blue shirt.” When you’re caught like that, don’t ever ask Mom, because you go, “Yeah, you did say that.”

I say stuff to my kids and I remember they call me on it. I say, “I don’t remember.” Sometimes I say, “I probably did say that. I just don’t remember.” See, four pillars under this. If God cannot lie, pillar number one, he is holy. If he’s holy, he cannot deceive us.

But there’s another reason someone might lie to us and tell us something that’s not true. And it’s not because they’re deceiving us. It can be because they don’t remember. And God is omniscient. Let’s just use the word that the theologians use. He’s omniscient. And if he’s omniscient, here’s the thing—draw it next to the pointy finger—he cannot, here it is, he can’t forget. He can’t forget.

Then jot down next to that 2 Peter chapter 3. Because in 2 Peter chapter 3, here’s how Peter puts it. “Oh, I know God promised stuff a long time ago.” He said, but remember this, he said, “A thousand years is like a day, and a day is like a thousand years.” Now, some people think that’s some eschatological equation, and they’re going off making all kinds of charts. It’s not eschatology and making charts. It’s about this: God didn’t forget. He could make a promise a thousand years ago, and if you said, “Hey, did you make a promise?” He’d say, “It’s like I made it yesterday. I remember everything about it. Absolutely. I don’t forget. I’m God. I’m God, and I remember everything.”

Turn to one passage in the middle of the Psalter, actually at the end of the Psalter, Psalm 147. I thought of this passage. I remember, and it happened recently, and I was thinking about when it happened to me when I was a kid. Now, we didn’t have a big family. My mom, my dad had my older brother Dave and had me. But sometimes, you know, Mom would be calling us for dinner or I’d be in trouble or something and Mom would look right at me and she’d call me by every name in the house except for mine, right? “David, David, Jake, Michael…” And I remember as a kid thinking, “I live here. You can remember. Remember my name.” And you have this thought as a kid: “I’ll never do that to my kids.”

I got three kids, okay? I mean, it takes me sometimes a few names to get to the right name. I look at John. I call him, “Matthew, Carlin, Stephanie…” Start naming my friends, staff members. “Whoever you are, get upstairs.”

And I thought of this passage. Psalm 147, verse 4. Look at verse 4. Are you there? “He determines the number of the stars and calls each of them by name.” And the point is, he’s not getting them wrong, right? As a matter of fact, “Great is our Lord,” verse 5, “and mighty in power.” Underline this phrase: “His understanding has no limit.” See, and that’s the impressive thing, that you can remember the names of all the stars.

Now, at Yale University, they did a study trying to figure out how many stars are visible in the best conditions, a magnitude, for you astronomers, 6.5 or greater. Yale study recently published: there are close to 10,000 stars in the sky on a winter night, new moon, with a 6.5 magnitude or greater, which you can see with the naked eye. Ten thousand stars, okay, close to 10,000, over 9,000. So let’s just assume you got no smog, you got no lights, you got no football stadiums. The ancients in the Old Testament, David looking up into the sky, he’s going to see probably on the right night about 10,000 stars over his head. And he’s going, “Wow, that’s a lot of stars.” And so when the Holy Spirit inspired this text and said, “Oh, by the way, God determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name,” David went, “Wow, that’s a lot.”

I went out last night. I let my eyes adjust. I’d just been reading this passage. I sat outside, and I looked up, and I said, “I’m going to count the stars.” Now, even Orange County nights, right? And it was a new moon, I think, last night. I didn’t see a moon out. I’m up there, and I thought, I’m just going to try and count them. How many stars? Make up names as I go, you know, just kind of like, “Let’s do this.” I know that’s stupid. “This guy needs a hobby. What’s wrong with him?” I’m looking up at the stars, and I’m trying to count them just for the sake of this passage. And I’m looking up, and I’m thinking, “What a bizarre thing.” And I couldn’t remember, picture it, did I count those? “Oh, I don’t know. Ah, I started over.” I got to the 30s about four times, and that was about it.

David could look up in the sky and see over 9,000 stars in the sky. And he said, “Wow, God’s got them all named.” Now, we understand the Holy Spirit’s inspiring this text—who, by the way, knew there was a lot more than 10,000 stars in the sky, right? Okay, recent count, like they know, right? Seventy sextillion—no, sextillion, I know that’s bizarre—sextillion stars in the sky. Let’s forget that word. There is 70,000 million million million. That’s a lot. And that ain’t even right, okay? That’s just what they’re saying, okay? That’s their best guess with all their Hubble telescopes and all the mathematics and all the equations and algorithms. “God, I don’t know, 70 sextillion stars.”

Now, when the Holy Spirit wrote this, he knew how many stars there were. That is amazing. I mean, I’m running out of names by at least 50 sextillion, right? Fred, Freddy, Frederick, I don’t know. But the Bible says he knows them all.

Even if you just take the number of what David would have seen looking up into the sky as he read this, right, 9,000. How many promises did we say there was in the Bible? 7,487. Okay. I don’t know, it seems ironic. Matter of fact, some researchers say, well, on an average night, on average conditions, you know, winter, new moon, you probably see about 7,000, 7,500. God’s not forgetting any of his promises. He doesn’t look at the stars and forget their names. He doesn’t look at his promises and say, “Did I say that? I don’t remember that.” God remembers it all. God is omniscient. He cannot forget.

God cannot lie. Pillar number one, he’s holy. He won’t deceive us. He’s omniscient. He won’t forget. Okay?

But there are times, there are times I make promises to my kids and then circumstances change, right? Circumstances change and I look at my kids and say, “I know I said that, but I didn’t know this was going to happen. See? So things have kind of changed. Or, you know, I said I’d do that, but I don’t much care for that place anymore. My appetite is…” We’re not going to do that.

Thirdly, third pillar that makes God a God who always tells the truth and never lies, not only that he has good intentions and he never deceives, not only does he have perfect knowledge and he never forgets, thirdly, ready? He’s immutable. He will never change. Immutable. I mean, isn’t that where it goes in the book of Hebrews? “Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and…” For how long? At least 10,000 years? Forever.

God, I love this passage, Malachi 3, verse 6: “I, Yahweh, do not change.” I don’t change. If I said something to you, it’s going to happen. Psalm 102, verses 25 through 28—don’t have time to look at it—but a great passage tying in the covenant of Abraham. Talking about God who laid the foundations of the world, he does not change, he will remain the same, even though the earth wears out. God does not change. And then he says this, I love this, the punchline is this: “The children of your servants will live in your presence.” What’s the point? You’re always going to keep your covenant. Always. Because you don’t change. God is immutable.

That’s exactly, exactly what Balaam was saying, under duress, I might add, as he received the oracle from God. And he said, “God is not a man that he should lie. He’s not the son of man that he should change his mind.” He’s not like that. And I know you experience people like that. I do too. Bottom line is you’re not dealing with God. If you’re dealing with someone who changes their mind.

I know there’s some anthropomorphisms in Scripture about God doing this, changing that. Trust me, in the big scheme of things, there’s not a promise God makes he doesn’t keep. God makes promises and keeps his promises. Because God is immutable, he doesn’t change.

Lastly, fourth pillar. God doesn’t lie. What does that mean? Well, he’s not deceiving because he’s holy. He’s not forgetting because he’s omniscient. He’s not changing because he’s immutable. There’s one more thing you got to say. There are some times I make promises to my kids and I’m just not able to keep my promise. Okay? God’s not like that. He is—let’s use the technical word—he is omnipotent. Put that down. He’s omnipotent. And because he’s omnipotent, when he is faced with, quote-unquote, challenges in keeping his promise, guess what? They’re not a problem.

My son recently got a gash over his eye, and I’m such a good parent, I don’t remember which eye—one of them. But I saw all the blood, scooped him up, dropped off the family, took him to the hospital. And I’m sitting in the hospital and he’s bleeding into his eye and I’m trying to keep his eye from bleeding. And I’m sitting there and, you know, and of course, I don’t know why they don’t build more hospitals, but it’s busy, right? Everybody’s busy. And so they come in, they look at his eye. The doctor says, “Yeah, you know, he’s going to need some stitches, but I’m backed up back there, right? So you’re just going to have to wait.” Okay. So what do we do? We wait and we wait and we wait.

Well, this happened at a nighttime situation. And so I got to the hospital at 9:30, and we waited from 9:30 to 10, to 10:30, to 11, to 11:30, to 12, to 12:30. And we’re now getting into the place where they’re going to stitch up my son’s eyeball. So after midnight, we’re sitting there, and my son, you know, he said, well, at about 9:30, I said, “Listen, son, when we’re done here, just hang in there, be a trooper, and we’ll go get some ice cream.”

We’re walking to the parking lot out of the ER at about, I don’t know, 12:40, and I’m thinking, “Darn it. Ice cream. Where am I going to find ice cream? I don’t know. But I’m going to be a good dad.” If Mom were in the car, we wouldn’t do it. But I’m like, “We’re going to do it. Dad’s going to do it.” Ice cream at midnight’s not going to work for most moms, but Dad’s going to do it. So I start driving and driving and driving. And I went to every place I could find. I saw a couple places didn’t look safe. I saw other places I thought would be open. They were closed. I wanted to find a drive-through somewhere in the county that was open.

I finally found one. I thought. I pulled into Ortega Highway at that little street off the freeway that bumps in. It was, you know, Restaurant Row, my favorite street: Taco Bell, Del Taco, McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr. They’re all right there. Well, right on the corner, there’s the Jack in the Box. You know what I’m talking about? Oh, dude, I’m like, “Yeah!” There was like five cars in the drive-through. I’m like, “Yeah! Getting your ice cream.” They have ice cream there, don’t they? “No, no, no, just shakes.” Fine, you have the shake, it’s ice cream.

So I pull in. And I don’t know if you remember how that one works, but you can kind of enter the drive-through from two different areas. Well, there’s like three cars up to the little, you know, Jack in the Box window thing, talking thing. And then, like, we’re all like there. We’re merging. It’s pushing one o’clock. And we’re waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And here’s the joke on all of us. They were closed. They were in there, darn it, doing something, laughing at us. All the lights were on. We find out they’re closed. We drove around. I was so mad.

Well, at that point I said, “Son, listen, I know I promised you ice cream. I know you have a new eyelash on your eye with all these stitches hanging out. I know that’d make you feel better. I know I promised, but I just can’t. I don’t know. I drive to Santa Ana. I don’t know where to go.” “It’s okay, Dad.” So Dad drives home, lying to his son.

I didn’t deceive him. Didn’t forget. I mean, I was ready to go. I didn’t change. Four hours didn’t change my appetite for ice cream. I was ready. But I was not able.

Here’s the thing. God is omnipotent, see. And if God makes a promise, here’s the thing—after the pointy finger, ready? He cannot fail. He can’t fail. He cannot fail to keep his promise because nothing’s going to get in the way. Satan isn’t going to thwart the plan. Your sin, blunders, won’t thwart the plan. There’s nothing that can happen in the political, social, religious world that is going to thwart the plan. Nothing can derail it. God will prevail. Prevail because he’s all-powerful. He’s omnipotent.

One last passage. Romans chapter 8. Great way to end our message tonight. After all the great things that are promised, inferred, implied, explicitly said in Romans chapter 8 about the greatness of God’s redemption and carrying it out and the hope of the redemption of his children in heaven and his victory on the way there, he ends with this, verse 31. Romans 8:31: “What then shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?” Here’s a God, all-powerful, holy, immutable, omniscient. If he’s for us, man, who’s going to be against us? And look what he’s done for us. “He didn’t spare his own Son. He gave him up for us all. How will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?”

Are we talking about a house on the hill and a boat in the harbor? Are we talking about a nice car? We’re not talking about any of that. Give us what? The promises. He’s going to deliver on what he says. He’s going to give us everything; every promise he’s going to deliver on. “Who’s going to bring a charge against those whom God has chosen?” Well, it’s God who justifies. He’s in charge. He’s all-powerful. “Who’s going to condemn?” Well, Jesus Christ has been commissioned to give all judgment out, but he’s the one who died for us, more than that, was raised to life, and now he’s at the right hand of God, and he’s interceding for us. The only one that can condemn us and hurt us, the all-powerful one, the only one to fear in the universe, is the one saying, “I’m for you now. You put your trust in me, I’m on your team. I’m for you.”

“Who’s going to separate us then from the love of Christ? Maybe some trouble?” Nah. “How about hardship?” Nope. “How about persecution?” That sounds serious. People shooting each other. No. “Famine? Starving to death?” Nah. “Nakedness?” Nope. “Danger?” Nope. “Sword?” Nope. As it is written, I know it gets hard. He quotes in verse 36, “We face death all day long, considered like sheep for the slaughter.” But no, let me tell you, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. Why? Because that love never goes away and the promise never goes away. The presence of God and the kingdom of God.

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, demons, present things, future things, any powers, height, depth, or anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in the son of Abraham, Christos, the Messiah, Jesus, our King, our Lord.” Nothing. He’s all-powerful. Didn’t deceive us. Won’t forget. Won’t change his mind. And nobody’s going to get in his way.

You hang your hat on those kind of promises and you will walk out with encouragement even in situations people think, “Well, you ought to be discouraged right now.” Don’t get discouraged. God is a great God, a powerful God, an awesome God who keeps his promises.

I know this is hard, and for some of you here, it’s against a backdrop of a lot of personal pain. I’ve experienced my share of people letting me down, and I’m sure that you have too. But there are some of you here that probably have had devastating things happen. People that have done incredible things to you. People that have promised to be there who left. People that promise to love you that don’t love you. People that promise to do this or that or the other and they have stabbed you in the back. I can’t sympathize with all of that. But I do know, like the Apostle Paul, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter who fails you on this planet. It doesn’t matter what promises have been broken to you.

Even in a good-intentioned apostle who said in 1 Corinthians 16, “I’m going to come see you guys,” and in 2 Corinthians 1 he says, “You know, I didn’t make it.” He says, “But know this: our human frailties”—for Paul it wasn’t deception, and for some of you it was. Some of you it was people forgetting. Some people it was, it was, it was they didn’t have the power to fulfill it, whatever it was. But remember this. Paul makes this distinction in 2 Corinthians chapter 1. He says, “Just know this.” He says, “In this earth you find people making promises and things, and sometimes it’s yes and sometimes it’s no. Sometimes they do it and sometimes they don’t. But remember this: the message that we spoke to you, that me and Silas and Titus came in and told you about,” he says, “just remember this. It is always ‘yes,’” he says, “in Christ Jesus.”

This is a great text. Let me read you the last part of it. He says, “It’s not ‘yes’ and ‘no,’ but with him it is always ‘yes.’ For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘yes’ in Christ. And so through him”—here’s your Greek lesson coming to fruition—“the amen is spoken to the glory of God.” What does that mean? We just stand back and say, “Man, it’s true. It’s true.” God is a God who keeps his promises. No matter how many promises he makes, Christ, the son of Abraham, will always make sure he fulfills them. Nothing will thwart it.

Be encouraged this week. No matter what happens to you, God is a God who is going to keep his promise in the short run to be with us, give us grace, in the long run to make every wrong thing right.

Let’s pray.

God, I pray you would help us to fortify our confidence in you because we understand, we have a deepening understanding, an increasing understanding of the character and nature and attributes of God. God, you’ve done so much to condescend to us in giving us oaths and promises and covenants. God, you didn’t need to do any of that, because if you say it, it’s going to happen. If you mention it, it’s true. And yet, God, you showed us how much you loved us, how much you care for us by giving us covenants, even swearing by yourself that you would bless the world through the offspring of Abraham.

And indeed you have. And us sitting here thousands of years later, 4,000 years after the promise was spoken to Abraham, we sit here as Gentile people being blessed, being from all those different nations, nations no one had ever even heard of, because Christ has called us to the place of saying, “Trust in me and you’ll never taste death.” Oh, you’ll go through the threshold of physical life to that life, but in reality, there’s nothing that’s going to separate you from the covenant love and the blessing and the presence of God.

Help us, God, to be where Paul was, where that was so real that the momentary and light afflictions of this life, they’re really nothing. I mean, they’re so inconsequential next to the surpassing greatness and value and the glory that’s going to be revealed to us one day. God, let eternity and the unseen things be so real to us this week because you’ve bolstered our confidence in the words and promises of yourself. God, help us in that, I pray. Fortify our faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.