God Keeps His Word

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