GOD ALWAYS KEEPS HIS PROMISES
(2nd Sunday in Advent)
Warsaw Christian Church, Richard Bowman, Pastor
Text: God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then won’t act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19); 2nd Corinthians 1:20: For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ.” and various.
Human promises are easily made and easily broken. Nations made promises to one another through treaties, but those promises are often broken. Hitler signed a non-aggression pact with Soviet Russia, but when the promise had served its purpose, it was violated. The German army rolled into the USSR, and no words on paper could stop them. The history of the world is virtually a history of broken pharmacies. Young couples promise to live together after God’s Holy ordinance “till death do us part.” However, the divorce rate continues to climb. I have heard many couples swear their eternal love to each other in the pastor’s study before the marriage, only to hear them say a few years later, “I made a big mistake.”
In our day, human promises are almost meaningless. We may have good intentions when we make the promise, but circumstances change, and we break our word. Today, a person who keeps their word is greatly admired but difficult to find.
How thankful we are in this world of broken promises; we have a God who always keeps his word. Where would we be if we could not count on the promises of God? Moses expresses it this way. “God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then won’t act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23:19, NIV). We are told here that God always keeps his promises. Whatever he has said, he will do. God never speaks rashly, thoughtlessly, or deceitfully. Those who embrace and live by his promises will experience the absolute reliability of God’s word.
But wait a minute. How can we say that God always keeps his word when we have all asked Him for things we have not received? If you need to be healed and are not healed, the problem is your lack of faith. Is that true? I must confess I have prayed for healing numerous times, only to be disappointed when the healing did not come. I suppose I could conclude that my feeble faith is inadequate to claim such a wonderful blessing. That would probably be accurate. The Bible speaks of those weak in faith, and I feel I fit that description. Perhaps that is why God won’t give me what I want him to give me. That is one possibility. Let’s look at this situation from a different perspective.
The Apostle Paul makes a very astonishing statement. He says, “For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:20). This is a radical statement worthy of our close attention. Consider for a moment some of the things God has promised. The promise to Israel was that they would possess the promised land forever. But they did not possess the land for many years, even centuries. We might be tempted to say that this is an example of one of God’s failed promises. However, consider what God did give to them. He gave them the Messiah, Jesus. By faith in Jesus, they would inherit the kingdom of God forever. The land promises are swallowed up in the greater gift of Jesus Christ. Jesus was God’s “yes” to the land promise He made to Israel. What happened was that God gave them something far better than land, namely Jesus and eternal life.
Perhaps an example will help us to grasp this radical idea of Paul. Suppose you promised your wife to give her a box of Valentine’s candy every Valentine’s Day. One year, you received a bonus at work and decided to give her a $500 necklace instead of the box of candy. Will she scream at you and say, “You liar! You are an undependable scoundrel. This is not the candy you promised. How can I trust you if you continue to break your word like this?” no, we suspect she would be through with the gift. She would realize that she received something better than a box of candy. That does not constitute the breaking of a promise. The lesser gift is included and swallowed up by the more excellent gift free. This is what Paul means when he says that Christ is the Yes that fulfills all the promises of God. The gift of Christ for the world's salvation was the greatest thing God could ever do for us. Those who receive Christ receive in him everything God has ever promised to His people. Paul put it this way in Colossians 2:10: “You have everything when you have Christ.” (Taylor’s paraphrase). A Jewish Christian who has Christ but does not possess the promised land will not call God a liar. He will rather say God’s promise of the land has been realized, fulfilled, and transcended in his gift of his Son. Jesus is the yes to that divine promise.
You will find many verses in the Bible which promise health and healing. Therefore, we pray for healing when we are sick. We intercede for one another, praying for a miracle of healing. We should pray for healing when sickness strikes. Suppose the one we pray for is a Christian, but our prayers do not bring the desired healing, and our friend dies. Did God’s promise to heal us fail? How can we say that if the deceased has eternal life and will never again know sickness or pain or death? God’s healing promises are swallowed up and fulfilled in his more excellent gift of Jesus Christ. When disease finally catches up with us, and it does catch up with us sooner or later, and you pray for healing, and the healing does not come. You go to sleep in the arms of Jesus and wake up in heaven. Will you call God a liar and accuse him of failing to fulfill his healing promise? Somehow, I doubt that will happen. Instead, you will praise and thank God for fulfilling his healing promise by giving you Jesus Christ and eternal life with him. All of God’s promises are YES in Jesus Christ.
Sometimes, God does perform a healing miracle in this life. Sometimes, He does not. Whether He does or does not act to bring healing in this life is often a part of His mysterious will. But if you have received Jesus Christ into your life as your Lord and Savior, no matter what happens to you, you can still proclaim, “All is well. God is good.” God keeps his promises because if you have Christ, you have everything. And if you say, “Jesus is not enough for me. I want healing in this life, I want wealth in this life, I want fame in this life. I am not satisfied with Jesus.” One thing is clear. You are a fool utterly lacking in true faith and understanding. You were like the wife who screams for a box of candy and discards the $500 in anger.
If you watch some programs on Christian television, you may be confused regarding the nature of the Christian faith. One TV Evangelist has published a pamphlet entitled “How to have faith in your faith.” In it, faith is defined as a positive mental attitude so that believing becomes more important than the object of belief. It may seem trivial upon first hearing the difference, but the issue before us is critical. What does it mean to have faith in your faith? It means we are to have a faith that does not doubt. Such faith, we are told, will bring health and wealth to the one who possesses it. If you believe you will be healed, and if you believe you will be wealthy. If you eliminate all doubt from your mind, the things you believe will come to pass. God must honor this undoubted faith. It is like a spiritual law, and once you have mastered the law of faith, you can cause good things to come your way by the power of your faith. This is faith in faith and is a subtle form of idolatry, the worship of yourself.
Faith in God works altogether differently. The object of our faith is not our faith but God himself. We have come to know him through Jesus Christ, who has secured our salvation by his atoning death on the cross. We have received Jesus Christ. The very best thing God could ever give to us. We go to the Father in Jesus's name, confident that he will hear us because of our relationship with Jesus. We lay before him the burden of our illness, asking him to be merciful and to grant us healing. We relinquish the matter to God. The burden is upon him. We do not know for sure whether or not he will heal us, but we do know that he loves us, and if he does not heal us, it is for reasons hidden in his inscrutable will. Regardless of what happens, we will continue to trust in God. We will reflect the spirit of Jesus, who asked that he might be spared the agony of the cross but then added, “Nevertheless not as I will but your will be done.” That is faith in God, which is far different from faith in our faith.
According to the “faith in faith” crowd, you must have a faith that never doubts, then let me tell you frankly. I have no such faith. You ask me if I doubt the power of my faith, and my answer is always yes. Still, if you ask me about the object of my faith, God the Father almighty, I do not doubt that when I pray to Him in Jesus' name, he will always answer according to his infinite wisdom and unfailing love. I have no doubts whatsoever. Yes, I tell him what I want, but then I ask him not to do what I wish unless I want what he wants. I am a man, and he is God. My understanding of reality is like a drop of water compared to the ocean of God’s understanding. I may want something that will work against the will of God, and so I say in the words of Jesus, “Nevertheless not what I want, but your will be done.” Then my disease, my problem, is in his hands. I can go in peace because God is trustworthy.
God promised Israel that they would possess the promised land forever. For almost 2000 years, from AD 70 to 1948, Israel was out of the land God had promised. Did God’s promise to Israel fail? Not in the least. He gave them something better than the promised land. He gave them Jesus, the promised Messiah. He gave them eternal life through faith in Jesus. He gave them something better than land. He gave them Jesus. For no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 1:20).
Yes, God always keeps His promises, but how? Anything he has ever promised to the world is fulfilled and transcended by the gift of his only begotten Son. Since Jesus Christ brings us eternal life and blessedness, we have everything if we have Him. If God does not always honor our temporal request for health and wealth, we cannot accuse him of failing to keep his promises. To do so is to fail to appreciate the value of Jesus. God encourages us to ask what we will and to approach his throne boldly in the name of Jesus. If I am sick and pray for health but do not receive health, I still have Christ, and He is much more valuable than health. If I pray for my financial needs and do not receive an answer, I still have Christ, who is more valuable than all the world’s wealth. Since God has already given us his best, we can be confident that he will freely give us whatever we need and withhold from us those things not in harmony with his grand overall purposes. If I have faith in God and receive His Son, I have everything I need and can proclaim with conviction that God always keeps His promises. I will affirm with Paul that no matter how many promises God has made, they are yes in Christ.
Christmas, what does it mean? Christmas means God has fulfilled all His promises to the world by the gift of Jesus. Those who trust Him will have an eternity of good health, an eternity of joy. God has fulfilled all His promises in the birth, life, death, and resurrection of His Son. Trust Him, and you will never feel shortchanged by God!
