Lord, again we come seeking you.
You're the one who has words of eternal
life.
We have no place else to go.
Lord, we don't want to go any place
else.
We've gone too many places already.
We ask you now to speak to us
your words of life.
Give us direction, understanding, insight.
Work that new heart in us, Lord, we
pray.
We open ourselves up to what you want
to say and want to do deep within
us now.
Lay before us again your great promises, Lord,
we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
We're going to look some more at this
great matter of serving a God who is
a God of promises, just basic to his
very character and heart, the way he works,
the way he builds his kingdom, the way
he touches lives.
He is a God of promises.
He makes his promises.
He keeps his promises.
It's fundamental to his ways and to how
he wants us to learn to walk with
him.
We considered such realities in the Old Testament
primarily.
Now we'll do the same for a while
in the New Testament.
Promises of God, 1 John 2.25. And
this is the promise that he has promised
us eternal life.
This is the fundamental, the central promise that
God has made to all who believe in
him.
It's the promise of eternal life.
And though it does include existing forever with
God, the key issue in that is with
God.
This is not just a promise of unending
existence.
Listen, everyone God has ever created will exist
eternally.
And for some, that's the agony of it
all.
It's called everlasting death, everlasting judgment, separated from
God forever.
Eternal life, the glory of it is not
just its unending aspect.
It's not just the quantity that is the
glory of it.
The glory of it is the quality of
it.
It's eternal life.
It's everlasting dwelling with God himself.
This is the fundamental promise that now and
forever we get to know the God of
life.
The God who is life, who gives life.
The God who makes our life on earth
really living, not just existing in self and
sin and darkness and alienation.
And this is the promise that he has
promised us, eternal life.
We who once were dead to God are
now alive in Christ.
What a great promise for all who believe.
It is so beautifully put in such a
familiar verse, maybe one of the most familiar
in all the scriptures.
One even our little seven-year-old granddaughter
can recite.
That's pretty fundamental and basic, isn't it?
Kids can get it and get excited about
it and keep it and share it.
John 3.16, For God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in him should not perish,
should not eternally be separated from God in
death and alienation, but have everlasting life.
And Jesus, if you want to add to
your notes, another verse, John 17.3, told
us exactly what eternal life is all about.
What is it anyway, eternal life?
Some might say, well, it's missing hell and
getting heaven.
Well, it includes that, praise God.
Some would say, well, it's once being guilty,
now being forgiven.
Yeah, praise God it includes that.
But none of that gets right to the
heart of it.
You can't say this is eternal life.
Yes, those things are included in eternal life.
But what is it?
John 17.3, And this is eternal life.
Here's what it's all about.
That they may know you, the only true
God in Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
Eternal life is all about knowing God.
And we are promised eternal life.
For all who believe, this is his promise.
Eternal life.
What is that?
Getting to know God who is life.
Getting acquainted with him.
Knowing God.
That's what eternal life is all about.
And it's promised to us.
Once believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, God
will fulfill that promise of letting us get
to know him.
How long is that going to take?
To properly get acquainted with God?
You know, some people it doesn't take too
long to get acquainted.
Sufficiently.
How about with God?
How long is it going to take?
Forever.
The only appropriate framework in which to get
acquainted with God is forever.
But the glory of it is, we're to
be starting that process right now.
It doesn't have to wait until then.
It's for now.
You have the Son, you have eternal life.
What is eternal life?
Knowing the Lord.
Now is the time to walk in the
fulfillment of that promise.
That's the basic, fundamental, central promise of God
to those who believe.
Eternal life.
Matthew 16,18 For those who believe and
receive that life, here's another promise.
Here's part of knowing God and what he
wants to do with those who are getting
to know him.
A promise to build his church.
And I also say to you that you
are Peter, name meaning a little piece of
a major rock or bedrock, and on this
rock, another word, bedrock, mother load rock, I
will build my church.
And the gates of Hades shall not prevail
against it.
What a wonderful set of promises.
On this rock I will build my church.
The rock of the confession that you are
the Christ, the Son of the living God,
makes all of us little chips off that
rock.
And through our confession that Christ is the
Son of the living God, God in the
flesh, the Lord Jesus promises, I will build
my church.
What a great promise.
That promise stirred my heart earlier this year,
in fact.
We did another six-part study.
The church, how Jesus builds it.
Early on as a pastor, started pastoring in
Dallas, Texas, after I was three years old
in the Lord, really in many ways, certainly
from man's perspective, too early to pastor, certainly
probably from the congregation I pastored, their perspective.
He's what?
Three years old.
And I've often behaved that way.
But oh, how I loved the Lord.
I was so delighted that He would forgive
me.
Not only forgive me, He'd use a guy
like me?
Oh, Lord.
What can I do for you, Lord?
Oh, I preach.
Oh, I tell you what I'll do, Lord.
I'll build you a church.
Oh, Lord, you're going to be blessed.
I will build you a church, was my
promise.
I'm sure heaven was filled with anticipation.
This might be the best church ever built.
Look at that devotion.
Look at that fervor.
Nobody laid out the promise in a stronger
fashion.
I will build you a church.
Well, I went hard at it.
The amazing thing is it took me two
years to get worn out.
There is an unusual tenacity to the flesh,
you know.
After two years, discouraged.
One of the early times.
The last time was earlier this week.
After two years, so discouraged.
Oh, Lord.
I quit.
I think that's when heaven got expected.
Okay.
Now we'll see something happen.
Oh, it's about then I began to get
interested in God's promise to me.
I will build my church.
That's heaven's church growth program.
That's what we need to sweep America.
Not the American church growth program.
Packaged, polished, shiny, 12 colors of ink.
Seminars that dazzle.
This is what we need to sweep the
church.
Caught up in the promise of the Lord.
I will build my church.
Not might.
Not will try.
Not may get around to it.
I will build my church.
And I will build my church.
Jesus is the builder of the church.
Boy, that changes everything.
You can go through ten tons of discouragement
and then fall back on that promise.
And everything is made new.
My goodness, my goodness.
Why am I so downcast?
Oh, my soul.
Put your hope in the Lord.
I will build my church.
That's the promise of Jesus to those who
have eternal life.
Then Acts chapter 1.
Acts 1.
Another promise.
The promise of empowering by the Spirit of
God.
Acts 1 verses 4 and 5.
And being assembled together with them, he commanded
them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to
wait for the promise of the Father.
Which, he said, you have heard from me.
For John truly baptized with water, but you
shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit, not
many days from now.
Then verse 8.
But you shall receive power.
When the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
And you shall be witnesses to me in
Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and
to the end of the earth.
What tremendous promises.
Our Lord who promises to build his church,
he is committed to using us.
Let's realize, though, we're saws and hammers and
such things.
We're not the carpenter.
We're not the builder.
It's a fantastic thing to be an instrument
in the hands of the church builder, Jesus
Christ.
What a blessing.
But let's not forget, we're the tools.
He's the builder.
When I went out of seminary, they told
me, now you got all the tools, go
do it.
It took me a few years to realize
I didn't have the tools, I was a
tool.
I kind of got fooled there for a
while.
What a difference.
I've got the tools.
House of cards, it must fall down.
But oh, to be a tool in the
hand of the builder.
And to realize that the empowering of that
instrument comes from the Spirit of God himself.
Promised, the promise of the Father to those
who believe, they'll not only have a quality
of life rich and abundant in getting to
know God, there'll be power there.
Not human power, not will power, not name
it, claim it power.
Holy Spirit power.
Actual, real, heaven-sent power.
Not hype power.
Not numbers power even.
Holy Spirit power.
It'll work with one like it'll work with
a million.
Promise of the Father.
You shall be baptized with the Spirit soon.
Then you'll receive power.
Then you shall be my witnesses.
These are all promises of the Lord based
on what He would do.
And He does it by His Spirit.
Burnout in Christian life and ministry.
Midlife crisis.
Let me ask you.
When is the middle of eternal life?
When does it hit?
How can you measure halfway if you can't
measure the whole thing?
It's the flesh that suffers all those things.
It runs out of power.
It runs out of strength.
It runs out of vision.
It runs out of hope.
It runs out of encouragement.
We who have the promise of eternal life,
we who are involved in the building of
the church, we have this promise.
You shall receive power.
That power comes from the Holy Spirit.
Power of God.
Power that can never be diminished no matter
how much of it is spent.
That's the power we need.
It's the promise we have.
Another promise, Hebrews 10.
Hebrews 10.
The promise of this new covenant, which will
operate in the church.
One might say, now wait a second.
I thought we read about the prophets promising
that to Israel.
Yeah, we did.
Over half the book of Hebrews.
Talks about, quotes, teaches, elaborates on that very
covenant to New Testament Christians.
You say, yeah, but they're Hebrew Christians.
Yeah.
That was part of their struggle.
Temptation to go back to the things of
the law.
But in Christ there is no east or
west.
There is no male, female.
There is no Jew, Gentile.
These are promises to the church.
And in Hebrews 10, these promises of the
new covenant are clearly applied to those of
us now who are in Christ, walking in
his promises of old.
Hebrews 10, 16 and 17.
This is the covenant that I will make
with them after those days, says the Lord.
I will put my laws into their hearts
and in their minds I will write them.
Then he adds their sins and their lawless
deeds I will remember no more.
Quoting the promises of the prophets of old
to Israel.
Verse 19 and 20.
Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest
by the blood of Jesus, by a new
and living way, which he consecrated for us
through the veil that is his flesh.
These promises of old, forgiveness of sins and
God working internally, they would all come real
in lives, not by the blood of bulls
and goats, but by the blood of the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin
of the world.
This is the new and living way, not
the law of Moses, but the grace of
God in Jesus Christ.
The new and living way that gives us
boldness to enter the holiest.
Think of the wonder of this.
The promise that this new covenant is now
consecrated for us and provides a way into
the holiest.
In the old covenant, the people could gather
in the courtyard, in the altar in forgiveness
of sins, praise God.
Typified there, the sacrifice of the Lamb that
would come.
Some, the priests could go into the holy
place, closer to that very dwelling of God
on earth, the holy of holies.
And they could be busy about the service
of God.
Incense prayer and fellowship and feeding and the
bread.
And yet that veil.
Oh, the intimacy of God still beyond arm's
length.
Only one man once a year dared go
in there.
That was the old dead way, the letter
of the law.
It was a shadow of the things to
come, but it wasn't the reality.
Now look at us.
More access to God than the high priests
of Israel.
They went in timidly with a rope around
their ankle.
If they were smitten dead, no one would
come and get them.
They'd have to drag them out.
We, guys like you and me, brothers, sisters
in the family of God, such as live
today, have boldness to enter the holiest by
the blood of Jesus.
It's the new and living way.
Tied into all these many quotes of the
Old Testament, the promise of what God would
do, and He's inaugurated it now for us
through the blood of Jesus Christ.
When He died for us, the veil was
torn, the way is open.
Not only do we have eternal life, not
only is there the promise that Jesus will
build the church, not only is there the
promise of empowering by the Spirit as He
uses us, but there's this wonderful promise of
the new covenant now applied to the church.
Sins forgiven, verse 19, there's sins and lawless
deeds.
I will remember no more.
But more than that even, not just forgiven,
there's more to it than that.
Inside, verse 16, an internal life-shaping work
of God.
I will put my laws, that is my
will, the declaration and revelation of my character,
into their hearts.
And in their minds, I will write them.
The old covenant of law, external standard to
live up to on your own best resources.
It kills because you always fall short.
What a promise this is for the church.
This new covenant now inaugurated for us, this
new and living way, this way of newness
that vibrates, pulsates with the life of God.
It's God working inside of us what formerly
was written outside of us.
What a promise this is.
Not there's the law, do your best.
But God by His Spirit taking the law
and writing it inside.
By His Spirit writing it upon our thinking,
upon our desiring, upon our evaluating and prioritizing,
upon our motivations.
What a great promise this is.
God forgiving us, then working on the inside
of us to bring a life more and
more like Christ out from us.
What a promise this is.
What a hope it gives.
Oh, how it deals with discouragement.
Oh, how it deals with helplessness and a
sense of lifelessness.
And then third, it brings intimate relationship with
God, verses 19 and 20.
Boldness to enter the holiest.
What a staggering thought.
That this throne of grace that Hebrews 4
talks about, at the center of the universe,
up over all of creation, a throne of
grace.
We can just boldly go there.
As it were, hop up on our Father's
lap and say, Abba, Father, I need to
obtain mercy and find grace to help in
time of need.
Oh, what father wouldn't respond to that?
Well, some might not on earth, but this
one in heaven always will.
What a promise.
Sins forgiven, internal life giving, life shaping work
of God, and intimate relationship with God now
and forever.
What promises we have.
So He gives us life and He'll build
this church.
He'll empower us by His Spirit.
He'll forgive us, change us within, walk intimately
with us, and when that has been worked
out to its completion in time and space,
He'll come back for us.
John 14.
Oh, the whole package is tied up in
the promises of God, from start to finish
in every step of every day along the
way.
John 14, 1 through 3.
Let not your heart be troubled.
It so often is, isn't it?
You believe in God, believe also in me,
Jesus said.
In my Father's house are many mansions, many
glorious dwelling places.
If it were not so, I would have
told you.
He only tells us the truth.
I go to prepare a place for you.
Oh, what will that be like?
And if I go and prepare a place
for you, and He has and He is,
I will come again.
Oh, for the most glorious words ever spoken.
Added to it, and receive you to myself.
Why, Lord?
It's exciting, but why would you do that?
That where I am, there you may be
also.
This promise includes, again, an astounding thought, that
God wants us hanging out with Him forever.
Are there people that you just love to
hang out with?
Some come to my mind right now.
But, you know, even then sometimes you just
feel like, you know, I think I need
a break now.
We just run out of kind of relational
energy sometimes.
Lord, I need to be alone.
Or, at least I've had enough of them.
God bless them, God bless them.
This is astounding.
God wants to hang out with us forever.
The other part of it is amazing.
We get to hang out with Him forever.
Why are you coming back for us, Lord?
We're so glad you are, but what's it
about?
That where I am, there you may be
also.
Throughout heaven forever the glory will be, not
the golden streets, not the light without a
light.
I mean, how is this?
In fact, He's there and we're there with
Him.
That's the wonder of it forever.
And He's promised that to us.
And He cannot lie.
What a great anticipation.
Acts 1, 9-11 Now when He had
spoken these words, while they watched, He was
taken up, and a cloud received Him out
of their sight.
And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven, as
He went up, behold, two men, two angelic
appearances in human form, stood by them in
white apparel, who also said, Men of Galilee,
why do you stand gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus, who was taken up from
you into heaven, will so come in like
manner as you saw Him go into heaven.
Someday He's going to come, riding out of
the heavens on a white horse.
And if we've gone on to be with
Him, we'll be riding back with Him.
If it's before that, we'll be caught up
to meet Him.
Be in the heavenly places, missing that tribulation,
praise God.
Then riding that white horse beside Him, He
who is faithful and true.
He's going to come back.
For us and then to this earth.
What a fantastic promise.
From start to finish, the promises of God.
2 Peter 3, 9.
It's been a while since the Lord promised
this, hasn't it?
Hey, the longer it goes, might not happen,
right?
That's the way people think with man.
Yeah, they said they were going to, but
you know, it's been a long time.
I think we can just about forget that.
And often that's the way it is with
man.
The longer it goes, between His promise and
fulfillment, you kind of go, well, it's less
and less likely that He'll ever do it.
2 Peter 3, 9.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise,
as some count slackness.
Here's what it's all about.
But is longsuffering toward us.
He's just patient.
He's just willing to put up with this
wicked world.
Why?
Not willing, not desiring that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance.
Sure, it's been a long time since He
said, I will come again.
That doesn't matter.
That doesn't mean, you know, there have been
a lot of promises that turned out just
to be folklore, dead religion.
Not this one.
It was made by one who cannot lie.
Praise God, He's going to come back.
We don't even know if we'll get through
the retreat.
Boy, what a bummer, huh?
Went to retreat and ended up on eternal
retreat.
We don't know if we'll finish anything before
He comes again.
Nothing preventing His coming except the timing that
He has ordained.
There's a promise.
He will return.
It includes a new heaven and new earth.
Verse 13.
Nevertheless, we according to His promise, because He
promised, we look for new heavens and a
new earth in which righteousness dwells.
Does that describe us?
Is our gaze in life tied into His
promise to come back and to take us
to a new heaven and new earth wherein
only righteousness dwells?
Well, didn't that make you yearn for that
day?
The unrighteousness in the world all around us,
even at times the unrighteousness in the church,
the unrighteousness in our own flesh.
How about a place in which just righteousness
dwells?
Does that sound good?
Has it been great to be singing songs
of praise and glory and victory and assurance
to the Lord and honor?
And yet we're doing that in a world
where unrighteousness is all around us and even
dogs at our own heels sometimes.
But we're headed for a place wherein only
righteousness dwells.
So according to His promise, we look for
that.
It's too easy to get caught up with
a gaze that cannot see beyond time and
space.
Time and space is so obvious.
It's so obtrusive.
It's so intrusive.
It just gets in your face all the
time.
Time.
Space.
Fallenness, brokenness, pressure, impossibility, discouragement, heartache,
decisions, crises, blessings, followed by crises.
God wants us living through this time according
to His promise.
How would we do it then?
Be looking for what He promised.
He's coming back and we're headed for there.
And now is all to be lived in
relationship to where we're headed and the promisor
who lives with us every step of the
way.
Promises of God.
We just serve a God who is a
God of promises.
As basic and fundamental as it is to
man to want to talk about himself, get
the attention on himself, and bless himself, so
much the more, it's just basic and fundamental
to God to make promises.
He's just a God of promises.
Left to ourselves, we would just, after the
flesh, naturally serve sin and self and get
caught up in the world.
Left supernaturally to Himself, God will just keep
making and keeping promises forever.
He's just a God of promises.
That's who He is.
Left to ourselves, we would just, after the
flesh, naturally serve sin and self and get
caught up in the world.
Left supernaturally to Himself, God will just keep
making and keeping promises forever.
He's just a God of promises.
That's who He is.
Just as last study, we let the scriptures
tie together God's ability with His promises for
a little while now, let's let the Lord
link His faithfulness to His promises.
That too is exceedingly faith building.
Hebrews 10.23 Let us hold fast the
confession of our hope without wavering.
On what basis?
Why?
What would enable us to do that?
What reasoning can bring that to pass?
For He who promised is faithful.
These promises of a way into the holiest,
a way to dwell intimately with God now
and before His very face, even looking upon
Him, the Lord of glory someday.
Promise, forgiveness, God inside working out this life
that we can walk in.
Him working it deeply within that we might
pour it out.
We can hold fast the confession of our
hope.
Hold tightly to confessions like my expectations are
in the Lord.
My confidence is in Him.
We don't have to waver in it.
Why?
Because the One who promised us is faithful.
He's reliable so we can rely upon Him.
He's dependable so we can depend upon Him.
He's absolutely trustworthy so we can put all
of our trust in Him.
He who promised is faithful.
It is so critical that the One making
the promises be faithful, be reliable, be dependable.
In our culture right now at this season,
we're getting a lot of promises culturally, right?
It's the age of promises.
Anybody planning their life on any of those
promises?
I'm not.
I don't care what flavor or what brand
you want to put it on.
I'm not.
Why?
Because man doesn't have the faithfulness, the reliability,
the trustworthiness to back up those promises.
Some may be good intentions expressed.
Okay, fine.
But we're in another realm now.
We're talking about God.
When God promises, we can say this, He
who promised is faithful.
You say, wow, what should I do with
that then?
Put your faith in what He says.
Count on it.
Set your path by it.
Put all your anticipations in just what He
has promised.
Expectation.
Confidence.
Because He who promised is faithful.
Our hope in Him need never waver because
He's everlastingly reliable.
1 Corinthians 10, 13.
Another wonderful, well-known statement of His faithfulness.
1 Corinthians 10, 13.
No temptation, no testing, no impossibility has overtaken
you except such as is common to man.
Do you ever find yourself doubting that?
Hey, nobody went through this before.
Often we think that.
It's not true.
Of course, the enemy is right there to
affirm our doubts.
Just like God affirms our faith, the enemy
affirms our doubts.
We go, nobody ever went through this.
He goes, amen.
You're absolutely right.
Consequently, there's no way out.
Think where that leaves you.
Nobody ever blew it like you did.
No temptation has overtaken you except as is
common to man.
Whatever we've gone through, thousands have gone through
it before.
Not that every man's trials are exactly like
everyone else's, but they're all common.
They're ordinary.
But, it's one of the great words of
Scripture actually, but, so often it follows heartache,
heartbreak, or a statement that's hard to believe,
but God is faithful.
That's where we anchor everything.
God is faithful.
It's not that He tries to be.
It's not that He hopes to be.
It's just His character.
He is faithful.
It's His very being.
Our faithful God will not allow you to
be tempted, to be tested beyond what you
are able.
That's a staggering promise, isn't it?
I don't know any Christian that's walked with
God very long that hasn't staggered at that
promise.
That God will not allow us to be
tempted or tested or put in the fire,
put in the battle, beyond what we're able
to face.
In fact, I really think God delights in
almost bringing us to the edge of doubt
on this promise.
It's almost like that's where it really works.
Right where you go, Lord, I don't want
to doubt Your Word, but I'm not able
to handle this.
Help!
It's like heaven goes bingo.
That's how you're able.
I see in your heart that willingness to
cry out to me.
You're able to handle this.
You're not yet able because it's not impossible
enough yet.
I'll just turn the heat up a little
and it'll be very clear to you, you're
able, as you just throw yourself upon my
faithfulness.
More of the promise, but with the temptation,
with the testing, with the impossibility, will also
make the way of escape.
Oh, yes, Lord.
One of our favorite words is escape.
Praise You, Lord.
Well, it's part of the promise.
He will make the way of escape.
If you liken trials and testings and temptations
to plunging through the long sewer pipe of
life, what's your favorite escape?
My favorite one is this.
When I cry out, the manhole is directly
over my head.
God pops it and I'm up.
I'm out of here, praise God.
God does that sometimes.
Have you ever had Him do that?
You're in something that looks like it's interminable
and you just cry out and boom, you
look around and Lord, you delivered me.
I was anticipating 18 years of this maybe.
What a great escape.
But this verse infers that so often the
way out is where?
Well, like through a pipe, through the end
down there.
See it in the end of the verse?
That you may be able to bear it.
So often the way of escape is not
pop up and out, but through.
So often that's the way it is.
And all along the way, every step of
the way, He's fulfilling His promise, working on
us, in us, sustaining us.
It's all tied into this.
God is faithful.
There may be a bunch of us right
now in things that look like we are
not able to handle them.
But God won't test us beyond what we're
able to handle in the heavenly sense.
Oh, He'll always put on us things our
human natural resource can't handle.
Because every day it's no to self and
death to self that we might follow Jesus.
And the Lord wants to crucify the flesh
and self just daily.
But He knows our willingness.
He knows when we'll cry out to Him.
And that's when we plug into His faithful
ability.
He's going to make the way of escape
for us, even if it means enduring right
through to the end.
You know, that little tiny light at the
end of the tunnel.
He'll get us there.
He's faithful.
2 Thessalonians 3.
3.
The faithfulness of God linked into His promises.
2 Thessalonians 3.
3.
But the Lord is faithful.
Who will establish you and guard you from
the evil one.
These are two great things we need in
our lives.
Being established and being guarded.
What Christian doesn't need to be more stabilized?
Really grounded.
We all need that more.
Well, the Lord is faithful who will establish
you.
The world says, you know, take charge of
your life.
Get a life, you know.
Make a life.
Doesn't work.
Here's what works.
The Lord of life in His faithfulness will
establish us.
If we let Him, if we look to
Him, if we count on Him.
If we hinge the entire stability of our
Christian life on His faithful promise.
The Lord is faithful who will establish you.
He'll do it.
Because He's faithful.
We also need to be guarded.
In our kind of individualistic, pioneer, you can
do it.
Take over.
Take charge.
American folkloric Christianity.
We've kind of boiled spiritual warfare down to
me butting heads with the devil.
And man, he's going to be crying when
I'm done with him, you know.
Boom.
What a trap.
What a farce.
What a phony promise of the flesh.
Here's how to be guarded from the evil
one.
The Lord is faithful who will guard you
from the evil one.
Don't be offended but I'd rather have the
Lord guarding me than you.
Can't you see it for yourself?
Would you rather guard yourself from the enemy?
Or just take this promise based on the
faithfulness of God.
Oh, we are so protected when we stand
in the faithfulness of God.
It's when we get out there, we're going
to handle, you know.
We're out there.
We're captain rebuke, you know, and the devil
better hide, you know.
I just wonder if he starts salivating when
he sees us coming, you know.
Oh, yeah.
I'm just shivering in fear.
Come a little closer.
Here's the victory.
Here's the protection.
The Lord is faithful who will establish you
and guard you from the evil one.
In American Christianity it says, what are you,
a wimp?
Defend yourself.
No thanks.
You can call it wimp if you want.
That's fine.
God calls it humility, reality, wisdom, things like
that.
What a hope of victory based on this
promise.
He will guard you from the evil one.
And the one who says it is faithful,
absolutely dependable.
One more, linking of his faithfulness with his
promises.
1 Thessalonians 5, 23 and 24.
Now may the God of peace himself sanctify
you completely.
May your whole spirit, soul, and body be
preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
He who calls you to himself and to
this direction is faithful who also will do
it.
Boy, what a linking together of the promises
of God with his faithfulness.
Right down to the most practical, personal, daily
issue of the Christian life which is sanctification.
Being sanctified.
Being set apart more and more day by
day, step by step, issue by issue.
From world and self and sin to God.
His glory, His purposes, His use.
Being made less and less like me in
my natural Adamic life and being made more
and more like Christ in His life.
Sanctification.
Every day that's what God wants to be
doing in our lives.
We need to be, He desires that we
be tomorrow less of self, more of Christ.
More like Jesus, less like Adam.
More that new creature in Christ, less that
old man in Adam.
How's that going to take place?
This is the kind of thing we ought
to pray about.
Not try to make happen, pray about and
expect to be happening.
What a great prayer to pray for one
another.
For our own lives, for our households, for
our churches.
Oh may the God of peace Himself.
I love it when God emphasizes who He
is in His work with that kind of
pronoun, Himself.
Now may God, not even indirectly, may the
God of peace Himself sanctify you.
Make you more like Christ.
Set aside your life more for His use
and glory.
To what extent?
Completely.
Affecting us in what arenas?
Spirit, soul and body.
Even our body used more for His glory
and less for self.
And that walk be preserved, blameless as the
Lord returns.
Wow!
This is kind of exceedingly abundantly beyond what
I could ask or think.
What's our hope in this?
He who calls you is faithful.
The one who calls us to this path,
He's faithful.
Well what does His faithfulness mean here?
He's reliable to carry out this statement.
Who also will do it.
We can't affect these changes upon ourselves.
We can't promise God, ourselves or our friends
or our family, I'll be better tomorrow.
Honey, I'm sorry, I'll be different tomorrow.
God, I'm through with that, I'll be so
much better tomorrow.
Promise coming from the wrong source to the
wrong direction.
Look what God promises to do in our
lives.
Sanctify us in a thorough way.
Even up to the coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
In conclusion, how do you respond to promises
like this?
What are promises for?
To try and see if we can do
better?
Does God promise us so we'll be launching
off on our greatest self effort ever?
Why does He promise us these things?
So we will believe Him.
Depend upon Him.
Rely upon Him.
Count on Him.
Remember Romans 1.17 The just shall live
by trying.
The just shall live by promising.
What?
We're on different pages here.
The just shall live by an entirely new
effort.
Well you said it, the just shall live
by faith.
You know, believing, depending, relying upon.
Who?
God.
In what arenas?
Everything that He's promised to do.
We serve a God of promises.
It doesn't matter if you look in the
Old Testament or the New.
Sure the Old is just a shadowy form
coming forth.
The New crystal clear and sharp.
But no matter where you go, Genesis we'll
see later right to Revelation.
We serve, we know, we walk with a
God of promises.
And praise God, He is faithful.
Let's pray together.
Oh Lord, we praise You for Your great
promises.
We magnify You.
Lord, even as we hear them, they just
stir faith in us.
Lord, You present Yourself faithful and it's just
so clear to us.
We want to put our faith in You.
Lord, You know arenas we're struggling with right
now.
Areas of impossibility or failure or stumbling or
difficulty.
Or maybe a glorious vision that staggers the
possibilities that we can even consider.
May we look again at Your promises.
They cover it all.
May we consider once more Your character, Your
faithful.
And as we see how trustworthy You are.
May we take these areas Lord and just
trust You in them.
Oh Lord, the areas we're striving in.
Trying to make it happen on our own.
Making the arm of flesh our strength.
Oh Lord, You've told us there's a curse
there.
But blessed is the one who trusts in
the Lord.
The one who has the Lord as his
hope.
Lord, You're trustworthy.
May we take these areas and just trust
You.
Just depend on You.
You are faithful.
We rest in that.
We rejoice in that.
We believe we can grow and abound in
that.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.