The Faithfulness of God

Happy Sabbath! Appreciate the music. I really always liked that song. I find it encouraging. We're going to be doing four of the public appearance campaigns here in Southern California. Someone mentioned to me, they said, in Southern California, this isn't a place where we seem to reach very many people.

But you know, we've been doing these public appearance campaigns for a couple of years now. And we've gone into cities where 100 people showed up. Nobody came to church. We've gone to places where we faced all kinds of difficulties in Houston. We had a hurricane going on. And the roads were flooded. Everything was shut down.

In fact, where we were meeting was just across the street from one of the largest of the big mega churches in the United States. And they were shut down. So I always tell people, we had more people than Joel Olsteen that day. We had 18 people. We had numerous people from the church showed up. We had 18 people show up.

One man was so excited that a few weeks later he drove all the way up to the home office just to see what we were all about.

We've had places where people come and they go to church. We've had places where people come and they're excited.

It's...we plant seeds. We've never converted anybody. God converts people. We plant seeds. That's what you do in your life. You plant seeds. Never, ever underestimate what God would do when he plants a seed. It may not even be something that you see grow.

And we've had some very interesting experiences. One place we were at there was a riot. We didn't think we were going to be able to get into the venue. We thought that would keep people from coming and we still had a good turnout.

We had another venue where across the hallway from us was a...they had a much larger crowd than we did. It was a channeling convention where they channeled spirits. Needless to say, we didn't interact any with each other. There was a wall between that group and us.

We've gone places where people...one place we went to, there was a large group of...I really liked it. It was a large group of African-American people that were there and they gave me a lot of amens and I liked it. I get them. I played up to that because I don't get to do that very often. But they afterwards said something very interesting. They came up and they said, We are a Sabbath-keeping church and we just came here to support you because you're our heroes. And we said, well, why? They said, because we watch you on...our own congregation watches you on television and you tell the truth. So we just came to tell you that. You know, you said, well, okay, God's working there. They don't have to be part of us to be where God's working and they came to support.

So don't ever underestimate what God may or may not do. They haven't stoned us yet. They haven't driven us out of town yet. We're a whole lot better off than Paul was.

Of course, I always think of Jeremiah in Lamentations. He's thrown into a pit for telling people to repent. And basically, if you read it, what he says to God is, that's it. I'm tired of this. People make fun of me. They put me down. Now they put me in a sewer to die. I'm not mentioning your name again. You told me to preach repentance and not one person repented. And God's answer is, I didn't tell you they'd repent. I told you to go tell them.

You know, I live in a country where national repentance is not going to happen. I think we understand that. But there's going to be individuals that God works with now and in the future. And we plant seeds. That's what we do. So don't underestimate that. What you do as a congregation here, you plant seeds. And God does what God's going to do. I've really started to figure this out a little bit. I'm not God.

And He's never going to ask my opinion.

I keep waiting, and He's not going to. We do what He says to do, and He does with it what He wants to do. And we pray, and we're thanking for the opportunity to do it. So I don't care if nobody shows up, but the people in the United Church of God, we will do it for them. We will preach that word for them. So pray about it. We're excited about it. We're excited every time we go someplace and we just say, God, whatever you want us to do, you do it. Don't worry about the rest of it. He'll do what He's going to do.

I want to pick up almost where Mr. Bizek left off. We didn't talk to each other about what we were going to speak on.

But he talked about the faith chapter.

How many times have you heard a sermon where the speaker goes to the book of Revelation and shows where those who were there when Christ returns are people who were called, chosen, and faithful?

And in those sermons, I've given sermons where I go to that verse. We talk about what it is to be called. And then you're chosen by God. When you're chosen by God, you're baptized, you receive His Spirit. And then we must remain faithful.

And then we usually then the whole sermon goes into how you and I can be faithful. And we should give sermons like that. We are told that we must be faithful. And then we struggle, we fall down, and we have times when it seems like we don't even have faith. Or we struggle with sin or discouragement or just getting tired.

How am I supposed to remain faithful?

I'm going to talk about being faithful today. But I'm not going to talk about your faithfulness and my faithfulness to God.

I'm going to talk about what helps us be faithful.

Have you ever thought about God's faithfulness to you?

God's faithfulness to you.

God makes all kinds of promises in the Bible. If He ever breaks one promise, one, we're in trouble because He's not who He says He is.

But there's all kinds of promises in the Bible that He makes. When we talk about Abraham, we talk about the Father of the faithful, as it was mentioned. The Father of the faithful. And His faithfulness to God is absolutely amazing.

And yet, the Bible shows times when He struggled with His faith.

But what about God's faithfulness to Abraham?

What about God's faithfulness to Abraham?

Let's look at Deuteronomy 7 for a moment here. This is many years after Abraham's death.

It's something God says to the children of Israel, the physical descendants of Abraham.

He says in verse 6 of Deuteronomy 7, God tells them, The King of Egypt.

God says, I brought you out of Egypt, He tells these people, not because you were so special. I looked upon this group of slaves and said, Oh, they're special. They're smarter. They're more spiritual. No, He says, I brought you up out of Egypt because I am faithful to a covenant I made with your fathers, Abraham being the first of those fathers.

The entire Bible, even the New Testament, has to do with the covenant that God made with Abraham and God's faithfulness to that covenant.

God told Abraham He would make a great nation of His people, those people that would be descendants from Him.

And so we read through all the Old Testament where they fail time and time and time again.

And yet, He remains faithful.

God does what He says He's going to do.

Finally, when Israel, the Ten Tribes, becomes so rebellious, He removes them.

Yet, He's faithful. He's faithful.

When Judah becomes rebellious, He removes them, and then He brings them back.

All through these hundreds and hundreds of years, it is about God keeping faithful to a covenant He made with a group of people who, at best, maybe keep it for a generation or two and then they break it. Then they keep it for a while and then they break it. Israel was never, in the long run, faithful to the covenant.

But God said He would do what He was going to do.

And He brought the Jews back, and they were there at a very specific time and a very specific family so that God could fulfill a second part of the covenant that He had made with Abraham. The first part is, you will be a great nation. And the second part is, in you all nations shall be blessed.

It's interesting what Mary, the mother of Jesus, said when she found out that she was going to be the mother of the Messiah, the one promised by God to come to this earth.

Let's go to Luke, chapter 1.

Luke, chapter 1. Wow, God's so faithful. And this big, throughout history, He's so faithful to this covenant He made with Abraham.

Luke, chapter 1.

Let's go ahead and start in verse 46 so we get the whole context of what Mary says. Mary says, verse 46, and Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit is rejoiced in God my Savior, for He has regarded the lowly servant of His maidservant.

For behold, henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and His name is holy. And His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arms, and He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly, and He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy. He has brought Israel into remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to His seed forever. She's told that she's going to be the mother of the Messiah. That's got to be one of the greatest shocking moments in history. I've tried to think, what it would be to be a young woman in that context, probably a teenager. And find out you're pregnant, not because you've been with a man, but because God has made you pregnant to bring forth the Messiah. I guarantee you, the day she was told that, she didn't sleep that night.

And her answer is, when she thinks through this and gets through the shock is, this is what God told Abraham. Two thousand years later, the descendants of Abraham are saying, God still keeps His promises. He's still faithful. What's very interesting, and of course that's a whole other subject, is to go through the teachings of Paul, where he tells the church. He says to the church, all the people that God was calling into the church, and many of them at that time were not Israelites. He was calling all kinds of people from all different kinds of backgrounds into the church, and he says, look, the reason you're being called into the church is because of the promises God made to Abraham. And one of those promises is that through His descendant, all nations would be blessed. In Galatians and Romans, He actually uses that promise to tell Gentiles, welcome to the church. Welcome to what God is doing here. This is part of that promise. You and I are here today, no matter what our background is, it doesn't make any difference. We're here today because of a promise God made to Abraham that He was going to bring the Messiah through Him. And of course, on His physical side, Jesus was from the seed of Abraham. We're here because the Messiah came. Jesus gave up His position, came here to become like human beings, because it was promised way back then. You talk about some incredible faithfulness of God. Think about all the human error and failure that's taken place since God told Abraham, yes, I'm going to make you a great nation, and yes, I am going to bless all people through your seed. And Paul says, that's Christ. He came for all nations. So we look at that and say, what an incredible example of God's faithfulness. I mean, we could spend the whole rest of the sermon talking about that. But in the end, we say, yeah, well, God is faithful on this sort of macro way of getting people through salvation, of carrying out His plan, but in my life, in my little life in Southern California, how could God be that concerned? How is God going to be faithful to me? What has He promised to me? There are actually dozens of promises that God has made to you personally. Dozens! That He's going to be faithful to. Now, there is something about God's promises we have to understand. You can reject the promise and then not receive it. But once God has made the promise to you, unless you reject it, He will fulfill it. Now, He gives us free will. He doesn't possess us. We can receive God's promises and reject them, and He says, okay, well, you can't get the promise if you reject it. But the promise is you hold on to God's faithfulness, and He will do what He says. In fact, I've come to the conclusion, if we don't hold on to God's faithfulness, I don't know how we ever remain faithful. We have to hold on that He says this, so you hold on to Him. Otherwise, we're just trapped in our own human weakness. So our faithfulness to God is greatly based on how much we believe and live by and hold on to His faithfulness to us. I'm going to give you five promises God makes to you. I could say, well, God makes to us. He makes to all of us. But He makes them to you. This has to be very personal. God promises you certain things. It all comes down to whether you reject the promise or whether we say, no, I'll hold on to that. I hold on to that no matter what. Because there are times in life all you have is God's promise. That's it. If you've lived long enough, you know what I mean. There are times in life, well, that's all you have.

You're holding on to something and it has to be God. And it has to be the promises He makes. First promise He's made to you. Philippians 1, verse 6.

I read the Scripture sometimes when I do a funeral with someone who has died from Alzheimer's. I gave this in the last six months. I've used this twice. One at my mother's funeral and one at my mother's funeral. Both one had dementia and one had Alzheimer's. And the question was, people would ask, how could God let somebody have Alzheimer's? I mean, they can't relate to Him anymore. They can't pray anymore. Did God give up on them? What happens to a person like that? Well, there's a promise. We're going to break in the middle of a sentence, but this one verse is an entire thought. Verse 6.

God has made a promise to you, and that is, hold on to this promise. And God says, I'll complete what I started. I will complete what I started in you. Now, you have to say, well, that's not right. He means Abraham or all these stars, right? All these all-stars. Nah, He means us. The people aren't the all-stars. We didn't even make the bench. Okay? It's us. And He says, I promise, and you can be confident. Hold on to this promise, and I will complete the work I started in you. That's why when a Christian dies of Alzheimer's, there's a reason. There's something that happens in their life that God says, you're done. In fact, no Christian dies until they're done. God never says, oh, if I were to let them live one more week, they would have made it. There's no accidents in our lives in terms of our deaths. I mean, there may be an accident that takes our life, but God said, I could stop that, but they're done. Right? He never lets something happen to us where we die unless He's finished. God makes you a promise that says, I will complete the work I started in you. Next time you're confronted with your own corrupt human nature, next time you're confronted with sin in your own life, as you prepare for the death of your own life, you're not going to die until you're done. You're not going to die until you're done. And you say, I'm not there yet. Well, there's a good side to that. You're not going to die tomorrow. But you go to God and say, Father, you made me a promise. I hold on to that promise. You will complete the work you started in me. But He's going to do it unless we give up the promise. That's when we give up the promise we have a problem. Because God always keeps His promises. And He says He'll complete the work He started in us. You know, you can't go demand anything from God. God heal me. God fix me. God take away my alcohol problem. You can't go demand anything from God. But you can go say, humbly, God you promised. He expects you to. He expects you to bring and say, I'm holding on to this promise. God says, good. Then you're going to know who does it. None of us obtain eternal life because we do it. It's because we allow God to do it. We hold on to the promise. If you don't believe that, try to resurrect yourself. I mean, that sort of brings it down to zero, doesn't it? Ground zero is, resurrect yourself. Can't do that. Only God does it. 1 Corinthians 1. 1 Corinthians 1.

Paul here is trying to encourage the Corinthians. He's going to spend the rest of the chapter chewing them out. But at first, he starts to correct or he says something nice to them before he starts to correct them. Verse 4, he says, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus.

Grace means God's favor. Grace is what you and I can't do for ourselves. We can't do it for ourselves. You can't save yourself. In fact, if you really want to know the breath of God's grace, he's talking here about specifically through Jesus Christ, but try to keep your heart beating if God decides it's not going to beat anymore. You can't. So, he says to them, God has given you something. And he says, I thank God for it because you and I can't do it ourselves.

God either opens our mind or he doesn't. God either gives us his Holy Spirit or he doesn't. How do you make him do anything? He's God. And we're sort of wretched little human beings. So it's only because of his love and his favor and his mercy. He does these things and then we're saying, we're supposed to grab hold and be faithful. And we're faithful because we have to believe in his faithfulness.

Because he's going to do what he promises. He says that you were enriched in everything by him at all utterance and all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. So that you come short of no gift eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you. Look at the power. He's going to do this.

He's going to confirm it. He's going to make sure this happens. Who will confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9. God is faithful. This is his whole point. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The whole point that Paul's making here is, you were given something you could not do on your own.

And this is more than knowledge. Conversion involves knowledge, but it's more than knowledge. It's the change of your heart and mind. And that, yes, we participate in. We can't ever get away from the fact that we have to participate, but it is God who does it. It is God who does it. And we grab hold of the promise. I've come to the conclusion, as I already mentioned, that our faithfulness in God is basically built upon... our faithfulness towards God is basically built upon our belief in his faithfulness to us.

That he's going to do what he says. In spite of our weaknesses and our failures and everything else, he is going to change us. He's going to finish that work he started in, and he's going to convert us. If we let go of that promise, I don't want to be converted, and you go back out in the world, that's a dangerous place to be.

Hold on to the promise, and he says he'll do it. We have to believe it. Second promise, 1 Corinthians chapter 10. Let's stay here in the book of Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. Now, I have talked to many, many people over the years who bring this and say, I don't understand. You know, God promises this, but that's not what happens in my life. He says, no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man, but God is faithful.

So this is a promise. God's going to do this. Who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. God says, okay, when you're battling sin, I will give you a way out. Now, he didn't say I will give you the power to stand there and do no matter what. I will give you the power to go into a bar, not drink too much and not go home with the wrong person.

He says, I'll give you a way to escape. What that means is he's going to give you an opportunity not to go into the bar. And it's in those moments that we decide whether he's faithful or not. Much of the time, we run right into temptation and we never see the way out or we play games with it. Oh, I'm strong enough. I can do this. It reminds me of the man who wanted to lose weight and every day when he drove to work, he went by this bakery and it was part of town where traffic always slowed down and the bakery door was open and you could smell.

And he always stopped and bought himself some pastries and some donuts. I mean, he just all the time. So he said, no, I've got to stop this. But every time he went by, he would stop. So what he did was he said, okay, God help me.

And a thought came into his mind, just don't go that way. So for months, he found alternate ways to work. Sometimes it was a little longer, a little more difficult. There was a price to be paid, but he lost weight. His health got better. He stopped eating all this junk food for breakfast because that's all he'd have for breakfast. One day he came home after months of losing weight and not doing it and he came home and he was all depressed and he told his wife, I can't believe it.

I ate half a dozen donuts this morning. She said, what happened? He said, I went by the bakery. He said, well, why? You have ways around it. He said, well, I got distracted, wasn't paying attention, you know, it is the quickest way in and sure enough I said, oh no, I'm on the wrong road.

And I thought, well, that's okay. I've conquered this. And I got stuck in traffic. And the smell was coming out. So I prayed to God, you promise, you promise to give me a way out. So please let there be no parking places in front of the bakery. And he said, the eighth time around the block there was one open.

Is that sort of what we do? We play games with the way out. God opens the door and you drive past the door. We run right past it. We don't recognize it. The pull of the sin is so great that we see it, but we don't go. And then later we say, God, why did you let me do that? And God's answer is, I did what I said I would be faithful to do. I gave you a way out. You just never saw it. I can remember one time, years and years ago, it's at the Feast of the Tabernacles. I'm walking through the hotel lobby and a young man comes out. I don't remember his name. I don't remember anything about him. He comes walking out. He said, you're Mr. Petty? I said, yes. He said, could you take me to my motel? I said, yeah, what's the problem? He said, I'm an alcoholic. I'm sitting in there watching the World Series with a bunch of guys that aren't alcoholics. And he said, they're not misusing their you know, they're all in the church. They're all having a beer. It's fine. He says, I suddenly realized I can't do this because I wanted to, I was about to order a beer. And once I started, I'm not going to stop. So you're my way out. So I said, okay, let's go. I got him in the car and took him to his motel. I just happened to be walking around and yep, I think he was right. I was his way out. God gave him his way out. Now, what happened if he wouldn't have done that? I don't know. Probably wouldn't have been very good. God is faithful. When you have a sin, you're having a hard time overcoming. You have to ask God, I come before you, God, you make a promise. So not only make the way out, but make me see it. Give me motivation to do it. God says, how hard do you want to be pushed? Because he can push pretty hard. Because I'm not going to make you go, you know, you can keep driving around the block. I'll break your car down. How's that? And he will. So he's sort of asking for motivation, and yeah, he's going to motivate you. He's going to make, you know, okay, I won't stop you, but boy, I'll make it hard. That's okay. That's what we're supposed to ask for. Do your, please, give me your promise, because you are faithful. You will give me a way out. A third. And this is a whole subject in itself. You and I are going to suffer in this life, and we're going to be with other people who suffer. And God says that he will give meaning to our suffering. He doesn't say he won't let us have any suffering. Now see, I keep going to God and wanting him to say, can we have a change in that promise? Can we say no suffering? Or just a little bit of suffering? Something that lasts ten minutes. No long-term suffering. But that's not the promise. You hear people say, well, they're suffering a lot. They must have lots of sins. The Bible doesn't say those who are less spiritual won't have suffering. It doesn't say that. Sometimes we suffer because of sin, and sometimes we suffer because we live in this world. 1 Peter chapter 4. 1 Peter chapter 4.

And let's start reading in verse 12. Now, Peter is writing to the church at large. Usually Paul writes letters to very specific churches or very specific people. Thessalonians goes to the church at Thessalonica. Thessalonians goes to the church at Thessalonica. Corinthians goes to the church at Corinth. Timothy goes to a person named Timothy. Peter writes to the church at large, a larger group. And there was a certain amount of persecution coming on the church at the time. So he writes to them, he says, Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. That's a hard thing. If we are persecuted or receive problems in life because we follow God, he says, find some joy in that. Now, that doesn't mean to go out and try to seek it. Don't try to seek it. One of the early founders of the what is now known as Catholic Church, Origen, as a boy, he wanted to be martyred. So he'd go out and pick fights with the Romans. And his mother finally had to hide his clothes. So he wouldn't go out and... He's a little boy. I want to be martyred. Now, this isn't the attitude we're supposed to have.

But he says when it happens, know that God has a blessing. You will be glorified with Christ. We have to believe in that blessing. We have to believe in that promise. That promise is there waiting. Either God means it or he doesn't. He says in verse 15, But let none of you suffer... Now, here's sometimes we suffer for these things. And he says, well, if you suffer because these things, it's your fault. He suffers murderers. A murderer, a thief, an evil doer. Or is a busybody in other people's matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. Verse 19, therefore, let those who suffer according to the will of God... So this isn't something we've done to ourselves. Sometimes we have to look at our own suffering and say, this is my fault. I didn't... How many of you, I won't ask for a show of hands, are saying, I wish I'd have taken better care of myself when I was younger. I've reached that stage. But that's not God's fault. I can't blame that one on him. But when we suffer, we suffer because we're a Christian. Because you make a decision and you know what's right with God and you lose a friend. You make a decision that you know is what God wants and you lose a job. You make a decision because you know is what God wants. And something bad happens to you. And yet we have a problem with young people sometimes. We need to explain to them that physically, when you do what is right, you get a blessing. When you do what is wrong, you get a curse. But in today's world, in Satan's world, sometimes you do what is right and something bad happens to you. It's not always cut and dry, is it? Sometimes you do what is right and somebody does something bad to you and that's where they have to learn at an early age to believe, God promises to reward me. God promises to make this right in my life. So we can't always tell them. It's always cut and dry. Good equals good things, bad equals bad things. Because it's not true, is it? Not in this world. It is in God's world. And so we have to realize here, as it says in verse 19, therefore, that those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good even if you have to pay a price. As to what? What causes us to do what's good when it costs us maybe a house or prestige or our reputation or our closest friend. Because in doing good as to a faithful creator God's not done with any of us yet. And when we suffer for doing what's right we have to believe God is teaching me. God is helping me learn. God is making me His child. And God at times says, no, you're going to have to suffer to do what's good because you're going to have to learn this. And you're going to have to learn to do good no matter what. Even when it's hard. What's our greatest example of that? Jesus Christ. God says, okay, I'll show you how it's done. Let me explain to you how it's done. We can't ever say to God, you know what? This is really unfair. You make this so I have to suffer to learn what's good. And He says, yeah, but Jesus had to suffer to show you what's good. He never suffered because He had to learn good. He had to suffer to show us what's good. So we can't go to God and say this isn't fair. Because what He did was so over beyond anything He asked of us.

And so He promises to bring meaning to our suffering and we have to sometimes go and say, as a faithful creator I don't understand what you're doing, but I hold on to the promise. I hold on to the promise that you are working something out in my life. You are doing something with me and in me and for me that is ultimately for my benefit, that's ultimately for my good. Boy, that's hard. God, how can this be for my good? And God says it is. You know, try to get a seven-year-old to do their homework and like it. Now I have a couple grandkids that do, and I have a couple younger grandkids that aren't going to. I can tell that. And you know, well, you know, when they're visiting, Grandpa, do I have to do my homework? You bet you do. Oh, Mom's so mean. Dad's so mean. They're making me do all my homework. Well, don't come to me because you're going to do your homework. And it's why? They have no concept of what that means in ten years, twenty years, do they? When you and I are doing things that God says, yeah, you're going to do it. Why? I hate this. I'd rather go play. And God says, because you have no idea how this is going to really mean in your life a hundred years into the millennium when I'm going to have something that I want you to do. You have no idea what I want you to do. And so He promises as a faithful creator to bring meaning into our suffering, the context of your suffering that the church was going through. The fourth point, and this is so important because this is a promise, when you and I fail, when you and I fall down, when you and I sin, when you and I give up, when you and I struggle, He lets us come back into His presence.

Hebrews 10, back to the book of Hebrews again. Why does He let us come back into His presence? If we really start to grasp the very nature of who God is both the Father and Christ and who they are, it's a little overwhelming at their genius and their righteousness because it's beyond us and their character. Hebrews 10. Let's turn to verse 19. Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus. Now, the context here is talking about the ancient temple where they had to bring blood to go into the holy of holies. And of course, the high priests could go in only once a year.

Nobody in Israel could go into the holy of holies except the high priest once a year. And they had to bring blood as a substitute. God said, you either bring your blood or I'll take yours. So here's a sacrifice. You do the sacrifice, bring your blood because it takes life to come before me. The whole point was, you're a sinner and you have to have a substitute.

And of course, what Paul is explaining here in these couple chapters here in Hebrews is Jesus is the real substitute. His blood was our substitute. Without that, you and I don't get the privilege. You and I go before the throne of God because it's a privilege. It's not our right. We have no rights to go before God. God either gives us the privilege or He doesn't. And if He gives us the privilege, it's because He says, I accept Jesus as your substitute.

Christ is our intercessor. What's that mean? It means that every time before you go before the throne of God, Christ says, let my life, let my blood, let my torture, let my death be for this person. And God says, come here, child. You and I can't demand to go before the throne of God. It is not a right that's given to us. It is a privilege that's given to us. And it's a privilege that has to do with the substitute for what you and I deserve. He says, we have the boldness. We have the boldness. We now can go into the Holy of Holies.

Right before the very throne of God. To pray to Him any time all day, all night, doesn't matter. By a new and living way which He consecrated for us through the veil that is His flesh, talking about Christ, and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast. Let us grab hold of this promise because if Christ's death isn't applied to us, there is no way for us to go before the throne of God. Can you dance fast enough? Can you add up enough good deeds? What do we do? Do we go out and preach to other people? What do we do? I can't do enough beyond today's programs to earn a chance to go before God. You can't keep the Sabbath exactly enough to go before the throne of God. He either lets us do it or He doesn't. Now once again, let go with this promise and it gets real scary.

Oh, God won't listen to me. Oh, yeah, but God doesn't care about me. God's not going to let me come before His throne. And He's starting to let go of the promise. Now you will become unfaithful. See how grabbing hold of God's faithfulness is such a core to this? God, here I am. And I don't deserve this. And I've messed up again. But here I am. Please, let Jesus' sacrifice be enough.

Isn't that what we do? Isn't that what the Passover's all about? Now you let go of this and you know what you'll do? You'll go out and start sinning. And the more you sin, the less connected you'll be to God. The more you rebel, the less connected you'll be to God. You give up these promises and we've all seen it. It doesn't take long. You're back to the old person you used to be. We've all watched people do that.

We say, how did they do that? How did they obey God for 30 years? In 6 months after they leave the church, they're the same old guy they used to be. Drinking, sleeping around, right? Stealing, lying. You say, how did he get that way?

He doesn't hold on to the promise anymore. He says, lest let us hold fast, verse 23, the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. The promise is you accept this sacrifice and you will live up to this sacrifice because you'll hold on to it. You know the problem with modern Christianity? They proclaim the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. They don't hold on to it because they don't live up to it. They gotta hold on to this. If God has forgiven me, how dare I not be faithful?

If God is faithful to me, how dare I not be faithful to Him? And when I'm not, I just want to go beg forgiveness. I've used this in a number of sermons lately because I've really begun to understand this. It's amazing how long it takes to understand certain things in life. There are times before God we're beggars. You know, we always want to go before Him as children.

We do. But you know there's times in life all you can do is beg because you really realize if God doesn't do this, I can't do anything. And you beg. And then you remember He is faithful. Ah, there's a promise. I can grab hold of something. You know, it's like a person out in the ocean drowning and all of a sudden there's something I can grab hold of.

I can grab hold of the promise and I can hold on to it because God says He'll do that. Oh, I'm glad that God's going to do it. But what happens if you let go of the life fast? What happens if you let go of the promise? Well, pretty soon you're floundering around out there again, aren't you? See, there is a part we play. The part's holding on and God doing His work.

When you go before God, you have permission to go before God. You have a privilege to go before God. In Jesus' crisis, there is your high priest telling...or to God, his job is let this person come. That's what an intercessor does.

I intercede for this person. What an incredible relationship we have here. And you have it all the time. It's a promise all the time to go before the throne of God and talk to Him. Interact with Him. Because Jesus Christ is the high priest. That brings us to another point here on this point four. Let's say 1 John 5.

Before I go to point five, 1 John...1 John chapter one. Let's go here. Because we get to the place. We say, well, I messed up so bad, God won't forgive me. Understand something. God may punish you. God punishes all of us. It's part of Him being a faithful creator.

Faithful creator sometimes says, no, you messed up real bad this time. Yeah, there's some punishment involved in this. Any good parents punished a child. Sorry. These are the rules. You broke it. No, you're grounded for a week. Oh, you're the most horrible parent in the world. And then ten years later they come back and say, oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you for not letting me at 16 date that 21-year-old. Thank you for grounding me for that.

Yeah, God's going to punish us. But we also have to remember this in this terms of the promise. He says the faithfulness of God, the faithfulness of Christ to intercede. Christ never says, you know, Father, today I'm taking the day off, so whoever comes before you, don't let them talk to you. I won't be here to intercede for them. It doesn't happen. And that's why we go to this promise, 1 John 1, verse 8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know, there's times when a sin brings you down to being a beggar, and you go before God and you beg forgiveness. You beg forgiveness. Isn't that what Psalms 51 is? It's David begging for forgiveness. And God's answer is I forgive you. But because this sin hurt the entire nation, I've got to show them that I'm punishing you. So your son will die. That's pretty hard punishment. But I do forgive you. You're allowed to have a relationship with me. You come back into presence in my presence, God says, as my son. And so David was allowed to go back into the presence of God as his son, but there was going to be a terrible price for it. God is faithful to forgive us of our sin. We confuse punishment with forgiveness. Sometimes you still receive some punishment. And sometimes you don't. As a parent, sometimes you look at a child and say, well, you have such a good attitude. I'm not going to punish you on this. God does that too. In fact, most of the time, let's face it, our punishment for our sin is what? It's the direct result of the sin. It's not like God has to do anything else. I mean, a lot of times it's God saying, don't do that. Oh, that's going to hurt. And then we go to God and he says, why did you do that? Okay. Well, it's going to hurt. Boy, you're messed up. Let me help you here. Let me help you. Because if we go with this, you promise to forgive, I must. I beg you. See, I'm a beggar here. I have nothing to barter with. How many... I tell you what, I'll give you 20%. I'll give you 50%. Moses only gave you 10. Okay. Well, I'll give you... Come on! And we'll call this even. It doesn't work, does it? What are you going to give God that he doesn't already have? He says, now let's add bribery to the list of sins. Okay. Now you're going to come negotiate. Okay. Bribery, that goes on your docket here. We go as beggars. And we hold on to a promise. You promise to forgive me. Because I'm wrong. And I want to be in your... I want to be your daughter. I want to be there before you. I have to have this relationship. I have to be with you. I have no hope without you. And Christ says, apply my blood to her. And the father says, come, child. Without that promise, what do we have to live for? You might as well go out and eat and drink and be married because tomorrow you die. And then our fifth point is 1 Thessalon 5. 1 Thessalon 5. 1 Thessalon 5.

And let's start in verse here, 23.

Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May he make you holy. That's what that means. So Paul writes to the Church of Thessalonike and he says, it's almost like a prayer. I want God to make you completely holy. And may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, may you be resurrected with that spirit body that he talked about in 1 Corinthians? Your whole life is brought together into this eternal life with God. That's what he's telling these people. I want you to be sanctified by God to go through this lifetime of being changed and being prepared so that at the resurrection you're there. And then he says, he who calls you is faithful and will do it.

I want you to be sanctified and I want you to be there. And this is the promise. He promises us the kingdom of God to be there. And you and I can't get there on our own. We can only give up the promise. You give up the promise and you'll become dishonest and you'll give up the Sabbath and you'll hate and you may be able to pretend that you're religious. Give up the promise and where do we go without God working in us? Where do we go without God's Spirit? Back to being like everybody else. He promises us the kingdom. He promises us to be changed into the family of God forever. That is a promise you and I have to hold on to. Especially when we get into those difficult times in life where you grab hold and say here all I have. Every time I sit and I talk to somebody who's just found out they have a terminal illness in the doctors, there's nothing we can do. And they deal with this. And so many times you watch them eventually grab hold of this. And I'm amazed every time I watch it because I'm not yet ready to die. But I've watched people grab hold of this and say no! I know what happens next. I go to sleep and I wake up changed. That is exciting. That's good. And here's the phrase I've heard over and over again. It still amazes me. And I'm okay with that. I'm okay with that. You see them grab hold of that promise. And it's so real that they face death not because they want to die, but because I understand what happens and God promises me and God will do it. And we have to grab hold of that promise. And we have to hold that promise. He promises you the kingdom. I guess what I've just covered is basically the gospel and the promises of God that we must repent and grab hold of and that will lead us to obedience and that will lead us to submission to Him. There are many promises made by God in the Bible. You ever want to do an interesting Bible study? Look up all the promises God's made. I have a book at home. All the promises in the Bible. It's only about that stick. It's about a stick as a Bible. There are a lot of promises in the Bible. Now, we can't go to the extreme that says, oh, God promises it doesn't matter what I do. That's not true either. That's a lie. The promises are based on us holding on to the promise so that He will do His work in us so He will complete what He said He would do, which was the first point we brought up. The promise to complete what He started. That work must be complete. That involves our submission. That involves us following. It involves us following. It doesn't involve us becoming Pharisees. Because in the end, He doesn't. We just submit. We follow. Grab hold of those promises because He is faithful. In the end, our faithfulness to God, which is absolutely commanded, our faithfulness to God, even that isn't dependent just on our own strength of will. I will myself to be faithful to God. In the end, our faithfulness to God is built up in us as we live our lives trusting in God's faithfulness to us.