[Gary Petty] Have you ever been so overwhelmed with the problems of life with which you are going through? Maybe it’s your own weaknesses. Maybe, at times, when you feel like, “I’m just not a good Christian,” you feel like, “I just want to give up,” and “I can’t keep doing this, I can’t keep living this way. I mean, God’s given up on me anyway and I’m going to fail. God knows I’m going to fail. God knows I just never quite am perfect, so I might as well give up​,” because we think and see God as looking at us, and looking and just counting up our failures. Now, we do know that sin is very important.  We do know that the Christian life is coming out of sin. But what happens when we get so overwhelmed by that, that we feel like, “Well, God has given up on me?” Yet we look at the book of Revelation where it says, when Christ comes, He comes for those who are called, chosen and faithful. So here we are. We have been called, we have been chosen by God, and we are remaining faithful, and there are times when we can say, or feel like, “I can’t remain faithful.  I just can’t.” So we maybe go through the routines – we come to church, we live our lives, but there’s no vibrancy left in our Christianity. “I can’t remain faithful.”

We know about the faithfulness we must have towards God. But that’s not what I’m going to talk about today. What I’m going to talk about is something that sometimes we don’t think about. It’s God’s faithfulness towards us. “God’s faithfulness towards me? He just looks at me, and says, ‘Oh, look, another failure.’”  How does God look at us in the promises that He makes? You know, God makes promises throughout the scripture. It’s actually surprising how many promises God makes in the scripture. If we look at those promises, what promises has He made to you? 

You know, the greatest example of a promise that God made to a person was the promise that God made to Abraham. And we know that God came to Abraham and promised him a great nation would come from him, and that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. Years later, God took Abraham’s descendants out of Egypt. He took them to the Promised Land. And they kept rebelling, they kept failing, they kept not doing what He wanted. And so He said something very interesting to them in Deuteronomy, chapter 7. Let’s go to Deuteronomy, chapter 7. So here’s what God says then – has Moses say – to those people: that they are a special people. But He wants them to know why they are a special people. Verse 6:

Deuteronomy 7:6-9 – "For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth. “Wow! I am special! God has chosen me above all the people on the face of the earth.” We know God has chosen us. We just went through the day of Pentecost, where we celebrate our choosing when God gives us His Spirit. He says, The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples. You say, “I must be really important. God chose me!”  And the next thing He says is, “No, I chose you because you are the most insignificant people on the face of the earth. That’s why I chose you.” Why would He do that?  Because…for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because – now listen to this – because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers – Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God – the faithful God….  He tells them, “I haven’t gathered you here because you are smarter, faster, more athletic, because you have a better military, because you’re good at science, because you’re the great literary giants of the world. You know why I brought you here? Because I keep my promises. That’s why you’re here.”  He says,  ..the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments. See, He brought them together because He had made a promise to do so. 

Throughout the history of ancient Israel, they keep breaking the promise, and God keeps saying, “Okay.” And He punishes them and then He brings them back together. And you see over and over again, He will say, “I’m doing this because I promised I would do it,” because eventually the Messiah has to come through this family. This family has to be there to produce the Messiah. And that was the core of the promise that He had made with Abraham. “Through you, all nations will be blessed.”  What’s interesting is, that when you look at the New Testament, and look at what the New Testament writers say about this promise – because it’s mentioned a number of times in the New Testament - Genesis 12, Genesis 22, where God tells Abraham, “I promise to do this.”

Let’s look at what the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 6. We’re just looking at an example where God was loyal to a promise that He made to someone, even though the descendants of that promise did not always measure up to what they were supposed to do – that God is faithful. Hebrews 6, verse 13:

Hebrews 6:13-18 – For when God made a promise to Abraham, because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, "Surely blessing, I will bless you…. That’s interesting,because people say, “Well, people would swear by something greater than themselves.” “I swear by the temple that I will do this.” “I swear by God that I will do this.” And people today will swear, you know, which means “I promise, and if I don’t do it may I be punished.”  Well, God, when He made an oath here, there was nothing He could swear by, because there’s nothing greater than Him.  It simply was, “I will do this.”  He says, "Surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you.” That’s a quote from Genesis 22. And so, after he – talking about Abraham – had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might – here’s where I want to go with the sermon today – that we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us.

God made a promise to Abraham and it’s still being carried out. And we can have hope in the promises that God has made throughout history to different people. Today, I want to show you five promises that God has made to you – you personally. We can lose these promises when we don’t believe in them anymore. You lose a promise when you don’t believe in it. “I don’t believe in that promise. That’s not what God is going to do.” And it doesn’t happen. We trust in these promises and it changes who we are. When you trust in these promises, it will change who you are. It changes your behavior, it changes the way you think, it changes the way you feel about things, because you realize God doesn’t lie. He won’t break the promise. We only can give it up. Okay​? God won’t break these promises, but we can walk away from them. We can give up the promise. We can give it back to Him – “We don’t want it” – and walk away. But on His end, He is going to carry this out as long as we lay hold of – grab hold of –  His hand and let Him fulfill the promise. Because He won’t take away our free will, but if we hang onto it – we hang onto it – we submit to it, these promises will be carried out. Because why​? How do you know that? Because God says they will. We’re always looking at ourselves, because we’re the ones who fail. God has never failed on a promise He’s made. Only people have failed. 

So what are some of the promises that God has made to us?
You know, before we go there I want to look at how this promise God made to Abraham – there’s one other scripture I want to go to  with this promise God made to Abraham – that almost 2,000 years later – not quite 2,000 years later – the Messiah comes. An angel comes to Mary, and says, “You’re going to be the mother of the Messiah.” Now, what went through her head? It’s very important. What went through her head when she’s told this? Well, let’s go to Luke, chapter 1. What she does is she creates a song and she sings a song to God. Look at verse 46. This is called the Song of Mary. It’s a song. It’s a poem. She may have actually sung it
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Luke 1:46-48 – And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed. And then she goes on and she just praises God. “How could God do this? Look at what God is doing! He’s carrying out this incredible thing and I happen to be the instrument He is using.” But notice now what she says at the end of this, in verse 54:

V-54 – “He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers – to Abraham and to his seed forever."  

You know, when this angel came and told Mary, “A child is conceived in you. You’re a virgin, but you have a child, because it was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This is the Messiah,” her thoughts are, “Wow! This is what God promised.”  It wasn’t, “Oh, I’m must be the most special person on the face of the earth.” Her thoughts are, “This is what God promised.” It goes back to the promise. God said He would do this. And so she submitted to what she was supposed to do. 

Now, we look at these great events, and we say, “Oh, yeah, God promises big things. He doesn’t promise the little things in my life. No, God doesn’t make real promises to me. Yeah, I understand the promise to Abraham – that’s where Christ would come, and He made promises to different people throughout the scripture, but they had big events. These are big events. No, He doesn’t make little promises.” Well, He’s made some personal promises to all of us. Let’s look at them.

The first one. The first one is in Philippians 1, verse 6. Write these promises down. When you feel like “I cannot do this,” when you feel like giving up, when…whether it’s other people in your life, or your job, or your money situation, or your health situations, or the sin you’re struggling with, you say, “I just can’t do this,” remember this promise – Philippians 1, verse 6, breaking in – it’s the middle of a sentence – he says:
 
Philippians 1:6 – being confident…. Okay, this is really important. Paul says, “This should give us confidence. This should give us the courage to go on.”  ...of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.

God isn’t going to stop the work He started in you until it’s done. Now, you walk away from the job site, it doesn’t get done. Stay on the job site, it gets done. That’s a promise. If you can’t be confident in that…I mean, if you think, “Well God can just throw us away any moment. He’s not going to carry out His promise,” then why keep going?  But we can have confidence that He’s going to complete the work He started in every one of us. Now, there’s still a lot of work to be done. There’s still a lot of work to be done in every one of us. And what we do is, we look at that and we say, “I can’t finish this work.” And what God says is, “I know you can’t. You never could.” He can. And He says, “If you stay here on the job site, I will do it. I will complete the work that I started in you.” It’s a promise. It’s something that you can go to God, and say, “I have failed again. Will You complete the work that You started in me, because You said You would.  I’m not running away, I’m right here. Please complete the work that you started in me.” If you and I do this on our own, we will fail. We will fail. 

Look what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 – 1 Corinthians, chapter 1. It’s a very personal statement he makes here to the church at Corinth. And in these personal statements is a lot of emotion, but an enormous amount of doctrinal understanding that he’s passing on to these people. Verse 4, he says:
 
1 Corinthians 1:4-9 – I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you by Christ Jesus. The grace of God is His favor. He gives you something you don’t have. He gives you something you can’t make up. He gives you something that you don’t pay Him off for. You can’t earn it or get it. You can’t grab it from Him. He either gives it to us or He doesn’t. So Paul says, “Through this favor of God you received” – and we as the church, because he’s speaking of the church here – “have received the sacrifice of Jesus Christ that allows us to come into this relationship with God.” Now, you start to think about how serious God is about His promises – the sacrifice of Jesus Christ? How serious is Jesus Christ about the promises He makes? – because He makes promises, too.  There are promises directly from the Father and directly from Christ. I don’t know. How serious do you have to be to leave heaven, come to the earth, live life like this, be brutally tortured and die, and then go through resurrection? You’re pretty serious about your promises. It’s not God’s seriousness that is our problem. It is not God’s commitment to you that’s the problem. God is committed to you. He has said,  “I will complete the work that I have started in you. Just don’t leave the job site. Don’t leave Me.” There’s no leaving, is what He says now. …that you were enriched in everything by Him in all utterance and all knowledge – in all speaking and in all knowledge – even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you, so that you come short in no gift…. He says, “God wants to give you everything – the fruits of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit.” He wants to give you everything. This is what He’s doing. We’re the ones holding Him back.  ...eagerly waiting for the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also confirm you to the end, that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Blameless. “I can’t be blameless. How in the world will I end up blameless? How can I end up in that resurrection?”  Notice the next verse: God is faithful. That’s either true or it’s not true. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be the one who calls God a liar here. He says, “You stay with Me, I get it done.” God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.  God promises to finish the work He started. When you want to give up, when you look at yourself and maybe you’re moving backwards – those struggles – remember, you can go to God, and say, “Father, You promised and I can’t do it.” Sometimes we just don’t have the ability to do it. And therein lies the problem. Once again, it’s not in God.

A second promise that He has given to us: God promises to deliver you from temptation. When you’re faced with sin, and it’s pulling you – I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if it is the temptation to be dishonest, to drink too much, sexual temptation – it doesn’t matter what it is – to watch something you shouldn’t watch, to disregard the Sabbath, to lie, cheat. We could stand here for the next twenty minutes and just list all the things that people are tempted to do – to pretend not to be a Christian when you are with your friends, or on the job, or at school – which is hypocrisy – whatever it is, when you are tempted, He promises to give you a way out. We know this scripture, but let’s look at it again. 1 Corinthians 10. We read this, but we don’t always believe it. And here’s the problem.  Verse 13, 1 Corinthians 10.
 
1 Corinthians 10:13 – No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful. God says He’s going to do this. Do you believe Him? Do you believe Him? God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Now sometimes we misunderstand this. We think that this means that God won’t let us have a difficulty in life. I can remember one time years ago, being with a woman whose husband had died. She said, “But God says He won’t put on me any more than I can bear and I can’t bear this.” No, He didn’t say He would keep us from all the trials of life. He says, “Temptation.” So, when sin knocks at the door, God says, “I will give you a way out.” But how many times do we just slide into the sin, and say, “God, why didn’t you stop me?”   

About 30 years ago, I had a couple who came to me, and said, “Well, she’s pregnant. But we don’t know what…it’s just a shock to us because we kept telling God, if You don’t want us to, you know, fool around, then just help us not to feel this way.” Well, guess what? They weren’t looking for the escape. 

I guess we’re sort of like the man who told God, “I need to lose weight.” But every single day – every single day – he drove by this bakery, and he would go in, and he would get a huge – you know, one of these giant – cinnamon buns that weigh like a pound with all the butter and the cinnamon, the sugar, and he would eat that thing every day. And he just loved it. So he told God that he had to change his habits. He knew that. So what he did was, he got an alternate route to work – took him a little longer, but every day he would take the alternate route – and therefore he was not tempted. So he had overcome the temptation, he thought.  And one day, you know, there was some traffic and he was listening to the radio, he wasn’t paying attention, and realized he was on the old route. And there was the bakery. It was one of those places…big bakery where the smell would come out into the street, you know. His windows down. It’s like, “God, please help me. Please give me the way of escape.” So he came home that night, and he told his wife, he said, “I just feel like I have to confess something because this really bothers me. But I ate two of those cinnamon buns this morning.” And she said, “Well, why?” “Well, you know, I took the wrong way there. I was driving by and I thought, “Well, see, God’s helped me overcome this.” So I prayed to God, I said, “God, if you don’t want me to get one, make sure there’s no parking spaces open in front of the bakery.” And he said, “I drove by and there wasn’t. And the eighth time I went around the block, there was one open.”  He had his avenue of escape. And that’s what we do. That’s what we do with temptation. We take His promise and we drive around until we can find a way to do what we actually want. 

We can go to God and ask. We can ask. I’ve been places where people literally have run out of a bar at the Feast, run up to me, and said, “I’m an alcoholic. I’m in the church. I can’t stay in that bar. Would you please talk to me.”  They’re fleeing the temptation. God gave them an avenue of escape. “Okay, let’s go talk.” Let’s go talk. That’s a promise you can claim. Confronted with temptation, you can say, “Give me the avenue of escape.” But when it comes, it’s usually a very narrow door, and you’ve got to run through it just as fast as you can. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter if it’s there. But it’s a promise. He’s faithful. 

The third promise from God – this is in 1 Peter 4. This is a hard one to remember. God promises not to relieve all of our suffering. What He promises is to give us meaning and comfort in our suffering. He doesn’t promise to relieve all of it. It is a great blessing when He does. Sometimes He’ll relieve a situation – He’ll heal us or take away something that’s bothering us. But there are other times He leaves it there. But what He promises, “I will help you find meaning and comfort in this.” And that’s what we are to seek sometimes. We’re seeking, sometimes, for all problems to go away. And God doesn’t promise to take all problems away. When you search and search the scriptures…because I’ve tried to find that one. I’ve tried to find where I can go to God and say, “But, God, You promised, no problems. I’ll have the perfect life, make the perfect amount of money, everything in my life will be perfect.” And I know my wife’s prayed, “God, You said You’d give me the perfect man.”  “God, You said You’d give me the perfect congregation.” “God, You said You would….” No, He doesn’t give all these perfect promises. What He does promise is, “I will help you get through this with meaning and comfort.”

1 Peter, chapter 4, and let’s start in verse 12. Peter is writing. Of course, his letter isn’t specifically to a church or a person, like usually Paul is. This is one of the general epistles. This went out to churches all over what was then the Roman Empire. He says:
 
1 Peter 4:12 – Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you – and probably at this time the church is going through some pretty serious persecution – 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. He says, “Look for…even during a trial, we can find the positive, and we can realize this is part of my growth process. This is part of what I go through so that when Christ comes, I can be changed.” That promise of that resurrection is out there so the trials and the difficulties we go through are part of the process of being prepared for that. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you…. What? If someone gets mad at me, or I lose a job, or I get called a name, or some friend turns their back on me, or some family member won’t ever talk to me because I obey God, he says , “That’s okay. We’re blessed.” He says: ...for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you…. Now, this is what is really important. You say, “Okay, God, but I am suffering here.” He says, “Yeah, but let’s remember the difference. If you’re suffering because you’re obeying God, rejoice. If you’re suffering because you created it, don’t blame God.” God doesn’t promise to keep us from the pain of our own sins. We all will suffer the pain of our own sins. What He promises is that we don’t receive eternal damnation. Because of the sacrifice of Christ, we can be forgiven, but He doesn’t promise to protect us from the day to day pain and problems that are the results and consequences of our sins. And sometimes, you can commit a sin and you will pay for it for the rest of your life. He says: But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as 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. For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God…. We are being judged. The world is not being judged yet. The people of God are being judged. Our eternal salvation is what God is carrying out in us. You can look and say, “Oh, my eternal salvation is at stake,” and live in total fear…. Now, fear is part of this. We are to fear the consequences of not trusting in God’s promises, but we also should realize the enormous benefits and eternity that happens because we do trust in God’s promises. And God carries them out. God carries out His promises. He’s going to carry them out in people. It’s just whether we want to be the ones He carries them out in. You see, God’s promises are going to happen. When Christ returns, there’s going to be a church to be resurrected. It’s going to be there. Do we want to be there? Do we want to be part of that promise? He says: ...if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?  Now, if you stop there, that’s a little bit concerning. You know, it’s like, maybe he saying we don’t have a chance. But notice now in verse 19:

V-19 – Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.

God is creating in you and me sonship. He’s creating in us what we need to have to go into eternity as His sons and daughters on a personal level. This is a remarkable promise on a personal level. Your suffering has meaning and comfort that will come from God, as a faithful what? Creator.  He’s doing something in your life. And that’s what we miss. Sometimes we’re suffering and we think, “Well, where’s God?” And His answer is, “Oh, I’m right here. I’m working. I’m right here on the job site and I’m working.” I forget that sometimes. “Well, God, You just abandoned me.” No, He hasn’t. He’s right there doing His work, because He promised He would do it. He promised it. And so we sometimes feel like we are unworthy of God’s love. You know what? Our worthiness never was why God loved us. It was what He could do in us. It’s what God wants to do in us. He loves us because He sees what we can be and He wants us. It wasn’t because we were worthy. That never was the reason He loves us. So we have to realize, “Okay, I am unworthy. But what’s happening here is, in this meaning and this suffering, He’s creating me.” And we will find meaning. He’s not done with us yet. He’s not done with you and He’s not done with me. He’s going to do it – what He said He would do. 

The fourth promise – and I could have done fifty promises. I just picked five, because I didn’t want to speak more than an hour. The fourth promise is one that Jesus Christ makes. As a faithful High Priest, He promises to make it possible for us to come into God’s presence. That’s what justification is – the doctrine of justification. How do you and I get into the presence of God? Through the faithful work of Jesus Christ. That’s why we realize that He died for our sins, but it says we are saved by His life. How are we saved by His life? Because He is faithfully at the right hand of the Father, carrying out the work of a High Priest. The work of a High Priest is to make it possible – it’s reconciliation – to bring people to come to God – to bring them to God – and make it possible for this relationship to happen. Look at Hebrews 10. These are big promises. 

You want to do an interesting Bible study? Take all of these promises and find scriptures attached to them. You will find that these five promises are expanded throughout the entire Old and New Testaments. They’re all over the place. And then, you’ll start finding other promises God makes. He says, “Just stay on the job site, I’ll do it. I’ll work this in you. Now, it’s not going to be easy. Sometimes you’ll suffer – you know, sometimes I use a hammer. But it gets done.” Now, we have to hold onto those promises. We have to remember that Jesus Christ is acting as our High Priest right now, so that we don’t feel like, “Well, God’s abandoned me,” or “God has turned His back on me because I failed one more time.” I’m not making light of failure. Our sins should make us feel guilty. Our sins should drive us to God. The problem is, our sins drive us away from God. Our sins should drive us to God. And when we go before God, we don’t get to just get to walk up to Him in our sins.  When we’re driven to God, there’s someone there that says, “I make this possible for you to go to God.”  Hebrews, chapter 10, verse 19:

Hebrews 10:19 – Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus – boldness. You know, in the Bible study this week, we started a series of Bible studies on the temple and the tabernacle. I was supposed to start a series on 1 Corinthians, but I didn’t have time to get it all together. So I pulled something that I had done years ago and we’ve started a whole series now on the temple and the tabernacle. We went through the tabernacle and the Holy of Holies. And we study the book of Hebrews, a lot of times, on the Day of Atonement, because it was once a year, on the Day of Atonement, that the High Priest would go into the Holy of Holies and present blood for the people. If God did not accept the blood, they, as a people, were cut off from God. You and I are cut off from God, except the High Priest presents His blood – His blood. So when you say, “I am cut off from God because of my sins,” you can go to the Father, and you have a High Priest who says, “Father, apply My blood to this child.” What’s interesting about that promise is that He does it every time. It’s when we don’t go that there’s a problem. It’s when we don’t go. It’s when we don’t go and we stay in our sins that we’ll find ourselves…we can find ourselves actually cut off from God. We can find ourselves cut off from the promises because we don’t go. He says, verse 20:

V-20-23 – …by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith – grab hold of this – this is God’s promise – having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.   

God says, “Oh, no, I have promised you forgiveness.” Now you begin to understand why, and later in the book of Hebrews – remember I gave a sermon on the unpardonable sin here, probably six months ago – and He says, “When we take and trample under foot the spirit of grace” – we don’t care anymore – “it is impossible to renew that person.” And what waits for them is the lake of fire, because they take the very promise of God, which He paid this price for – He gave everything He had – Christ gave everything He had to fulfill the promise – and then we say, “Eh, it’s not enough. I don’t believe You will forgive me. It’s not enough.” Or we like our sins so much, we just forget the promise. But He says, He who promised is faithful. We go before God and there is a High Priest there that allows us to come before Him – that allows us to come and repent. He is faithful who promised. 

That’s a promise to you. You know, we talk about promises to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and these are big promises. This is a promise to you – you personally. God says, “I promised this to you.” 

We get this chance to go before God, and what happens?  Because of this relationship of Christ acting as our High Priest…you know, there’s a time when you go before God and you say, “I ask You, I beg You, I implore You – I have nothing to give except please, apply that sacrifice for me.” Maybe you did that when you first repented. I find a lot of people didn’t. I find a lot of people that have come along who had a very shallow repentance. They never really asked for the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to be applied to them. They never understood it. “I’m baptized. Good. I’m part of the church.” We have to ask and we have to go before there on a regular basis. We have to go before God and say, “Please apply that sacrifice for me.” What’s amazing is, in our sins, we get to still go to the throne of God, because we’re in this relationship. We have this Spirit where we’re able to come. We’re able to come, even when we’ve got dirty clothes on. We go before God with dirty clothes, and Christ says, “Uh, let Me hose him down some – get him cleaned up a little bit – okay? And then he can come before You.”  Think about that, because it’s a promise. 

What does that promise fulfill? Look at 1 John 1 – 1 John, chapter 1, verse 8. Once again, John is writing to the church. He’s not writing to the world, so we have to remember this. 

1 John 1:8-10 – If we say we have no sin… If we try to say, “Eh, it’s not really…it really wasn’t my fault. It wasn’t that big a thing. Well, I stopped.”  “I stopped” is not repentance. It’s part of repentance. It’s understanding the core of the depravity of our own human nature. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins – you go before God, with Jesus Christ there as your High Priest, and you confess your sins – and this isn’t a one time event in life. Sins should drive us to God. It is here where we find peace. It’s here where we find healing, because it’s here where we can find forgiveness and the power to overcome sin. If we confess our sins – notice – He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

That’s a powerful statement. We make God a liar. A person talks about “His faithfulness.” What is His faithfulness? Well, we come…in this relationship we have with Him through Christ, He forgives us. This is a continual relationship – continual relationship. That’s why every Passover we’re brought back to this, but this isn’t just a Passover event. It’s a lifetime event – being driven to God and then finding His forgiveness – receiving what comes from Him in this growth process. He is faithful to forgive us.  If we don’t repent, we don’t receive forgiveness. If we don’t think He’ll forgive us, because “I’m too bad,” then you won’t receive it either, because you don’t believe the promise. There’s no trust in it. You say, “Nah, I guess God’s a liar then.” You think about it sometimes. 

The last point. The last point is in 1 Thessalonians 5. I think the promises of God are so powerful. You’ve got to grab hold of them. We can’t take them lightly. We can’t say, “Oh, yeah, well okay, that’s nice.” These are promises from God. If we want them, if we will take them, if we will hold onto them, if we trust in Him, if we obey Him, if we follow Him, He does these things because He promises to do it. Even when we fail, He promises to do it, as long as we don’t leave the job site. I don’t know how else to put it. You leave God and the promises aren’t there. You’ve left the promises. “They’re right here.” “No, I’ve left them.” 1 Thessalonians 5:23:
  
1 Thessalonians 5:23 – Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you – make you holy – completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. 

What a remarkable statement! He’s faithful, and He will do what? He will present you at the day of Jesus Christ. In other words, He’s going to give you the Kingdom. Remember, we talked about where there were promises made to Abraham and to the heirs of Abraham? These promises were carried out.  Well, there are heirs made through Jesus Christ to the family of God. And those heirs – through those children – those promises are being carried out. That’s the church. Those are the ones with God’s Holy Spirit – neither Jew nor Gentile. In other words, God’s Spirit is being given to people so that they can receive the promise of the Kingdom. And He’s faithful to get you there. He’s promised you the Kingdom. He didn’t say, “You know what, I’ll see about it. I’ll call you and, you know, you go through this repentance, and then I’ll have you be baptized, have some minister lay hands on you, I’ll give you My Holy Spirit and, um, we’ll just look at it and see. Ahhhhhhh, I may give you the Kingdom, or not.  We’ll see – maybe not. I’ll see how I feel at that time.” That’s not what He said. He will do it. You’ve just got to hold onto it. You’ve got to believe it enough to give your life to it. Do we believe it enough to give our lives to it – to give everything we have? Because God says, “I already gave everything I had.” Jesus Christ said, “Igave everything I had.” They gave everything They had for us. Do we believe They meant it? Do you believe He meant it? We have to ask ourselves that. 

I want to conclude by reading a Psalm – Psalm 89 – interesting psalm written by Ethan, the Ezrahite. I have no idea who Ethan the Ezrahite is. I should look up and try to find out who he is someday, because it’s a great psalm. Psalm 89, and let’s start in verse 1. 

Psalm 89:1 – I will sing of the mercies of the LORD forever. With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. He says, “I want this song to be written down so it’s sung after I’m dead, the generation after that – my grandchildren, my great grandchildren.” Everybody singing about what? God keeps His promises. I don’t know about you, but I want you to stop and think about it for a minute – about God, if He doesn’t keep His promises. If God doesn’t keep His promises, there is a hell, and it’s going to be where we end up in the resurrection. If we can’t trust God to keep His promises, what kind of life will that be? God keeps His promises! He does what He says He is going to do. He doesn’t take away our free will. So there’s an element in this that doesn’t work, but it’s not Him. With my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, "Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall be establish in the very heavens. I have made a covenant with My chosen, I have sworn to My servant David” – so here He’s talking – as God. "Your seed I will establish forever, and build up your throne to all generations." So here, He has a prophecy in here about the Messiah, the Seed of David. And the heavens will praise Your wonders, O LORD; Your faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints. We need to be people who believe in the promises of God, who live in the promises of God, who are motivated by the promises of God, and tell others about the promises of God. For who in the heavens can be compared to the LORD? Who among the sons of the mighty can be likened to the LORD? God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be held in reverence by all those around Him. O LORD God of hosts, Who is mighty like You, You O LORD? Your faithfulness also surrounds You.

God – it emanates from Him. He does what He says. He carries out what He says He will carry out. He has promised us amazing things. We can walk away from those promises. He gives us that right. The truth is, He has. And when you lose your faith, when you’re slipping from God, when it seems like all is lost, when you feel abandoned, I want you to remember something. I want you to go back to these scriptures and other scriptures like this, and remember and trust in God’s faithfulness personally to you.