Grace Baptist Church, Nokomis, IL.

Text:

As many passages in the Bible do, the passage I want to look at addresses several doctrines. It addresses God’s truthfulness. It addresses God’s unchangeable nature. It addresses perseverance of the saints, or as you may prefer to call it, the preservation of the saints, as these are two sides of the same coin. But the doctrine I feel God leading me to preach on is the doctrine of the surety of God’s promises.

About the time that I got married and started a family, this kids show had become insanely popular called Blues Clues. The host of the show, Steve, would sing this song, “You can do anything that you wanna do!” I’ve told my kids after watching the show with them that while it’s mostly a good show, sometimes it gets a few things wrong. It’s not true that you can do anything that you wanna do. The truth is that you can do everything that God wants you to do. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Well, a little over a year ago, Steve told his story about his experience with the show, and how he was conflicted about that line specifically. “I’m saying these wonderful things to kids, I’m saying, “You are so smart.” And “You can do anything that you wanna do.” But I couldn’t help thinking, “Is that true?” “Am I saying the right things to all these children?” What Steve was conflicted about is the same thing that many of us experience when we seek to encourage people.

Have you ever told someone something and wondered then if you got their hopes up only for them to be let down? Oh wow, your perfect for that job, I’m sure they’ll hire you! I promise I’ll make it to your baseball game! I’ll love you for the rest of my life, in sickness and health, for richer and poorer, til death do us part. It’s important that we keep our promises, but so often we fail to do so, and our promises turn out to be empty promises.

But God does more than make empty promises. God fulfills all His promises. So when we read or receive a promise from God in Scripture, we can be sure that God will bring it about.

Read Hebrews 6:13-18

One of the first things we see in this passage is that God made a promise to Abraham. This idea alone ought to humble us, because God humbled Himself. We’re the ones who ought to make promises to God, not the other way around. We owe Him our loyalty. We owe Him our lives. We owe Him our everything, because He made everything and the purpose of everything is to bring glory to Him.

Yet God made a promise to Abraham. He promised Abraham that He would make him a great nation. He promised Abraham that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars in the sky and the sand on the shore. He promised Abraham that the whole world would be blessed through him. And each of these promises were ultimately fulfilled to Abraham through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus, we are a great nation of Christians. Through Jesus, Abraham’s descendants are not only those who can trace their genealogy to Abraham, but extends to all people who call on Jesus for salvation. Through Jesus, the whole world has been blessed with the gospel invitation.

And because of what Jesus accomplished, God has made promises to us as well. God has promised us that He’s working all things for our good and His glory. He’s promised us a peace that passes all understanding. And He’s promised us eternal life if we believe in Jesus Christ.

And we know that God will keep His promises because of who God is. God is truthful. God is righteous and holy. So God never lies. And yet God goes the extra mile whenever He makes a promise to us. Because of our frailty, we might ask God, “How do I know You’ll keep Your promise?” And God responds, “Because I swear it to you by Myself” (v. 13-14). God cares about the honor of His good name. And God stakes His reputation on fulfilling His promises. So we know that will fulfill His promises.

Why did God do that? From our perspective, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to stake our whole reputation on whether or not we fulfill our promises. What if I staked my whole reputation on fulfilling even one of my promises? What if I promised you I promised you the next time you saw me I’d be 3 inches taller and 20 pounds lighter, and if I broke my promise, you could spit in my face and call me a donkey? You’d call me a fool, right? We break some of our promises, even when we fully intend to keep them.

So why does He stake His whole reputation on fulfilling His promises? First of all, God is able to keep all of His promises. But secondly, God wants us to be sure of His promises (v. 17). God desired to show us and convince us of His unchangeable character. God is so great and good that He wants to share Himself with us. He wants us to see His greatness. He wants us to see His goodness. He wants us to see His truthfulness and His commitments to His promises. And He does this not because He needs our praise. He doesn’t do this because He’s insecure and needs our attention. He shares Himself with us because He loves us and wants us to have the great privilege of knowing Him.

And since God’s character is unchangeable, His promises are also unchangeable (v. 17b-18a). He won’t take back what He’s told us. And He will surely bring about what He’s promised us.

So what does all this mean for us? Since Abraham knew that God always fulfills His promises, he waited patiently (v. 15). Since we know that God always fulfills His promises, we wait patiently (v. 18). Waiting patiently doesn’t mean that we do nothing. It means that we hold fast to the hope set before us. We hold fast to the promises that God’s given us. Promises of Heaven. Promises of eternal life. Holding fast means that we persevere in our faith. It means that we not only continue to believe, but that we live out those beliefs. That we not compromise when temptation comes our way. That we devote ourselves to God.

But we do all this not by our strength, but by God’s strengthening. The text says that God makes promises in this way to give us strong encouragement. He doesn’t want us constantly doubting or wondering about His promises. He doesn’t want us discouraged about life and serving Him. He wants us to be convinced as we believe Him and encouraged as we live for Him.

And all these promises are for those who have, as verse 18 says, fled for refuge. Is Christ your refuge? Do you find your safety in Him? Have you embraced Him as your Savior? We only have hope when we know Christ. So put your faith in Christ, and rest on the promises of God.