about the truth that the God we worship promises.
Someone has said that promises are like crying
babies in a church. It's best when they're carried
out immediately. However, sometimes promises
can't be carried out immediately for one reason
or another. And in cases like that, promises
are like money. Much easier to make than to keep.
God is one who promises and always is able and
does carry out what he has said. It seems appropriate
to me that on Mother's Day we focus on this particular
attribute of God, his faithfulness, because there
is no image of faithful love that is more powerful
than that of a mother. I don't know if you understand
how radical this idea is that God is faithful.
We sing about it, we study about it, we hear
about it so much that we take it for granted.
But imagine for a moment that God were not faithful,
that God were arbitrary in keeping His promises.
We would live our lives at the best in uncertainty.
and at the worst an absolute terror. Wondering
when God would keep which promises, if any of
them, to us. Suppose God were faithful to some
people, but not faithful to others. We must never
take for granted the faithfulness of God. Yet
it's hard for us to get a hold of what this means
because we measure faithfulness by the world
in which we live, a world that is dominated really
by deceit and by lies. For we live in a world
order that has fallen into sin, the very first
of which was a lie, sold to Adam and Eve, which
they believed. And since that time, the world
order has been based largely upon deceit and
lies as the norm. Doing business with a handshake
or by the giving of one's word, are as much antiques
in 1991 as furniture that was made 30 or 40 years
ago. It was a little humbling this last week
to be in some antique stores in Red Wing and
there to go through and see toys and other objects
that are being sold as antiques, toys that I
played with when I was a kid. Give me a break.
These aren't antiques, but they command the price
of antiques. But is there anything more old -fashioned,
more out of date than the idea that you simply
seal a deal with a handshake? Whole professions
are built up around the fact of the dishonesty
of the human race. Today, commitments are made.
but casually broken if the commitments become
inconvenient. Ask merchants about return checks.
Ask the government about student loans. Ask the
IRS about tax fraud. Ask schools about excuses
for absences. Ask leaders of organizations from
the PTA to local ministries and churches about
promises. And inevitably you find the same rather
sad story. That the human race has a poor record
at keeping promises. Now we live in a world like
that. And sadly too often we accommodate ourselves
to that. But you and I worship a God who never
breaks. a promise. Now it's good to keep in mind
that some of his promises are conditional. In
other words, there's something that one needs
to do in order to receive the promise. But there
are other promises of God that are unconditional.
For example, God's promise to Abraham regarding
a seed and a land and a blessing unconditionally
given to Abraham and to his descendants. Or for
that matter, the promise that God will preserve
those who trust in Jesus Christ until that time
that they are with Him in heaven, the security
of salvation, unconditionally promised to those
who believe in Christ. God always keeps His promises.
He is the God who cannot lie, as was read in
our text earlier. He cannot lie because He is
the truth. He is the truth. There is no lie in
Him. And that's why it says in 2 Timothy 2 .13,
God cannot deny Himself. Though we may fail to
believe God at some point or another, He is always
faithful because He can deny Himself. What He
is, He is the truth. And we read in 1 Kings 8
verse 56, not one word has failed of all his
good promises. The God that we worship promises.
And he will faithfully bring to pass all his
word. Hebrews 10 and verse 23 says, Let us hold
fast the confession of our hope without wavering,
for he who promises is faithful. And then that
text that's on the front of our bulletin this
morning from Psalm 89. that says, I will sing
of the Lord's great love forever. With my mouth
I will make known your faithfulness through all
generations. O Lord God Almighty, who is like
you? You are mighty and your faithfulness surrounds
you. Think with me of how the faithfulness of
God may be observed. It can be observed, for
example, in nature. Turn with me your Bible to
Genesis chapter 8 and verse 22 Genesis 8 22 After
the flood Noah built an altar and Offered sacrifices
to the Lord and the Lord came down and made a
promise He says in verse 22 of Genesis 8, while
the earth remains, seed time and harvest and
cold and heat and summer and winter and day and
night shall not cease. Now there is a promise
that God made. It is a promise regarding the
seasons and the cycles of creation. Some of these
apparently were not present before the flood.
The earth seems to have been temperate in all
of its regions before the flood, but the flood
tremendously changed the atmosphere of the world.
And so from that time on there were seasons,
there was cold, and there was heat. And there
was not continual harvest, but there was a time
for planting, and then a time for harvest, and
a time for the earth to lie at rest. And summer
and winter were apparently not present then,
although day and night were. But God is saying
that from this time onward, as long as there
is the world, there will be seasons and there
will be cycles in nature. God has kept His promise.
There are some times when those of us in Minnesota
think he's coming just a little short on one
end of the promise regarding heat and summer,
but eventually it always comes around. You see,
we can observe the faithfulness of God in nature,
the very reason that we can have such a thing
as science. Which is built upon the idea that
you can experiment and you can expect under the
same conditions using the same things the same
results every time You can even see in that the
faithfulness of God building into the creation
those kinds of laws that permit scientific experimentation
And then we can see the faithfulness of God in
covenants that he makes. In chapter 9 of Genesis,
God makes a covenant with Noah and the generations
following him, including ourselves. God spoke
to Noah, it says in verse 8, and to his sons,
saying, Now behold, I myself do establish my
covenant with you and with your descendants after
you. And he goes on to explain some of that.
And then notice what he says in verse 12, this
is the sign of the covenant which I am making
between me and you and every living creature
that is with you for all successive generations.
I set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for
a sign of a covenant between me and the earth
and it shall come about that when I bring a cloud
over the earth that the bow shall be seen in
the cloud and I will remember my covenant. Which
is between me and you and every living creature
of all flesh and never again shall the water
Become a flood to destroy all flesh Every time
that there is a storm and the result of the storm
afterward is a rainbow in the heavens It is another
time when God is showing the sign of the noach
covenant God says you see there is an end to
the storm There is not a flood to destroy the
whole world has happened in the days of Noah.
God is faithful to His covenants. This is but
one example of them. And it's an example of a
covenant made with all humanity. It's an example
of a covenant with a visible sign that God still
gives today. The rainbow. We see the faithfulness
of God in the history of the world. We're in
Genesis. We'll turn to Genesis 15. And here we
have a record of God's covenant with Abraham.
The Lord came to him in a vision and said, Do
not fear, Abram, I am your shield. Your reward
shall be very great. And Abraham said, O Lord
God, what wilt thou give me, since I am childless?
And the heir of my house is Eleazar of Damascus.
Abram said, Since thou hast given me no offspring
to me, one born in my house is my heir. Then,
behold, the word of the Lord came to him, saying,
This man will not be your heir, but one who shall
come forth from your own body, he shall be your
heir. And he, the Lord, took him outside and
said, Now look toward the heavens and count the
stars, if you are able to count them. And he
said to him, So shall your descendants be. then
he, Abram, believed in the Lord and he reckoned
it to him as righteousness. Abram believed the
word of God. And what was the word? The promise
that God made? That he would have an heir that
would come from his own body. And that eventually
this man who was childless now would have descendants
that would be numbered like the stars of the
heavens. Has God kept His promise? Yes. Multiplied
millions of the descendants of Abraham in the
world today. Some of them through Isaac. Some
of them through Ishmael. But He has multiplied
millions of descendants today in your generation
of mine living in the world and they have been
here since the days of Abraham. God keeps His
promises. We see it in history. We see it in
the nation of Israel still existing today. I
haven't seen a Hittite recently. Have you? Many
of the ancient nations are no more. Some peoples
bear the same names. But in the Jewish people,
in the nation of Israel, we have the descendants
the very descendants of David. God has kept His
promise and has preserved that people. And today
has allowed them to come together again as a
political entity for His own purposes. And yet
sometime in the future, God is going to supernaturally
restore them to the land and bring them back
to faith in Him and in His Messiah. God keeps
his promises. But all of us today share in another
of God's promises, and that is the promise of
redemption. In Isaiah 7, 14, God said, Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. You shall
call his name God with us, Emmanuel. Galatians
chapter 4, the apostle says, God sent forth his
son. made of a woman. God sent the Redeemer.
The promise was fulfilled in that virgin birth
prophecy of Isaiah 7 -14. And Jesus Christ was
born and went on to the cross and there offered
the sacrifice for human sin. God fulfilled His
promise of sending a Redeemer. And today he extends
the promise to all people who will believe in
that Redeemer. That whoever will call upon the
name of the Lord will be saved, will be redeemed
from sin, and made a child of God. God keeps
his promises. Because the God we worship keeps
his promises. There's some application to our
lives that are kind of exciting. One is that
knowing the God who faithfully promises means
laying aside falsehood ourselves. If you and
I know the God who promises and who faithfully
keeps his word, it is an instruction to us who
are his children to likewise lay aside falsehood.
Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 4, the fourth
chapter of the epistle to the Ephesians. The
apostle says, and we'll just begin in verse 22,
in reference to your former manner of life, you
lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted
in accordance with the lusts of deceit. If there
is one central core issue with the old self,
it is the issue of deceit. It eats away and it
corrupts the natural man. Deceit. The apostle
says here, lay aside that old self and be renewed
in the spirit of your mind and put on the new
self which in the likeness of God has been created
in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Just
the opposite of deceit. Then he says, therefore,
laying aside falsehood, speak truth. You and
I need to learn to be honest as the children
of God. To be honest, not just because it's a
good thing to do and it's beneficial to society
and it keeps our reputation intact. Those are
all fine reasons, but they're secondary. We need
to be honest. because by our faith in Jesus Christ,
we have been made new people. And we want to
lay aside and take off the manner of life that
was a part of our old self, with its deceit and
its lying and its dishonesty. And we want to
put on the new self, which is created in the
holiness of truth. And because of who we are
in Jesus Christ, to lay aside falsehood. We want
to be honest with others. When we make a commitment,
we make a promise to somebody, we keep that promise.
God helping us. That even to our own loss, we
keep our word. Oh, there is such a need for this
example in our world. And when it exists, what
a difference there is. What a tremendous testimony
it is in an office when there is a man or woman
who works there as a child of God and who is
honest and who holds up integrity and truthfulness
before everybody else in the office. It raises
the standard of morality in everybody because
of the presence of that one who is there. Be
that kind of a child of God who makes a difference
in the world. Be honest also with yourself. If
there's any lying that we tend to do easily,
it's when we lie to ourselves. We let ourselves
off with excuses that are just a little shady.
Or there are times when we say things to ourselves
and self -talk that's a lie. We say to ourselves,
you're so stupid. You always blow it. It isn't
true. We all make mistakes, but it isn't true
to say to ourselves, you're stupid and you always
blow it. That's a lie. Get rid of that kind of
vocabulary. Be honest with yourself before God.
Of course, be honest with God. Be honest with
God. And when you make a promise to God, when
you make a commitment to God, keep that promise.
I know, O Lord, says the word, that thy judgments
are righteous, and that in faithfulness thou
hast afflicted me. Knowing God who faithfully
promises means laying aside falsehood, but it
also means abiding under the discipline of the
Lord. God in faithfulness afflicts us. Psalm
89 is about the affliction that is upon the people
of God and yet the faithfulness of God is upheld
there. In Hebrews chapter 12 we have a beautiful
expression of God's faithful love to us when
it says that God as a father who loves his children
disciplines us. Mothers who love their children.
Discipline them in the name of little fathers
who love their children discipline them and God
disciplines us not because he's angry Not because
God is mad at us not because God wants to make
us miserable, but because God wants our good
That's why we discipline our children When we
discipline our kids is because we have a longer
few of the consequences of this disobedience
We understand what it can mean if this kind of
a routine or habit continues on and so we intervene
We say no you can't do that and God does the
same thing He's able to look ahead. He sees the
consequences, and he says my child. I love you
therefore He takes us to the woodshed and we
get our discipline When you and I undergo the
discipline of God Rather than making us bitter
at God, we should lift our hearts to God in gratitude
that it's an expression of His faithful love.
Knowing the God who faithfully promises means
resting upon His character. 2 Thessalonians 3
.3 talks a little bit about this. A great expression
of the Apostle. It's interesting in this book,
these two books written to the Thessalonians
who were going through a time of suffering, Paul
underscores the faithfulness of God and he says
in verse 3 of 2 Thessalonians 3, the Lord is
faithful and He will strengthen and protect you
from the evil one. Dear friend, listen to me.
No one has ever trusted God in vain. No one.
God is faithful to His promises and you and I
can learn to rest upon His character. We live
in a world where we have a hard time believing
people in authority because so often what has
been said has either been shaded in the giving
of the facts or what has been promised doesn't
come through. And so we hear people in authority
say things and we just let it go off our backs
like water off a duck's back. It doesn't stick
with us because we expect them not to keep their
word. That's sad. That's the world we live in.
But God is different. When God says it, you can
count on it. Instead of expending so much energy
and worry and anxiety, we can relax and we can
trust God to be in control of our circumstances.
The Lord is faithful and He will protect you,
says Paul, from the evil one. He will. Will you
believe that? And what you're passing through
right now, today, this weekend, will you believe
that God is faithful and He will protect you?
That you don't have to run around anxiously worrying?
Give it to God and rest in Him. I hope that our
hearts today can soar with knowing God who is
faithful to His promises. I hope that we can
begin to get a hold of the radical nature of
this truth. That God is so completely different
than our normal sphere of reference. God is absolutely
trustworthy. We can depend on Him. Because He
is the God who promises, let that embolden us
to be innovative in our visions of serving Him.
Do you have some dream or some desire of serving
God that just seems so impossible to where you
are? Is God planting in you a vision of some
kind of service for Him? Or some way that you
can serve Him there in the office? Or in your
factory? Something that you can do that right
now just doesn't seem possible? Be bold and trust
God. Go for it. Let the faithfulness of God embolden
you to plow ahead and not to look back. Let it
also provide you with confidence to trust Him
in your greatest challenges of life. It may be
that there's a mom here today and you say my
greatest challenge is just going home today and
facing what I have to face in my family. There
are some moms like that. Will you let the faithfulness
of God provide your confidence to go home and
face it? Let the faithfulness of God stir you
to keep your promises and to fulfill your word
just as God does to us. Back in 1983 a terrible
tragedy took place in Beirut. Almost 300 Marines
were killed in a terrorist explosion. You remember
it well. And how this building that was supposed
to be strong and well -guarded in which they
were sleeping was impacted with a car filled
with dynamite. The result was the whole building
just collapsed into a rubble heap. Some Marines
lived through the terrible fire. that followed
the explosion. One of them was visited by General
Kelly in the hospital a few days after the explosion.
He was wrapped from head to foot in bandages.
Tubes were going in and out of his body. He could
not talk. General Kelly expressed the gratitude
of the United States government for his service.
And the Marine, with pain, motioned for a pad
and a pencil. He could not speak. And with the
strength that he had, he took that pencil in
his hand and he began to write letters on this
pad of paper. E -M -P -E -R -F -I. That was as
far as he could go. But it was clear to General
Kelly exactly what he was saying. It was an abbreviated
version of the motto of the Marine Corps. Semper
Fidelis. Always Faithful. Oh, as children of
God, that that should be our goal. Our God is
always faithful to us, semper fidelis. May that
motto be written on our lives, that we might
imitate our Heavenly Father and like Him be faithful.
We worship a God who promises. Let's pray to
Him. Would you stand with me please as we pray?
Fathers, a congregation of people, we stand in
your presence. How we thank you that you are
simple fidelis, always faithful. We worship you,
we bless you, because you are absolutely trustworthy.
Forgive us. when we fail to remember that. But
right upon our hearts today afresh, I pray, a
desire to be like You, Father, to be faithful
to our Word, to give our promise and to keep
it with all of the strength and grace that You
would give us. Whether it be in the context of
our marriage vows, our responsibilities in the
home, in your work in the world, or in our jobs.
May we be a faithful people and thus bring glory
to you. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.