All right, if you take your Bibles
and turn back with me to Hebrews chapter 11. The title of my message tonight is, What
Good is a Promise? What good is a promise? How good
is a promise? If someone makes us a promise,
how do we know that the promise that someone makes us is good? Abraham, according to the Word
of God, he by faith sojourned in the land of promise. The land of promise. Abraham, by faith, when he was
called, verse 8, to go out into a place that he should after
receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out not knowing where
he went, by faith he sojourned the land of promise." In this
we can see that Abraham believed the promise of God. When God called Abraham to come
out from Ur of the Chaldees, He called him by giving him a
promise. This promise is found in Genesis,
Genesis chapter 11 and verse 1. The Lord said, Get
thee out from among thy kindred and from thy father's house unto
a land that I will show thee. And I will make of thee a great
nation, I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou
shalt be a blessing. I will bless them that bless
thee and curse them that curseth thee. And in thee shall all the
families of the earth be blessed." So Abraham departed as the Lord
had spoken unto him. True faith. is not blind actions. Abraham did not leave Ur of the
Chaldees out of some sense of blind faith. This was not a leap
into the darkness. Faith is not a leap into a darkness. Faith is not just a determination
of man to do something. Abraham didn't wake up one morning
and say, well, gee, I'm just going to determine to go on out
here, and I know that somehow, someway, God's just going to
give me this land. Well, that would be foolish.
That would not be faith. People say, well, I'm just going
to believe God. I'm just going to believe God
to heal me. of this illness. Or they say, well, God will make
me rich. I'm just going to believe God is going to make me rich. I just believe that God is going
to accept me or love me. And when I die, I'm just going
to go to heaven. I'm just going to believe that.
Well, you are a fool to believe that without a promise. If God
has not given you a promise to believe, And friends, you have
no hope that that is going to happen. Now, these things may
or they may not happen. God may heal us or he may not
heal us. God may save us or God may not
save us. But none of these things are
to be believed just because we said it or just because we believe
it to be so. When it comes to faith, or religion,
men are apt to believe anything. They're just, they're apt to
believe anything. When it comes to matters of faith,
men think that they must check their minds at the door. Men were talking with me in the
office, and they were asking me about, I guess it's Ash Wednesday
or something, because they talk about ashes. See, men will believe
anything. Anybody that would let another
man put ashes on your face is just plain dumb. That's just
dumb. They don't have one single promise
in the Word of God for such a thing. These are not idiots. These men have degrees and education. These men are teachers or doctors,
and yet they check their minds at the door, and they just walk
in and say, well, I'm just going to believe this is going to be
good for somebody to put ashes on my head. When it comes to faith, men just
check their reason or their logic at the door. Now, Abraham, he
did not do that. When Abraham, he was 75 years
old when he left his country. He was not a young man. He was
not a man seeking adventure. I know that if he was a young
man, people might think that he was just out seeking the world
or searching out. He was 75 years old. He left his home and his family
and his country Not on some whimsical thought. He left these things
because he was called of God to do so. He was called of God
and God gave him a promise. Abraham, he was 75 and he had
no children. His wife had been barren all
of their married life. From all the time that they were
married, she could not conceive, and now here they are old, and
now God promises him something very remarkable. He says, I am
going to make thee a father of many nations. In thee, in thy
seed, shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And what
did he do when he heard such a promise? Well, he obeyed, the
Scripture says. He obeyed the calling of God
and left. Did he know where he was going?
The Scripture says he didn't know where he was going. God
said, get up and leave! And I will give you this promise,
that I'll make you the father of many nations, I'll give you
this promise that in thee, in thy seed, shall all the nations
of the earth be blest." And he obeyed this. He didn't understand
much of what was going on at this time. Why did he go? Would you have gone? Would you have gone? Abraham went because of the One that gave him the
promise. Abraham was able to get up and
leave all he knew because he believed the One who promised. He believed God. Abraham did not leave because
he presumed that God would make him the Father of many nations. It was not supposed or blindly
done. He left because God gave him
a promise. Now, if some fellow comes along,
now I've been shopping this week for some things, and I've encountered
a lot of salesmen. And I'll tell you what, they're
good. They obviously wouldn't be in
business if they weren't good, but they were good. Now, some
fellow comes along and he makes you a promise and he says, all
right, what you're going to do now is you're going to leave
everything you've got. I want you to get up, just drop your
family, drop everything you have, your job, and I want you to go
out into the middle of the desert. And it's there. I promise that
I'm going to make you wealthy." I'll tell you what, he would
have to be a great salesman. He would have to be a great salesman.
I'll tell you what, I don't even think that's possible for any
of us to do that by just being a salesman. He would have to
be a person of great trust. We would have to know that person
and truly believe him. Truly believe Him. We would not,
if we were wise, we would not go unless we trusted the One
that promised. Now, some may go because they're
greedy. You tell a man to go over in
the desert and start digging, and they may try to dig for gold
or whatever you tell them. You tell them you've got a bridge
for sale, and they'll buy it from you, as long as they think
they're going to get something out of it. Now, greedy men will
do that, foolish men. But if any man is wise, he would
look to the man that promised before he did anything, before
he bought into that. Now, Abraham believed the promise. and obeyed not by some blind
leap of faith, Abraham believed and obeyed because of the one
that promised." God promised. God promised. Abraham believed
and obeyed God because he believed, first of all, God was true. God was true. Abraham obeyed
and believed God because he knew that God had his best interest
at heart. And thirdly, Abraham believed
and left all he had because he believed God was able to deliver
on His promise. Abraham believed God, and when
he was called to go, he obeyed. Now, faith is not believing in
God so much as it is believing God. There's a great difference. Believing in God and believing
God. There's a great difference. I
don't know of anyone. I know that there are people
that I don't know that claim that there is no God, but yet
in the people that I hang around, the sphere of people that I'm
around, I've not encountered anyone to say, there is no God. I haven't found anyone. Maybe I don't hang out in high
enough education circles. I just hang around with the lowly
folks. And lowly folks, they believe
there is a God. They say, do you believe in God?
Well, sure, I believe in God. Yeah, but do you believe God?
Do you believe God? See, Abraham just didn't believe
in God. Abraham believed God. There's a great difference. I
have faith in God. That means that I believe that
God is true. If I believe God, I must believe
that he is true. I believe him because he has
my best interest at heart, and I believe him because I know
he is able. He's able to do what he promised
to do. My faith in God is not blind.
My faith in God is not a leap in the dark. My faith in God
rests completely and solely on the person of God to fulfill
all the promises that He's given me. All of the promises of God
that He has given me, I believe God is true. And that's the first
thing. God is true. If I am to believe
God, I must believe the promises of God because God is true. Now, only men lie. Only men lie. Why do men lie? Well, self-preservation
is probably the top of the list. Men lie because of self-preservation,
don't they? I mean, if the truth is going
to cause us to shine in front of somebody, we're going to tell
the truth. But if it uncovers some kind
of evil or some kind of wickedness in ourselves, we lie to cover. We lie to cover up the truth. Only men lie. And because we lie, we are trying
to hide something. We may lie because of fear. Fear
of others. We lie because of fear of others.
Fear of what men might do to us. Believe me, we are not far,
friends, from this. We're not far from where the
Christianity or the church began in the New Testament. We're not
far from there yet. Eventually, it's going to come
back around to that point to where we will be persecuted for
the gospel. And so when they come to us,
they're going to ask us concerning our faith. And if we lie, what
are we doing? We are trying to preserve ourselves
or our things. But let me ask you this. Why
should God lie? There is no reason for God to
lie. Now, we know this. God can't
lie because God is holy. God is just. God is pure. But friends, truly, there is
no reason for God to lie to anyone. He doesn't fear anyone. God is
not trying to hide anything about Himself. How many things in here
have you been ashamed of? Have I been ashamed of? Because
we did not understand. And so what did we do? We tried
to skirt around or try to present God in a better light. Now, God never asked us to do
that. God doesn't ask us to present him in any light, but as he presents
himself in Scripture. God is not ashamed of who he
is. God is true and everything God
does is true and right and pure. God is not like man that he should
lie. Friends, I am a man, and I do
lie. There's no doubt about that. Scripture says that we all come
forth from the womb speaking lies. You didn't have to teach
me to lie. I learned that all by myself.
I knew how to lie from the beginning. Because I'm a man, I'm a sinner,
I know that I lie. But God is not anything like
we are. He doesn't fear man what men
could do to Him, and He does not lie. Now, the gods of men
and religion do lie. But the true God does not lie. I do not have to make excuses
for my God. I do not have to try to trick
men into believing Him. I don't have to give any promises
that God has not given Himself. Isn't this what false religion
does? Tries to allure men by promises that are not in the
Word of God. They have to lie in order to
bring men in. God never does that when He calls
His people. He always calls them by the truth. The truth. I'm an ambassador
of Christ. And my office is simply to tell
you what God says, not to make up my own stories, not to make
up my own excuses, not to make up my own light of vision of
how I think God should be. The only thing I am to do is
to declare to you that God is true. Let God be true and every
man a liar. I tell you what God said is my
only purpose, my only goal in this life, is just to plainly
tell you what God says concerning His promises. And I tell you
that God is true and you should believe Him because He's true.
You should believe His promises because they're true. Scripture says, He is light,
and in Him is no darkness at all. If you remember in Numbers
23, when that false prophet Balaam went with Barak, and he was paid
to curse Israel. He said, I'm going to pay you
some money, I'm going to give you some honor, I'm going to give
you some of my kingdom, and all you have to do is curse Israel. Pronounce a curse on Israel. And he couldn't do it. I think it was three different
times, three different times they set up those altars and
they offered those sacrifices. And every single time that false
prophet came back, there was one thing he could not do. He
could not curse Israel. And in Numbers 23, verse 19,
that prophet said, God is not a man that he should lie. God is not a man that he should
lie, neither the Son of Man that he should repent. Hath he said and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he
not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment
to bless, and he hath blessed, and I cannot reverse it. He hath
not beheld iniquity, and Jacob neither hath he seen perverseness
in Israel. The Lord is his God, his God
is with him, and the shout of a king is among them." God is
not a man that he should lie. And God is not a man that he
should repent on his promises. When God makes a promise, it's
sure. Why? He's true. He's true. And everything he says is true.
Therefore, We say, let God be true and every man a liar because
God will not repent from his promises. I believe God's promises
because he's true. Do you believe God? Do you believe
God? Then you believe God's promises
because God is true and cannot lie. Second of all, I believe
God because God's promises are for my good. Go over to Jeremiah, chapter
20, chapter 32. I believe God's promises. Because
God. Has my best interest. At heart. Jeremiah, chapter 32 and verse
37. God says, behold, I will gather them out of all
countries whither I have driven them in mine anger and in my
fury and in great wrath. And I will bring them again to
this place and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be
my people and I will be their God. I will give them one heart
and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them. and of their children after them.
For I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will
not turn away from them to do them good. But I will put My
fear in their hearts and they shall not depart from Me. Yea,
I will rejoice over them to do them good. And I will plant them
in the land assuredly with My whole heart and with My whole
soul." What a promise is that? Have
you ever heard of such a promise? Now, I make promises all the
time, and I have good intention to keep them. But this is God speaking, who
does not repent from His promises. He says, I will not turn away
from them to do them good. This is the promise of God. The
promise of God to Abraham was for his good. He said, get up
and leave Ur of the Chaldees and you go out. Why? Because
I have your best interest at heart. You should believe God because
He has your best interest at heart. You should believe God
because He has your good in mind. Isn't
that the lie of the devil, the very first lie that he told our
mother Eve? He said, God doesn't want you
to eat this fruit because He's holding something good from you. You see, for God doth know in
the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt be as God. See, God
doesn't want you to eat that because in the day you eat that,
you're going to be like God. See, He's holding something back.
Isn't that the lie? Isn't that always been the lie?
That we're missing out on something great? Have you seen commercials?
I'll tell you what, those people seem to be having a great time,
don't they? I've never seen a commercial
about anything. Say alcohol. You ever seen the morning after
the guy's hung over the commode and he's vomiting all over himself? You don't see that! No! You see all of the fun. Oh, you're
missing out on all of the fun. God is just a wet blanket. He
doesn't want you to have... No, friends, I believe God because
God has my best interests at heart. If there's anything God
says I shouldn't do, it's because it's for my good. It's for my
good. The promises of God are one of
blessings. That's the one He gave Abraham.
He said, in thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed.
He promised, His promises, His promises that He shall bless
all the nations of the earth. But this blessing will only come
by one means. by one means. Now, God's promised
a blessing for your good, but it's only going to come by one
means, the same means of Abraham. In thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed. There was the promise. The promise
was in the seed. The promise was in one other
than Abraham. It was in Christ. In Christ are
all the promises of God wrapped. In Christ. Later, Revelation,
it says, in thy seed. And in Galatians, is where it
tells us, Galatians chapter 3, it tells us that he said seed,
not seeds, not many, but one. The promises of God that are
for our good are all wrapped up in one person. Jesus Christ
the Lord. There's where God's blessings,
there's where God's blessings are found in one person. Jesus Christ. And behold the
greatness of this promise. The greatness of God's goodwill
towards man. Because we were all born dead
in trespasses and sins. We all share a common birth.
We're all born of the same Father. All born sinners. None of us
are righteous. None of us are born righteous.
Neither none of us become righteous. That's what men think, though.
Men think you can become righteous. You start out kind of bad, and
then you progress into righteousness. No, you're either righteous or
you're not. There's not a middle ground. We are born speaking lies. Scripture says, Wherefore, as
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed upon all men, for all have sinned. Scripture says,
It is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. Now, because of the guilt of
our sin, none of us could ever be saved by our own works. This is our condition as we come
into this world. This is man's condition. And the law can only stir up
sin. The law can never save anyone. Don't know if you remember or
not, but in Pilgrim's Progress, you have the house of the interpreter
and he brings him into this room and it's full of dust. And he
commands one person, he says, sweep the floor. And he begins
to sweep. And what happens? The dust flies all in the air
and they can hardly breathe. That's what the law does. The
law can only stir up the dust of our sin. and choke us with
our own sin. The law can do nothing for us
but demand our death. But if you remember, He also
commanded another one to come in with water. And the water
did what to the dust? It washed it away. It made it
clean. Well, this is the work of the
Holy Spirit when the Spirit of God comes in. He comes in to
wash us from our sins, something the law could never do. The promise
of God is good to the hopeless, to the sinner. God's promise
is that He would wash us from our sins. He would cleanse us. Even as all men died in Adam
by a federal head, even so God has given us a promise that by
the representation of one, He would make men righteous. This is the promise of God. It
is summed up in Jesus Christ. The promise of a Savior. which is Jesus Christ the Lord,
who is the only mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus came not to call the righteous. Well, that's good, because I'm
not righteous. He came to call sinners. Well, that's good, because I'm
a sinner. You see, the heart of God's promise
is for our good. I believe God. I believe the
promise of God, because the promise of God is all for my good. Christ came to call sinners.
The promise of God in Christ is not for those people who are
righteous, but for sinners who are in need of forgiveness of
sins. Now, are you a sinner? Do you fall into this category
of having a need of righteousness that you cannot produce? Well,
I'm telling you the promise of God. The promise of God is that
He will give us His righteousness. How? By Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. Scripture says
in Romans 321, But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifest. Being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God. How is this righteousness made? Which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ made the righteousness
of God. He himself had no need of making
a righteousness. He was already righteous. But
as a man, he made the righteousness of God for me. And not only is
the promise that He would come and make that righteousness,
but also that He would give it. He says that by the faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. I believe God. I believe the
promise of God to be true. I believe that Jesus Christ has
obtained my righteousness. According to the promise of God.
I believe God. And what does God say about that?
God says, then I promise that I will take that righteousness
and impute it and impart it to you personally. I do not. I don't see it in the
mirror. When I get up in the morning,
I don't see the righteousness of God. Do you? I see a sinner
every morning. But I believe the promise of
God that He has imputed to me all His own righteousness. I have the righteousness of God. in Christ. He has made me righteous,
even as he promised to do. The scripture says, for being
ignorant of the righteousness, of God's righteousness, going
about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness to who? To everyone that believe. Is that not good? Is that not
good? Do you need that? Because I need
that. I need that. God says I did it because you
needed that. Before I prepared this message,
I had also prepared a message concerning Jehovah Jireh. What
the name of God that Abraham called God, when after he had,
God provided a sacrifice in the stead of his son. God will provide
himself a land. Friends, God promised he would
provide himself a lamb, and he has provided himself a lamb.
And that lamb is Jesus Christ. And so then the promises given
to Abraham were true. Jesus did come, he did fulfill
the law of God, and he did die in the place of sinners. Therefore,
I believe God because his promise is for my good. And lastly, I
believe God because he is able to keep his promise. God is, it would do us no good
if God intended to promise us these great things, if he could
not give them to us. But my God is not only willing,
he is able to give us his promise, to finish his promise. In 2 Timothy
1.12, the apostle Paul says, I know whom I have believed and
am persuaded that he is what? Able. Do you believe God is able
to keep you? Do you believe that God is able
to sustain you through every trial and every difficulty and
every circumstance? Do you believe God is able to
save you to the uttermost? Do you believe that? If you look to yourself, you
won't believe it, because we are not able. It is only when we look to God
that we have comfort, because God is both willing and able
to save us. God's intentions for us are good. And as Abraham believed God,
so should we. The Scripture said he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that he that had promised,
he was able also to perform. Friends, we should not stagger
at the promise of God. You and I should stagger at our
unbelief and our sinful condition, our horrid, oh, may God give us grace. We
daily are like that man, Lord, I believe, help thou my unbelief. The only hope for us is that
God is able to keep us until the end. How do we know that
God who promised us righteousness, that promised us forgiveness
of sin, how do you know that he will keep his promise? Well, I know he'll keep his promise
because Jesus Christ is made the surety of a better testament,
the surety, the guarantee. Jesus Christ has died for my
sins and now is risen and sits on the throne of God. My Savior
is alive. My Savior is alive. And as long
as my high priest lives, I have one to intercede between me and
God. I have one to stand between me
and God. In the Old Testament economy,
those priests, they died. You didn't know what you were
going to get the next time. You may have had a good priest
that year, but if he died, you didn't know what was coming next.
But I know this, my priest is eternal. My high priest is eternal. And so I don't have to worry
about someone coming in and changing the rules, changing the way things
are. My priest is a surety of a better
covenant because he is unchangeable. He said, this man, because he
continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. I believe the promises
of God to be true because God is true. I believe the promises
of God to be true because He has done everything for my good. And I know this, that the promises
of God are true because they have been accomplished in Jesus
Christ. My sin is gone. My righteousness
has been made. My righteousness has been imputed.
My faith has been given. My faith will be kept. The Scripture says, for all the
promises of God in Christ are yes. I like that word, don't you?
Yes? Isn't that a good word? My children don't know much of
that word. I'm usually saying, no, no, no, no. But the promises
of God to His children are yes! Forgive me of my sins. Yes, I
will forgive you of your sins. Keep me, my Father, from danger. Yes, I will keep you from danger. Father, keep my faith that I
should believe Thy Son until the last breath goes from my
body. Yes. God's people will continue to
believe until the day they die and their faith will be lost
in sight. Yes. And not only yes, amen. Let it be so. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say amen. God's promises are true. God's
promises are true because God's true. God's promises are to be
believed because they're for my best interest. God's promises are to be believed
because he is able to keep us. And save us to the uttermost.
Everyone that comes to God by Jesus Christ. May God add the blessings to
this message. May his spirit brand this on
our hearts, that God be true and every man
a liar, even myself. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.