Promises of God, Promises of Man

Sis Melinda Song

Recently Hubby and I have just finished watching 2 seasons of a TV series entitled “Hell On Wheels.” Set in the 1860s at the end of the American Civil War, it is a story about Cullen Bohannon, a former Confederate soldier, who is determined to exact revenge on the Union soldiers who murdered his wife and young son. His quest for vengeance led him to Nebraska’s “Hell on Wheels,” a lawless mobile encampment that moves along with the construction of the First Transcontinental Railroad. 

Bohannon eventually became a fugitive because there was a bounty on him for the murders of the "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_Army" Union soldiers. His boss, Thomas Durant, who needed his services as foreman, found him and managed to obtain a pardon for him on the condition that he come back to work on the railroad. When Durant brought Bohannon back to the camp Bohannon asked Durant, “Aren’t you afraid I will run out on you?”

Durant’s reply was, “Mr Bohannon, for a man like you, your word is stronger than any shackle I can put on you.” Bohannon was a man of his word. He was a man who told the truth and kept his promises. He was someone you can trust because you know he will do what he says he will do. 

A lot of words pass through our lips everyday so let us today look at what Jesus has this to say about keeping our word. 

Matthew 5:33-37  “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ 34 But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; 35 or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. 36 And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. 37 All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.

The title for my message today is Promises Of God, Promises of Man. 

How many Bohannon’s are there? Nowadays everything has to go through the lawyers. And even then there are loopholes that people find in order to wiggle out of keeping their word. 

Our words are so unreliable that people often make oaths and vows in order to show that they really mean what they say. 

So what is an oath? Sometimes it is necessary to assure others that what we are saying is true. To swear or take an oath is simply making a declaration to man (or men) in which we call God to be our witness. In court, when we are called to be a witness we take an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. 

Oath-taking is necessary because we know that our plain word is not likely to be trusted. As A. M. Hunter puts it, "Oaths arise because men are so often liars” but Jesus is emphasizing that honest men do not need to resort to oaths. 

What is a vow? A vow is a promise made to God or a deity “to believe something, say something, do something or be something.” The promise could be made to God alone, or with men as witnesses. Vows may also be a commitment to oneself to a given life, e.g. marriage or monastic vows.

What is a promise? So long as we have told someone we will do something for him, it is a promise. We do not need to raise three fingers or even say “I promise” to make a promise. This, in a sense, is what our Lord and James is teaching us when they instruct us to let our yes be yes; and our no be no (Mt 5:37, Jas 5:12). We must always speak the truth, and what we say we will do, we must do. 

We make many promises in our lives. Unfortunately, no one can lay claim to having kept every promise that they have made. 

a. How many of us have had people break their promises to us? We are all accustomed to seeing promises being made and broken. Near the top of the list of most untrustworthy persons are politicians who do not keep their campaign promises. How discerning of Christopher Tan label his project as “Janji diketepikan,” instead of “Janji di tepati”!

We shake our heads and carry on with life, hardly allowing it to bother us unless someone we love and trust breaks a promise made to us.

b. On the other hand, how many of us have made promises that we have broken? It could be as simple as forgetting to call when you said you would, or promising to take the rubbish out and you didn’t. Which parent hasn’t heard from their child, “But Mom, you promised!” It is a gentle reminder of how easily we make and break promises. 

Here is a list of the most common promises. See if they sound familiar to you.

1. I promise I will do it tomorrow, e.g., start revision for exams, start on our diet
2. I promise I will never tell anyone.
3. I will call you. Or, I will pray for you. [That’s why I always pray for people immediately]
4. I will never do that again.
5. I promise I will always love you.

People are fallen and not perfect, and we all have to deal with that, even in our own selves. I don’t think we intend to lie or deceive but:

• Sometimes we over-commit. Very often we are people who have good intentions or who tend to think we can do more than we can and so can't always follow through on what we've committed to do. E.g. New Year resolutions that are broken before January is over. Nowadays I only make one New Year resolution: I shall not make any New Year resolution [which is actually a circular argument]! 
• Sometimes we simply forget things that we commit to. E.g. A friend drove home after he collected his car, forgetting that his wife was waiting for him at the entrance. Pharoah’s chief cup-bearer forgot all about Joseph after he was reinstated (Gen. 40:23). 
• Sometimes promises are broken due to circumstances beyond our control. E.g. Hachiko the dog who waited every day at the railway station for his master to return. One day his master had a heart attack at work and didn’t arrive on his usual train. Hachiko appeared faithfully every evening to wait for his master until the day he died. 
• Sometimes people change their minds, and so they break their promises. E.g. You vowed to be faithful to your spouse as long as you both shall live. 
• A promise is a promise, whether big or small. Promise-keeping is one of the pillars of civilised society, and when it is demolished we all suffer. A world full of broken promises produces a world full of broken lives. 

God expects us to keep our word even if it costs us dearly.  He wants us to keep our promises no matter how difficult, embarrassing, hard, or burdensome it may be. We ought to keep our word to the best of our ability.

Illustration: The book, "A Promise Kept", is the story of Robertson McQuilkin, a former missionary and seminary president who gave up his post because his wife Muriel had Alzheimer's disease. He dedicated himself full-time for as long as the Lord deemed necessary to take care of his wife. He wrote of traveling with his wife here:

Once our flight was delayed in Atlanta and we had to wait a couple of hours. Now that's a challenge. Every few minutes we'd take a fast-paced walk down the terminal in earnest search of what? Muriel had always been a speed walker. I had to jog to keep up with her.

An attractive woman executive type sat across from us, working diligently on her computer. Once when we returned from an excursion she said something without looking up from her papers. Since no one else was nearby I assumed she had spoken to me, or at least mumbled in protest for our constant activity. "Pardon?" I asked. "Oh," she said, "I was just asking myself, Will I ever find a man to love me like that?"

McQuilkin turned to the woman and said, "Oh yes, you can find a man like that. You can find a man like that, because I've found a man like that. The only reason I love my wife the way you see me loving her is because the man Jesus first loved me. The only resources I have to draw upon to love my wife the way I do are the resources he gives me. Mirrored in my relationship here with my wife you can see the faithful love of God for me."

What a wonderful testimony for Christ! When you keep your promises, when your yes is a yes and your no is a no, it glorifies the Lord and honor and respect is your reward. 

We have a God who honours his commitments. He keeps his promises. He fulfills his word. You are most like God when you keep your promises because God Himself is a Promise-keeper! 

Numbers 23:19  God is not human, that he should lie, nor a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?

A. Don’t evaluate God’s ability to keep His promises by human standards

I am thankful that God is not human like us. He is God! He’s more than we are and more than we’ll ever be. He has all the power and wisdom in the universe at his disposal. He is in control and is able to do all that He has promised. God can do anything but fail. 

He just has to speak and it is done. 

Isaiah 55:10-11  As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Remember, promises are only as strong as the person who makes them. A promise is of no use if it is beyond the ability of the one who promised.

Romans 4:18-21  Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 19 Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. 20 Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, 21 being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. 

B. God will never lie or change His mind.

1 Samuel 15:29 “He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.”

God cannot lie because He is "the God of Truth" (Psa. 31:5). He is "the true God" (Jer. 10:10). Jesus said "I am the truth" (John 14:6). Truth is in Jesus (Eph. 4:21). If He has promised, He will do it. 

After they entered the Promised Land and the land was divided among the tribes:

Joshua 21:43-45  So the LORD gave Israel all the land he had sworn to give their ancestors, and they took possession of it and settled there. 44 The LORD gave them rest on every side, just as he had sworn to their ancestors. Not one of their enemies withstood them; the LORD gave all their enemies into their hands. 45 Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.

The problem for us is in believing that what God said will actually happen. Or sometimes things just don’t happen the way we expect them to happen. Why?   

1. We operate on a different time schedule than God does.  Our society tells us that it is now or never.  God never said that. 

2 Peter 3:8-9  But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

2. Some of the promises are conditional and we have not fulfilled the conditions. They come with instructions that we have to follow in order to enjoy all that He offers. 

Take for example John 3:16.

John 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

You have a choice to believe or not to believe but either way God will keep His promise in John 3:16. 

Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

God has obligated Himself only to the extent of our needs. That would include food, clothing, shelter, companionship, love, and salvation through Jesus Christ. It would not include the multiplicity of luxuries that we have come to think of as needs.

3. And not all the promises are ours to claim. For example, God spoke specific promises to Abraham at several places in the book of Genesis. God promised to give Abraham a son, and to produce a nation from Abraham's seed, and to give Abraham a land and a name. These promises were given specifically to Abraham, and they were fulfilled through the Jewish people.

D. You can trust God to fulfill ALL His promises 

The Bible is a book of the promises of God that have been fulfilled and that will be fulfilled at the end of the age. 

2 Corinthians 1:18-20  But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No." 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No," but in him it has always been "Yes." 20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God. 

See for yourself the fulfillment of God’s promises to Israel

a. Disobedience would lead to the nation of Israel being scattered amongst all nations.
Deut 28:64 'Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other.' 

See also Lev 26:33, Jer 9:16, Ezek 12:15. In all, 6 different books of the Bible predict the scattering of Israel amongst all the nations of the earth. In 70 AD when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Roman Empire and the remaining Jews were scattered amongst the nations. 

b. No rest for their souls while in exile amongst the nations.

Deut 28:65-66 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.

For nearly 2000 years following the destruction in 70AD, the 'wandering Jew' has lived without a homeland, subject to the strongest racial prejudice and torment suffered by any people group. From the day they were scattered to the holocaust of WWII, this prophecy spoken by Moses has sadly been fulfilled.

c. God himself would restore the Jews to the land of Israel from all the nations
Jer 16:14-16 However, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when men will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ but they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their forefathers.

In all, 13 books of the Bible speak of the nation of Israel being restored in their land from the nations in which they were scattered. This prophecy became history in 1948 when the United Nations granted a homeland to the Jewish people and the nation of Israel was reborn! See also Jer 3:14, 31:8-9, Isa 60:8-9, Deut 30:3, Amos 9:15.

d. Isaiah 66:7-8 “Before she goes into labor, she gives birth; before the pains come upon her, she delivers a son. Who has ever heard of such a thing? Who has ever seen such things? Can a country be born in a day or a nation be brought forth in a moment? Yet no sooner is Zion in labor than she gives birth to her children.”

This accurately describes what happened on May 14, 1948 - when Israel became a united and sovereign nation for the first time in 2900 years.

e. Zech 7:14 I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left so desolate behind them that no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate.

While the Jewish people were scattered amongst many nations, the land of Israel was a barren desert. See also Lev 26:14, Ezek 15:8, Jer 9:12-13, 23:10, 44:22, Isa 32:13 

f. Isa 27:6 In the days to come, Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill the world with fruit.

Not only has God bought the Jewish people back into their land like He said He would in the last days, but He has also blessed the land so that they now export flowers and fruit around the world! Satellite photos show the green pastures of the nation of Israel, in sharp contrast with the surrounding desert lands of the Arab nations. See also Isa 35:1, Ezek 36:35.

g. God Himself would defend Israel and cause Israel to be mighty in battle
Zech 12:8 On that day the LORD will shield those who live in Jerusalem, so that the feeblest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the Angel of the LORD going before them.

Taken in context, this verse speaks about God defending Israel in a battle to come in the last days. Have we not seen this miraculously occur several times since Israel became a nation again in 1948? They have been greatly outnumbered in key Arab-Israeli wars in 1948, 1967, and 1973. Yet Israel exists! God has seen to that!

Let me end with this intro for the featured article, “ "http://nogreaterjoy.org/articles/israel-thriving-at-65/" Israel: Thriving at 65,”which is being reprinted with permission from the May/June 2013 issue of Israel My Glory magazine.

Such a small group of people on a tiny piece of land about the size of New Jersey—yet, such productivity. They are dwarfed by 22 hostile Arab/Islamic dictatorships 640 times their size and 60 times their population empowered by a sea of oil.

Wanting only to live in peace on a small portion of the land God gave them and the United Nations bequeathed to them, their efforts are frustrated by neighbors of a religious persuasion that killing just one Jew will guarantee them a place in paradise with 70 virgins. Worldwide Jewish population is about 13 million compared to 300 million of their enemies.

Having been forced into five major wars and seven major conflicts since 1947, much of their attention and assets go to self-defense. Having limited natural resources Israel has become a world leader in medicine, technology, agriculture, physics, science, and economics. With less than two-tenths of 1% of the world’s total population, they hold over 20% of all Nobel Prizes, a world standard for excellence, knowledge, and advancement. Of U.S. Nobel Prize winners, Jews make up 30% in Chemistry and 53% in Economics. How could this be?

It is a God-thing.

God is a covenant keeper.

He says, “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).

Predicting their unbelief and dispersal among the nations, God promised that in the last days, “And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them” (Amos 9:14).

There are many things in this life that can dash our hopes, but God’s promises are sure. 

One of my favourite songs is “Shout to the Lord!” and my spirits are always lifted up whenever I sing “nothing compares to the promises I have in You.”

The Bible is a historical record of the absolute reliability of God’s promises. The Bible's promises have always proven trustworthy, so you can rely on them. God’s promises have been thoroughly tested and found true.

Psalm 119:140  Your promises have been thoroughly tested, and your servant love them. 

You can count on the promises of God because God the Promiser is FAITHFUL. There are no broken promises with God. 

You can count on the promises of God because God the Promiser is POWERFUL.  God has infinite power to fulfill His promises.

All the promises of God are Yes in Christ! You can depend on God's promises, because Jesus is their guarantee.

Therefore…

Hebrews 10:23  Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. 

1. If you are a Christian asking “How long Lord?” 

a. Continue to have faith in a faithful God who will come through for you. Psalm 145:13  Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The Lord is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made.

b. BE patient. Learn to wait. God is not slow regarding his promises. 2 Peter 3:8-9   But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

c. Very often God’s promises come with testing. Meanwhile His grace and strength will carry you through. Psalm 119:50  My comfort in my suffering is this: Your promise preserves my life.

d. WHAT GOD HAS PROMISED

God has not promised skies always blue.
Flower-strewn pathways all our lives through.
God has not promised sun without rain,
Joy without sorrow, peace without pain.

But God has promised strength for the day,
Rest for the laborer, light on the way;
Grace for the trial, help from above,
Unfailing sympathy, undying love.

2. If you are not a Christian this morning . . .

a. God has two sets of promises for you.

b. Which set of promises will be fulfilled for your life?

c. God’s promises of salvation are conditional and only applicable if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.