Promises! A fundamental word that we each are drawn to. Without promises, we would not have a forethought of hope, a ration of expectation of relief and even without promises we each are only good to our own word, as I hear frequently mentioned to me. This was a true fundamental virtue throughout early America and even around the globe. So if our words were not our bond, if our actions did not prove our words were genuine, what good are we? These and many more questions alike are as a result of a serious dilemma in mankind. Do we live by the promises of man, or the true and divine promissory God of the bible? Throughout scripture, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob keeps proving time after time that not only does He give us commands, tasks and challenges, all by way to help us grow and depend on Him, but He also gives us promises, regardless of our inability to keep ours. God keeps reaching out to us, promising to never abandon us over and over, which shows us for sure and for certain, our best hope is in the great I AM who made a covenant with His people, like Abraham, who continually took the initiative in relating to each of us and shall continue to reach down and out to us and embrace us just as we are today for all eternity. Believe it or not friends, we do serve a Promissory God, a God of promises.
Everek Storms of the Interchurch Holiness Convention declared that he counted over 8,000 promises in the entire bible. Eighty-five percent of those promises was a direct promise from God to man. Of the most promises given in one chapter, he found in Psalm 37 which gives a full array of declarations—from giving us the desires of our hearts to giving abundant peace. So much of God is of promises it’s not funny.
Rev. Billy Graham gave a real proclamation in telling the realism of God’s promises and what it really means for each of us today. “The Bible is a book of many promises, and unlike the books of men, it doesn’t change or get out of date. The Bible makes it clear that no problems in our lives are too great or too small for God’s concern. He cares about everything that affects those who belong to Him. If we have no knowledge of God’s promises to us, we will not be able to appropriate them.
While all the promises of the Bible cannot be listed in this brief post, the Bible contains many thousands. God has given us the entirety of His word of truth and we must search it out, for there is great blessing in doing so. From one end of the Bible to the other, God assures us that He will never go back on His promises.
But the greatest of His promises given to all mankind is found in perhaps the best known passage John 3:16. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God has given His promise of eternal salvation and says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved” (Romans 10:9).
God stands ready to fill us with His words; for there is no greater armor, no greater strength, and no greater assurance that He is with us, and in us. When we walk with Him through this life He will equip and nourish us by His instruction and will help us stand firm on His promises.”
There is no way I can say it any better. In starting our journey today friends, we are going to look closer into the Promissory God of the Bible as we start at the beginning of Genesis, chapter 17. “The Lord appeared to Abram and said, I am God Almighty; Walk before Me, and be blameless. 2 I will make My covenant between Me and you, And I will multiply you exceedingly.” 3 Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, 4 “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, And you will be the father of a multitude of nations. 5 No longer shall you be named Abram, But your name shall be Abraham; For I have made you the father of a multitude of nations.”
Human history is depicted as a serious promise made by God which would include families like Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Joseph, Moses, King David, his son Soloman and so many more. But there is one important aspect to mention here is which Gods blessings upon Abraham was not just the blessing of one family, but a multitude of nations to come. That plan included you and me today! As you may recall in Chapter 16, Abram was 86yo. By the beginning of chapter 17, he is 99 when finally, God appeared to him. Thirteen years of silence have taken place. During this time, we assume nothing had occurred from God as towards the reasonable solution that God was silent. Think about that! When our percolating thoughts expand upon God, we get the impression that something is wrong if God doesn’t give us a sign, a call or even a nudge. We want and even desire to seek His presence regularly as we should, but sometimes God remains quiet—days and even years. However, God never forgets His promises. It wasn’t until Chapter 21 when Abraham was 100 years old before his son Isaac was born to him as God originally promised. One can’t help to wonder, why the wait? Answer, God has a better plan in mind for him!
During the times of our lives where God seems quiet, not personal or present, we tend to think nothing significant is happening—but we would be wrong. Any time we spend with God, we spend it with the full purpose of deepening our roots, watering of the soil and waiting on God while growing in maturity. Nothing is displaced, nothing is out of kilter, nothing is missing while we patiently wait and serve the living God. I do believe one of the biggest scares mankind has is the feeling of being abandoned; Left alone; no one to be with us, support us and love us. It’s even a more devastating thought to think God himself has left us just where we are! When Jesus himself was dying on the cross, did He not say “Father, why have you forsaken me?” This brief moment of time, God turned his face away from sin in the form of His Only Son—a requirement needed to be done in order to fulfill Gods Holy Promise made centuries before in order to give us a savior, the Messiah.
I cannot exclaim all of God’s promises, but I can tell you this for sure and for certain, God has and continues to work His promises in me as I know He does in you as well. God hasn’t moved in our lives, we moved. God does not remain silent in our lives, we stopped listening. God hasn’t stopped working in our lives, we ignore His passions. We are not looking for Him as often as we should.
At the University of Tennessee in 2020, Kenyon Wilson, a professor of over 70 music students attempted to prove a point. At the very bottom of syllabus the students receive was a brief remark that there is a lock in the school that has $50 in it along with the combination of the locker. Day by day during the entire semester the professor check that the $50 was till in that locker. Not being surprised, the professor addressed the students on the last day of the semester about the $50 and one student stood up and said “I felt pretty dumb. I just read it this morning in the syllabus.” The point the professor made was if they do not read the required material, they would miss the clues to something precious and promising.
God has given us every great and precious promises in His word which we can claim by faith when we earnestly seek Him and live by faith. Again, look at Abraham! Even his many flaws, God still came through with His promises. Do you want to know why? Because God said to mankind, I will be your God and you will be my people! That includes us today!
In closing, in order for us to successfully reflect upon the Promissory God of the bible, I wanted to tell you about 5 of God’s most reflective covenants of promise He made with His people.
The Noahic Covenant. Gods Royal Grant in that He promised to never again destroy earth by flood waters, thus representing an unconditional promise from God to His people.
The Abrahamic Covenant. God extended an impossible command to Abraham when he told him to leave all that he knew and follow and to follow Him. From that God gave the lineage of all descendants to date from that solemn promise.
The Mosaic Covenant. Seeing the Israelites becoming restless and disrespectful, God gave Moses the Law (the Ten Commandments) and to date it is designed to give us proper instruction and order to live Holy lives in the sight of God. If they responded well to the commandments, God would richly bless them as His chosen people. This Jesus applies to us today with two new commandments of love.
The Davidic Covenant. From the Israelites’ refusal to follow the Ten Commandments, God’s pursuit was to redeem His people and bring them back into a loving relationship with Him. God promises unconditionally to ensure King David and his lineage would rule over Israel forever. From that lineage came Jesus from the rod of Jesse which goes right into the new covenant which we derive the words ‘New Testament,’ which is the fifth covenant. Hebrews 9:15 “For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the violations that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.” The New Covenant ushers in Jesus’s sacrificial death on the cross as the only true way for mankinds sin to be fully resolved—but it comes at a high price. As first expressed in Jeremiah 31:31-34 as the reason God chose this form of covenant over others that required action from His people, the Davidic Covenant blends with the New Covenant as Jesus is a descendent from King David and fulfills the understanding of David’s household ruling over Israel forever. This is God’s new covenant from the house of Israel and Judah.
What I would like to have you take away from this message is the word covenant. The definition used in websters does not give much merit as it states “a binding agreement,” much like you would see on a contract. Nevertheless, a covenant is exactly that but something more, a solemn compact agreement, not from mankind but from the sovereign king of all creation which is between God and you and me. Friends the Promissory God of the bible should ring true to your ears today as God gave a covenant that is beyond anything we could do or understand. It’s God’s true and loyal nature to be complete from beginning to end. God is a God of faithfulness that fulfill’ s all of His promises not just to the pristine and powerful, but to the low and the meek. But in true reality friends, do you want to know what a covenant is? It’s a relationship between us and God which has been formalized into a sanction or contract that not only holds God accountable but us as well. Please rest in God’s arms friends as we do indeed serve a God of everlasting promise. Amen.