Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see, one of the most important things about the promises of God is God gave him so you'd be comforted. We live in a cursed planet among sinful people. Pain and suffering is the staple here.
It's everywhere. And so consequently, God is talking about this idea of the end game, either when Christ comes back or we go to be with him. And he says, look, I promise the way these things are going to turn out. Why? Because I need comfort and so do you. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. Well, we just went through another election.
Isn't it great? I mean, things are going to get a lot better now. I heard them talk after they won. They promised. The definition of a promise is a declaration of a future surety. When it comes to the promises of politicians. I think we're skeptical. In fact, most of us are downright cynical.
But really, are politicians any different than the rest of us? When it comes to promises. You loan a friend money and they promise to repay you.
And you're still waiting. You tell a secret to a friend. And within hours. It's public knowledge. Your teenager tells you that if you would let it slide this evening, that by Saturday morning, their room will be virtually spotless.
It's still a war zone. On Saturday. We stand before God and witnesses and we give promises. We call them vows. And almost half of us. And break that promise. Courts are filled with lawsuits and breached contracts. You see, human beings are not very good at keeping promises.
Thank God. That God is. God keeps his promises. And that's because God and this will be your word for the day has veracity. Veracity simply means he has an adherence to the truth. You see, God keeps his promises because God can not lie.
That would violate his nature. And so when God promises, he delivers. And that's a good thing. The Bible is packed with the promises of God. Depending on who you read. Some have said there are about 3000 promises in the Bible. Lockyer, who is simply an expert on list, says that there are 7474 promises in the word of God. If that would be true, that would mean there's 113 promises in each of the 66 books of the Bible.
So apparently. It's very important to God to make promises. To us.
Now. When we think of promises, though, there are some truths that we need to understand. Let's begin by opening your Bible to Second Peter, Chapter three. The apostle Peter is responding to people who are unbelievers. You people that are believers keep saying that Jesus is going to come back.
But where is he? And that's how Peter responds. In verse one, he says, This is now beloved, the second letter that I am writing you in which I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. That you should, he said, remember the words spoken beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior spoken by your apostles. Knowing this, first of all, that in the last days, mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues, just as it was from the beginning of creation. For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that by the word of God, the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water.
And it's through which the world at that time was destroyed, being flooded with water. But by his word, the present heavens and earth, he said, are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment, destruction of ungodly men. And then this, he says, Do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like one day. The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish, but for all to come to repentance. I read all that to simply say this one truth about God's promises. God is not in a hurry. He's never in a hurry.
Now, understand that when you're waiting for a promise to happen in your own life, you want this to move along pretty quickly. The apostles, when you read in the New Testament epistles, Peter and Paul, what they talked about often is they wanted the Lord to come back now. They were sure he was. In fact, Jews who had converted to Christ stayed in Jerusalem in the Book of Acts because they were so sure that the Lord was coming back because he promised to come back. But the difference is God is not in a hurry. You see, he had a plan there.
He said he wanted to be patient with men, give men more time to come to Christ. You see, our problem with it is we see the world or your world like looking through a straw. That's how you see your life. You simply look through the straw and that's all you see.
And somehow you think you see life, but you don't. God doesn't look through a straw. God sees everything at once. You see, and often when we see that phrase, a thousand years is like a day and day is like a thousand years, we often want to say the only thing we speak of is the thousand years is like a day. For God, it might be two thousand years since Christ was here until now, but there's only two days to God. But the other thing that Peter writes is to God, a day can seem like a thousand years. Think about that.
Think about it from that point of view. God knows every thought every person on the planet has at every moment of time in one day. He sees every sparrow fall in creation, everything that goes on.
He sees the universe expand. Just imagine how many things are going on in one day that God's fully aware of. And that's why he says to God, a day can even seem like a thousand years. You see, we are constrained by time and we don't like it. And time to us is one of, without a question, the inevitable enemy of all of us. We don't have enough time in a day.
We don't have enough time in our life. Time becomes an issue to us. God's not in a hurry because he's not at all constrained by time. He's outside of time. He created time. And so from God's point of view, time is a meaningless thing.
It has no bearing at all, except on how it weighs to us. So God's role is that he will make the promise and he will see that it comes to pass. Our role, and this is the part we don't like, is to wait. You see, he wants us to wait. And in order to wait, it takes faith.
In fact, to wait a long time takes a lot of faith. And so God makes promises, but God's not in a hurry. Secondly, God never forgets his promises.
And that's reassuring to us. Turn with me now to 1 Thessalonians 4, this time the Apostle Paul. Here is a church of believers, and they are anticipating the return of the Lord. That promise is going to take place.
However, they've run into a dilemma. What is happening to those of us in our church who are dying? We're all here waiting for the Lord, but what about those who die? What about those who sleep in the Lord?
What's going to happen to them? And that's where the Apostle Paul weighs in, in verse 13. He says, We do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, he says, so that you do not grieve, as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him, he says, those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.
There's the promise. You're worried about you're a dead believer. They say, Don't you worry about those asleep in Jesus. When Jesus comes back, he's bringing him, I promise. Then he says, For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. And then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we shall always be with the Lord. Now the promise. Then he says this, Therefore comfort one another with these words. You see, one of the most important things about the promises of God is God gave him so you be comforted. We live in a cursed planet among sinful people. Pain and suffering is the staple here.
It's everywhere. And so consequently, God is talking about this idea of the end game, either when Christ comes back or we go to be with him. And he says, Look, I promise the way these things are going to turn out. Why? Because I need comfort.
And so do you. So God is not in a hurry. And God, we find out, never forgets his promises. And there's one more thing. God's promises are always limited to the context in which they are given.
That's very important for us to remember. Jesus says, Come unto me, all you that are heavy laden. And I will give you rest. That's universal. Jesus is basically saying to everybody, Look, you want rest?
Come to me. It's a universal type of promise. In John Chapter five, John writes this. He says, Truly, truly, I say to you that he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Who does that apply to?
Everybody. It's a universal promise. But all God's promises are not universal. In Second Samuel Chapter seven, God is speaking to David and he says this, Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time. And he says, And your throne will be secure forever. That doesn't apply to you.
That doesn't apply to me. That applies to David. He gave it specifically to David. He says to Abraham in Genesis 15, Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That's how many descendants you will have. That was made Abraham. Some of God's promises are universal.
Some of them are personal. And some of God's promises are conditional. In fact, think about John five that I read.
I'll read it again, but think about it from that point of view. Truly, truly, I say to you, here's the conditions. He who hears my word and believes him who sent me. There's the condition of the promise. If you do that, you have eternal life and do not come into judgment but have passed from death into life. So some of God's promises are universal.
Some of them are personal. And some of God's promises are conditional. Now, with all of that in mind about God keeping his promises, let's revisit Abraham, the friend of God, and his wife Sarah. Genesis chapter 21. God first made the promise to Abraham, Abram at the time, when he was in Ur and he was going to come out of the Chaldeans and go into the land of Canaan. It's been 25 years.
Now, please understand something here. When God made the promise that you're going to have an heir and the whole world is going to be blessed through your son. When God made that promise, Abraham was 75 and Sarah was 65. So God made the promise and as this is typical of God, I'll make the promise and now you have a job. Wait. Now, we've been studying Abraham. How's the waiting going?
Not so well. How would you like to be told when you're 75, your wife's 65, you're going to have your child? Now, what you'd want to think in your mind, look, if you don't get moving pretty quickly here, nothing's going to happen. But God doesn't move quickly and a year goes by and five years go by and 10 years go by and 20 years go by. You see, he has them waiting for this promise. That's the context of what God's doing. Why did God wait? I don't know. God only fully knows.
My suspicion is this. Abraham was not ready for the fulfillment of the promise. That Abraham was not spiritually mature enough. We've seen the maturation of Abraham and the difficulties that he's faced. There was a drought in the land and instead of trusting God, Abraham went to Egypt. And then when he got to Egypt, by the way, what happened to him? Then he told Sarah, you lie and say you're my sister so that they won't kill me. And instead of protecting his wife, he made his wife extremely vulnerable to Pharaoh's court. Then when he got back, back into the land of Canaan and still no child, Sarah comes up with an idea and says to Abram, look, how about if we take Hagar, my Egyptian slave, and you have a child with her? And Abram agrees and Ishmael is born. See, another terrible idea. And then just in a chapter before the one we're looking at now, they run into a situation with Abimelech, another king, and guess what Abraham asked his wife to do?
Tell him you're my sister. I mean, you see, he's a lot like us, by the way. You ever repeat any sin more than once?
I'm just guessing. Yes. Yes, he does it again. But he's maturing. Remember, he went to battle for a lot and rescued him. He also prayed for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with God. He cared about other people. He is maturing.
So 25 years pass. And then we run into these verses. The Lord took note of Sarah that he had said the Lord did for Sarah as he had promised. And then verse 2, and so Sarah conceived and his son were born to Abraham in his old age at the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Just imagine some servant running out of the tent. It's a boy. She's 90. It's a boy. What an amazing thing when you think about it.
But there's something in here that makes it even more intriguing to me. It says, so Sarah conceived and bore a son to Abram in his old age, and then this phrase, at the appointed time. At the appointed time, that Hebrew word means exact specific. At the appointed time. In fact, if you turn a page back to chapter 18, remember what God said in verse 14?
We covered this before, but look at 1814. God speaking, is anything too difficult for the Lord? At the appointed time, I will return to you. He said at this time next year, and Sarah will have a son. It becomes even more specific. At the appointed time.
Not just any time. Hold your place here and go with me to Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Ecclesiastes chapter 3. Very familiar verses to you.
I believe it was Simon and Garfunkel that sang this. I'm going to start in verse 2. Solomon, the wisest man on the planet at the time, writes this. A time to give birth and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot what is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to tear down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones. A time to embrace and a time to shun embracing. A time to search and a time to give up as lost. A time, he says, to keep and a time to throw away. A time to tear apart and a time to sew together. A time to be silent and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time for war and a time for peace.
26 times, time, time, time. The verse I didn't read is verse 1. There's something else. There is an appointed time.
Wow. Same phrase as Genesis. There is an appointed time for everything. There is a time for every event under heaven.
From what perspective here? From God's. There's an appointed time. You see, this is interesting. God keeps his promises.
There's no doubt about that. But the idea is God said, I want you to understand something. I am sovereign over my creation. I am sovereign over time.
That's astounding. By the way, some of you don't like that. A lot of people don't like God's sovereignty at all. They just don't.
A lot of them say, I don't like that. If God's sovereign and I'm somehow diminished. No, you're not diminished.
You're not diminished at all. In fact, God's sovereignty, it's clear, doesn't exclude our free will at all. We still have free will. But God's saying, I'm sovereign over everything.
A second point might be this. Free will is not that good a deal. I know you might go, no, it's wonderful. It's the most wonderful thing about us that we have free will. No, that's not the most wonderful thing about us. The most wonderful thing about us is we're created in the image of God, which includes free will. But let me ask you, when Adam and Eve exercised their free will, how'd that work out?
What happened? You see, they exercised their free will. They became less like God and became slaves to sin. And we inherit their nature. So the whole idea is I want our free will. Man and our free will is what reigns. Okay, man's will is free. And let's look at it historically.
How's it worked out? How has man treated man with his free will? How many men have murdered men? How many countries have destroyed countries and created genocides?
How many? We're exercising our free will. Be careful. Our free will is not really as wonderful as we might think it is. God says, I am sovereign over all of this.
God's plan is to redeem us from our free will and our evil desires and choices. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called OnePlace.com. That's OnePlace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.
At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. That's F-B-C-N-O-L-A dot O-R-G. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.
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