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Introduction: Have you ever made a promise to someone and broken it? Has anyone ever broken a promise to you? Nakita Kreushev said, "Promises are like pie crust…made to be broken."

A. With many people, their word is their honor.

B. Courts of Law and even some people will require us to swear that we will keep our word or to tell the truth.

C. I had two occasions of selling a car that someone one would come along after I had agreed to sell it to another person and wanted to offer me more money if I would sell it to them.

A. God’s promise to Abraham. The Jews considered Abraham to be their spiritual Father. The writer goes back to Abraham to show the surety of God’s promise.

1. The promise was stated in Gen. 12:1-3.

2. Abraham was 75 years old and a nomad.

3. The promise is restated, plus the promise of the land of Canaan (Gen. 13:14-17).

4. The promise is restated in Gen. 15:1-6.

5. The promise is restated again in Gen. 17:1-8.

6. The promise of a son is fulfilled in Gen. 21:1-5.

B. Abraham is tested concerning this son in Gen. 22:1-14.

C. God’s promise to Abraham is restated a final time with an oath in Gen. 22:15-18.

A. Verse 17—The same thing—God desires to build our faith. We are heirs of the promise to Abraham (Gal. 3:26-29).

B. Notice verse 18—Two unchangeable things: (1) God cannot lie. (2) His promise was confirmed with an oath that God cannot break.

C. There are four impossibilities in the book of Hebrews.

1. Impossible for one who had fallen back into Judaism to be saved there (6:4-6).

2. Impossible for the blood of bulls and goats (the old covenant) to take away sins (10:4).

3. Impossible to please God without faith (11:6).

4. Impossible for God to lie (6:18).

 

A. Faith can and will be tested…the promise of Abraham was 25 years in fulfillment. (Psalm 40:1,2).

B. Promise was fulfilled in all of its greatness.

C. The HOPE set before us. God will fulfill His promises to us (John 3:16; Matt. 28:19,20, etc.).

1. Hope is an anchor that can be used in stormy or calm seas.

D. Our faith in the promises of God produces the great hope that removes all of our anxieties.

1. The illustration about the little girl.

A little girl was taken into a preacher’s home to live. But, the preacher and his wife were not permitted immediately to adopt her. The little girl was afraid of the dark; she could sleep only in a lighted room with no outside door. She was afraid of strangers, and when out in public, clung to her foster parents. Always, she was afraid that somebody would come and take her away.

The difficulties were finally straightened out, and the couple was permitted to adopt her. Immediately after the court procedure, they went on a camping trip. They were relaxed and happy as they sat together by the campfire that night. After it was dark, the little girl said, "I’m sleepy, I’m going to bed." Carrying her doll, she went to the tent alone, went inside, and fell asleep quickly.

The parents watched anxiously. Finally, the preacher brushed away a tear from his eyes and said to his wife, "Thank God, she knows she is ours."

God wants us to have the peace and assurance of knowing that we are His children. In 1834 Edward Mote wrote a hymn that expresses this glorious teaching:

My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

When darkness seems to hide His face,

I rest on His unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the veil.

His oath, His covenant, His blood

Support me in the whelming flood;

When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my hope and stay.

On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand.

Invitation: God & Christ will keep their promises to us if we are faithful in our commitment to them. Will you come and obey them today on their terms?

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