Welcome to the InTouch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Wednesday, September 11th. People are flawed and inconsistent, but God is different. Today we are reminded that He always keeps His word. I want to begin at the beginning of the Word of God. And I want to take you through a series of incidences in which God says, “I will.” And I want you to conclude that in this message is simply this. When God says, “I will,” God will. He will do what He says He will do, which is what most people do not believe, that they are an exception to the will and purpose and plan of God, there are no exceptions. So let’s begin in the beginning of the Word of God, and that is in Genesis chapter 2. Listen to what He says in this passage. You know it by heart, certainly by now, if you are a believer, and you recall in this second chapter having created, first man, first woman, listen to what he says. Verse 16 of chapter 2, “The Lord God commanded the man saying, ‘From any tree of the garden, you may eat freely.'” Now watch this. “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die.” Now think about this for a moment. God gave them a very clear warning that if you disobey me, you are going to die. So think about what happened. When God came looking for, so to speak, as if He didn’t know where they were, God came looking for Adam. And He asked the question, “Where are you?” He knew exactly where Adam was. What happened as a result of his specific disobedience to the very simple plan of God? Is what happened? Well, there was separation. Now He’s hiding from God. There is shame. He knows that He’s naked. Something’s wrong. He’s sent against God. Thirdly, He has expressed pride. Adam and Eve expressed pride. “I want to be like God.” I know He said, “Don’t do it.” But I heard what He said, “But.” And so He rebelled against God’s law, against God’s rule, and what was the end result? The consequence was death. Remember this. The consequence of disobeying God, deliberately, willfully, knowingly, disobeying God. There is separation. The fellowship is broken. There is shame because you’re going to feel guilty. There is suffering and could be in all kinds of ways. And ultimately, there is death. Physical death is going to come upon all of us because all of us have sinned. But spiritual death. Spiritual death is that ultimate death. That’s second death. When God says, “Here’s what I’m going to do.” God is going to do exactly what He said. Think about this. “His first man and woman in this awesome, beautiful creation.” And what happened? Death had to come. Separation drove them out of the garden in shame away from under His awesome canopy of protection and watch care and beauty and all the rest. Now they have to work for a living in a way that they’d never known before. Before it was keeping the garden as a wonderful privilege. Now it’s labor. Here’s what I want you to see. When God says, “I will,” God means, “I will.” When He says, “I will,” He will. When He says, “I will keep my word,” He will keep His word. So in the very beginning, it had to grieve the heart of God. And it had to grieve the heart of God to see this perfect environment, this perfect man and woman, and they chose to be disobedient to Him. When you not disobey God, somebody else gets hurt. When we disobey God, it grieves His heart. The Bible says, “The Spirit of God is grieved over our sin.” So as you look at the very first family, you say, “Well, the first family, I can understand that,” but ask yourself the question, “Should that not be an indication to us if Adam and Eve in the very perfect garden, deliberately, willfully chose to be disobedient to God?” And what were the consequences? Separation. Shame. Suffering. Death. You name it. Has God changed His law? You said, “We are on the grace. We are on the grace.” Deliberately, willfully choose to disobey God their consequences that cannot and will not be erased. Will God forgive us? Yes, He will. Does He erase the consequences? Not necessarily. Most of the time He does not. So if you look at the first man and woman, you say, “Well, I see what happened in their life.” Well, let’s just… What I want to do is go through some other scriptures here. Let’s just watch and see if there’s a pattern here in the way God operates. So let’s move over to the flood, for example, in the sixth chapter of Genesis. And notice what happens here. God said in the sixth chapter, “The world was corrupt.” In fact, He said, “I’m sorry I even made this outfit. I’m sorry I made them. Look what’s happened.” And He says, “In verse 7, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals, the creeping things, the birds of the sky from sorry that I’ve made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And so, if I will say, “He walked with God.” And then, verse 18, “But I will establish my covenant with you, speaking to Noah, and you shall enter the ark and you and your sons and your wife and your sons wives with them.” And then He begins in chapter 7, verse 1. Then the Lord said to Noah, “And of the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before me and all this time.” Verse 5, “No, did according to all that the Lord God told him.” If you look in the seventh chapter and the 21st verse, all flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds cattle, beast, every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind, and all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of the life, died. Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals, the creeping things, and the birds of the sky, they were blotted out from the earth. And Noah was left, together with those that were with Him in the ark. What did God say? He says, “I’m going to destroy it all.” He didn’t say, “Now I’m thinking about it.” He said, “I’m going to destroy all of it.” What did He do? Exactly what He said He would do. The sin of mankind, the response and the consequence was absolute, total eradication of humanity except those whom God had chosen to put in the ark. Does God keep His word? Yes He did. He kept His word in the first couple. He kept His word now in a time when God was going to destroy everything He kept His word. I want you to turn to chapter 12 of Genesis. Now we’re not going all the way through the Bible, so relax. But I want you to see what the pattern is here and the pattern is so crystal clear. Chapter 12 in the life of Abraham. Listen to what God said. Now watch this carefully. As God has said some of these things to you, maybe you weren’t listening, but so watch with me this whole time. Verse 1, “Now the Lord said to Abraham, ‘Go forth from your country and from your relatives and from your father’s house to the land which I will show you, and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. And so you will be a blessing and I will bless those who bless you and the one who curses you, I will curse. And in all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Now here’s what I want you to see. When God makes an absolute statement, an absolute declaration, I will do this and so He will do exactly what He says because His, listen, His unconditional decorations have no conditions to them. This is God speaking. This is what I’m going to do. So if you’ll think about what happened in these chapters, what you’ll notice also that He made another statement. He said in the 17th chapter, look at this from moment, and remember now that Sarah is about 90 and he’s close to 100 at this time. Verse 15 of the 17th chapter, “Then God said Abraham, ‘As for Sarah your wife, you’ll not call her Sarah, but Sarah shall be her name. I will bless her and indeed I will give you a son by her. Then I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of peoples will come from her.” Then Abraham fell on this face and laughed. If you ever thought about laughing at God, he fell on this face, he was laughing about what God said in his heart. He says, “Well, a child will be born to a man a hundred years old and will Sarah who is 90 years old, there a child?” Abraham said, “Oh, old an Ishmael might live before you, but God said no. Sarah your wife will bear you a son. You shall call his name, Ozzy, and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.” Now there’s a reason sometime that you and I might question what God is saying. She’s 90 and he’s a hundred and God’s telling her that she’s going to bear a son and Abraham laughs and they don’t. She’s laughing about the whole idea. Verse 12 of this 18 chapter, “Sara laughed to herself saying, ‘After I’ve become old, shall I have pleasure, my Lord, being old also?'” And the Lord said, “Abraham, why did Sarah laugh saying, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child when I’m so old?’ Is anything too difficult for the Lord at the appointed time? I will return to you at this time next year and Sarah will have a son.” Well, what happened? Exactly what God said was going to happen? The 21st chapter looked, then the Lord took note of Sarah as he had said and the Lord did for Sarah. He had promised, so Sarah conceived and bore a son. Abraham in his old age and the appointed time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham was a hundred. She was 90. Now, one of the reasons sometime we will not believe God is because it looks impossible. We say, “My Lord, I know what you said, but only God has the right to put a butt behind something when He said something. And He says, ‘I will give you a son. Hundred and at 90 years of age, a son. Sometimes we don’t listen very carefully because what God says to us seems to be impossible, seems to be very impractical.” And so our response is, “I just must have thought,” He said, doesn’t so. God gives very clear instruction. It’s going to happen because God said it will happen. There may be times that looks like it can’t. There may be times that look like there’s absolutely no possibility. Ultimately, God will do what God says He will do. And when He makes that a declaration that is unconditional, it’s going to happen at some time with the other. And naturally they had some reason, of course, that that will happen in the world. Can we have a child at this age? And God didn’t say, “Now, you know, you’ll fully understand it all. It’s all going to be very simple, clear to you what I’m going to do.” He didn’t say that. He understands. He understands when He speaks to your heart and to my heart that oftentimes here’s what we do. We listen to God, we look at the circumstances. But you know, the circumstances, we know the way. And time goes by. See, I knew God wouldn’t get it. I knew I just hurt, thought I heard God. When God speaks, that’s the time to listen. We listen to too many other people far too often rather than listening to God. And somebody says, “But God’s never spoken to me.” Yes, He has. If you’re a believer, certainly He spoke to you when He convicted you of your sin and showed you that you needed to be saved and conveyed to you the faith and assured you that you could be saved from your sin if you placed your trust in Him and what Jesus did at the cross. Yes, you have heard. That’s why you’re saved. There have been times when He’s spoken to you about other things. So He said, “Ask me and you ask Him and what did He do?” He answered your prayer. But so often we look at situations in circumstances and life say, “That’s not even in use praying about that. That’s absolutely impossible.” Or you’ve said, “Well, God couldn’t do that in my life.” So you know what? God couldn’t do that. God will do exactly what He says He will do. And you and I should open our ears and be sensitive to the voice of God in that life because He has spoken to all of us and He will continue to speak to us. We just need to listen. Well, let’s just move on from Abraham and let’s think about somebody else here that we’ve seen God work in His life also. And let’s look in the third chapter of Exodus from moment. And let’s look to see what God said to Moses who likewise said, “No way.” And there’s not only the pattern in the Scripture here of God speaking and doing what He says, there’s also the pattern for us questioning and not believing what He says. So notice what He says beginning in this third chapter of Exodus. What’s happened is God, after 40 years in the back side of the desert, finally, God Moses attention at the burning bush. You remember He told me to take off His shoes because He was on holy ground. And notice what happens, verse 10, “Therefore come now and I will send you,” watch that, “I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt, period.” He didn’t say, “I will send you. I hope you will let go.” He didn’t say, “I will send you and a few more.” He said, “I’m sending you.” And not only did he say, “I will bring my people the sons of Israel out of Egypt.” He didn’t say, “You may be successful. You may not.” And God says, “I will send you. You will bring them out, period.” Now watch what happens. Verse 31 of the 12th chapter of verse 30, “Fairer arose in the,” after all these things that have happened, all these plagues, verse 30, “Fairer arose in the night.” He had all of his servants and all the Egyptians. And there was a great cry in Egypt, but there was no home where there was not someone dead. Then he called for Moses and Aaron at night and said, “Rise up.” “Get out from among my people, both you and the sons of Israel, and go worship the Lord as you said. Take your flocks, your herds as you have said, and go.” And this is it. And bless me also. Not only did I say, “Mah, ma, ma, ma.” After 10 plagues and death of his own son, he says, “Get going, but bless me also.” Now watch what happens. Look at the next verse. The Egyptians themselves urged the people to send them out of the land in haste, but they said, “We will all be dead.” Here’s what I want you to see. There’s a lot of things that happen between these verses. God said, “I will send you. I will be with you, and I will be with your mouth, and you will bring them out.” There’s not going to be any warfare, because you see, this had to be on Moses’ mind. Well, how’s all that going to happen? You and I have to learn the lesson to be obedient to God. Don’t expect him to give us all the details, because you know why it’s no point in giving us details. We wouldn’t believe half of it anyway. We wouldn’t believe the details. They’re so intricate sometimes. God doesn’t make up his mind as he goes. He doesn’t take this step and say, “Oh, what am I going to do next?” Has this going to happen? The plan’s all laid out. When God says to you, “I will do thus and so,” that is exactly what he’s going to do. He keeps his word. And the awesome assurance that you and I have, because he’s a God who keeps his word. We say he’s faithful, but sometimes we say, “Oh, I know God is faithful, faithful to do what? He’s faithful to keep his word. He will do exactly what he says he will do. If it’s conditioned upon something, then I must be obedient. If it’s an absolute statement, I can rest in effect. It’s going to happen no matter what. So here’s the first couple in the garden. He says, “Here’s what’s going to happen.” And it happened. It’s going to flood. He says, “Here’s what’s going to happen.” And it happened. Abraham, here’s what’s going to happen. Moes his life, here’s what’s going to happen. God keeps his word. Then if you return to the book of Joshua for a moment, and I want you to notice how this book starts, beginning in the first chapter, notice what happens here. That came about after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, that the Lord spoke to Joshua the son of none, Moses, servant, saying, “Moses, my servant is dead.” Now watch this. Now therefore arise across this Jordan, you and all this people to the land which I am giving to them to the sons of Israel, every place on which the soul of your foot treads, Joshua, I have already given it to you just as I spoke to Moses, then he describes their area. Verse 5, “No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. If this I’ve been with Moses, I will be with you, I will not fail you or forsake you.” Now watch this. Joshua was wise enough to have observed how God worked in the life of Moses. This is why you and I. If we are wise, and if God so see fit to do it in your life, when you find someone in your life who is walking with God, following Him, obeying Him and watching the blessings of God, watching the difficult, the hardship of the trials that that person goes through. But watching how God turns all of that for good and how God blesses them and makes their life and influence in somebody else’s life, you need to watch carefully and ask the question, “God, how is it that you’re working in that person’s life and that fashion?” “Hadden your life, your spiritual life, listen after somebody who’s following Jesus.” It may be your grandparent, it may be your grandmother, it may be your father, your mother, whoever it may be. Joshua faced a situation that looked absolutely ridiculous. Watch this. He learned from Moses, “To obey God, leave all the consequences to Him.” He watched Him work. He observed how God worked in the life of this man who followed Him and chose to believe Him no matter what. What’s the story? Still was very simple. And that is obey God. Watch Him work. Whatever He says He will do, He will do. If He says to you, “This is the job I want you to take. Trust me. It looks like you’re not going to make as much money. It looks like things are not going to go very well for you. When God says, “This is my will for your life, follow His will.” Do what God says do because God will do what He says He will do. Don’t underestimate what God will do in your life that you’ve got to learn to listen and start obeying Him in the simple things. If you want to speak to Him in the crucial things, you have to learn in the simple things. And I think God must smile when He sees all that He has in store for you and He just waiting for you to say yes. Thank you for listening to “He Keeps His Word.” For more inspirational messages like this one, visit our online 24/7 station. And, if you’d like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by Intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of Intouch Ministries at Lanta, Georgia. [Music]
