Good morning. I’d like you to turn to some verses. We’ll read, and we’ll be sharing on these verses.
Romans 4:21 is our overall theme verse for this series, but I’d like to back up to verse 17 to give you a fuller picture. This is speaking of Abraham, by the way, in case you didn’t know.
“I have made thee the father of many nations,” before Him whom he believed, even God, who giveth life to the dead, and calleth the things that are not, as though they were.
Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So shall thy seed be.”
And without being weakened in faith he considered his own body now as good as dead, he being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb;
yet, looking unto the promise of God, he wavered not through unbelief, but waxed strong through faith, giving glory to God,
and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.
I’ll have you turn to some of my favorite verses in the New Testament: 2 Peter 1:3-4.
Seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that called us by His own glory and virtue;
whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Another very familiar verse: Ephesians 3:20. I know you know this verse.
Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.
Another verse you’re exceedingly familiar with is 1 Corinthians 1:9, since we’ve been studying that book.
God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
And then one final verse from the Apostle Paul: 1 Thessalonians 5:24.
Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it.
Or, as the old Authorized Version says, “Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it.”
So let’s have a word of prayer as we begin.
Lord, we’re so grateful we have Your Word. Where would we be without Your Word? We tell You again: only You can open Your Word to us. Your words are spirit and life.
We look away from men. We look to the Holy Spirit. We ask that the Holy Spirit quicken Your Word to us and make it alive. Lord, we have no one else to go to.
But we believe that when the Holy Spirit breathes upon Your Word and makes it living, it can change us forever. So this we ask. This is our request this morning as we open Your Word, and we ask it together in the precious name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I think most of you know about a month ago—pardon me; I don’t know what’s going on with my voice. Maybe it sounds normal. Maybe it’s just me.
You know, the allergies, huh? You’re blaming it on the allergies. I always say that allergies don’t bother me, but maybe it’s not true.
You remember this burden the Lord laid on my heart from this phrase in Romans 4:21: “Being fully persuaded.” Now, I’ve had moments like this in my Christian walk where a phrase has come alive to me.
At the end of last year and the beginning of this year, as I was meditating before the Lord, this phrase—put it that way—“being fully persuaded,” jumped off the page to me.
We’ve read the verse already, Romans 4:21, speaking of Abraham:
“And being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.”
What a tremendous verse. This was Abraham’s testimony.
You know, the Apostle Paul, in this letter to the Romans, gives the clearest presentation of the gospel that’s ever been given. Now, some of you might argue that Galatians isn’t so bad either, and I would agree. But I would say the glorious gospel is nowhere more clearly presented than in the book of Romans.
In particular, the Apostle Paul illustrated it with the life of Abraham. This verse is at the heart of those illustrations in Romans 4 and 5. It was Abraham’s secret, but it wasn’t just to be Abraham’s secret.
If you look at Romans 4:23:
“Now it was not written for his sake alone, but for our sake also.”
This matter of being fully persuaded will make a difference in your Christian life. Abraham indeed was the first illustration of this, but when you look at the Word of God, it is what the Lord wants for every one of His children.
It is not just Abraham’s secret, but every believer’s secret. You remember when the Apostle Paul, at the end of that Roman letter, was speaking about some honoring days and others perhaps not honoring days. He said this extraordinary phrase:
“Let each man be fully assured in his own mind.”
—Romans 14:5
Brothers and sisters, this is a big subject. I hope you don’t think I was giving a message on faith. Now, I have nothing against faith. Faith is at the heart of being fully persuaded. But this goes deeper than faith.
Here is one who believed so deeply in what God showed him—it captured him, it arrested him, and he was never the same after that. He couldn’t go elsewhere. He couldn’t leave. He was caught. This is what it means to be fully persuaded.
You remember Paul said to his beloved son in the faith, in 2 Timothy 3:14:
“Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of.”
This was Paul’s explanation of Timothy: “Thou hast been fully persuaded.” I believe God is looking for this in us.
When you look at the Apostle Paul’s life, I began, as I meditated on this phrase and thought about all those verses, to see the Holy Spirit make alive to me again where Paul said, “I am persuaded.” Again and again, it was the Apostle Paul’s testimony: “I am persuaded.”
Remember that famous section in Romans 8, where he summed up the whole first section and said:
“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
—Romans 8:38-39
We concluded last time, in our introductory message, with the story of the Apostle Paul’s trial before King Agrippa. You remember that story, I suppose.
So compelling was his testimony at that trial that this agent of Rome, this judge trying him—Paul’s life rested in this man’s hand—was so deeply moved that he said:
“With but little persuasion thou wouldest fain make me a Christian.”
—Acts 26:28
That was his testimony. And Paul said the most extraordinary thing:
“I would to God, that whether with little or with much, not thou only, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these bonds.”
—Acts 26:29
That’s what being fully persuaded is: altogether persuaded. So many of us as believers are almost persuaded. We’re kind of like King Agrippa, when you think about it. I know you probably wouldn’t want to admit that you’re like King Agrippa, but: “Almost thou persuadest me, Lord.”
But the heart of what the Apostle Paul shared in that trial was, “I would to God that every man would be altogether persuaded.”
So that’s where we’ve been, and I think we need to press on from there. Today, I’d like us to look at something further: What is the basis of our being fully persuaded?
If you don’t understand the basis of being fully persuaded, you can’t be persuaded—at least not for long. You may be sort of convinced partway. You may be sort of enamored with the thought, and it holds on to you for a little while. But unless you, by the grace of God, know the basis of being fully persuaded, you won’t stay persuaded.
That’s the thing. That’s the burden that rests upon my heart today. There are three things, I believe, illustrated in Abraham and Sarah’s life—three points that we all need to think about.
I’ll make this very simple. The youngest child in here can follow me today. The youngest and the oldest can follow me today.
First of all, the basis for our being fully persuaded, as shown in that text verse, is: He has promised. That’s number one. Everything rests upon what He has promised.
Second, also in that theme verse, everything rests upon that second phrase that Abraham discovered: He is able. Now, do you think you are able? Brothers and sisters, you are not able. But thank God it says, “He is able.”
And lastly, Sarah discovered something, as Hebrews 11 tells us: He is faithful.
Upon those three things is the basis of being fully persuaded. It is the foundation of being fully persuaded.
I remember—I think I’ve told this before. By the way, Linda’s not here, so I can repeat some of my stories. She would like to timestamp my illustrations like milk in the dairy case that says, “Use by so-and-so.” But we’ll take a little license, as long as you promise not to tell her.
But already with my story, I have forgotten what I was going to say. Maybe that’s Linda. You won on that one, wherever you are at home.
Brothers and sisters, the whole basis rests upon these three things. I know, I remember now what I was going to say.
One of my oldest engineers, who was eighty years old, said, “You know, Kenny, as you get older, your mind is a little bit like a big wheel. Sooner or later it comes around, and you remember what you were thinking.” So it came around the big wheel.
This peer of mine, whenever he would speak in an engineering conference, loved the illustration of a three-legged stool, because he said nothing was more stable than a three-legged stool. You couldn’t hardly fall off of it. He would sit on it, and it would be a firm base that you couldn’t fall from.
If you look at this three-legged stool:
How can we fail to be fully persuaded? Well, that’s the thought and burden that’s on my heart.
First of all, we begin with “He has promised.” Paul understood something about Father Abraham that he communicated in this verse for all of us to benefit from for the rest of our Christian walk.
What Abraham saw was this: “Being fully persuaded that what He promised, He was able also to do.” Brothers and sisters, this is a key. I don’t know if you know how big a key it is.
Sometimes we think our faith rests in our faith, but our faith never rests in our faith. Our being fully persuaded never rests in what we can sort of work up to believe, or hold to believe, or stand on to believe.
It always, from the beginning, rests in the One who promised. It’s not our faith. It’s much more than our faith. It is His unwavering promises that matter.
Faith rests upon this foundation: He has promised.
Now, I’ve spent a whole career designing foundations. I know a little bit about foundations. I’m no expert about foundations, but I’ve investigated hundreds of foundations—many more, probably—and I’ve designed many hundreds of foundations.
I think you know foundations only come in two types: they’re either stable or unstable. Structural engineering is not that hard, I’m telling you. It’s really quite simple.
Foundations are only in two types: either stable, or your foundation is unstable.
As a matter of fact, one of the companies that puts in a very proprietary foundation system that works well named their company Stable Foundations. That was very smart. That’s good marketing.
Suppose you saw a truck go down the road that said, “Unstable Foundations.” Would you ever call and ask them to come fix your house?
So I tell my good friend at Stable Foundations, “That was a good idea you made.”
The other classifications of foundations are shallow and deep. That’s all you need to know. Now you’re a foundation expert. You’re either stable or unstable, or you’re shallow or deep.
As a matter of fact, I don’t mean this to offend anybody here, but most of our foundations are shallow. Think about it. Almost every building in this country is based upon shallow foundations. Now, isn’t that a message?
Most of the ordinary foundations—we even call them ordinary spread footings, ordinary isolated footings—their basis is shallow.
But then there’s another kind of foundation. It’s called deep foundations, and deep foundations go all the way to the bedrock and rest upon the Lord Jesus alone.
Brothers and sisters, that’s the most stable foundation you can have.
You remember in Matthew 7, as the Lord Jesus was concluding the Sermon on the Mount, He told the parable. He said that those who hear His words and do them are like a man who builds his house upon the rock.
“Every one therefore that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them, shall be likened unto a wise man, who built his house upon the rock:
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon the rock.”
—Matthew 7:24-25
That was the wise man. When the rain came, when the streams came, and when the winds fell upon the house, that house stood because it was a stable and deep foundation.
And then there’s the man who built his house upon the sand.
“And every one that heareth these words of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand:
and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and smote upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall thereof.”
—Matthew 7:26-27
Unless you have this stable basis, this stable foundation, you cannot be fully persuaded. You will not be fully persuaded. Sooner or later, you’ll be like the man who built his house upon the sand.
A recent project I was doing really surprised me. I’d never done this before. It was a picnic shelter, a pretty ordinary thing.
My geotechnical engineer came to me and said, “These soils are terrible.”
I said, “What do you mean, terrible?”
He said, “They’re bark.”
I said, “What do you mean, bark?” I thought it was like a dog. “What do you mean, bark?”
He said, “Oh, in West Point, where we’ve had paper mills forever, we would strip the trees of bark, and we thought it was great. We would take all that bark and put it all around West Point to extend the land.”
But it was terribly unstable. It would be like a foundation on mulch—or worse.
So this little ordinary picnic shelter is going on very deep foundations. I’d never seen it happen.
That’s what your life is to be. This is what it means to base everything upon the promises of God.
He has promised. That’s the one thing we can rely on. It’s the one thing we can hold on to.
Everything in the Christian life is based upon His promises. As a matter of fact, when you look at the New Testament, the whole of the New Testament is based upon His promises.
I’ll read to you Hebrews 8:6. I know you know it.
“But now hath He obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as He is also the mediator of a better covenant, which hath been enacted upon better promises.”
In one verse, the whole Bible is explained—both Old Testament and New Testament. It says that the Lord Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant established upon the footing of better promises.
That’s the explanation of the whole New Testament. That’s the explanation of the Bible. The problem with the Old Testament was that it demanded of us: “You do this. You do that. And if you fail in this, you fail in everything.”
But when it comes to the New Testament, the glorious promise is: He does this.
You remember when Jeremiah spoke in Jeremiah 31, that repetition over and over of the Lord’s declaration:
“I will put My law in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it.”
“For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more.”
—Jeremiah 31:33-34
“I will do this,” over and over again. These are such great promises.
Another verse I think of is 2 Corinthians 1:20:
“For how many soever be the promises of God, in Him is the yea: wherefore also through Him is the amen, unto the glory of God through us.”
Isn’t that good news? He could say, “Well, in Him is yes,” or, “Maybe in Him might be no.” I think when we naturally think of promises made, we think like that: well, yes and no; that may happen, or that may not.
There’s a famous politician—now, I won’t say any names—whose phrase is, “Promises made, promises kept.” I hate to tell him he can’t do that. There’s only One who can do that, and the One who can do that is God alone.
He has promised, and He can do it. All of His promises are yes and amen. Isn’t that good news, brothers and sisters? That’s what we base the whole of our Christian life on.
When you look at those verses we read in 2 Peter 1:3-4, I think they are so precious:
“Seeing that His divine power hath granted unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness.”
Now, suppose it didn’t say that. You would wonder, “Were the promises sufficient?” But it says He has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue.
Then it goes on in that famous sentence:
“Whereby He hath granted unto us His precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature.”
Think of that. Brothers and sisters, so great are these promises that we are brought into fellowship with the living God, and we partake of the divine nature.
So the mystery of the Christian life begins to unfold. What the promises of God are about is not about us living at all. It is about partaking of His nature, the Holy Spirit abiding in us, and Christ living through us.
That’s the great promise.
You remember when the Lord said that famous promise—He said it twice, as a matter of fact—after He was raised and before He ascended. He said, “Go to Jerusalem and wait.” It is the only time in these two verses that this phrase is used: “the promise of the Father,” which is the Holy Spirit.
Again in Acts 1:4, He said, “Wait for the promise of the Father.”
“And, being assembled together with them, He charged them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father.”
—Acts 1:4
When the Holy Spirit came upon those one hundred and twenty in that upper room, they were endued with a power that was not their own.
That is the secret of the promises of God. Do you get it? It’s not just words.
For you and me, promises are just words. You may fulfill them; you may not. John is forever telling me, “Kenny, would you do this for the conference?” And then, a month later, he comes back and says, “Kenny, did you do that?”
And I promise, by the way. I always promise. I say, “Yes, John, I’ll take care of that. Don’t worry about it.” A month later, he comes back to me and says, “Kenny, did you do that?” “No, John, but I’m going to do it.”
Just words.
But with those deep, pure promises of God comes the very divine nature. How tremendous. Brothers and sisters, what hope this gives me. What hope this gives you.
I remember when I was a young believer and started to see it for the first time. My eyes were opened when I saw that phrase in Philippians, where Paul said:
“For to me to live is Christ.”
—Philippians 1:21
It’s not like Christ. It’s not Christ as an example. It’s not for Christ. It is Christ. That is the greatest promise you can imagine.
There are some words I’d like you to turn to in Hebrews 6. I think you’ll be familiar with them. We didn’t read these, but we will.
Hebrews 6:13 brings it to our context with Abraham:
“For when God made promise to Abraham, since He could swear by none greater, He sware by Himself,
saying, ‘Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.’
And thus, having patiently endured, he obtained the promise.”
—Hebrews 6:13-15
Then look at Hebrews 6:17-19:
“Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of His counsel, interposed with an oath;
that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us:
which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast.”
Brothers and sisters, God could swear by no one greater, so He swore by Himself. Then He made a promise—an unfailing promise.
The inspired, anonymous writer of Hebrews said, “By two unchangeable things.” It is impossible—impossible—for God to lie.
It is not impossible for me to lie. It is not impossible for you to lie. As a matter of fact, two years ago, I remember hearing this on my way to the office one morning. One of the bestsellers on the New York Times list came out by a data scientist, and his title was Everybody Lies.
That was his title. You may think too much of yourself to believe you lie, but we all tell maybe little white lies and little not-so-quite-full stories.
I remember the doctor asked me the other day to explain why I had put on this extra fifteen pounds since he saw me last. I said, “Well, I’ve been going to the gym.” Thankfully, he didn’t ask me how many times I had been going to the gym.
But this fellow said, “Everybody lies.” He researched all this data as a data scientist. He went into the web, researched Google, all that he could, and concluded: everybody lies.
But here in Hebrews 6, it says: “It is impossible for God to lie.” Brothers and sisters, do you think maybe that could be the basis for being fully persuaded?
By two unchangeable things: His own oath—He will do it, not Abraham will do it—and His promises, which are unchangeable and unfailing. He never fails. Thank the Lord for that.
Hebrews 10:23 is another verse you know:
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for He is faithful that promised.”
That’s the key. That’s the basis. There’s nothing else you can base your life upon but He who is faithful, who has promised. It’s the one thing. That’s what Abraham saw.
I remember when I was saved, newly saved as a young believer, and not having any religious upbringing—I’ve told you the story, one story that I promise I won’t repeat—but I remember learning hymns for the first time.
I was in this week-long revival service, and the Lord met me in such a spectacular way. I was changed in an instant.
One of the great hymns that I would sing over and over again was “Standing on the Promises.” I don’t know that we sing that so much here. Maybe it’s relegated to revival hymns. I don’t know. But to me, it was exceptionally powerful.
I remember in verse two it says:
Standing on the promises that cannot fail,
When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail.
Brothers and sisters, sooner or later your life will have howling storms. There will be fears that assail you. There will be doubts that assail you.
But when we stand upon these exceeding great and precious promises that cannot fail, we have a firm foundation.
By the living Word of God, I shall prevail,
Standing on the promises of God.
Abraham believed this one thing: He that promised was able also to do it.
Now think about the second part. Not only does He promise; He is able. He is able.
Now note what it does not say. It does not say, “He gives me a promise, and I’m able because of that promise to do what He asks.” It doesn’t say that at all.
That wasn’t Abraham’s secret that was passed down in the glorious gospel. Abraham’s secret was not only that He is the Promiser, but that He is the ability. There is a huge difference.
He has promised. He is able. That’s the secret:
“Being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.”
This is the second leg of that stool. This is part of that firm foundation, that unfailing foundation: we know One who is able in spite of our limitations.
Now, you may not think you’re so limited, but you are. As a matter of fact, you’ve put up with this for years, and you’ll have to put up with it again for a moment: I am firmly convinced that it is impossible to live the Christian life.
Many people say, “Well, you get saved, and you believe, and you read your Bible, and you go to meetings, and then you just do what He asks you to do.” Have you ever found any trouble with that—doing what He asks you to do? I have found trouble with that.
But what gives me the greatest comfort is: what He has promised, He is able also to do.
I remember some months ago on a Wednesday night, when I had the responsibility of opening that meeting, these words came to me as I was before the Lord: Ephesians 3:20, “He is able.”
Those three words: He is able.
“Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
—Ephesians 3:20
He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or even imagine. Then I began to see it everywhere: He is able. He is able.
You remember when the Sadducees and Pharisees came to John the Baptist to be baptized. John didn’t cut them any slack, by the way. He was pretty blunt—blunt and brutal.
He said:
“Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of repentance:
and think not to say within yourselves, ‘We have Abraham to our father’: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.”
—Matthew 3:8-9
He is able. That’s the great secret. That’s the secret we need to lay hold of—not that we are able, not that it is in our strength or in our power, and not that we can be fully persuaded in ourselves.
We rest upon this supreme fact: He is able.
You remember Romans 11:23, when Paul was speaking of the mystery of Israel and how they failed:
“And they also, if they continue not in their unbelief, shall be grafted in: for God is able to graft them in again.”
This is the secret of Abraham. This is the secret of the Christian life. He is able.
These three words are absolutely so important for the believer’s life. If we’re going to live a victorious Christian life, remember again what Paul said in that same glorious gospel, in Romans 14:4:
“Who art thou that judgest the servant of another? To his own lord he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be made to stand; for the Lord hath power to make him stand.”
Again and again, brothers and sisters, just search this phrase: “God is able.” “He is able.” It will lift you from a slough of despond into the heavenlies.
You’ll begin to realize that the whole of the Christian life, and this being fully persuaded, does not rest upon me. It rests upon Him, and I rest in Him. That’s the secret.
I remember—oh gosh, it must have been thirty-plus years ago. I can’t remember when it was; at least thirty years ago—Brother Stephen Kong shared on 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. The messages were called “The Grace of Giving.”
You ought to go back and listen to those messages. We were a young company about to build this house. We had no money. We were all young families. We were all just sort of starting out.
There may have been some older sisters, whom I really thought were very ancient. They were fifty years old.
We had no real resources—no resources whatsoever. But in this grace of giving, it says something tremendous. We laid hold of this.
Let me tell you what happened, brothers and sisters. This place was built in a very short time and paid for.
I forget—John’s already walked out. I must have offended him already. Oh, there you are. How long before it was paid for? Eighteen months? That’s about right. I appreciate that.
Thankfully, he didn’t say, “John is able.” But our brother shared this thing in 2 Corinthians 9:8:
“And God is able to make all grace abound unto you; that ye, having always all sufficiency in everything, may abound unto every good work.”
If you look at the depth of this verse, it is overwhelming. Listen to the superlatives: “God is able to make all grace abound unto you.”
It gets better as you go on: “Having always all sufficiency in everything.” That’s almost a tongue twister. It’s so marvelous. Having, in every way, always, all sufficiency.
That’s what God is able to do: that you may abound unto every good work.
Brothers and sisters, I think this word, “He is able,” is absolutely vital to our Christian walk. When you’re downcast, when you’re overwhelmed by circumstances, you need to go back to the Lord.
This is a very practical matter. Say, “Lord, You have promised. Lord, You are able.” Soon you’ll discover that you’re lifted from that place and encouraged in the Lord.
I remember in 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul said—well, let me go to it. I’d rather read the whole thing.
“For which cause I also suffer these things: yet I am not ashamed; for I know Him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
Brothers and sisters, you can’t trust your eternal deposit to anybody else. I tell you what: I put money away for years in the 401(k), and I’m not sure the stock market is going to keep my deposit.
But I am convinced of this one thing: the deposit we make with the Lord Jesus, He is able to keep it.
That’s the assurance that comes from the Word of God. Not only that, it says in Hebrews 2:18 that He is able to help those who are tempted.
“For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted.”
—Hebrews 2:18
You may not believe that, brothers and sisters, but that is the Word of God. He is able to help us in every temptation.
If that weren’t enough, that anonymous writer of Hebrews said in Hebrews 7:25:
“Wherefore also He is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them.”
Can you believe it? Not halfway, not partway, but He is able to save us to the uttermost.
Now, that means more than just initial salvation. It means the salvation of the soul. It means you being delivered from you. It means you being conformed to the image of Christ. It means you being transformed by the Holy Spirit.
But only He is able to take up that work and do that impossible work.
I don’t know how many of you read Jude very often. Jude is a one-chapter book. If you ever want to tell somebody you’ve memorized a whole book of the Bible, use Jude. It’s one chapter. You can do it.
It was sort of like when I was in school. We all had to write a large term paper on a nation of our choice. I picked the smallest nation because I figured there would be the least amount to write.
I remember I wrote on Uruguay, and I still don’t know anything about Uruguay except that it’s in South America. People were writing papers on China, the United States, and Britain, and I chose Uruguay.
But pick Jude if you want to memorize a whole book in the Bible.
When you come to the end of Jude, in verses 24 and 25, you see one of the greatest closings in all of the Bible:
“Now unto Him that is able to guard you from stumbling, and to set you before the presence of His glory without blemish in exceeding joy,
to the only God our Saviour, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and power, before all time, and now, and for evermore. Amen.”
—Jude 24-25
To Him that is able. That is the secret of Abraham. That is the secret for every believer. That is to be your secret.
Now the last one: He is faithful.
You know, we read the verse in 1 Corinthians 1:9. There are probably not three more important words in all the Bible than these three words: He is faithful.
We read the verse:
“Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it.”
—1 Thessalonians 5:24
How tremendous.
“God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
—1 Corinthians 1:9
This is the secret Abraham and Sarah discovered.
If you look at Hebrews 11:11:
“By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive seed when she was past age, since she counted Him faithful who had promised.”
That was her secret. That’s the only secret. That’s the greatest secret. That’s what makes me able to be fully persuaded.
I cannot base it on anything else but His faithfulness alone. It’s the only thing you can base it on.
I remember reading 1 Corinthians 1:9 and what Brother Campbell Morgan had to say about it. I’ll bore you with it, but it is so tremendous. It’s implanted in my heart.
He called this the “fundamental affirmation.” That’s a big word.
With all the problems that existed in Corinth—and you might add to it, and feel free to do so, all the problems that exist in Richmond and all the problems that exist in various assemblies—there is one fundamental affirmation above it all.
That one fundamental affirmation is that He is faithful. Never forget it.
He went on to say, “We shall devote this study to an understanding of one verse because it is altogether too important to be hurried over. It is the fundamental affirmation of the whole letter. It is supreme.”
Those are strong words. All the letter, from the beginning to the end, is based upon the declarations therein made by the apostle.
There are no more important words in the Bible than these three words: He is faithful.
That was the discovery of Abraham and Sarah. You remember the Old Testament book of Lamentations. I know you do.
In the darkest times in the nation of Israel’s history, the very testimony of God had been taken into captivity. Now, don’t make the mistake of thinking God was caught by surprise. He allowed it.
Israel had come to such a low state that He allowed it. The very testimony of God was taken away, the temple was destroyed, and all that marked what Israel stood for was gone.
Brothers and sisters, there could not have been a darker time in the nation of Israel.
But you remember, in the heart of that book of the weeping prophet, the book of Lamentations, in chapter 3, it says these wonderful verses:
“This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the Lord’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning; great is Thy faithfulness.”
—Lamentations 3:21-23
What a word in a dark hour.
Brothers and sisters, that’s the word you need. That’s the word I need. That’s the word I can base everything on. That’s the word that will hold you through to the coming of the Lord.
He is faithful who promised.
You know the hymn, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” When you sing that hymn, doesn’t it lift your heart and your spirit? Doesn’t it just lift you?
It has been the comfort of so many millions of believers because they discovered in that beautiful hymn the deepest secret that they could base their life upon.
The man who wrote that hymn, Thomas Obadiah Chisholm—hard name to say—was not very well known. He was an uneducated man, with no high school and no higher education.
He ended up teaching school in the old country schoolhouse where he had received his elementary education. Then he became a minister later, and his health failed. His health completely failed. He had to resign.
You would think: here’s an uneducated man who didn’t make it anywhere, and his health failed. What do you do? He became a life insurance salesman. Well, I’m not suggesting that’s what you ought to do.
But these words came alive to him: “Great is Thy faithfulness.” This man you don’t even know, this man you’ve never heard of, penned this hymn that has comforted millions upon millions because he discovered the single greatest secret in the Bible: He is faithful.
I’m telling you, this is a great secret of Abraham and Sarah.
He said at the end of his life:
“My income has not been large at any time due to my impaired health in earlier years that has followed me until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God, who has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.”
With this deep understanding, he wrote that hymn that causes us all to rejoice with great rejoicing over this one secret. By this secret, you can be fully persuaded.
There’s Psalm 37. You know, I was saved—some of you know this—in a charismatic movement. I may not be charismatic enough for you anymore, but I was saved in the charismatic movement in the early seventies.
We all loved Psalm 37. At every turn of a bend and drop of a hat, we would say, “If you trust in the Lord, He will give you the desires of your heart.”
I remember, Glenn, how many times did we tell people, “All you’ve got to do—and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
But there’s a phrase that precedes that. That phrase is: “Feed on His faithfulness.”
“Trust in the Lord, and do good;
Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness.
Delight thyself also in the Lord;
And He shall give thee the desires of thy heart.”
—Psalm 37:3-4
That’s the key. We’re always thinking about the desires of my heart, but the secret is: feed on faithfulness.
I remember when a sister at our Friday night meetings shared part of her life story, and this was her verse: “Feed on faithfulness.” I remember that meeting. It lifted and transformed that meeting because she had seen the great secret.
Brothers and sisters, may the Lord cause us to see this: He is faithful.
1 Thessalonians 5:24 says, “Faithful is He that calleth you, who will also do it.” We’ve read that.
2 Thessalonians 3:3 says:
“But the Lord is faithful, who shall establish you, and guard you from the evil one.”
And 2 Timothy 2:13 says the most extraordinary thing:
“If we are faithless, He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.”
May the Lord open our eyes, brothers and sisters.
I don’t know if it’s getting through with the same burden that came to me, but I believe there’s something very important about this phrase, “being fully persuaded.”
I believe if we really knew something of this, our lives would be transformed. If we based it upon the Word of God:
We would live transformed lives.
I think this was Abraham’s secret. I think this was Sarah’s secret. I think this was Paul’s secret. I think this was Timothy’s secret.
I think Paul expressed it again and again about being persuaded so that it would become all of our secret. I pray the Holy Spirit, in the months and years ahead, will bring us into an understanding of that great secret.
Lord, we commit these thoughts to You in our hearts. We say, “Lord, we want to be among those that are fully persuaded.”
We believe this is so important. We say, “Lord, open our eyes.”
So often, like the prophet’s servant, we don’t see rightly. But we say, “Open our eyes, that we could see, that we could see the eternal thing that we can lay hold of in our spirit.”
These three great secrets.
Lord, we would know You are the One who has promised. We would know that You are the One who is able. We would know, above everything else, throughout the course of our life and the length of our days, that You are faithful.
We bow before You and say, “Holy Spirit, write these words upon our hearts.”
Hide Your Word in our hearts, that we might not sin against You, and that You might be glorified.
In Jesus’ name. Amen.