Standing on the Promises

Well, if you would,

if you've closed your Bibles,

you're becoming accustomed to

this by now, hopefully.

Open back up to Genesis 25.

I'm gonna give you just a moment to do

that.

Genesis 25.

Joe read the passage for us a few moments

ago.

Genesis 25,

our particular text this morning will

be verses 19 through 26,

and we will not read the passage again.

But I would ask that you bow with me

and pray,

asking God to give us hearts to receive

His Word.

Let's pray together.

Our Father, we, we do just that,

recognizing that You

are the sovereign ruler of all

things.

This is Your world. You made us.

You formed us from the dust of the

ground. You breathed life into our

nostrils, as Your Word tells us. In You,

we

live, we move, and we have our being.

And so we recognize this morning

that apart from You, we can do nothing.

And so th- through Jesus Christ, Your Son,

would You be pleased to

give us eyes to see,

ears to hear,

and a heart that is eager and prepared

to believe Your Word.

Through Jesus we pray,

amen.

Well, when I was a child, my brother,

whose name is Chris, some of you know my

brother,

uh, Chris Skerritt. He, he's,

he lives in Gatesville.

Some of you perhaps have,

have run into him. He does AC work.

He's all around town. He's,

he's been here a few times.

Uh, my brother and I were really close.

We're about 20 months apart in age.

I'm a little older than him.

He's bigger than me now,

but I always remind him I'm still his

older brother,

and you know what comes with

that.

I will always be able to take care of you

if I need to.

Well,

my brother and I stayed with my father,

uh, every other weekend.

We, uh, we grew up in a home that,

that was broken, like many of you did,

and, uh, the Lord used it in many ways.

So every other weekend, we would go

and see my biological father,

who lived in East Texas,

and we'd stay with him even a whole month

in the

summertime.

We had a blast staying with Dad. Dad

was a fun guy.

He always loved playing games. He

was the kind of dad that

loved taking his boys to the toy store,

those kinds of things,

okay? Even to this day,

loves buying grandchildren toys

and so on and so

forth. So every other weekend,

we'd load up in the car, and we would

drive with my dad to East Texas. He lived

in the Rusk/Jacksonville area.

Some of you may be familiar with that.

My wife is from East Texas.

And, uh, his house

was out in the middle of nowhere.

He rented a house.

It sat on about 10 acres or so,

I'm guessing. I was a child.

I don't remember a lot about it,

but sat on about 10 acres, and it was

approximately 15 miles from Rusk,

outside of town.

My brother and I loved it. We had dogs.

We had a hound dog.

We had a chow. We had a Rottweiler.

We even had a little rat terrier.

We had cats.

Uh, we would,

we would go hiking all of the time.

We had one neighbor, lived fairly close,

but then no one else that I even knew

about.

I mean, this is, this is in the sticks,

okay?

Especially in East Texas. Now,

we talk about the sticks in Gatesville.

No, no.

There are no sticks in Gatesville.

This is East Texas, folks.

Might as well be in Louisiana, right,

Tana?

My wife is from East Texas.

And so out in the middle of nowhere we

would stay,

and I'll never forget one particular

memory that I have.

My father came in one day, and we were,

we were playing all day long,

and, and, uh, he told us as,

as the day was concluding, it was

beginning to get dark outside,

Dad said he needed to run to town.

I don't know what for.

I don't know why he needed to go to town,

but he decided

that it was something he needed to do

that particular day.

It could not wait until the following day.

And so he told us as he w- as he

was leaving, it was getting dark.

He could tell we were a bit concerned.

We were younger.

I don't know exactly how old we were,

though. Um, we were younger.

He said, he said, "Sons,

I will be back soon.

No need to worry." Again, we had dogs.

We had a neighbor,

nothing to be concerned about.

So off he went,

and my brother and I were fine at first.

I, I don't remember exactly what we did,

but I do know it, it likely

included some roughhousing,

some wrestling, some playing with the

dogs. Probably, if there

was a little sunlight left,

we went outside, but

then as soon as it got dark,

we came inside.

You know, and, and,

and the minutes turned into what seemed

like, for

children, hours, okay?

Because it didn't take us long to get

bored. If you have young children,

you know this.

Many young children have a difficult time

playing all by themselves for a

length of time,

and we were the same.

So

we waited,

and it seemed like hours had passed,

and we were getting bored.

And, and I don't remember

which one of us said this,

but one of us said something

like this, "I wonder if Dad

is ever coming back."

Now, I was fine until that comment

was made. I, I think my brother made it.

Maybe I made it.

And I think he was fine until the comment

was made.

But suddenly,

our imagination began to play tricks on

us.

Well, what if he isn't

coming back? It's dark outside.

He's been gone now probably for about

three days.

The coyotes outside were getting louder.

You know how this works.

They were getting louder

and closer.

Every creak and every crack in the house,

this was an old house, an old country

house,

intensified.

And it was no longer the house creaking

and cracking. No, no.

Something was in the house.

We had a cat that my brother

and I tortured.

I don't recommend torturing cats,

children.

But we did. We were wrong,

okay? They're parents.

We were wrong about torturing this cat,

but we did.

That cat,

I remember looking at the cat's eyes

that night.

And I thought, that cat wants to kill me.

I remember this

like it was yesterday.

We were becoming increasingly concerned

that my

dad was not back yet.

And all of these factors, the house

creaking and cracking

and the coyotes getting louder and

possessed cat looking at me the way it

did,

all of these factors threatened the

promise that my

dad made. And the promise was simple.

I will be back soon.

I no longer believed that promise.

There was no way he was coming back.

This was all going to end

right now and right here.

Now, though much of this, I should say,

much of this doubtless

occurred within the embellishing

imagination of a young boy,

okay? Much of this did.

I do think this is similar to what Isaac

and

Rebekah experienced in Genesis 25, verses

19 through 26. You see, in just a few

chapters before our particular text in

Genesis 25,

God made a promise and it was clear.

And the promise was given to Abraham

and to Isaac,

as we read in chapter 25, his son.

The promise was to make from Abraham

and from Isaac a numerous people who would

bless all

peoples of the earth.

And so there was this anticipation

that I'm going to have a lot of

children and they're going to multiply

and my children's

children are going to multiply

and so on and so forth and we're going to

take over the world.

That's a promise

God made.

The promise in our particular text,

however, was being threatened

by circumstances.

There were other factors

that came into Isaac's life, the son of

Abraham, came into Rebekah's life,

the wife of

Isaac, the son of Abraham,

that began to cause doubt

about the promise that God had made

to Isaac's father and then to Isaac

and so forth.

In our particular text, the context

is very clear.

A promise has been made and factors

are coming into

play that cause doubt, that threaten

the promise that God made.

I suspect that many of you have been in a

position in which

you were tempted to doubt the promises of

God.

Perhaps some of you struggled trusting

God's

promises when you faced the death of a

loved

one. Maybe you doubted God's

promises when you heard the bad news that

you or your spouse or your parent or your

child

had a rare disease

or sickness.

Perhaps you doubted the promise of God to

provide for his

people and to do all things for their good

when

you struggled making ends meet

or you didn't get the job promotion

you thought you were going to get

or even worse, you lost the job

you thought was secure.

Perhaps you doubted the promise of God

when the crop you planted

didn't produce like you'd hoped.

We've got a few farmers in here

that know that struggle.

All of us have been in one situation

or another in

which we were tempted to doubt the

promises of God.

Factors came in to threaten what God had

promised

his people. Well, this morning,

I want to answer a very simple question

for

you.

And the question is this.

What should you do when

the promises of God

are threatened in your life?

What should you do

when the promises of God are threatened

in your life?

God answers this question for us in our

text,

Genesis 25, verses 19 through 26, in

which we will answer three questions.

I like three-point sermons.

I'm told it's not a sermon

if you don't have three points.

Three questions this morning. What,

why, how?

What, why, and how? What

is the message of this

text? We're going to start there.

We don't want to get off into application

and what does this text mean for your

life because this text wasn't written

first and foremost for you.

It was written to the people of Israel

as they were entering the promised land

and in need of a reminder of what God had

done through Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

What is the message of this particular

passage?

And once we answer that question,

we're going to answer the second question.

Why is this true?

Why is this the case?

And then finally,

we're going to conclude our time together

this Lord's Day morning

as we often do at Grace Bible Church,

asking the question how.

How is it that this particular message

affects,

informs my Christian faith

and my Christian

practice this morning at Grace Bible

Church?

Well, with this in mind,

let's begin by answering our first

question:

what?

What is the message of this text?

I'm gonna lay my cards on the table,

uh, right at the beginning here.

What is the message of this text?

Here it is.

When the promises of God are threatened,

God's people should trust the sovereignty

of God.

That's the message.

When the promises of God are threatened,

God's

people should trust

the sovereignty of God.

Our story

picks up with the marriage of Isaac

and Rebekah.

Now remember, Isaac is Abraham's son.

Abraham is the one to whom God made the

promise initially,

that from him and from his offspring,

he would make a numerous

people, and through this numerous people,

all the peoples of the

earth would be blessed.

And so as would be expected,

Isaac needs a wife.

Isaac can't do this alone,

to state the obvious.

And the narrator informs us in verse 20

that Isaac

was 40 years old when he married Rebekah.

Now stop there for just a second.

This is a story.

It's to be read like a story,

a good story by the way, a

well-written story, an inspired story.

And in any story, there's conflict,

there's tension, and there's also

resolution.

And this is the first hint of conflict in

our particular story, because

in this day, men and women

were married at a very early age.

It was rare

that you were 20 years old even

and unmarried.

In fact, later rabbinical tradition,

later Jewish tradition

calls the man who is single when he's 20

years old cursed.

Isaac's 40.

He's doubly cursed.

40 years old,

no woman.

It becomes increasingly difficult to have

children

without a woman.

This is the first conflict for us.

The promise of God to Abraham that,

"I will make for

you a great people,"

is already being threatened,

because Isaac is 40 and just getting

married.

But there's another threat

to the promise of God.

Even after Isaac and Rebekah married,

notice in

the text they get married, Isaac is 40,

it becomes clear there's

another problem. Rebekah is barren.

In other words, she

is incapable of having children.

This is not what God promised.

I cannot imagine what

Isaac was thinking.

Now

the man had to be ecstatic on his wedding

day.

"Finally, God has provided for me.

In a unique way," if you could go back

and read chapter 24, "in a unique way,

He's

provided for me a wife. Finally." And I'm

certain that Isaac was anticipating

pregnancy

quickly.

After all,

it's hard to have a baby without a woman

and without

pregnancy.

It's just assumed.

But we find out that Rebekah is,

is barren.

So Isaac does what any of us should do in

a

situation in which the promise of God

is threatened by

circumstances. Isaac prays to the Lord,

and notice he asks the Lord to open

Rebekah's womb. Now, stop there.

It's easy to read

through this story quickly. Weeks pass.

Weeks

turn into months.

Months turn into years.

And years turn into decades. And Isaac

is about to be

60.

Some people would say that is old. I,

I would never say that.

If Gary Keaton was here, I'd say it.

But I won't say it this morning.

He's 60 years old.

20 years this man has been praying.

And praying, not on a whim,

praying according to the promise of God.

That's a safe prayer. Can I,

can I say that? That is a safe prayer.

You know God will answer your prayer

when you pray according to His

promises.

And you know that. I can pray today,

"Jesus, come back." I

know God will answer

that prayer eventually.

I know He will,

because He's promised.

That's all Isaac's doing.

He's praying according to the promise of

God. He's 40.

He turns 50. He's about to turn 60.

He's been waiting for 20

years,

and still

no child.

But notice what happens

in verse 22, "And the Lord

granted

his prayer.

And Rebekah,

his wife,

conceived."

All of the tension is resolved,

as it were.

Ken and I recently watched Spider-Man.

It's- you may not have seen s-

the new Spider-Man.

We've seen it a couple of times.

I grew up on superheroes, so I'm

... I enjoy the superhero stuff

like a little boy.

We watched Spider-Man for the second time

the other day, and, uh, just like any

good story, it's full of tension

and it's full of resolution.

I won't spoil the story for you

if you haven't seen it yet.

If you're just a Nazi about this stuff,

close your ears.

But there's this scene in,

in the new Spider-Man in which

Spider-Man is attempting to rescue this

little boy who is trapped

in a car.

He's been thrown over the bridge by a

giant lizard. I know, realistic stuff.

This giant lizard throws this car over the

bridge.

Spider-Man rescues the car with his web,

ties the web, attaches

the web to the bridge,

and the car's just hanging there,

and Spider-Man is going

down to rescue this boy.

So Spider-Man gets to the car, on,

on the car now, and again, the car

is hanging

here by Spider-Man's web,

and he's standing there

and he's instructing the boy

and, and you're thinking, "Okay,

we're about to solve this problem,"

but then

suddenly the tension increases because the

car catches

on fire. This is how good stories work.

You have to have fire.

The car catches on fire and,

and Spider-Man now is saying, "Okay,

now you've gotta hurry. We

were hanging out a minute ago.

No more hangout time.

Come on."

And the boy begins to crawl up.

And right then, because of the fire,

the car falls.

It incinerates the web, and the car falls,

and Spider-Man

shoots his web. You know,

I've even got the motions, guys, okay?

I've got a young son.

I've got an excuse to watch Spider-Man.

Back off.

So he, he, he hits, he hits the car again,

grabs a hold of the car rather with his

hand, shoots the web up to the bridge

and is holding on.

Now, now you can imagine,

now we're in a dilemma, okay?

Before, Spider-Man had his limbs free.

Now he's holding onto the car

and his arm is attached up to the bridge.

Tension is increasing.

Good stuff.

And then as the boy is crawling up

to grab ahold of Spider-Man,

Spider-Man can't hold onto

the car and lets go of the car,

and the car begins to fall.

And there is a moment there. Now,

I know Spider-Man's gonna rescue this guy.

I know it.

It's Spider-Man.

It's what he does.

But there's a moment there where I think,

"Oh my,

this boy's gonna die."

And at the last minute before the car hits

the water, Spider-Man shoots another

web, grabs the boy, pulls him to safety.

The last minute.

A millisecond left to spare.

That's a good story

because the tension was increasing,

and then finally there's

resolution, and that's what happens here.

That's what happens in this text.

Read the Bible like you watch a movie.

For whatever reason, we feel like

when we pick up this book,

we've gotta read it

like an old, sterile, 95-year-old man

who has no emotion.

Why is it a man? I don't know.

The Word of God is full of life.

You think movies are good.

Read the Bible like it

was intended to be read.

So all this tension builds up.

Isaac is 60.

Finally,

finally the Lord answers his prayer.

Finally,

the Lord causes Rebecca to conceive.

And though we might expect

that the story ends here, it doesn't.

God really likes tension.

He really likes tension.

You know this because you're alive today,

and your life is full of it.

There's still another threat to the

promise of God,

and we've gotta move faster

than this. I'm getting hung up.

There's still another threat to the

promise of God.

Now that Rebecca is pregnant,

she's having immense

pregnancy pains.

There is a war going on in her womb.

Now,

we may be reading into this just a little

bit, but ladies, when you have been

barren for 20 years and you get pregnant,

and then you

have immense pains,

I would suspect you're concerned

that you're gonna lose the child.

Doubtless this went through their minds.

"What are you doing, God?"

And Rebecca will even say this.

"Why is this happening to me?"

But the Lord answers,

and he gives an explanation in verse 23.

Notice that the struggle that's taking

place within the womb of

Rebecca is a struggle between two

siblings, we find out

twins.

Two boys,

later named Jacob and Esau,

according to the situation

surrounding their birth.

And this struggle between these two

siblings will be a struggle between two

peoples,

and this will be a struggle between two

nations.

This is symbolic of what's going to happen

in the

future between Syr- Sy- or rather Syria,

eventually,

and Israel.

There's conflict,

and Rebecca is just privileged

to experience it first.

Sometimes God's gift isn't pleasant

initially,

and it wasn't here.

But God reminds-

God reminds Rebekah

and Isaac as we move on, this

is all part of his

program. You see, I've,

I've chosen this to take place.

He announces that this is going to happen.

The older one is going to serve the

younger one.

In other ones-- in other words, Esau,

as we find out, will serve Jacob.

Syria will serve Israel. Those who are not

my people, God says, will serve my people.

Now, God's not just predicting.

God doesn't do that.

God doesn't just simply look down the

pathway of time and say, "This

will happen." No.

I can say the Hornets will win Friday

night,

and I'll have nothing to do with the win.

I'm not on the field. I'm doing nothing.

I'm just predicting, right?

But if JD says

the Hornets will win,

he's on the team.

He's participating.

He's going to cause it to happen.

That's the kind of predicting God does.

This will happen, namely,

I will bring this about.

That's what's taking place

here.

And God reminds Rebekah and Isaac

that this is all a part of

his mysterious and sublime

plan.

And notice also, the book of Genesis,

if you have time to look at this later,

the

Book of Genesis chapter 50,

and then we really will move on.

Colby talked bad about pastors this

morning, and I'm giving him ammo to

continue doing that. Genesis 50,

the last chapter of Genesis

really closes with an idea,

and the idea is this,

you don't have to turn there,

that even when the promises of God

are threatened,

the threats themselves

are a part of God's plan

so that Joseph can say,

"You meant this for evil.

God meant it for good."

God is using all of the threats,

all of the circumstances, all of the

problems to bring about the fruition of

his wise and good plan.

That's the book of Genesis in a nutshell,

and that's what's happening here in

Genesis 25. So the promises of God

are threatened, and

God's, God comforts Rebekah

and Isaac with his sovereignty.

As we said a few moments ago,

what?

What is the message of this particular

text? It's simple.

When the promises of God are threatened,

God's

people should trust his sovereignty.

When the promises of God are threatened,

God's people should trust

his sovereignty.

We've answered the what.

What is the message of this particular

text? Now let's move on to the why.

In other words, why is it,

why is it that when the promises of God

are threatened,

God's people should trust in his

sovereignty?

And the answer really may seem elementary

to you.

It's a theological answer.

Why is it that you should trust God's

sovereignty when his promises

are threatened?

And I'm gonna propose to you this answer:

because of who God is.

Because of who God is.

I could promise you

that I will never let anything happen to

you.

I could make that promise,

and though my intentions

might be kind and good,

noble,

you know, you know that I lack the power

to make good

on this promise. You know that.

My power is limited.

Let's take an evil dictator or tyrant,

Adolf Hitler.

Adolf Hitler could,

could have promised you under the

Nazi regime in Germany to keep you safe.

He could have promised you that.

In fact, doubtless,

he did promise some people that.

He could have said, "No,

don't worry." At the peak of his power,

he could have

said, "I will take care of you." Now,

at the peak of his power, he had the

ability to do that. He had the power,

but he lacked

the benevolence.

He lacked the goodness.

You don't know if Adolf Hitler

is gonna wake up tomorrow morning

and change his

mind and decide to

put an end to you. Put an end to you,

rather.

Some people lack the power to make

promises.

Other people lack the goodness to make

promises.

God marries both of them.

God is omnipotent, and he

is omnibenevolent.

He is all-powerful. He is all good.

He is unrivaled and unparalleled in his

ability,

in his competence, in his potency,

and he is

unparalleled in his goodness.

This kind of a God can make good on his

promises

because no one can prevent him,

and he will never change his mind.

Why is it,

why is it

that the people of God

should trust the sovereignty of God

when the promises of God are threatened?

Because of who God is.

Because he is omnipotent,

and he is omnibenevolent,

unparalleled,

unrivaled

in who he is. He is God

par excellence.

He can make good on his promises.

Give you a couple passages. Isaiah 46:10,

God

says this,

"I will accomplish

all my purpose."

I'm powerful.

I love Isaiah 40 through 46 there.

God, in essence, says this,

"I'm going to do this, and you know what?

There is nothing anyone can do about it.

No one's stopping me."

In Deuteronomy 32:4, it's a great prayer,

by the way.

We memorize this prayer with our children.

Moses describes God in this way. He says,

"The Rock,

his work is perfect. All his ways are

justice. He is a God of faithfulness,

and without iniquity,

he is just and upright."

He's good.

He's the definition of goodness

and beauty.

This is the God you should trust.

This is why you trust his sovereignty

when everything

around you tells you to doubt what he has

promised.

Well,

we've answered two of our three questions

this morning.

What is the message of Genesis

25:19-26?

The message is, is quite simple.

When the promises of God

are threatened,

the people of God should trust his

sovereignty.

When the promises of God are threatened,

the people of God should trust his

sovereignty. Well, why is this the case,

though?

Why is it that we should

and we can trust his sovereignty?

Because of who he is.

Because he's omnipotent

and he's omnibenevolent.

Because no one and nothing can keep him

from accomplishing his

desires, and he is good.

So how does this affect our Christian

faith and practice this morning?

How is it that this message

exhorts you and I as Christians living in

the 21st

century and attending Grace Bible Church

this morning? It's really quite simple.

It flows right through all three

questions, and it's this.

When the promises of God

are threatened in your life,

and they will be,

and they probably have been,

when the promises of God

are threatened in your life, trust

the sovereignty of God.

This is a text

that exhorts us

to take God at his word.

This is a text that tells us in which

and through which God is

telling his people to trust him,

to believe what he says.

And you know this if you've been a

Christian for any length of time at all.

You know that circumstances oftentimes

appear

to contradict what we believe as

Christians.

They appear to contradict God's promises.

There are a number of paradoxes

that exist within the

realm of Christianity. In fact,

Christianity by definition

is believing in something

that we have not yet fully seen,

right? As Hebrews 11 tells us.

Otherwise, it wouldn't be faith.

When circumstances threaten the promises

of God in your life, trust the

sovereignty of God. This,

this involves a number of things, but

I want to say a couple of things to you as

we, as we close.

This involves recognizing that God's plan,

hear me,

hear me this morning,

it involves recognizing that God's plan

is a good plan,

not an easy plan.

There is a massive difference.

This means you know that following

Jesus Christ is good, not easy.

This means that you don't get surprised

when it's hard.

I sound like a broken record because this

has been what's taking place in the

Gospel of Mark,

and we'll return to Mark soon.

But this has been happening throughout the

Gospel of

Mark. This is happening in Genesis.

I got news for you.

This, it ha-

this happens throughout redemptive

history.

This is our very experience.

God's plan is good. It is not easy.

Isaac and Rebekah

could have been married by age 20

like every other good Jew around.

They weren't Jews necessarily at this

point.

Every other good Israelite around.

But that wasn't the case.

Isaac and Rebekah could have been married

by age 30,

but that wasn't the case.

Isaac and Rebekah were married at age 40.

And, and even f- even further,

God could have given Rebekah a

child right out of the gate. It's,

it's not too difficult for God to do that.

It would have been quite easy for God to

do this, and he

didn't.

He made Isaac wait

and Rebekah wait another 20 years, and

doubtless Isaac was praying fervently and

passionately for children,

and God continued to wait.

And even when he gave Isaac a-

and Rebekah a-

conception of their children.

He could have given Rebecca an easy

pregnancy.

Some of you ladies have had an easy

pregnancy.

Some of you have had a difficult

pregnancy.

He could have given her an easy one.

After all, hasn't she been through enough?

But no, no, God is infinitely wise,

and He knows better,

and His way is good, but His way

is not easy, and so there's

conflict within her womb.

Beloved brothers and sisters,

you must understand this.

Life is full of tension and conflict.

Christianity is full of tension

and conflict.

God's purpose, plan,

and accomplishment of that

purpose is always good. It is never easy.

Never.

And I tend to think, by the way, this is,

this is just

speculation.

I tend to think that God likes

making the odds seem like they're against

Him.

I,

I tend to think God has written into

creation

the need for this

tension so that He can showcase who He is.

It's one thing for Spider-Man to rescue a

boy out of a car that's hanging

by Spider-Man's web.

It's quite another thing for Spider-Man to

grab ahold of the

car and hold onto the bridge,

and after the car falls,

to have the precision to grab the child

out of the car before it

hits the water while it's burning.

God likes the odds stacked against Him.

He likes defeating massive armies with 300

men.

His plan is good. It is not easy.

Because He's a powerful God.

Well, Advent season begins today,

and this is the season we count down the

days until Christmas.

I've shared with some of you

that my family does an Advent,

we do an Advent

tree, and we do an Advent wreath.

Who knows? We'll do more next year.

I don't know.

Probably come up with anything else we can

come up with.

But this is a special season for our

family.

This is a season we

are counting down every day.

Our children, Tana and I get together,

and we count down another day.

We pull another day off the tree,

anticipating Christmas.

And Christmas is important, you know this,

because Christmas is the day we

commemorate. Now,

was Jesus born on December 25th?

We don't know this.

But it's the day we've chosen to

commemorate the

birth of Jesus Christ,

and so it's an important day for

Christians all around

the world, and

we commemorate this day.

But have you ever noticed

that the first coming

of Jesus Christ was filled with tension?

You ever notice this?

You ever noticed as you've read the

Gospels? Read Matthew.

Read the first couple of chapters of

Matthew.

The birth of Jesus Christ

is filled with tension,

right?

First of all, there is a virgin

who has conceived.

Scandalous.

Small amount of tension there.

Furthermore, she gives birth,

and what happens?

Herod decides to murder

all of the young boys under the age of two

in Bethlehem.

Tension.

God likes it.

I don't know, maybe He gets bored

if there's not tension.

He showcases who He is.

Christ lives,

becomes a man,

and you and I, you

and I fail to recognize this.

Oftentimes,

I think because we know this is the case,

and we look in

retrospect at the death of Jesus Christ.

But I want you to think about with me the

death of Christ. Christ dies.

There's no more tension than that.

The Messiah,

who has finally arrived on the scene, the

disciples are giddy about it.

They're elated.

He's going to set up His kingdom.

All this is gonna be over.

Our time of waiting has ceased.

He's going to reign upon the

throne over these wicked Gentiles

that have been oppressing

us for so many years.

And He dies.

And the disciples spend approximately a

day and a half,

three days if you count inclusively,

part of Friday, Saturday,

and part of Sunday.

They spend these days wondering, "Why

is this happening to me?"

Tension.

And God resolves the tension by means of

the resurrection.

But notice that the tension doesn't end

there, does it?

Jesus is raised from the dead,

and what happens?

Jesus meets with His disciples,

and I'm certain the, the disciples

are ready to go.

In fact,

they even ask this question in Acts

chapter 1, "Is it, is it now that

You're gonna set up Your kingdom over

Israel?

Is, is this,

is this gonna take place now?"

And Jesus says, "No, no, you don't

know times and seasons.

It's not for you to know these things."

And what happens?

Jesus leaves.

What?

I, I don't know about you,

but I would be thinking, "God,

there's not much more I

can take of this."

Tension.

And the disciples were left waiting,

like you are this morning.

The disciples were left waiting for Jesus

to finish what

He started. That's Advent season.

It is filled with tension.

And this Advent season,

experience the tension

with me.

As you're waiting for Christmas,

don't just wait for presents under a

tree or don't even just wait to remember

the birth

of Jesus.

Learn to become discontent

that he hasn't come back

yet.

We're waiting not for the first coming,

but the second coming.

In fact,

Jesus himself made the promise in John

chapter

14, didn't he? I will come

again

and receive you to myself.

That's his promise.

Advent is a time for you and I to feel the

tension that Isaac and Rebecca felt.

God has made a promise,

and it's a good promise.

And all of our circumstances have come in

and threatened the promise.

2,000 years approximately have passed

since Jesus

Christ was ascended.

And we're still waiting.

I pray and hope you feel the tension this

Advent season.

Well, we've answered three questions.

What, why, how?

What does this passage mean?

When the promises of God are threatened,

the people of God should trust the

sovereignty of God. Why is this the case?

Because of who God is.

Because he's omnipotent

and omnibenevolent.

How is it that this applies to our

Christian faith and practice this

morning? When the promises of God

are threatened in your life as

they are every single day, trust

the benevolent sovereignty of God.

Well, as I mentioned when we first started

a few moments ago,

my dad left my brother

and I with a promise.

The promise was clear.

I will be back soon. That's what he said.

And I spent those six months wondering

if he was

coming back.

It's grown, hasn't it,

since I've been preaching?

Wondering,

is he ever going to do what he said he

was going to do?

And all the factors

were challenging his promise and

challenging my faith

in both the goodness

and the ability of my own father.

But then,

after we waited for what seemed like an

eternity, everything changed when we saw

headlights coming down the driveway.

And I celebrated.

I knew it was dad.

I knew it was him. And then he got closer,

and I saw his car.

And I don't think I said anything to him.

I may have betrayed some

anxiety when he got out of the car.

But I don't think I said anything to him

like, oh, my word, we almost died.

I don't think he would remember this at

all. But I do.

He had finally done

what he promised to me he would do. He

finally made good on his

promise. God, brothers and sisters, always

makes good on his promises.

Always.

And as Jesus Christ left you with a

promise, I am

coming back again for you.

He promised in John 14.

He promised in Revelation

22 to the Apostle John.

Indeed, I am coming quickly. As he

made this promise,

take this season of Advent

to anticipate it,

to beg him for it,

to feel the tension between your current

situation and

his promise.

Know that someday,

when he does make good on his promise,

all of these temporary circumstances

and threats will

seem insignificant

to the glory we will experience

when we see him coming.

Amen.

Come, Lord Jesus.

Let's pray.

Father,

I am so thankful for your promises.

I confess to you that oftentimes

I am prone to wonder.

I am prone to doubt.

I am prone to betray you.

Oftentimes,

when things aren't going my way,

when things challenge your promises,

I doubt you.

I forget you.

And though I may not actually say that,

I feel it.

Father, I pray for my brothers

and sisters, and I pray for myself

as well.

Would you teach us,

your people at Grace Bible Church,

to be people

who, when the promises of God

are threatened,

trust your sovereignty,

knowing that you are omnipotent

and you are omnibenevolent,

knowing that you are capable of making

good on your promises and that you

always will make good on your promises.

And teach us, Father,

to live in this tension until Jesus

Christ comes back again.

We ask that you would send him

soon.

Through Jesus we pray.

Amen.