A God Who Keeps His Promises

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again, radio friends, how in the world are you? Yes, that little greeting establishes the fact that this is indeed your good friend, Bob Cook, and you and I are back together again looking at the Word of God, I’m so grateful, so very thankful for these opportunities, day-by-day to share God’s Word with you. There’s nothing like the Word of God as it makes an impact on your soul isn’t that true? Say– Larry Sauder up there in Montrose, PA sent me a copy of a letter that came in from a listener, and I thought maybe it might encourage those of you who pray for this ministry and the effect it may have on people’s hearts. Lady says, “About three years ago my husband became ill and confined to the house. So in order to continue to work, I had to learn to drive. We purchased a good used car. But it had only one problem the radio would only bring in what I thought of as some religious station out of Montrose.

I left for work every morning, listening to Bob Cook, and somehow or other I learned to hear what he was saying. I always went to church on Sunday and tried to be a good person and thought that took care of it. After three years of listening to your station. I can now say I have accepted Jesus as my savior, it sure is great to walk with the Lord and even better to talk with Him one-to-one. He’s now with me all the time, and that makes each day, a better one. I really believe the Lord will not give me anything that He and I can’t handle.” That’s part of a letter. Isn’t that a precious letter?

Well, I’m grateful that God uses these broadcasts to help people to move them a little closer into a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I’ve met people recently in meetings at Ocean Grove New Jersey and elsewhere where folk came up and said, “I’m a Christian, now because I listened to your broadcast, I got saved listening to your broadcast.” Well, hallelujah, that’s the pay-off, isn’t it? Oh, yes. And in addition, for those many of us who already know the Lord who fellowship together in these broadcasts, you know don’t you, that I pray every day that God may have something special just for you and that the sovereign Holy Spirit of God, who knows our hearts will bring some truth to you, that is custom-made just for your need. That happens in answer to prayer again and again and I’m glad, it’s so.

We’re looking at Ephesians the fourth chapter and there’s a number of expressions. There are, I should say, a number of expressions there that Paul uses to define what he meant by the unity of the Spirit.

In the bond of peace. One body, that’s the church by made up of all believers, one Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, one hope of your calling, called to be His, called to be saints, called to suffer, called to glory and Christ is our living hope one Lord. He is Lord. And you make Him Lord of your feelings, your mind, your motives, your methods, your relationships with people and your ministry of the Gospel, one Lord. One faith and that is not simply the exercise of faith, but that is the relationship you establish between you as a guilty lost sinner and Christ as the Savior, your only hope– that’s the faith. Neither is there salvation in any other, and neither is there any name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. There is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus. This is what Martin Luther called the Sola fide: one faith justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And then as I explained a few days ago, the exercise of that saving faith moves into all of your lifestyle and you begin to trust God for everything, because you depend upon Him, as your Lord and your Savior.

One baptism– that refers I said to you, to the baptism of the Holy Spirit of God who baptizes you into the body of Christ, and then we came to verse six, “One God and father of all. Who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” That’s a profound verse there. And I don’t know if we exhaust it until we get to glory, and understand fully what it all means. But we can start anyway.

The last time we got together, we were saying that in considering anything concerning deity you start with the Godhead. God isn’t your big buddy in the sky, He isn’t the man upstairs and all of that. We’re far too casual in these days, in our relationship to God. The writer to the Hebrews, mentioned something about this in chapter 12, I think it is, and it should be around verse nine. Let me take a look and see. Hebrews, Hebrews, Hebrews, here we are 12:9. “Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence; so shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?” He’s talking there about God’s chastening. Godly awe that we should have as we come into the presence of God, sometimes seems lacking.

God and father, but then he goes on to say, And Father, and that comes about through the Lord Jesus Christ, “He said, I ascend unto my father, and to your father. And he said, “When you pray, say, “Our Father which art in heaven.” “And so it is that we who have been adopted into the family of God,” Paul says, “God has sent forth His Spirit, into our hearts crying, Abba Father, the Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are the children of God and if children then heirs, joint heirs with Christ.” Abba Father, papa God, that word Abba is similar to our word Papa, the cry of a little child’s heart toward a parent.

And God hears that, He listens, the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth and His ears are open unto their cry. Back in the Old Testament, you hear God saying through His prophets I’ve heard the cry of my people God listens, He listens. That ought to encourage somebody this morning who is just about to give up. And you’ve gone through it, you’ve gone through the ringer, and you think, “I wonder if there’s any more chance that I can be anything or accomplish anything? I wonder if God has forgotten me? I wonder if God cares about me?” Listen, beloved, God listens.

He Listens, He cares, “casting all your care upon Him,” says Peter, “for He careth for you”. You are His concern. Yes, He does, He’s your Father, He listens for your cry. And don’t, so don’t give up praying, the Old Testament prophet said, “Ye who are the Lord’s remembrances give Him no rest, until He establish peace in Zion”. God likes to be reminded. Our Lord Jesus spoke a parable to them, to the end, that men are always to pray and not to faint. Never quit. It’s always too soon to quit. Doctor Edmund used to say. Our Father, He’s your father, He cares about you, He knows about you. Oh, yes, He does. I can remember different times when either I got into some scrape or other or fell and skinned my knee or else got into trouble and had a spanking as the case may be, in any of those cases, my tears were flowing, and I was feeling bad and my father would take me up and sit me on his knee and put his big arms around me and wipe away my tears with the heel of his hand big calloused laboring man’s hand, he’d wipe away my tears tenderly, and then he’d say, “Papa knows.”

And I knew that he knew, I knew that he knew how I felt. And it was of great comfort to my own soul as a little, motherless boy, that my father knew and understood and as you look up today to the heavens, and you can say, “Oh God, I’m scared. What if I can’t meet these obligations, what if things don’t work, what if I lose my health, what if I can’t produce any more? What if? What if? What if?” You’re scared and you’re burdened and there just doesn’t seem to be any human answer. You cry out to God, I wanna tell you, He’s listening and He’s answering. The answer is on the way, even though you may not know it. God hasn’t forgotten you, because you’re His child, our God and Father.

Now, let me ask you something. Have you established that father-child relationship, you say,”Well, I’m a Christian, brother.” Yes I know, come on, don’t be defensive about it. I wanna know. Have you established that beautiful father-child relationship where you actually trust your heavenly father, you actually know that you know that you know that He cares about you and that He’s taking care of you.

See, He allows us to be tested, so that we know that He is faithful. My own earthly father, Charlie Cook, did that to me different times. I remember one time, particularly, I told you about this a while back, I think, but it’s an illustration that bears repeating because it fits here. He worked six and a half days a week, Monday through Saturday noon at the Toledo Machine and Tool Company in Toledo, over on Dorr Avenue. It was big foundry where they made huge presses that were used in the automotive business, and he was in charge of all of their blueprint seek. He was the librarian for the blueprints. Well, so it was that in one fall day, I had said to him, “You know, pop just… I would love to go. Oh, I would love to go to this football game because we’re playing Scott High School.” Now I was going to Morrison R-Waite High School in East Toledo and the arch-rival in those days was Scott High School, and so I just pleaded with him I said, “Oh if I could only go to that game, but I haven’t got the two dollars. Do you think that you could help me do that?”

Well he said, “Alright I’ll tell you. If you’ll wait for me on the corner of such and such a street,” I forget the names of the street anymore. I think one of them was Monroe. And what the other was, I don’t know. But he says, “If you’ll wait for me on the such such a corner there by the, by the Cigar store on the corner, across from the bank, I’ll go out and cash my check at the bank.” The banks were open on Saturday in those days. You know how long to go that was, and then he said, “I’ll give you that $2 and you can go to the game in the afternoon. I said.”Alright.” Well. He didn’t get out of work until 12. I was there on the corner at 11:30. [chuckle] You know I was gonna be on time. And so then I waited and it got to be 12:00, and then 12:30 I thought, “He ought to be coming pretty soon,” and then quarter of one, then 1:00 clock and I thought, “Oh boy the game starts at 2 o’clock, I’m gonna be late, I won’t get to see if something’s happened to them”

And then it got to be two… Like 2:15 or so and then finally, I felt a touch on my shoulder and there he stood and I said, “Pop. What happened to you?” He said, “I’ve been watching you from across the street for the last half hour.” He said, “I just wanted to be sure that you knew how to obey and do what I told you.” Well, I thought at the time, “Hey that’s a tough way to teach me.” But you look back and you see that those tests that an earthly father gave you, helped you to realize that he wasn’t gonna fail you and that he was going to come through.

God says, He’s faithful and He’ll keep His promise. I will come back to this the next time we get together.

Blessed Father, we love you thank you for being our Father through Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!