In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: The God of the Bible is the only true God, and the God of the Bible is a God who keeps His word. He's the God you can count on. He's always the same. That is, He's reliable and trustworthy. And when you think about the idea of a God you can count on, what are we simply saying? That is, that He will always do what He has said, and He will always fulfill His promises. You never have to worry about God saying one thing and then saying and doing something else.

Guest (Male): In our most desperate moments, God can seem far away. But our circumstances aren't always good indicators of His love for us. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley, you'll be encouraged to remember that no matter what you face, the Lord Almighty is a God you can count on.

Dr. Charles Stanley: How many people are there in your life that you can really and truly count on? How many people can you count on that when they tell you something, it's really the truth? They mean it, they'll live by it, you can count on it. More than likely, you and I would have to say not many. You know why? Because we've been disappointed before. People who said, "I'm going to pray for you," and two weeks later when you bring up the issue, they don't even remember it.

Somebody says, "I'll stand with you in this time," and you go through some difficulty, they don't even call you. Or somebody says, "You know, no matter what happens, I'll help you," you never see any help. When somebody says, "I really truly love you," and then you watch the way they act. So that's why I want to talk about this morning, this simple truth. I want to talk about a God you and I can count on.

And I want you to turn if you will to the 10th chapter of Hebrews, and I want us to read this 19th through the 23rd verse. And I want to sort of explain the passage as we go along because there's one primary verse in there that I want us to look at. Hebrews chapter 10, beginning in verse 19. Listen to what he says: "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus," that is, to enter heaven by the blood of Jesus, not by our works, but by the crucifixion, the substitutionary all-sufficient atoning death of Christ.

By a new and living way, not by works, not by sacrifices, which He inaugurated for us, that is, through the veil, that is, His flesh. That is, you and I are going to get to heaven by placing our trust in the shed blood of Jesus Christ at Calvary. And since we have a great high priest over the house of God, who is Jesus Christ Himself, let us draw near, near unto Him with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, which is His way of saying being totally cleansed by His blood.

Let us hold fast tightly, don't give up, the confession of our hope, that is, the belief that we have without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Listen, faithful means reliable, unchanging, unswerving, unfaltering, unfailing. He's always the same. That is, He's reliable and trustworthy. You can put your trust in Him, you can rely on Him, you can count on Him. He's a God you can count on.

And when you think about the idea of a God you can count on, what are we simply saying? That is, that He will always do what He has said and He will always fulfill His promises. You never have to worry about God saying one thing and then saying and doing something else. It means that He will do exactly what He says and He'll do it exactly when He says He'll do it. So when we talk about a God that we can count on, this is the kind of God we can count on.

Now, what's the basis of your belief that your God is always reliable, always faithful, unchanging, you can count on Him every day? Here it is, the two things. And I want you to get this in your mind so when somebody asks you that question or when Satan comes to you and says, "Not today. If you could trust Him, look what shouldn't have happened. If you could trust Him, where is He?" So I want to give you two primary reasons that you and I can base our confidence in His unchangeableness in our life.

The first one is His attributes. That is, His attributes are those characteristics of God. That is, these are the traits of God. This is who He is. This is what He's like. This is, therefore, what He does. For example, let's just mention several important ones. And the first one is this: when you think about the fact that He can be relied upon, that you can count on Him, one of the reasons I know I can count on Him because He is absolutely omniscient. That means He knows all things. He knows all things at all times about all situations and all circumstances.

Therefore, I can count on Him that when I come to Him in prayer, I don't have to give Him information. That is, I'm not saying, "Now let me explain this to you, God. Here's what's going on." He already knows exactly what's happening. A second trait that He has is His omnipotence, that He has all power. Therefore, I know that He has the power in our life to change any circumstance, to control any circumstance, to do anything He chooses to do at any time in anybody's life in all situations and circumstances.

Therefore, I know that there is no power in heaven or earth that can thwart the purpose of God. And as you and I surrender our life to Him, He will fulfill His purpose in our life. The third trait is this, and that is His omnipresence, which means this: there is no place on earth or in the heavens that you and I can go to get out of His reach. And it's a wonderful thing when He said His faithfulness reaches, listen, to the heavens and the depths of the sea. That is, there's no place on earth in which God is not faithful, reliable, cannot be counted on, everywhere He can.

A fourth trait is this, and that is His truthfulness. And I want you to turn back if you will to Psalm 12, verse 6. Listen to what he says: so simple, "The words of the Lord are what? Pure words." Always correct, always truthful, every single solitary time. So when you and I come to God and ask Him for direction, He's not going to say, "Well, it's probably, well, it's sort of, well, it could be, well, you can check on this."

His words are pure. Listen, He says He will direct our life, that He will guide us with His eye. So that when you and I come to Him, we don't have to come to Him wondering if He's going to give us some pretty good information, sort of good information. His words are pure because He cannot lie. He says it's impossible for Him to lie. Now why is it impossible for God to lie? Because it's His character, it's His nature. These are His attributes.

For example, the very Hebrew word Elohim means, listen, infinite in power, absolute in faithfulness. That means always, no exception, you can count on God to be who He says He is. And for Him to be otherwise, He could not be God. That's His very nature. And that is His nature, His traits, His character, His attributes, pure in what He says. This is the kind of God we have. So when you look at His attributes, one of the bases for which we believe that He can always be counted on is His attributes.

Well, a second thing is this, and that is His past performance. So let's think about God for a moment, and we say, "Well, let's see now. If we're going to talk about past performance, let's get all the way back to when He first started performing." So we go back to Genesis chapter 3, and you remember what He said. For example, here's what He said to Adam and Eve: "All the trees of the garden, yours freely. The tree that is in the midst of the garden, you must not eat of it." And watch this, here's what He said: "In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die."

Somebody says, "Well, that's not true because they lived on and had a family." Listen carefully. They did die. Spiritually they died. And the penalty of death is separation from God. He cast them out of the garden, so they died spiritually the moment they rebelled against Him and they died physically years later. He kept His word. You can depend on it, you can trust Him, He's a God you can count on.

He said, for example, in that 6th chapter of Genesis: the Lord, He said, "My spirit shall not always strive with man forever because he also is flesh. Therefore," He says, "listen, nevertheless his days shall be 120 years." Then He said, thinking of what He was going to do: "Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and the earth was filled with violence." And so that's a description of what He saw. So here's what He said: the Lord said, "I will blot out man whom I've created from the face of the land, from man to animals and creeping things, the birds of the sky, I'm sorry that I've made them."

What happened? There was a flood, you and I know the story. Flood came and of course He wiped out everything exactly like He said. You know what? Isn't it strange you can count on Him? And we look back and say, "What's His past performance?" Did exactly what He said. Turn on over to the 12th chapter of Genesis if you will. And now He made a promise to Abraham. Watch this, it gets more exciting all the time. Look at this.

Verse 1 says: "Now the Lord said to Abram," He changed his name to Abraham a little later, "Go forth from your country, from your relatives, 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 shall be a blessing, and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

Now think about this for a moment. He spoke to Abraham in a pagan country, revealed Himself, and He said to him, "I'm going to bless you, Abraham." His choice. He didn't say because this, because that, because the other. God simply made a decision to bless Abraham. And here's what He said: "I'm going to make you a great family. I'm going to make you a great nation, and through you all the nations of earth are going to be blessed."

Now what we have to ask is this: did He keep His word? Yes. That little strip of land called Israel, in spite of everything that goes on. You think about it, it wouldn't take a very vast multitude of people to just totally cover that nation. Why has God preserved them through all kinds of conflict, all kinds of threat, all kinds of terror, you name it? You know what? God made a promise and it doesn't make any difference what happens and who does what, God will not violate His promise.

And so you say, "Well, when He says all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed, how is that?" If you turn, for example, to Isaiah chapter 7 for a moment and listen to what the prophet said. Isaiah chapter 7 and the 14th verse. Think about this. In the genealogical line were sinners, prostitutes, prophets, you name it, all kind of people. That wasn't the issue. The issue was, listen, that He promised to send one who would bless all the earth.

And so in the 7th chapter, the 14th verse of Isaiah: "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, the virgin will be with child, bear a son, and they will call His name Immanuel," which means God with us. That could not mean any other person who's ever been born except the person of Jesus Christ for the simple reason He's the only person who's walked this earth who is God. God the beloved son. This is the God about whom, listen, the Father said, Jesus said the words.

He said, "My Father is sending Me into this world for the purpose of redeeming mankind. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whoever believes in Him would not perish but have everlasting life." The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, fulfillment, listen, of the prophecy of Isaiah of the virgin-born birth of the Savior, called His name Immanuel, God with us. All the way back to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the whole genealogical line.

What's God doing? He's proving that you can count on Him. Listen, that no matter what happens, and imagine this, a genealogical line through all those years, never broken. Keeping His word all through those difficulties, hardships, and trials. And you remember in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, for example, He promised Israel. He said, "Here's what I'm going to do for you. You keep My word and I'm going to bless you," and He talked about all the ways He would bless them.

And then He said, "You violate My word, you rebel against Me, here's what's going to happen." And when He promised them that they would go into captivity, that's exactly what happened to them. Did He preserve them ultimately? Yes, He did. Did He always come back to forgive their sin? Yes, He did. Did He bring them out of idolatry and mismarriage and all the other things and save them as a nation? Yes, He did. And they're still a nation today and they will be until the Lord God Himself comes.

No matter what, that's who He is. He's the living God and He always keeps His promise. And so then you come, for example, there are many others, come to Matthew chapter 16, for example. And this is the first time that Jesus ever began to talk to His disciples about what was going to happen to Him ultimately. And He said in, if you'll recall, this 21st verse: "From this time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed and be raised up on the third day."

And so He said, "Going to be crucified and I'm going to be resurrected." Well, you know what Peter said. He said, "That's not going to happen." He said, "Lord, this will never happen to You." What happened? He was crucified and He did rise on the third day. He kept His promise. What I want you to see is you could go all the way through the scriptures and here's what you'll find. You'll find that you and I have a God, the God of the Bible is the only true God, and the God of the Bible is a God who keeps His word.

He's the God you can count on. You never have to wonder what He's going to do next. He will never violate His word. He will never violate His promise. He will never change. He will never fail. He will never swerve. He says there is no shadow of turning with Him. Why? Because He says great is His faithfulness. That's who He is. These are the reasons that you and I can come to the Word of God and no matter where we're reading and say, "Well, here's what God promised here, and here's what He promised here."

And so how can I trust Him? How can I know for certain? Because He's a God you can count on. Now when I think about the fact that when you and I are willing to trust Him, willing to believe in Him, He's always willing to give us His best, always willing to do His best for us. And so you see, the reason you and I trust Him is because we believe that He can be relied upon, believe He can be trusted. Look if you will back in the 62nd Psalm because oftentimes we wonder why God doesn't do this, that.

You know what He's going to do? He's going to do exactly what He promised. 62nd Psalm says, verse 1: "My soul waits in silence for God only." You know why? Because the Psalmist says, "I know I can trust Him. I know I can rely upon Him. He's the only one." Then I want you to notice in verse 8 what he says: "Trust in Him at all times, O people, pour out your heart before Him." Trust in Him at all times. Why? Because you can count on Him to do and to be exactly what He says.

And yet I think about the times when you and I go through those situations and circumstances and things don't always turn out the way we planned, and life doesn't turn out the way we expected it to. And so we say, "Well, how can I trust God?" Because He says in Titus chapter 1, verse 2, He says He's a God who cannot lie. We have a reason, we have many reasons to trust Him. He's always reliable. And that's why believers need to study the Word of God.

Absolutely soak your mind and heart in the truth because, listen, what you do, when you begin to absorb the Word of God, you drive out doubt, you drive out error, you drive out false beliefs. And you begin to understand that your God is exactly who He says He is. Look at His attributes. Look at His past performance. And when somebody says to me, "Well, yeah, I know you're telling the truth, and I do believe that God forgives all sin, and I do believe that God could save me."

And let's say, for example, here's somebody 50, 60 years of age, never been saved, lived like the devil, wicked as they could be, maybe they've been in prison, committed everything imaginable, and here's their attitude: "Well, I do believe what you say, and yeah, I do believe the Bible, but—" When they put the "but" in, here's what they're saying: "I'm an exception." You're not an exception. I don't care what you've done, where you've been, what's happened in your life.

When God says, "He that believeth in Me shall never perish." When He says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him receives eternal life." Listen, there are no exceptions. God is a God you can count on. He's a God you can trust. And I simply want to say to you this: no matter where you've come from, what you have believed in the past, what you've done in the past, how wicked you think you are or sinful you think you are, how deceitful you think you have— how many times you've failed God, you know what's for sure?

If you will ask Him to forgive you of your sins and tell Him that you're asking for forgiveness, not based on your goodness because that doesn't count with Him. Or what you're going to do, that doesn't count. There's only one way to be saved and you will ask Him to forgive you of your sins based on the fact that His son took your sin debt in full at the cross, was punished— remember what Jesus said: "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

He was experiencing separation from the Father in your behalf and my behalf so that He could say to you upon your confession and genuine repentance, which means that you meant what you said and you're moving in the opposite direction now. He forgives, He cleanses, He seals you as a child of God. You're now indwelt by the Holy Spirit and Jesus now will live His life in you and through you. It is a matter of trusting Him.

And I've simply spent all this time saying to you, you can trust the God of this Bible because you don't have any evidence, not one shred, that He's unfaithful, will let you down, that you can't count on Him. And we have thousands and thousands— listen, when I think of all the millions of people who've trusted Him and lived faithfully for Him, and all of us have testimonies: faithfulness, reliable, trustworthy, you name it.

And I want to encourage you if you're a doubting believer and you wonder if God's going to help you through this and if He's going to help you through that. Ask yourself the question, "Well, when did He fail me?" Never has. You know why? He loves you too much to fail you. How much does He love you? Somebody says, "Well, I don't know." I'm going to tell you how much He loves you. The best way for me to explain that is to do this: you look at the cross and you'll know just how much He loves you.

Guest (Male): You're listening to In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. God will forgive you, cleanse you, and make you His child when you ask Him for forgiveness based on the sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ. Once you do, you can know that He is always with you and always ready to sustain you. Learning to trust God takes practice. If you could use some help flexing your faith muscles, stop by intouch.org and follow the link to Today on Radio to go back over what you just heard.

And if you'd like to have a copy of Dr. Stanley's complete message, you can order online at the bookstore. The title is "A God You Can Count On." Our web address again is intouch.org. Call or text to 1-800-IN-TOUCH. If you prefer, you can write to us at In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia, 30357. What should you do when you hear false doctrine taught in your church? Today's Moment with Charles Stanley is coming up next.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Let your time and your schedule and everything about you revolve around this: that you and I are to develop and continue to develop this ongoing, intimate, wonderful, exciting, satisfying, indescribable, wonderful, incomparable relationship with a personal God.

Guest (Male): Dr. Stanley devoted his entire life to helping us get closer to Jesus, as we all want to do. You can learn how at charlesstanleyinstitute.org. In Touch Plus is streaming on Local Now, featuring all the best of Dr. Charles Stanley. He's working out things that you and I would never know about in our future. In Touch Plus, your streaming network for quality Christian programming 24/7. Now watch this. In Touch Plus, streaming free on Local Now.

You're listening to In Touch. Let's say you're a Christian and you love your pastor, but you notice false teaching slipping into your church. What do you do? Here's a Moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: And I would say to you that if you're in a Bible-teaching church and you are being led by the spirit of God and God's growing you up, just be thankful to God. If you're in a church and that's not true, I understand that is a very difficult position for you to be in. You don't want to fight against your pastor, and you don't want to leave the church. But let me just say this, and I'm a pastor: if your pastor is teaching error, you believe it's false, and he will not listen, and he defends himself and becomes arrogant or whatever it might be— or maybe he's too smart to become arrogant in front of you— then you have to make a decision.

Just pray for God to open his eyes. And if God says to you, "You need to leave this church," then you do what God tells you to do. You don't stay in a church because your grandfather, grandmother, and great-great-grandparents were there. You stay in a church because it's where you and your family can grow in the Lord Jesus Christ and become strong in the things of faith.

So I want to pray for you. And Father, I do pray for people who find themselves in this kind of a circumstance. Give them courage to confront the truth and give them courage to confront the error, and give them courage, dear Father, to make the right decision that is best for them, for their church, for their children. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): Learn more about identifying false teaching at intouch.org. And if today's program has encouraged your relationship with Jesus, we'd like to hear from you. Next time on In Touch, we'll hear a number of examples from the Bible that prove we can always count on God. I hope you'll join us again for In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.