Telling the Truth

Guest (Male): Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe opens the book of Psalms to help you see God's great promises to you and why he always comes through.

But before we hear from Jill, everyone experiences disappointments in life. And when things don't go the way we expect or desire, either tragically or in similar ways, discouragement can become entrenched as we begin to believe destructive thoughts like, "It's always going to be this way" or "I'll never overcome this."

And when those thoughts are left unattended, they can lead you to despair and cause you to miss out on the abundant life Jesus promised. That's why we want to help you win the battle against feelings of discouragement by sending you Stuart and Jill Briscoe's five-message series, Hope for the Disheartened. In it, Stuart and Jill help you discover why your hope must be tied to trusting God and reliant on his strength and timing.

You'll learn that even in troubled times, you have a God who loves you and gives you every reason to look forward with unspeakable peace, hope, and joy. The Hope for the Disheartened series is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life through the teaching and resources of Telling the Truth. So request your copy when you give today. 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org.

Now let's hear from Jill with today's message: "He Promised Me."

Jill Briscoe: We are included in God's promises. Another word for promise is covenant. That's an old-fashioned word, but it's a very good word to learn about. God is a covenant-making and a covenant-keeping God. Now anyone can make promises, we've said. Not everybody keeps their promise. There is a difference between promise-makers and promise-breakers, promise-keepers.

God always keeps his promises. Do you ever get that sense of betrayal if somebody promises you something and you don't keep it? Have you ever had a child say to you, "But Mom, you promised me"? And there is outrage if you promise a child something and you don't come through. There is outrage in their reaction.

There is something in us that feels outraged, betrayed, if somebody doesn't keep a promise to us. Why is that? Because we're made in the image of God. He is outraged and betrayed if we do not keep our promises to him. And because we are made in his image, we're made like God. We have that same sense, that part of God inside us that is outraged if somebody betrays us.

And so when we think of covenant, we think of a big promise, the best sort of promise that can be made. And when that covenant is broken, God is horrified. God is horrified. God takes this thing that's going on in society and uses it as a picture of what he wants to promise Israel. "I am your husband," he says. "You are my wife." It's like a marriage covenant, but it's bigger than that.

It's a business deal. It is a covenant of all covenants, a standing contract between us. But I am the big king, and you are the little king. And the one element about this covenant that was going to be different is that it was a covenant of hesed, a covenant of love. None of the other covenants in the Near East ever had that element in them.

And what difference did that make? This is the difference it made: God said to the little king—us, the little people—"He shall be our God, we shall be his people. If you ever break my covenant, it won't make any difference. I will never break my side of the bargain." And so the covenant lamb, the lamb is the covenant animal of the Old Testament, was slain at the Passover as a symbol that God kept his promises specifically to redeem out of this world a people for himself.

So God used this common element to explain covenant to people. I think of the new covenant that Jesus talked about in his blood. Every time we take communion, we remind ourselves of that. And Jesus is linking the old covenant, God's promise that a life would be shared—a perfect lamb at the Passover in order to ratify this covenant. God would put his seal and sign on this covenant. An animal would die, and the promise would never be broken.

Jesus Christ was the Lamb of God. You see, in the Old Testament, we have a covenant of works. You try and keep the covenant. In the New Testament, we have a covenant of grace. We have broken the covenant. We often break our promises to God. We are so often the unfaithful wife that the prophets speak about in the scriptures. And yet in the book of Hebrews, we learn lots and lots about this new covenant that's going to be so different once we understand it.

The book of Hebrews, of course, explains all that stuff in the Old Testament that I've been talking about. The old covenant, the covenant of law and grace is now mixed in the new covenant. So when David sat before the Lord and he thanked the Lord for the promises he was making, even though I'm sure he didn't fully understand it, he understood these things about the covenant that we read in 2 Samuel chapter 7.

He understood that he would have a son to succeed him who would establish the kingdom of David. Now that son was Solomon. He understood that Solomon would build the temple for the Lord. And he understood that the throne of David, that his descendants would sit on that throne forever. And that one day God himself would send his son, the son of David, who would become the eternal king of an eternal kingdom through his family.

No wonder he said, "Who am I, O Sovereign Lord, and what is my family that you have brought me this far? As if it weren't enough in your sight, O Sovereign Lord, you've also spoken about the future of the house of your servant. Is this your usual way of dealing with men, O Sovereign Lord?" And so even though David sins justify God's chastening in his lifetime, God's loving promise of heaven and Jesus Christ on the throne of it and the invitation to the world that would respond was forever. You can see that in verses 14, 15, and 16.

As history wound itself on—for history is his story—there were many people that challenged that throne, that kingship of David. There was one specific man who challenged it; he was not of the line of David, and he tried to get rid of David's descendants. And at that point, one of David's descendants said, and this is in 2 Chronicles 13:5, "David made this with a covenant of salt."

God made this with David. God leaned out of heaven and said, "David, there will never cease a man to sit on your throne." And they had a covenant of salt. What was that about? Salt was often used in covenants. And apparently, David's covenant with God on this piece was sealed with salt. Why? Salt is a preservative. It's a symbol of enduring, everlasting things. It keeps things from deteriorating.

Those days, if they had fish to send from one city to another, they would sprinkle the fish with salt. And so this descendant of David reminded this usurper that was trying to take the throne, "Listen, God made this covenant. You cannot overrun us. You might for a little while, but God has promised there will never cease a man on the throne of David forever and ever. God's promises will be worked out in history. He is indeed the new covenant Promiser."

Now in Jeremiah and Ezekiel, prophets promised this new era where there would be a new power within us to keep our side of the covenant with God. Now we need a heart transplant for that, don't we? We need the heart of Jesus. We need his person, we need his personality, we need his Holy Spirit to keep our side of the bargain. God is a promise-keeper, but we can keep our promises, too.

He has loved us with an everlasting love. He will give us his everlasting love that we might love him back and keep our part of the bargain. At the beginning of this talk, I talked about the picture God uses: the picture of the marriage relationship. And you know, that's why it's very important that Christian marriages stick together. God is using them as a picture of his relationship with man, with his people.

And when Christian marriages fall apart, people say, "Well, the picture's spoiled. People can break their promises, and it's not a good thing for God. His picture is spoiled when Christian marriages don't make it." Just as in the Old Testament when Israel was unfaithful—Israel the wife of Jehovah the husband was unfaithful—then all the surrounding nations looked and said, "Well, look what happened to that marriage. Didn't do them any good. They broke their promise."

And so we need to keep our promise. The marriage relationship is a wonderful picture, and especially in the book of Hosea do we see this. Hosea was told by God to marry a prostitute. He married this woman, Gomer, who became the mother of his children. But even the children God said had to have names like "unfaithful" and "broken promises" and things like that.

Because this little family became a picture of what God was trying to say to Israel about his covenant love relationship with them. And then he said to Hosea, "Now go and buy her back. Take some redemption money. She's living with this man. Go and pay the redemption money and buy your wife back." And Hosea did.

And then God says, "Now this is a picture of what I am trying to do with my unfaithful wife, Israel. Therefore I," says God, "am now going to allure her and lead her into the desert, speak tenderly to her. I will give her back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. In that day, you will no longer call me my master, you will call me my husband."

And he talks about renewing this love relationship. And so Hosea went and did that, and Gomer came and lived back with him. And everybody around said, "What a wonderful thing. This husband has redeemed his wife back. He's speaking tenderly to her. He has wooed her back. He has won her back. He has courted her back." And all this happened in the Valley of Achor. What does this mean?

Well, the Valley of Achor can become a door of hope, God says through the prophet Hosea. The Valley of Achor was the place where a man messed up. He was told to not take plunder. God was sending his people out. They overcame a village, a town, and they were told not to touch anything, just to burn the lot. And this man saw these lovely clothes, and he saw some silver.

And he took it back and he buried it in his tent. And Israel stopped being able to win their battles. And so Joshua didn't know what was happening. And God said, "Don't spend your time praying. There's sin in the camp. Somebody has done something that they shouldn't have done. Go and find that family, find that man." And they found this man, Achan.

And he confessed to the fact that he had taken some of the things God had said must be destroyed, buried them in his tent. Nobody else could see them, but remember, God can see everything. And so Achan and his whole family were stoned to death, and the sin was put away from Israel. And then they began to win their battles again. That happened in the Valley of Achor. That man represented being unfaithful to his God in the Valley of Achor.

And now God says, "I can open a door of hope for you." There's a door of hope in our relationship with God, even if we've been unfaithful, even if we've sinned, even if we've done dreadful things like this man did, like David was to do with Bathsheba. There is a door of hope in the Valley of Achor. What is that door of hope? God has made a promise to us.

He has said, "I will never break my side of the bargain. We can be reconciled with each other. I can come back into your life, and you and I can begin this marriage that we should have that would be a testimony to the people around." I don't know where you are in your relationship with God at the moment. I don't know if you have no hope that you can ever get back into touch with the Lord.

Somebody said to me last week, "I just feel so out of touch with God." And I talked to her a little bit and found out why. There had been some sin in the camp. She had buried something in her life that had destroyed her relationship, cut off her relationship with her heavenly husband. And we were able to repent of that, and I was able to bring her back to the presence of God so she could say she was sorry, and there was a reconciliation.

How could I promise her there would be a reconciliation? Because God made a covenant promise. That's that. Doesn't matter what you do, it doesn't matter how you behave: "I will be your God and you will be my people." For our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, my husband bought me a little badge, a little brooch. And it says "Mizpah" on it.

What does it mean? It's two hearts connected with hearts. It's very old, it's very lovely, a lovely little piece of jewelry. And Mizpah is Hebrew. And it means "the Lord watch between thee and me while we are absent one from another." And it comes actually from Genesis. Do you remember the story of Jacob and Laban, his uncle? They didn't get on very well, and they had all sorts of problems.

And in the end, Jacob took off with Laban's two daughters and went to go back to his land where he'd come from in the first place. And Laban chased after him with his army, and they found each other, and they managed to reconcile. And they made a heap of stones, which is often done when you make a covenant. And they made a promise to each other.

Laban said, "Now I'm not going to be there to see how you do with your marriage to my two daughters. I'm not going to be there to watch over that. But I want you to promise me that you won't take any other wife, that you'll be faithful to my daughters. Whether I'm there, whether I can see what you're doing, out of sight, promise me." And the two made a promise.

And they called that place Mizpah, the place where they promised each other, "The Lord will watch between us while we are absent one from another." And that's why my husband gave me that badge because in many, many years of traveling in our ministry, we have been apart one from another. But we made a marriage covenant years and years ago. Remember, Stuart said, "Jill, that's that. I will be faithful to you," and I said, "Stuart, that's that. I will be faithful to you."

And the Lord watch between us while we are absent one from another. We will be true to our covenant. And God has given us the power to be true to those promises. Now God wants to say to you, "Let's have a Mizpah. Let's come together. Let's put away our differences. Let's reconcile, you and me. And I will watch over you wherever you go.

Even though you cannot see me, even though my presence isn't obvious, there can be a time when we can come back together." So where are you in the story? Have you broken promises? I want you to know that God never, ever breaks his promises. He is a promise-keeping God. You can see it if you get into the Old Testament.

Look at all the covenants. Just take that word covenant and follow it through in your Bible, if you have a good reference Bible, and you will see that God keeps his promises. He put a rainbow. Has there ever been a flood that drowned everyone in the world? There's been floods that have drowned a lot of people in some of the world, but there's never been a flood that drowned everybody in the world because God is a promise-keeping God.

He is a promise-keeping God on our relationship with him. Whatever we do, whether we behave like Gomer as far as God is concerned, whether we prostitute ourselves and love the world before we love Jesus, he will forgive us. He wants us to come back, and he reminds us then whenever there is a covenant, there is an animal slain.

Jesus was slain to make this covenant possible. Next time you take communion, remember that. This is the new covenant in my blood. It reminds us of what God has done, for he promises us not only a relationship here through the Holy Spirit but a relationship in heaven where he will be on the throne and where there will be no more broken promises.

One day we will be like him, and he cannot break a promise. So we will not be able to break a promise one day. We are in the making. We are not perfect yet, but we are being perfected. We are included in the covenant that God made with man.

Guest (Male): Now here's Jill to discuss today's sermon, "He Promised Me." Jill, what would you say to that person who feels like their marriage is falling apart or has fallen apart?

Jill Briscoe: Well, I think I'd say something different to those whose marriage is falling apart to those who are divorced and are irreconcilable because the other partner has married again or one of those situations. It would certainly be different. Let me take what would I say to the person who feels like their marriage is falling apart.

I would say do everything you can to save your marriage so that if in the end it falls apart, you can look back and say, "You know, I did everything I could. I did absolutely everything I could." And then God will help you pick up the bits. Don't get the other side of it and say, "You know, if only we'd gone to that counselor" or "if only I'd..."

Don't do that to yourself because you'll live with those regrets or if-onlys. And so to the person who feels, get help. There is so much help in America today. Look on the website to churches, look for Christian counselors. Walk into the office, take the initiative. Get help, get godly help. Go to your pastor if you're in a church.

If you're not in a church, go on the website. Look for a Bible church, a Bible-believing church, evangelical church. If that's too hard for you, go to the church you grew up in or that you were baptized in. That's all right. Go to your priest, go to your pastor, go to your vicar, whoever, and say, "I need help." And I can't imagine any of those people would not either direct you to help or have help for you.

So first of all, it's not too late if it's falling apart. And look after yourself first before you try to make your husband or your wife holy. Make them happy, God'll make them holy. You make them happy, God'll make them holy. It's not your job to make them holy, only God can do that.

You do your part. And as you do your part, pray, of course. And share it if you can. Have you got Christian friends? Do you have a group? Share it with someone who can be trusted to pray with you. It means so much to have just one person, two people, three people praying with you through this.