Our God is a Keeping God

As one of God's attributes is omnipotence, He is all-powerful, we can be sure nothing can overcome Him. He is infinite in all His attributes, abundant in all He does. He is in a class all by Himself, the only One of His kind. “I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is none like Me.” (Isa.46:9) As we go about our pilgrimage as sojourners in these lives we live, in the paths we travel, in the difficulties we face, our final destination is heaven. Can we make it, will we make it, how will we make it? Without Him we can do nothing, but with Him we can do all things. We can make it to the shores of heaven, there will be trials, toils, and affliction along the way, but with our Great Pilot at the helm, He will deliver us safely to our final port, and forever destination. But how can we be sure of this? The word of God has plenty to say about it. There is nothing too difficult for Him! There is no danger of failing, God has this! With Him there is eternal love, with Him there is infinite power and with Him there is infallible truth.
In the Old Testament I like Jer.32:40, “I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do them good and I will put the fear of Me in their hearts so that they will not turn away from Me.” We see His great love and mercy in this covenant, His pleasure gave it being, as He pre-destined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will,(Eph.1:5) and in His truth He is engaged to see it be made good, as Abraham was fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. (Rom.4:21) We have God’s word in it in Psalm 89:34, “My covenant I will not violate, nor will I alter the utterance of My lips.” For the believer, He is secure in the hands of God. For if He saved us from the wrath of God, He can certainly bring us safely home to be with God. He is the author and perfecter of our faith, (Heb.12:2), like our first birth, we had no power to be born again, for He caused it (1Peter 1:3), and “He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Phil.1:6). So, we have much confidence.
The great English Puritan Thomas Manton states, “The elect cannot possibly be deceived and drawn away from the true Christ, because of the wisdom, love, and power engaged for them,2Thess.2:13, God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. Their election did secure them from damnable errors.” One of the great promises to see us home is in 1Peter 1:5, “We are kept(protected) by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” We have great assurance in this author of ours, a great hope that will not disappoint, knowing Romans 8:30, “These whom He pre-destined, He also called, and these whom He called He also justified, and these whom He justified, He also glorified.” And being stated in the past tense, it is all but done for us, no one of the believers comes up short, no one of us fails to make it, no one of us drops out. We do indeed have a Blessed Assurance! Right now, we have a foretaste of glory divine. God's covenant will be sure, firm, and stable, to all those that are sincerely entered into the relationship of it.
And to finish, the beloved Apostle John shares Jesus's words with us in John 6. In verse 37, “All that that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but of Him who sent Me. This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but I raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.” Theologian D.A. Carson comments on that stunning promise from Jesus, “It is no more possible for someone whom the Father has given to the Son, to fall away, than it is for the Son to fail to obey His Father. Indeed, that is exactly what it would take. For Jesus to lose someone whom the Father has given to the Son, Jesus would either have to refuse to obey His Father, or prove unable to obey His Father, both of which are unthinkable.” A promised act of God is as good as done. God wants you to fly free from yesterday's guilt, free of today's fears, and free from tomorrow's grave. So, as you march toward your heavenly destination, may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the steadfastness of Christ. Remember Job's words in Job 42:2, “I know that You can do all things, and that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.”

Elder Randy Slak