Promises Kept

sermon transcript

Introduction

Genesis 21 is a celebration text as God has fulfilled His promise to Abraham and Sarah by giving them Isaac. We live in a world that is used to broken promises. We live among people who break their promises, but God does not do that. God makes promises and He keeps them.

In 1897, Charles Parsons wanted to meet George Müller, the man that God had used to bless and to provide for thousands of orphans. Müller received him cordially into his study, and they sat down and began to talk. Parsons asked what was the secret of his success. Müller’s answer was straight forward. The secret was entrusting the faithfulness of God to his promises. God makes promises and God keeps them. Müller took those promises at face value.

Parsons asked “You have always found the Lord faithful to His promise?” Müller answered: “Always. He has never failed me! For nearly seventy years every need in connection with this work has been supplied. The orphans from the first until now have numbered nine thousand five hundred, but they have never [lacked] a meal. Never! Hundreds of times we have commenced the day without a penny in hand, but our Heavenly Father has sent supplies by the moment they were actually required. There never was a time when there was no wholesome meal. During all these years I have been enabled to trust in the living God, and in Him alone. One million four hundred thousand pounds have been sent to me in answer to prayer.” Müller’s life verse, Psalm 81:10, says, “I am the Lord, your God who brought you out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.” He took that promise to God daily.

One Puritan said, “Show God His promises… God is fond of His handwriting!” So we take the promises of God and say, “This is the thing you promised to do.” He likes to look at what He has written, and He is always faithful to keep it. We do not keep our promises — the Scripture says in Psalm 116:11, “…All men are liars.” We break our promises, but God never does.

The Old Testament Account: Promises Kept

The Birth of Isaac (vs. 1-8)

In Genesis 21:1-8, at last, God has kept his promise. The fact that God did as he had promised is strongly emphasized in the text. Verses 1-2 say, “Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised [the repetition gives emphasis — As he had said, what he had promised]. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him.” That is the third time in two verses. Clearly God is emphasizing this fact, “I keep my promises. The thing I said I would do, I have now done.”

God had made many promises concerning Isaac and concerning Abraham’s offspring. Genesis 12:1-3: “The LORD had said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.’” 

Genesis 12:7: “The LORD appeared to Abram and said, ‘To your offspring I will give this land.’”

Genesis 13:14-16: “The LORD said to Abram after Lot had parted from him, ‘Lift up your eyes from where you are and look north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever. I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth, so that if anyone could count the dust, then your offspring could be counted.’”

Abraham asked, “Lord, what can you give me, because I have no child, and Eliezer of Damascus is my heir.” Genesis 15:4-5: “Then the word of the LORD came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be.’”

Genesis 17:16 is more specific after Abraham had taken matters into his own hands and had Ishmael by Hagar. God clarified and focused: “My promise is for Sarah.” “I will bless [Sarah] and will surely give you a son by her. I will bless her so that she will be the mother of nations; kings of peoples will come from her.”

Genesis 17:19: “Then God said, ‘Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him.’”

Genesis 17:21: “But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.”

Genesis 18:10, “Then the LORD said, ‘I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.’”

Sarah overheard that and began laughing. Genesis 18:14: “Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.”

God spoke concerning Sodom and Gomorrah, revealing his will to Abraham. Genesis 18:18-19: “Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation, and all nations on earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him, so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, so that the LORD will bring about for Abraham what he has promised him.”

In those ten different passages, God made the same promise again and again. Now at last, God could say triumphantly, “The Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. The Lord brought about a son for Abraham in his old age, just as he had promised.” He told us three times in two verses, “I did what I promised.” In this way, their faith was vindicated. God’s promise overcomes all obstacles. Paul wrote about Abraham, who believed the Lord and trusted in this promise. Romans 4:19 says, “Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead — since he was about a hundred years old — and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised.”

Abraham’s faith was vindicated, and so was Sarah’s. Hebrews 11:11 (ESV) says, “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.” Both Abraham and Sarah were trusting in God for this promise, and their faith was vindicated. The issue was not biology but theology. God had closed up Sarah’s womb, purposely keeping it barren for 90 years, in order to bring about a supernatural child of the promise. He wanted to do a miracle. It was not in vitro fertilization. It was not wonder drugs that produce quintuplets or any of the kind of things that we see today. It was not a matter of biology, not at all. This was a supernatural act of God himself. This was a miracle baby. This was Isaac. The timeless lesson is playing: God can do anything.

Our God can do anything. There is nothing he cannot do. He is a powerful God; He is a sovereign king. What he has promised, he will most certainly bring to pass. Why does this matter for us? Someday we will die. Whether peacefully or not, when I breathe my last breath, I will do so trusting God’s promise to raise me from the dead, that in Christ all my sins are forgiven, and that my life is not now over, that my body is not all there is, that evolution is a lie, that I will live even after I die. I believe that promise. Genesis 21 is written for us, that we might trust in the promise of God that he will raise us from the dead. Romans 4:17 says, “As it is written: ‘I have made you a father of many nations.’ He is our father in the sight of God, in whom he believed — the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.”

God speaks into nothing, and he creates. In this case, he created a baby, miracle Isaac. As a result, in a dim reflection of God’s faithfulness, Abraham was faithful. He obeyed God’s command to circumcise his son. Genesis 21:4: “When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him.” Abraham was faithful to his promise as well to obey God’s commands, one of which was circumcision on the eighth day. We desire as children of God to respond in the same way. To be God-like, we keep our word.

In verses 6-8, we see the joy and wonder and celebration at God’s victory.  Genesis 21:6 says, “Sarah said, ‘God has brought me laughter, and everyone who hears about this will laugh with me.’” Isaac’s name means laughter. It was a celebration, a time of joy. This laughter is not the laughter of unbelief that Sarah gave when she heard God’s promise, nor was it the mocking laughter from Ishmael when he mocked Isaac.

No, this was a laugh of joy. This is the way we will laugh when we see Christ face-to-face. It is a laugh of celebration. Sarah also reacted in wonder at the details of the fulfillment. Verse 7: “And she added, ‘Who would have said to Abraham that Sarah would nurse children? Yet I have borne him a son in his old age.’” She is in amazement that she is nursing a little boy at age 90. Next in the text — I find this in real life too, that the children grow quickly — soon, it was time for him to be weaned. That is a mixed thing, part of the joy and the pain of parenting, preparing children to be independent, getting them ready to not need you anymore. You do not want your kids when they are 70 and you are 90 asking, “What’s for dinner, mom?” By then, they should be on their own. That is good parenting. You are preparing them to be independent, but it hurts when they make those steps more and more away from you. It is a mixture.

This is the very thing that happened. Abraham gave a feast. They celebrated the little boy as he was weaned with a big feast. In verse 8, “The child grew and was weaned, and on the day Isaac was weaned Abraham held a great feast.”

But that feast was the occasion of a danger being uncovered — the danger of Ishmael. At that feast, Ishmael, probably 15 years old, mocked the little boy. He laughed at him, made fun of him. It was a mocking laughter, not a laughter of joy or of faith or of celebration at God’s faithfulness. It was a mocking laugh.

The Expulsion of Ishmael (vs. 9-21)

In verses 9-21, we have the account of the expulsion of Ishmael. It says, “But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking and she said to Abraham, ‘Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.’”

Ishmael’s expulsion is rather shocking. Ishmael was the son of Abraham and Sarah’s maid servant Hagar. In Genesis 16, when Sarah saw that she could not have children, her womb was barren, she gave her maid servant to her husband to sleep with her, which was the custom at the time. Hagar gave birth to a son, Ishmael. This was not the will of the Lord; it did not follow God’s pattern for marriage, and it caused nothing but trouble. After Hagar had run away when Sarah treated her harshly, she did not want to go back. “Then the angel of the LORD told her, ‘Go back to your mistress and submit to her.’ The angel added, ‘I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.’ The angel of the LORD also said to her: ‘You are now with child and you will have a son. You shall name him Ishmael, for the LORD has heard of your misery. He will be a wild donkey of a man; his hand will be against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he will live in hostility toward all his brothers.’” (Genesis 16:9-12)

God also spoke two prophecies concerning Ishmael to Abraham. God made it clear that it would be through Sarah that the child of promise would be born and they would name him Isaac. Abraham’s first thought is, “What about Ishmael?” Genesis 17:18-21 says, “And Abraham said to God, ‘If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!’ [He is concerned for his son.] Then God said, ‘Yes, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call him Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation. But my covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you by this time next year.’” God made clear prophecies concerning Ishmael to both Abraham and Hagar.

Why, then, was Ishmael cast out? I see five reasons in the text. First and simply, he mocked; he laughed. Verse 9 says, “But Sarah saw that the son whom Hagar the Egyptian had borne to Abraham was mocking.” Even though his name means laughter, the mocking is not connected to Isaac’s name. It is not a play on words, but ridicule. Paul calls it persecution. In Galatians 4:29, he said, “At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit.” This was a serious matter. By this time, Ishmael would have been 15 years old. He was laughing at Isaac’s weaning feast, making fun of it, mocking.

Second, Ishmael was cast out because Sarah wanted him out, as well as Hagar. Sarah perceived a threat to Isaac and to her own position in the family. And Sarah, like many mothers at that time, derived her significance from the role of her son as heir. She saw what things would be like down the road, so she was furious when she heard about this mockery. She went to Abraham, Verse 10, “…and she said to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.” Sarah did not use Hagar’s name but denigrated her position entirely. “That slave woman and her son,” she said. She also believed the clear statement that God had made to Abraham in Genesis 17:10: “…for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”

The third reason was the threat that he posed to Isaac’s role as heir. Some things you have to nip in the bud. I was reading recently in MIT’s review magazine of ongoing technology about cancer detection at a very early stage. They are able to detect it through certain technologies far earlier than they ever could before, at the molecular level, and tag these cancer cells before they accumulate into a tumor. This would be powerful for treatment, especially if the detection could be done inexpensively. The issue is that tumors are best caught early. The earlier you can get the cancer, the better. Ishmael was a cancer in the household waiting to happen, and the issue would have been a rivalry over the succession to the throne, so to speak. Who would be the heir? Ishmael being so much older than Isaac perhaps would have had some kind of an advantage.

The history of Europe, for example, is a history of wars of succession. One son claiming and then the other son claiming and both got their armies together to fight a war over it. It is not good for the country. Alexander Dumas’ classic, The Man in the Iron Mask, is about this. Louis XIV in the story had twin sons, who looked identical. When they grew to a certain age, the rightful heir was taken away and put in a hideous iron mask so that nobody could look at his face and see who he was. All of this to prevent a civil war in France that would have destroyed the country. In the same way, Ishmael was a threat to Isaac. He blurred the distinction of who it was through whom the covenant would be made and the promise would come.

Fourth, Abraham needed it done. Such a thing would have happened because of the affection that Abraham had for Ishmael. In Genesis 17, after the promise came concerning Sarah and Isaac, wonderful good news, Abraham’s instinctive reaction was, “What about Ishmael?” That was a significant problem, and God wanted clarity on this matter. In the incredible passage in the next chapter, Genesis 22, when God commanded Abraham to sacrifice his son, He said “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and offer him a sacrifice.” That was God’s word to Abraham. Did God forget Ishmael? No, never. He did not forget. Clearly, it was going to be through Isaac and Abraham was not crystal clear on that. Some clarity needed to happen.

Finally, Ishmael was cast out because God commanded it. Verse 12 says, “But God said to him, ‘Do not be so distressed about the boy and your maidservant. Listen to whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’” Whatever Sarah’s motives were, whatever was going on in Abraham’s heart, all of that was secondary to the clear fact God wanted it done, so he cast Ishmael out. Abraham obeyed immediately.

Verse 14, “Early the next morning Abraham took some food and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He set them on her shoulders and then sent her off with the boy. She went on her way and wandered in the desert of Beersheba.” In effect, God was saying, “From this point forward, let me take care of Ishmael. He is no longer your responsibility. I will be a father to the fatherless, I will care for him.” How did God provide for Ishmael and Hagar? The harshness of the desert is certain death if there is not provision. If you do not know what you are doing or where to go, especially with a little one, like in this case, it can be deadly. Sweltering heat, hidden canyons, very cold nights because the sand absorbs so little heat, wild beasts, poisonous snakes all make it a dangerous place. Hagar took her teenage son as far as they could go, lay him under a tree, and she went off a distance of about a bow shot, probably so that she would not have to listen to him crying. It is remarkable that the mother was so far away, she could not hear the son God heard his cries.

Verse 17-19 says, “God heard the boy crying, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, ‘What is the matter, Hagar? Do not be afraid; God has heard the boy crying as he lies there.’” [That is twice in the same verse — God hears.] Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.’ [That is a promise.] Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.” The word of God was life to Hagar and Ishmael in the desert. Before the word came, they were both dying. God spoke to Hagar, and when she believed the word, life came again. With that word came the promise concerning Ishmael to make him into a great nation. He had a future; he would not die that day. God’s faithfulness is clear, even when Hagar had left him and gone off and his father had sent him out at the command of God. Here is this boy without father or mother, but God heard, God saw, God knew. Psalm 27:10 says, “Though my father and mother forsake me, the LORD will receive me.” Isaiah 49:15 says, “Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!” That is the faithfulness of God.

He was faithful to the promise He made to Ishmael. He restated his multiple past promises to Abraham and Hagar. In Genesis 16:10, God spoke to Hagar: “The angel added, “I will increase your descendants so much that they will be too numerous to count.” He would be a wild donkey of a man, living in the desert, and he would be the father of twelve nations of desert dwelling tribes. God said to Abraham in Genesis 17:20 “And as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him; I will make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.” It is reiterated to both father and mother. In verse 13, God told Abraham, “I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.” He was saying, “I care about Ishmael. I will do it. You cannot anymore, Abraham; you must send him away. I will be faithful to my promise to Ishmael.” Concerning Hagar, verse 18 “Lift the boy up and take him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation.” These are promises kept.

I want to highlight how different these are from Isaac’s promises. Abraham was told that he would have descendants as numerous as the dust of the earth and the stars of the sky. I consider this a paradigm for the two types of descendants of Abraham. He has both dusty descendants and celestial or starry descendants. The dusty descendants have dusty blessings and dusty futures. The starry descendants have starry promises, starry blessings and starry futures. Ishmael was a child of the dust, and Isaac, a child of the starry promise. Ishmael’s future was that he would roam free like a wild donkey and live in the desert and that his mother would find a wife for him from Egypt. That was her home land. He became good with a bow and arrow, a skillful archer. He had 12 sons. He enjoyed eating goat meat around a fire, sitting with his sons, laughing and telling jokes, shooting his arrows, living a dusty kind of life. He was a wild donkey of a man. Every one of those good things was a blessing from God, for God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Even though he is a dusty person and has dusty blessings, every one of those dusty blessings comes from God himself. 

Isaac, on the other hand, had celestial blessings waiting for him. He would sit at the table with God eternally, in the very presence of God — Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the feast in the kingdom. Concerning the starry descendants of Abraham, Daniel 12:3 says, “Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars for ever and ever.” Philippians 2:15 says, “…so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe.” Jesus said, after one of his parables, in Matthew 13:43, “Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.”

The New Testament Significance: An Allegory of the Spirit-Filled Life (Galatians 4)

The Galatian Controversy

The New Testament gives us the significance of this. Galatians 4 tells how the Apostle Paul applies this story. By way of context, the Apostle Paul planted a church in Galatia. These were Gentiles, rejected by the physical descendants of Abraham, but not every physical descendant from Abraham is one of the starry children. It is amazing and wonderful that Gentiles can become starry children of Abraham by faith. By faith in Christ, we can be among those starry children of Abraham while those who are actually physically descended from Abraham, even if they are Jews, who do not believe the promise, are dusty. Paul planted a church in Galatia. He preached the Gospel of God’s grace in Christ, but then along came the Judaizer party to Galatia, saying, “Unless you meticulously obey the law of Moses, you cannot be saved.” Acts 15:1 says, “Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: ‘Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.’” The Apostle Paul says the gospel that they preached was no gospel at all. Galatians 1:8: “But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned!” It was a very serious matter. 

We Are Sons, Not Slaves

He gets to the crux of the matter in Galatians 4:4-7: “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” He is saying, Galatian Christians, you are children of God by faith. You are heirs of the kingdom. Why would you want to live like a slave? That is his point in Galatians 4, but he makes it with an allegory.

Galatians 4:21-31 says, “Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?” [Note that he calls Genesis 21 the law.] For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: ‘Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.’ Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. [He is saying “You are Isaac, all who have trusted in Christ are the children of promise.”] At that time, the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. [The Judaizers are speaking against the Gospel of free grace, focusing instead on legalism and slavery. They are not speaking adoption and inheritance but a lie. The dusty child born in the ordinary way persecuted the child born by power of the Spirit. So it is today.] But what does the Scripture say? ‘Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.’ Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.”

Paul’s Central Lesson: Live As Sons, Not Slaves

Let me make it very straightforward and simple: There are two ways to live in this world. You can live a dusty life or a life of celestial blessings — like the dust or like the stars. You can live the Ishmael life, born in the ordinary way, or you can live the Isaac life, born only by the power of the Spirit. Those are the only two ways to live. Later, the analogy will be Jacob and Esau. Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of stew.

What do the dusty people live for? They live for earthly blessings — for comforts, lusts, power, money. They live for today. “Let us eat and drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” and we can add biblically, “And go to hell.” It is a life that ends in destruction. That is the life of Ishmael, the dusty life. Or you can live as a child of the promise. You can live as an adopted son or daughter of God. You can trust in the promises of God and know that what is happening in you cannot be explained normally — it is supernatural. It is the power of the Spirit, as Jesus said: “Flesh gives birth to flesh but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.” [John 3:6] “You must be born again, Nicodemus.” Being a physical descendant of Abraham, even if you are a Jew, descended physically from Jacob, does not matter. What matters is being born again. You must be like Isaac, a child born only by the supernatural power of God.

In Galatians 5, Paul explains what that life is like. The life in the flesh is characterized by “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” [Galatians 5:19-21] That is the Ishmael life. Galatians 5:22-23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” This is the Spirit-filled, Isaac life, and God will make those who live like that perfect in the end.

Application

Trust in Christ Alone

Which kind of life are you living? Are you like Ishmael or are you like Isaac? Are you bound for the dust? Dust represents death. God said to Adam, “For dust you are and to dust you will return.” Is your future dust in the grave, or is it to be made like the stars of the sky? Is it to be conformed to the glory of God? The whole issue is whether you believe the promise of God or not. Abraham believed the Lord and it was credited to him as righteousness. You must simply believe a promise.

Jesus spoke a treasured promise in his words to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” That question determines your destiny. If you say, “Yes, Lord, I believe the promises of God. I trust in you. You have resurrecting power. You can call dead things to life. You can create in me something that was not there before, I believe you. I can be transformed by the power of the Spirit,” then you will spend eternity with God in Heaven, not by your own strength or power, not by obeying legalistically a bunch of laws and rules and regulations, but by the power of the Spirit. He who began a good work in you, by the Spirit, will most certainly complete it also by the Spirit, and you will be like Isaac, a child of promise. That is the central application. Trust in Christ, believe in him. Celebrate what He has accomplished in Christ.

Have Total Confidence in a Promise-Keeping God

Like George Müller, step out in faith on some promises of God. What promises of God are you trusting in concerning the Kingdom of God today? Are you trusting in God for anything today so that God must be faithful to a promise (or in Müller’s case, some orphans do not eat). Are you stepping out in faith to trust God for some promises? Are you believing in Him? I stand before you today as a messenger of promises, but also as a believer of them. I love the promises of God. That is my only hope and it is your only hope too. Trust in his promises. He is a faithful promise keeping God.