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I pray, amen. All right. So tonight I'm preaching out of Psalm 15 here and the title of my sermon is keeping your commitments, keeping your commitments. The Bible says in verse number one here, Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly and worketh righteousness and speaketh the truth in his heart. He that backbideth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbor, nor taketh up her approach against his neighbor. So he's listing the type of people that are going to abide in God's tabernacle. They're going to dwell in God's holy hill. These blessings are going to belong to the person who abstains from these type of sins, right? And then in verse number four, it says at the end there, he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not, and this is the thought that I really want to dwell on tonight. He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. We as Christians need to keep our commitments, right? When we make a commitment to something, we need to honor that commitment that we have made. And so someone here swearing to their own hurt and not changing is, they committed to do something, in this case they actually swore an oath to do something, and even when circumstances change and maybe it's not that convenient for them to fulfill that oath, they change not. They're still going to keep that oath, they're still going to keep that commitment. Now of course in the New Testament, Christ has told us that we should not swear at all. And so we do not swear any oaths in the New Testament, we just say yes or no, but we are still supposed to let our yea be yea and our nay be nay, and we should still keep and honor those commitments. Obviously we don't swear, but this principle here of swearing to our own hurt and changing not is something that we need to live by. Now let me show you an example in the Bible of a guy who's a really bad example about this. Go to Judges chapter 18. And let me just give you some kind of practical examples of things that I've dealt with in my life that really made me think about this verse and made me think about this concept. You know we were just on this road trip and we were, and I'm going to name the name my friend, Country Inn and Suites by Radisson, okay. And you know we booked this hotel like a week and a half in advance, and it was all booked, it was all paid for, went on Priceline, you know we're looking at all the deals, booked, paid for, done, okay. Several reminders coming at me in my email about my stay that's coming up, right. You know we get there late at night, we're tired, we're ready to call it a night, we've been driving all day, we get there and it's just, oh your reservation's canceled. It's been canceled and sorry because you booked it through Priceline, we didn't have a phone number to tell you that it had been canceled. And I'm like, I don't want to be told that it had been canceled, I just don't want it to be canceled because I already paid for it and it was already done and it's like, oh but we don't have any rooms. Oh okay, so you basically sold my room to someone else. And of course they don't want to admit that, they're a bunch of liars and thieves and they tried to blame Priceline. I literally pull out my email and 10 minutes earlier I got an email from Priceline saying like, hey how's everything going at your stay, everything's good, right. I'm like no, Priceline did not do this, you did this, okay. And I'll tell you exactly what's going on is that basically when you walk into a hotel and just say hey I need a room tonight, they charge you a lot more money than if you book it through one of these websites because obviously when they're on these websites they're competing with a bunch of other companies so they're going to put out their best foot forward, their best price but when you walk in they kind of sock it to you which is why it's usually better to book these things online, book them in advance. And so obviously what happened was they booked out and they want to just keep selling rooms and they're like well yeah we sold this guy a room at this discount price a week and a half ago but now that the demand's gone up we can charge someone else $100 more. So let's just cancel him and make more money on the next guy. And folks, businesses do this all the time if you travel, you deal with this and let me tell you something, it's unethical, it's wicked. Because they made a commitment to me, we had a thing, we had a commitment, it's like I gave you money, you're going to give me hotel room, we had a deal. But what happened is something better came along and now they want to change now, right? Instead of swearing to their own hurt and changing not, I guess it would have hurt to give me the hotel room for half the price as what they were going to do to the sucker who walks in that they can just sock it to him because he's desperate, he needs a room, everything's booked or whatever but it's garbage. You know I had a similar experience happen to me with Fox Rent-A-Car, okay? And never using them again either but we had booked a rental car, we landed at an airport, my son John and I, we landed at like one in the morning or midnight or some crazy ungodly hour and we took the shuttle out to this Fox Rent-A-Car, it was all by itself so it was like we took a shuttle to this location, we're out in the middle of nowhere, then we waited in line for 45 minutes to get up to the counter to be told, oh we cancelled your reservation. They're like, well you made it today, we'd made it 15 hours ago, you know we made it like that morning and they're like, oh you made it today, we're cancelling you. Then we go out to the curb, there's five other people out there that have been cancelled and one guy's like, I booked it yesterday and I'm still cancelled. You know they're just cancelling people left and right because they're offering the real cheap deal online but when people show up and are willing to pay more, they'll just go to the highest bidder. That isn't right. We had a deal. We had an arrangement, it was already booked and so then we ended up, we're stranded, what do you do? 1230 AM, you waited for an hour with these people including the shuttle ride, the waiting in line, we had to get an Uber, go somewhere and we were telling other people, come on in guys, you know all the other people that they'd been ripping off, we're like come on in, get an Uber, we're all going to this other company and then I hop online to try to book another rental car and guess what? That company is still offering a deal even though they're just cancelling everybody and turning us all away saying we have no cars, we have no cars, they're still offering it online. What's the deal my friend? Thank you for allowing me to get these stories off my chest. And then there's sort of another kind of cliche example that I could give you of like the birthday party illustration, right? So like you're a kid in school and you get invited to a certain birthday party on a Saturday and you RSVP yes, but then a couple days later another kid that's a little cooler and a little more popular invites you to their birthday party on the same day, you know, and then you can't, you're going to cancel your RSVP and upgrade to something better. Folks, people with integrity, people with character, they make commitments and they honor those commitments and they stay with what they've said they will do. And they're not just going to say oh well I'll break my commitment because I got something better over here. Now here's a great story to illustrate this from the word of God. Look at Judges chapter 18 verse 3. When they were by the house of Micah, this is the tribe of Dan, has sent out an expeditionary party to find more land for them and when they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man, the Levite, and they turned in thither and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? And what makest thou in this place? And what hast thou here? And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me and hath hired me, and I am his priest. And they said unto him, Ask counsel we pray thee, O God, that we may know whether our way which we go shall be prosperous. And the priest said unto them, Go in peace before the Lord is your way wherein ye go. Now notice the Lord is in all caps there. So they are worshipping the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, right? The God of the old covenant. And they are doing it by means of this priest. But if you know the story, if you read the context in chapter 17 and 18, this is actually an idolatrous priest. So he has a graven image unto the Lord, a molten image for the Lord. Well here's the thing, the Lord doesn't want a molten image. The Lord doesn't want a graven image because the Lord has never been worshipped by means of images, right? We are to know God through his word. When they went to Mount Sinai, they heard a voice speak to them, but they didn't see any similitude because we are not to know God through an image, we are to know God through his word, through the voice of the Lord, through the spoken and written word of the Bible. That's how we know God. But yet this false preacher, this hireling who has been hired to be a priest, consecrated to be a priest, not in the normal system that is supposed to be going on at the tabernacle, but he's kind of got his own little gig going where he's a personal priest for Micah and he does this worship through idolatry and the Danites come to him and he gives them a nice little feel good sermon about how everything's going to be great and God loves you and God's going to bless you and whatever. Now jump down to verse 18. It says, and these went into Micah's house, this is later on, this is on their way back through some time later, and fetched the carved image, the ephod and the terra-fem and the molten image. And the Danites, when they're passing back through, they decide to steal the idolatry because the idols are made out of precious metals, right? So they just want to steal all this stuff, this ornate, religious, expensive stuff. So they steal the carved image, they steal the ephod, they steal the terra-fem and the molten image and then said the priest on them, what do ye? What are you guys doing? Why are you guys in here robbing my little chapel here, my little temple, my church, whatever I've got going here, why are you guys robbing this thing? And they said unto him, shut up, right? They told him, hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth and go with us. Just shut up and get on board. Go with us, be to us a father and a priest. Is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel? Now at this point, does the priest just kind of go along with it because he has no choice and they're stealing stuff and he should probably just do what they say, you know, so he doesn't get hurt? No, look at the next words, the priest's heart was glad. It didn't say he acted glad, it said his heart was glad. He's like, score, this is a better deal. And notice the question that they're asking him, is it better to be a priest unto the house of one man or to be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel? Which one's better? Let me tell you what's better, honoring your commitment. I'll tell you what's better, keeping your word. You made a deal, you made an agreement with Micah, you're supposed to be working for him and obviously this whole arrangement is not even right anyway because it's idolatry. But the point is that just from an ethical standpoint, he has made a deal, he's getting paid a certain amount, he's supposed to do this and instead of being loyal to the guy who's paying him and helping him, instead he turns around and helps them steal stuff. And basically he turns around, here, let me help you load up that idolatry into your wagon and I'm so glad to just ditch out on Micah and just join your crew because something better has come along, right? Instead of the small time, now I'm heading for the big time, right? Instead of one guy, now I'm going to be the priest for a whole family and a whole tribe so now my career is really taking off but this is total wickedness, okay? He should have honored his commitment but does it surprise you that a false prophet isn't going to honor his commitments? Does it surprise you that a false teacher, a wicked fake priest is going to break his covenant, break his agreement, be totally disloyal to what he had committed to and just take the next better offer that comes along? Of course not. Well here's the thing, we as Christians ought to be different than that. We ought not have this mentality that breaks our word to go with whatever better thing comes along. Now look, there's obviously nothing wrong with switching jobs unless you've made some kind of a commitment or something, right? I mean if you're working in America, typically the way it works is you can leave whenever you want, you can switch jobs whenever you want, you can trade up for something better and there's absolutely nothing wrong with leaving one gig for a better gig. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a commitment that you make, like how about when you got married, isn't that a commitment? You know, you made a commitment to that person, it isn't right for you to then trade up down the road for something quote unquote better. That's what you'll see a lot of these Hollywood stars do, a lot of these musicians that are famous, you know, they have their spouse from before they're famous. The person who actually loved them for who they were, the person that they made a commitment till death do us part, but then they become famous, they become a big shot, and now all of a sudden they can pretty much have whoever they want as a spouse and so then they divorce that person and just move on to something better. You know, that's wicked. Keep your commitment, honor your commitment, and marriage is a great example of a commitment that we need to honor and not even think about. This stupid question that's asked in Judges 18 should never enter our mind. This question that says, well, what's better though? Is it better for you to just be with this one guy or is it better to help us rob him, help us rob your employer so that you can have a better gig? You know, that's a foolish question. And the question should not even come into your mind of, oh, could I do better in marriage or something like that? You know, the best thing you can ever do is to honor your word, honor your vow, honor your commitment, and stay married to the person that you promised to be married to, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health. That's what God demands. You get married and you honor that commitment. And so these are examples in our day where people would make a deal, make an agreement, make a commitment, and then dishonor it. Like I said, I'm not talking about switching jobs because in America we have a free market, it's a right-to-work state, you know, you can switch jobs whenever you want, I get that. But if you make a commitment and say I'm going to do this, this is what I'm going to do, you better do what you say you're going to do. If you say you're going to be there for three months, you say you're going to be there for six months, you know, just honor your word, do what you said you would do. Have integrity to actually keep commitments that you make, okay? Unless it's just totally out of your power to keep that commitment, you need to keep your commitments. You need to honor your commitments. And often we need to make sure that we have the ability to honor the commitment before we even make the commitment. You know, before we even say I'm going to do this, we better know that we have enough money to do that. That way we're, oh, sorry, I couldn't afford it. Well, you said you were going to do it though. You have to honor your commitment. You know, I found that in my time in construction and in the business world that you could boil down almost all construction disputes into just this one thing. Because there are all kinds of disputes, right? Anybody who's worked on job sites knows that there will be disputes between the general contractor and the electricians or different trades and there will be these different disputes. And I saw these disputes again and again and again and they all pretty much boiled down to the exact same thing is that one person had made a commitment to do something, realized that things were different than they thought and now they don't want to keep their commitment. That's all of it. That's all of it. Somebody under bids a job and now all of a sudden they're saying I need more money because I didn't know. And it's like, well, all the information was there. You made this deal. You made this commitment. You underbid the job. It's like, well, no, sorry, I'm going to need more money. Or somebody, for example, you know, gets the electrician signed on to do X, Y, and Z and the electrician gives the bid and it's accepted and everybody's agreed. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh, wait, we need this other electrical work over here. You need to do this too. And it's like, well, wait a minute. That's not in the contract. Yeah, but you just need to do it. We forgot to include it and we just want you to eat it. It's like in construction, everybody's always trying to get somebody to eat somebody else's mistake and nobody wants to eat it. Nobody wants to be the guy to take that hit. And it's unfortunate because mistakes are made and unfortunately you make deals, you lose money. Look, I've done jobs when I was doing contracting where I lost money on a job and it's horrible because here you are putting in all this work to lose money. That's pretty disillusioning and disheartening. But guess what? People have integrity when they agree to do something, they do what they said they would do, even if it hurts them, even if they swear to their own hurt, they change not. And so we need to have integrity and be careful not to commit to things that we cannot perform. And if we do commit to something we need to perform, we need to deliver, even if it hurts us to deliver and keep our commitment. Count the cost, make the agreement and deliver. You know when you read the lists of the attributes of reprobates in scripture and you know of course we have the famous passage in Romans chapter 1 giving us these attributes of reprobates and what does it say? You know they're backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding covenant breakers. Without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. You know covenant breakers, that's a sin. When you make an agreement to do something, you make a deal and then you break the deal. Well I know we rented you this hotel room but someone else showed up and was willing to pay twice as much. Even though we already took your money, even though we already agreed to do it, hey you expect me to pass up this opportunity and make twice as much money, three times as much money, five times, it doesn't matter, yes I do expect you to pass up that opportunity because you already sold that hotel room to me and you need to do what you said you would do and honor your commitment. Don't be a covenant breaker. Similar wording is found in 2 Timothy chapter 3, again talking about the worst kind of people, talking about those who are reprobate concerning the faith, without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despised of those that are good. Now of course saved people can be proud, saved people can be boasters, saved people can invent evil things and disobey their parents. The difference with the reprobate is that they're filled with all of these attributes. But we as Christians need to make sure that we don't develop any of these attributes. We can be a godly Christian but if we're a covenant breaker it displeases the Lord. If we're a truce breaker it makes the Lord upset that we are not willing to swear to our own hurt and change not. Now I'm so thankful that God keeps his commitments. He teaches us to keep our commitments but isn't it great that God keeps his commitments? One of the things that will come up over and over again when you read about the Lord in scripture is that the Lord keeps his covenant. Think about Genesis chapter 9. Noah gets off the ark and the whole world has been flooded, all of humanity and even all of the animals have been wiped out except for the survivors aboard the ark and God makes his covenant with Noah and he puts the rainbow in the sky in order to signify that covenant and to show that he will never flood the earth again, he's not going to destroy the earth by water ever again and he has kept that covenant. Here we are thousands and thousands of years later, he has not destroyed the earth by water and today we see that rainbow in the sky and every time we see that rainbow in the sky we should be reminded of the Bible where the rainbow originates because Genesis 9 tells us why it's there. It's God's mercy. It's God's understanding that humans are sinful and he gets it. We're sinful, he loves us anyway, he's not going to wipe us out with another flood, he knows our proclivities and thank God that his mercies are new every morning. That's what we should think about when we see that rainbow in the sky. We should be thinking about the fact that God spared Noah and his family but that he said, you know what, I'm not going to do that again. I'm not just going to wipe out all the wicked people because that's just how people are and he gets it that we're sinners and he understands that we are just by nature sinful and thankfully of course we have the Lord Jesus Christ to save us so that we can go to heaven in spite of our sinful condition by believing on Jesus. So God has made that commitment to us in Genesis chapter 9. Now here's another great example of God keeping his commitment. Go to 1 Kings chapter number 8. But if you read the Old Testament, you will find that one of God's attributes that comes up over and over again is that he keeps covenant. He is keeping covenant. He made the old covenant, the new covenant, various covenants and he keeps his word. He keeps his commitment. He honors his agreement. Here's a great example of that with David. It says in 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 23, he said, Lord God of Israel, this is Solomon speaking, there's no God like thee in heaven above or on earth beneath who keepest covenant and mercy with thy servants that walk before thee with all their heart, who has kept with thy servant David my father that thou promised him. So he said in verse 23, you keep covenant. Number 24 he says, you have kept what you promised, thou spakest also with thy mouth and has fulfilled it with thy hand as it is this day. That's a third reference to God keeping his promise. Verse 25, therefore now Lord God of Israel, keep with thy servant David my father that thou promised him. Fourth reference to God keeping his promise, saying there shall not fail thee a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel so that thy children take heed to their way that they walk before me as thou hast walked before me. And now, O Lord, O God of Israel, let thy word I pray thee be verified again, a reference to God keeping his promise, which thou spakest unto thy servant David my father. Now flip over to chapter 11 verse 11. Now Solomon is saying, hey, you've made this commitment, you've made this covenant with David my father, you've made this agreement, you've honored the agreement, you've kept your word, you've kept your promise, Lord, verify that, keep that promise, Lord, to continue to be true to that covenant that you have been true to. I know that that's in your character, God, you keep covenant. That's who you are, that's what you're like. Now of course, then, Solomon ends up becoming a sinful king, and at the end of his life, he is involved in all kinds of sins and idolatry and wrong things, and look what the Bible says in 1 Kings 11 and 11, wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, for as much as this is done of thee, you know, these bad things, thou hast not kept my covenant and my statue, he's saying you broke the agreement which I've commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee and I will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding, in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake, but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son, howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant's sake and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen. So notice that even when Solomon has completely broken the covenant and has reneged on everything and is serving false gods and everything like that, what happens? God says, I made this agreement, I made this covenant, and for the sake of that covenant, for the sake of David your father, I'm going to take it out of your son's hand, but not all of it, because I've made this commitment to David and I'm going to keep that commitment to where Jerusalem is going to remain the capital and where he is going to continue to reign, a son of David is going to continue to reign over at least one tribe all the time. So that's where we get this split kingdom, the northern kingdom of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah. The southern kingdom of Judah persists and exists all the way until the time of Christ and then of course now that promise to David is fulfilled in Jesus. Jesus will reign forever and ever, so David is completely satisfied with that because his son Jesus Christ rules forever. But up to that point, you have this dynasty just remain in Judah for hundreds and hundreds of years because God had to honor that commitment that he made. Even though the circumstances changed, even though they turned away from him, he made a certain commitment and he stuck with it and that's the example for us that we need to stick with our commitments even when circumstances may change. And look, part of the moral of the sermon is be careful what commitments you make. You know, because you don't want to just have all these commitments out there because if you have all these commitments out there, you better be keeping all those commitments and that could be stressful, difficult or even become impossible if you make too many commitments. So be careful about agreeing to things long term or committing to things or making deals and if you do make those deals, you count the cost and if you screw up, you stay with it anyway and you have the integrity to do what you've said you will do. And people always have all these excuses why they break deals that they make, they don't keep their word, they don't do what they say they'll do. And come on, you expect me to pass up this wonderful opportunity? Yes, I do. Because you had a commitment over here and so yeah, you're supposed to honor that agreement and stick with that. It doesn't matter what better opportunity there is, the best opportunity is always the one that allows you to keep your integrity because that's the most important thing that you possess. And so God kept his agreement to David. Now look at Psalm 89, let's look at some details on that agreement of Psalm 89 of this commitment that he had made to David. Now sometimes God makes an agreement where he says, if you do this, I'll do this and if you break your part of the agreement, well then he doesn't have to do anything. You know, it'd be like if I made an agreement and said, hey, you know, I'm going to stay in this hotel room, I'm going to pay you this much money, you're going to give me a hotel room and then I showed up at the appointed time, the appointed place and said, hey, I don't have any money. Keep your commitment, give me the room. That wouldn't make any sense, would it? Because that's a deal where I've got a part, they've got a part, we're both, okay, but here's the thing, I'd already given them the money, they'd already promised me the room. Okay. This had taken place over a week earlier. This transaction had been made. I need to look up and see if I ever got my money back on that anyway. But that's, yeah, put that on the to-do list. But here's the deal. Okay. Other commitments are if you do this, I'll do this and if you don't do your part, I'm not going to do my part. There are commitments like that, but other commitments are unconditional. Other commitments are I'm doing this no matter what. Now when I get married, that's an unconditional commitment, am I right? So when I got married to my wife, it wasn't like, okay, you're going to be faithful to me. You're going to do your part as a wife. You're going to be a good wife and then I'm going to be faithful to you. I'm going to be a good husband. You do your part. I do mine. Guess what? Even if she failed to do her part, I would still be responsible to do my part. This is an unconditional commitment for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer. It's not like, oh, you were mean to me. You weren't nice. I didn't like you. You know, you've changed. You're not the same one that I married. I just don't know if I even love you anymore. You know, that look, that's garbage. Marriage is a lifelong commitment. It's unconditional, okay? You're married for life. It's still death. Do us part. That's the condition, death. Some commitments are conditional. Some are unconditional. Look at the nature of the covenant that God made to David in Psalm 89, verse 27. And of course, the great thing about this Psalm is not just about David. It's more even about Jesus because it's prophetic about Jesus. It says in verse 27, also, I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. And my mercy will I keep for him forevermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure forever. And his throne is the days of heaven. That's another way of saying forever. If his children forsake my law and walk not in my judgments, notice, he doesn't say here the deal's off. If his children don't walk in my judgments, the deal's off. Is that what he said? No. David said, if they break my statutes and keep not my commandments, verse 32, then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever and his throne is the sun before me. Do you see the unconditional nature of this covenant that he made with David here? Now the covenant that God made with Israel at Mount Sinai is not of this unconditional nature. It's if you keep my statutes, then you'll be a peculiar people unto me. Whereas here we have this unconditional nature that says, even if you break the commandments, even if your children forsake me, I will not utterly take away my loving kindness from them and they will still sit on that throne. I'll chastise them, I'll give them a whooping, I'll bring the rod upon them, but I will not break my word. He says in verse 34, my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. And you know what? This is a great passage about the eternal security of the believer because when he talks about the children of David, you know, David represents Jesus Christ. Jesus is the son of David and so those children are representative of us as Christians. We're children of God. And if we break God's commandments, get away from the Lord, he will visit us with the rod, he will visit us with stripes, but is he going to utterly take his loving kindness from us? No, because he said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. It said nothing can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And so we have a covenant, two, it's not the Davidic covenant, it's the new covenant, right? Because you have multiple covenants, you have a covenant with Noah, you have the old covenant at Mount Sinai, you have the Davidic covenant. Now the old covenant is no longer in force. That was a conditional covenant, the Israelites broke that covenant, now it has decayed old and vanished away according to Hebrews 8.13, now we're on to the new covenant, aren't we? And the new covenant replaces the old covenant as far as the agreement that's in force. You can't get saved under the old covenant, you can't be a child of God or be a part of the chosen people under the old covenant. No, you have to get in on the new covenant through Jesus, you're saved, you're a child of God, you're the elect, you're the chosen people if you believe on Christ. But that covenant that God made with Noah, I'm not going to flood the earth again, I mean isn't that still a thing? Yeah, still a rainbow in the sky, still a thing, okay? Also the covenant that he made with David, is that still a thing? Absolutely because that seed of David, the Lord Jesus Christ, rules and reigns forever and will even come and have a physical earthly kingdom at his second coming and rule and reign on this earth. And so we are the children that if we break the rules, we're going to get punished but we're not getting thrown out of the family, we're not going to lose our position, we will get the rod, we will get stripes, but he will not break his covenant, he's not going to lie to us. And that's why the Bible says, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. So this teaching that you can lose your salvation is total garbage. This teaching that says, oh if you break God's commandments, you're going to lose your salvation, or well, you know, you can't lose your salvation but you can misplace it, you know, that's the kind of dumb, well you can't lose your salvation but you can walk away from it, I mean he's not going to leave you but you can leave him, you know, and then you show him the verse that says, no man shall pluck them out of my hand, you know, and here's what they said, they said, you know, well, you know, God's not going to let go of you but you can let go of him, and I'm thinking to myself, if God doesn't let go of me, whether I let go or not, I'm stuck. You know, it's so stupid but I can't even count how many times I've heard that, you know, and I've often done this illustration, come on up here Steven, Steven come on up here, you know, I've often done this illustration because it's like, you know, the heavenly father, because this is my son, you know, the heavenly father, you know, we're in his hand and, you know, hold my hand son, so you know, I'm holding his hand, he's holding my hand, and you know, I'm never going to let go, God's never going to let go, but you know, the Christian can let go, okay, so go ahead and let go son, okay, okay, what's going on here? Go ahead, go ahead and, you know, walk away from your salvation, go ahead and walk away from it, right, you don't want to be saved anymore, okay, walk away, get back Slidden. Here's the thing, he said my father's greater than all, no man can pluck them out of my father's hand, he's not stronger than me, he is not getting away unless I let go, and that's what God promised never to do, so it's like, well we have to hold on too, well if I have to hold on too, then what do I need God for? It sounds like I'm just holding on, right, I mean then God could just be totally slack and I could just hold on, and I'm holding on and holding on, you know what that's called? Saving yourself, and it doesn't work, and you wind up in hell for all eternity, because you're trying to save yourself, you're trying to hold on, and you're holding on tight, no no no, hey, God's holding on to me, and I can just sit back and relax, I can rest, because God has got me in his grip, and I will never be unsaved, because God has saved me, and I'm secure, and it's eternal, and this is such a powerful passage that shows that attribute about God, and it's prophetic of Jesus, if you use this passage to teach eternal security, it is not out of context, that is the context, because sure, the immediate context is talking about Solomon and all of those kings and the child of David, but I would say that this is more relevant about Jesus, because when he says, his seed shall endure forever and his throne as the son before me, you know, are we still on those literal kings of Israel, I mean over in Israel right now, do we have a son of David over there on the throne right now, no, but we have Jesus on the throne, and so where's the relevance of Psalm 89, it's Jesus, so who are the children, it's his children, it's me, it's you, it's those of us that are saved, we have these promises, he will not break his covenant to us, he has promised us eternal life, the Bible says in 1 John chapter 2, this is the promise that he has promised us, even eternal life, is he going to break that promise, is he going to lie, no way, and this teaching that you can lose your salvation is a dumb doctrine, it doesn't make any sense, because what's funny is you'll go out and ask people how to be saved and they'll say, oh, you're saved by faith, oh, but you can lose it, how does that work, you know, if I was never good enough to be saved in the first place, how can I be bad enough not to be saved, because they'll sit there and say, well, you know, if you have this unrepentant sin, or if you have willful sin, or if you break this major commandment or do this or that or the other, it's like, okay, well, I thought all I had to do to be saved was just faith, no, it sounds like I have to do works too, according to you, because you're not saved, okay, and so you get all this junk at the door from people who they start out by saying it's by faith, that's why I always like to ask them, can you lose it, because then a lot of times they'll just do a 180 and start saying the opposite, they just finish telling you it's all by faith, it's a free gift, and then it's like, oh, but yeah, but if you, I mean, if you don't live right, you're going to lose it. What good is that? I mean, that'd be like, that'd be like if somebody said, hey, you just won a free car, you know, you're on the Price is Right or Let's Make a Deal or whatever, and you know, you won this car, it's so exciting, and you get the car, and it's like, well, of course it's free, but you still have to make the payments. I mean, we were just saying we covered the down payment. You still have to pay $300 a month, I mean, but hey, we put five grand down, we put ten grand down, it's a big price, but yeah, I mean, obviously you got to make the payments. That's stupid, if you have to make the payments, it's not free. Jesus didn't just pay the down payment for salvation, he paid that sucker off. We have the pink slip. It's done, it's paid for, it's debt free. Jesus paid it all, his blood washed away our sins. It's not just a down payment, and then, okay, now live right, and man, here's the problem with that too, is that those payments are more than we can afford, because none of us can live that perfect life that God's holiness demands. God's holiness demands perfection, and so you're not going to live some perfect life to stay safe. Well, just every time you screw up, you know, you're sorry and you repent about it and everything. First of all, you're not even going to know all the mistakes that you make. There are so many sins we commit in ignorance, things that we don't even stop and think about, okay, and so you're not going to be able to just sit there, and some people are just, they're just like getting saved every day, and they just keep on repenting, and they just keep on asking forgiveness for their sins, and they're just like, man, I hope I don't just like sin and then die before I have a chance to fix it. Folks, salvation's a done deal. God honors this. God is not, what was the name of that hotel that I hate again? God's not the country Inn and Suites by Radisson. God is not Fox Rent-A-Car. God is Alamo Rent-A-Car, okay? I've rented hundreds of cars from him, and it was always there, okay? God is not going to renege on his agreement, his covenant that he's made with you. God will honor and keep his commitment, and you know what, we as his children should be the same way, and so let this become a part of your character, a part of having integrity that you honor your commitments, that you stay married, that you keep your word, in short, that you do what you say you will do, and look, I've said that I was going to do some things and then regretted it, and I'm sure we all could think of examples where we said we were going to do something and then we regretted committing to that. Why did I agree to this? Why did I commit to this? Why did I, how did you ever talk me into this? I said, wow, this project is so much harder than I thought it was going to be, so much more difficult than I thought it was going to be, but you know what, integrity is where you say, you know what, it stinks, it's a pain, maybe I'm going to lose money, but you know what, I got to do what I said I was going to do. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much that you honor your commitments, Lord, and help us as your people to honor our commitments, Lord, and to just be careful not to hastily commit to things, Lord, and if we do, commit to things, Lord, help us to make good and keep our word and especially help us to keep those really important commitments we make in life like marriage and other important things that we do in the business world. Lord God, just help us not to be like these bad examples who just, they're just waiting for something better to come along so they can break a covenant that they've made, Lord, help us not to be like those covenant breakers, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.