Pastor’s Thoughts – 08/03/2025

There is a hymn which I recall often singing as a youth in a small Baptist Church. It is titled “Standing on the Promises.” The third stanza of the hymn reads, “Standing on the promises of Christ the Lord, bound to Him eternally by love’s strong cord, overcoming daily by the Spirit’s sword, standing on the promises of God.” Beloved, the platform of our faith are the promises of God. Our firm belief in what God has promised in His Word means more to those of us in Christ than all of the philosophies, promises of men, and the constantly changing perspectives of our world. This week I was standing in line at the pharmacy. What a busy place this is as drugs are dispensed for everything. I am thankful for the advances in medicine that help control our infirmities and improve our health. But of course, pills only go so far. There is not a universal pill to cure every ill, and nothing to cure our fallen natures or give us faith which is instead built on knowing the promises of God. Faith in God’s promises is the cure that reaches beyond this life and into the next, and the truth in Christ can never be replaced for it is that which is essential. Life, even with pills, is still difficult and can only be overcome with any sense of true joy by knowing and standing on the promises of God.

One of the repeated commands given in Scripture is to “stand firm” in reference to our faith.  After writing an extensive letter to a troubled church, Paul says, “Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith” (1 Cor. 16:13). Paul addresses the Ephesians after warning them of the devices of Satan and the need for the whole armor of God says, “And having done everything, to stand firm” (Eph. 6:13). Then he repeats it, “stand firm” (Eph. 6:14). We see this emphasis as weighty. It is not only given in the strongest language in the context of our personal battles with the invasions of evil, but it is our last and greatest defense. He is saying that to, “stand firm” is to remain steadfast when all else has been said and done to combat wickedness and it is still actively encroaching. The word used for, “stand firm” is histemi which means to be established, set, and remain non-wavering. It is a fixed position that is absolutely settled.

Peter also writes, “I have written to you briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God, stand firm in it” (1 Pet. 5:12)!  Again, this is similar language emphasizing its great importance. When Peter says, “This is the true grace of God,” he is saying this is our necessary position for a relationship with our Lord. It is a settled disposition of faith that must never move. It addresses having our confidence in God. And in that regard, how is our confidence built or fed to be in such a fixed position?  Today, for us, it is built on the promises of God from His Word. When Abraham was told by God that his elderly wife would conceive a child, it says of him, “With respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform” (Rom. 4:20-21). Our relationship with God is our faith in Him by what He has promised. In the case of Abraham, Paul says in the very next verse, “Therefore it was credited to him as righteousness” (Rom. 4:22). God looked at Abraham knowing that his confidence in what God had promised would not fail.

Russell Kelso Carter, who died in 1928, wrote the hymn “Standing on the Promises.” It is interesting that Carter later would become sidetracked into poor theology in his Christian experience. In his hymn he accurately stated, “Resting in my Savior as my all in all.” Yet, in the development of his relationship to God, his theology was weak in some areas missing a right stand on some of God’s promises.  All of us in Christ are somewhere in our maturing process before God. None of us have arrived at a place of perfect understanding. It is because of our weaknesses that our focus and confidence must always be in Christ and in His Word. The idea of standing on the promises of God is being accurately fixed upon what God says concerning who He is, what He is doing, and what He says He will do in His Word. This is the very basis of our faith, just as it was with Abraham.

What are we responsible for and admonished to do? “Be diligent to present ourselves approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). This is a personal and important matter between us and the Lord, but which also affects others around us. Each Sunday we gather around the Word and prayerfully seek to explore and accurately define the promises that God has given us. As we see them clearly in God’s Word, they give us great joy. When we accurately comprehend what God has promised, it is standing on the Word and believing our Lord that is the essence of right faith and relationship with Him. Then as God was with Abraham, He is pleased with us. How wonderful it is to know and to have God’s Holy Word and promises that we can stand upon in full assurance.