"THE UNFAILING WORD"
I. "NOTHING SHALL FAIL OF THE WORD OF THE LORD WHICH THE LORD SPOKE CONCERNING THE HOUSE OF AHAB, FOR THE LORD HAS DONE THE THINGS THAT HE SPOKE THROUGH HIS SERVANT ELIJAH."
A. One of the most remarkable things about the Bible is with what complete accuracy God keeps His word.
B. The Lord had sent Elijah to say these things to Ahab.
1KI 21:19 Thus saith the LORD, You have killed a man and taken his possession, thus in the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your blood.
1. Three years later we read that Ahab was in a war with Syria
1KI 22:35 And he was hit by an arrow, and he died that evening, and his blood ran out of the wound into his chariot. So they buried him in Samaria. And one washed his chariot in the pool of Samaria; and the dogs licked up his blood according unto the word of the LORD which he spoke.
2. Elijah also prophesied to Ahab:
1KI 21:21 Behold, I will bring evil upon you, and will take away your posterity, and will cut off all of your sons.
3. Sixteen years later we read in
2KI 10:11 So Jehu slew all that remained of the house of Ahab in Jezreel, and all his great men, and his family, and his priests, until he left him none remaining.
4. Elijah also had said:
1KI 21:23 And concerning Jezebel the LORD also speaks saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
5. We read in
2KI 9:30 that 16 years later, when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard [of it]; and she painted her face, and tired her head, and looked out a window. And as Jehu entered in at the gate, she said, [Had] Zimri peace, who slew his master? And Ahab lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who [is] on my side? who? And there looked out to him two [or] three eunuchs. And he said to them, Throw her down. So they threw her down: and [some] of her blood was sprinkled on the wall, and on the horses: and he trampled her under foot. And went into the house and ate and drank, and then he said, Go, bury this cursed woman: for she is a king's daughter. And they went to bury her: but they found nothing left of her but her skull, and the feet, and the palms of [her] hands, for the dogs had eaten her.
C. All that God had said was literally fulfilled.
II. THIS IS TRUE THROUGHOUT THE BIBLE.
A. Solomon said:
1KI 8:56 Blessed [be] the LORD, that hath given rest unto his people Israel, according to all that he promised: there hath not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by the hand of Moses his servant.
B. The story of Ahab is but one of hundreds of instances where God spoke in advance of things that would take place in the future and they were completely fulfilled.
C. God even challenged the gods of the other religions to prove that they are gods by telling things that were going to happen before they happened.
ISA 41:22 Let them bring forth proof, by showing us what shall happen: let them declare the things that are going to come hereafter, that we may know that they are gods.
D. Then to show that He is the true God he said:
ISA 44:28 Cyrus, is My shepherd, and shall perform all My pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, You shall be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
ISA 45:1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, to subdue nations before him; and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the two leaved gates; and the gates shall not be shut;
ISA 45:2 I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in sunder the bars of iron:
ISA 45:3 And I will give you the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the LORD, which call you by your name, [am] the God of Israel.
ISA 45:4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called you by your name: I have surnamed thee, though you have not known me.
ISA 45:5 I am the LORD, and [there is] none else, [there is] no God beside me: I girded you, though you have not known me:
1. Isaiah wrote this in the year 712 B.C.
2. In 536 BC one hundred and seventy six years later we read in Ezra chapter one.
EZR 1:1 Now it was in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah (God had declared through Jeremiah the prophet that the time of their captivity in Babylon would be 70 years.) might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and [put it] also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which [is] in Judah.
D. Through Daniel the prophet God gave the time of the coming of the Messiah.
Dan 9:24 Seventy sevens are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.
Dan 9:25 Know therefore and understand, [that] from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince [shall be] seven sevens, and threescore and two sevens: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
Dan 9:26 And after threescore and two sevens shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof [shall be] with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
NEH 2:1 And it came to pass in the month Nisan, in the twentieth year of Artaxerxes the king, [that] wine [was] before him: and I took up the wine, and gave [it] unto the king. Now I had never been sad in his presence before.
a. The month of Nisan is equivalent to March and Artaxerxes began his reign in the year 465BC which would make the date March 445 BC. 2, Nehemiah goes on to say:
NEH 2:2 Wherefore the king said unto me, Why do you look so sad, you are not sick. It must be sorrow of heart. Nehemiah then said, I was afraid
NEH 2:3 And said unto the king, Let the king live for ever: why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchres, is laid waste, and the gates thereof have been consumed with fire?
NEH 2:4 Then the king said unto me, What is your request? So I prayed to the God of heaven.
NEH 2:5 And I said unto the king, If it please the king, and if your servant has found favor in your sight, I ask that you would send me unto Judah, unto the city of my fathers' sepulchres, that I may rebuild it.
NEH 2:6 And the king said unto me, (the queen also sitting by him,) How long shall your journey be? and when will you return? So it pleased the king to send me; and I set him a time.
NEH 2:7 Moreover I said unto the king, If it please the king, let letters be given me to the governors beyond the river, that they may convey me over till I come into Judah;
NEH 2:8 And a letter unto Asaph the keeper of the king's forest, that he may give me timber to make beams for the gates of the palace which [appertained] to the house, and for the wall of the city, and for the house that I shall enter into. And the king granted me the decree.
2. So in March of 445 BC the decree was signed to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
3. According to the promise of God to Daniel, the Messiah should come in 483 years.
4. Taking into account the Babylonian calendar was predicated on a 360 day year and transposing it to our Julian calendar which is a 365 day year, 33 AD would be 483 years from the time the commandment went forth to restore and rebuild Jerusalem.
5. Thus the Messiah should present Himself in the year 33AD.
6. Daniel said something quite interesting however, "The Messiah would be cut off and receive nothing for Himself." Or would, not receive the kingdom, and that the Jews would afterward be dispersed.
7. God said to David:
PSA 89:35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
PSA 89:36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before Me.
PSA 89:37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and [as] a faithful witness in heaven.
PSA 89:38 But you have cast off and abhorred, you have been wroth with your Messiah.
PSA 89:39 You have made void the covenant of your servant: you have profaned his crown [by casting it] to the ground.
8. David also wrote:
PSA 118:22 The stone [which] the builders refused is become the head [stone] of the corner. This is the LORD'S doing; it [is] marvelous in our eyes. This [is] the day [which] the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Save now, I beseech thee, O LORD: O LORD, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed [be] he that cometh in the name of the LORD: we have blessed you out of the house of the LORD. God [is] the LORD, which hath shewed us light: bind the sacrifice with cords, [even] unto the horns of the altar. 10. This is the very Psalm the disciples were singing the day that Jesus made his entry into Jerusalem to present Himself to them as their Messiah. 11. Isaiah writing of the Messiah said, He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
E. Again in Isaiah God said:
ISA 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else; [I am] God, and [there is] none like Me,
ISA 46:10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times [the things] that are not [yet] done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure:
1. God has spoken of things that are not yet done, or are still future.
2. There are some amazing prophecies that are in the process of taking place today.
a.
Ezekiel 36 prophesied the reforesting and agricultural development of the land of Israel. That the land that for so many years was a wasteland would become like the garden of Eden. The mountains covered with trees, and the fields green with grain. God said, "I said it, and I will do it." If you go to Israel today you will find He has done it.
b. Back at the turn of the century men scoffed at this prophecy as the land was made up of wilderness on the eastern side of the mountain range and malaria infested swamps on the coastal side.
c. Then the Jews began to return to the land, and began to buy up the swamp land of the Sharon plain, and the Jezreel valley. They began to drain the swamps and cultivate the soil, planting citrus in the Sharon plain and grain and cotton in the Valley of Jezreel.
d. Chapter 37 of Ezekiel God promised that He would revive the nation, that it would no longer be divided, but one nation, In May of 1948 this amazing prophecy was fulfilled.
e. In Chapter 38, God said that when the nation had been established again that there would be a confederacy of nations that would attack Israel, led by Iran, and Libya, and nations to their north.
f. This prophecy has not yet been fulfilled, but it would appear that we are on the verge of it being fulfilled.
g. God promised to supernaturally destroy this invading army, and to once again put His Spirit on the nation of Israel.
h. This remains to be seen.
III. JESUS HAD MADE PREDICTIONS.
A. He predicted that He would be turned over to the Gentiles to be crucified, but the third day He would rise again.
B. He was turned over to the Romans to be crucified, and He rose from the dead on the third day.
C. Jesus said to His disciples, "Let not your hearts be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in Me, in My Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I am going to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, that where I am you may be also.
1. We have good cause to believe that Jesus is coming again, and good cause to believe that it will be soon.
2. You might ask, "But why has He waited so long?" The scriptures tell us that He is waiting for the complete fruit of harvest.
3. Peter prophesied that in the last days men would scoff at the idea of Jesus coming again. They would be saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as [they were] from the beginning of the creation." This is the teaching of uniformitarianism, which is the foundation of the evolutionary theory. Peter went on to say, But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
4. James writes:
JAM 5:7 Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.
PSA 9:17 The wicked shall be turned into hell, [and] all the nations that forget God.
5. God's word is unfailing. Jesus said, heaven and earth will pass away, but My world will never pass away. You are a fool if you are gambling your eternal destiny on the thought that God's word is going to fail.
6.
Hebrews 2:3 asks a thought provoking question, "How shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation?" Escape what? The judgment of hell.
Verse-Reference
Square — [Jhn 1:1 KJV]
Abbreviate Books
Use SBL Abbrev.
