Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

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To remind you where we started, now many weeks ago, we started with the basic presupposition that the most important thing about you is what you believe about God – because if I could get inside of your head and portray to you your true conception of God, then I could paint your spiritual future; I could tell you where you would end up, because we always move toward our image of God. I've taken a lot of time, as we've gone through this particular aspect of theology – we'll pick up the pace from here, I promise you; I'm not going to be six more years getting through all of the different aspects of theology. But I've done that on purpose, because I think this is so basic and it's so foundational – nothing is more important than understanding the character of God, and so, we've done that very deliberately. And tonight, we come to the final character – quality, if you will, or attribute, more formally – of God, and that is His faithfulness. Man is, by nature, unfaithful to his word and his promises – I'm sure most of us can retrace, in our own life experience, the first time that we were led astray, that someone was unfaithful to their word to us. Many of us can recount extremely painful experiences in later life of a spouse or a partner in business, or a close friend, a family member who betrayed us, who didn't remain faithful to the promises and commitments that they had made – this happens regularly and constantly in our world. It happens at the macro level, in treaties between governments; it happens in business contracts, business to business; it happens in agreements between businesses and their customers, between businesses and their employees, and even in marriages and families – an utter lack of faithfulness taints and undermines every conceivable human relationship. And I don't know about you, but I think we all grow tired of it, don't we? We grow tired of the fact that we can never really depend on, or trust, another.

God stands in absolute contrast to all that is true of sinful man – God is faithful. This is asserted, really, throughout the scripture; when you look at God's faithfulness, you see it in two particular verses that come immediately to mind – Deuteronomy 7:9 says, "Know, therefore, that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps His covenant and His lovingkindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments." God is faithful. Deuteronomy 32:4 – Moses, in his song, his swan song, if you will, shortly before his death, he says, "The rock! His work is perfect, all His ways are just; a God of faithfulness." But what does the scripture mean when it says that God is faithful? That's what I really want us to look at tonight – when we talk about God's faithfulness, we need to relate it to another aspect of God's character. You see, faithfulness is often treated as a separate attribute, as we're doing tonight, but sometimes theologians will treat it as it relates to God's truthfulness, through the attribute of truth or veracity. So, let me start there and show you how this attribute of faithfulness relates to God's truthfulness.

When we say God is true, we mean several things. First of all, we mean God is – and don't be lost by this word, I'll explain it – metaphysically genuine. In other words, God is true in the sense of real or genuine – in His person, He's real; He's like true gold as opposed to fool's gold. He's the genuine article; He alone is the true God, and the Bible is constantly saying that, and saying that all the other gods are what? False gods – all the gods of the nations are idols, the prophets say, over and over again. We also mean, when we say God is truthful, that He is logically rational – not only is He the real thing, the genuine article, He is God, the only true God, but He is logically rational. Here we're speaking of His thoughts and His perceptions – listen closely: There is no inherent logical contradiction in God's understanding of reality. God understands everything absolutely perfectly as it is; He's not confused. God knows all things as they really are; He has a perfectly logical understanding. John Frame, in his The Doctrine of God, even says this: "Logic is an attribute of God." The gift that we have of logic is an attribute of God – God is not illogical; God's mind doesn't work contrary to logic. The basic law of non-contradiction – you know, A cannot be both A and non-A at the same time and in the same relationship – can't happen; God doesn't act or think that way. Our conception of logic comes from His truthfulness.

We also mean that God is ethically reliable – in other words, He will speak what is true. Not only is He what is true, not only does He think and perceive things as they truly are, but when He speaks and communicates, what He says is a reflection of the way things really are. Robert Reymond, in his Systematic Theology, says, "There has always been, is now, and always will be, a precise equivalency between what God thinks and what He says. What He says inerrantly reflects what He thinks, and what He thinks is infallibly reflected in what He says." So, He reveals Himself and all things as they really are – He understands them as they are, and when He speaks, He tells us how they really are. He can't lie, and He can't change. Now, when we say that God's communication is reliable, that He reveals things as they really are, don't misunderstand – that doesn't mean that God tells us all He knows about any subject; that would be impossible. Your mind would blow up if God tried to tell you all He knows about anything. So, it's not that we know everything that God knows, it simply means that whatever God says matches the way things really are. God is not playing a cosmic joke on us, and our senses are perceiving things that aren't true, that we sort of live in an imaginary world, and there really is nothing. No, when God reveals Himself – you know, it's not The Twilight Zone here – when God reveals Himself, what He reveals is true, it's a reflection of reality.

But God's truthfulness means one more thing, and that is that He is covenantally true; that is, that He is true to his promises, He acts in keeping with what He says. Notice the progression here – it starts with Him being true, in and of His own being, it moves to His thoughts and His perceptions of reality being true, then His communication being true, and finally, His actions are true to what He says. What does it mean, that He is covenantally true, or that He's faithful, or that He has faithfulness? Well, let me give you a couple of definitions – Wayne Grudem, in his Systematic Theology, puts it this way: "God will always do what He has said and fulfill what He has promised." That is amazing – if we stopped there and said a benediction, your soul could be blessed with that for a week, in deep meditation, on the reality of that one statement. Robert Reymond puts it this way: "There is a precise equivalency between what God says He will do, and what He actually does" – put an equal sign between what He says and what He does. Think about us for a moment; why are we as humans unfaithful, why don't we do what we say? Well, there are several reasons – one might be that our desires change; we plan to do that, but our desires have now changed. Another could be fear – some people don't carry through on what they said because of fear. Others, because of weakness; some, because, frankly, they just lose interest – others are unfaithful because of some strong external influence that redirects them.

Now, think about those things for a moment – not one of them can ever be true of God; therefore, God always does what He says He will do. There are a number of wonderful references that drive this truth home – my favorite is Numbers 23:19. "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent" or change his mind. "Has he said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" I love that. Why don't we keep our word? Well, we don't keep our word because either A, when we said it, we were lying, or B, we changed our minds after we said it, or C, we lacked the power to do what we said we would do. God answers all three of those here; He says, I'm not like a man. First of all, I don't lie; secondly, I don't change my mind; and thirdly, if I say I'm going to do it, I have the power to do it, and I will do it. 2 Samuel 7:28: "Now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are truth, and You have promised this good thing to Your servant." Psalm 36:5: "Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the skies." I love the way the Psalms emphasize the faithfulness of God and magnify it – 89:8 says, "O Lord God of hosts, who is like you, O mighty Lord? Your faithfulness also surrounds you." Psalm 91:4: "He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark." That's a mighty picture – you know, we don't really appreciate that because most of us have never seen the battlefield. There are a few veterans among us, but most of us never have, and in today's world, the shooting takes place from a long distance away. A shield isn't much help, but in the ancient world, that was your great hope – if you were marching with your shoulders to your fellow soldiers toward the enemy, and the arrows were flying and the spears were flying, your great and final hope was that shield you held in front of you. I love the image of God as our shield, and here it says His faithfulness is a shield. Psalm 100:5: "For the Lord is good, His lovingkindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations" – it never changes. "Your faithfulness," Psalm 119:90 says, "continues throughout all generations." 1 Corinthians, going to the New Testament, 1:9 says, "God is faithful." 2 Timothy 2:13: "If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny himself."

In fact, let's turn to that passage – I want you to see this in its context; 2 Timothy 2. There's a lot of debate about what this passage teaches; let me walk you through it, as I see and understand it. In verses 8-10, he's talking about enduring hardship, persevering – and he says this in verse 11: "It is a trustworthy statement" – here's a trustworthy statement. And he quotes – you'll notice in your Bible it's set off; it probably was an early poem, or perhaps hymn, in the life of the church – he says, "For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him." Perseverance – endurance – is part of what it means to be a Christian. Then he says, "If we deny Him" – and here, the expression is not of a temporary denial like Peter's denial, but rather it is a permanent denial, like that of an apostate who says, I'm walking away forever, and does – "If we deny Him, He will also deny us." Why? Well, we find out from John, that's because if we walk away like that, what does it mean? We never really belonged – we never really were a child. But then he goes to a different set of people, I believe, in verse 13. He's talked about those who permanently deny and walk away, and he says Christ will deny them, but then he says, if we are faithless; in other words, if our faith as true believers grows weak, if we are unfaithful to Him – and who among us can say that we haven't been – how does He respond? He remains faithful – what a great encouragement. You know, the one that immediately comes to mind when I see this passage is Peter. Peter, who on three occasions of the night of the Lord's crucifixion, denied Him with cursing – Peter, who ran away and wept bitterly – he was faithless. And yet, what was the Lord's response? He remains faithful. If you have entered into that covenant relationship with Jesus Christ and with God, where He has made you a promise – He has made you a promise to save you because of the faith and repentance that you have expressed – then He will remain faithful to that promise. You will endure – this passage makes it clear – you will never permanently walk away, and ultimately, if you remain faithless, He'll deal with you in chastening, but you'll still be His. He remains faithful, for he cannot deny who He is – He is faithful, He can't deny his very character, and so, He will remain that – what a great encouragement.

Now, when we talk about God's faithfulness – and I'm not going to spend a lot of time here; in fact, I probably won't even read all of these references, but I just want you to get a picture – how is God's faithfulness demonstrated? Well, it's demonstrated, first of all – and this is a little surprising – in His judgment of the wicked. You see, God keeps His word, exactly what He has said, whether that word promised blessing or whether that word promised judgment. He will judge the wicked in His faithfulness, and you see that in a variety of places – my favorite is the second one there, Revelation 19:11, where, when Jesus Christ breaks the sky on His white stallion, coming down to take possession of the Earth at the end of the tribulation period, what is He called? "He who sat on it," we are told, "is called Faithful … and in righteousness, He judges and wages war." He will show His faithfulness in destroying His enemies, just as He promised He would.

There's a great illustration of this in the Canaanites – you remember back in Genesis 15 that God told Abraham it would eventually come. Abraham lived – track with me here, don't lose the dates – Abraham lived in about 2100 B.C.; God said, I'm going to judge the Canaanites. When did it happen? Well, it happened when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, and they went in, and under the direction of God, wiped out the Canaanites – when was that? About 1445. So, in other words, 700 years later, God fulfilled His promise and destroyed them – He was faithful to what He had said. You see a personal illustration of it – that is, with individuals – in the story of Naboth's vineyard. You remember, the wicked king of Israel, Ahab, and his wicked wife, Jezebel, how they plotted to take the little vineyard of Naboth that had been in his family for generations and ended up killing him and stealing his vineyard – and the prophet shows up and says the dogs are going to lick your blood in the very place where you did this wicked thing. It happened earlier to Ahab, but it didn't happen to Jezebel until about 20 years later. There's a great sermon by the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention many, many years ago; his name was R.G. Lee. Some of you may have heard this message; I have it in my files – he preached a message on that whole issue of Ahab and Jezebel and Naboth's vineyard, and he called it "payday someday." It's exactly right, and this line has never left me from that message by R.G. Lee. He said, "The judgments of God have leaden heels and often travel very slowly, but they have iron hands, and they always crush completely." God is faithful to judge the wicked.

He's also faithful in chastening the righteous – that's us – and there are a number of passages that drive this point home. Nehemiah rehearses this, as he remembers what the people of God suffered in Babylon in Psalm 54:5. "He will recompense the evil to my foes, destroy them in Your faithfulness." These were people who were a part of the nation of Israel. "I will punish their transgression," Psalm 89 says, "with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, but I will not break off My lovingkindness from them, nor deal falsely in My faithfulness." God says, in My faithfulness I'm going to deal with their sin. Psalm 119:75 makes it real personal – "I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness You have afflicted me." Listen – when you and I face trials, when you and I face chastening from the hand of the Lord, not every trial is God's chastening. Some trials are meant, as Price said, merely for the glory of God, but there are times when because of our sin we find ourselves in difficulty and trouble. We find ourselves bearing the consequences of our sinfulness, we find ourselves in the midst of chastening – when that time comes, thank God, because it's a demonstration of His faithfulness. What does He say in Hebrews – every son I love, what? I chasten.

He demonstrates it as well in His care, protection, and preservation of the righteous in this life – this is the way we usually think of it. God demonstrates His faithfulness; so many different verses drive this point home. Psalm 143:1 – "Hear my prayer, O Lord, give ear to my supplications! Answer me in Your faithfulness, in Your righteousness!" The Psalmist pleads for God to intervene in his behalf, and he pleads the faithfulness of God. God, preserve me, protect me, because You're faithful, because You keep Your promises, and You've promised to do just that. Isaiah 25:1 – "O Lord, You are my God, I will exalt you, I will give thanks to Your name, for You have worked wonders, plans formed long ago with perfect faithfulness." God worked out His plan and purposes for His people with perfect faithfulness. 2 Thessalonians 3:3 – "But the Lord is faithful, and He will strengthen and protect you from the evil one." God's faithfulness cares for us, protects us, preserves our lives – why? Because He's promised, because He said He would, and He always does what He says He will do. Going back to Genesis 15, you remember, not only did God in Genesis 15 tell Abraham that 700 years later the Amorites, the Canaanites would be destroyed, but there, God promised Abraham that his descendants would be strangers in Egypt for four generations. Think about it – centuries past; Abraham's children were slaves for nearly 400 years working in the brick kilns of Egypt – they might be tempted to think that God had forgotten His promise. But listen to Exodus 12:41- "At the end of four hundred and thirty years, to the very day, all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt." God was faithful to the promise he had made to Abraham 700 years earlier. Listen – not only do God's judgments often travel with leaden heels, but God's blessings and His promises often do as well. We get so impatient with God – we want it yesterday. God, it's been a week now; why haven't You acted? Abraham was promised a son when he was 75 years old – 25 years later, at the age of 100, God came through on His promise. You can trust Him – He's faithful; it may not be by your timetable, but it will always be by His.

Now, there are a couple of other ways it's demonstrated – it's demonstrated in the guarantee of our eternity; God has promised that He's going to make a new world for us, and that we will inherit it. I love those promises from the Book of Revelation – you read that book, and you read all that He's promised to do in taking us to Himself and creating a new heavens and a new earth, and he says to John: "Write, for these words are faithful and true" – I'll do it. You know, you and I have waited a long time for the events of Revelation to come, for the return of Christ, for His judging the world, for His taking back possession of what belongs to Him – but it will come, because God is faithful; He always does what He says He will do.

Ultimately, God's faithfulness was demonstrated in the person of Jesus Christ – you see it in these references to the life of Christ; the life and ministry of Christ. He is, over and over again, called the faithful one – the demonstrator, if you will; the grand demonstration of the faithfulness of God was in the person; is in the person of Jesus Christ.

Where I want to go in the few minutes that we have remaining is to the application, because here's where the richness of God's faithfulness comes to bear on our lives – what does it matter? Well, let me tell you – it matters a great deal, and I hope you'll be as encouraged by these things as I have been. First of all, the knowledge of God's incredible faithfulness should drive us to praise Him. Let's turn to these references – turn with me, first of all to Psalm 40:10. David writes, "I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have spoken of Your faithfulness and Your salvation. I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation." David says, Lord, everywhere I go, and particularly when I'm in the assembly of Your people, when I'm given a public platform, I rehearse Your faithfulness. Let me ask you – when was the last time you expressed thanksgiving to God for His faithfulness, for the fact that the promises He's made to you are, yea and amen, in Jesus Christ? They will happen because of who He is. Turn to Psalm 89:1 – Ethan the Ezrahite, one of the wise men of the ancient world spoken of in the Book of Kings, says, "I will sing of the lovingkindness of the Lord forever; to all generations I will make known Your faithfulness with my mouth." Listen – you want to honor God? You want to honor this amazing quality and attribute of our God? Then fill your mouth with thanksgiving to God, not only to God privately, but speak of God's faithfulness to you to others. This afternoon, at the funeral for Dean McAlister, one thing that struck me was, as his children spoke of the fact that no matter what happened to Dean, no matter how difficult – they spoke of a job that he lost after 13 years – you know what his response was? God will prove himself faithful – He's got something better for me. That's how we should respond; that's what our children should hear us saying, instead of woe is me, my life is wrecked, I don't know what will happen to me now – God is faithful, God will keep His promises. I've never "seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread," David said. There are other references, but you get the point – God's faithfulness should be the source of our song and our praise and our gratitude.

Secondly, God's faithfulness guarantees our ultimate salvation. 1 Corinthians 1:9 – Paul writes, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." Now, back up to the couple of verses before and get the flow of the context. He said, verse 7, "You are not lacking in any gift," and here's what you're doing; you're "eagerly awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ" – in other words, it's coming – "who will also confirm you to the end, blameless, in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ." Those are great promises – listen; you can await eagerly when Jesus comes, because He will confirm you to the end, and He'll present you blameless in the day of the Lord Jesus Christ. Not a single charge will stick, although there are lots of charges that can be leveled against all of us, but not one will stick – why? How can I be sure of that? I mean, after all, you and I are sinful; we deserve the worst from God's hand – how can we be sure He doesn't change His mind? Verse 9: "God is faithful, through whom you are called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." God has made promises to you and to me, and because of His character, I know He'll come through with them. God has made this promise to me, that He will confirm me to the end, blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I can take it to the bank, because He is faithful. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 – "Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Wow – that's a great prayer, isn't it? Isn't that what you, as a believer, want? Well, notice the next verse – "Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass." God's faithfulness guarantees our ultimate salvation.

Thirdly, it ensures our forgiveness when we sin – and I won't take you to this passage because you're so familiar with it, but maybe you've wondered why it's expressed the way it's expressed. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful … to forgive our sins." What does that mean? It means God's made a promise – God said, if you will come to Me, if you will turn from your sin, if you will repent and confess it to Me, then I will forgive you, you will find mercy. So, when you come, you don't have to wonder – do you ever pray for God's forgiveness and feel like the heavens are brass, and wonder if God's really heard, and if He's really forgiven you? Forget your feeling – go to the promise of God. He promised it, and because He's faithful, He will do it; it doesn't matter what you feel – believe in faith what He has revealed about Himself.

Fourthly, understanding God's faithfulness strengthens our faith. Look at Hebrews 10:23 – let's back up to verse 19, because the writer of Hebrews has sort of set the stage here; he's come now to having established the reality that we have a great high priest, and we have a new sacrifice, and we have a better covenant. And he says, verse 19:

Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil; that is, his flesh, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Verse 23: "Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering" – why? Why can we do that? "For He who promised is faithful." What an anchor for our souls – He who promised is faithful. Hold fast the confession of your hope, keep believing, keep your faith solid – and it's strengthened by the knowledge that the one who promised is faithful. Turn to Chapter 11, and notice verse 11: "By faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life." You know, I think, when some of you ladies read the story of Abraham and Sarah, if I were a woman, I would wince – you know, talk about beyond the proper time of life, and how could she do this? "Since she considered Him faithful who had promised." Verse 12 – "Therefore, there was born even of one man, and him as good as dead" – you know, Abraham had one foot in the grave and another on a banana field; he was done, and yet God kept His promise. Sarah received ability to conceive, since she considered Him faithful who had promised. Listen – if you'll think about, if you'll concentrate, if you'll focus your attention on this reality about God, I can promise you it'll strengthen your faith to believe what you read in the Bible, to believe the promises that are revealed here, because you know they're real and you know God never changes and you know He's faithful – that what He says, He always perfectly matches in what He does.

There's another application of God's faithfulness, and that is, it gives us hope in our suffering – it gives us hope in the middle of our suffering. 1 Peter 4:19 – Peter, of course, is writing to the Jews that were scattered because of the persecution. They're going through incredible difficulty, and throughout this epistle, he prepares them for more difficulty, and as he does that here, toward the end of this epistle, notice what he writes in chapter 4, verse 12: "Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you which comes to you for your testing, as though some strange thing were happening to you." Expect it, he says, because of who you follow – you follow Christ and you're sharing His sufferings; they can't get to Christ, so they get to you. Verse 16: "But if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but to glorify God in this name." Verse 19: "Therefore, those also who suffer according to the will of God shall entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right." You and I encounter suffering for the name of Christ – as I've told you before, it doesn't have to be having your head chopped off; it doesn't have to be being beaten. Christ says that we'll suffer by being insulted, by being called names like "you fundamentalist, Bible believing Christian" – it's hard to imagine them saying it with more hatred than it's often said. "Yeah, that's me." If you suffer for being a Christian, you can have hope in the faithfulness of God – commit your soul to a faithful Creator, and just keep doing what's right; God will keep His promise. It may not look like it in the midst of your suffering, but He'll do it; He'll keep his promises.

Here's a great hope for all of us – God's faithfulness provides a comfort in our worst trials. Turn to the Book of Lamentations – it's not a book that you turn to, to have your greatest encouraging devotional. "Lamentations" means a great lament, and it's a lament of the prophet Jeremiah, and the reason he's lamenting is because the city, the holy city, the city of Jerusalem, the place where God's residence was, the place where the glory cloud dwelled, has been absolutely demolished and destroyed. Mothers have turned to cannibalizing their own children – the absolute worst of circumstances you and I can imagine. Lamentations 3:19 – Jeremiah writes, "Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This I recall to mind," he says, "therefore I have hope." How do you get hope in that situation? Read the first two chapters and into the third chapter, and you'll get a picture for how bad things were – and folks, you and I, however bad we've had them, have never had them like that. And yet he says, I remember something, and I have hope – what is it? Verse 22: The Lord's chesed, the Lord's unfailing love, "never ceases, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning." He's finding his hope here in the character of God – and notice where he goes next: "Great is Your faithfulness." Listen – where do you fall back when you find everything around you destroyed, when you find your family coming apart, when you find yourself having heard the word cancer, and your marriage is wrecked, and your spouse has left – when your spouse of many years dies, and you find yourself a widower or a widow, where do you go to find your hope? You find it where Jeremiah found it, in the faithfulness of God. Your circumstances may have changed, but God didn't. Your circumstances may have changed, but God's character and His promises didn't – find your hope in that.

It protects us from sin – God's faithfulness is something that you and I lean on every day in the battle with sin. You've quoted this verse your whole life, but perhaps you've never thought of it in this way – 1 Corinthians 10:13, "No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man." As I told the men the other night, I love that verse, because you know what sin loves to do to us? Sin loves to convince each of us, when we sin, that we're the only one – what a terrible person you are; I'm sure no one else has ever tempted like you've been tempted. Well, guess what – there is no temptation overtaking you, but such as is common to man. Maybe not to every man, maybe not to every woman, but it's common – there are no unique temptations. But God is faithful – how does God demonstrate his faithfulness? He'll not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able – there's a promise, folks; there's a promise God has made you; He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but will, with the temptation, provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to go through it or endure it. How do you know that? Well, God's made the promise and guess what? God is faithful – He always does what He says He will do. So, when you and I choose to sin, it's not God's problem; it's not that – you know, God, if You just give me the power, I could overcome this sin in my life – no, this is the promise. There's no temptation overtaking you, but such as is common to man – and God is faithful, God will keep His promise, and His promise is, you can endure it, you can go through it without succumbing. You say, what's the way of escape? Well, it's explained by the next line – "the way of escape" is to go through it without succumbing; God can give you that strength, and He'll do it because He's faithful. But when you and I sin, it's our choice against the promise of God.

Another implication of God's faithfulness is that you and I must imitate our Father's faithfulness. There are a number of references here to it – notice Galatians 5:22, you'll recognize that reference. Faithfulness is part of the fruit of the Spirit, it's part of the evidence of the work of the Spirit in our lives. Just as God is faithful, guess what? He expects us to be faithful, to keep our word. Notice those references – I put "to God;" that's obvious, we need to be faithful to God, but turn to Psalm 15:4; well, let's just take the Psalm in its entirety here. It's a description of someone fit to dwell with God, someone fit to dwell in Zion – David wrote it, and he says this: "O Lord, who may abide or sojourn in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill?" In other words, God, who can live with You? Well, here's the person: the person

…who walks with integrity and works righteousness and speaks truth in his heart. He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord.

Now, notice the end of verse 4 – here's the kind of guy that can live with God: "He swears to his own hurt and does not change." Have you ever made an absolute promise to someone, and then you found out after the fact that if you keep that promise, it's going to cost you dearly? Well, the righteous man imitates his Father and he swears to his own hurt and changes not. Think about it – God made a promise to redeem you; God wasn't caught by surprise afterwards, as you and I often are, but God made that promise to redeem you and to redeem me, and guess what? The cost was huge. But He swore to His own hurt and didn't change, and that's how He expects us to act as well. Notice 2 Corinthians 1:18 – Paul is talking to the Corinthians about his desire to come visit them, and he says in verse 17, "I was not vacillating … was I?" He said, no, no, he said, listen – "As God is faithful," verse 18, just as God keeps His word, I want you to know, I imitate Him, and "our word to you is not yes and no." We keep our word, Paul says – you and I are called to imitate God. By the way – we don't have time to go there – but if you want an interesting study, turn to, I believe, it's Hosea 4:1, where God says He has a court case against Israel. In other words, He's bringing a charge, an accusation against Israel, and one of the accusations is there's no knowledge of God in the land. We understand that; that's huge – guess what one of the others is? There's no faithfulness in the land. This is an absolutely crucial issue to God. I'll tell you another measurement of how important this issue of our being faithful to others is – you remember Christ in Matthew, I believe it's Matthew 23, around verse 23, somewhere in there – you remember Christ is rebuking the Pharisees, and He says to them, you tithe your herbs, but you "have neglected the weightier provisions of the law." He's saying, look, you misunderstood – this tithing herb thing, that's commanded, but it doesn't have the same weight as some other things in the law have. Guess what he says is one of the weightier provisions in the law? Faithfulness. This is not a small issue to God – He is faithful, He always keeps His promises, and He says the righteous person will keep his. Let me tell you the most immediate and direct place this comes to bear – it comes to bear in our families. Will your children say that you are faithful, that what you say is always what you do, both in punishing them when they need to be punished and in rewarding them when they need to be rewarded? What about with your spouse – are you keeping your promises? On the big level, you made a promise, in the sight of witnesses and before God, to be faithful to that one person till death do you part – are you being faithful to that person in your mind, as well as your body? This is a huge issue to God – we must imitate our Father's faithfulness.

Finally, our faithfulness will be the standard God uses to judge our service – turn to Matthew 25:21. This is, of course, in the middle of the parable of the talents, and in verse 21, the one who was faithful, who gained additional talents with the talents he had – and this, by the way, isn't talking about skills here; talents are money in the ancient world. So, he's invested what he had, he's made some more money, he's tried to work hard with what he's been given – his master said to him in verse 21, "Well done, good and faithful slave" – now, watch this – "you were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master." Now, what's going on here? Jesus is using a parable to teach the principle of faithfulness, of being a faithful slave, of being a faithful servant, of taking what you receive and being careful to invest it, to make a return on it; to work hard with it. And if you do that, then you're called a faithful slave, but notice that that faithfulness becomes the opportunity for future service. What Christ is talking about here is, our faithfulness here determines our future opportunities for service in heaven. Let me say that again – your faithfulness here, in fulfilling what you've committed to do, in serving the Lord, in the place you said you would serve Him, and doing it with your whole heart, your faithfulness will be the measure of potential service in heaven – that's what it says. "You've been faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things." You see – think about it; the only true measure God could use is faithfulness, because God is the one who gives us the gifts, God is the one who gives us the place to use those gifts, and God is the one who determines the results of the gift. And so, what is He going to use to measure us and our service? There's only one thing, and that's our faithfulness – and God will test and measure our faithfulness by how we do those little things that appear unimportant. I mentioned earlier Luke 16:10-11, where Christ says, look, if you're not faithful with "unrighteous wealth," then who's going to give you "the true riches?" God is going to judge your faithfulness not by what you think – He's going to judge it by how you do the little things that appear unimportant to others.

Louis Berkhof, speaking of God's faithfulness, says this:

He is ever mindful of His covenant and fulfills all the promises which He has made to His people. The faithfulness of God is of utmost practical significance to the people of God – it is the ground of their confidence, the foundation of their hope, the cause of their rejoicing. It saves them from the despair to which their own unfaithfulness might easily lead. It gives them courage to carry on in spite of their failures, and it fills their hearts with joyful anticipations, even when they are deeply conscious of the fact that they have forfeited all the blessings of God.

A.W. Pink puts it a little differently – listen to what he says.

There are seasons in the lives of all when it is not easy, not even for Christians, to believe that God is faithful. Our faith is sorely tried, our eyes dim with tears, and we can no longer trace the outworking of His love. Our ears are distracted with the noises of the world, harassed by the atheistic whisperings of Satan, and we can no longer hear the sweet accents of His still, small voice.

How does that happen? Pink goes on:

Cherished plans have been thwarted, friends on whom we relied have failed us, a professed brother or sister in Christ has betrayed us – we are staggered. We sought to be faithful to God, and now a dark cloud hides Him from us. Ah, faltering soul, seek grace to heed Isaiah 50:10, "Who is among you that fears the Lord, that obeys the voice of His servant, that walks in darkness and has no light?"

In other words, if you really fear God, and yet you find yourself walking in darkness today, Pink says do this: "Let him trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God, for He is faithful." Perhaps you've read Pilgrim's Progress – there's a fascinating part of Pilgrim's Progress, where Pilgrim finds himself locked in Doubting Castle by the giant Despair – how does he get out of the castle? One day he's sitting there, wishing he were out, when he reaches in his pocket and remembers that there in his pocket is the key – the key to unlock the castle, to let him out – and what is the key? The key is called Promise – it represents the promises of God – and he escapes. You and I have received many precious and magnificent promises, Peter tells us – cling to those promises, because He who has promised is faithful. Let's pray together.

Father, how could we ever begin to praise You and thank You adequately for Your faithfulness? Lord, we live in a world where that is almost unknown, except among Your people – and even among Your people, Father, we falter, we fail each other, but You never fail. You always do what You've said You will do. Lord, I pray that You would help us to discover the promises You have made to us, and to cling to them, to hold on to them with all of our hearts, to trust You – because we know that You who promised are faithful. I pray that You would cause us to lift up our eyes and see You again as a result of our many weeks of study. Lord, don't let us forget these things – don't let it be just another service that we've had together over these many weeks, but Lord, I pray that You would drive the reality of who You are deep within our hearts. May we be lost in adoration, in wonder, love and praise, and may we serve You joyfully and gladly, and may we worship You with all of our heart.

We pray it in Jesus' name – Amen.