Word of Salvation - September 2017

 

Practical Outcome #6 = Faithfulness

By Rev. Craig Van Echten

On Galatians 5:22

 

Textual Theme (what): Faithfulness is the grace by which God is totally reliable and its this disposition that He is working within us so that we may faithfully follow Him and be loyal to others.

Original Purpose (why): To encourage the faithfulness of God to flow through our lives

Proposition (what and so what): Through the Spirit’s empowering God is enabling us to be faithful.

Songs: BoW 359

Galatians 5:22 (Daniel 6:1-16)

 

Brothers and sisters,

The media call them indecisive, unoriented and inconsistent. They say 20-30-year-olds belong to the phenomenon often referred to as “Generation Maybe”. The twenty-somethings of today have so many opportunities they just don’t know where to start. Maybe I’ll do this or maybe I’ll do that. But only maybe because I don’t want to commit. If I commit I cancel out other choices, other opportunities. So maybe I’ll do this.

You see we like to keep our options open don’t we? Have you ever heard of FOMO? Fear of missing out. We don’t want to miss out on anything so we often don’t commit. You get that with RSVP. How many people RSVP these days? And how many people who do RSVP actually rock up?

Now why do I tell you all this? We live in a culture where it is incredibly hard to be faithful. And yet, this is what the Holy Spirit is empowering us to do. This morning we continue to look at the fruit of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is also evidenced in faithfulness. You see, God is faithful, loyal and dependable toward us. And He is working that same attitude into our own hearts. We’ll see that God’s faithfulness comes to expression as we are faithful toward Him and also as we are faithful toward one another.

 

But let’s begin by looking at God’s faithfulness to us.

What a great place to start…the character of God. How beautiful and wonderful  to contemplate God’s person. It is majestic and glorious in so many wonderful ways. His faithfulness is just one facet of His glory. Other facets of God’s beautiful character include His love, holiness, kindness, grace, and so on. 

There are a couple of things to appreciate before looking at faithfulness in particular.

1. a) One, is that God’s character is one. God’s character can’t be split into different parts. It is all united in harmony. God is not 10% holiness and 10% love and so on. God is completely love. God is completely holy. 1Jn. 4:8 “God is love.”

 

1. b) The other thing to know is that God’s character doesn’t change. Malachi 3:6 says, “For I the LORD do not change.” James 1:17 “Every good gift and every perfect gift is form above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is not variation or shadow due to change.” Do the shadows outside stand still? Of course not! They change as the sun changes position. God is not like that. He remains the same. As for us, our tastes changes, our outlook changes and sometime our character change. Some people grow to be old and bitter. But God remains the same. He remains true to His beautiful character.

This is where faithfulness comes into it. God remains faithful and true to His character. God will not say one thing, one minute, and another the next minute. God is not like many of the politicians we have. God is not like chameleon. God is not like the weather. He remains faithful and true to His character. Every action of God is consistent with His character. He will never cease to be loving. He will never cease to be holy. He will never cease to be kind.

How blessed we are to have a faithful God! We experience His faithfulness in every aspect of our Christian walk.

 

1. a) We rely on God’s faithfulness for forgiveness. As we saw earlier “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness.” You never know if your children are going to tidy their room. But you can know that all your sins are forgiven. God is faithful.

1. b) We rely on God’s faithfulness in temptation. Sometimes you might wonder if you can go on. Someone once said to me something like, ‘I’m waiting for the bus.’ He was saying that he wanted to be picked up and taken away from life’s troubles. Sometimes our circumstances are difficult. But says, 1Cor. 10:13 “God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” God is faithful and will always give enough grace.

1. c) We rely on God’s faithfulness for our eternal hope. Our seniors think about eternity a lot. How will we be sure of what’s around the corner? Hebrews 10:23 “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for He who promised is faithful.”

 

1. d) We rely on God’s faithfulness to bring us home. In the doctrines of grace this is called the ‘Perseverance of the saints.’ It’s the ‘P’ in Tulip. What God begins, He will finish. The elect will persevere to the end because God will keep them. 1 Thess. 5:23 “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; He will surely do it.”

I could go on. But this is enough to show God’s faithfulness to us. Which is amazing considering our unfaithfulness to Him. How blessed we are in Christ! What a great God we have! One who is faithful. ‘Great is your faithfulness O God my Father, you have fulfilled all your promise to me; You never fail and Your love is unchanging all you have been You forever will be.’

And so as God fills us with His character, He is filling us with His faithfulness. How will this faithfulness express itself in our lives? What does this fruit look like?

Secondly, God is empowering us to be faithful to Him.

Why do we begin here? Why not speak about faithfulness to one another?

Remember that this list of fruit is not a complete list? Anything the Holy Spirit produces can be considered fruit. For example, contentment or compassion which are not listed. So this list is selective. And probably tailored in some way to the Galatian situation.

And the Galatian situation was not pretty. It’s a bit like getting a test paper back at school.  I remember some assignment papers. And there was a lot of pen, red pen. That’s not a good sign is it? It indicates that you are way off track. The Galatian church was way off track. The Apostle Paul doesn’t even commend them for anything. He rips them apart. Why?

Verse 6 “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel.” Faithfulness to the Gospel, and ultimately to God, was at stake in this church. So how appropriate that “faithfulness” should be in the list.

 

So we begin by looking at faithfulness to God. But what does that mean? What are some other words for faithfulness? Loyalty. Dependability. Fidelity, Allegiance. Steadfastness. Devotion.

 

Is this easy? This is hard when it comes to the Gospel. It’s costly. Because it means putting God first and doing His will in everything and everywhere. At home, at work, at Church even at great cost to ourselves.

A great example of faithfulness is Daniel. Like every believer, he was not perfect. I’m sure he had many blemishes. He needed Christ too. However, he does set a good example of faithfulness to the Lord. He lived in Babylon. That was the greatest empire of the time. And certainly not a Christian one. But Daniel attained to a very high position. He even became the most favoured official by the King. Meanwhile the 120 rulers under him, and other officials didn’t like that. They wanted to get rid of Daniel. And so they set a trap. They passed a law that prayer could only be made to the king.

Now what does Daniel do? Does he stop praying to God? Does he compromise his Christian faith? No, he remains faithful doesn’t he? He continues to pray three times a day. Verse 10 says, “When Daniel knew that the document had been signed, he went to his house where he had windows in his upper chamber open toward Jerusalem. He got down on his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as he had done previously.”

That’s faithfulness. Daniel stayed loyal even at great cost to himself. Thankfully he was saved from the lions. However, sometimes faithfulness will not save us from the lions.

The first century Church in Symrna faced great persecution. Listen carefully to the words that Jesus encourages them with in Revelation 3:10, “Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

So yes faithfulness is very difficult. Our circumstances can make it difficult. The people around us can make it difficult. Our own hearts can make it difficult. However, let’s not forget. We don’t remain faithful in our own strength. This is something that the Holy Spirit is cultivating within us. He is empowering us to be faithful. So seek His power in the situations of life.

Seek the power of the Holy Spirit to be faithful in your Christian witness at work. Or to be faithful in upholding Christian morality. Or faithful in holding on to the Gospel. Or faithful in honoring the Lord with your money, time, and gifts. Be faithful in honouring the Lord with your Sunday. Isn’t it shocking that we can be more faithful in watching our t.v programs than coming to church activities! Repent of that. Seek the power of the Spirit to be faithful to your Lord. Who has been ever faithful to you.

Finally, with the Holy Spirit’s help, let’s be faithful to each other. Faithfulness to each other is also very difficult. This is not the first culture in history where this has been the case. Proverbs 20:6 says, “Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?”

We live in a culture of little commitment. Little loyalty. Don’t you get sick of all those cards in your wallet that have to do with loyalty programs! Even shops are struggling to keep customers loyal. Gone are the days of shopping at one supermarket. People can change from week to week. Depending how it suits us. That’s fine when it comes to shopping. We hope to save a few dollars when ALDI comes along!

However, is this culture of little commitment also influencing our commitment to Christ? And also to each other?

So what does it mean to be faithful to each other? Again, what are some other words to describe faithfulness? Loyalty. Dependability. Fidelity, Allegiance. Steadfastness. Devotion

A good example of this type of faithfulness is Jonathan. Again another believer who has his failings. But also a mighty warrior for the LORD. Jonathan was courageous in battle. He led from the front. He would have made a great King. A much better one than His father Saul.

But why didn’t Jonathan become King?

David came on the scene. And God anointed David to be the next king. And Jonathan by faith respected that. Humanly speaking Jonathan had all the credentials. But he steps aside and pledges his loyalty to David. And he remains loyal to David even at great cost to himself.

The cost of kingship. And the cost of his Father’s anger.

That’s the type of faithfulness God is calling us to.

Psalm 15 also gives insight to faithfulness. There it describes what is means to live a righteous life. And one of the things mentioned is that the righteous man will, quote, “swear to his own hurt and does not change.” For example, you might make a business contract. But then you find yourself disadvantaged. But you have given your word and made a promise. Do you break the contract? Psalm 15 says, it’s going to hurt, but you keep your promise. You remain loyal and dependable.

Now there are different reasons why we might struggle with faithfulness to others?

1. a) Some of us might struggle because we try too hard to please others. We make promises and commitments to please them. But then we don’t keep them. In those cases we need to be careful to what we commit to. So that we remain true and loyal to our word.

1. b) Some of us might struggle because we are too busy. If we are busy with the right things that’s good. But no good if we take too much on. And then become unreliable.

1. c) Maybe some of us have treated this too lightly? It’s interesting what Jesus said to the Pharisees. Matthew 23:23 “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness.” Faithfulness is a weighty matter. And a weighty matter for every generation. Fast pace living, and instant communication are no excuse.

1. e) All of us will struggle at times just because we are selfish. We simply don’t care enough about others to be loyal. Let’s face it, we care more about our own convenience. For example, far too many marriages are shipwrecked on the idol of selfishness and convenience. Don’t expect faithfulness to be easy. We know from our Lord, that it is costly.

 

So yes faithfulness is very difficult. However, we don’t remain faithful in our own strength. This is something that the Holy Spirit is cultivating within us. He is empowering us to be faithful. So seek His power in the situations of life.

Conclusion

So in conclusion, what are some practical things we can go away and do in relation to this:

1. a) Meditate some more on the faithfulness of God. Think about Daniel and Jonathan.
2. b) Evaluate your life with the help of others. Maybe a spouse or a close friend. Ask them about whether others can depend on you. Or whether you are faithful and loyal. Do you keep your promises? Do you follow things through? Are you on time for appointments? Are you committed in church life? Let’s see where we can grow.
3. c) Pray for greater empowering in areas where you need to grow.
4. d) Find fresh motivation in the faithfulness of God to you.

Remember Lamentations 3:23 says, “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”  We don’t need a certain amount of faithfulness to be accepted by God. He has sent the only faithful one in the person of His Son. Each morning He gives us new mercies to cover our sins. Each morning He gives fresh grace to be faithful.

Amen (2450 words)