HE’S FAITHFUL
Hebrews 10:19-25
This world is filled with uncertainties. Institutions we once thought were secure have fallen by the way side. The world is constantly changing, promising everything but delivering nothing. Promises to the world are made to be broken. Many would ask “Is there anything that is sure and certain?” The answer is a resounding “Yes!” Our God is faithful.
I. Our God is Faithful – He keeps His Word
A. Throughout the scriptures God’s faithfulness is apparent from the Old Testament to the New Testament. God is steadfast, unchanging, utterly dependable and faithful. When He speaks, it comes to pass and His words are ye and Amen.
B. Hebrews 10:23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
C. One paraphrase of this passage states “Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.” (NLT)
D. Deuteronomy 7:9 "Know therefore that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His loving-kindness to a thousandth generation with those who love Him and keep His commandments.”
E. Faithful defined in the Old & New Testaments: In Hebrew ‘emuwnah – literally - firmness; stability, steady. The Greek word is pistos meaning trustworthy, true, credible, and reliable.
F. "No one has ever MADE more promises than God, no one has ever KEPT more promises than God, and no one has ever been more FAITHFUL than God." - Ronnie Floyd
G. 1 Corinthians 1:9 God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
H. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.
I. Someone has said “God writes with a pen that never blots, speaks with a tongue that never slips, and acts with a hand that never fails. – Unknown
II. Because our God is Faithful He keeps His promises
A. Sarah – God told the aged couple Abraham and Sarah that they were going to give birth to Isaac. Overhearing the conversation, Sarah’s initial reaction was recorded in Genesis 18:10 “The LORD said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son." And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, "After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" But I believe that Sarah began to think of God’s faithfulness and how He always kept His word. She began to realize who it was that promised and His great faithfulness.
B. Hebrews 11:11 ESV “By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.”
C. Joshua – God had promised not to leave the children of Israel in Egyptian bondage but to deliver them and bring them into a land flowing with milk and honey. After 400 years of cruel bondage God raised Moses in keeping with His promise to lead the children of Israel out of slavery to the Promised Land. But Moses died. What now? Moses may be dead, but that is does not negate the promises or end of God’s promises for the children of Israel. The children of Israel were told to move on through their new leader, Joshua. God told them to cross the River Jordan to go and possess their possession. Again a problem – according to Joshua 3:14 -17, the river was at flood stage. But despite all odds, God kept His word and brought them through the Jordan in a miraculous way in line with his word and promise.
D. Solomon – David wanted to build a temple as a permanent dwelling place where God would make His presence known in the midst of Israel. But events in David’s life stopped God from allowing David to build the structure. But God promised that one day his son, Solomon would build it. At the dedication of the built temple Solomon acknowledges the faithfulness of God in 1 Kings 8:20 “And the LORD hath performed his word that he spoke, and I am risen up in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel.”
E. Jesus Christ – Jesus Christ, God Incarnate said that He was going to be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again.” Three Days, three nights Christ’s lifeless body lay in the dark, cold tomb. But then He kept His promise. We read in Matthew 28:6 the angels announcement, “He is not here: for He is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.”
III. Because our God is faithful and keeps His promises we can have assurance.
A. We can know with absolute certainty that when we come to Christ our sins are forgiven.
1. 1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
2. John 6:37 “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.”
3. The blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. We don’t need to confess our sins a thousand times. We need to confess them once and thank God a thousand times for forgiving them. (Kent Crockett, The 911 Handbook, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2003, 54)
B. He’s never going to give up or stop working on us
1. Philippians 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ”
2. Adrian Rogers preached, “When you were first saved, God began a new work in you; but you were certainly not a finished product. You had a lot of growing to do. God started something in you, and He is the one that will complete it.”
3. Understand that God won’t stop until His work in you is done. God uses everything that happens to you — the good, the bad and the ugly — to make you like His Son the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. Romans 8:29 “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.”
C. He not let you go through more than you are able to bear
1. 1 Corinthians 10:13 “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
2. God allows the temptation in proportion to the strength He can supply, and He never permits us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist or to endure. – copied
3. Someone has said that when testing comes, God does not or has not "vacated the premises". He is there with you (Heb 13:5), in you (Col 1:27), and for you (Ro 8:31). Nothing can separate you from Him (Ro 8:38, 39). - copied
4. 2 Peter 2:9 “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations...”
5. I refuse to be discouraged,
To be sad, or to cry;
I refuse to be downhearted,
and here’s the reason why:
I have a God who’s mighty,
Who’s sovereign and supreme;
I have a God who loves me,
and I am on His team.
He is all-wise and powerful.
Jesus is His name;
Though everything is changeable,
My God remains the same.
My God knows all that’s happening;
Beginning to the end;
His presence is my comfort;
He is my dearest Friend.
When sickness comes to weaken me,
To bring my head down,
I call upon my mighty God;
Into His arms I go.
When circumstances threaten
to rob me of my peace;
He draws me close unto His breast,
Where all my strivings cease.
When my heart melts within me,
and weakness takes control;
He gathers me into His arms,
He soothes my heart and soul.
The great "I AM" is with me.
My life is in His hand.
The "Son of the Lord" is my hope.
It’s in His strength I stand.
I refuse to be defeated.
My eyes are on my God;
He has promised to be with me,
As through this life I trod.
I give God thanks in everything.
My eyes are on His face;
The battle’s His, the victory mine;
He’ll help me win the race.
D. He will equip you to carry out His will
1. 1 Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is he that calleth you, who also will do it.”
2. God will never call you to do something without faithfully giving you the strength to complete the task. God is faithful to equip us with all we need to serve him
3. Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
4. When the call for service comes, too often we give the excuse of weakness, inability, or lack of training. Christians fail to count on the omnipotence of God to take their small talents and use them for the accomplishment of His purposes. D. L. Moody told the story of a passenger on an Atlantic steamer who lay in his bunk during a raging storm with a severe case of seasickness. Suddenly he heard the cry, "Man overboard!" "May God help that poor fellow," he prayed, "but there’s nothing I can do." Then he thought, "I can at least put my lantern in my small window," and with an effort he did so. The man was finally rescued. In recounting the story the next day, he said, "I was going down in the darkness for the last time when someone put a light in a porthole. It shone on my hand, and a sailor in the lifeboat grabbed it and pulled me in." Weakness is no excuse for not putting forth the little strength we have. Who can tell how God will work? (1 Corinthians 1:27) - copied
E. He will come again
1. John 14:3 “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.”
2. 2 Peter 3:3-4 “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and 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.”
3. Canon Liddon once said: "If Christ is not coming, we might as well lock the west door of this cathedral and throw the key into the river." In other words, Christianity would be proved false and all its lights and hopes would have faded, its great music quenched.
4. Revelation 22:20 “He which testifies these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”
