Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2005 : August 7, 2005

Theme: The Fruit of the Spirit -- Faithfulness

Church year occasion: Pentecost 12

This morning I want to start you off with a little quiz. Can God make something out of nothing? Of course he can; he made the entire universe out of nothing. Okay, how about this question: Can God make a mountain fall into dust with just a thought? Absolutely. Can God strike someone down dead? Sure, he does it all the time. It isn't the Fates of Greek Mythology who decide when a person's life comes to an end -- God decides that. Can God make someone alive? Of course. Our faith is based on God raising his Son from the dead to life, to prove his victory over sin and death and the devil, and God's Spirit has made Christians alive spiritually when he brings them to faith in Jesus. So maybe there's one last question: Is there anything God can't do?

True or False: God can do anything.

How many of you think God can do anything? Well, let's look at the Bible and see. In Matthew 19:26, Jesus said, "With God all things are possible."

It sounds like that is a true statement. But I'm going to tell you today that there are some things that God can't do. In Numbers 23:19, we are told, "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?"

So, one thing that God can't do is lie. That means that God is faithful. Faithfulness is the fruit of the Spirit we are looking at today.

Being faithful simply means this: you are a person of your word. Years ago, if two people had an argument and one of them said, "I give you my word," it was about the strongest promise you could make. No one was supposed to break their word. If you did, you were worse than despicable. And if we are going to look at the ultimate being who keeps his Word, we have to look at God. If we want to look at what being truly faithful is, we have to look at God. God never goes back on his Word. God can't go back on his Word -- it is one thing that God can't do. Once we see God's faithfulness on display, only then can we hope to understand what God means when he asks us to be faithful and gives us the ability to do that as a fruit of the Spirit.

When we think of God's faithfulness, what comes to mind? What examples from Scripture come to mind? How about the first promise God ever made? In Genesis 2:17 God said to Adam, who was the only person on the earth at the time, "You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die." Did God keep that promise? Absolutely. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit of that tree, they represented the entire human race. When they disobeyed God, they cast the entire human race into sin; they were separated from God spiritually; and as a result, they would die physically. Why does Genesis 5 have a litany of "after so-and-so lived so-and-so many years, he died"? It showed that God was faithful to his promise of punishing sin with death.

The greatest example of this is in the Flood. Above all, the Flood account shows that God is faithful in punishing sin. God was so angry with the ungodliness of the world's inhabitants that he destroyed the people of the planet earth with a world-wide flood that covered the highest mountain on earth by 20 feet. By the way, was the highest mountain Mt. Everest? Who knows? Everest is the highest mountain today, but it may not have been before the flood. We can't even imagine the huge destructive power that God unleashed on the world. Mountains rose and valleys split apart when God destroyed the world in that flood. The destruction was complete. God's anger against the sins of man and man's refusal to repent -- to recognize and admit his wrong, and his failure to turn from his wrong -- burned hot. After it was all over, God made a promise to mankind that he would never again destroy the world and its inhabitants with such a universal flood. To remind us of that promise he put a rainbow in the sky. That rainbow to this day stands as proof of God's faithfulness. He never breaks a promise that he makes.

Bible readers know that God saved eight people from the destruction of the flood. Do you know why? It was because of another promise God had made. It was made to Adam and Eve after they directly disobeyed his command not to eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. A just and holy God rightfully could have sentenced those two and the entire human race to eternal separation from himself in hell with all its attendant horrors. But he didn't. Instead he made a promise -- this time to the devil. In Genesis 3:15 God said to Satan, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel." One of Eve's children would crush the power and might of Satan and save people from the punishment of their sins. It wasn't until thousands of years later, but on one silent, holy night, God kept his promise. Mary gave birth to a baby boy named Jesus. He looked like any ordinary child. But a chorus of angels testified differently. One of them said, "A Savior has been born for you, he is Christ the Lord."

This was the Christ promised so many years before by God. That child, no one less than God the Son in a human body, went on to do what Adam and every other human being had failed to do -- live according to God's will. Jesus did live according to God's will. Every action was holy. Every word he ever spoke was righteous and loving. Even when he called people to repentance, he was being kind so that they would turn from their sins. Even every single thought of Jesus was perfect. He was completely faithful to following God's will his entire life, not deviating from it in the slightest bit.

What a difference from you and me! The one thing that God requires of his people is faithfulness to God and his Word. God works in us through that Word to strengthen and sustain our faith. To expose us to the Word, God gives worship services, where a large part consists of Bible readings and discussion of his Word. He also gives Bible classes, Sunday School, daily devotions, the Lord's Supper -- all kinds of ways to be exposed to his Word and promises. No one is going to force you to attend these things. Your attendance will depend on your faithfulness. How faithful are you? Do you attend church when a church service is held? Do you read your Bible regularly? Do you study the Bible with fellow believers on Sunday or during the week? And here's the kicker -- even when we do all those things, do we always do them cheerfully and eagerly, or sometimes do we think: "Great, I have to go to church, or I have to go to Bible class or I have to read my Bible"? We all fall prey to that kind of thinking from time to time, some more than others. Oh, how faithless we can be! How slow we are to believe all God has said. How forgetful of what God has done for us in Christ. Remember: every time we have been faithless, Jesus was faithful. For every time we put God and God's will on the back burner, we should be condemned forever. But we're not. Why not? It's all because of Jesus. He never, ever, put God and God's will on the back burner. In fact, that's the very reason he came into this world. He came to fulfill God's will. And it was God's will to see his own Son live a perfect life and then suffer and die for sins he never even committed. Sins like apathy to God's Word and will. Sins that you and I have committed all too often. But through Jesus' death, he paid the price of hell owed by you and all sinners. Because of Christ, he promises to forgive us our sins committed this morning and throughout our lives. That's a promise he makes. "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved." (Acts 16:31) God is faithful. It says that several hundred times in the Bible, over and over. Believe him, trust him. He won't let you down.

Seeing Jesus on the cross shows us the greatest example of God's faithfulness. Where the flood shows that God is faithful in punishing sin, the cross shows without any doubt that God is faithful in forgiving sin. It means not only that God was faithful in keeping his Word of sending a Savior, but it also means that he was true to his Word of hating and punishing sin. But he punished sin in Jesus instead of us, and now Jesus' perfect life is credited to you. Heaven is yours. Forgiveness is yours. And now a new life of faithfulness to God is yours also. Seeing God's faithfulness to us on full display in Christ enables us and empowers us to show similar faithfulness to our God and to our fellow human beings. That's why, even in the worst circumstances and trials that the devil and the world and our sinful flesh can dish out to keep us from following God and his will, God gives us a promise that keeps us going. It is found in Revelation 2:10: "Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life."

How can we remain faithful to God? We can't. But God's Holy Spirit keeps us faithful as he works in our hearts through God's holy Word. If the flood showed us that God is faithful in punishing sin; if the cross showed God is faithful in forgiving sin, then the Holy Spirit shows us that God is faithful in releasing from sin and giving eternal life. The Bible describes the Holy Spirit who works through God's Word as having taken up residence in our hearts. How do we know he is there? When we look at the promises of God and trust those promises, we know the Spirit is in us. We also know the Spirit is in us when we see the fruits of the Spirit in our lives. The Bible describes the Holy Spirit being active in our hearts and is a down payment of his grace that assures us of his ultimate grace -- giving us heaven itself when he takes us from this earth.

But there is one thing we have to understand. God wants us to be faithful in hearing and studying his Word. But eternal life does not depend on how many times we attend church or read our Bibles. Eternal life doesn't depend on how faithful we are to God. But it does depend on how faithful God is to us. And that's good news because Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1:9, "God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful." No matter how faithless we can be to God, God remains faithful to us. What better reason do we have to read God's Word regularly, to have regular devotions, to speak about God at home with our families and with friends, to worship our God regularly and receive God's forgiveness in his sacrament of Holy Communion! It's what we need to remain faithful to our God as he works in us to believe in him and to live according to his will.

In having God's Spirit work in us through his Word, we will be more faithful stewards of what God has entrusted to us with regard to monetary blessings. We will be more faithful in our marriages. We will be more faithful employees as we strive to have a Christian work ethic. We will be more faithful in steering clear of the kind of entertainment that goes against God's will. In short, because we have a faithful God who shows his faithfulness to us at every turn, as God's people, we will show that same faithfulness to others. Then people will know us as those who don't just keep our word, but as those who keep God's Word in our lives. Amen.