This is Larry Jones. You are listening to the Grace and Glory Hour of the Dyer Baptist Church with our co-pastors David M. Atkinson and Dr. Lee Atkinson. We are coming to you from Dyer, Indiana. Our prayer is that you will be strengthened by the Word today. Now, here is our pastor. Attribute of God we're studying this morning is faithfulness, as we've been singing about. Such a joy to consider and sing about God's faithfulness. Strong's definition of faithfulness is really long. Let me share just a few highlights of it with you. He says, to be strong is to be firm or permanent, or not strong, that's his name. To be faithful is to be firm. or permanent, it means to be true or certain. It means to be of long continuance, steadfast, sure, trusty. I like that word, don't you, by trusty and verified. God is faithful and he is all of those things. He is strong, he is sure, he is steadfast, he is trusty. As we pile up those adjectives, can you think of anything else it is? The longer the list of adjectives gets, the fewer things we can think of that are true and trustworthy and justified and veritable. Alexander McLaren said that faithful, like most Hebrew words, has a picture in it. It's a very picturesque language. And he says it means that something that can be leaned on or builded on. He says the word faithful means you can lean on it. You can put your weight on it. You can build on it. Construction in our modern world fascinates me. I think probably all guys from the time we're two years old with our first dump truck are fascinated with construction, aren't we? And this last summer or two, I've been watching a construction project down in Pensacola. There's a bridge down there called the Pensacola Bay Bridge. And it carries about 50,000 cars a day. It's three miles long. And I've been on that bridge when traffic was messed up because it's kind of narrow. There's no place to pull off if you run out of gas or if your car breaks down. So if a car stalls. the whole lane gets backed up all the way. So I've been on that bridge when there's three miles worth of cars sitting on top of that bridge. And you think, well, I hope they engineered it for the weight of three miles worth of cars sitting on this bridge. Well, this bridge is about 55 feet wide, which is, I think, probably about the width of our auditorium here. I think our auditorium is 60 feet wide. And it's 50 feet above the water. And again, you can think of our building, if you go down to ground level, the top of our building I think is somewhere around that 50 foot mark. So the bridge is as wide as this auditorium, and it's as tall as this building above the water. pretty amazing structure. Well, it was built in 1960, and nothing lasts forever. So the Department of Transportation down there has decided it's time to build a new bridge over the Pensacola Bay. So as you drive over that bridge, you're able to, and they're building it right beside the old bridge, which is right beside the bridge from 1930. So there's gonna be three bridges in a row, 1930, 1960, and 2020. And so as you're driving over the 1960 bridge, you can watch them building the 2020 bridge and it is fascinating. You have these huge, because how do you build on water? So they have these huge barges and ships with cranes and rigging for ironworks and everything else that you think of for building a building, only it floats on Pensacola Bay. And I'm always fascinated by how they ram those iron beams down and they form the concrete and they build this massive structure for a three mile span, and definitely there's bridges longer than that, but I'm familiar with this one. Three mile span, the new one's going to be much wider and holding all these cars up for decades at a time. That's something you can build on. That's something you can lean on. The strength of steel and concrete when properly engineered and put together is truly amazing. Whenever we get on that bridge, we're saying, I believe that this concrete and iron can be trusted. I think this concrete and steel will be faithful to hold me one more time across Pensacola Bay. But eventually, they wear out. I'm so glad this morning that God is not like that. He was around long before 1930, and he'll be there much longer after the 2020 bridge is no longer trustworthy. God is completely and utterly faithful. Because God is faithful, that means he's consistent, he's reliable, he's constant. I want to share with you a few observations from Alexander McLaren about God's faithfulness. He had a wonderful outline on this text just as I was looking at a verse in Deuteronomy. And so I'm going to just kind of share that with you and hope it'll be a blessing to you. First of all, Alexander McLaren says that God is faithful and in his faithfulness, it presents him as obligated to us. Now, I don't know about you, but I kind of cringe at the idea of God being obligated. God is not obligated by some external force, but God, because of his faithfulness, has chosen to obligate himself to us. God has committed himself to us, just as if you commit yourself to somebody with a promise, you have obligated yourself to do what you said you would do. God in that way is obligated to us, and McLaren points out three ways. First of all, He's obligated as our creator. 1 Peter 4.19 says God is a faithful creator. God made us, and He will be faithful to sustain us and care for us. Think about anything that is yours that you have to care for. This has been an interesting summer for us and wildlife. I've already alluded to this before. The greys have donated to our family a baby praying mantis. Did you know they came as babies? They do. They can be about the size of your fingernail, and they get the size of your head. Scary looking bugs, aren't they? And they just freeze, and they have these eyes, and you don't know what they're thinking. And then they, vroom. grab things and kill them and eat them. Vicious little animals. Well, we have a baby praying mantis. I think he's a teenage praying mantis now. He's growing up quickly. But the thing is, when you got a baby praying mantis, you have to feed it. You are obligated, Chase, to be faithful to that praying mantis. which makes it interesting because you can't just give them a leaf to eat. They're predators. So that means you have to get them bugs to eat. Well, you can go hunting in your own yard and catch the bug and bring it into the praying mantis, or you can take the easy way out and go to the pet store and say, I want a dollar's worth of crickets. And they'll give you about seven or eight crickets. But the problem with that is, you can't give all the crickets to the praying mantis at once. We did that once, accidentally. Don't tell the Grays. We were trying to dump one cricket in, and the whole container dumped in. And that praying mantis had a very good night that night, because they were all gone. But you're supposed to just give them one at a time, and that means you have to keep the rest of the crickets for a while. So now we're not only keeping praying mantises, we're keeping crickets. And you have to feed the crickets so that they can feed the praying mantises. So Chase also has to be faithful to the crickets so that he can be faithful to the praying mantis. And you have to feed the crickets and then feed the praying mantis. He's not the creator of them, but he is the responsible party. They are his creatures. And he is obligated to care for them. How much more is God going to care for us because he created us? just while I'm telling nature stories, we also have been given an egg for a caterpillar to become a monarch. And so we had this milkweed leaf with an egg attached to it, just this tiny little speck of, you wouldn't even notice it. And now it hatched. And there was this tiny, tiny, I'm not kidding you, like less than a centimeter long caterpillar on this milkweed leaf. And he eats like crazy. And he's getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And someday he'll be probably about this long and be all nice and fat and juicy. And if we don't decide to feed him to the praying mantis, he will crystallize and then become a butterfly. But we have to take care of even this caterpillar, because he needs fresh leaves all the time. And we are obligated as the owners of these creatures to care for them. And when 1 Peter tells us that God is a faithful creator, God's not just going to create us and then leave us to our own devices. God's not just going to create us and hope things work out. God is our creator. And Colossians tells us he's our sustainer. I'm thankful for his faithfulness. Number two, McLaren says God's faithfulness is his obligation to us because of his call upon us. Let me just read to you for a moment. He says, God will do all that is imposed on him by his act of calling. He cannot begin without completing. There are no abandoned mines. There are no half-hewn stones in his quarries. And this, because of the divine nature is inexhaustible in power and unchangeable in purpose. I sometimes start things that I don't finish. You ever been there? Are there things in your garage that testify to that? I started a woodworking project probably over 10 years ago. I wanted to build a checkerboard table out of barn wood. And I got a lot of the construction done. We were trying to design it ourselves and put it together. I just thought that would be a cool thing. I always played checkers with my grandpa. He was a farmer. So make a barn wood checkerboard table. And I still have all the pieces stored neatly in my garage. But I can't play checkers on it. Well, that's because either I didn't have the know-how how to make it work, or I didn't have the character to finish what I started. And aren't you glad for the fact that God doesn't have that problem? God knows how to finish what he started. I may not be able to figure out how my legs and tabletop are supposed to fit together, but God knows how it's all supposed to fit together. I may get lazy and not want to finish what I started, but God never does. God's faithful to complete what He started. 1 Corinthians 1.9 says, God is faithful by whom ye were called. God is not going to start something and say, hey, I want you to be in my family. I want you to be my child. I want you to enter into this process called sanctification, whereby you are going to be made to look like Jesus. God's not going to call you to that and then say, oh, you're kind of slow in turning out like Jesus, so I'm going to give up on you. Boy, I had no idea what a challenge this person was going to be. I quit. God's not going to be like that. He will be with us by nature of his calling. As I was thinking about that, I was reminded of my high school soccer coach. His name was Max Schuyler. And he was the soccer coach over at Oak Forest Christian Academy. He actually was filling the position after the coach before him left for whatever reason, I don't know why. He had not been the coach, but they needed a coach, and so he stepped in. And Mr. Schuyler, he had a good knowledge of basketball and soccer, but he wasn't like he set out for his life's calling to be coach. But as I think back to Coach Schuyler, I'm thankful for him. Because when we had to practice out in the hot sun, In August, he was there. And when we weren't such good team members, he didn't walk off and leave us on the field. And when we won games, he didn't take all the credit for himself. When we lost games, he didn't say, I guess we'll just wait for next year. Not only was he our coach, Mr. Schuyler was our bus driver. So he would teach history and government. I think he had some janitorial responsibilities at the school. Then he would stay after school and coach us till 5 o'clock, 5.30, whatever it was. If we had an away game, he'd get in the bus, make sure the bus was ready. He'd drive us to the game, coach the game, get back in the bus, drive us home, get back late at night. On one occasion, there were quite a few spitwads to clean up. I'm not sure how they got there. Mr. Schuyler was always there. Practice, bus rides, games, wins, loses, good seasons, bad seasons. He didn't call us to be a soccer team and then say, good luck, go kick the ball. He was there all the way. This is how you should have done it. This is what you're doing right. You need to pass it here. You need to have this formation. He had called us into being as a soccer team, and he was with us all the way through. What a small picture of the faithfulness of our God, who has called us to be heirs and join heirs with Christ. And 1 Corinthians 1.9 says, God is faithful by whom you are called. 1 Thessalonians, turn to this one. I've been moving quickly, but I want you to turn to 1 Thessalonians 5, because it's close to our next reference, and you can get two in a row, okay? 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, God is faithful Faithful to us, He has obligated Himself as Creator. He has obligated Himself by His call on our lives. 1 Thessalonians 5, 23 says, The very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God, your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it. I mean, I think we all like the idea of being preserved till the day of Jesus Christ. But it's not up to me. It's the one who called me who's going to do it. That should encourage us, because if it were up to me and my faithfulness, I don't think I'd make it. Turn then quickly over to 2 Timothy 1. Second Timothy chapter one, God has obligated himself to us by his call on our lives. There's no half-hewn stones in his quarry. He finishes his job. Second Timothy chapter one, verse 12. For the witch cause, I also suffer these things. Nevertheless, says Paul, I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that he is able to keep that which I've committed unto him. Again, it's until that day. Paul says, there may be some things I don't know, and I may have my weak moments, but I know whom I have believed. I know who I've trusted. I know who I have committed myself unto. And I know that he's faithful to keep me until that day. God has obligated himself to us by his call on our lives and he will finish what he started. Have you ever had some not so sanctimonious moments? Maybe you weren't living as you should be as a Christian. You think, I'm never gonna make it. Well, if it was up to you, probably not. Aren't you glad that our ultimate salvation is not up to us? It's up to the Lord. Finally, from McLaren, he says, God has obligated himself to us by his spoken word. And this is a beautiful thought. He says, the fact that God has spoken to us is kind of a, you have to presuppose that when you talk about his faithfulness. We saw in the message, I think Wednesday night, a reference to dumb idols. And it's not dumb as in stupid or ignorant, it's dumb as in lacking the ability to speak. If you think about a statue that people worship, it cannot talk to its worshipers, correct? But God has talked to us. God has spoken to us through the prophets and by his son. And in speaking to us, he will now be faithful to the word that he has spoken. The whole plan of God is predicated upon His speaking and communicating to us. And what He has spoken, He will do. Remember in a recent sermon on God's attributes, we saw the passage in Numbers, where the pathetic prophet Balaam says that God is not a man that He should lie. If He said it, He's gonna do it. We know that God has committed Himself through covenants and promises. The false gods never did that. Think about that. What did Zeus ever promise to anybody? Zeus never made any promises because Zeus isn't real and Zeus didn't talk. Think about any statue in an Eastern religion that people bow down before. Those statues have never spoken. The ancient Egyptian worship of snakes and the Nile and all the other things that they worship, the Nile never promised them anything. And so the Nile wasn't obligated to them. But God promised us things, hasn't he? We sang, standing on the promises. God has obligated himself to us by his word, by speaking to us. And he will be faithful to perform the things that he has said. Come back to Deuteronomy 7. Deuteronomy chapter 7. This is a strong verse reminding us that God will be faithful to us. He has obligated Himself to us by virtue of speaking to us His Word, His promises, and His covenants. His covenant to Israel, His covenant to David, Moses, Noah, Adam, His new covenant. Deuteronomy 7, 9, Know therefore that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love Him. and keep his commandments to 1,000 generations. God is faithful to 1,000 generations. God is the faithful God. He's given a covenant, he has obligated himself, and he will keep it. God's obligated as creator, he's obligated as having spoken to us, and he's obligated as having called us to himself. Now, as I mentioned, those are three points from Alexander McLaren. So that was his sermon, and it doesn't count against my time. You can start your clocks now. I was so blessed by those, I had to share them with you. I do want to just quickly share a few other observations with you about God's faithfulness that I hope will help to sustain and carry you this week. What are you looking to for your fuel, for your dependence? What are the iron girders and the concrete pillars that are holding up the bridge of your life? If it's anything but God, You're on shaky ground. But if you are leaning on, if you are building on the faithfulness of God, everything's gonna be okay. Everything's going to be good. I'd like to remind us, first of all, that the cycles of the sun and moon should remind us of God's faithfulness. Would you turn to Jeremiah 33? Jeremiah 33. I really have grown to love our geography where we live here in Northwest Indiana. There's so much to enjoy here. You have Lake Michigan and the dunes. You have the farmland with its beautiful shades of green. You have the trees and the hardwood forests down a little south. And if you're into the city scene, it's not long to Chicago. I've really grown to appreciate Northwest Indiana. But one of the things that I think we can all kind of make fun of are the sometimes gray, cloudy days that we get. certain seasons of the year, it's like the sky is pea soup or something, right? It's gray and you can't see the sun for days. And then after you've had 10 days of gray, there's this bright yellow ball in the sky and you squint and you shield your eyes and you say, what is that thing? It seems familiar, but I don't remember. You remember those times? Even, however, in Northwest Indiana with our gray skies, we know that there has never been a day that the sun didn't rise. Because even when the cloud cover is there, the sun is behind it and some light filters its way through. I've enjoyed this summer especially looking at the moon. Just a couple nights ago, it was one of those fingernail moons, you know what I'm talking about, the fingernail moon, where the moon is here and the sun is here and so all you see is just a tiny rim of reflection. And it's just, it's beautiful. And even when I can't see it, there's a moon there every night, and there's a sun there every day. Listen to how God put it in Jeremiah chapter 33, verse 20. Jeremiah 33, 20. Thus saith the Lord, if ye can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, that there should not be day and night in their season, Then may also my covenant be broken with David, my servant, that he should not have a son to reign upon his throne. And with the Levites, the priests, my ministers." God says, my promise to David might not come true. My obligation to David I might not fulfill. That is, if you can stop the sun from rising and the moon from rising. But as sure as the sun and the moon will rise, I will keep my promise to you. Every time you wake up and there's any kind of brightness in the sky, be reminded that God is faithful. You're all going through tough times. I couldn't begin to list everything that everybody's going through. But in the midst of that, remember God's faithfulness to you. And if there's a sun in the sky, God's gonna keep his covenants. He is not gonna let you go. He will never let you down. And every time you get up and see that sunshine, that God's going to be faithful to keep his covenant. Every time you look up and see a bright moon, or a fingernail moon, or a waxing gibbous moon, say God is faithful, and he will not forsake his covenants. This idea of connecting the cycles of day and night to God's faithfulness is also in Lamentations 3, perhaps one of the most famous passages on God's faithfulness. When you turn to Lamentations chapter 3, This was also mentioned earlier in our series on God's attributes, but so worth repeating. But remember what the book of Lamentations is. It's Jeremiah's weepings and crying out after the destruction of Jerusalem. He's just watched his hometown get sacked by the Babylonian Empire after he predicted it would happen. He's now grieving that it has happened and it's as if he's sitting up on Mount of Olives looking down on the rubble of the city of Jerusalem and he's crying out and pouring out his heart in beautiful poetry. and sadness for what has happened. And the majority, the first part of Lamentations chapter 3 is talking about how God has judged them, how God has punished them for their sin. And then there's this shift in perspective when we come to around verse 21. Jeremiah is thinking about the severity of God's judgment, and then in 21, Jeremiah is reminded, Lamentations 3.21, This I recall to mind, therefore have I hope. It's almost as if the smoke is still rising from the burning gates of the city. The rancor hangs over the whole metropolis. And yet, Jeremiah says, I have hope because I just remembered something. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul. Sounds like Paul, doesn't it? Therefore will I hope not in my own ability or my strength, resourcefulness, or resilience. I will hope in Him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeketh Him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. God's faithfulness here again is linked to the sun coming up every morning. Every new morning, God has mercy for us because he's faithful. Just like he was faithful to you yesterday, when the sun comes up tomorrow, he'll be faithful again. Whatever uncertainty, whatever challenges, whatever difficulties you face, if there's a new day, there's new mercies. God is faithful. Focus on him, hope in him, rejoice in him, even in the darkest of circumstances. This leads us to observe that God's faithfulness, number two, is the assurance of his mercy and forgiveness. Okay, God's faithfulness should be something we think of when we see His faithfulness in the cycles of day and night. And Limitations 3 specifically links God's faithfulness to His mercy. And it's not the only passage that does so. A number of passages, Old and New Testament, link God's faithfulness to His mercy. And before we look at those passages, I want to talk about why that's important. If God's mercy, if his forgiveness to us were dependent on my faithfulness, I'd be in big trouble. I would be in a world of hurt. I didn't have to replay the history of my own life long to come to an example. It was Friday morning. Friday, I'm trying to take as a day off, family day and so forth as we go through this summer season. So Friday, we were gonna go blueberry picking. out of Michigan City, which by the way, they still had great blueberries. It was fantastic. We got like over 30 pounds of blueberries. If you see my skin kind of turning a shade, you'll know that we've had a lot of good blueberries. Well, anyhow, we were on our way out there and we thought that since we were going to have all these healthy blueberries, we should balance that and stop at Munster Donut to have a balanced diet, right? Isn't that what they say you're supposed to do? Anyhow, as we were there in the parking lot, I got a phone call. I don't always answer the phone on Fridays, but it was our locksmith. And I'd been trying to get in touch with him for a while, and we need some stuff for the renovation downstairs. And I thought, I got to talk to him, because I need this stuff that he's supposed to be supplying for us. Our locksmith happens to be a believer. Wonderful testimony. We have good fellowship when we talk. And as we were talking, he's asking how our church is doing and talking about their situation. And I waxed really spiritual for a while. And I talked to him about how during the uncertainty of coronavirus and so forth, we need to not be worried about the ups and downs and all these details. But we need to be focused on loving God and loving each other. And I was just being very, very spiritual and feeling extremely hypocritical. because I had just scolded one of our kids and hadn't done it in the amount of love that I should have done it. And I realized how I am so unfaithful. This idea that I'm sharing with our locksmith on the phone was something the Lord had impressed on my heart just a day or two before. And here I am not practicing what I'm preaching. I am so unfaithful. And I had to apologize to her. And if my faithfulness, if my goodness were the determiner of God letting me into heaven, forgiving me, allowing me to have eternal life, my ship would be sunk. Anyone else on the boat I'm on? Yeah. I'm so glad that scripture clearly tells us, hear this, that getting eternal life is not dependent on your good deeds outweighing your bad deeds. Hallelujah. Because a lot of times, when people say that, you know, I think I've done more good things than bad things in this life. The problem is, we're kind of gentle to ourselves. And we think we do more good deeds than we do. And we don't realize how many bad deeds we do. We don't remember how proud we are, and how selfish we are, and how lazy we are. Those sins of the heart that just mount up. And so I say, my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. Ah, no they don't. And that's why we can be thankful that our forgiveness and God's mercy is inextricably woven to His faithfulness, not ours. Lamentations 3, 22 says, it's of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. And verse 23 says, great is thy faithfulness. Now look at Psalm 36, verse five. Psalm 36, verse five, again, links these Things God's mercy and his faithfulness Psalm 36 5 While you're turning there, I'll Read to you a another psalm that's been put to music It says I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever with his mouth. I will make known by faithfulness I'm going to make known your faithfulness. I'm going to be singing of your mercies. Psalm 36 5 says, thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens. Thy faithfulness reaches unto the clouds. Mercy and faithfulness are connected in Lamentations 3, Psalm 36, Psalm 89. And I'm so thankful 1 John 1 9 in the New Testament does the same. You remember that reference, 1 John 1 9? Does that sound familiar? If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins. His faithfulness is linked to his forgiveness of our sins. Be encouraged. I'm human enough to know some of the lies that Satan likes to use. And I think he recycles his lies. And I think some of the lies he's told me, he's probably told some of you. Like that sin, he can't forgive. Yeah, okay, but he forgave you the first time and the second time, and maybe he forgave you seven times, but he's not going to forgive you anymore. You ought to have learned your lesson by now. Don't raise your hand, but has Satan ever whispered that lie to you? He can't forgive you anymore. Listen, his forgiveness is not linked to your faithfulness, it's linked to his faithfulness. His faithfulness is to the clouds and his mercy is in the heavens. They're both up there. It doesn't matter how dark the thing is you've done, or how many times you've done it. He is faithful to forgive our sins. Hallelujah, what a Savior. Number three, I'd like us to see that because God is faithful, we can escape temptation. 1 Corinthians 10.13 is worth turning to. It's also familiar, but if you haven't noted it in your Bible in some special way, I'd encourage you to do that. 1 Corinthians 10, 13 teaches us that because God is faithful, we can escape temptation. Do you ever feel like you have to sin? Well, we're not gonna be sinlessly perfect, so we have to sin. Well, we don't. 1 Corinthians 10 tells us that God's faithfulness guarantees that we can do right when we're tempted to do wrong. Anybody tempted to do wrong yesterday? Been tempted to do wrong today? Been tempted to do wrong during this sermon? Brothers and sisters. We're tempted to do wrong, and I'm thankful to say that because God is faithful, we don't have to. 1 Corinthians 10.13 says, There hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. Paul is here comparing our sins to the sins of the children of Israel way back in the book of Numbers. And he says, look, the temptations that we face are just like they've been facing for hundreds, yea, barely thousands of years. And the temptation that you face is what everybody faces. You're tempted to yell at your kids, guess what? So are all parents. You're tempted to be unkind to your spouse, guess what? So are all married people. You're tempted to complain about your boss, guess what? So are all employees. You're tempted to be unkind to your employees? Guess what? So are all employers. Temptations are common to man, but no temptation has taken you. But what God is faithful, who will not suffer or allow you to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. God's faithfulness promises that you can always do right. As I thought about this, I realized that when I succumb to temptation, when I sin, I am pledging allegiance to something other than God. His faithfulness, okay, has promised a deliverance, a way of escape. His faithfulness says that I can do right, I can say no to temptation. On the other side of that, when I sin, it's because I'm saying, I want or need this thing, it will give me something that God and obedience will not give me. Simple illustration, imagine a young person in a convenience store being tempted to steal a bubble gum. And they know they shouldn't, they know it's wrong, but the desire is there. Now, if they give in to the temptation, consciously or otherwise, their thought process is something like this. I need that bubblegum. I want that bubblegum. That bubblegum will bring me happiness and satisfaction. That bubblegum and the fact that I stole it will impress my friends, and I will be therefore climbing the status ladder of our gang. If I steal this gum, it will provide for me something that I need, something that if I do not steal the bubblegum, I will not have. In other words, I can have God. I can sin, steal, and say this bubble gum will give me something that God can't. I'm pledging my allegiance to the stolen bubble gum. I'm saying God's not faithful to me, but the gum will be faithful to me. The gum will satisfy me. The gum will give me what I need. Now you fill in the blank with your sin, your temptation. If I give that person a piece of my mind, I will receive something that I need. When God says that we are to speak edifying words, and I have a choice to make, and in that split second of temptation, I have to decide, is God going to be faithful and give me what I need, even if I don't speak these unkind words? Or do I have to speak these unkind words to get what I need? It comes down to that. Who's going to be faithful to you? God? Or that intimidation? That unifying word of knowledge? Or that thing that you steal? Or the way that you prop yourself up with boasting and arrogance? That will give me what I need. I can't trust God. I have to put myself forward. When I sin, I'm acting as if something else will be more faithful to me than God will be. What an accusation. God is faithful to us. He will provide what we need. Furthermore, He will provide a way of escape from that temptation. And if I trust Him, if I say, God, I don't need that thing. I don't need that. I don't need to click on that web page. I don't need to drink that thing. I don't need to swallow that thing. I don't need to eat that thing. I don't need to give that person a piece of my mind. I don't need to go to that place. I don't need any of those things. Will you help me? Lord, I trust you. I believe that you will give me what I need and you will allow me to carry on without this thing. God is faithful and will provide a way of escape from all of our temptations. Well, I'll close this morning with this brief instruction. We've seen that the attribute of God is faithfulness. He is faithfulness. He's leanable. He's buildable. He's trustworthy. So what should my attitude be? How should I respond to His faithfulness? Because God is faithful, I should have faith in Him. I should trust Him. Turn to Hebrews 10, 23. Hebrews 10, 23. I know the teenagers are studying Hebrews on Sunday nights. Are you to chapter 10 yet? 13, okay. So I'm sure the teenagers already know this. Hebrews chapter 10, verse 23. Because God is faithful, we should have faith in him. We should trust him at all times and in all situations. Hebrews 10, 23. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering. The first century Jewish Christians were being tempted to abandon simple faith in Christ and to go back to trusting in the rituals of Judaism. They had relatives who were still in Judaism. They had memories of the things that they had done all of their lives. And they were wondering sometimes, can I truly be saved without those things? And the author of Hebrews was urging them, hold fast to the profession of your faith. Trust in Christ alone. Because He's better than all of those things. He is the full body and they were just the shadow. He says, hold fast onto faith in Christ because, what does it say in parentheses? Hold fast the profession of our faith without ravering, for He is faithful, promised. Our response to His faithfulness should be faith and trust in Him. because God is faithful, we can trust Him. A final reference, I'm leaving one out, but come back now to Romans 4. Hebrews 11 and Romans 4 go together in that they talk about the faith of Abraham and Sarah in God's promise to them to give them a son. as a little rabbit trail, I'll tell you that I'm still thankful for this illustration of faith because both Romans and Hebrews talk pretty highly of Abraham and Sarah's faith. But I've read Genesis, how about you? I mean, Sarah laughed, right? Hence the name Isaac. She's like, ah, I'm gonna have a son. That's a good one. That's Sarah's faith. And then there's Abraham. How is his faith? Oh, she's my sister. Twice. Then there was the whole issue with Hagar. So I want us to understand that Abraham and Sarah, as examples of our faith, were not perfect. Even in their trusting God, it's not as if they never stumbled. But they didn't stay down. At the end of the day, all in all, they said, we believe God's promise. And yes, there's moments when I struggle, and yes, there's moments when it doesn't make sense, and when I can't, I don't have that settled peace. But at the end of the day, I'm gonna stake my life on the promises of God. Ladies and gentlemen, your faith doesn't have to be some kind of miraculous, polished faith that's without its hiccups. even Abraham and Sarah struggled. But in Hebrews 11, it talks about Sarah's faith and how she judged God faithful. And in Romans 4, Paul talks about Abraham's faith in that same occasion. And it says, he's 420, Romans 420. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God. and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. That's the phrase that first caught my attention. What God promised, he was able to perform. There hath not failed one word of all his promise. and everything that God has promised you, as I look across our congregation, the number of people facing surgeries and medical tests and uncertainty, God's promises are sure. So I was arrested by that, but then also, I noticed that it said that, in verse 20, when Abraham believed God, it gave God glory. So God is faithful, so we should have faith in Him, and when we do, that gives Him glory. So what does that do when we don't have faith in Him? When we don't trust Him? When we do worry, when we do fret, when we do disobey, when we do give in to temptation because we think that thing will be more faithful to us than God will be to us. What does that do for God? Does that give Him glory? It does not. So I'm wanting to encourage all of us this morning to have faith in God, to trust His Word. to take a deep breath, to cast your care upon Him, because He cares for you and He will work it all out. He is reliable. And when you do that, you give Him glory. And when you don't do that, you don't give Him glory. Because God is faithful, we can trust Him, which brings Him glory. And that's only appropriate because He is faithful. The people in your life, even the ones that you love most dearly, you can only trust so much. But God, you can trust completely because he's faithful. Thank you for joining us today. We'd love to hear from you. Our email address is GraceGlory7 at Juno.com. GraceGlory7 at Juno.com. Pastor David M. Atkinson also has a ministry on Facebook and invites you to connect with him there. Now, until the next time, remember to walk softly with the Lord.