Father God, we do thank you for the fellowship of the saints and for this time that we can gather together in the middle of the week to fellowship around your Word. We ask for your blessing upon our time. We pray that you would give us eyes to see and ears to hear and that your Spirit would speak to us this evening. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. As Tim said, we're continuing on in our God is for us series. If you haven't been with us, this is taken from Romans 8.31. If God is for us, who can be against us? And so what we've been doing each week is taking one of God's attributes and looking at how that is for us. Tonight, we'll be looking at God's attribute of faithfulness. If you start to think about it, we most commonly hear the word faithfulness with the negative prefix un. Unfaithfulness is rather commonplace today. You have unfaithfulness in marriage. One recent study that I saw reported that 41% of marriages, one or both spouses admitted to acts of infidelity, whether that's physical or emotional. We see unfaithfulness in business, particularly employees, something that, with my job at the police department, we deal with. Embezzlements are at an all-time high in the U.S. Experts predict that embezzlement will reach between 30 and 50 million this year. Now, embezzlement is when an employee steals from the employer. That's not counting what shoplifters and identity thieves will steal from the company. That's just from people who work for the company. We also see unfaithfulness in our government officials. It was just a couple of weeks ago that a four-term governor of Virginia he and his first lady were convicted on 14 counts of corruption. Basically, they were selling the office of the governor for lavish gifts and loans. I'm not sure I wasn't there, but I'm pretty certain that that was not part of his platform for his campaign to do that. And the church is not immune to this either. Just here in the last couple of years here in the metro area, we've had pastors of large local congregations who were involved in devastating acts of infidelity. One of them was unfaithful in the area of finances. You might recall that that one was played out in the media for some time. The other one was a pastor at the helm for 26 years before it was revealed that he was involved in infidelity with another staff member. Obviously, both of these scandals had devastating effects on their congregations. We also see pastors who are unfaithful to their call to preach the word, choosing rather to tickle ears. Unfaithfulness is one of the most prevalent sins of our day, but this really shouldn't surprise us, especially after sitting under the teaching of the first three chapters of Romans the last few months, right? Man is man, and this is the nature of man. It was this reality that led David to exclaim in Psalm 12. Save, O Lord, for the godly one is gone, for the faithful have vanished from among the children of man." My hope tonight is that as we lift our eyes from all the unfaithfulness in the world, we look up and we look at the faithfulness of God that will be refreshed and encouraged. So, just to give you a brief road map of where we're going, we're going to look at God's faithfulness declared, God's faithfulness demonstrated, and then God's faithful dealings with us. If you would turn your Bibles to Exodus chapter 34. Just kind of give you a little background on this in case you haven't been in Exodus for a while. This is later in the Exodus account. This is after Moses had led the children of Israel up out of Egypt. And they'd come to Mount Sinai. Moses had been up on the mountain for 40 days. And while he was up on the mountain, the children of Israel, led by Aaron, had the old incident with the golden calf. Moses comes down. He discovers this. And the Bible says his anger burned hot. He threw down the tablets. And he ground up the golden calf. And we pick up the story here. We'll begin in verse 1. The Lord said to Moses, cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Be ready by the morning and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain. So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first, and he rose early in the morning and went up on Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands. forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and the fourth generation." This is an amazing scene in which God himself descends in a cloud on Mount Sinai and in effect declares a sermon to Moses on the name of the Lord. revealing what he is like. He is declaring to Moses all the perfections of his character. One of the things I really love about these verses is you can really see the gospel rooted in the character of God in this Old Testament passage, in these verses. Look at verse 6. It says, God is merciful. He's ready to forgive the sinner. God is gracious. He's kind and he's ready to bestow undeserved favor upon sinners. God is slow to anger. He's patient. He's long-suffering. He's giving the sinner plenty of time to repent. It says He's abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. God is abounding in love. Abounding is the idea of a cup that's full, and it's so full it's running over. God's abounding in love and faithfulness, but His love is united with His holiness and His justice. Look at verse 7. says he keeps steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but he will by no means clear the guilty. The guilty is someone who is still subject to God's wrath. If a man does not repent and comes to faith in Christ, then he's subject to God's wrath. And God says that he will by no means clear that man. As this verse illustrates, God's attributes are interwoven. You've heard some of the elders talk about that. kind of hard to distinguish because they're united and connected. Tonight we're going to try to narrow our focus to just the attribute of God's faithfulness. So what does God mean when he says he is abounding in faithfulness? Well, the Hebrew word for faithfulness is emet, and this word is translated a number of slightly different ways, all of which are encompassed in the attribute of God's faithfulness. It communicates the idea of trustworthiness. It's translated that way in Proverbs 221, people with integrity will inherit the land. Hebrews 6.18 says that it is impossible for God to lie. It also communicates the idea of truth or truthfulness. Psalm 146, blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord, his God who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, who keeps truth forever. Some translations will say, who keeps faith forever? It also communicates the idea of constancy or duration, and it's used that way in Isaiah 16. Then the throne will be established in steadfast love, and on it will sit in faithfulness in the tempt of David, one who judges and seeks justice and is swift to do righteousness. The idea here is perpetualness. And then finally, it's translated as faithfulness, and our English definition is fidelity, a strict adherence or performance of promises and vows. In Numbers 23, 19, it's used that way. God is not man that he should lie, or son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said, and will he not do it? Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfill it? God's faithfulness is one of the glorious perfections of his being. He is abounding in faithfulness. He is trustworthy. not only truthful, he is truth. He is constant and enduring. God is faithful in all things. He's faithful at all times. There is nothing in heaven or earth that could ever cause him to be unfaithful. When it comes to his promises, he never forgets. He never fails. He never falters. He never forfeits. And even if we are faithless with faith. God is faithful. God is faithful. And the reason for that is that he cannot deny himself. And we see in that verse, it's in 2 Timothy 2, that God is faithful first and foremost to himself, to his name and to his word. And I'm going to be throwing out a lot of scriptures. If you're a note taker, It's going to be best to just probably write them down. We won't, in the interest of time, have the time to get to all of these, so it might be best if you just listen. Ezekiel 36, 22, Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes." So you see, he's faithful to his name and he's also faithful to his word. Deuteronomy chapter 7, verse 7. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you. For you are the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery." Again, God is faithful to his name and to his word and we are the beneficiaries of that faithfulness. The attributor character trait of faithfulness, not just about God, It applies to man as well. It has a, I'll believe it when I see it, quality to it. Right? Faithfulness is something that you have to see in order to know that it's there. Suppose you were looking to fill a very trusted position and you were looking at somebody. Would you want to fill that position with somebody that you've just met and maybe interviewed for a few minutes? Or would you want to spend some time getting to know that person and observing them in a number of different situations and circumstances? Maybe even seeking out some people who know this person who could testify to their character, who could testify to their faithfulness before you would make that kind of a decision. While faithfulness is not specifically lifted in the qualifications for elders and deacons, similar to many of them in that sense. And that's why Paul said, referring to prospective deacons, let them also be tested first. Faithfulness, truthfulness, trustworthiness is something that has to be demonstrated if it is to be believed. And God has demonstrated his faithfulness to us. God has revealed himself to us primarily in three ways. He's revealed himself to us in his creation. He's revealed himself to us in his word, and he's revealed himself to us in his son, the word that became flesh, and he has demonstrated his faithfulness to us in all three of those. Romans 1.20 tells us that his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. The divine nature certainly then includes his attribute of faithfulness. Psalm 89 too, for I said steadfast love will be built up forever and the heavens you will establish your faithfulness. God first demonstrated his faithfulness to man in the heavens. Turn with me to Genesis chapter one. Genesis chapter 1, we begin reading in verse 14. And God said, let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years and let them be the lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth. And it was so. So God's talking about the sun and the moon and the stars here, the lights in the heavens. He created them and said that they would be to separate the day from the night and to give light on the earth. He also said that they would be for signs and for seasons. Before we consider what these things signify, I want to take just a few minutes to consider how the sun and the moon are for seasons. Passages like this, and there are many of them in the Bible, but maybe you haven't looked at this one quite this way before. I know I hadn't until I began to study for this lesson. I don't mind saying that this was a challenging assignment from our pastor to to get a topical study like this, and this was kind of a little nugget that I uncovered, and so I wanted to share it with you. I think that they are a great testimony to the divine inspiration of the scriptures, and really they demonstrate God's truthfulness and his trustworthiness. From the Hebrew perspective, the reference to seasons would have been, days and years, would have been their religious calendar. They mark time. with a lunar calendar, and so this would have been how they probably would have perceived this. Their calendar prescribed their times for worship, their times for the feasts and festivals. But from a creation standpoint, I think this is a very interesting passage. Astronomers have learned that the reason we have seasons on the earth is because the earth is tilted on its axis relative to its orbital plane. So the sun is here, the earth is here, and the Earth is tilted slightly on an axis, it's 23 degrees. So, the idea that the Earth moves around the Sun, you have one hemisphere that's pointed toward the Sun, and then a half an orbit later, right, a half a year later, that pole is pointing away from the Sun, right? And that creates our seasons. The astronomer Johannes Kepler was credited with discovering the axial tilt of the Earth in the early 1600s, but it was only in relatively recent decades that they discovered that this was the reason that we have our seasons. And one other thing that they discovered, I found very interesting, is they've learned that the gravitational forces of the Moon on the Earth is what keeps the Earth on its axis, because the Earth actually wobbles a little bit in its orbit, right? axial tilt will go from 22 to 24 degrees. Right now they say it's at 23.4 degrees, but without the moon, the earth would be much, the wobble would be much more pronounced. They believe that it would actually go to like 90 degrees, right, which would melt all the snow on the caps, and that the seasons would be crushingly hot and crushingly cold without the moon, And it really would make life almost uninhabitable on the earth. And so the amazing thing here is that God revealed this to Moses 4,000 years ago, that the sun and the moon would be for signs and for seasons. What a testimony to the divine inspiration of the scriptures. There's no way Moses could have known that unless the God who made heaven and earth revealed that to him. And like I said, there are many other passages like that in the Bible, but this was one that I had not looked at in that way. I wanted to share that with you. So, what did God mean when he said that Genesis 114, that the lights, the sun and the moon would be for signs? Now, no doubt many have used this passage as a launching pad for all kinds of errors. It's been a while, it's probably been like 10 or 15 years ago now. Some of you might remember the gospel in the Zodiac. And you had pastors preaching how the Zodiac constellations, that was preaching the gospel. And all kinds of special meanings were applied to each individual star. Although the heavens declare the glory of God, the heavens don't give us the details. God's Word is what gives us the details. And God's Word doesn't tell us to look in the heavens for the details. He gives us the details here. And so what He says about these things as signs we find here in His Word. Psalm 89, verse 37. Like the moon, it shall be established forever." The it here is the Davidic kingdom, i.e., the heavenly kingdom. The heavenly kingdom shall be established forever, like the moon, a faithful witness in the skies. The moon is a witness of that promise. And what does a witness do? A witness furnishes proof of something. We don't often think of the moon that way. I know I don't. When you look out up at the moon, I don't think of that as a as a witness to the promise that God has given to David and obviously by extension to us. We are the beneficiaries of the Davidic covenant, but we should look at it that way. God said that is a witness of his covenant, just like we do when we see a rainbow in the sky. We immediately know what that's referring to, but God's It says that the moon is a witness of his enduring covenant. In a world of constant change, the moon is the most constant, the most enduring, the most faithful thing that our human eyes can see. We look up at the moon and that's the same moon that Adam and Eve looked up to, right? And the same moon that the patriarchs looked up to throughout history. It's constant and it's enduring. We have another example. from creation. When God made the promise of the new covenant, Jeremiah 31, 33 says, I'll put my law within them and I'll write it on their hearts. He declared that his creation would be a sign, a witness to the certainty of its fulfillment. Jeremiah 31, 35. Thus says the Lord who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar. The Lord of hosts is his name. If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the Lord, then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever. And again, in Jeremiah 33, 25 and 26, thus does the Lord. If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David, my servant, and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them." How fixed is the order of heaven and earth? Well, I did a lot of research on that and I couldn't really find an answer, but I do know that they are able to predict with amazing accuracy solar and lunar eclipses. They can predict those down almost to the minute. That's how fixed that order is. And God says that that is a sign and a witness of His covenant, of the new covenant. God also demonstrates his faithfulness in his word. In Genesis 8, 21, he promised never again to strike down every living creature. He says, And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done while the earth remains seed time and harvest. Cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. Every year furnishes a fresh witness to this promise. Promise to Abram at the time and his descendants. Genesis 15. Then the Lord said to Abram, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted four hundred years. But I will bring judgment on the nation that they serve. and afterward they shall come out with great possessions. Fast forward 430 years to Exodus chapter 12 verse 40. The time that the people of Israel lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of 430 years on that very day all the hosts of the Lord went out from the land of Egypt. God's also demonstrated his faithfulness in the promise of the Messiah. Isaiah 714 very familiar verse. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the Virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Galatians 4, 4 and 5. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons. Concerning the promised Messiah, Alfred Edersheim, the Jewish scholar from the 1800s, who later came to faith in Jesus Christ. He's the author of the very lengthy work, Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah and others. He identified 456 Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. 456 fulfilled promises. What a demonstration of God's faithfulness. He sent his son in such a way that There was no way that we could mistake him. And he sent us down in such a way that an imposter could never fulfill all of those prophecies. And then we see God demonstrating his faithfulness in his dealings with us. How does God deal faithfully with us? Well, first and foremost, God is faithful to save. Romans chapter 3. We've just been in the last few weeks, maybe there for a few more weeks. Verse 21. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God, which is attested by the law and the prophets, has been disclosed, namely the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. So God is faithful to save. He's also faithful to forgive our sins. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all our unrighteousness. He's faithful. He's faithful as His witness in the sky. And He's just. His justice is upheld. He's faithful and He's just. His justice is upheld. because the penalty has been paid for the sin of all of those who've come to faith in Jesus Christ. Just like we looked at in Exodus chapter 34. He will not clear the guilty, but he's faithful to forgive to all those who come to faith in Christ. God is also faithful to not let us be tempted beyond what we are able to bear. 1 Corinthians 10, 13. No temptation is overtaking you that is not common to man. 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 also faithful to sanctify us and to discipline us. Revelation 319, those whom I love are reproved and disciplined, so be zealous and repent. Psalm 119, verse 75. I know a lord that your rules are righteous and in faithfulness you have afflicted me. And first Peter one verse six and seven if necessary you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith more precious than gold the parishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor the revelation of Jesus Christ right. Sometimes those things are necessary for us in order for God to accomplish his work in us and he is faithful. to bring those as well. He's also faithful to answer our prayers. Matthew chapter 7, verse 11. If you then who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him? God will always answer the prayer of His children. He will answer either the way that you've asked or He'll give you something better. Though it may not seem like it's better at the time, it will be better. So, in the words of Paul, and getting back to Romans 8, what shall we say to these things? God has given us many great promises. He's demonstrated His faithfulness to us, but are we living like we truly believe those promises? It's something that has to not only be confessed with the mouth, but it has to be confessed with our hearts. We have a few points of application. If we truly apprehend these truths, one, there will be no room for anxiety or worry or fear, even if we find ourselves in the midst of a dark providence. Anxiety is sin because it is a distrust of God. And God has abundantly demonstrated His faithfulness and His trustworthiness to us. Spurgeon said, when heaven and earth witness and the Lord himself swears, there remains no excuse for doubting and faith joyfully reposes in confident expectation. Faithfulness is one of God's communicable attributes. I think you've heard John talk about that a few weeks ago. Not all of God's attributes are communicable, meaning that we can't emulate them. Certainly we can't emulate omniscience or omnipresence or sovereignty, but we can emulate faithfulness. We actually are called to faithfulness, and faithfulness is one of the fruits of the Spirit. It's listed in Galatians. So, if we are truly apprehending, if we are truly trusting in the faithfulness of God, then there will be no room for anxiety, for fear, for worry, for doubt. Second point of application is these truths will also check our murmurings. Check our murmurings. God knows what is best for us and he's honored when we humbly submit to his providential care. Do you want to know how you can tell if somebody is truly trusting in the faithfulness of God or truly trusting in the sovereignty of God or the providence of God? Observe them when they're going through a trial. Observe them when they're going through that dark cloud of providence. See how they respond when things get tough. It's pretty easy to trumpet God's faithfulness when things are going good, you're cruising down the road, life's good, I'm at ease. It's easy to say, oh boy, God's faithful. It's not so easy to say that God's faithful when things get tough. When we find ourselves in that dark providence. That's what makes Jeremiah's words Lamentations, Chapter 3, so profound. Turn with me there. I think we've got some few minutes left here. Lamentations, Chapter 3, just to kind of bring you up to where we are in Lamentations, Chapter 3, Jerusalem and all that it has signified to the Jews. That was where the temple was and that was where their worship was and it signified the Lord's presence. All of that has been reduced to rubble. The temple was gone, the king was gone, the princes were gone. It says the gates of the city were sunk. Those who hadn't been killed or exiled, it says, were wandering the streets in search of bread. It says that the elders and the prophets of the city were fainting in the streets while they searched for bread. It's almost impossible for us to truly imagine the devastation here. Jeremiah says in chapter 2 verse 9, he says, the law is no more and the prophets find no vision from the Lord. So on top of all of that, right, the law is gone. The prophets aren't saying anything good. There's no vision from the Lord. And then it gets worse. In chapter 3 verse 8, he says, Do I call and cry for help? He shut out my prayer. Right. Jeremiah is praying and he seems to get no response. He prays and he waits. He prays and he waits. Response never seems to come. And then in Chapter 3, verse 21. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for him. to the soul who seeks him, it is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord. When we truly apprehend God's faithfulness, it'll check our memories, it'll give us hope, even in the midst of a dark providence. And if we truly apprehend these truths, it'll also increase our faith. If you look at the lives of the apostles, you'll see a rock-solid confidence in the promises and in the faithfulness of God, that their great faith was not a gift that they just woke up with one day. Their faith was a gift from the Lord, just like our faith is a gift from the Lord, but their great faith or unshakable faith was something that was strengthened and tested and built up over time. James 1 says that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. The Apostle Paul went through All kinds of persecutions, shipwrecks, beatings, imprisonments. And his faith had been tested and strengthened through all that, and it was because of that that he was able to say in Romans 8, 38 and 39, For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Near the end of his life on earth, he said, for I know whom I have believed and I'm convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me. God has not only declared himself to be faithful, but he's also abundantly demonstrated his faithfulness to us. Through his creation and through his word, he also deals faithfully with us each and every day. He's given us many, many exceedingly great promises. Do you trust him? Will you trust him? I hope that you do. We'll leave you with one final exhortation. Hebrews 10, 23. Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised. is faithful. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do thank you for our time tonight. We thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness to us, your faithfulness to this church, your faithfulness to this body of believers over the last 18 years. Lord, I pray that we would be Faithful to you. Faithful to honor and praise you. Not only when things are good, but when there seems to be a dark providence. That we would be faithful to share the gospel. That we would be faithful witnesses to a lost and dying world. We again thank you for our time. In Jesus' name.