Galatians 5, 22-23. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. There's a doctrinal issue that we have to sort out when it comes to the word translated faithfulness. In the NAS and the ESV it's translated as faithfulness, but in the KJV it's faith. And indeed, the word for faithfulness in the original Peace Thesis ordinarily translated faith in the New Testament. But faith is a legitimate translation of the word. It's one of the possibilities that there is within the semantic range of the word. So which is the best choice? Is it faith, or is it faithfulness? Well, let me point out something that should be obvious to you. I'm not a Greek scholar. On the other hand, the Greek scholars have different opinions amongst themselves, which you can see by the virtue of the different translations. Options. And that proves that bringing a Greek scholar will not result in a consensus. Greek is not math. The math problem has a definitive answer that can be established and is incontrovertible. When you're dealing with languages and translations, it doesn't always work quite like that. So when we come to a situation like that, I always find the safest approach to be consulting systematic theology for help, and not pound my fist up here with false certainty about Greek. The way I understand the fruit of the Spirit is that these nine graces are outworkings of God's own character. God is love. God is joy. God is peace. God is longsuffering, and so on. When the Spirit of God dwells inside of a sinner and regenerates that sinner, he transforms him into the image of Christ and makes him to be an imitator of God. Just gathering things from the theology of the Bible here. The born-again sinner then exhibits the same fruit, the same qualities that are attributes of God himself. Well that brings us to this point. In all of the fruit of the Spirit, except maybe two of the nine, it's easy to see how the fruit are attributes of God's own character. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, and gentleness. are all attributes of God that can be clearly and easily substantiated with many other passages of Scripture. And we'll get back to faith slash faithfulness here in a moment. But what about self-control? This is kind of peeking ahead a little bit to next week. Is self-control an attribute of God? Does God exercise self-control? Really depends on how you define it. If self-control is something that only a redeemed sinner could exercise because there's something in him that needs to be kept under control, then here we have a fruit of the Spirit that is not really an attribute of God. It's simply an effect that is created in a redeemed sinner by the presence of a holy God dwelling within. On the other hand, if those instances in Scripture where God restrains His anger, for instance, could be properly called self-control, then self-control is an attribute of God. And I'll revisit that again next week. But that same kind of question confronts us here with the word that we are translating, either faith or faithfulness. Does God exercise faith? Certainly Jesus, in his human nature, exercised faith during his days on earth. He walked by faith, just as we are to walk by faith. But do the three members of the Trinity exercise faith? Before the foundation of the world, did they exercise faith? Again, it depends on how you define faith. Certainly the members of the Trinity trust each other. no doubt of that, that certainly there is nothing like what would be called doubt or unbelief in any of them. On the other hand, neither the Father nor the Spirit believe on Jesus for salvation. The Father and the Spirit do not need salvation. They do not receive imputed righteousness through faith in Christ. They're already perfectly righteous. in and of themselves. When we think of faith as an empty hand of the beggar opening to receive from the Lord, we should not think of such things in terms of a member of the Godhead, any of the divine persons in the Trinity, that they would be in a position of a beggar and needing anything. Furthermore, as we think of faith in terms of the way Hebrews 11 defines it, it doesn't apply to the persons of the Trinity either. Where it says, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. But God sees all. He does not walk by faith. Going on in Hebrews 11, for by it the men of old gained approval. need to gain approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the Word of God so that what is seen was not made out of things which are visible. But of course God doesn't understand the creation of the world by faith. He understands it by sight, or ontologically. He created the world himself. He doesn't believe it by faith as the assurance of things not seen. So, you see what I mean? And finally, in 1 Corinthians 13, when Paul speaks of those things that will be done away with in eternity, he seems to be saying that faith and hope are among the temporary things that will be done away with, whereas love endures forever. For now we see in the mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known. But now faith, hope, love abide these three, but the greatest of these is love. " Well, faith is not necessary in heaven or in the eternal state, because it will give way to sight in the same way with hope. As Romans 8.24 says, for in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope, for who hopes for what he already sees? I'm not trying to overcomplicate this, I just want you to know how I'm working through it, why I come to the conclusion that I do. And so my conclusion is that faithfulness is the more likely translation choice, since faith seems to be a dependence and trust on the part of creatures who do not see. Faithfulness, on the other hand, which is defined as truthfulness, constancy, Fidelity, these are indeed attributes of God. I'm taking the view that all nine are communicable attributes of God, all nine fruits, which are then something we share in and partake in by virtue of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. But having said that, it certainly is possible that two of the nine, faith and self-control, are simply effects produced in us as creatures rather than attributes of God communicated to us. I just lean toward the previous view that all nine are communicable attributes of God, meaning attributes that God communicates to us or imparts to us. In either way, even if you said, well, I think it's faith, yes, of course, believers, true believers, having the spirit dwelling within, will indeed have faith, for sure. And they will also be faithful. as well. And so, in the end, it's not like you're going to come to some conclusion that's going to completely overturn all the other theological conclusions that we come to. So having said that, let's just consider the faithfulness of God. Faithfulness signifies trustworthiness, dependability, constancy. So if a husband is faithful to his wife, he is loyal to her. He's devoted to her. He's not looking around for other options. And because he is faithful, his wife can depend on his love. When Jesus described the faithful slave, the true Christian, in Matthew 24, he said, who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. The faithful slave is one who's trustworthy. He does what he is supposed to do. He's dependable. You can count on it. The same thing is conveyed in Matthew 25, 20-21. The one who had received the five talents came up and brought five more talents, saying, Master, you entrusted five talents to me. See, I have gained five more talents. His master said to him, Well done, good and faithful slave. See, you were faithful with a few things. I will put you in charge of many things. Enter into the joy of your master. Again, faithfulness is defined as trustworthiness. God is a faithful God. Trust in him will be rewarded because he is no liar. He's true. He keeps his promises. With God, you never have to worry that he's going to renege on his contract. He will do what He says He will do. As the Scripture says, he who believes in Him will not be disappointed. Hebrews 10.23 says, Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Deuteronomy 7, 9-10, Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and his lovingkindness to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commandments, but repays those who hate him to their faces to destroy them. He will not delay with him who hates him. He will repay him to his face. Let's just consider some examples of God's faithfulness. God promised Noah that he would never flood the earth again. He's kept that promise, which is which the rainbow is a sign. Prior to that, he promised that he would flood the world, and he did. God promised to provide Abraham a son, and in due time, he made good on that promise. In the meantime, Abraham and Sarah decided to help God out, and so they produced an Ishmael via Hagar, but that didn't work out too well. Ishmael was not the son of promise. In spite of this setback of unbelief, Sarah did not continue in unbelief. For Hebrews 11, 11 says, by faith, even Sarah herself received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered him faithful who had promised. She considered him faithful. She was right to consider him faithful, and she was not disappointed in her confidence in God. God promised to deliver Israel out of Egypt, and He made good on that promise. He promised to lead them into the promised land. That's what it's called. And after exterminating the first generation because of their wicked unbelief, which is the same as calling God a liar, God brought the second generation into the land, the promised land, just as He said He would. God's faithfulness is also seen in His determination to punish those He says He will punish, as is indicated by the Deuteronomy 7 passage I read earlier, and also in many examples. But when Jericho was destroyed, God promised through Joshua to curse the man who would rebuild that city, Joshua 6.26. Then Joshua made them take a note at that time, saying, Cursed before the Lord is the man who rises up and builds this city Jericho. With the loss of his firstborn, he shall lay its foundation, and with the loss of his youngest son, he shall set up his gates. Then five to six hundred years later, some fool who didn't either know Scripture very well or didn't regard it, decided he would test to see if God was true. In his days, Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho. He laid his foundations with the loss of Abiram, his firstborn, instead of its gates with the loss of his youngest son, Segud, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua, the son of Nun." 1 Kings 16, 34. That is the faithfulness of God in keeping His promised threat. By way of mercy, again, just after the fall of Adam and Eve, God promised to raise up a seed who would crush the head of the serpent. Then he repeated that promise. The promise of a deliverer over and over again throughout the scriptures in the Old Testament era. He promised Abraham that in his seed, singular, all the nations would be blessed one day. promised through Jacob that a seed of Judah would become a ruler and to him would be the obedience of the peoples. Genesis 49 10. He promised to Moses that he would raise up a prophet like Moses from among the nation of Israel and that this prophet would speak God's words. He promised that one day a virgin would give birth to a child and his name would be called Emmanuel. He promised that there would come a suffering servant who would be bruised for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities? Then the day came, finally, when all these many promises were fulfilled. Christ was born of a virgin into the world, and he fulfilled all the prophecies that were written concerning him, and finally crushing the head of the serpent through his substitutionary life, death, and resurrection, satisfying the justice and wrath of God, sitting down on the throne of God at the right hand of the Father to rule and reign from heaven. Think about the long time that elapsed between the promises and the fulfillment. Thousands of years elapsed between the first promise of a Savior in Genesis 315 and his arrival. After so much time, the thought might arise in people, something must have changed. This is not happening. Either the Bible isn't true It's not God's word, or God doesn't keep his promises, or he's forgotten, or he's changed his mind, or something. But no, God is faithful, God kept the promise, and Jesus was sent at exactly the moment that God intended him to come. This shows us the faithfulness of God. God doesn't make empty promises. You can take him at his word. He said he will do something, he will. If he said that he has done something for you, then he has done it. You're not dealing with a sinner who might forget what he promised or he might change his mind. God doesn't change. He is the same yesterday, today, forever. The same applies to the next coming of Christ. Though it has been nearly 2,000 years since Christ's promise to return, he has not forgotten his promise and he has not changed his mind. He will come in due time because he is faithful. Christ himself is a perfect picture of faithfulness. He came on a mission to fulfill, and he fulfilled that mission perfectly. He left nothing undone that he was sent to do. Let's think of the statements that he said concerning himself and how these demonstrate his faithfulness. John 4.34, Jesus said to them, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. That's his food. That's faithfulness. John 6.38, for I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Jesus came as a servant to fulfill and carry out the will of the Father. He did it faithfully. John 8, 28-29, when you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. And I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught me. And He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him. his faithfulness to always do the things that are pleasing to the Father. In Matthew 26.39, in the Garden of Gethsemane, during this hour of great anguish, he went a little beyond them and fell on his face, and he prayed, saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, yet not as I will. but as you will. That's faithfulness. That is carrying faithfully out the will of the Father. On the cross, Jesus said, it is finished. All the work that the Father had given Him to do, He had done, save the resurrection and the sending, but fulfilling the law by perfectly obeying it. and obtaining true righteousness to give to his people, drinking every last drop down of the cup of the wrath of God, so that there was no more wrath left to apply to God's elect. This work of redemption of Christ on the cross shouts faithfulness. Faithfulness. Hebrews 2, 17-18 says of Christ, Therefore he had to be made like his brethren in all things, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For since he himself was tempted, and that which he has suffered, he is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." Christ is a faithful high priest. faithfully offered himself up as a sacrifice for our sin. Now he faithfully intercedes for us on our behalf at the Father's right hand. In Isaiah 11, 1 through 5, there's this glorious prophecy of Christ, and in that prophecy, faithfulness is the belt around Christ's waist. Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, and a branch from his roots, and will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And he will delight in the fear of the Lord. And he will not judge by what his eyes see, nor make a decision by what his ears hear. But with righteousness he will judge the poor and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the breath of his lips. He will slay the wicked. Also righteousness will be the belt about his loins and faithfulness the belt about his waist. That's a figurative way of saying that faithfulness is an integral aspect of Christ's character. And as biblical revelation comes to a close in the book of Revelation, we read this in chapter 19. And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. The Scriptures are replete with doxologies that extol the faithfulness of God. Psalm 36, 5-6 is one of them. Your lovingkindness, O Lord, extends to the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God. Your judgments are like a great deep, O Lord. You preserve man and beast. So God's faithfulness is compared to really the biggest things that we know and our life experience. The deep, as high as the heavens, the mountains. And then in Psalm 104 through five, it's forever to all generations that God's faithfulness extends. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name, for the Lord is good, His loving kindness is everlasting, and His faithfulness to all generations. We're going to sing about that at the end of the service. His faithfulness to all generations. If it was not for the faithfulness of Christ, indeed the faithfulness of all three persons in the Godhead, you could not be saved. But because God is faithful, because he is true, because he is dependable and trustworthy and unwavering, if you have believed on Christ for righteousness, then you can count on his promise that you are indeed righteous in Jesus. Because he is faithful, there's no reason for doubting. If you have believed in Jesus, then you have received the gift of eternal life. and Christ has prepared a home for you in heaven, that's true. And you can count on it being true because He is faithful who promised. If you have confessed your sins to God, not in the Roman Catholic way where I've got to think of every single thing I've ever done wrong and check it off. and get absolution from a priest. No, but if you've come clean, you've owned up to your depravity and your wretchedness, and you're no longer defending yourself and your personal righteousness and your botched record, and you're looking to the work of Christ on your behalf, not your own works to justify you, then God is faithful and just to forgive your sins. That is the promise of 1 John 1-9 that we heard in the Scripture readings. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just, or righteous, to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That is a promise. It's a promise you can count on and you can take to the bank. The certainty of your forgiveness rests on nothing less than the faithfulness of God to keep His promises. How do you know that that promise applies to you? when you are a confessor of sin, not a denier of it. Here's another promise. Jesus prayed for his disciples in John 17, not that they would be taken out of the world, but that they would be kept from the evil one. You can be sure that God heard that prayer and he answered it in the affirmative. In 2 Thessalonians 3.3, in fact, Paul says, We know that that does not mean that we will never face temptation in this life, or that we will never be confronted with the devil's lies and inducements to sin. But it does mean that you will not be turned over to the devil, the strong man, to be enslaved again by him, to become his child again, to be spiritually ruined by him and led into eternal damnation. Why? Because God is faithful. He will never let that happen to one of his own. With respect to the temptation, we have another promise from God. 1 Corinthians 10. 13. No temptation has overtaken you, but such as is common to man. And God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it. God is faithful. Does that mean that we'll always take the way out that God provides us? Sadly, no. But God, for His part, is faithful, and He will provide the way of escape. You can count on it, for God is no liar. The way He provided for escape for Joseph in the Old Testament from Potter's wife was to run. Essentially, he ran into jail, but he escaped. Jail was a far better thing than falling into temptation with part of his life. 2 Timothy 2, 11-13 speaks to this issue that when we are faithless, he remains faithful. It is a trustworthy statement. For if we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are faithless, he remains faithful, but he cannot deny himself. Because God is faithful, you will be sanctified entirely and preserved complete. God will finish that work. 1 Thessalonians 5, 23-24 says so. Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely And may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he who calls you, and he also will bring it to pass. Faithful is he who calls you, he will bring it to pass. Because God is a loving father, he faithfully disciplines us without the inconstancy that characterizes the very best of human bodies. Human parents, even believing parents, have a mixed record when it comes to the discipline of their children. We tend to discipline in a very uneven way. If our children do something that particularly angers us or offends us or embarrasses us, then we'll discipline them. But if it doesn't bother us so much, sometimes we hold back. It tends to be dependent on our emotions and what offends us personally. We spank them if we feel like it. But if we don't feel like it, we might not do it, even though it's what should be done. Or we go in spurts. We realize we've been doing a poor job, and we've been getting lax, and so we redouble our efforts, and we get serious, and we start being consistent again. But then time goes on, and we relax again, and we get lazy. Not so with God. God does not rate some sins as worthy of discipline and others as unworthy. He does not say, well, this sin matters and deserves discipline, but that sin doesn't matter, and it doesn't deserve it. It doesn't offend you that much. God is not moved by passions like we are. Discipline is a steady and consistent thing with Him. not something based on how he feels. He feels in any given moment. God disciplines us faithfully because he loves us. His love does not change. It doesn't rise and fall like human emotions do. It's a result of God's faithfulness. God never says, well, I love you, but I don't feel like it right now. That just doesn't happen with God. It's not based on emotions like we think of. So the psalmist says in Psalm 119.75, I know, O Lord, that your judgments are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Faithfulness, God afflicts us in faithfulness. And then a few verses earlier than that, he said, before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I keep your word. You are good and do good. Teach me your statutes." It was God's unwavering faithfulness that bolstered Jeremiah when his afflictions had gone over his head and he felt overwhelmed by them. Lamentations 3, really verse 23, is the focal point when it comes to the faithfulness of God. But I want to back up to verse 1 to get the depth of Jeremiah's despondency, and then we'll see how God's faithfulness was what bailed him out of his despondency. I am the man who has seen affliction because of the rod of his wrath. He has driven me and made me walk in darkness and not in light. Surely against me he has turned his hand repeatedly all the day. He has caused my flesh and my skin to waste away. He has broken my bones. He has besieged and encompassed me with bitterness and hardship. In dark places he has made me dwell like those who have long been dead. He has walled me in so that I cannot go out. He has made my chain heavy. Even when I cry out and call for help, He shuts out my prayer. He has blocked my ways with hewn stone. He has made my paths crooked. He is to me like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in secret places. He has turned aside my ways and torn me to pieces. He has made me desolate. He bent his bow and has set me as a target for the arrow. He made the arrows of his quiver to enter into my inward parts. I have become a laughingstock to all my people, their mocking song all the day. He has filled me with bitterness. He has made me drunk with wormwood. He has broken my teeth with gravel. He has made me cower in the dust. My soul has been rejected from peace. I have forgotten happiness. So I say my strength has perished and so is my hope from the Lord. It's like Job, doesn't it? Remember my affliction and my wandering, the wormwood and the bitterness. Surely my soul remembers and is bowed down within me. This, here's the transition, this I recall to mind. Therefore I have hope. The Lord's loving-kindnesses, indeed, never cease, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore I have hope in him. The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the person who seeks Him. It is good that he waits silently for the salvation of the Lord. Because God is faithful, then when God chooses to dwell in us by His Spirit, we will bear the fruit of faithfulness. We will reflect God's likeness and character. We will become imitators of God. We will partake of his stability, his constancy, his trustworthiness, his reliability, his steadiness. We will be far from perfect. There will be ongoing failures due to indwelling sin. But we will generally be people of our word because God's faithfulness is in us by the Spirit. So when we say we'll do something, we'll do it. There will be a new stability to our lives and we'll not be as prone to whims that are based on emotions. There'll be a greater steadiness about us rather than an impulsiveness. As we mature in sanctification, we will become more and more dependable and persevering. And thus, those who have been in the faith for many years, generally speaking, will likely exhibit a greater degree of faithfulness than those who are younger in the faith. Growth is a real thing. It's something God does. He grows His children. They grow. They mature. Because true believers partake of faithfulness of God through the Spirit, they will generally have better marriage. they will be less likely to pursue divorce. Notice I did not say they will never be divorced. I said they will be less likely to pursue it. If they are married to an unbeliever, often the unbelieving spouse will decide that he or she does not like having a spouse who serves Christ rather than the world. And they want someone to join them in serving various lusts, not someone who questions the validity of such things and the morality of such things. And the unbelieving spouse will decide to leave. But the believer, because the Spirit dwells in them and because faithfulness is a fruit of the Spirit, will try to work things out and will be inclined to say, I made vows. I intend to keep them. I said, for better or worse, and I meant it. I said, till death do us part, and so let's work on our marriage. Believers are more likely to be faithful in the workplace. They show up on time, they do what they're asked to do, as long as it's not unethical, but even if the task is unpleasant or undesirable, they're faithful in doing it. They're diligent at work, stewarding their time on the clock in a way that glorifies God and loves Him. They do their work as unto the Lord, not as men-pleasers performing eye service, where you work hard when the boss is watching, but only then. Why? Because they are faithful. Faithfulness is in them now. Believers are faithful to their church. They are faithful in Lord's Day worship. They're not people who just show up every once in a while. They're faithful. They're faithful in joining with the church in prayer. Understanding that we should be devoted to prayers is important. Faithful in giving. Faithful in helping and pitching in with the ministry of the church. If they're looking for a church, they may visit a number of churches, seeking to discern which church is sound, which is best, but once they settle there, they're far less inclined to leave for fickle and superficial reasons and then go church-hopping. Why? Because they are faithful. Believers are faithful under persecution. They're not rocky ground converts. who spring up with joy but have no root, and so when persecution comes, they fall away because of that persecution over the world. Now, believers are faithful. That means that they endure, they persevere under persecution. Revelation 2.10, it was said to the church in Smyrna, I believe, do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, so that you will be tested, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life." Believers are faithful, faithful unto death. The question is not, are you perfectly faithful? No one is, except Christ. The question is, Are you faithful and growing in faithfulness? Are you somewhere in the spectrum between infancy and full-grown maturity, and you're moving in that direction? Do you see positive changes in your life in regard to faithfulness? Do you see that you are a more faithful person now than you used to be? If so, praise God, for that means that the Spirit of God must dwell in you, because this is a fruit of the Spirit, not a fruit of the flesh. It doesn't grow from human nature. It's a work of the Spirit in us. If you are faithful, you must be a new creature in Christ, for you would never be so thankful without the Spirit of God. Let's pray. Father, we are in admiration of your great, infinite faithfulness. How glad we are that you did not change. You are the same today as you were yesterday, as you were a thousand years ago, as you were at the beginning of time and before time began. You will be the same forever. You will never change. I'm thankful that you're reliable and dependable, that you are a rock, that we can lean on you and not worry that you will crumble and collapse underneath us, underneath our weight. I'm grateful that you are a promise keeper, a covenant keeper, that you do what you say you will do. Your word is good. We can count on you. We glorify you for this. We'll honor and praise your name. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.