Faithfulness…

Morning!

Raises his cup of coffee

It is Thursday April 3rd of 2025.  We have an overcast day with a high of 79 as our spring day forecast.

God is faithful.

This is where we start today continuing in the Psalm 119 challenge.

Psalm 119: 89-96

“Forever, O LORD, Your Word is settled in heaven.  Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides.  They continue this day according to Your ordinances, for all are Your servants.  Unless Your law had been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.  I will never forget Your precepts, For by them You have given me life.  I am Yours, save me; for I have sought Your precepts.  The wicked wait for me to destroy me, but I will consider Your testimonies.  I have seen the consummation of all perfection, but Your commandment is exceedingly broad.”

God is Perfectly Faithful.

Have we stopped to consider what faithful means lately?

Faithful: (adjective)

- Steadfast in affection or allegiance: Loyal

- Firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty: Conscientious

- Given with strong assurance: Binding (faithful promise)

- True to the facts, to a standard, or to an original

Forever the Word of the LORD is settled in heaven.  The Word of God, the Word that we abide in, the Word that we love, that we trust in, that Word is forever settled in heaven and God will be faithful to it.  Are we faithful to the Word in return?

Have we prayed to God to teach us faithfulness yet?  Maybe the better question to start us out with is what are we faithful to?

Faithfulness to God has been both an expectation and a desire of His for a very long time.  It is right that we be faithful to our Creator— for He is God, and we are here on the earth.  It is just that we be faithful to the One who is faithful to us.  And it is amazing—even joyful—to be faithful to the Beautiful and Perfect LORD, full of loving-kindness and mercy.  I’m thinking about Jesus Church today.  When I want to better understand how God deals with a large group of people He has chosen, I turn to the Old Testament.  And Deuteronomy is one of my favorite books.

Deuteronomy 7: 1-11

“When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than you, and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall conquer them and utterly destroy them.  You shall make no covenant with them nor show mercy to them.  Nor shall you make marriages with them.  You shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your son.  For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy you suddenly.  But thus you shall deal with them: you shall destroy their altars, and break down their sacred pillars, and cut down their wooden images, and burn their carved images with fire.  For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for Himself, and a special treasure above all the peoples on the face of the earth.  The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the LORD loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.  Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them.  He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.  Therefore you shall keep the commandment, the statutes, and the judgments which I command you today, to observe them.”

The Israelites were God’s chosen people of the Old Covenant.  Believers in Jesus are God’s chosen people of the New Covenant.  And the same God who spoke through Moses in Deuteronomy is the same God we know now— the same God our children will know after us, and the same God for the generations that follow.  God is teaching us in this passage.  He’s teaching us about Himself.  God begins by telling the Israelites that they will destroy the altars of the nations they’re about to encounter—altars that were erected to other gods.  He commands them to utterly defeat and destroy those nations.  He warns them not to make covenants, not to show mercy, and not to intermarry with them.  And God gives a very specific reason: Because He knows that those peoples will lead the Israelites away from walking with Him. Their influence will turn the hearts of His people toward other gods.  And in Scripture, turning aside our worship to other gods is often likened to adultery.

The Israelites were a holy people—a people set apart, chosen by God for a purpose.  A very specific purpose.  In the same way, Christians are also a holy people—a people set apart, chosen by God for a very specific purpose.  Moses goes on to explain that God did not choose the Israelites for any meritorious reason.  There was nothing they had done better—or differently—than anyone else.  The reason God gives for choosing them?Because He loves them.  God is faithfully keeping the oath He swore to an earlier generation.

One way God is faithful?  By keeping His Word.

One way we can be faithful to God is to keep His Word.

So how are we doing with that?

I want to turn to …

1 Corinthians 10: 1-11

“Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.  For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.  But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.  Now these things became our examples, to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted.  And do not become idolaters as were some of them.  As it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.’ Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day twenty-three thousand fell; nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed by serpents; nor complain as some of them also complained, and were destroyed by the destroyer.  Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

Paul teaches us that we are to look to the Old Testament to learn about God— to help us understand what He values, what He wants, and what He warns against.  But isn’t it interesting that the Israelites all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink— they drank of Christ, the very Presence of God manifested physically before them and still, many did not turn their hearts to God?  Now, under the New Covenant, is it really that much different?  We all study the Bible.  All believers are given the same Holy Spirit.  And God?  He is faithful.  He is the same—unchanging and perfect.  Yet today… I think it’s fair to say: there are still quite a few bodies falling in the wilderness.

What has come before is written for us now to learn.  It is written for us to understand.

Paul continues…

1 Corinthians 10: 12-14

“Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.  No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.  Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.”

God’s Word is forever settled in Heaven.

2 Timothy 3: 16-17

“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

So have we considered what unfaithfulness to God is?  It is taking something that is not God and raising it in importance above God.  It is idolatry.  Obedience to the Word is the cure given.

Deuteronomy 7: 12-16

“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.  And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you.  You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female baron among you or among your livestock.  And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.  Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.”

He who loves Jesus keeps His commandments.  So this morning, do we remember when God saved us?  Some of us may have more vivid memories than others— but do we remember that love?  That first love?  Is that a love we still have?  God faithfully chooses a people.  And then He faithfully sets them apart— calls them to holiness, calls them to be different from the world.  Why does God do this?  Because He loves.

God chooses a people.  He gives them the Law by which to live— a Law that applies to all humans, without partiality.  He loves them.  He leads them.  And He stays faithful to His promises.  If the Israelites heard and then kept the commandments of God, then the promises of His covenant would be theirs.  They were to be doers of the work, and not just hearers of the Word.  And it is the same for us now.  God is faithful—throughout all generations.  The question for us this morning is: Are we ready to take our stand?

Ephesians 6: 10-20

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.  Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints- and for me, that utterance may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.”

I think that’s a good place to start for the day.