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Location:
6425 Jefferson Rd. For
directions, click here.
Jerry
Varnado,
pastor March 3,
2002 But
it was because the LORD loved
you and kept the oath he swore
to your forefathers that he
brought you out with a mighty
hand and redeemed you from the
land of slavery, from the
power of Pharaoh king of
Egypt. Know
therefore that the LORD your
God is God; he is the faithful
God, keeping his covenant of
love to a thousand generations
of those who love him and keep
his commands. God
is "faithful." That's the clear
declaration of His Word. But what
does it mean to say that He's
faithful? 9-The
God
Who
Fills
Heaven
and
Earth So
it's essential that we learn the
biblical meaning of the words we
use to talk about God. But we
also need to understand what
these words mean, or don't mean,
to those who have little or maybe
no biblical training or religious
experience to draw upon.
Here
are four definitions of faithful,
from the American Heritage
Dictionary: Keep
in mind that faithfulness doesn't
exist in a vacuum; we are
faithful or unfaithful to
something or someone. Here's
one more definition of "faithful"
from a Bible dictionary:
Steadfast, dedicated, dependable,
and worthy of trust. (Holman
Bible Dictionary) Now,
in the biblical context, we can't
begin to understand the meaning
of "faithful" -- in other words,
we can't really understand what
it means to say "God is faithful"
-- without also understanding the
meaning of term
"righteous." Righteous
is a word for which the meaning
is not readily apparent in
English. You see, sometimes there
is a problem with biblical
translation that stems from the
fact that the best English word
we have to translate a particular
Greek or Hebrew word or idea
doesn't really do the job. The
English word falls short of the
original meaning. Righteous
is a case in point. The
dictionary defines it as "morally
upright, without guilt or sin;
morally justifiable." It is "the
adherence or conformity to an
established standard." But the
biblical term means far more than
that. Biblically,
"righteousness" isn't an
objective standard by which
motives and actions are judged.
Rather, it's the fulfillment of
the responsibilities of a
relationship -- whether among
humans or between God and
humans. You,
me, everybody, we're all within a
multitude of relationships --
with government, family,
business, community, strangers,
etc. When anyone fulfills the
demands or conditions imposed by
a relationship, he or she is
"righteousness." So therefore God
is always righteous,
because He is always faithful to
fulfill all the responsibilities
of all His
relationships. This
helps us better understand our
text: God is "the faithful God"
because He "keep[s] His
covenant of love." Now, in this
passage, the "covenant" refers
specifically to the covenant God
made with Abraham when He
promised to multiply his
descendants and give them the
land of Canaan. But the principle
applies to all of God's
relationships. Out of His
character of love, He fulfills
the requirements of each
relationship. Understand
now that every human stands in a
relationship with God by the fact
that God is the Creator of all
things. This doesn't mean every
person is a child of God, as some
have mistakenly assumed. But
every person does have a
relationship with God, at least
as creature to Creator. And God
is, and has been, faithful
to that relationship. Look
at Romans 1:20: What
this is saying is that God has so
ordered the universe that His
fingerprints are all over it. If
any person really wanted to know
the God who created the universe,
there is ample evidence in the
created order itself to lead him
or her in the right
direction. Several
years ago, the Our Daily
Bread devotional related a
story
about how Sir Isaac Newton
developed a working model of the
solar system. "Nobody,"
said Sir Isaac. "You
must not have understood what I
asked," said the visitor. "Who
made this model?" Sir
Isaac looked at him and asked,
"Why do you insist someone made
this model of of universe
when you won't believe that
Someone made the universe
itself?" I
think the friend got the message.
The fingerprints of God are all
over creation. But
God didn't stop there in His
faithfulness, in His
righteousness. When the human
race fell prey to the devil's
devices and rebelled against God,
He didn't leave us to our own
folly. Instead, God took the
initiative to reclaim us from the
clutches of sin; to redeem us and
make us apart of His
family. He
became one of us in the person of
Jesus Christ. Jesus suffered and
died on the cross to redeem us
from our sin. Even when we beat
Him, ridiculed Him, spat upon Him
and killed Him He look down from
the cross and said, "Father,
forgive them they don't know what
they are doing." Why?
Because God created us out of
love for relationship with
Himself and He is the faithful
God. He is faithful to His
purpose and to us, the crowning
glory of His creation.
God
is righteous. He is faithful to
fulfill the demands of every
relationship He has with people.
Listen to what God/human
relationship is like for those
who know Jesus. John
1:10-13: Is
that good news or what? As
Christians, our relationship with
God has changed. No longer are we
merely creatures of the Creator,
but we become the children
of God; God becomes our Heavenly
Father! We
now stand in a covenant
relationship with God -- the
faithful God, of whom David wrote
in Psalm 145:13: "The LORD is
faithful to all his promises and
loving toward all he has
made." Now,
to close this sermon, I'm going
to cover a few things, from
Scripture, that God is faithful
to do. First,
look with me at 1 John
1:9: My
friend, you don't have to
"wonder: if your sins are
forgiven! If you've come to God
and confessed your sin, you can
know they are forgiven --
by simply believing what God
says! And
the idea that the Apostle John
conveys here isn't just a
one-time cleansing, but a
continual cleansing of all
unrighteousness. Are you hearing
any good news? Our Lord is the
faithful God! Now
look at 1 Corinthians
10:13: Most
of us have lived long enough to
understand that even though God
forgives our sin and frees us
from the damnation that sin
brings, there still are temporal
consequences to sin that we often
will suffer. You
know what? I'm as afraid of sin
as I am a rattlesnake; it's just
as dangerous. Knowing what I know
about sin and its consequences,
and knowing what I know about me,
I would be afraid to go outside
if I hadn't learned this truth in
1 Corinthians 10:13. God
always provides whatever
we need to escape the trap of
sin. We need to learn His word
and stay alert; resist and He
always provides, He is the
faithful God. How
about 2 Thessalonians
3:3? Friends,
the devil is a formidable foe. We
ought to respect his power and
his ability to deceive -- but we
should not be afraid! God has
promised to deliver us, to
protect us -- and our God is the
faithful God. Here's
another -- 1 Thessalonians
5:23-24: The
only way we will ever have
assurance of our salvation is to
understand this truth. We can't
save ourselves. We can't be pure
and holy on our own. None of us
can do enough good to deserve
heaven and we've all done enough
bad to deserve hell. The
incredibly good news is that we
don't have to save ourselves; we
don't have to be good enough! God
saves us by His grace! All we
have to do is come to Him, submit
to Him, trust Him, and believe
Him. Now,
listen to the words of Jesus in
John 6:40: We
don't raise ourselves up, we
can't. But Jesus promises that He
will do it. One
more text and I'm
done.
1
John 5:11-13: Listen
to me. God not only wants us
saved from sin and death, He
wants us to know that
we're saved. He wants us to have
absolute confidence and assurance
that we have a home in heaven. We
can have that assurance only by
trusting God to save
us. God
said He would do it and our Lord
can be trusted; He is the
faithful God.
Gateway
Church gathers
for worship
Sundays
at 10:30 a.m.
(Hwy. 129) in Athens,
Georgia.
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of the
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A
GATEWAY SERMON
A
faithful God
(Tenth
in the series, Knowing
God)
Gateway
Church,
Athens GA
(Deuteronomy
7:7-9)
It's important that we
understand all the implications
of the words we use to talk about
or describe God, so let's look
some dictionary definitions of
this word. But keep in mind that
the purpose of this series of
sermons is not to to fill you
head with information, but to
equip you to accurately tell
other people what God is
like.
In
this
series
1.
Adhering firmly and devotedly,
as to a person, a cause, or an
idea; loyal.
2. Having or full of
faith.
3. Worthy of trust or
belief; reliable.
4. Consistent with
truth or actuality.
He is righteous
Faithful in
creationFor
since the creation of the
world God's invisible
qualities -- his eternal power
and divine nature -- have been
clearly seen, being understood
from what has been made, so
that men are without
excuse.
A friend, who happened not to
believe that the universe was the
handiwork of God, stopped by. He
saw the model and asked who made
it.
Faithful
in redemptionHe
was in the world, and though
the world was made through
him, the world did not
recognize him. He came to that
which was his own, but his own
did not receive him. Yet to
all who received him, to those
who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become
children of God -- children
born not of natural descent,
nor of human decision or a
husband's will, but born of
God.
He
will do itIf
we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just and will
forgive us our sins and purify
us from all
unrighteousness.
No
temptation has seized you
except what is common to man.
And God is faithful; he will
not let you be tempted beyond
what you can bear. But when
you are tempted, he will also
provide a way out so that you
can stand up under it.
But
the Lord is faithful, and he
will strengthen and protect
you from the evil one.
May
God himself, the God of peace,
sanctify you through and
through. May your whole
spirit, soul and body be kept
blameless at the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ. The one who
calls you is faithful and he
will do it.
"For
my Father's will is that
everyone who looks to the Son
and believes in him shall have
eternal life, and I will raise
him up at the last
day."
Put
your trust in HimAnd
this is the testimony: God has
given us eternal life, and
this life is in his Son. He
who has the Son has life; he
who does not have the Son of
God does not have life. I
write these things to you who
believe in the name of the Son
of God so that you may know
that you have eternal
life.
An
audio tape of this sermon is
available
free of charge (U.S. requests
only).
Request
a tape by calling
or writing the Gateway Church
office.
Please specify tape number
020303a: The Faithful God.
God.
©
2002 Gerald R.
Varnado