Christian Virtues - The Virtue of Faithfulness

Intro:

Good evening.

Tonight we’re going to look at the virtue of faithfulness.

“Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, FAITHFULNESS, gentleness and self-control” are the fruits of the Spirit, according to Gal. 5:22-23.

I think we have talked about three or four of the fruits of the Spirit so far in this series on Christian virtues.

But faithfulness is one that is going to help us so much!

Faithfulness is a foundational building block upon which many other Christian virtues are built.

The other list of virtues we have frequently referenced in this series - 2 Peter 1:5-7 - The Christian graces, as they’re called says:

“Giving all diligence, ADD to your? … FAITH … virtue, and to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control, and to self-control perseverence, and to perseverence godliness, and to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.”

We often think of love as foundational to our faith, and it is! (We talked about that this morning).

And yet in THIS list, we see that FAITHFULNESS is a foundational building-block for building all of these other virtues, culminating in the ultimate expression of love!

In other words, I think that there is a continuous feedback loop, when you think about it, for all of these virtues interacting with and influencing one another towards more virtue.

More faithfulness is going to lead to more love (and all these others), and more love is going to lead to more faithfulness and all these others.

It’s a continuous feedback loop.

And so faithfulness is extrememly important.

A lot of these lessons we have started by describing the OPPOSITE of the virtue that we want to discuss, but for this one tonight, I think we will save that for the end, because that’s going to offer a great way for us to get to our invitation.

So let’s begin by talking about …

WHY FAITHFULNESS IS SO IMPORTANT:

1 Corinthians 4:2 says that it is REQUIRED in stewards, that a man be found … FAITHFUL.

Do you remember what it is that the Lord will say to those who are granted entrance into heaven on Judgment Day?

“Well done, thou good and FAITHFUL servant” (Matt. 25:21, 23).

Matthew 25:21 - “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’”

Same thing is said in Matthew 25:23 as well - “His lord said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord.’”

What is the context of those two verses?

The parable of the talents, and those words being said first to the five talent man and next to the two talent man.

And why did Jesus say that to those two men?

Because they were FAITHFUL STEWARDS of what God had given them. (Hold that thought. More on that in a moment.)

How near and dear should faithfulness be to our hearts?

Prov. 3:3 says

Proverbs 3:3 ESV

Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart.

The next two verses say:

Proverbs 3:4–5 ESV

So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Have you ever thought about why faithfulness should be held near and dear to our hearts?

Because it’s RARE!

It’s hard to find!

Proverbs 20:6 is a good one! It says, “Most men will proclaim each his own goodness, But who can find a faithful man?”

In other words, many men are all talk, but no action when it comes to their supposed “goodness!”

A truly FAITHFUL man, a “good and faithful servant,” is hard to come by!

And we know this since we are familiar with God’s Word’s teaching on the fact that narrow and strait is the way that leads to life, and FEW there are that find it!

So now that we have looked at a few verses that deal with why faithfulness is so important, let’s now discuss some …

CHARACTERISTICS THAT DESCRIBE SOMEONE WHO IS FAITHFUL:

The first I’d like to mention is that a faithful person is a good steward of what has been entrusted to him.

This goes back to the parable of the talents that we talked about earlier.

The parable of the talents (Matt. 25) is very clear that we have to be good stewards of the things that God has given us.

What is a talent in the parable?

It is a piece of money (In fact, the parable deals very LARGE amounts of money).

So we have to be good stewards of that.

And then the usual application we make is also true — We have to be good stewards of our TIME, our OPPORTUNITIES, our RELATIONSHIPS with our families, and of course our TALENTS in the sense of ABILITIES.

A good steward is going to be FAITHFUL with all that God has entrusted to him.

But secondly, the faithful is one will go the extra mile.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:41 in the sermon on the Mount - “And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.”

I’m told that Roman law was that if a soldier asked you to carry his equipment, you were required to do so for one mile!

Jesus doubles that amount for those who are faithful!

In other words, Christianity is NOT about doing just the bare minimum!

Far from it!

The least common denominator approach to Christianity is a sham!

God expects MORE from us, not less!

Those who believe that they can be faithful to God by just checking off a few boxes and calling it a day may be in for a rude awakening one day:

“I’ve put in my time on Sunday.”

“I’ve checked off the box for attendance today.”

“I’ve given a few dollars. I’ve taken the Lord’s Supper.”

(Have you ever seen when Christians would take the Lord’s Supper, and then LEAVE and not even worship for the rest of the assembly?!)

(Story about Jordan and I sitting in the church building one time and some people came by asking if they could take the Lord’s Supper and then be on their way).

Faithfulness is about MORE, not less!

And then finally, those who are faithful will not commit spiritual adultery against God!

Do you remember UNFAITHFUL Israel during the time of Hosea?

They had commited spiritual adultery!

They had turned their back on God!

And God tells Hosea to go and take a wife that would end up being unfaithful to him.

But Hosea still loved Gomer!

And it represents the everlasting love of God, Who is ALWAYS faithful, even when we’re not!

And Hosea ends up redeeming Gomer (Buying her back!)

The faithful will not commit spiritual adultery against God, but will rather seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Finally tonight …

WHAT ABOUT THE UNFAITHFUL?

We know the answer, don’t we.

Matthew 25:30 - “And cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

Matthew 25:41 - ““Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:”

Revelation 21:8 - “But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.””

John 5:28–29 - “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

Conclusion:

So that leads us to our invitation tonight.

Are you ready?