Faithful
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Every so often we take the kids to the Point Defiance Zoo.
And on our way just off 167 where it meets Meridian we always see the Old Puyallup Bridge just hanging out in the trees.
Apparently no one wants it.
Do you remember driving on it?
It would shake. If you were stuck in traffic, your car would be suspended above the Puyallup River, just about 30 feet above near certain death, and you’d be bouncing up and down. Remember that?
I would often drive more aggressively than normal just to get off that thing because I didn’t trust it.
I think this is a helpful picture as we consider the faithfulness of God.
Will God be faithful to hold me? Or will he start shaking and inevitably collapse?
Is it wise to put the weight of my life on him?
Life so often feels shaky. We are hanging 30 feet above what feels like certain death all of the time. Sometimes we’re more aware of it than others.
Most of the time we’re driving by in life and don’t think about it. But then we lose our job, or our career is called into question, or the economy turns, or our mental health goes sidewise, our kids health changes, our marriage struggles. And it feels like the bridge is shaking.
COVID was when the world realized that the world isn’t so firm. And everyone freaked out because we felt the bridge shake.
In the church we often talk about deconstructing.
People are hurt by their church, their pastor, their christian friends. And they wonder, is God faithful? Or would it be wise to lean on something else?
Who can we trust? Who do you trust?
As we hang in the balance, the Bible tells us to reach for God, because he is abounding, full of, never lacking in, faithfulness.
God himself pronounces - I am faithful.
This morning we’re going to consider, is God faithful?
We’re going to look at what it means that God is faithful, how we see God’s faithfulness in Scripture, and how we might respond.
What is faithfulness?
Faithfulness in Ex. 34:6 is the Hebrew word EMET.
It is the fifth of God’s attributes that he gives us in this verse.
We’ve already learned about God’s compassion - his maternal like compulsion to move towards human weakness.
His grace - his unmerited favor to do for us we could never do for ourselves. And his grace cost him everything but costs us nothing.
He’s slow to anger, or long of nose. It takes a lot to get him heated up. And ultimately Jesus took the heat for us so we could be reconciled to God.
And last week Fletcher preached on God’s steadfast love, his eternal covenant goodness for his people.
These verses are God’s self-revelation in the midst of what is Israel’s worst moment.
They have rejected God and begun worshiping other gods. We’ve talked about that context the last few weeks and we’ll look at it again in a few moments.
Faithfulness is the Hebrew word EMET
It’s related to the word that we say when we pray - Amen! That’s the untranslated Hebrew word that just means, “That’s true!”
So EMET or faithfulness has to do with truth, ideas or concepts that are not false but true.
But it also has to do with something that is steady, firm, and reliable.
One example is in Exodus 17.
God has rescued his people from Egypt, but now this little slave nation is under attack from the Amalekites.
But as long as Moses keeps his hands in the air, the Israelites win.
12 But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.
Faithfulness has to do with someone or something that is steady. It hold firm, even when other things grow weary and tired.
People can be faithful.
If you say your spouse is faithful, you mean they’re true or trustworthy.
Later in Exodus 18, Moses appoints leaders who are have emet.
21 Moreover, look for able men from all the people, men who fear God, who are trustworthy and hate a bribe, and place such men over the people as chiefs of thousands, of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens.
They’re faithful because they can’t be bribed into lying. They hold firm to truth. So they’re worthy to lead.
So what does it mean in Exodus 34:6 that God is abounding in emet?
He’s firm, steady, and reliable. He never grows weary, or faint, and will not be bribed into falsehood.
That’s why Moses calls him the Rock.
4 “The Rock, his work is perfect,
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and upright is he.
Notice how the title of the Rock is tied to faithfulness.
God is abounding in rock-ness. There is no rock like our God.
Faithfulness is not separate from God’s other attributes.
He’s one God a complete and whole being.
But having faithfulness at the end means that God is compassionate, gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love all the time.
In good times and bad, in sickness and in health, in plenty and in want. God is the Rock.
What shaky part of life becomes steadier if you believe that?
It’s one thing for God to just say “I am faithful” but how do we see God’s faithfulness in Scripture?
HOW DO WE SEE GOD’S FAITHFULNESS IN THE BIBLE?
This word emet and similar words show up all over the place in Exodus.
The verb form of faithfulness is just the word - believe, or have faith, or trust.
You can be trustworthy and you can place your trust in someone or something.
In Exodus 3 and 4, God appears to Moses.
He wants to show his eternal compassion to Israel and graciously save them from slavery in Egypt.
But Moses doesn’t fully trust God.
1 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’ ”
There’s our word - believe.
Moses’ concern is that the people will not consider him trustworthy. But really what Moses is saying is that he doesn’t trust God. So God gives him 5 chances because he’s slow to anger, despite Moses’ lack of trust.
But we read later after Moses and Aaron speak to the people they do believe.
31 And the people believed; and when they heard that the Lord had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worshiped.
So this is good! Great to see. God is faithful, and his people are showing faith.
God frees Israel from Egypt, but they come to the Red Sea, they are between a Rock and a wet place. And they freak out.
11 They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? 12 Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.” 13 And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. 14 The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
God shows himself faithful. Pharoah and his army get swept away by the water, but God allows them to walk on firm dry ground. He’s the bridge.
31 Israel saw the great power that the Lord used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in his servant Moses.
Already we’re seeing that God is faithful, and people are…sometimes.
God saves his people from Egypt and then makes a covenant with them at Sinai.
He shows his hesed, his grace, and compassion.
But, Moses went up the big rock to meet with God and he’s been gone for a day, two days, three days, a week, two weeks, three weeks, four weeks…five weeks. 40 days.
This recently freed nation of slaves who have no idea how to govern themselves, defend themselves, provide for themselves, now have no leader.
It’s like they’re on the Old Puyallup Bridge and it’s really shaking.
So what do you do? You reach for security!
And in the ANE, and in Egyptian culture that they were familiar with, you made idol statues to worship the gods, appease them so they’ll protect you.
What’s the problem with that? God just defeated those gods in Egypt. We’ve learned they’re weak. And God just commanded them not to worship those gods or make idols of him.
They make the golden calf and worship it. The people are unfaithful.
And as Dave said several weeks ago, the reason we see Exodus 34:6-7 repeated over and over and over in the Old Testament is because this golden calf sin gets repeated over and over and over.
God is abounding in faithfulness and we are abounding in unfaithfulness.
God is faithful, and that means he will do what he says.
And he promised to judge his people if they continued in sin.
And so after hundreds of years of unfaithfulness, God sends Babylon and they carry Israel away and sack Jerusalem.
And in that place of suffering, Israel could have deconstructed their faith.
Where is God now? But in this place God gives us the Psalms. And in the Psalms, Israel prays, God are you still faithful? Or have you finally decided to walk out on us?
49 Lord, where is your steadfast love of old,
which by your faithfulness you swore to David?
God are you still going to send a savior? Are you still with us? Or should we put the weight of our life on something else?
As we turn to the New Testament, In Jesus we see the faithfulness of God.
God was faithful to uphold his covenant with his people.
Paul says that it’s the whole reason Jesus came.
8 For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God’s truthfulness, in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs,
Even though it looked like God had left the building, he had not.
God’s promise to bless all nations through Israel is fulfilled in Jesus. Israel was unfaithful, but Jesus was faithful.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Even though humans are unstable, unreliable, and unfaithful, Jesus is the God-man who came in the weakness of human flesh but showed the rock-like strength of God.
5 and from Jesus Christ the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of kings on earth.
To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood
Israel was supposed to be a witness for god to the nations. But they ended up just looking like the otehr nations, worshiping false gods. Not so with Jesus. He is the faithful witness.
Everything we could not be, Jesus is!
Even when Jesus hung on the cross, hanging over the edge of death, Jesus remained faithful to God.
He died to forgive the sins of his people, and he rose again to prove that God is reliable. He is a Rock that not even Death can shatter.
And now he’s the cornerstone of our faith and of the church.
And he will come again one day to right all wrongs.
11 Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war.
The faithful king is our hope.
How do we respond?
Faith
Put your trust in him.
Jesus is the bridge to life. He not only is the way, he’s the truth, he is the life.
And it’s through faith in him that we are reconciled to God.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Even so, there are obstacles to faith.
Paul says earlier in Romans that sin is this heart sickness that causes us to suppress the truth.
We would rather worship a lie than put our faith in the truth.
So it should be no surprise that Mark Twain says “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.”
Life is dangerous. Uncertain. Shaky. And our sinful hearts cause us to turn to anything that offers safety.
We are like Israel. God has defeated the false gods, but we still rush to worship them so they can give us some stability.
Money - If I just have enough saved, make enough at this job, then I’ll be okay.
We worship experts - If I read this book, listen to this podcast, go see this therapist, they’ll give me the truth, and then I’ll know what to do.
We worship family - If we just put everything into our kids, our families, then they will give us true satisfaction, joy, and peace.
We worship ourselves - If all else fails, I will trust in myself. My skills, my ability to get things done. You can’t trust others or god, you have to pull yourself up and do what it takes.
And yet these bridges shake and collapse.
Money comes and goes and never, never satisfies. Experts seem wise and then their wisdom is debunked. Our families let us down. But no one lets us down like ourselves, no matter how much we try and convince others it’s not true.
And then, we are told by the pastor, have faith!
And we go, great! Another thing I’m terrible at! Another thing that will let me down.
But here’s the good news - it’s not about how strong your faith is, it’s about how strong our faithful God is.
We grow our faith not by trying harder, but by careful, thoughtful examination of the person and work of Jesus.
In his book, “Why Johnny Can’t Preach,” T David Gordon tells the story of an old Southern Presbyterian theologian Robert Lewis Dabney and his friend Clement Read Vaughan.
Dabney moved from Virginia to Austin about 20 years after the Civil War, and lived there another 15 years. In his final years he became blind and weak and wondered if he’d have strong enough faith to face his impending death.
His friend Vaughan wrote back a beautiful reply that I think fits our message. He told Dabney to think about what a traveler would do if he came across a chasm, a river, and a bridge.
“What does he do to breed confidence in the bridge? He looks at the bridge; he gets down and examines it. He doesn’t stand at the bridge-head and turn his thoughts curiously in on his own mind to see if he has confidence in the bridge. If his examination of the bridge gives him a certain amount of confidence, and yet he wants more, how does he make his faith grow? Why, in the same way; he still continues to examine the bridge.
Now, my dear old man, let your faith take care of itself for awhile, and you just think of what you are allowed to trust in. Think of the Master’s power, think of his love; think how he is interested in the soul that searches for him, and will not be comforted until he finds him. Think of what he has done, his work. That blood of his is mightier than all the sins of all the sinners that ever lived. Don’t you think it will master yours?
May God give you grace, not to lay too much stress on your faith, but to grasp the great ground of confidence, Christ, and all his work and all his personal fitness to be a sinner’s refuge. Faith is only an eye to see him…Think of the Bridge!” - Why Johnny Can’t Preach, T. David Gordon, 76-77
Think of the Bridge!
Does life feel shaky? Examine the faithfulness of Jesus.
What obstacles are you facing? Think of the bridge.
Are you shaking from your own unfaithfulness? Think of the faithfulness of Jesus.
Are you tired of leaning on things that collapse? Reconsider your life and put your trust in Jesus and receive eternal life.
Are you dangling over what feels like certain death? Think about the strength of Jesus.
Are you uncertain? Don’t put your energy in evaluating your own strength, ponder the stability of Jesus.
No matter what obstacles we face, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Think of the bridge. He is abounding in faithfulness.
