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Psalm 145:14-16

June 29/2008

OUR FAITHFUL PROVIDER

Today’s message will deal mightily with the fact of God’s faithfulness to us. In fact his faithfulness is not only concerned with us who have been saved but it also extends to those who have yet to be saved and even to those who will ultimately not be saved. We of course have to come to grips with the fact that God is faithful to us because of his righteousness and character. Not because we have done anything to merit his faithfulness. For there is nothing that we can do to earn God’s grace and faithfulness – in fact scripture is very clear that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile, all have fallen short of his glory and without God’s grace we would all be subject to God’s holy judgment upon our sin.

Because we will be examining God’s faithfulness, let’s look at some other portions of God’s word that help round out our brief exposure to this great attribute of God.

"Your faithfulness endures to all generations; you have established the earth, and it stands fast." (Psalm 119:90, ESV)

"For I said, “Steadfast love will be built up forever; in the heavens you will establish your faithfulness.”" (Psalm 89:2, ESV)

"O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are, O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you?" (Psalm 89:8, ESV)

"but I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness." (Psalm 89:33, ESV)

"Your steadfast love, O Lord, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds." (Psalm 36:5, ESV)

A brief reading of these few verses and we see a recurring theme; faithfulness and steadfast love. The meaning behind this statement is one that describes God ‘binding’ himself to his people. God is making the covenant as well as securing it with his people. Despite their rebellion and their disobedience. It’s not hard for us to look back in biblical history and say to ourselves, ‘they were so out of it! They actually seen the miraculous and still they acted in ignorance and unbelief.’ But before we become too judgmental, look at your own life. How many times have you turned your back on God and committed some treacherous act of sin? Essentially knowing that what you are doing is wrong but ignoring what your God says and doing it anyway. Are we not just like them?

Yet we see God binding himself to us, his fallen creatures, and securing the promise he made that he would save. And this is manifested in no clearer way than his action in sending his one and only son to die for us. Observe what Paul wrote;

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as a sacrifice of atonement, through faith in his blood. He did this to demonstrate his justice, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— he did it to demonstrate his justice at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus." (Romans 3:23-26, NIV)

David wrote after his agonizing confession about his adultery;

"For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me." (Psalm 51:3, NIV)

Again he wrote;

"Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD”— and you forgave the guilt of my sin. " (Psalm 32:5, NIV)

David’s son, Solomon understood this principle;

"He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy." (Proverbs 28:13, NIV)

Likewise the apostle John, in reassuring his church, wrote this;

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9, NIV)

God will not forsake the confession of his children. This faithfulness to himself and his character is described for us in Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church. In chapter two Paul writes that God demonstrated his own love for in the fact that while we were still sinners and objects of his wrath – he made us alive together with Jesus. It is by grace we have been saved. By his grace because of his faithfulness to himself and his promise of a redemption from sin.

Let us not to quickly forget that God’s faithfulness is described as everlasting, established, unfailing, infinite, incomparable and is shown to us through his forgiveness of our sins by our confession to him and through our faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ.

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