A. Definition.
1. There is only one person who is totally faithful to you and related to you, and that is God. He can only be faithful to you because of His perfect character.
2. Divine faithfulness is God’s grace expression to the believer using His perfect character as the basis for expression. Faithfulness hinges on the essence of God. God is perfect, fair, and stable to Himself, and He will be all these things to you as well, Lam 3:21-25.
3. God can be faithful to you because of propitiation. His faithfulness, therefore, does not depend upon your spiritual status. Propitiation removes any compromise to the essence of God.
4. Divine faithfulness manifests itself in divine discipline to the reversionist and in blessing to the mature believer.
5. All faithfulness in the human realm resides first of all in the soul. Faithfulness is an attitude to something in life which you love, respect, admire, or recognize its authority.
6. The fact that you are alive, plus everything you have, is a matter of God’s faithfulness to you. He is faithful and loves you every moment.
B. God is faithful to us in rebound, 1 Jn 1:9.
1. God knew our sins in eternity past. He imputed them to Christ on the cross and judged them. God is interested in the fact that Jesus Christ took our place as our substitute. God is justified to forgive us because He has been propitiated by the sacrifice of His perfect Son. Therefore, there is no compromise to His integrity when He faithfully forgives us when we name our sins.
2. There is no merit in naming a sin. Legalism says you must feel sorry to be forgiven, but grace says that how you feel is not the issue.
3. When we cite our sin, God faithfully forgives us regardless of how we feel. Therefore, you can forget the sin and move on immediately.
4. Only arrogant people say you can commit a sin which will cause God to abandon you and not forgive you.
5. Grace forgiveness is never a license to sin, but is the motivation to press on to spiritual maturity.
6. The basis of God’s faithfulness is His grace, Jas 1:17.
C. God’s faithfulness is manifest in His perfect plan, 1 Cor 1:9.
1. We were “called” in eternity past when God was aware of all our failures. God found a way to take us through all His grace plan without any compromise of His essence.
2. Knowing every sin, human good deed, and evil thing we would ever do, God still selected us to have human life at birth, and elected us to equal privilege and opportunity at salvation. As a part of His faithfulness, He has provided for every believer his very own divine dynasphere in which to function as the basis for equal opportunity to reach spiritual maturity.
D. God’s faithfulness is manifest in logistical grace provision and supergrace blessing, 1 Thes 5:24.
1. You should never worry about the basic necessities to sustain your life. God will provide everything you will never need.
2. It was harder for God to find a way to save us than it is for God to bless us in time. If He could do the most for us at salvation, it follows, a fortiori, that He can provide the lesser blessing of logistical grace support in time.
3. God’s perfect faithfulness to you in eternity past inevitably leads to His perfect faithfulness to you in time. There never was a time when God wasn’t totally faithful to you.
4. Principle: If God was faithful to you in eternity past, He can only be faithful to you in time and eternity as well.
E. God’s Faithfulness in Testing, 1 Cor 10:13; 2 Cor 4:17; Rom 8:18.
1. God will not allow us to be tested or tempted beyond our capacity and capability to pass the test or say no to the temptation.
2. We are tested in the area of logistical grace support from God. We are also tested regarding our love of doctrine versus social life, loved ones, our failures, other distractions, and our families.
3. Prior to spiritual maturity, we must all pass through the valley of momentum testing at gate #7 of the divine dynasphere.
4. Even in spiritual maturity, we face evidence testing, as did Abraham when he was commanded to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice.
5. So you are tested in all stages of spiritual growth, but never beyond your capacity.
6. As a part of God’s faithfulness, He always provides the doctrine or the opportunity to get the doctrine necessary to pass each test before it comes. Therefore, Bible doctrine is your way of escape from each test, and that doctrine is provided by the faithfulness of God.
7. God will never give you something for which you do not have the capacity, be it blessing or testing.
F. God is faithful to the royal family of God.
1. Heb 10:23, “Let us keep on holding fast to the profession of our confidence unbending, because the One having promised is faithful.”
2. You have the most fantastic escrow blessings on deposit for you, protected by the faithfulness of God.
3. The more doctrine you have in your soul, the more you see God’s perfect character, and the more you advance to spiritual maturity. This results in the things around you which were formerly distracting to your spiritual growth becoming less and less important.
G. God is faithful to the reversionistic believer, 2 Tim 2:13.
1. Since God has perfect character, how can He not be faithful to us even if we reject and deny Him? God cannot be anything less than He is.
2. God is faithful in keeping the reversionistic, degenerate believer alive for discipline. That same believer still goes to heaven after an entire life of rejection of Bible doctrine, just as surely as the apostle Paul went to heaven.
H. God is faithful to the believer in the realm of the angelic conflict. God is faithful to protect and guard you in the midst of the unseen angelic battle which is fought daily all around you, 2 Thes 3:3.
I. God’s faithfulness becomes a reality as you advance to and reach spiritual maturity.
1. Heb 11:11, “ .. . because she concluded Him faithful who had promised.”
2. Heb 13:5, “Let your way of life be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, `I will never abandon you, nor will I ever desert you.’”
J. Conclusion.
1. Faithfulness is the consistency and stability of God.
2. Faithfulness is the perfection of God’s essence and the fact that He cannot be inconsistent or compromise His essence.
3. Faithfulness is the fact that God cannot change His essence and be unfair to anyone.
4. God is consistent with Himself; therefore, He is faithful and consistent with us.
5. God keeps His word. He has never made a promise He has not kept, Ps 119.
6. There never was a time when God was unfaithful, Hos 14:9. It is blasphemy to think so.
7. Therefore, unfaithfulness is totally incompatible with the very nature and essence of God, Mal 3:6.
8. The very existence, function, and provision of blessing for the royal family of God, both now and forever, depends on the faithfulness and character of God. 9. God is always prepared. He is never caught off guard. God’s nature is to be faithful.
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R. B. Thieme, Jr. Bible Ministries 5139 West Alabama, Houston, Texas 77056 (713) 621-3740
© 1995, by R. B. Thieme, Jr. All rights reserved.
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