Great Is Thy Faithfulness - [Lam 3:22-23]

A couple of Sundays ago, Gil, as only Gil can do with his passionate flair, sang one of my favorite hymns,

Great is Thy Faithfulness. O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever wilt be.

Great is Thy Faithfulness goes the chorus. Great is Thy Faithfulness. Morning by morning, new mercies

I see. All I have needed, Thy hand has provided. Great is Thy Faithfulness, Lord, unto me.

So that's what I wanted to look at briefly this morning. In my estimation, I think it's one of the neglected aspects of God's character.

Great is Thy Faithfulness. And you'll see in your notes, everybody got a handout if you want one?

There's more. Some of the men were passing them out. You'll see in the notes, we're going to look at basically what

God is faithful to His, and I'll walk you through that. And then in the back, ultimately, what should our response to knowing that God is faithful ought to be.

But by way of intro, let me have you turn to Lamentations chapter 3. This is by way of intro before we actually get into your handout notes here.

Lamentations chapter 3, verses 22 to 23. Who would like to read that once you find it?

Lamentations chapter 3, verses 22 to 23. What's that?

Handout, handout. Here you go, Mike. Lamentations chapter 3, 22 and 23.

Anybody? Go ahead. Mark, nice and loud. Thank you.

Familiar verses, right? Written in a book called what? Lamentations?

I mean, there are Psalms of Lament. In here, the writer, the weeping prophet as he is called,

Jeremiah, is talking about the steadfast love of the Lord, His mercies and His faithfulness, how great it is.

To understand the impact of what he's writing, let me give you a little background. Who wrote this? As I mentioned,

Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. You don't have to turn there, but Jeremiah chapter 20, he writes, beginning in verse 14.

This is Jeremiah now, a prophet of God. He says, and I quote the scriptures,

Cursed be the day on which I was born. What? A prophet of God would say that?

And he continues, The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed. Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father.

A son is born to you, making him very glad. Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity.

Let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon because he did not kill me in the womb.

He's not advocating what you think he is. So my mother would have been my grave in her womb forever.

Great. Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow and spend my days in shame?

That's the prophet Jeremiah who just wrote the verses we read about the faithfulness and mercy and steadfast love of God.

What were the circumstances he was writing in? Well, it was part of the southern kingdom of Judah, which was walking in disobedience and rebellion to God, specifically idolatry.

They were sacrificing children to the god Moloch. And because of that,

God's impending judgment was upon them. So these are the circumstances Jeremiah found himself in.

This is how he expressed how he felt because of the circumstances. God had called them, as we would read in Jeremiah.

One time doesn't allow us to do that, where God told him, I knew you before you were born. I called you to be a prophet before you came into the world.

God's sovereign call to Jeremiah's ministry. But in essence, God was saying to Jeremiah, look, you're going to speak my very words that I give you.

But I want you to know ahead of time that the people are not going to listen. So Jeremiah, in this circumstance, writes what he writes in Lamentations chapter three that we just read.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness.

The question begs us to answer is why could Jeremiah write that when he felt the way he did about his birth?

And in the circumstances he found himself in, the people did not listen and they were in rebellion against God.

Why could he write that? Very simply because of the steadfast love of the

Lord. Pastor Dave, I believe it was last year in the fall, did a session in Sunday school on Chesed.

The steadfast love of the Lord. Some of you are shaking your head, you remember that. It refers to God's loyalty.

It refers to God being a covenant keeping God. It refers to God's love for his people, his faithfulness to his promises.

So, Jeremiah was able to talk of the faithfulness of God in the midst of those difficult circumstances as a prophet of God who wasn't listened to in the midst of rebellion and disobedience and even idolatry.

Not because he saw the circumstances of the people of God who rebelled against him, but because his eyes were on the

God, his Chesed, his steadfast love. And because of that, he was able to glory in God's faithfulness.

The question begs for us to answer for our own self. Do we look within ourselves or to our circumstances?

We would never talk about great is thy faithfulness. Only when we remember the steadfast love of the

Lord. So, let's look at, in your notes, what God is faithful to. God is faithful to his, as you'll see in your notes.

Number one, he is faithful to, first of all, his person. God is faithful to his person.

What do I mean by that? Simply mean that God will never and can never do anything contrary to his nature.

God will never and can never do anything contrary to his nature.

For example, Psalm 119, I believe verse 68 says, You are good and what you do is good.

You are good, that's who God is, amongst other things, and what you do is good. In other words, what he does flows out of his being.

God can never and will never do anything contrary to his nature. And we'll see here, the faithfulness of God intertwines, that's why

I think it's so important. I believe, in my estimation, it's neglected in many circles, that it intertwines with the rest of his attributes.

And I'm going to read from A .W. Toza, The Knowledge of the Holy. If you don't have this, this is available in our book,

Strive to Believe, right, Eric? Good book to have, an easy read on the attributes of God. But he says in the chapter on the faithfulness of God, describe and listen carefully how the faithfulness of God connects to the other attributes of God.

And Toza writes this, In studying any attribute, the essential oneness of all the attributes soon becomes apparent.

We see, for instance, that if God is self -existent, he must also be self -sufficient.

And if he has power, he, being infinite, must have all power. If he possesses knowledge, his infinitude assures us that he possesses all knowledge.

Similarly, his immutability presupposes his faithfulness. If he is unchanging, it follows that he could not be unfaithful, since that would require him to change.

Any failure within the divine character would argue imperfection. And since God is perfect, it could not occur.

Thus the attributes explain each other and prove that they are but glimpses, the mine and joys of the absolutely perfect Godhead.

All of God's acts are consistent with all of his attributes. No attribute contradicts any other, but all harmonize and blend into each other in the infinite abyss of the

Godhead. All that God does agrees with all that God is.

And being and doing are one in him. The familiar picture of God as often torn between his justice and his mercy is altogether false to the facts.

To think of God as inclining first toward one and then toward another of his attributes is to imagine a

God who is unsure of himself, frustrated, and emotionally unstable, which, of course, is to say that the one of whom we are thinking is not the true

God at all, but a weak mental reflection of him badly out of focus. Knowledge of the

Holy, A .W. Tozer. Pick it up from our bookstore. He is faithful to his person because he can never and will never do anything contrary to who he is.

So it encompasses all his attributes. God is faithful to always be holy. God is faithful to always be sovereign.

God is faithful to always be merciful. God is faithful to always be gracious. His faithfulness extends to every one of his other attributes because, ultimately, he is unchanging.

Didn't the hymn writer say it, as I mentioned at the beginning, great is thy faithfulness? There is no shadow, quoting from James 1, of turning with thee.

Thou changest not, right? So he is faithful to be true to who he is.

Secondly, God is faithful to his promises. Not only is he faithful to his person, to who he is intrinsically by nature, but he is faithful to his promises.

I have that in your notes. Can somebody read 1 Kings 8, verse 56 there? Go ahead,

Anthony. Thank you. This is Solomon in the time the context was a prayer of dedication for the temple that he was building.

And look what he says there, as I highlighted. Not one word has failed of all his good promise.

Solomon is praying in this prayer of dedication of the temple, remembering God's faithfulness, that he promised to David that somebody will build the temple.

And he is reminded again, even from the time of Moses, his servant, that not one word has failed of all that God had promised.

Not one. It's not 98%, it's not 99%, it's 100%. Whatever God has promised, he will bring to pass.

Not one word has failed, and Solomon was assured of that. Let me ask you this. We can discuss this a little bit.

In the Scripture, what are some of God's promises to us as believers?

What are some of God's promises? Let's think about that to us as believers. Joel? Okay, never will

I leave you, never will I forsake you. God's abiding presence in us. It also reminds me to piggyback on what

Joel said. Christ's final words to the Twelve ultimately represented to us his body. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the

Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all that I have commanded you. Quite a daunting task. And he says this, and surely

I'm with you always to the end of the age. So very good. God's abiding presence. Yes, Joni? Never be tempted beyond what you can bear, but it will give you a way out.

Very good. She looked at my notes ahead of time. Very good. We'll cover that a little bit more.

That's 1 Corinthians 10. Very good. Anybody else? Promises. Freddie? Okay. John 28 and 29, right?

Whatever. Nobody can pluck me out of my hand. Nobody can pluck me out of the Father's hand. That's your reference. You're talking about?

Yes. Assurance of salvation. That's why in verse 30 he says, I, Jesus talking, and the Father are one.

Excellent. The assurance of our salvation. I also had Christ's return as one that I was thinking of in the

Upper Room Discourse. John 14, verse 3, one of his promises to the disciples and ultimately also to us.

If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself. That where I am there, you may be also.

God's promise. Christ's promise of returning. He will come back. The second coming.

Titus is another one I had. I like how the way Paul puts it to Titus here at the introduction of his letter to Titus.

He says, Titus chapter 1, verse 1, Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God's elect and their knowledge of the truth, which accords with godliness.

And he says in verse 2, continuing in hope of eternal life, eternal life, which

God, who never lies, promised before the ages began. We're talking about God being faithful to his promises.

And he throws in a parenthetical note. We have the hope of eternal life from God who, oh, by the way, God never lies.

So what he promised he will bring to pass. Not one word has failed and not one word will fail.

So he's faithful to his person, to who he is in terms of his nature and all his attributes working together.

He's faithful to his promises. And number three, we'll spend a little time on this one.

God is faithful to his people. God is faithful to his people.

For that, if you would turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 7 for a moment. Deuteronomy chapter 7.

Now, the question I want us to address briefly is, OK, he's faithful to his people, but OK, we said he's faithful to his person because he can't do anything contrary to who he is.

And he's faithful to his promises because that's who God is. He is faithful to what he has promised. Not one word has failed.

The question begs, why is he faithful to his people? Is he faithful to his people because of his people?

Or is he faithful to his people because of him? Let's see what Deuteronomy 7 says. OK, if someone can read from verse 6 down to, let's see, verse 9.

6 through 9, nice and loud, so we can all hear you. Go ahead, Gary. Thank you.

So God is explaining clearly to the nation of Israel why he chose him. And he makes it clear why he didn't choose him, did he not?

It's not because you were the greatest number on the face of the earth. That's not why he chose you. It's nothing to do with intrinsically what's in you.

But I chose you, why does he say? But it is because, verse 8, as Gary read, because the

Lord loves you. Was there anything lovable in the nation of Israel per se?

I mean, we looked at, for example, this is before Jeremiah the prophet, but we look at the history of Israel, how they rebelled and disobeyed

God. And God is saying, no, there was nothing in you, but it was because of what's in me intrinsically, who

I am, because the Lord loves you. And then, verse 9, it says, No, therefore, that the

Lord your God is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and chesed, steadfast love, mercy, the covenant keeping

God. So God is faithful to his people, not only then, but even today, his church, not because of anything in us even, but because of who he is intrinsically in him.

That's where his faithfulness stems. Let's look at the four areas, as you'll see in your notes, where God is faithful to his people.

The first one, number one, under part three there, is God is faithful to their provision.

Provision is the key word. Let's look at two aspects of that, of God's provision for his people. One is in Philippians 419.

Let's turn there together. Philippians 419, familiar verse. The book of Philippians is interesting because we were going through it with a college and career group a couple of years ago, and it's one of the, it's a small epistle, but it's one of those books that probably has the most verses taken out of context than any other.

And this being one of them. Actually, chapter four has a lot of them like that. Philippians chapter 419, and we will look at the context, but if somebody can read that out loud, that would be great.

Thanks, George. God's provision. Notice, when you study the

Bible, by the way, besides when you're studying, observing what the text says, it's also important to observe what it does not say, right?

This is true in this verse, for example. And my

God may supply. It doesn't say may. It says will, as was highlighted in John 6.

As Pastor Steve's been walking us through John 6, will. And my God will supply some of your needs.

It doesn't say some of your needs. It says every. And also notice what it doesn't say. And my

God will supply every want of yours. It doesn't say your wants. It says your needs.

But what needs, the question is, what needs is he referring to? Well, from the context, look at me at verse 14.

I'll read there a little bit. What are the needs that Paul is referring to here that God will provide for his people?

Paul writes, beginning in verse 14, Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when

I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you alone.

You owe me. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit.

I have received full payment and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Paul is talking about the financial gift that the Philippians had given as a gift to support him in the ministry.

And actually, at the beginning of the book, Philippians 1, he refers to their partnership, their fellowship.

It's the word for fellowship, koinonia in the Greek, and it's the same word he uses here. They were partners in the gospel because of their financial support in his ministry.

And so he's saying to them, you gave sacrificially and abundantly, and he reminds them, because you gave, my

God will supply every one of your financial and material needs. And even in the context before that,

Paul says of himself, beginning in verse 10 of chapter 4,

I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me.

You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I'm speaking of being in need, material need, financial need, and we'll see he says that here.

For I've learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound.

In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.

And here's another verse out of context. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Two verses in chapter 4 out of context.

What can I do all things, Paul, through him who strengthens me? I can learn to be content whether I have much financially, materially, or little.

The secret to contentment is not my material possessions. And he's saying to the Philippians, because of your gift, God will supply your needs.

Be encouraged by that. So that's one way that God provides for his people. A second one you'll see in your verse there is the one that Joni mentioned earlier.

1 Corinthians 10 .13. Let's actually turn to that. Remind us back when Pastor Mike was walking us through 1

Corinthians. 1 Corinthians 10 .13. This is one of the verses

I learned early on as a young Christian. So God provides for his people, not only financially, but he provides in another way.

1 Corinthians 10 .13. Joni, would you mind reading that? Thank you.

Notice he highlights Paul does the faithfulness of God there. And, of course, the context is going back to the

Old Testament and talking about how the people went into temptation and they sinned.

And he's saying the repeated phrase in the context of chapter 10, as some of them did, as some of them did do not grumble, do not be idolaters, do not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did.

And after he goes through those examples, those bad examples, he's reminding us that no temptation is overtaken.

God is faithful. How is his faithfulness shown? What will he do for his people? He will provide a way of escape when tempted.

God is faithful to do that. When you're tempted and you give in to the temptation and thus sin, it's not because God wasn't faithful.

God is faithful to always provide a way for his people to walk in holiness and escape temptation.

So we see God is faithful to his people in providing for them for their material and financial needs and for providing for them a way out from temptation.

Now, going back to Philippians, by the way, I just wanted to say, this does not mean, Paul in Philippians, by the way, forgot to mention, is not promoting the health and wealth gospel, not a prosperity gospel, because he said in the context, as I remind you,

I've learned to be content whether I have little or much. It's irrelevant. So God will provide for his people.

Number two, under part three, God's faithfulness to his people. His faithfulness is shown in their protection, their protection.

Turn with me briefly to Psalm 91 there. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this because Eric did an excellent job last

Sunday night walking us through this passage. If you weren't here, I would encourage you to go to our website and listen to it.

I would encourage you to just not listen to one part of that message because Eric did what in Pastor Mike's homiletics class will be a no -no.

He used a cat illustration rather than a dog illustration. Just keep over that part. So Psalm 91,

I just want to highlight a couple of things. I'm not going to go into it in too much depth. This is

God's faithfulness to protect his people. Have somebody read verse 4,

Psalm 91, verse 4. Thank you. Thank you.

His faithfulness is a shield and buckler. He's talking about protection, two different kinds of shields there.

He gives the illustration before that. Under his wings you will find refuge. Verse 2, he says, my refuge and my fortress, all these metaphors of God's protection.

Verse 5, you will not fear the terror of the night nor the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence.

Verse 7, a thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand, but it will not come near you. Now he's not saying that Christians are immune to the trials of life.

He's just saying that God will never allow anything to happen in his people's lives without his sovereign permission.

And God is protecting, watching over his people. He is faithful to do that because of his faithfulness to his people.

Again, reminder, not because of who we are, but because of who he is, he's faithful to us.

Because as Paul reminded Timothy in the Pastoral Epistle, if we deny him, if we are faithless, yet he remains faithful because he cannot deny himself.

So he's faithful to protect his people because of who he is again, going back to Deuteronomy 7, and not because of who we are.

Okay, number 3, God's faithfulness to his people is in their purification.

Kind of alluded to that this morning during Communion, God's faithfulness to their purification, to our purification.

And that's right in your notes. Somebody can read 1 John 1, verse 9. Steve, go ahead.

Thank you. If we confess, which means literally to agree with God, to call sin a sin as God does, he is faithful to forgive us our sins that then cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is not talking about eternal forgiveness. These are the tests that John gives of a true Christian's life.

And one of the tests, he says previously in verse 8 and again in verse 10, that Christians characteristically admit their sin.

He says if you say you have no sin, you've deceived yourselves, you make God out to be a liar and the truth is not in you. But instead, what do we do characteristically?

We confess our sins readily and God will cleanse us. He is faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This is daily cleansing from sin. This is not just eternal forgiveness. For those of us who have been forgiven by God through Jesus Christ, he's asking us as we come to him to confess our sins knowing that he is faithful to cleanse us and to purify us from all unrighteousness.

Okay, fourthly, God is faithful to his people in what sense? In their preservation. God is faithful to his people in their preservation.

Okay, I've got four verses here. Let's divvy it up. Who would like to read these four?

Okay, Freddie, you can start. Mark, next one. Is that a hand, Anthony? The third one and Eric, the last one.

Go ahead. You can just read one after the other. Go ahead. Nice and loud. Thank you.

Notice in all these verses the connection to God's faithfulness to what we traditionally refer to as the perseverance of the saints.

I call it our preservation. Why do we persevere? Because he preserves us.

Because God preserves us. Let me just highlight verse 5 particularly. Now may the

God of what? Interesting how it describes God. May the God of peace himself sanctify you how? Completely.

And may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our

Lord Jesus Christ. How is that going to be possible? Because of our own faithfulness?

Because, no, verse 24, because he who calls you is faithful and he will surely do it.

Guarantee. Those whom God saves he will preserve. He is faithful to the preservation of his people.

And the other verses highlight the same thing. We usually, there are many reasons you can do a doctrinal study, and as we've done here many times, of the perseverance of the saints, of why

God will preserve his people, all the way from the intercessory work of Jesus Christ to what saving faith is all about and the characteristics and manifestations of saving faith.

But here these verses highlight the faithfulness of God, that God is faithful to not only purify his people, that God is faithful to not only provide for them materially and also a way out during temptation, but God is faithful to preserve his people to the very end.

It's Philippians 1 .6, right? I'm convinced Paul says that he will begin a good work and you will complete it till the day of Christ Jesus, because God is faithful.

Like what Pastor Steve mentioned a couple of weeks ago, like the way he put it, when he was talking about the sovereignty of God and salvation in John 6, if the

Father has given you to Jesus, it is Christ's mission to unfailingly keep you.

And by the way, Revelation, one of the names of Christ says, he is what and true? Faithful and true.

Christ is faithful to preserve his people. Okay, before we go on to our response, any questions, comments upon God's faithfulness, whether it's to who he is as a person, his promises or his faithfulness towards his people.

Okay, our response. Last time I did Sunday School, I was reminded,

I was rushing through the time, you know, it almost reminded me of John 16, where Jesus said to the disciples,

I have much more to tell you now, but you cannot bear it. But I thought, well, I'm speaking to BBC, they can bear it.

But it was rushed, so I'm giving enough time for comments and questions here. So feel free at any time. Okay, what should be our response as his people towards his faithfulness?

Number one, on the back of your notes. Praise, that's given, praise or worship or adoration, call it what you want.

Isn't that true of every attribute of who God is? It begins with praise and Psalm 115 that I have there, right?

Who would like to read that? Psalm 115, verse 1. Joel, go ahead.

Thank you. The psalmist begins that way, for the sake of time, we're not going to look at the whole psalm.

But the very next verses say, why do the nations, the unbelieving nations say, where's your

God? Verse 3, a common verse that we refer to the sovereignty of God. Our God is in heaven, he does all that he pleases.

And then the psalmist goes on from verse 4 on to describe the contrast between the true living

God of the Bible, how he is real, versus idols, who do not have ears to hear, who do not have eyes to see.

Yet God sees everything. He is the only true God versus idols.

Therefore, we give him the glory for the sake of his what? Notice again the connection, chesed verse and faithfulness together all the time in scripture.

Because of his steadfast love, his unconditional love and his covenant keeping nature and his faithfulness.

So we are to praise God for his faithfulness. When you praise God, whether in worship and singing or in your prayer life, do you ever think of praising him for his faithfulness?

We praise him for a lot of other things. We highlight the holiness of God, the sovereignty of God and rightly so. But how about his faithfulness?

God, you're faithful to who you are. You're faithful to your promises. You're faithful to me, not because of me, but because of who you are.

And I praise you for that. So that should be our initial response in response to his faithfulness. Number two, this is taken right from Psalm 91.

Trust, trust. Usually we connect trust with the sovereignty of God. If you haven't already,

I don't know if we carry this book in our bookstore by Jerry Bridges, trusting God even when life hurts.

The first four chapters, Jerry does a masterful job on describing the wisdom, love and sovereignty of God, especially the sovereignty of God.

And so rightfully so. And even in scripture, trusting God is connected to his sovereignty.

Right. If God is sovereign and if he's control of everything that happens in your life and in my life, then

I'm to trust him. If I ask you to believe in the sovereignty of God, you say yes. My follow up question is, are you trusting him?

That's the proof that you believe in the sovereignty of God. But here also trust is connected to the faithfulness of God.

Psalm 91, verse two. We look briefly at that Psalm. I will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my

God, in whom I trust. His faithfulness is a faithfulness to protect his people.

So because I know that God is faithful to protect me, to watch over me, therefore

I trust him because I know nothing will happen in my life apart from his will in my life. His sovereign will.

So it's related to his faithfulness because we said his faithfulness connects to every one of his other attributes. He is faithful to always be sovereign.

He cannot change. He's immutable. So we are to trust him knowing that he is faithful.

Number three, we alluded to this already, but I'm just reiterating it again. Confess sin.

Do you regularly confess sin? Do you admit to God your sin? Not for the sake of coming to Christ.

I need the Savior. I'm a sinner. But once God has saved us by his sovereign grace, do we realize that in our process of sanctification that we rarely come to God and say,

Lord, I confess sin. Which the implication of that is if I have sinned always, whenever I sin, it's first and foremost against God, is it not?

But then it could also be against somebody else. So not only do I admit it to God, but I go to somebody and say,

Ben, I'm sorry. I confess that what I said to you was inappropriate and sinful. Would you forgive me?

And why do I do that? Because of the faithfulness of God. His faithfulness to cleanse me and to purify me.

And lastly, I'll show you the connection here. Our response to the faithfulness of God, and I'm not just on an evangelism bandwagon here, is to evangelize.

Is to evangelize. How does the faithfulness of God relate to evangelism?

Let me throw that out to you. How does the faithfulness of God relate to evangelism? Joni? Okay.

Okay, good. So let me repeat that for the sake of the... Joni said that his faithfulness is that, first of all, he commands us to go and preach the gospel.

But God uses it as we pray for people in the gospel and preach the gospel to them that God is faithful to do his will in their lives as we continue to pray and preach the gospel.

Very good. How else is his faithfulness related to evangelism? Irene? Excellent.

Excellent. Good reference. Isaiah 55, the word of God does not return void or empty, right?

But it will accomplish what I desire and will succeed in the matter for which I sent it. That's a reference. So that we can be assured when we preach the gospel, no matter what the person's response,

Irene is saying, that look, we're preaching the word of God. And we have trusted his faithfulness to his word will not return void.

Excellent. Anyone else? How his faithfulness relates to our evangelistic efforts?

Yes, Carmen. Okay. Okay.

Okay. Very good. So Carmen's point is that we rely on God in evangelism because sometimes we're nervous.

We don't know what to say and how to say it. A lot of you are nodding your heads. You're not there, right? You don't understand what she's talking about, I guess. But God is faithful to give us the right words to say to that particular person, that situation.

Of course, she's not saying that the gospel message changes, but how we relate the gospel to that particular person is relying upon the faithfulness of God.

I also see it in terms of the work of the Holy Spirit because he has to do the work, right?

His work of regeneration that I have, he will be faithful to regenerate those whom God has called.

So as I give the gospel message, as I give the word of God in the scriptures, I'm relying on the faithfulness of the

Holy Spirit to regenerate and do what he alone can do and not I can do it. Born again, born of the spirit, not of the will of man, right?

Nor of the will of the flesh. I'm also encouraged, let me give you this illustration of his faithfulness in evangelism in that God is true to his word.

Remember, God is faithful to his promises, and one of the promises is that he will give us the hope of eternal life, which

God never lies. 1 Kings 8, Solomon said, not one word of God has failed. Remember a couple that my wife and I were ministering to when we lived in New York.

He came from a heavily Greek Orthodox background, very ritualistic, not knowing much about the work of Christ, the person of Christ, and what a person's response must be.

And so as we were talking to them about that, he thought, as many of you might have come across too, that I was kind of arrogant to say, what do you mean you know that you have eternal life?

How can you make such a statement? So because I couldn't take all that heat and pressure,

I put it all on God. I said, it's not on me. The onus is not on me.

God has promised that those whom he's called, who put their faith and trust alone, faith in Christ alone, will have, will guarantee, have eternal life.

That's what God has promised. So I'm simply, knowing the character of God, he is faithful to keep his promises,

I'm simply trusting his promise to do what he said he would do. So a lot of times people might think that, well, you say you have assurance of salvation.

Why are you assured of your salvation? And as you relate the gospel to them and preach the good news, Romans 116, the power of God, well, it's because God is faithful to his promises.

It relates to the faithfulness of God. And the onus is on God because he will do what he said he would do.

And I trust God to be faithful to his promises. So it relates to our evangelistic efforts, as it should encourage us and embolden us to know that God is faithful to save those whom he has called.

God is faithful to give us the words that we need when we preach the gospel. Go ahead, Joni. Sure. That's a great point.

Joni is saying that we have to be reminded that as we preach the gospel, it's a fresh reminder, is it not, of where we were.

Basically, Ephesians 2, we also were dead in our trespasses and sins. We walked according to the course of this world.

And if God could save someone like me, that he could save someone like you, then this is very important, what you said, because I've noticed this.

I don't know if any of you have had this experience, probably not, with your family members in particular, who are unsaved, who come across with the notion, well, what makes you so much better?

Even though you might not come across that way, you don't go around saying, look, I'm so much better than you because I'm saved and you're unsaved.

I remember that happened recently with my eldest daughter. Good illustration.

She was praying for her cousin and they visited their cousins and the mother found out through their cousins that my daughter was praying for their salvation.

Why? Did she think she's better? No, and she explained to them, no, we're not better. And a lot of people who are unsaved, especially family members, think that way.

And that's why it's important to actually verbally tell them, say, it's not because I'm better. Actually, this is who I was.

We're in the same boat. This is what the Bible describes who I was before Christ.

And it's only because of what Christ has done. So it's a fresh reminder that we need to stay humble as we go in evangelism towards others that, no,

I'm not any better than anybody else, but I am who I am. As Paul said, 1 Corinthians 15, 10, by the grace of God.

Do I see any other hands or questions? Great. Gary, go ahead. Matthew 28.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Very good point.

Yes. Gary's highlighting Matthew 28, that part of Christ's faithfulness when he told us to make disciples, baptizing and teaching, is that he would be with us till the end of the world.

And that was kind of what, Joel, you highlighted earlier, his abiding presence. Excellent. So I encourage you to think more of the faithfulness of God and how it relates to you, to praise him for it, to trust him for it, to be more emboldened and encouraged in your evangelism, to remember that he is not only faithful to who he is as a person, his promises, but he is faithful to you, to us as his people, not because of what's in us, but because of who he is, his steadfast love.

All right. Let's pray. Father, thanks for this time that we could briefly take a look at another one of your attributes.

And we can never exhaust that, of course, as Tozer had said, that the mightiest thought that it can occupy the mind of man is the thought of God.

And we can continue to grow and mature in our understanding of who you are. And, Father, we praise you this morning for your faithfulness because you are faithful to your person.

You could never do anything and will never do anything contrary to who you are. You are faithful to your promises.

Not one word of yours will fail. You are faithful to your people. You are faithful to provide for us, not only materially, but also to provide a way of escape when we're tempted.

You're faithful to protect us. You're faithful to purify us from all unrighteousness.

And you're faithful, Father, in our lives to preserve us to the very end.

And for that, Father, would you help us to trust you more? Would you help us to be emboldened and encouraged in our evangelism and to readily confess sin to you and to one another?

Father, we could be discouraged. I mean, if there was anyone who could be discouraged, as he penned, was the prophet

Jeremiah. But in the midst of difficult circumstances, he was able to talk of your faithfulness, of your steadfast love and your mercies.

Help us, like Jeremiah, to not look at our circumstances and to not look within ourselves, but to look to you and your faithfulness, which is so great.