Faithfulness — Anton Bosch

Turn with me please to the book of Matthew chapter 25, Matthew chapter 25, and we sang that song, Great is Thy Faithfulness, and Wednesday we were reminded from the book of Lamentations, those words come from the book of Lamentations, the direct quote, Great is Thy Faithfulness.

And I want to speak with you this morning about faithfulness, and I hope in the next few weeks to speak about some practical issues in our relationship with the Lord, in our walk as Christians, and I actually didn't realize, but when I had worked out, I normally work out my message by hand, and then I type up the notes on the computer, and when I came to save them, I realized that I had already preached a similar message a couple of years ago here, because when I came to save it under the title Faithfulness, I discovered there was already one there, and I compared the notes and they were actually quite similar, so if you can remember what I said two years ago, well then you don't have to listen this morning, but I'm sure you can't remember, so let's look at it again.

So let's read from Matthew chapter 25 and verses 14 through 30. For the King of heaven is like a man traveling into a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, and to another two, and to another one, to each one according to his own ability.

And immediately he went on a journey. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents. Likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. And he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his lord's money.

After a long time, the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents, look, I have gained five more talents beside them.

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. He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents.

Look, I have gained two more talents beside them. 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.

Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, I knew that you to be a hard man, reaping where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. And as I was afraid and went and hid and I was afraid and went and hid your talent in the ground.

Look, there you have what is yours. But his lord answered and said to him, you wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers.

And at my coming, I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore, take the talent from him and give it to him who has 10 talents for everyone who has more will be given and he will have an abundance.

But from him who from him who does not have even what he has will be taken away and cast the unprofitable servant into the outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Faithfulness is a term which we don't use very much today outside of the church, I don't think.

But faithfulness speaks about dependability, reliability. We use those words more often. We say that someone is dependable or something is reliable, but it really is the same word. It is it is can be depended on to do what it should do to fulfill its function, to to to do what we expect of it.

And so we speak about a reliable motor car. You know, it will start when you're supposed to start and it'll take you where you're supposed to go. Now, we we we would never speak about a faithful motor car because we speak about faithful people and we speak about reliable things.

But faithfulness is one of those qualities which is very much part of who God is and very much part of what God expects from us. And when you go through the Old Testament or through the whole of the Bible, you find that that faithfulness is one of those attributes that that was unique to every man that God ever used.

Every man who ever became great or any person, women included, who became great in the things of God were those who were found to be faithful. It says concerning Moses, and I've just pulled out three or four for you, Moses, it says in Numbers chapter 12, verse 7, was faithful in the Lord's house.

And in Nehemiah, it speaks about Abraham and it says, you found Abraham, his heart faithful before you. It says concerning Daniel that they could find no fault against him because he was faithful. And Paul says in 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 12, that he counted me faithful and he has put me into the ministry.

And so faithfulness is one of those. And you can go through every one of the people that that God highlighted as men of faith in the book of Hebrews chapter 11 and every other man that became something in the things of God.

And you find that the one quality that they all had was faithfulness. Some of them were great leaders. Some of them were very intelligent. Some of them were very brave. But they were all faithful. It doesn't matter what other qualities we have.

If we if we don't have this quality of faithfulness, all of our other qualities are of no value whatsoever because in and we're speaking about a relationship, we're speaking about our relationship with one another, our relationship with and our relationship with the Lord.

Faithfulness is something which is absolutely paramount in any kind of relationship. If someone is unfaithful in a relationship, and I'm not meaning sexually, but unreliable, undependable. In a has a friend who when you when you call this person will first check on the cell phone who's calling and will decide whether they want to speak to you or don't want to speak to you.

That's not being faithful. Faithfulness means that when you call them, they're there for you. It doesn't matter what time of the day or the night doesn't matter whether it's convenient or not convenient.

They don't check whether you're on the phone or who's on the phone, whether they're going to speak to you. That's not faithfulness means they can be depended on. They can be relied on. They're always the same.

All of us know that one of the most difficult things in any kind of relationship is when one of the parties in the relationship is up and down. You never know what's going to happen. You wake up the day where you meet them and you first say, well, what kind of mood are they in?

Are they really friendly to me today or are they on some other mission today? We need that kind of stability where we know that those people that we are in relationship with are faithful. And the wonderful thing about God is that one of the one of the primary attributes of God is that he is faithful.

He is faithful. Now, in the book of Romans, remember in chapter one, it says that the invisible attributes of God are clearly seen in creation. So so we can see some of the attributes of God in creation.

And one of the attributes of God is that he is faithful, as we saw in Lamentations chapter three on Wednesday night, as you see, just shared with us. Great is thy faithfulness. He is great in his faithfulness.

How do we see that in creation? Well, by the fact that the sun rises every day, by the fact that it sets every every time that the seasons come year after year, that that the flowers begin to bloom in the spring.

These are all evidences of God's as the creator and his faithfulness, that there is a cycle, that there is a routine, that things happen as he has programmed or designed them to happen. And those are all signs of God's absolute and incredible faithfulness.

The fact that that gravity always works, that when you drop something, it's always going to go straight down, right down to the center of the earth. Doesn't matter where you are. That's something you can rely on.

If we if we could not rely on that, well, then we would really have a hard time. You know how the space astronauts, how they go up in space and and everything is all over. Everything is is running. You know, everything just flies all over because there is nothing that holds everything down.

Our lives are based on the fact that God is faithful and that he designs things to be faithful and that north is always north and that gravity always pulls things to the ground. And and so our lives are built on on God's faithfulness, whether we're a Christian or not a Christian.

And so the scriptures have much to say about the faithfulness of God. In Deuteronomy, chapter seven, it speaks about the faithful God. That's one of his names, the faithful God. It speaks about Jesus as being faithful.

And in fact, one of his names in the book of Revelation, chapter 19, is that he is the faithful and the true. Now, we know a lot about the fact that Jesus is the truth. Jesus is I'm the way, the truth and the life.

He is true, but he one of his names is also the faithful, the faithful. And of course, he is faithful to the father. He is faithful to himself. He is faithful to his word. He is faithful to his church.

Can you imagine what it would be like if we if we get up one day and we begin to pray and God says. I've gone fishing. I'm not interested in your issues today. No, God is faithful. If God suddenly just took a vacation.

And just allowed everything to fall apart. I mean, that would be terrible. And one of the things that we as Christians have as an as an anchor and a stability in our hearts and in our lives is that God is faithful, that he is always there, that there is not a time in the day of the night that you call him and he's not going to answer.

He is always there, that God is faithful to his word. He does not change his mind. He doesn't say, well, you know, I've thought about it. I'm going to change the rules. I said that you can go to heaven if you believe in Jesus.

But now, you know, I've changed the rules and and, you know, you need to do all these other things also if you want to make it to heaven. No, one of the things that we're able to build our lives and our faith upon is that he is faithful.

He is reliable. Because how can you have faith in something that is not reliable? If your motorcar starts some days and it doesn't start some other days, you cannot have faith in it. You can't be sure that if I get into the thing, it's going to get me from point A to point B.

And, you know, our faith in God is based on his faithfulness, that what he says he will do, that he does not change, that he is absolutely 100 percent dependable and reliable. And that's who God is. But now he is expecting or he's trying to to infuse in us and to create within us his nature.

Now, we know that by nature, some of us, some people are are faithful just by nature. That's the way they are. Other people by nature are, we call them scatterbrains. They're unreliable, undependable.

They're here today and there tomorrow. And that's the way we are naturally. But when we come to Christ, we need to be changing. And we're going to go through the book of, as we go through the book of Romans, we're going to come to the section that deals with sanctification.

Sanctification is a big fancy word and we we connect it to all sorts of holy stuff. But sanctification is not all holy stuff. It has to do with the basics of who I am and becoming like Jesus. And so all of us need to become faithful so that we may be like Jesus.

That's one of those things. This is this is not a heavy that the church is trying to put on people to try and get people to work for God. Now, this is this is the nature of Christ that he is trying to infuse in us.

And yes, some some people have an easier time at being faithful because, as I said, they are naturally that way and others have a harder time. But the fact is that we all need to learn to be faithful as he is faithful.

To be as reliable, as dependable as he is now dependable or faithful to whom? Well, obviously, first of all, to him. That is our first responsibility. And remember, Paul says that he counted me faithful.

That's the issue. Remember the story that we read about the the people who were judged? They gave an account to the master who said, what have you done? And he says, good and faithful servant. So we need to be faithful to him.

That is our first responsibility. But we need to be faithful to his word, which is really not the separate thing. It's really he and his word on the same thing. And I wrote about that in the article this morning that you we some people say, well, I believe in God, but I don't really believe in the Bible.

I believe in Jesus, but I don't really believe that all of the Bible, no, God and his word are inseparable. You can't say this is God and this is his word. And the two things have no connection. They are the same thing.

So if I'm faithful to God, I will be faithful to his word. We need to be faithful to the church or to one another, because at the end of the day, we are his body. So if you if we are being faithful to one another, we're being faithful to him.

If we're being unfaithful to one another, we're being unfaithful to him. And so we need to learn to be faithful in all of our relationships. And it even goes beyond that. It goes out into the world and we need to learn to be faithful as far as the world is concerned in our dealings with money, in our dealings with our bosses and in our school work and in everything else that we need to do, because that is part of our relationship with him.

I'm going to come back to that in a moment. So we need to be faithful in everything. You know, sometimes we say, well, you know, it's really only it's really only the major issues that matter that I need to be faithful in.

Now, we need to be faithful in everything. And you've heard me speak before from Luke chapter 16. And I want to turn there again this morning, Luke chapter 16 and from verse. 10, Luke chapter 16 from verse 10, he who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.

Therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit you to your trust, the true riches, and if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give to you what is your own.

And so just a very, very simple principle. And he is saying that if we are not able to be faithful in the small things, we will not be able to be faithful in the big things. Now, we sometimes have a disconnect in our thinking on that, especially young people say, well, you know, you start a new job and they give you the lousy work, making the tea or taking out the trash.

And you say, oh, yeah, I don't want to do that. You know, so you say you do a bad job of taking out the trash. You say, well, that's not important. When they make me the managing director or the president of the company, I will be very, very astute and very careful with how I deal with the with the money of the company.

But if you can't be trusted with the trash, how are they going to ever trust you with the assets of the company? You see, there's a principle and Jesus is highlighting this principle and he's applying it in a spiritual way, but it has it's a natural law.

It's not just a spiritual thing. It works out there and in the work in the workplace. If you're not faithful in the small things, you will not be faithful in the big things. It's just it's just that way.

When you look at people who have been entrusted with large companies, managing directors or chief executive officers of big companies, when you go and look at how those people live their lives, you'll find that they are that they they focus on the details and the small things in their lives, that the way they keep their houses, the way they keep their motor cars, the way they they keep their closets, the way they structure every area of their lives.

It's not something which suddenly is is in the big things and it's not in the small things. Now, it begins in the small things and it finds its way through to the big things. And so there is a very, very important principle.

And in the church, we have the same thing. There are many Christians who say, you know, I want to be a preacher one day. But right now, God wants you to sweep the hallway. And you say, well, you know, nobody's going to see this dirt over here.

But if you can't do that faithfully, how will you shepherd a church? What what will what will you do about the spiritual issues if you're able to sweep the dirt under the rug, so to speak, when you have to do the physical cleaning?

Are you going to sweep the sins under the rug when God asks you to clean the church spiritually? You see, it's it's the same thing when when we when we give attention to those little things and we're faithful in those little things, then God will be able to entrust to us the bigger things.

But the problem is that we all want to begin at the top. We all want God to to give us, you know, especially teenagers. They want to walk into the job and they want to be the president of the company straight off.

No, we have to begin at the bottom. And when it comes to spiritual gifts and spiritual things, we have to begin at the bottom. And sometimes we have to from there not move up, but move down even more.

But as we are faithful in the small things, Jesus says, if you can't now look at what he does, he is saying, if I can't trust you with money, verse 11, therefore, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?

So the whole issue here is of trust. And and faithfulness here is invariably connected to the stuff that has been put into our care. You remember the talents, the one man got five, the other one got two, the other one got one who was put into their trust in their care.

They had to look after that. And the two were able to look after and not just look after, but be able to were able to multiply those. The other one wasn't able to. And now he is saying God has given to each one of us money.

You say, well, I don't have much money. Maybe maybe the those who still go to school say, well, you know, I only get a few dollars a week pocket money. I don't have much, but you know, if you can't manage the $10 that you have, how are you going to manage $1 ,000?

That's just that principle. But now he takes it one step further and he says, if you can't manage your budget, whatever it is, if it's a $10 or $100 or $1 ,000 or $100 ,000, if you can't manage that, how is God going to entrust to you true riches, spiritual riches?

Because it's the same thing. If you can't look after the money, how are you going to look after the riches that God gives you? And you may remember that we've we've spoken about that before. Why is it important for us to keep this building in as good a shape as we possibly can?

Because if we can't look after this building, how's God going to entrust souls to us? It's the same thing. If we can't keep the building clean, how are we going to keep the lives of the believers clean that God entrusts to us?

It's the same principle. And so the way that you run your budget is important to God. The way that you keep your home is important to God. The way you drive in the traffic is important to God. Because if you can't keep the rules of the road, how are you going to keep the laws of God's word?

You see, if we have a disregard for the small things, it flows through to the big things. I was very interested to read about the way that they cleaned up lawlessness in New York City. And you know, one of the things that fascinated me was when I first went to New York City in 1984, it was a terrible place.

And, you know, one of the things that they did, and I don't remember whether it was the present chief of police who's here now, Bratton, I'm not sure if it was him, but anyway, one of the things they did was they applied all the laws.

And even if you urinated in the street, they would lock you up for that. Now, up to then, it wasn't a problem, because they said, what happens is if you have a disregard for the small laws that deal with urinating in the street, then that breeds a culture of disrespect for all the laws, including murder.

And so if you're going to apply the law, you have to apply it right across, because it generates a culture of respect for the law. And so it is with the Word of God and with the things of God. And I believe that if we have a culture of disrespect of lawlessness outside of the church, we will bring that into the church.

If we have a disrespect for authority in the home, we will have disrespect for God's authority. And so the small things find their way through to the big things. And so he says, you want to be entrusted with true riches.

And I think that we all have some ambition. We all want to be promoted. We all want to have greater responsibility. We all want more money. We all want more spiritual gifts. But are we being faithful in the area that God has given to us right now?

Whatever that area is. And let's speak practically. Sometimes brothers are given a job to lock up the building, but they can't do that well. It's not a hard job. It's a simple job. And I'm not speaking to anyone.

The brothers here are generally very faithful in that. But if you can't go and carefully check every door, make sure all the lights are off and all the stuff you have to do, how can you be trusted to preach?

It's as simple as that. People say to me, brother, you know, when you go away, I want to preach on Sunday morning. No one has said that to me, but I know it's in some folks' hearts. But we have a time of sharing on a Wednesday night.

And you'd never come with something to share on a Wednesday night. So you can't share for 10 minutes, but you want to share for 45 minutes. You see, it doesn't work. So we need to be faithful in the small things that God may entrust the bigger things to us.

Sometimes children have pets, and I think it's a good thing for kids to have pets. Oh, his toucher has gone with these ugly ones. But you know, sometimes a teenager can't feed the dog, but they want to have babies.

If you can't take care of the cat, how are you going to take care of children? You say, oh no, but when I have a baby, it's going to be different. No, it's not different. And so here's this principle.

If we're faithful in the small things, we will be faithful in the big things. If we're faithful in the small things, he will appoint us in the big things. And in verse 12, if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give to you what is your own?

In other words, when you borrow something, when you rent something, you need to be looking after it as though it is your own. Because if you can't look after that, how are you going to look after your own?

And many people live in rented, most of us live in rented accommodation, and we say, well, that's the landlord's problem. We don't look after the property, we don't keep it clean. But if you can't do that with his property, how are you going to do it with your own?

That's not what I'm saying, that's simply what the scripture is saying. And so we need to be faithful in every area, in our home, in our family, in our possessions, in our employment, in our finances, in every area of our lives.

For two reasons. The first is because we are reflecting God. Remember that in all of what we're doing, we're showing God to the world. And when we are unfaithful in everything that we do, and yet we go around and we say we're Christians, and we believe in God, and we believe in Jesus, you're really saying to the world, well, you know, this God that we serve, he's not really very faithful.

Because remember, people are looking at us, and they're reading us, instead of reading the Bible. And the impression that they get of God is being created by who we are and the way that we live our lives.

So that's the first important thing. The first reason why it's important for us to be faithful, because that is the testimony that we're showing to the world. And then it is important because we are in a relationship with a God who is going to call us to give an account.

To give an account. And you remember we read the parable about the man who had five and the other one had two. And then the one guy says, I just have one. And so maybe you're sitting here this morning, you're saying, well, you know, you're the preacher.

You're going to have to give an account for this church. Maybe I have to, yes, I have to give an account for this church. But the fact that God has given you another job, whatever that may be, another area of ministry, whether it's sweeping the hallway, or whether it's helping in the men's Bible study, or whether it's teaching in the Sunday school, or whether it's operating the soundboard, or whatever area it is, you will give an account for that.

And we say, well, it's really only the pastor or the elders who will give an account. Some of us will give an account. And God will say, I gave you that job to run the soundboard. Did you do it faithfully?

And that's the question. The question is not how successful we have been. You see, our thinking, the world's way of thinking has to do with success. God's thinking has got nothing to do with success. There's only one question.

Have we been faithful? Have we been faithful? That's all he's asking for. And if you have been faithful in one small little area, sweeping the hallways, we've used that example, if you've been faithful in sweeping, and you've swept those hallways as though they are the golden streets of heaven, you will receive a greater reward than the preacher who had a church of 5 ,000 people, and who was slothful in the way that he exercised or that he performed his ministry.

Because the reward is not about how much you've been entrusted with or how much extra you have gained. The reward is simply based on being faithful. And that's all God is asking for. We say, but surely, I just have this small thing.

I just can pray. Or I can just do this. Or I can just do that. But you know, God needs or chooses to use every one of us in every area that we have. And if Leo didn't operate the soundboard this morning, and he said, well, you know, I'm not feeling so great and it's my birthday anyway.

I'm going down to the beach to celebrate my birthday. Then, well, maybe you'd still be able to hear me because I can speak loudly. But the message would not be on tape. It would not be on CD. And the many people who listen to these messages on the Internet would not be able to hear this message.

I don't know how many people listen to the messages, but I gather that quite a few people do. And probably more people listen to this message today on the Internet than are in this audience this morning.

And so, in a sense, Leo's job is more important than mine. Because I can only reach those who are here. But because of him operating the soundboard, the message can go out to more people. And we say, well, you know, that's just a small little job.

No, it's not a small job. It's a very, very important job. And we need to do that as faithfully as we possibly can. And so the reward is based on faithfulness. Well done, good. Notice he doesn't say, well done, good and successful servant.

But well done, good and faithful servant. And then the third reason why we need to be faithful is because God is looking for faithful people that he may promote. Now, we shouldn't be serving God so that he can give us a bigger job.

But at the same time, we should be wanting the very best for our lives that God has for us. And if God wants for you to be a preacher, don't be satisfied with being a hall sweeper. Do the hall sweeping faithfully.

But say, God, you've called me to do something else. And when your time comes, you will promote me. Remember, Paul says, he counted me faithful. What was Paul faithful in before God put him in the ministry?

In persecuting the church. But you know, for all of Paul's killing to the Christians, he was the very best Pharisee that you could get. Let's face it, he was the best Pharisee and he says so. He was the best Pharisee you could get.

And God looks at him and says, here's a man I can use. Yeah, unfortunately, it's a tradition in Christian and particularly in Pentecostal Christian circles that many people who can't make it, many men who can't make it in the secular world go into the ministry.

God doesn't want the rejects of the world. God is looking for those who are successful and faithful in their secular job before he will entrust them to the ministry. And when I come across people, I have no respect for people who are preachers who could not hold a job.

And I'm not meaning who was successful. I don't mean that they were presidents or some big fancy job, but who could not hold down a job faithfully in the world. If they couldn't do that, how are they going to?

And so God is looking for people that he can call. And you know, it's amazing when you go through the New Testament, the men that God used, he never used men that were doing nothing. He called men who were working.

Moses was out there ruling and leading and even though he may not have been unjust in some of his things, but he was doing his job. Jacob was looking after the sheep. Amos the prophet was working in his vineyard, in his garden.

Gideon was threshing out the wheat. And so you can go look at the men that Jesus called. Where were they when Jesus called them? They were fishing. Matthew was at his tax table. Each one of those men were doing the job that they had done in their secular.

And God calls them out of that secular situation. I'm sure there were many people in Israel at that time who were layabouts, who were lazy. Paul preaches a lot about that. But you know, Jesus didn't call a single man who was not faithfully occupying himself with his secular work.

And so as we are faithful in those things, he is able to promote us and he's able to move us on to other things. Now when we use that word promotion, it does not mean that those who have the job of sweeping the hallways are inferior to those who are preaching.

In our thinking, yes, cleaning the churches is one thing. Cleaning the hearts of people, that's a far more important thing. And we acknowledge that there is that difference. But if God has called you to clean the hallways and he hasn't called you to preach, then you are just as important as the preacher is.

But if God has called you to something greater, then let's discover what that greater thing is that God has called you to do in your life. And so Paul says, he counted me worthy, putting me into the ministry.

In 2 Timothy chapter 2, Paul instructs Timothy and he says, commit the things that I have taught you to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. One of the qualifications for the ministry, and there are many areas of ministry.

The soundboard is a ministry. Preaching is a ministry. Prayer is a ministry. The men's Bible study is a ministry. And so we can go on and on. The ministry has to be entrusted to people who are faithful.

People who are faithful. If you cannot be faithful in church attendance, and that's a thing that seems to be optional to many Christians these days. If you can't be relied on to be here every Sunday, how can you be trusted with some responsibility?

It's simple. And yet the fact is that so many people are unfaithful, unreliable in simple things like church attendance. And then they wonder why they can't be given greater responsibility. And they say, but dear brother, I'll do that.

But you can't do what you already have to do. You just can't be here on time. Oh brother, but I'll fulfill that responsibility. But are you being faithful in the areas? And so commit to faithful men. And one of the things, and I'm going to come to a conclusion now, is one of the things about faithfulness is that there is no end date to faithfulness.

Many Christians, in fact I heard someone say the other day, brother, I have faithfully served God for 27 years. But you know what, the fact that you were faithful for 27 years doesn't count if you're not being faithful today.

And so many times we say, well you know, I cleaned the hallway all this time. When's God going to move me on? When's God going to promote me? Faithfulness needs to be to the end. And we find that verse in Revelation 2, verse 10, be faithful to death.

Be faithful to death. When can I stop being faithful? The day you die. The day you die. When will God stop to be faithful? The day he ceases to be God, which is never. And so faithfulness is not something we switch on and switch off.

Faithfulness is not something we can retire from. Somehow many Christians seem to get tired of being faithful. And they say, well I've been faithful. Now it's my time to slack off. Now it's my time to take a break.

You see, because faithfulness is not something we do. Faithfulness is something we are. And if we are faithful, we can never stop being faithful. Because it's not like a job that you do. And you say, well now I'm going to try to be faithful.