Faithfulness and Commitment — Bruce Rodgers

Again and we're going to read first of all in Psalm 12. I want to spend some time thinking with you about the subject of commitment and faithfulness. So Lord willing tonight and tomorrow night and Friday night we'll be looking at the theme of commitment and faithfulness.

The Crisis of Commitment Among Christians

Psalm 12 verse 1. Help Lord for the godly man ceases for the faithful fail from among the children of men. This is actually an urgent appeal. The word help Lord is literally save Lord. Save us, rescue us for the godly man ceases for the faithful fail from among the children of men.

So I want to think with you about the condition that we find ourselves in today as Christians. I've been serving the Lord full-time since 1980 and I guess I I would call myself one of those who were born and raised in a gospel hall, saved when I was eight years old.

So I've been around assembly life virtually from the time that I could see or hear anything and there's something that has changed commonly among assemblies and this is a very superficial observation and it may not be entirely fair but it used to be at least where I grew up that the same number of people were there Sunday morning, Sunday night and Tuesday or Wednesday night whatever the midweek was and if there was a series of meetings well we were there.

I grew up on a dairy farm and we had sort of what I call a working relationship. We didn't know too much about fun and games. We did a lot of work but something that is imprinted upon my consciousness is that nothing kept us from meeting.

It didn't matter if it was spring seeding or haying time or fall harvest. When the time for meeting came the machinery was shut down and it had to be a dire emergency to keep us from meeting and I don't look at that, I don't think of it as being some kind of a legalistic framework in which we lived but simply it was a matter of commitment, a matter of priority and that's something that has changed and I don't know how your experience is here so I'm not judging you but commonly when I move among God's people there might be about half of the assembly present at most of the other meetings other than Sunday morning and that's quite a distinct change.

In fact it's become a real issue for many assemblies when a series of ministry meetings is conducted even that it's such a challenge just to get the whole assembly there to hear the teaching and the same thing is true for the regular teaching meetings.

I remember in Timmins pondering this problem that there were saints among us who were never there for a Bible reading. On Sunday mornings we had switched to ministry and there were believers who were never being exposed to the consecutive verse-by-verse Bible exposition and one couple in particular who eventually dropped out.

The husband ran into some very significant spiritual problems and those actual exact problems were things that were taken up in the Bible studies in those months when he was going through those problems but he wasn't there to hear it and so that's just one little glimpse of what I see just among us as Christians and so I'm going to consider the fact that we are in a society that is deteriorating.

It's breaking down and we could almost say it has almost totally disintegrated and one of the key elements that is involved in that breakdown is the destruction of commitment. The lack of commitment or faithfulness and so I want to think with you about that and I'll just give you some stats which probably you already know anyway.

Just in general relationship terms in 1960 the divorce rate was about 10 here in this country and the ratio of single adults was about six and a half percent. By 1980 the divorce rate had jumped to 50 so there's obviously a tremendous social revolution taking place in that generation in those 20 years and meanwhile the percentage of single adults had risen to 20%.

In 2009 its divorce rate is just about the same 50 but the percentage of single adults is about 30 so from about six and a half percent to 30 so there's a very significant change of thinking, of lifestyle and the basic change that that reflects is towards individualism, lack of commitment to relationship and so on.

Now I noticed in Canada that the divorce rate had actually gone down in the last year or so from I'm not sure when that was basing it on and so that sounds a bit encouraging but actually it's not because people are being more faithful today it's just fewer people are getting married.

You know what the average lifespan of a common-law marriage is? Five years. So that's a pretty high-stakes game isn't it? To enter into a relationship that will have a profound effect upon your being, your well-being and to say well give it five years.

That's an average lifespan of common-law marriage and one of the interesting things I found in the statistics of Stats Canada is called they keep record of marriage and divorces and of common-law marriage stats but they don't keep track of common-law marriage breakdowns.

So I guess what I would like you to think about is, is that tendency, that trend, that characteristic, is it seeping into our souls, in our Christian life, in our marriages, in our assembly life? A breakdown of sense of commitment.

Commitment, Faithfulness, and Trust in the New Testament

Well I want to take you back to the scriptures and to try to get back to the source of commitment. I want to look first of all, just a little bit of word study, and we're going to notice some of the words that are used in the New Testament particularly for commitment and faithfulness.

I'm going to give you a few well-known verses. John chapter 2, John chapter 2 and verse 23 to the verse 25, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men.

Now you've probably heard this commented on that the word believe and the word commit here are exactly the same word and so in a significant number of cases in the New Testament the word to commit to and the word that is translated to believe in the passive sense, what's the word believe passive?

To believe on somebody is the active form of trusting someone. The word faithful is someone who is worthy of trust. Somebody that you can put your confidence in and so the word believe and the word faithful are actually the same word.

One is simply active, one is passive and in many verses in the New Testament sometimes the word faith or faithfulness could be used depending on the context. I'll give you a couple of examples of that but just to to emphasize this that the word for faith, faithfulness and commitment are all intertwined, just different forms of exactly the same word in many cases in the New Testament.

I'm going to quote you a few of them, you don't have to turn to them. Luke chapter 16 and verse 12 in the context of stewardship, the parable of the unjust steward, Luke 16 and 12, if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon who will commit to your trust?

The true riches. Again there's two expressions here that are exactly the same word. If you have not been faithful and then who will commit to your trust? Commit to your trust, that whole expression is the same word again just in the active sense.

1st Thessalonians 2 and verse 4, Paul speaks of being allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel. Again 1st Timothy 1 and 11, the gospel committed to my trust and the next verse 1st Timothy 1 and 12, he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry.

Titus 1 and 3, the preaching of the gospel committed unto me. Now there are two other words in the New Testament that are also translated commit and I'll give you a couple of examples of those as well.

Again these words are fairly self-evident. I bank at a bank in Canada called TD Canada Trust and that word trust is very familiar in the banking system. So what do you do when you go to the bank? Well sometimes we are withdrawing money but that only lasts so long.

You have to deposit money and when you deposit money you are placing with them your money and that's literally what this word is in Luke chapter 23 and verse 46. Father into thy hands I commend, it's really commit, I commit my spirit and that is to place with as entrusting as a deposit into the care of someone.

2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 12 and 14, another familiar little section where Paul says I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.

And then a little further down he says that good thing which was committed unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us. So again these words to commit is to as we would say to deposit with to put on deposit which is really to entrust with.

Again in 2nd Timothy 2 and verses 1 and 2 the things that thou has heard of me are from me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also. You know when you start looking at all the different references to the idea of faithfulness, committing, you can see how characteristic it is of God's things.

God entrusts us with his work. God entrusts us with his truth. He commits it to us and we are entrusted with it to care for it and to do something with it. Now the third word that is used is found in 1st Peter chapter 2 verse 23 where the Lord Jesus in the trial he committed himself unto him that judges righteously.

And again 1st Peter 4 and 19 wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their soul unto him as unto a faithful creator. And this word is really a word that is more often used in a sense of at court or military term of handing over, surrendering, delivering up, releasing to, relinquishing to into the authority or power of someone else.

And so if we are suffering he says you commit yourself to God as a faithful creator. Commit your soul into the keeping of God. So if we were to have a definition for commitment what would it be? What are we really saying?

Well commitment is the choice to give or to devote yourself to the support and promotion of a cause or the protection and care of a person. It's accepting responsibility for something or for someone as a steward of God.

So I guess we need to ask ourselves the question are we committed in God's things? Are we committed as Christians and does it matter? I want to take you back to the source of commitment and this to me is very very important because in our culture commitment and faithfulness are being looked at as being a couple of old-fashioned virtues that really aren't too relevant anymore.

They belong to that culture where people were stuck. They thought they had to stay married or they thought they had to be loyal to the company or they thought they had to endure their hardships. And today we think differently.

That was then this is now. And so really we need to examine this whole thing and ask ourselves is commitment and faithfulness really just kind of an old-fashioned way of doing things or is it something bigger than that?

The Faithfulness of God in Deuteronomy

I want to suggest to you that it's not just a good old-fashioned virtue. It is an eternal virtue because it is founded in God himself. I want to take you back through the Bible to a number of passages that speak about the faithfulness of God.

So let's look first of all in Deuteronomy chapter 6. So we are really looking now at the idea of where does faithfulness come from? Deuteronomy chapter 7 rather. Verse 6, for thou art and holy people unto the Lord thy God.

The Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than any people for you were the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved you and because he would keep the oath which he has sworn unto your fathers has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keeps covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. You know we get so used to the idea that God is interested in us and that God is absolutely faithful to us that we hardly are able to step back and contemplate how ridiculous the idea actually sounds.

That the God who created the universe of whom it says that the the heavens and the earth cannot contain him and and it's it's a condescension for him he humbles himself to even notice his creation and to think that he's interested in you or me and that he would be so interested in us that he is more committed to us that any person that we know that he's more loyal to us he loves us more deeply he is more determined to care for us than anyone else on earth.

Isn't that just sheer absurdity? And here's this little group of people who found themselves slaves in Egypt and God rescues them out of Egypt in this awesome shattering way basically destroys the most powerful nation on earth at that time and brings these people out and claims them for himself and he says I didn't love you I didn't set my love upon you because you were the most important people on earth you were really just the smallest but because I love you.

You know this is one of the best defensive moves for any husband if he gets quizzed by his wife I hope you do tell your wife that you love her if you don't shame on you. I met a man this summer who professed to be saved and we believe he really did get saved in tent meetings this summer and unfortunately he lost his wife and children in the springtime through his own failure and one of the things if he admitted to me is that he never told his wife he loved her.

I can't fathom that I don't know what kind of relationship they had. So it's a long uphill battle to regain what he's lost. What incentive does she have to bring him back. Well hopefully she will see a change in him.

There'll be a new man but the Lord has set his love upon us as his people and he says I did it because I love you. And I know it's one of those things that ladies like to ask well why do you love me now.

You know you're gonna get in trouble. So the best thing is just say I love you because I love you. And then think up all the good reasons afterwards. What what is he saying here. The reason is within himself but not only because he is love and he has chosen to set his love upon us which is because he would keep his promise his oath his covenant.

And so we have this character of God God the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy. And I would like you just to think for a moment about a thousand generations now I don't know how long you evaluate a generation to be.

If we say 40 years. What's a thousand generations longer than the history of the earth. To a thousand generations you might as well say forever. And so here is a God who is the essence of faithfulness.

I've made a promise and I will keep my promise to a thousand generations. Isn't that wonderful that we have this kind of God to know to be secured in. Now let's go to Lamentations chapter 3 another quite familiar verse.

Faithfulness Through Judgment and Discipline

And the context here is really challenging. Lamentations chapter 3. And we'll start at verse 22. It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not they are new every morning.

Great is thy faithfulness. What's the context. You know if you didn't know the context of this passage you could imagine that this would be someone who is out contemplating the sunset or the sunrise and just thinking about the beauty of creation the majesty of God the faithfulness of the way he has ordered everything.

Or just looking back over a very happy prosperous time of life and just being so grateful for the God who has been so good for so many years. And that would be true. But the context is a desolated city a burned-out city.

The temple destroyed dead bodies everywhere. And here's the Prophet Jeremiah acknowledging that God has been faithful exceedingly faithful. He acknowledges first of all that this is not God's fault. The devastation that has come over us is not God's fault.

If they had been obedient he would never have allowed the enemy to come in and destroy them. He would have been faithful to protect them. But I want you to think about this in the context of God's discipline God's judgment in our lives even in judgment God is faithful.

And so Jeremiah acknowledges it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. We could have been wiped out obliterated finished. And though it was so devastating he acknowledges because God had given to Jeremiah the prophecy that this desolation of Jerusalem would last for 70 years and then God was going to bring them back.

So God was still faithful to his promise to his people even though he was judging them so harshly. And I hope that we can recognize this for ourselves whether individually or as assemblies or even as we might think of the culture in which we are in that we are a part of.

When God judges it doesn't change his faithfulness. And so he says. Therefore have I hope. This means there is always hope in God. There's always hope in God even though judgment comes for evil. Let's come into the New Testament to 1st Corinthians chapter 1 and this will be more directly to us and our calling.

God's Faithfulness to His Calling and the Assembly

God is faithful to his calling 1st Corinthians 1. Let's notice verse 4 he says. I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ that in everything you are enriched by him in all utterance and all knowledge even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you.

Verse 8 says who shall also confirm you unto the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called unto the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Now there's another verse I could maybe just read here as well 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 where the word calling is given again. 1st Thessalonians 5 verse 23. And the very God of peace sanctify you holy.

And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it again. When you know what Corinth is all about when you know the failings that he is going to have to address in that assembly.

This is an amazing confirmation of God's faithfulness. Here's an assembly that has sunk about as low as an assembly could without being wiped out. There wasn't a lot of resemblance to the character of Christ going on in that assembly.

But he says this God is faithful to his calling. He has called you to the fellowship of his son. Now what does that mean. He's made you a companion of Christ. He has made you a partner with Christ for his kingdom.

And God is faithful to fit you to equip you to enable you to fulfill this calling to not only be saved from hell to be rescued from judgment but to be fitted to be a servant of Christ for the ages to come.

Because this is looking not just at our present Christian life individually and as an assembly. He speaks in verse 6 as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you. In other words there was established in Corinth a testimony for Christ a testimony that upheld the name of Christ that brought Christ to the community that was the people of the assembly in Corinth.

And even though they had failed they had fallen and they were no longer reflecting that as they should have been yet he is expressing a confidence in God that God was still committed to making this thing work.

Have you ever thought that the assembly isn't going to make it. Have you ever been in such distress over the conditions the conflicts the problems going on that you thought this thing isn't going to survive.

That's when we have to lay hold of the faithful God. God is faithful and God is committed to what belongs to his son what is for the honor of his son. So this gives me a lot of encouragement that even when believers in the assembly and I don't know anything about your conditions here so I'm not talking about you but I have sat across from believers saying concerning the assembly that they were in this is not an assembly this is not a church of God.

They thought that there had been so much failure and especially in the leadership of the assembly that God couldn't possibly own it. Well I think they're wrong. Not because there wasn't some validity to their charges but because they don't know how faithful God is how committed he is to upholding to restoring to recovering what belongs to Christ.

And if there's one thing that we must grasp is that no matter what combination of failing exists among us as individuals and even collectively in assembly testimony and assembly of God is more than just the individuals.

It is something of Christ is his and God in his faithfulness to us personally and collectively will work in all his faithfulness to bring us to conformity to the Lord Jesus. God is faithful who has called you unto the fellowship of his son Jesus Christ our Lord.

God's Faithfulness in Temptation

Looking at a little further in first Corinthians chapter 10. First Corinthians chapter 10. Here we have the context of temptation of failure and it's going back to the history of Israel and the many failings that were seen during the wilderness experience.

Verse 11 says. Now all these things happen to them for examples or types. They are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.

There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer or allow you to be tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it.

You know God's permission of evil is one of the mysteries in our present creation. In the present world a good God and an evil world a sovereign God and evil running rampant. This is one of the struggles for faith and one of the triggers of unbelief in our world.

But what we have here is the faithfulness of God to protect from evil. Yes he has permitted evil to exist. He is permitted it to be active in the world that surrounds us. He is even permitted it to still exist within us but not so that destroys us.

He is still monitoring. And the emphasis that is here is that the sovereign God super intends every temptation and every trial that he permits to touch our experience. So you better believe it that God is interested in you and in your life and that he is watching you very very carefully.

He's monitoring the pressure points he's monitoring those weaknesses those areas of vulnerability. And it says this. There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man we might think that nobody else has quite gone through what we are going through.

You know it's actually one of the in a strange way one of the most comforting things when you find out that other people have been through what you have gone through. Somehow it it strengthens us or helps us to feel that we're not so much alone.

There are others who have gone through similar circumstances. But even more importantly than that is the fact that God is interested in bringing us through without being overtaken by evil. And that is very critical for us to appreciate what is God being faithful to.

He's being faithful to his own character of goodness and the fact that he is bringing us to that character that is his work in us to bring us to likeness to himself. And so in his faithfulness to the calling of bringing us to perfection of goodness.

He is not going to hand us over to evil. He is not going to capitulate and just let evil take over. And one of the things that I would gather from this passage is simply this. If I am willing to be preserved if I want to be preserved from sin God is willing to keep me.

God is always willing to deliver it says this. He will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able but will with the temptation provide a way to escape. Now this is where we need to be in touch with God to be sensitive to God to the warnings that he gives for myself.

I have learned and I do have to learn this over and over again through life whenever evil approaches. Whenever I am being drawn by evil there is a warning from the Spirit of God. And that's when I need to respond to it not to toy with it play with it allow it.

Maybe I can go a little further before I'll go over the edge. But to turn from it respond to the warning so he governs the circumstances. He strengthens us internally. He enables us to overcome. That is his commitment to us to protect us from evil.

Along with that we have reference to the Lord Jesus in Hebrews as a merciful and faithful high priest. And that certainly is another aspect of it. 1st John chapter 1. What about when we do fail and sin despite all of that protective care and interest that God has in us.

1st John chapter 1 verse 9. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I think sometimes we learn the truth of God backwards. We learn it from failing.

And I remember as a young Christian failing in the same kind of thing over and over again and gradually coming to appreciate that no matter how many times I failed God was still willing to forgive. That was an amazing thing to appreciate.

But at the same time I thought wouldn't it be better if I could be preserved from failing in the first place. And that's when I began to appreciate 1st Corinthians 10. But let's just look at this and think about this.

Even when we have failed we have sinned. He is still faithful to us and he still invites us back to reach out to him to simply be honest before him and acknowledge our failing. And if we will simply be honest he will forgive and not only forgive he will cleanse.

That is equally important to cleanse us from unrighteousness so that our inner being is again brought back into touch and harmony with God himself. And so we have through these scriptures. And there's no doubt others that we could look at that would give to us this very compelling portrait of God of someone who is totally devoted to us completely faithful completely committed to our well-being and our eternal blessing.

The Motives That Produce Christian Commitment

Now I'm going to try to give you in the last few minutes what is really the response to that. What gives commitment its power or its force in our lives. What will create commitment within me. What gives it its force.

What compels it. And I'm going to start at the bottom level and I hope you won't mind me speaking of it this way. Let's go to first Timothy chapter 1 verse 15. I'm just going to try to give you a few references quickly.

Interestingly enough this verse has faithful in it as well. First Timothy 1 and 15 this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief.

The most basic reason is that we need him. Why should I be committed to God. Why should I be committed to the Savior. Because I need him. He rescued me when I was totally helpless and totally hopeless.

He rescued me from eternal judgment. He saved me as a sinner. And I still need him just as much today. You know in any relationship the person who needs the other the least controls the relationship. And it should be clear to us who controls the relationship between us and God.

He does not need us. His interest in us is not because he needs us in some sort of personal way or that he is dependent upon our help. It flows out out of his own goodness. But we need him now need this sense of need and I call this need love.

I'm going to try to put love with most of these all of them actually but we could I could admit that in some cases that need arises out of fear. And some people will stay in a relationship because they are afraid of the consequences if they lose or walk out of that relationship.

Some people stay with the same company even though they hate their job because of fear of losing their financial security. And we could go on. But we also should recognize whether it's in our marriages whether it is in the assembly we need each other.

We need the Lord and we need each other. And that is one fundamental reason to be involved to be there to be committed to it to belong to be part of it. Now the second one which is a little higher motivation is appreciation love.

And let's look at 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 14 another familiar verse. For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then we're all dead. That he died for all.

That they which live should not henceforth or from now on live unto themselves but unto him who died for them and rose again. This puts it very clearly and I'm going to just suggest an interpretation here.

I know that the love of Christ constraining us can be interpreted in two ways. It can be interpreted in the sense that the love of Christ has become within us and his love at work in us is is constraining us to to live the Christian life and to serve and to save others see other saved and so on.

And that's perfectly true. And I wouldn't have any problems if that's how you understand this passage. But I've come to appreciate it in just a little different setting a different way of looking at it.

And that is this that Paul is here stepping back. He is looking at the big picture and he is contemplating a man who has given his life to save the world is the context of this passage is the reconciliation which God is reconciling the world to himself and has committed to us a ministry of reconciliation that God would embrace the whole world if they would come because Christ paid that almost infinite debt for every human being.

And Paul is standing back and he is looking at that love of a man upon whom death had no claim who could have ascended back to heaven in perfect acceptance by his God having lived a pure and perfect life.

But instead he yielded at a sacrifice to atone for us. And he says he died for all. And that love he says constrains me to preach to testify. I can't be quiet. I can't be silent when I know that there is a love that could save every human being and bring them to God.

That love constrains me to speak. And so appreciation for the love of Christ should make it impossible for us to be apathetic in a Christian life to just let the world go by or to live our lives indifferently for ourselves because notice what it says he died for all so that they who live that's those who really get saved who become alive to God.

Verse 15 should no longer live unto themselves because that's what was wrong with us living for ourselves living to please ourselves living to glorify ourselves. What is the love of Christ directed to to reconcile us back to God to put us in harmony with God.

And the way that's going to be accomplished is by living unto him living for him living with him as the object of our interest and desire. Now my time is almost gone. There's a couple of others one that I suppose in one sense maybe goes higher than that even is in 2nd Timothy 2 verses 11 to 13 where we have what I call covenant love again we have a faithful saying.

It is a faithful saying. For if we be dead with him or if we died with him we shall also live with him. If we suffer we shall also reign with him. If we deny him he also will deny us. If we believe not yet he abides faithful he cannot deny himself.

I'm thinking of verse 13 particularly. And here's one of those examples where if we believe not may not be the active sense it could be translated or interpreted in the passive sense. And I'll just put it that way so you can see if we are unfaithful.

If we are unfaithful to him yet he remains faithful because he cannot deny himself. So you can either take this section as being very very comforting or very confronting depending on how you look at some of these words.

But isn't this wonderful to know. Even if we are fickle even if we are faltering if our light flickers on and off like a light bulb just about shorting out. Yet he remains entirely faithful because that's what he is.

Covenant love. He has committed himself. He has given his promise. He remains faithful. You know I would just like to appeal to you if there's anyone here tonight who's wondering about even sticking around wondering whether you should just forget about it.