God Is Faithful
The particular subject of this chapter is The God of the Bible: God is Faithful. I think comparatively few Christians have dwelt much on this particular attribute of God, and therefore very few of us realize the wealth of meaning there is in the teaching of the Bible on this exceedingly precious and joy-inspiring subject. God has given me just twelve texts as the basis of our study and meditation; but we shall in the course of our study consider quite a number of other passages of Scripture in which God reveals the truth about Himself in regard to the many ways in which He manifests His faithfulness in dealing with those who know Him and put their trust in Him. The consideration of these passages as the Holy Spirit Himself interprets them to us, will help us to still further appreciate the meaning and force of that wonderful saying of our Lord Jesus, found in John 17:3:
“And this is the life eternal, that they should know Thee, the Only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.’’
Our first text is Deut. 7:9:
“Know therefore that Jehovah thy God, He is God, the faithful God, Who keepeth covenant
and lovingkindness with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.”
Now turn to another passage in this same wonderful book of Deuteronomy, which the Devil so hates (I suppose in part because it was the only book from which our Lord Jesus quoted when He had His conflict with him in the wilderness, and so completely routed him), and which the “higher critics” of the prevailing school also so persistently attempt to disparage and discredit, but which all regenerate persons who intelligently study it so highly esteem, Deut. 32:4:
“The Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice:
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
Just and right is He.”
The Authorized Version translates this passage differently. It reads:
“He is the Rock, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.”
But the Hebrew word which is translated “truth” in the Authorized Version is precisely the same word that is elsewhere translated “faithfulness,” and of course should be so translated here (just as it is in the R. V.).
Now turn to the prophet Isaiah, Isa. 49: 7:
“Thus saith Jehovah, the Redeemer of Israel, and His Holy One, to Him Whom man despiseth, to Him Whom the nation abhorreth. to a servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall worship; because of Je~ hovah that is faithful even the Holy One of Israel, Who hath chosen thee.’^
We now go to the New Testament, I Cor. 1:9:
‘’God is faithful, through Whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
In this Epistle to the Corinthians Paul especially dwells on the Faithfulness of God, perhaps to encourage them as some of their own number had proven so unfaithful. So turn to another passage from this book, I Cor. 10: 13:
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.”
We now turn to another Epistle of Paul, the first one written, i Thess. 5:23, 24:
“And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you. Who will also do it.”
Our next text is from Paul’s second epistle to the Thessalonians, II Thess. 3:3:
“But the Lord is faithful. Who shall establish you, and guard you from the evil one.”
We turn from Paul to John, I Jno. 1:9:
“If we confess our sins. He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Now we go back to the prophets, to Jeremiah, Lam. 3:22,23:
‘It is of Jehovah’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning; great is Thy
faithfulness,”
In our three remaining texts we resort to the Book of Psalms, the book that is so completely given up to extolling the glorious attributes of Jehovah, the God of the Bible. Read first, Ps. 33:4:
‘‘For the word of Jehovah is right;
And all His work is done in faithfulness.”
Here again the Authorized Version reads “truth’’ instead of “faithfulness,” but here again the Hebrew word rendered “truth” is the Hebrew word elsewhere rendered “faithfulness,” and is from the root which means “to be faithful.”
Now turn to Ps. 36:5:
“Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, is in the
heavens;
Thy faithfulness reache th unto the skies.”
The Authorized Version here reads:
“Thy mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; and Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds.”
But the Hebrew word translated “clouds” in this passage is not the one ordinarily used for clouds, and is the word always used for “sky” or “skies” in every instance where these words are found in the Old Testament. Now for our last text turn to the longest chapter in the Bible, the Psalm which is given up to a description and exaltation of the glories of God and of His Word, Ps. 119:89, 90:
‘ ‘Forever, O Jehovah,
Thy word is settled in heaven.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations: Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.’’
In seven of these twelve texts the definite statement is made that God is Faithful, and each of the remain¬ ing five texts emphasizes the fact of His infinite and eternal faithfulness. Law-givers, prophets, apostles, kings and poets, all inspired by the same Spirit of God, the Spirit of Truth, join in one mighty, exultant an¬ them of praise to the Faithfulness of God, that endureth “unto all generations.’’
But What Do the Words ^WaithfuV^ and ^Waithfulness” Mean?
By carefully searching the Scriptures we get a clear and unmistakable and incontrovertible answer to this important question.
I. In the first place, looking at the derivation of the Hebrew words so translated, we find that they were derived from a Hebrew verb, A man (from which our word Amen — meaning verily, truly, certainly — is de¬ rived). This verb means to prop, or stay, or support. In its reflexive and intransitive use, the word means “to stay oneself,” or “to be supported.” Therefore the adjective “faithful” means, when applied to a person, such a person as one may safely lean upon with all his weight, or stay himself upon.
The Greek word translated “faithful” in the New Testament means “worthy of trust,” one that can be relied upon. But this same Greek word is used in the Septuagint (i. e., the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible in common use when the New Testament was written), to translate the Hebrew word already referred to, and of course gets its New Testament meaning from that fact.
2. In the second place, looking at the usage of the word “faithful” in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, we find that its Biblical usage con¬ forms exactly to its derivation, for example, in Ps. 1 19: 86 we read:
“All Thy commandments are faithful:”
That is to say that the commandments of God can be absolutely depended upon.
In Proverbs 14: 5, we read.
“A faithful witness will not lie;
But a false witness uttereth lies.”
That is to say that a faithful witness is one who always tells the truth, and who therefore can, under all circumstances, be depended upon. Turning to the New Testament, to Jesus Christ’s own use of the word, in Matt. 24:45, 46, we read:
“Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath set over his household, to give them their food in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing”
Here we see that a faithful servant is one who can be depended upon to do what he is told to do. In Matt. 25:21, 23, we read:
‘‘His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord....
“His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will set thee over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”
Here the word “Faithful” is used four times, and in every instance of a servant to describe him as a servant who can be absolutely depended upon, not only to do what he is told to do, but what ought to be done, whether he is told or not.
Turning to Paul we read in I Tim. i: 15:
‘’Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.”
Here “faithful” is used to describe the character of this wonderful and apparently incredible statement that is made, and the thought is, that as wonderful as the statement is, it is to be absolutely depended upon, that it is “worthy of all (unhesitating and whole¬ hearted) acceptance.”
Now looking to the last book in the Bible, and next to the last chapter, in Rev. 21:5, we read:
“And He that sitteth on the throne said. Be¬ hold, I make all things new. And He saith. Write: for these words are faithful and true,”
That is to say, the words that God has spoken are to he absolutely depended upon.
It is clear then, the word “Faithful” as applied to a person means a person upon whom we can stay ourselves, a person who can be absolutely depended upon in any and every emergency that can arise. Therefore to say “God is faithful” means, God is such a Person that we can absolutely rely upon Him in every emergency of life, such a Person that we can stay our¬ selves upon Him under all circumstances, in time and in eternity. As Isaiah puts it in Isa. 26: 3, 4:
“Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee; because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in Jehovah forever; for in Jehovah, even Jehovah, is an everlasting rock.”
The Bible has much that is suggestive and instructive and heart-thrilling to say about the measureless extent and eternal duration of the Faithfulness of God. We read for example, in Lam. 3: 22, 23:
“It is of Jehovahs lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning; great is Thy
faithfulness.^’
In Ps. 36: 5, we read:
“Thy lovingkindness, O Jehovah, is in the
heavens;
Thy faithfulness reacheth unto the skies.”
In Ps. 33: 4, we read:
“For the word of Jehovah is right;
And all His •^^ork is done in faithfulness.”
And in Ps. 119:89, 90, we read:
‘’Forever, O Jehovah,
Thy word is settled in heaven.
Thy faithfulness is unto all generations:
Thou hast established the earth, and it abideth.^’
IL How the Faithfulness of God Is Manifested.
Now let us for our encouragement, for our deliverance from all fear and anxiety and worry, and for our exceeding great joy, look at the many ways in which the Faithfulness of God is manifested, as they are set forth in God’s own word about Himself, the Bible.
I. In the first place, God’s Faithfulness is Manifested in His keeping His promise and covenant to the very letter, in His fulfilling every word that goes out of His mouth, regardless of what man does. This we find in Heb. 10: 23, 36, 37:
“Let us hold fast the confession of our hope that it waver not; for He is faithful that promised. ...
For ye have need of patience, that, having done the will of God, ye may receive the promise.
For yet a very little while.
He that cometh shall come, and shall not
tarry.”
Here we are told that we need have no fear what¬ ever about the future, however uncertain and threatening it may seem, because God’s promises cover it all, and “He is faithful that promised,’’ and therefore we may rest absolutely confident that His promises will be fulfilled to the very letter.
In a similar way Moses comforted Israel in anticipation of all that their mighty enemies would do to overthrow and destroy them, by saying in Deut. 7:9:
“Know therefore that Jehovah thy God, He is God, the faithful God, Who keepeth covenant and lovingkindness with them that love Him and keep His commandments to a thousand generations.”
In a similar way Solomon, in his prayer at the dedication of the temple at Jerusalem, in speaking to Jehovah, God of Israel, exclaims, as recorded in I Kings 8:23, 24:
“O Jehovah, the God of Israel, there is no God like Thee, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; Who keepest covenant and lovingkindness with Thy servants, that walk before Thee with all their heart; Who hast kept with Thy servant David my father that zvhich Thou didst promise him: yea. Thou spakest with Thy mouth, and hast fulfilled it with Thy hand, as it is this day.”
And again in closing that prayer, after referring to the calamities that would surely come upon Israel be¬ cause of forsaking Jehovah, and of the way of deliverance by turning to and appealing to Jehovah, the only true God, Solomon exclaims in verse 56:
“Blessed be Jehovah, that hath given rest unto His people Israel, according to all that He promised: there hath not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised by Moses His servant.”
Jehovah God Himself, after telling them of the awful calamities that would surely come upon them if they forsook Him, in Ps. 89: 30-32:
(‘If his children forsake My law
And walk not in My ordinances;
If they break My statutes.
And keep not My commandments;
Then will I visit their transgression with the rod.
And their iniquity with stripes.”)
declares in verses 33, 34:
But My lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him.
Nor suffer My faithfulness to fail.
My covenant will I not break,
Nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips,”
2. In the second place, God’s Faithfulness is Manifested in the defense and deliverance of His servants in times of fiercest trial, testing and conflict. This we are told by Peter in I Pet. 4:19:
“Wherefore let them also that suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing unto a faithfid Creator.”
Etham, the Ezrahite, sings in Ps. 89: 20-26:
“I have found David My servant;
With My Holy oil have I anointed him:
With whom My hand shall be established;
Mine arm also shall strengthen him.
The enemy shall not exact from him.
Nor the son of wickedness afflict him.
And I will beat down his adversaries before him,
And smite them that hate him.
But My faithfulness and My lovingkindness
shall be with him;
And in My name shall his horn be exalted.
I will set his hand also on the sea,
And his right hand on the rivers.
He shall cry unto Me, Thou art my Father,
My God, and the Rock of my salvation.”
This whole 89th Psalm that has fifty-two stanzas in all might well be called the “‘Faithfulness Psalm.” It begins with these words:
“I will sing of the lovingkindness of Jehovah forever:
With my mouth will I make known Thy faithfulness to all generations.’’ (v. i), and it closes with the words:
“Amen, and Amen”
and “Amen” is the adverb derived from the verb from which the adjective “faithful” and the noun “faithful¬ ness” are derived. The adverb is “Amen” and the verb is “A man.”
3. In the third place, God’s Faithfulness is Manifested in His standing by His people and saving them, even when they are unfaithful to Him. This also we are told in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. W’e read in Jeremiah’s song of heart¬ breaking sympathy for Israel in the dire calamities that overtook them in his day (which calamities he had foretold but did not glory in the fact that his predictions had been fulfilled; indeed he was heart-broken over the fact). I say we read in the midst of this most pathetic dirge that was ever written these words, Lam. 3: 22, 23:
*Tt is of Jehovah’s lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not.
They are new every morning; great is Thy
faithfulness T
Again he cries in his prophecy, Jer. 51:5:
‘‘For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of Jehovah of Hosts; though their land is fidl of guilt against the Holy One of Israel/^
Faithless indeed had Israel been, hut God had continued faithful. And Israel as a nation is faithless to this very day, but God still continues faithful, and will even yet make Israel glorious.
Samuel proclaimed the same truth away back in his day when the people, and their priests, and their prophets had been grossly wicked and faithless to God. This we see in I Sam. 12: 20-22:
“And Samuel said unto the people. Fear not: ye have indeed done all this evil; yet turn not aside from following Jehovah, but serve Jehovah with all your heart, and turn ye not aside: for then would ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain. For Jehovah will not forsake His people for His great name’s sake: because it hath pleased Jehovah to make you a people unto Himself.”
And Paul declares the same truth to us who are believers in Jesus Christ, and still are often a faithless company. He says in H Tim. 2:13:
we are faithless, yet He abideth faithful; for He cannot deny Himself.”
Oh, I do rejoice that my security, here and hereafter, is not dependent upon my faithfulness, but upon His.
4. In the fourth place, God’s Faithfulness is Manifested in His not suffering His children to he tempted above that which they are able to stand, but zvith, the temptation making also a way of escape that they may he able to bear it. This we read in those very familiar words in I Cor. 10: 13:
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear: but God is faithfid. Who zvill not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.”
What a stay these words have been to a multitude of Christians who felt deeply their own weakness, but stayed themselves on His Faithfulness.
5. In the fifth place, The Faithfulness of God is Manifested in His confirming and establishing those Whom He has called, guarding them from the evil one, so that not one of them shall ever perish, and sanctifying them wholly, and preserving them entire — spirit, and soul, and body — without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. This precious truth we find set forth very clearly in three different passages from Paul’s epistles, first, H Thess. 3:3:
‘‘But the Lord is faithful, Who shall establish you, and guard you from the evil one/* Second, I Cor. i: 8, 9:
“Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye be unreprovable in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, through Whom ye were called into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Third, and best of all, I Thess. 5: 23, 24:
“And the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, Who will also do it.**
The Faithfulness of God makes it certain that at the return of our Lord Jesus to this earth we shall be sanctified wholly, and that our “spirit and soul and body shall be preserved entire without blame.”
Is it any wonder then that on the one hand “we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory” in His Faithfulness, and on the other hand, eagerly cry, “Amen, Come, Lord Jesus”? This last prayer in the Bible begins with the word ‘*Amen** from which He¬ brew root the Hebrew words translated “faithful” and “faithfulness” are derived. Our Lord Jesus Himself said in Jno. 10:28, 29:
“And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. My Father, Who hath given them unto Me, is greater than all: and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father* s hand.** All our confidence as believers in Jesus Christ in regard to the future, both for this present age and for the age which is to come, is not in our faithfulness but in His. Dr. A. T. Pierson was once asked if he believed in the Perseverance of the Saints. He replied, ^‘No, I don’t; but I do believe in the Perseverance of the Saviour.”
6. In the sixth place, God’s Faithfulness is Manifested in His chastening His children when they go astray. This we read in Ps. 119:75:
^T know, O Jehovah, that Thy judgments
are righteous,
And that in Faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me.”
If God only showered blessings upon us and never let suffering, yes, keen suffering and anguish come into our lives. He would not be a faithful God, a God to be absolutely depended upon in every contingency; for we often need sorrow far more than we need joy, and our faithful God sends it, just as we read in Heb. 12:6:
*Tor whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.
And scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
7. In the seventh place, God’s Faithfidness is Manifested in His forgiving His children when they confess their sins. John tells us this in I Jno. 1:9:
*Tf we confess our sins. He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Our confidence that God will forgive our sins when confessed rests upon two known facts about God, namely, that God is Righteous, and that God is Faithful. Gods Righteousness pledges Him to forgive us our sins because He, Himself, has provided an atonement for them that perfectly satisfies the demands of His own Righteousness and Holiness, and God is Righteous and therefore will not require payment twice. God’s Faithfulness makes it absolutely certain that He will forgive the believers’ sins when they are confessed; for He has promised to do it, and His Faithfulness makes it absolutely certain He will keep His Word. If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, for you to doubt that your sin is forgiven when you have confessed it is to question both the Righteousness and Faithfulness of God, as well as to question His veracity. Therefore, to question that your sins are for¬ given is not a becoming humility but daring presumption.
8. In the eighth place, Gods Faithfulness is Manifested in His answering the prayers of His children. This, we are taught in Ps. 143: i, 2:
‘‘Hear my prayer, O Jehovah;
Give ear to my supplications:
In Thy faithfidness answer me, and in Thy
righteousness.
And enter not into judgment with Thy servant;
For in thy sight no man living is righteous.”
Our last three chapters have been on the Righteousness, the Lovingkindness (or Mercy) and the Faith¬ fulness of God. These three attributes of God run along very nearly parallel lines, and they are all pledged to the deliverance, the defense, and the complete and eternal salvation of God’s people.
Such IS the God of the Bible, what a wonderful God! We can well exclaim with Micah of old, “Who is a God like unto Thee?” (Mic. 7:18). And the answer is. No other God is like unto the God of the Bible the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament, the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of Jacob, Who is the same as the God of Paul, and Peter, and John and James, and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One thing must have impressed you as in these twelve chapters we have studied the God of the Bible, and that is, the marvelous unity of the Book with its forty or more human authors, but all God-controlled, presenting through more than fifteen hundred years and under the most diverse and divergent circumstances, the same God in every respect, and thus conclusively proving that it was one Supreme Mind, and no less a mind than the mind of the One Infinite, Eternal, and Omniscient God Who spoke through them all.
Yes, “Who is a God like unto Him?” Surely not the God of ancient philosophers, poets and sages, and just as surely not the God of modern philosophers, poets and dreamers, except in so far as they have borrowed their conception of God from this centuriesold Book, some parts thirty-four centuries old, and yet ever presenting the same God. The god of “Christian Science” is not like unto Him. The god of Theosophy is not like unto Him. The God of “New Thought” is not like unto Him. The god of Spiritual¬ ism is not like unto Him. The God of Modern Unitarianism is not like unto Him. The God of the New Theology is not like unto Plim. The god of Modern
Philosophy is not like unto Him. The god of *‘Modernism” in all its forms is not like unto Him. Let us then cast to the bats and the owls these man-made gods, and believe in and obey and surrender our lives to, and worship and adore the God of the Bible; and let us continue to study to know Him ever more and more fully, for “This is the life eternal, that we should know Thee, the Only true God, and Him Whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ.’’