Let Faithfulness Be Found In All Our Being

"Let Faithfulness Be Found In All Our Being" – 1 Corinthians 1:9 "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord." On this night the pastor was absent and another minister of the congregation expounded. The message follows the already published study of the same title: what faithfulness is —being constant, loyal and worthy of trust, come what may—, why it has become so easy to break, and how deception seldom arrives as something evil, but as something "almost right." It moves through 1 John 1:3, 2 Corinthians 11:3, Acts 8:32, Revelation 2:10, 1 Corinthians 4:2, John 13:26-27, Psalm 31:23, Psalm 101:6, Nehemiah 13:13, Revelation 19:11, Proverbs 13:17, Luke 16:10 and 2 Timothy 2:2.

I. What faithfulness is

A. To be faithful, constant, loyal and worthy of trust, come what may. And that quality is not easy to find today.

B. What a person learns as a child takes root and becomes almost a law for life.

C. Today faithfulness is very easy to break: it is more comfortable, and it seems nothing happens.

D. The pandemic came and each one stayed home: our soul grew a little colder, our feeling more lukewarm, and we concluded that things need not weigh so much.

E. Missing a service used to be serious: we ran from the university and dressed on the way. Today one more rehearsal or one more service is nothing.

F. In this life there are two very great words: love and faithfulness.

G. A faithful person keeps what he promises, does not abandon when things get hard, and stands firm even when circumstances change.

H. But we set conditions for being faithful: if I see no gain in it, then I need not be so faithful.

II. God is faithful (1 Corinthians 1:9)

A. God is faithful because He never fails, always keeps His promises, and never abandons us.

B. And we are called to be faithful by Jesus Christ: standing firm in the faith, trusting Him, living according to His truth.

C. That is what God asks: that we be faithful as He is, and that we carry His same marks in our lives.

D. To be faithful is to fulfil one's duties and commitments. But the mind says: "if that one does not do it, why should I?"

E. If he arrives late, why should I arrive early? Because the faithfulness is mine: I am the one who must show that I am still faithful.

F. So the pastor has always done: even alone, she stands up to preach; because her faithfulness to God is hers, and she will not break it on account of any of us.

G. Today we flee from commitments: it is more comfortable to have a free life than to owe oneself to someone or something. And if we break our commitments, we become unfaithful.

H. That word shocks even worldly people. If it startles those who have no commitment to God, imagine what it means for the family of the faith.

III. Without love, none of the rest holds

A. How can a person sleep if he is not at peace? And the worst is how easily we swallow it and treat it as normal.

B. Here is the real fear: God hardened Pharaoh's heart. If my conscience no longer convicts me, did I harden my own heart, or did God harden it?

C. Thou shalt love thy God with all thy strength; thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love and faithfulness sum up everything: without them we do none of the rest.

D. If I do not love my neighbour, how will I not envy, not commit adultery, not steal? It all becomes easy. But if I love him, how could I wish him harm?

E. It begins by loving God and loving ourselves: if we love ourselves, no one is our rival, and we can admire others and see their virtues.

F. To criticize your neighbour is to fail in faithfulness: if I am faithful to a brother I do not go about criticizing him, and if I am told something about him, I tell him.

G. But we keep quiet, because it is easier to be unfaithful and easier to be a coward.

H. When we first came to God we made the most important commitment of our lives, and we made it forever; not for a month, nor to withdraw to the edge the moment something displeases us.

I. He who is faithful is true: in him there is no deceit and no betrayal. The unfaithful is displeasing in God's eyes, though we think only the thief or the murderer is.

IV. Called to fellowship (1 John 1:3)

A. John teaches what he has seen and heard "that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ."

B. We were called to have fellowship with Jesus, and we must be faithful, for only He is faithful and only the faithful reach heaven.

C. There are only two ways to make that fellowship grow: praying and reading the Bible.

D. Let us pray even for a moment; something is better than nothing. Demand an hour of a beginner and he ends up praying nothing: fifteen minutes will do, and the connection comes little by little.

E. The same with the Bible: no need to read a whole book in a day; a chapter will do. And if there is more time today, read three, or ten.

F. God is the one who calls us, and He uses people to preach to us, so that we may have a real and close fellowship with Him.

G. And John adds something key: there is also fellowship with the brethren of the faith. The result is fellowship with God and with others, so we can be faithful to one another.

V. The deception that looks right (2 Corinthians 11:3)

A. God asked Adam and Eve to be faithful in one thing only: not to eat of one single tree.

B. The serpent was not blunt: it was subtle, gentle. "Go ahead and eat, you will have more knowledge."

C. Deception often looks good, logical, attractive. And often we deceive ourselves with our own excuses, which seem utterly logical to us.

D. It is not always drastic: sometimes it is drifting little by little. A great blow is easy to see; the worse thing is bit by bit, until we open our eyes long after.

E. What must be guarded most is the mind, for that is where deception begins; and the mind is treacherous: from a trifle everything starts.

F. A small deception: "I have Jesus in my heart, I stay home and read the Bible myself." But the Bible says we must assemble; and if I do not read it, I never find that out.

G. Another: "it does not matter what you believe, it is all the same." It is not the same: idolatry was the first thing God punished.

H. "I believe in God, but my own way." People love to say that, and even take pride in it. Shall we say that before God? There will be no excuse to give Him.

I. Believing is not what one thinks is right or wrong: it is what the Bible says. Not because the pastor said it, but because the word says it.

J. Deception does not come as something evil, but as something almost right. And so we deceive ourselves with almost-right things, which are not right: they are almost.

VI. The tempter came to Jesus too (Acts 8:32)

A. The eunuch asks of whom the passage speaks: it is Isaiah prophesying what Jesus would suffer, and that He would die.

B. As he tempted Adam and Eve, the devil also came to Jesus: in the forty-day fast he tempted Him three times. "Man shall not live by bread alone."

C. He came subtly even to Jesus, that He might prove unfaithful to what God had sent Him to do on the earth.

D. If we examine ourselves, we live complaining about our duties and blaming someone else: "because of him, I am the way I am."

E. And the word says: do not even come to bring your offering if you have something against your brother.

F. It is one of two things: either we harden further, or we repent and become meek, humble and obedient. But pride outweighs humility in us.

G. When a child is corrected, insist that he ask forgiveness: the gesture of humbling must be seen, or in a month the same correction comes round again.

H. My duty is to face up. Jesus kept silence under unjust accusations: He did not defend Himself, did not fight, and fulfilled all He owed without a single complaint.

I. He could have said: let them go on bringing lambs to the temple. But He chose to do His duty. If He fulfilled His, being God Himself, what is left for a simple mortal?

VII. Be faithful unto death (Revelation 2:10)

A. "Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life": the greatest promise we can receive.

B. Think of the most powerful man on earth today. How many days has he left? We do not know. And when he dies, will he have the crown of life? We cannot say.

C. Being the greatest on earth guarantees no crown. Being meek, humble before God and above all faithful does guarantee it.

D. Why do we live as though this world were something? This world has nothing to give us.

E. When we are unfaithful it is because we were tempted and yielded, forgetting the seriousness of our obligations.

F. And when a person is unfaithful, he cannot look others in the eye, and there is no peace in daily life. Let us be brave; let us not be cowards.

VIII. That we be found faithful (1 Corinthians 4:2)

A. "Moreover it is required in stewards, that a man be found faithful."

B. All of us who have been given something are asked to be found faithful: to what we were given, to those around us, to our family, to our own.

C. It is an indispensable requirement: the only way to fulfil the calling is by being faithful, for our calling has been to come to the feet of Christ.

D. Whoever stands up to teach must struggle to be faithful to the brethren and to God above all; and that must be asked of God every day.

E. And if we have lived so long and been through so much, we must grow up, and not go on living as though we were sixteen.

F. Because if I am unfaithful, the Holy Spirit cannot remain. And that is what should worry us: whether He is in me or not.

G. If He is, I lie down in peace and wake in peace, and I can look everyone in the eye; I need not avoid a street corner because of who is standing there.

IX. "And after the sop Satan entered into him" (John 13:26-27)

A. Jesus gave Judas the same love He gave the twelve: the same He gave John, Peter, James, Thomas.

B. He dips the sop, gives it to him and says, "That thou doest, do quickly." And Satan entered into him.

C. What do I want: the Holy Spirit in me, or Satan? Because if it is not one, it is the other. There is no middle ground here: it is black or white, there is no grey.

D. What greater example of an unfaithful man? The one who saw the miracles and saw Jesus' face move with compassion healing the sick, the blind, the leper.

E. And when the woman anointed the Lord's feet, he complained: "why was this not sold and given to the poor?" That is almost right. But it was a deception of Satan.

F. So the almost-right thoughts come to us: "why does the pastor not do this some other way?" It is Satan wanting to take possession of the heart and the mind.

G. Let us not be fools, so the devil cannot mock: "look at this one, he fell for what I put in his mind, and does not know what he has lost through the almost-right I sowed."

X. The promises for the faithful

A. Psalm 31:23 — "the LORD preserveth the faithful." If we walk in faithfulness we have nothing to fear: as the hymn said, believing Him makes me strong.

B. Psalm 101:6 — "Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me." Only the true and faithful will reach perfection; that is why God preserves us.

C. Nehemiah 13:13 — he chose those who were counted faithful. And such duties are done even with weariness, with sleeplessness, with brokenness, with everything.

D. Revelation 19:11 — Jesus is called "Faithful and True." How beautiful it would be if, looking at us, people saw that we are faithful and true, not two-faced nor deceivers.

E. We are stewards, and stewardship is given to faithful people; and the steward cannot complain of his work: he works the most and is the last to go to bed.

F. And the detail: the steward's faithfulness is toward the good and the bad alike. Not "with this one yes, because I like him, and with that one no."

G. Without faithful men Nehemiah would not have raised the walls: letters came to halt the work, and unfaithful men would have said "it is true, we cannot go on."

H. Proverbs 13:17 — "a wicked messenger falleth into mischief: but a faithful ambassador is health." He carries bad news because he enjoys seeing the other's face.

I. Luke 16:10 — he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much. We fall easily into favouritism: faithful when the pastor asks, half-unfaithful when a brother does.

J. 2 Timothy 2:2 — commit what you have heard to faithful men, able to teach others. There may not be two hundred to teach, but there is one's own household.

K. Let no unfaithful person come to teach: do not stain others nor sow evil things in them. If you want to be wrong, stay wrong yourself, but do not teach it to another.

XI. Application

A. Stop convincing yourself that you are "almost right": that is exactly where the deception lies.

B. Do not wait for conditions in order to be faithful: the faithfulness is yours, and does not depend on what the other does.

C. Grow the fellowship by the only two roads there are: pray and read the Bible. Even fifteen minutes and one chapter.

D. Guard the mind, where deception begins; and do not let a trifle turn into a drift.

E. Be the same with the one you like and the one you find hard, and the same in the small thing as in the great.

F. If you have something against a brother, settle it before bringing your offering; and let the repentance come from your own heart, not from being pointed at.

G. Remember that faithfulness runs to the end: having been faithful fifteen years ago is not enough.