Good morning. If you would, grab
your hardback hymnal. Let's open this morning with
number 228. And we'll stand to sing this
one. My faith has found a resting
place, not in device nor creed. I trust the ever-living one in me. I need no other argument,
I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died,
and that he died for me. Enough for me that Jesus saves,
this ends my fear and doubt. A sinful soul, I come to Him,
He'll never cast me out. I need no other argument, I need
no other plea It is enough that Jesus died And that he died for
me My heart is leaning on the Word, the written Word of God. Salvation by my Savior's name,
salvation through His blood. I need no other argument. I need no other key It is enough
that Jesus died And that he died for me my great physician heals
the sick the lost he came to save for me his precious blood
he shed for me his life he gave i need no other argument i need
no other Good morning. That's a great
hymn. It is enough. It is enough. Christ is enough. All God requires. Everything that he demands, he
looks to his son for. And faith is looking to the same
one that the father's looking to. I pray the Lord will give
us faith this morning to look to Christ. Let's open our Bibles
to Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. We'll go to the Lord in prayer
and ask his blessings. Our most gracious, merciful Heavenly
Father, what great hope and comfort you give us in knowing that we
need no other argument. We need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died. and that he died for me. Lord, we ask that you'd be pleased now
this hour to send your spirit and power to open that which
no man can shut. Open our hearts. Open the windows
of heaven. Open thy word. Lord, reveal to
us the glory of thy dear son and give faith to look to him. We have been distracted in so many
ways away from Christ. Lord, we thank you that you've
provided this place where we can come and confess our sin
and our need and to look in faith, Lord, to
your precious promises and to your accomplished work of redemption.
We ask your blessings, Lord. We pray it in Christ's name.
Amen. We started last Sunday a study
in the book of Colossians. In the first hour, Lord willing,
we'll continue that. I mentioned to the men this morning
at the rate that we're going, We'll be here for a few years.
We dealt with one word last Sunday. It was the word saint. You see
that in verse two, that the Lord is addressing this epistle to
the saints, the sanctified ones, the ones who have been set apart
by God and have been given righteousness of Christ so that they are holy
in the very sight of God. Believers don't typically refer
to themselves as saints because that word has such a bad understanding
in the world, particularly among religious people, but God says
that's what we are. That's what we are. The next word in this verse is
faithful, faithful. Every child of God laments over
how unfaithful they are, just as they lament over how unholy
they are left to themselves. But here again, we see how it
is that God sees his people. And he says that they are faithful. Faithful. What does it mean to
be faithful? Every child of God wants to be
known as a person who's faithful, trustworthy, loyal, reliable,
truthful to your word, conscientious, dependable, We strive to have such a reputation
and how shameful and embarrassed we are to be untruthful and disloyal
and unfaithful and to have a reputation of being unreliable. The Lord says it is required
of a steward that a man be found faithful. So the Lord calls us
to a life of faithfulness. Paul said to Timothy, he said,
the things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, commit
thou to faithful men who are able to teach others also. And
then if we look at verse seven in this same chapter where we
are, The Lord identifies Epaphras
as you also learned of Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who
is for you a faithful minister of Christ. Look over in chapter
four at verse seven, Paul in writing to the church
at Colossae says, all my state shall Tychicus declare unto you,
who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow
servant in the Lord. Look at verse nine in that same
chapter, Onesimus, you remember Onesimus, he was Philemon's runaway
slave. And Onesimus is the one carrying
these letters back to the churches. And he says, with Onesimus, my
faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you, they shall
make known unto you all things which are done here. So he calls
him a faithful and beloved brother. As we grow in grace, we hope that the Lord will make
us faithful brethren and faithful ministers and faithful children. This kind of faithfulness, however,
is somewhat relative, isn't it? Some individuals prove themselves
to be more faithful than others. And to one degree or another,
we are all subject to being unfaithful from time to time. No believer
is satisfied with the degree of their faithfulness And yet
there is a faithfulness that is absolute, a faithfulness that
is unwavering, a faithfulness that is perfect. And I believe
that's what the Lord is telling us here. He's saying to us that we are
sanctified saints, set apart, perfectly holy and accepted in
the beloved, and that in Christ, we are before God always faithful,
always faithful. Revelation chapter 17 tells us
that all those who are gathered with the Lord in glory are called
and are chosen and are faithful. So here's Our Lord identifying his church
in heaven when he calls them faithful. Revelation chapter two, verse
10 says, be thou faithful unto death and I will give you a crown
of life. Paul said, I have fought the
good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the righteous judge shall
give to me and not to me only, but all those who love his appearing. And so all the people of God
are going to be given this crown of glory for their faithfulness. Turn with me, if you will, to
Deuteronomy chapter seven. How is it that God can see us
as faithful when we know our own unfaithfulness? Deuteronomy chapter seven. The
Lord delights in being known by his people as the faithful
God to his covenant promises. We know that God the Father,
in the covenant of grace in eternity past, chose a particular people
according to his own will and purpose. That God the Son as
the surety of those people entered into a covenant as the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world and promised in that covenant
to redeem those whom the Father had chosen. God the Holy Spirit
entered into that covenant promise. A covenant is a promise. This
is a promise that had nothing to do with you and me in that
we didn't enter into the faithfulness of this promise. God the Holy
Spirit said, I will go. And in the day of my power, I
will open the eyes of their understanding. I will take out their heart of
stone and put in a heart of flesh. I will give them faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. so that this covenant could not
fail, having been established by God, the Father, God, the
Son, and God, the Holy Spirit. This is the faithful God that
we serve. Look with me, you have your Bibles
open to Deuteronomy chapter seven. Look at verse six, for thou art
a holy people, a set apart people, a sinless people. unto the Lord
thy God. And the Lord thy God had not
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people
that are upon the earth. He had chosen you. 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.
1 Corinthians chapter 1 tells us
he chose those things which were not. The weak things of the world,
the things that are despised in order to glorify himself,
and that's what he's telling us here. But because the Lord
loved you, he placed his love on you. I have loved you with
an everlasting love, therefore I have drawn you with cords of
kindness. This is God's purpose and choice
and lovingness people, because the Lord loved you and because
he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers,
hath the Lord brought you up out of his mighty hand and redeemed
you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, king
of Egypt. Know therefore, know therefore
that the Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God. Here's why the Lord can call
us faithful, because he's faithful. And he's known as the faithful
God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him
and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. We do keep his commandments, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
looking to Christ for all of our righteousness. And the Lord
says, I'll be known among my people as the faithful God. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 8 says,
he shall confirm you unto the end, that you may be blameless
in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ, for God is faithful. by whom you were called unto
the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. I'm faithful
to my covenant, I'm faithful to my mercies, I'm faithful to
my promises, and I delight in being known among my people as
faithful. Turn with me to Numbers chapter
12, Numbers chapter 12. This is the first time that the
word faithful is found in the Word of God. And if the Lord
is pleased to give us eyes of faith, we will see that this
story is really not about Moses and Miriam and Aaron. It is about,
well, the Lord said, I will raise up a prophet like unto thee when
he's speaking to Moses. And so Moses in this story is
a type, a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Miriam, whose
name means rebellion, is a picture of us by nature. Miriam and Aaron,
brother and sister of Moses. Well, let's read it together.
Look at chapter 12, verse one. And Miriam and Aaron, spake against
Moses because the Ethiopian woman whom he had married, for he married
an Ethiopian woman, unable to admit their prejudice or their
jealousy, they challenged Moses' authority. That's usually always
the case. Men won't identify the real reason
why they are being rebellious. So they'll point to something
else. And they said, verse two, had
the Lord indeed spoken only by Moses? Had he not spoken also
by us? And the Lord heard it. Miriam
and Aaron challenging the authority of Moses because he had married
an Ethiopian woman. Now the man Moses was very meek
above all the men which were upon the face of the earth. Oh,
what a description of the Lord Jesus Christ. His meek and mild
manner, his love for his children, his compassion and tenderness
toward us even in our rebellion. And the Lord spake suddenly unto
Moses and said unto Aaron and unto Miriam, come ye out three
unto the tabernacle of the congregation. And they three came out. That's
where the Lord's called us. He's called us out. Our Miriam
spirit needs to be pointed to Christ. And the Lord came down. in the
pillar of the cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle
and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forth. And
the Lord said, hear now my words. If there be a prophet among you,
I, the Lord, will make myself known unto him in a vision and
will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses, however, is
not so, for he is faithful in all my house. With him will I speak mouth to
mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches and in the similitude
of the Lord shall he behold. Wherefore then, were you not
afraid to speak against my servant Moses?" What a glorious picture. If the Lord ever speaks to you
and me, it's going to be through the one whom he spoke to mouth
to mouth and face to face, his son. No man knoweth the Father,
but the Son, and them whom he is pleased to
reveal him." That's always our hope. We come before God, not
because of our faithfulness, but because of our Moses, the
one who is faithful in all his house. He's faithful in all his
house and he's the one, he's the one to whom God speaks face
to face and mouth to mouth. Miriam and Aaron are corrected. They're humbled and they realize
God's gonna bless them. It'll be through the revelation
that he gives to his is Moses, his faithful one. If we are going to hear from
God, it will not be because of the diligence of our study or
the degree of our commitment. If we're going to hear from God,
it's going to be because we came humbly before the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what it is. That's what
faithfulness is. Faith is, you know, it's not
some sort of strength of character, or determination, or... Faith is dependence. Except you become, as a little
child, you should not enter the kingdom of heaven. Suffer the
little children to come unto me, for such are the kingdom
of God. A childlike faith, where we are humbled before the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the Lord is faithful to do
that. Every time we become proud and
resistant of the revelation that God has given to Christ, we are
brought to the end of ourselves and we're brought to see our
need and our dependence on Christ. We're brought as Mary was to
the feet of Christ to choose that one thing that's needful.
We are brought to hear the voice of God, which says, this is my
beloved son. Hear ye him. He is the faithful
one in all my house. And so the Lord. continues to
bring his people in all of their unfaithfulness and on all of
their rebellion, he continues to bring them again and again
and again to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ and to trust
him and his faithfulness for their acceptance
before God. His very name, according to Revelation
chapter 19, verse 11, I saw heaven open and behold a white horse. And he that sat upon him was
true and faithful was his name. Faithful. When God makes a man to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, he will, by preserving and pursuing
grace, remain faithful in looking to Christ to the end. To the end. We see more of our
need for Christ now than we did at the beginning of our salvation. And I love what I heard one dying
sister say to her husband just before she passed from this world. She said, honey, I see more clearly
now than ever in my life that Christ is all I have. He's all
I have. That's what it is to be faithful. The Lord tells us in Romans chapter
11, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance. So when God calls us out of darkness
into his marvelous light and gives us faith in Christ, and
gives us a spirit of repentance to not rely upon our works and
our righteousness, and gives us the Holy Spirit, that is the
gift of God. Those things are without repentance. In other words, the Lord doesn't
take them back. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? That's why the Lord can call
his children saints and faithful in Christ. Go back with me to
our text. I didn't point this out earlier,
I don't think. Verse two, to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ. faithful brethren in Christ. The Bible says that when we believe
not, when we act like Miriam, when we are unfaithful and rebellious
toward God, he remaineth faithful for he cannot deny himself. How glorious is that? He remaineth
faithful. He continues to bring us again
and again and again to Christ. The Bible says that he will keep
us from falling and present us faultless before the throne of
glory with great joy. You see, our faithfulness is
based on his faithfulness. We didn't do anything to get
in Christ, and we can't do anything to get out of Christ. Turn with
me to 1 Thessalonians 5. 1 Thessalonians 5. Look at verse 23, and the very
God of peace sanctify you, set you apart and make you holy.
Holy. And you notice the spelling on
that word is not H-O-L-Y. You're gonna sanctify every part
of us. And I pray God, your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless until the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he that calleth you
also who also will do it. So the Lord's telling us how
we ought to pray. Lord sanctify me, holy mind,
body, and spirit. and be faithful to make it be. Be faithful. To be faithful in Christ is to
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to Proverbs chapter 20,
verse 6. Most men will proclaim every
one his own goodness. Most men will proclaim everyone
his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find, you see the
contrast? What is a faithful man? It is
a man that cannot find any goodness in and of themselves that would
recommend them to God or that would obligate God in any way
to save them. A faithful man is a man who looks
at the Lord to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ for all of his acceptance before God, for all of his righteousness. This is the work of faith. Paul said, in Galatians 2, verse
20, he said, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live.
I do live, and I want to be faithful as I live. Yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me. The life that I now live in the
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me
and gave himself for me. So we live, the just shall walk
by faith. We live by faith. Here's the good news, brethren. God has put you in Christ. He's
gonna keep you faithful in looking to Christ. Oh, we've become so
unfaithful in so many ways. There's one sin that you cannot
commit. One sin you cannot commit. You cannot not believe. You cannot
go back to a works gospel. You cannot deny that Jesus is
the Christ, the son of the living God. You cannot deny that he
is the successful savior of sinners. That God is completely satisfied
with everything that he did. You can't deny that. That is the blasphemy of the
Holy Spirit, to trample underfoot the blood of Christ and to call
that which God calls holy common. You cannot say that God loves
everybody and Christ died for everybody and God wants everybody
to be saved and it's all up to you and you got to do your part
and all that sort of stuff. You know what they say. You can't
do that. The Lord addresses his people
as holy and faithful in Christ. Hebrews chapter 10, let us hold
fast the profession of our faith without wavering for he is faithful
that promised. Here's our hope. Our hope is
in his faithfulness. Our hope is in that he, like
Moses, is the one to whom God speaks face to face. And if God's
going to speak to me, I'm going to have to come to him. I'm not
looking to any of my personal faithfulness for the hope of
my acceptance before God. looking in faith to the Lord
Jesus Christ for all the hope of my salvation. Sarah was able to conceive when
past age because she judged him faithful who had promised. Now, if you go back to that experience
that Sarah had in Genesis, you find that when God told Sarah
at 90 years old that she was gonna have a child, she laughed.
But here in Hebrews chapter 11, she judged him faithful who had
promised. What a description. And that's
the same case with every one of these believers in Hebrews
chapter 11. If you go back to the account,
of their faithfulness as they encountered God, you'll find
that they wavered a lot. But God calls them faithful. He calls them faithful, why?
Because he sees them in Christ. And they did believe God. Turn
with me to that passage of scripture, Hebrews chapter 11. Look at verse 13, these all died
in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen
them afar off and were persuaded of them and embrace them and
confess that they were strangers and pilgrims in the earth. Here's
the. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. Now I'm persuaded that he's able
to keep that which I've committed unto him. I'm trusting him for
my salvation. He's the faithful one. For they that say such things
declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they
had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they
may have had opportunity to have returned. Now, here's what I
was trying to say earlier. God's put you in Christ. You're
not mindful of that country you came out of. You're not mindful
of that self-righteous, freewill, works mentality about hoping
that somehow you're going to earn your right to heaven by
something that you do. You're not mindful of that. If
you were, you'd go back to it. And John tells us very clearly
in 1 John, he says, they went out from us because they were
never of us. For had they been of us, they
would have remained. And so those who prove themselves to be unfaithful
were never faithful to begin with. If God has revealed Christ to
you and put you in Christ, you didn't do anything to get there
and you can't do anything to get out of there. He's going
to be faithful to keep you. But now, look at verse 16, but
now they desire a better country that is a heavenly, wherefore
God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared
for them a city. By faith Abraham, when he was
tried, offered up Isaac, And he that had received the promises
offered up his only begotten son." Well, we know what that's
a picture of. We know that when Isaac asked
Abraham, Father, here's the fire and here's the wood, but where's
the burnt offering? Where's the burnt offering for
a sacrifice unto God? And what did Abraham say to his
son? Son, God will provide himself
a sacrifice. There's three things to be understood
in that statement. God does the providing. God provided
himself as the sacrifice and God provided the sacrifice to
himself. God does all the providing. It's
his faithfulness. And that's where we look. God's
ever given you faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You
can't not believe. Of whom it was said, verse 18,
that in Isaac shall thy seed be called. Not in Ishmael. The Lord tells us in Galatians
what that's a type of. Abraham's 100 years old and Sarah's
90 years old. Well, this would have been probably
about 14 years before that. So you do the math. But God had
made the promise that Abraham and Sarah were gonna have a child
and they were getting up in age and they still hadn't had a child.
And Abraham and Sarah got the wise idea that God needs some
help. You go into my handmade Hagar,
and she will be the heir that God promised. And from that came Ishmael. And
Ishmael and Isaac had been fighting physically in the Middle East
ever since, but the picture of the gospel is so clear that Abraham
and Sarah's attempt to, to contribute to the promise by their works,
uh, only created conflict. The, the, the, the child of the
flesh must be cast out. And the promise went to Isaac. The child of promise. Verse 19, according that God
was able to raise him up even from the dead, from whence also
he received him in a figure. Abraham believed. He told the servants, you stay
here. They went up on the mountain
and he told the servants, this is the same mountain where the
Lord Jesus was crucified many years later. He told the servants,
you stay here, Aladdin I'll be back. Abraham fully intended
to put Isaac to death, but the scripture tells us right there
that Abraham believed that God was gonna raise him from the
dead. He believed God. He counted him faithful to his
promises. Believer, child of God, God's
given you faith in Christ. He's caused you to confess before
Him that the only hope that you have to stand in the presence
of a holy God is to have the sinless Son of God as your substitute,
your sin bearer, your surety. And you believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's because God did a work
of grace and he that began a good work in you will complete it
until the day of his coming. And so before God almighty, most men will proclaim everyone
his own goodness, but a faithful man who can find. Rare thing, it's a rare thing
to find a faithful man, one who is looking to Christ for all
their salvation. The Lord is writing his word
to the saints and to the faithful brethren. in Christ. Thank God for his faithfulness
to keep us faithful. Amen. All right, let's take a
break.