verse nine together to nine of
first Corinthians one. It simply means God is trustee. God is trustee. Here's another part of the definition
of, and this is still part of the primary definition of this
now, of those who show themselves trustworthy in the transaction
of business. We understand that. Trustworthy
in the transaction of business. If I work for somebody and they'll
give me a list of things to do, it may not be a physical list,
but here are your job requirements, your job responsibilities. And
this word faithful is me doing those things reliably and doing
them well. If I don't do them well, they'll
find somebody that can. And rightly so, if I don't do
them reliably, if I'm inconsistent or absent a lot or just don't
do what I'm told, I'm not faithful. I'm not gonna be considered faithful.
Now we need to say right away here that nobody tells God what
to do. There are more than one sense
in which business is conducted. Business is not always doing
something you're told to do by a superior. That's probably most
of us. But when you yourself promise
to do something also, we do this too. If we promise we're gonna
do something, it's our business to do it. People expect us to
be truthful, to be faithful to our promises. That's how it is with God's faithfulness. That's one aspect of it. Because
he has no superior, but he has made some promises. He has. Precious promises. And also,
just simply your role, your status, or who you are in a certain office, make certain business incumbent
upon you. Whether you promise to do it
or not, being a father makes it your business to provide for
your family. If you're a father, that's just
your business, whether you like it or not. And a lot of people
don't like it and aren't real good at it. To discipline your
children, it's your business to love your family indeed. If
you're the head of the household, that's God's appointment, that's
God's order. And so just by virtue of you
being that, you have business to take care of. Now, in that sense, just God
being God, there are things that must be
done by him, not because of any outside constraint, not because
of any responsibility that he has to measure up to somehow,
but simply by virtue of being God, he runs the whole universe. He disposes of everybody and
everything, and when we think of the word dispose, that means
throwing something away. That's not really the meaning
of the word. To dispose of means to, what's another good word
for that? I can't think of it. bring it
to its conclusion, its end, whatever that is. And him just by virtue of him
being God, and we know that his various offices as God, mediator,
that carries certain business with the title, with the office. So he runs this, he's responsible
for every creature he creates. When a creature belongs to you,
you go buy a pet, a dog or a cat or something. You know, your
parents probably let you have that to teach you some responsibility. And it's usually an utter failure,
but failure is necessary in learning, isn't it? The parent ends up
taking that responsibility more often than not, but you see the
point. Every creature is God's. It belongs to him. And again,
I want to stress now that he must be true to his nature, but
not because he's required to measure up to some universal
law, but just because by virtue of it being his nature to do
that, to be that. He is true to all of his offices. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. That's one of his offices, and
as our shepherd, he is the shepherd and the bishop of our souls,
one that's responsible for us. Look up that word bishop. It's
very telling, very informative. He's the shepherd and therefore
he's the bishop of our souls. One, it's in charge of seeing
that things done by others are done rightly. It's responsible
for us. How can you be so sure, David,
that you shall not want? Well, because of who my shepherd
is. Just simply who he is. Now, we say he's true to his
nature. Everything's true to its nature.
We're true to our nature. You can rely on me sinning. You
can count on it. You may not even know what was
particularly evil about a certain thing that I do, but if you know
what a sinner is, you know that I was true to my nature. There's
no good thing that dwells in us. The problem is my nature
is evil. God being true to his nature,
He only does that which is good and right because of who he is. He's faithful to who he is. And
he is faithful in the business that he's in. What business is
God in? A lot of religion says I'm just
a servant of the Lord and don't have the slightest idea what
God's doing. How are you gonna serve in that
cause if you don't even know what God's doing? Most religion
thinks that God's in the business of trying to save everybody he
can, as many as he can. You preach a gospel that is consistent
with that and you haven't preached the gospel. That's not what God's
trying to do. That's not what Christ did on
Calvary. What business is God in? Saving his people from their
sins. Everything that God has done
in this world has to do with the salvation of his elect. Exalting his son by that wonderful
gospel and the results of that gospel. The kingdom of heaven
is like a king who made a wedding for his son. It's all about his
son, the glory of his son. What glorifies his son? I will have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. That's the glory of God in Christ.
Mercy on whom he will. Mercy for the worst, vilest,
most wretched sinners on this planet. I'm looking at some of
them right now, and you're looking at one, a really bad one. And
thank God that His glory is integral to
saving us. Or I should have said that the
other way, Him saving us is integral to His glory. His faithfulness. The Lord doesn't change, therefore
you sons of Jacob are not concerned. He's faithful to his promise.
He doesn't change his mind. And so therefore, we're saved. And we're gonna see that a lot
now in the scripture tonight, how that God being faithful is
real good news for us. Real good news. So God is sovereign. In his business,
he does what he pleases, when he pleases, with whom he pleases,
but that business is glorious. When the Lord said, I must be
about my father's business. Well, what was that? To glorify
the father in the saving of his people from
their sins. It's what he promised to do.
It's integral to his nature as God. God is love. God is gracious. God is sovereign in his graciousness
and love, but his sovereign redemption of his particular people is the
definition of love. So how all this manifests in
our experience is that if God has promised anything in this
book, then you can count on it. You
can count on it. If God has revealed who he is
in this book, then you can count on him being consistent with
who he is. What he does is what it is because
of who he is. A man dying on a cross is no
big deal unless it's God that did it. And then it's the big
deal. It's the only thing that matters.
It's the center of time and eternity and the whole universe. So this
is why for me to know And we preach this because we know it.
We don't preach speculation and our opinion on things, our deductions. We preach what we know. And here's
what I know, that Christ's redemption that he accomplished on Calvary
is effectual. It got the job done. Just like
his word, he said, it accomplished the thing where to he did it,
sent it or did it. that he redeemed perfectly everyone
for whom he shed his blood and only them. And all I really need
to know to be certain of that is who he is. See what I'm saying? He's consistent with who he is. If he died to redeem people,
him being God, he redeemed people. If he died to redeem a certain
people, Him being who he is, he redeemed those certain people.
If he didn't die to redeem somebody or a number of people, then they're
not gonna be redeemed, because there's no redemption anywhere
else. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby
we must be saved. And so I don't need to be an
expert on the doctrine of election and particular redemption, those
things, although I, I love knowing about it. I just need to know,
though, who Christ is in order to know those things are true.
That's why those, and I hate to say those doctrines because
the doctrine is one doctrine, isn't it? It's the word of God.
But those truths, the way that we know that they're certain
is because any one of them denied denies who God is. It just simply
did not, well, Christ died to save everybody. Well, wait a
minute, he didn't save everybody. So you just said he's not God,
is what you just said. You just said he's not omnipotent. His precious blood is not effectual. You just destroyed the character
of God, not literally, but in your mind and heart, if you truly
believe that. So it's about who he is, his
faithfulness to who he is and to what he's promised. So we
experience that in comfort, peace, assurance. Is Christ the sovereign, successful,
omnipotent Christ of God who cannot fail? Then he redeemed
everyone whom he came to redeem. It has to do with who he is.
Not only do we know this simply because of who he is, but he
plainly declared it as well. He said, I lay down my life for
my sheep, and they shall never perish. It's not up to them. I died for them. I saved them. It's not up to them, thank God.
We're gonna be praising his holy name forever because it wasn't
up to us. No one for whom the Son of God
shed his precious blood can ever suffer for sins, he having suffered
in their place and died in their place. Let's consider for just
a moment the context in which Paul is saying God is faithful. Verse eight says that God will
do for you, he will continue all the way to the end doing
for you what he's doing for you right now. much of which Paul
addressed in the first part of this chapter. I want to talk
about a little of that, and if you want to just kind of scan
through the verses as I mention these things, many things are
mentioned. You were sanctified, you were set apart, you were
made holy unto the purpose of God, and called to be saints,
which is sanctified ones. Verse two, that's where it says
that. the grace of God was given you
by Jesus Christ. In verse four, you were enriched
by him who he himself is all the riches of God. Verse five,
you were enriched by him. Verse six, the testimony of Christ
was confirmed in you. And then in verse eight, Paul
is bold to say that God will confirm you saints to the end. He will continue. He will confirm
you until the end. Well, how in the world does Paul
know God won't cast them off? They're pretty evil people. Maybe
God will get sick and tired of them. How can Paul be sure what
God is going to do? Because of who he is. because
of what he said here, God is faithful to himself and to his
promises. Remember what John the Baptist,
Father Zacharias said when the Lord gave him the ability to
speak and everybody was asking him, you know, the Lord told
him that the boy's name was John. And everybody was surprised by
that. The father wrote down his name's John, and they were all
shocked by that. And then the Lord gave him the
ability to speak. He was mute, he couldn't speak,
but the Lord gave him the ability to speak. And the first words,
look at Luke chapter one with me. The first words out of his mouth
were of the faithfulness of God. Luke 168. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up
an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been
since the world began. Just like he said he would, he
saved us. he sent his salvation, that we
should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that
hate us to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to
remember his holy covenant. His holy covenant. God's faithful
to his promises. The oath which he swear to our
father Abraham that he would grant unto us that we being delivered
out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear
in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth because God is faithful. How many times during the events
leading up to and during the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus
does the scripture say that something happened? However seemingly insignificant
it might be, it happened that the scriptures might be fulfilled.
The scriptures are the word of God, the promises of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ gave himself
for us, being crucified as he was, down to the most minute
of details, because God is faithful, who promised. Christ crucified
because God is faithful. God began promising the seed
of woman, he promised. that he would crush the serpent's
head. The first thing God did when we sinned and fell in the
garden in our father, Adam, was make us a promise. God forgives our sins because
he's faithful. 1 John 1,9, turn over there with
me. Let's look at this sort of carefully. First John 1-9. If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. God forgives our sins because
He's faithful. You might say, well, shouldn't
that say He forgives us because He's gracious? If we confess
our sins, He is gracious and merciful to forgive us our sins.
Absolutely He is. That's not what it says. The
Lord's teaching us something particular here now. If we confess,
and it's important in this to note that this is not, us doing
something to cause God to be, to forgive our sins. When we think of confessing our
sins, religion has turned that into a horrible, blasphemous,
I don't even know what to call it, obscene practice of reciting
your sins to some horrible man. And Everybody there pretending
that God has something to do with that. But even the true confession
of sins doesn't probably even mean what we think it does sometimes.
We think that means, you know, to say before God in our prayers,
Lord, I've sinned greatly, I did this, I did that, please forgive
me. Nothing wrong with doing that. But this word confess means
to say the same thing as another. To agree with. To say the same
thing as another. God says you're a dog and I ought
not to have mercy on you. What do you say? I agree. Truth. Truth. I say the same thing.
I'm a dog. And I don't deserve anything
from you. Even a bad dog. It doesn't say
this in the text, and I don't want to add anything, but even
a bad dog, it doesn't say if you're a good dog or a bad dog,
does it? Even a bad dog eats the crumbs that fall from the
table, don't it? I know because we have a bad dog. No, not according
to Vicki, we don't. But even she gets some crumbs
every once in a while. But true, we agree with God. That's
what it is. And that's not something we just
decide to do. That's the grace of God. That's
faith. I believe God concerning me.
That's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
It doesn't say the Lord is gracious to forgive our sins, though that
is true. He's faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. That's the business that he's
in. And he's reliable, he's trusty
in that. We can count on his forgiveness
when we agree with him about our sinfulness because of who
he is and what he has promised. We agree with him about our sins
because he's already been gracious to us or we never would. We have assurance of salvation
because God is faithful. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. I hope this is a comfort tonight.
We can be assured of salvation because God is faithful. Hebrews 10.22. Let us draw near with a true
heart, having full assurance of faith. Full, full is a good
word. Full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience. Now, full assurance of faith
doesn't necessarily mean you have a lot of faith. But I do believe it means this,
every bit of it is in Christ, all of it. Isn't that true of
a believer? We have no confidence in this
flesh. We trust and we rejoice in Christ
and what he did and have no confidence in the flesh. weak faith, sometimes no faith,
it seems like. And yet, we believe. We still
need God to help us with our unbelief, but we do by His grace. Having full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, you know
that refers back to the Old Testament, sprinkling the blood, consecrated,
it's sanctified, the thing, the, Things pertaining to the tabernacle
in the temple So having our hearts sprinkled only the blood of Christ
can take away an evil conscience. You know what an evil conscience
is It's one that's guilty But if Christ has washed our
sins away If we know by His faithfulness, by who He is and what He promised,
that our sins are gone, that we're justified in the sight
of God, by Christ and His precious blood, we have a good conscience
now. No guilt, nothing to be guilty
about. Though we've sinned every moment
we've lived, we have nothing to be guilty, because Christ
took it away. sprinkled from an evil conscience.
That only happens by his blood. And our bodies washed with pure
water. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. Why? Because that's what faithful
people do, no? Because he's faithful. That's our confidence. The very
nature of salvation, what salvation is, makes this so. It's God saving
us in spite of us. It's God saving us sovereignly.
It's God saving us just because he wanted to. It's God saving
us so thoroughly that the very blood of God was shed to put
away our sin by the sacrifice of himself. It's all God. And so what's our confidence?
If my salvation is me doing something, then I would have to be confident
in that salvation by doing stuff. But if salvation is God's free,
eternal, sovereign grace bestowed upon me and Christ crucified,
then my confidence is He don't change. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. Let's hold fast to profession.
Let's have full assurance of faith. We can be confident. It
is of grace, it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end
that the promise is sure to everybody he died for through the seed
of Abraham. Those who have the faith of Abraham
by God's grace. So we are fully assured And we
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, not because
we're solid or faithful, but because he is. We depend upon
God's faithfulness every moment of every day. You're hanging
right now upon the faithfulness of God. Lamentations 3. If you want to turn over there
with me, Lamentations 3. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations
chapter 3, 21. Listen to this beautiful. I want you to turn there. If
you could, this is so beautiful. I want us to see this word by
word. What a beautiful, beautiful passage of scripture. Put yourself in this. Can you
say this? This I recall to my mind, therefore
have I hope. Do you have hope right now? or
you're like this world just hoping everything will turn out right.
That's just like hoping it doesn't rain tomorrow or hoping your hope is a spider's web. It's based on nothing. But I
recall this to my mind. You know how I do that? I don't know any good way to
do that in this world, I'll be honest with you. You get involved
in something, you're working on a project or you're dealing
with, a lot of times we're dealing with some kind of a problem,
trying to resolve it. Do you often recall God to your
mind during that, just all of a sudden, you know what, God's
in control of this, I wish I could do that, every once in a while.
But you know how more often than not, we recall to our mind that
which gives us hope. We're doing it right now. We're doing it right now. And
I guarantee you, if you don't do this, you're not gonna do
it in the world. This is our hope. 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." Can you remember that? And don't
get me wrong, don't despair of remembering that all the time.
That's the goal, that's what I wanna do. I wanna remember
it all the time, no matter what I'm into. Great is the faithfulness of
God, whatever it is, whatever it is. You remember when Paul, I believe
it was Paul that said, in everything give thanks. Well, for this is
the will of God concerning you. I used to think for so long that
that's saying it's the will of God for you to give thanks. And
it certainly could be saying that. I'd say that's true, don't
you? But I think what he's saying
is the everything is the will of God concerning you. So give thanks in it. Whatever
it is, thank God. just for being God and for being
faithful in stuff we call good and what we call bad. Something
bad happened to me. Not if you're His, it didn't. No, sir. No, sir. He is the one who called you
to the fellowship of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. That's
our text. God is faithful who called you
to the fellowship of his son. What a glorious thing
that is. And he's faithful to that calling.
Remember Romans 11, 29, you wouldn't know that's where it was necessarily,
but I bet you know this verse. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He called you to the fellowship
of his son. Jesus Christ our Lord, and he
don't change that. God's faithfulness is our salvation. Second Timothy 2.13, if we believe
not, if we believe not, yet he abideth faithful. Is that important
to you? Do you ever believe not? Aren't you glad he's faithful
when you don't? Oh, thank God for that. And here's the next sentence.
He cannot deny himself. That's what we've been saying
since the start. That's what the scriptures have been saying.
God has been saying since the start of this lesson. He can't
deny himself. He's faithful to who he is and
what he's promised. And even if we have no faith, is that even possible if God's
given you faith? Well, I'm not sure, but why do
we need to be sure about that? I need to be sure about him,
not so much about myself. Is it possible to have no faith
if you're a believer? You know where I'm going with
this, don't you? The disciples were out on that ship with the
Lord and he's asleep and they thought they were gonna die. And they woke him up and said,
don't you care that we perish? And the Lord said this, how is
it that you have no faith? When we believe not, he's faithful. There are a lot worse things
I could fall asleep to nap thinking about than that. When you're like them, and we are just like them, don't
despair. Our salvation does not depend
on our faithfulness. It depends on His. Did you know that even your good
works and your perseverance in the faith are a result of God's
faithfulness, not yours? 1 Thessalonians 5, just another
scripture or two, we'll be through. 1 Thessalonians 5. Verse 15. I want you to notice all of the
exhortations in this passage now. This is the Lord telling
you what to do. He's telling you what to do. Does God give us things to do? What are you doing if he don't?
What in the world are we doing? The scriptures are full of exhortations. to faithfulness, to service unto
Him, to honoring Him. But listen to all of these. See
that none render evil for evil unto any man. You may have to
do something to get out of a mess that somebody else got you in,
but don't be vindictive. Are you surprised that the world
is full of thieves and idiots and people that would kill you
Benefited them, don't render evil for evil. But ever follow
that which is good, both among yourselves and to all men. Rejoice
evermore. Pray without ceasing. In everything
give thanks. There it is right there. For
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. Quench not the spirit. Despise
not prophesies. Why would anybody despise preaching? Because it's contrary to the
flesh, that's why. It still is. It still is, isn't it? Prove all things. Hold fast that
which is good. Abstain from all appearance of
evil. and the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. 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. He just got through telling
you what to do. It's not gonna happen because
you're faithful. Faithful is he that calleth you.
That's our text. He called you unto the fellowship.
God is faithful who called you. Who also will do it. Isn't that a glorious passage?
What a glory. If that didn't comfort us, thank
God for the comfort of his word, his precious promises. He'll
do it. You remember when the disciples, when they failed in
the Garden of Gethsemane, when they fell asleep, he said, can't
you watch with me for just an hour? Clearly not. You remember what he said? It's
enough. You know why? Because he was doing it. What
needed to be done, he was doing it. He's doing that tonight for
you. It's not about us doing what
needs to be done. If it needs to be done by me,
I'm in big trouble. I want to do these things, don't
you? I want to be forgiving and I want to be, I don't want to
get into things that are evil and I don't want to get mad when
the preacher says I'm an idiot. Quench not the spirit. Well,
maybe that's something we ought to think more about. I want to
obey those things, don't you? But it don't depend on me. Religion's
favorite phrase, it's up to you. It's got to be one of the biggest
lies ever told. Thank God it's not up to me.
He is faithful who also will do it. What's he going to do?
He's going to preserve you. Oh man, look at that. your spirit and soul and body,
he's gonna preserve blameless. Well, what if I quench the spirit?
What if I don't pray that much? What if I get vindictive and
get back at people and do terrible things because I'm just an idiot? Well, thank God he's faithful. He's faithful. and he'll preserve
you blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, if
you're his. Oh, even our good works, even our
perseverance, every moment of our walk in this world depends
upon the faithfulness of God. No temptation, no trial, no trouble
has taken you, but such as is common to man. Do you remember
the next part? God is faithful. God is faithful. He'll make a
way of escape that you may be able to bear it. May we with Abraham be fully
persuaded that what God has promised He's able also to perform. And
He will. He will. The one thing needful is the one thing we can trust.
The one who we can trust and count on. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
thank God. Let's pray together.