Would you turn to 1 Corinthians
chapter 4? I'd like to read these first two
verses. Let a man so account of us, let
him regard us this way, as of ministers of Christ and stewards
of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful." Now, I want to attempt to preach
to you upon the subject of faithfulness. It's required in a steward that
a man be found faithful. Now, Paul says the requirement
of a steward, and that's somebody who manages the property of somebody
else. He doesn't have his own property. He is simply managing the property
of somebody else. And when the owner comes looking
for him, he finds him to be faithful in his responsibilities of overseeing
his master's property and interests. Faithfulness is the requirement. Faithfulness in delivering the
message that his master sent him with. Now, I so much want
to be able to preach upon this subject the way it ought to be
preached, faithfulness. Are you interested in being a
faithful individual, whatever that means? Now, I want my name,
first of all, to be found written in the Lamb's Book of Life. And whosoever was not found written
in the Lamb's Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire, Revelation
20, 15. Next, I want to be found in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I don't know if it's right to
say next. I'm not saying that is second on the list. There's
not a list of order of importance. This is all important. I want
to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. When God comes looking
for me and he will, he's going to come looking for me and he's
going to come looking for you. I want to be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ and nowhere else. I want to be found clothed. Paul
said in 2nd Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 3, if so be that being
clothed, we shall not be found naked. And I want to be found It's required in a steward that
a man be found faithful. I want the Lord to find me to
be a faithful servant. When He comes looking for me,
this is the quality I desire Him to see in me. And I know
the only way He'll see this quality is if He, by His grace, puts
this quality in me. But this is how I want to be
found. I want Him to see me as a faithful. servant. I want to be found faithful. Now this is a requirement. This
is a necessary attribute. Faithfulness. Do you know if
I'm found faithful, I'm successful. Now I'm interested in being successful
and I know you are too. Somebody says I'm not interested
in that. Yeah, you are. I don't believe that. I want to be successful
and there's only one way to be successful truly. And that's
to be faithful. Now if I'm faithful, I'm successful
no matter what the appearances may be. And if I'm not faithful,
I'm not successful. The true measure of success for
a believer is this faithfulness. I want to be found faithful. What is faithfulness? Paul says
it's required of the stewards that a man be found faithful.
What is faithfulness? Well, faithfulness is first and
foremost an attribute of God. Great is thy faithfulness. He is the faithful God. It's his utter reliability. It's his utter dependability. It's his utter trustworthiness. God is faithful. He can be depended
upon. He can be trusted implicitly.
You don't have to worry about him failing in your trust of
him. He is completely trustworthy.
And faith is impossible if we don't believe his faithfulness
and his faithfulness. When we talk about the faithfulness
of God, his utter reliability, his utter predictability, you
know, God is predictable. You know, I've heard said, I
don't want to put God in a box. And I understand what people
mean by that. But you don't need to worry about putting God in
a box. It's not going to happen. God is utterly predictable. He's
always going to be as he says he is, you can just rely on this,
you can predict how he's going to be in that sense. He's What
was he like yesterday? Now, his faithfulness comes from
what is called his immutability. And what all that word means
is his changelessness. He never changes. He said, I'm
the Lord. I change not. I never change.
Therefore, because I'm the Lord and I don't change, you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. You see, our very hope of salvation
is found in his faithfulness, his utter changelessness. I'm the Lord. I change not. Was
the Lord holy yesterday? That's precisely how he is today. Was the Lord all powerful yesterday?
Well, that's precisely how he is today. Was the Lord absolutely
sovereign? Was he in control of what took
place yesterday? That's precisely what he is. Today, whatever he was yesterday
is what he is today because he is the faithful God. He's immutable. He does not change and he is
utterly faithful. And really, our salvation is
dependent upon his faithfulness. I think of that scripture. I
preached on it a couple of months ago. It's found in. Second, Timothy,
Chapter two, verse 13, it says, if we believe not. He abided faithful. Now when he's talking about if
we believe not, he's talking about the unbelief of a believer. How can a believer believe not? Well, I have a hard time explaining
that one, but there's something called the flesh. It's called
the flesh. And you remember that fellow
that cried out, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. Well, that's
my cry every day. Lord, I believe, help thou my
unbelief. My unbelief is my main problem. If we believe not, you know what
the scripture says? He abides faithful. He cannot deny himself. What's that mean? Because of union with Christ,
if he sees me in my unbelief and my weakness, and you know
the flesh is weak, isn't it? Don't you know that so? Your
flesh is weak. Our Lord said the spirit is willing,
the flesh is weak. If we believe not, he sees us
in our helplessness, in our sinfulness, in our unbelief, and in whatever
other adjective I can use to describe us. And sometimes, you
know what I'm talking about? Pathetic. Pathetic. If we believe
not, he abides faithful. He cannot deny himself. You see,
for him to deny you because of union with Christ, you being
one with him, For him to deny you in your unbelief would be
for him to deny himself. And that's not going to happen.
Now, that's how real union with Christ is. For him to deny me,
he would deny himself. Now, he's not going to do that
because he abides faithful. Our very salvation is dependent
upon his faithfulness. God is faithful. He never changes. He can be dependent
upon. And faithfulness also describes
the believer. If we are born of God, we are
faithful individuals. Now, would you turn with me to
Revelation chapter 17. Verse 14. These shall make war with the
Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for He is Lord of lords
and King of kings. And they that are with Him, all
of them without exception, this describes every believer, they
that are with Him are called, called by invincible grace, they're
chosen, they were chosen in divine election, and they are faithful. And that is a description of
every single believer. No exceptions to this rule. Every
believer is called by God, called to believe the gospel, called
to come to Christ. The reason they're called is
they're chosen. Chosen in eternal election, and
every single one of them, without exception, can be described like
this. They are faithful. Every believer. They believe. And they can be
believed. They trust. And they can be trusted. They depend. And they are dependable. Now, if I'm a believer, what
do I do? First of all, I believe. I believe. And you know, I can't not believe. I can't keep myself from believing. I cannot right now. I cannot
not believe. Why? Because I'm a believer.
I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is my salvation. I can't
not believe that. I really believe that His shed
blood is enough to make me perfect in God's sight. I can't not believe
that. I really believe that His glorious righteousness, His perfect
obedience before the law of God is my righteousness. I'm not
looking anywhere else. I do believe the gospel. I'm right now while
I'm talking to you. Say, I don't feel good. I physically
feel weak. I got a little case of pneumonia. That's why I'm feeling really
shaky and weak. But I'm fine. What I'm saying
is that I don't feel good, but I believe. And that makes me
feel good. That makes me feel good. I believe the gospel. I'm resting in the Lord. I believe. But not only do I believe, I
can be believed if I'm a believer. I can be depended upon. I can
be trusted. That's what a faithful person
is. They believe and they can be
believed. You know, one of the words, or
the word that's translated believe or believer in the New Testament
is the word faithful. All of God's people are faithful
people. They believe and they can be
believed. A believer is one who is faithful. Now that's all of God's people,
the very newest believer, the very weakest sheep, the one who's
just born into the kingdom of heaven. When God gives him the
new birth, when God creates life in his heart, he is a faithful
individual. I'm looking at some faithful
people. Faithful. Faithful. That being said, it's also true
that there are some believers who are more faithful than other
believers. In fact, an obvious fact is that
there are some believers who are actually more faithful than
other believers. I want to give you an example
of what I'm talking about. So would you turn with me for a moment
to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. Verse 27, Then saith he, the Lord Jesus
Christ, to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands,
and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, And be
not faithless, and that word faithless can just as easily
be translated unfaithful. Be not unfaithful, but believing
or faithful. Be not unfaithful, but be faithful. Now, what happened with Thomas? Why did the Lord say this to
him? How did he get himself into this mess? You know, when you
think of Thomas, what do you think first? You think he's a
doubting disciple. So everybody thinks about Thomas.
He's the one who the Lord said, don't be faithless, but believe
it. Don't be doubtful, but be believing.
Now look up in verse 4. Verse 24, I'm sorry, verse 24
of John chapter 20. But Thomas, one of the twelve
called Didymus, was not with them. When Jesus came, now they
were all met together. This is very important in the
Holy Spirit records this for us to hear this and for us to
see this. Thomas is the one doubting disciple.
Now, when he appeared. The first time there was one
disciple who was not there. Thomas and got the Holy Spirit
points this out. He wasn't there when they met
together. Now, did he have a reason for not being there? I don't
know. I don't know what came up with
him that he wasn't there. But I know this. Faithfulness
has something to do with faithfulness in being here where he is. You know, in a worship service
like this, we're having a public worship service. You know who's
here? The Lord Jesus Christ. He is
here by His Spirit, He is here, and He's promised every time
we meet together, where two or three meet together in my name,
there I am in the midst of them. He is here. Now, is there ever a reason to
not be where He is? You think of that. Is there ever
a reason? To not be where he is. Well,
I'm too busy. Oh. You're too busy. No question about that, you're
too busy. Where the Lord is, it's important for me to be there. And Thomas was unfaithful in
being there. He was the one disciple who was
not there when the Lord appeared. But Thomas, one of the twelve
called Didymus, that means a twin. was not with them when Jesus
came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the
Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands
the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the
nails, and thrust my hand in his side, I will not believe. Now that is some pretty bold
language, isn't it? Now you remember what the Lord
told these fellows. He told them that he would die,
be buried, and would be raised from the dead. He told them,
and Thomas heard that. You can bet that they all had
talked about it. I guess none of them believed,
though. None of them believed, or they were involved in waiting
at the tomb when our Lord came back. But who was the one who
conducted himself like this? Thomas. I will not believe. Verse 26, And after eight days
again his disciples were within, and Thomas with him, then came
Jesus, the door being shut. Now, Thomas was the doubting
disciple. He was the weakest of the disciples. He was the
most faithless of the disciples. Jesus, the door being shut, stood
in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Then said he to
Thomas. I love to think about this. I
can just see him looking at Thomas at this time. Remember, Thomas
made this bold, I will not believe. And the Lord looked at him. And
he said, take your finger and stick it in my side. Here I am, Thomas. Aren't you
thankful? Now, look, before I go on, aren't
you thankful that the Lord didn't come in and say, Thomas, leave.
Don't want you here. You can imagine why he would
have said that, can't you? But that's not what he does. He looks
at Thomas. Poor, doubting Thomas. He had
compassion on him. You know the Lord. is so compassionate
towards his weak, weak, doubting disciples. The Lord is so merciful
and He is so gracious. And He says to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hand, and reach hither thy
hand, and thrust it in my side, and be not unfaithful. That's what the word faithless
means. Be not unfaithful, but faithful. That word believing
is translated faithful. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord, and my God. And his word to us, be not faithless, be not unfaithful,
but believe me, believe me. What is faithfulness? What is
it? Perhaps the best way to describe
this thing of faithfulness is marriage. God said in Hosea chapter
2, verse 2, I have betrothed thee to me in faithfulness. Now,
when I married Lynn, I am to be faithful to her alone until
death alone shall part us. I'm not to look anywhere else.
I'm not to be with anybody else. I'm to look to her and her alone
until death alone shall part us. Now, what if I was faithful
to Lynn every night but one? Well, that's a pretty good track
record. I mean, 999 5,632 nights of faithfulness and only
one night of unfaithfulness? Well, what does that make me? That makes me unfaithful. In being faithful to the Lord,
I am His, I'm married to Christ, and I'm to be His faithful bride,
I'm to look nowhere but Him. Now, faithfulness is only real
if you're faithful in all things. To be faithful in some areas
and unfaithful in other areas is to be unfaithful across the
board, isn't it? True faithfulness is faithful
in all areas. Our Lord said he that's faithful
in that which is least is faithful also in much. But he that's unjust
in that which is least is also unjust in that which is much.
Now, faithfulness has something to do, first of all, with honesty.
Proverbs, Chapter 14, verse five, says a faithful witness will
not lie. He's going to be honest with
God's word, with God's truth. He's not going to lie. We read
in Proverbs, Chapter 20, verse six, most men will proclaim everyone
his own goodness, but a faithful man. Who can find it's the faithful
man who doesn't proclaim his own goodness. He proclaims the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to this. Proverbs chapter
11, verse 13. A faithful man has something
to do with being a trustworthy man. Listen to this scripture.
Proverbs 11, 13. A tailbearer revealeth secrets, but he that's
of a faithful spirit concealeth a matter. Now, faithfulness is
trustworthiness. It's believing, believing the
gospel, believing whatever God says. and being dependable, somebody
that is predictable, somebody that can be believed. Now, child
of God, don't you desire to be faithful to your Lord? I guarantee
you, in every believer, there is a craving to be faithful.
You're aware of unfaithfulness, aren't you? You're aware that
you're not anywhere near as faithful as you ought to be or want to
be. But you do crave and desire to be You desire to be like Caleb. Turn with me to Numbers chapter
14 for a moment. You know what Caleb's name means? A faithful
dog. Numbers chapter 14. Now, this
is when the Lord is talking about those spies that did not believe. Caleb did. But the other spies,
they were afraid to go into the land. But look what God says
about Caleb. Verse 21, Numbers 14, But as
truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory
of the Lord, because all those men which have seen my glory
and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness
and have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkened
to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swear
unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me see
it. But my servant Caleb, and his name means fateful dog, because
he had another spirit within him. I don't have any doubt that that's
speaking of the Holy Spirit. It's talking about the new nature,
God's nature within him. He had another spirit within
him. He hath followed me fully Him will I bring into the land
whereunto he went, and his seed shall possess it." Now, this
faithful dog, Caleb, God describes it this way, he followed me fully. No reserve, no half-heartedness.
He followed me fully. Now, when I read that, when I
thought about that passage of Scripture, it made me think of
a story that Charles Pennington tells. This is a true story,
and it's always been so touching to me. He said he was out hunting. He came up on a dog with his
leg caught in one of those traps, those snares, just in pain. And
he felt sorry for that dog. And he tried to get close to
it so he could open up the snare so the dog could get away. But
the dog would snap at him and try to bite him. It was a wounded
animal. And any time he got close, the dog would try to bite him.
So he said, here's what I did. He said, I took a fork stick.
And I took that fork stick where that dog couldn't reach me. And
I pressed it against his neck and I held its head right down
there on the ground where it couldn't bite me. And then with
my other hand, he said, I opened up that snare, that trap. And he said that it got away
from the dog, didn't know what it was going to do. The dog took
off and said, look the way a dog will look, you know, just walking
off into the woods and slinking off. And he said, so I started
hunting again. And he said, I noticed that dog
following me. And it followed me home. And you know that dog never ceased
to follow me until the day it died. That dog followed Him fully. Now that's what I want to be.
I want to be somebody who follows the Lord Jesus Christ fully until
the day I die. I want to be faithful. Now, this
is something that I know that every one of us ought to be ambitious
to be. Faithful, don't you want to be
a faithful individual, a faithful dog? Now, you have no reason
to despair of being one. And here's why. Faithfulness
comes from the mercy of God. Turn with me to First Corinthians,
chapter seven. First Corinthians, Chapter 7. Verse 25. Now, concerning virgins, I have
no commandment of the Lord. And we'll get to that when we
get to the first Corinthians, Chapter seven, what all is talking
about. But he says, yet I give my judgment as one that has obtained
mercy of the Lord to be faithful. Now, how is it that Paul was
faithful? Because he obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful. Now, that being the case, is
there any reason for you and I not to be faithful? Oh, I'm
so weak. Yeah, but faithful comes from
the mercy of God. If you're faithful, it's because
you obtain mercy of the Lord to be faithful. And so you ought
not despair of being the most faithful person to ever live
by His mercy. If it comes by the mercy of God,
why not you? If it only came to the most diligent,
the strongest and the most resolved, well, you'd be in trouble. I
realize that, but this passage of Scripture says faithfulness
comes because of the mercy of the Lord. It's God in it that
enables a man to be faithful. Turn to First Timothy, chapter
one. Verse 12. And I thank Christ Jesus, our
Lord. Who has enabled me? for that he counted me faithful. By his enabling grace, he counted
me, regarded me, enabled me to be faithful, putting me into
the ministry. Now, can God, let me ask you
a question. Can the Lord God of glory enable
you, by his mercy, to be the most faithful person to ever
live? Can the Lord give you grace to
do that? Well, you know He can. Then why not ask Him to do it?
Lord, since faithfulness is by Your mercy, and since it's by
Your enabling grace, make me to be the most faithful saved
sinner as I can possibly be. I'm not talking about being competing
with somebody else to see who can be the most faithful. There's
no faithfulness in that. If it's a competition thing,
it's no good. But, oh, that the Lord would
give me grace to be faithful, faithful, faithful. And here's
another reason to desire faithfulness. He said in Psalm 101, verse 6,
mine eye shall be upon the faithful of the land. Now, being in being
faithful, the Lord's eyes on me. As a matter
of fact, the only reason I'm faithful if I am is because His
eyes on me. I realize that. But he still says, my eyes shall
be on the faithful of the land. That makes me want to be one
of these faithful people who his eyes are because he promises
my eyes upon the faithful of the land. And Psalm 31, 23 says
he preserves the faithful. Oh, love the Lord, all ye his
saints, for the Lord preserveth the faithful. Now, I want you. And I want me right now. to make it our ambition to be
faithful in all that we do, no matter what it is. Turn with
me to 3 John. John is writing to Gaius in 3
John. And he says regarding this man,
Gaius, who was a very special man, he said, Beloved, thou doest
faithfully. Whatsoever thou doest to the
brethren and to strangers, whatever you do, you do it faithfully. He says, They have borne witness
of thy charity before the church, whom thou bring forward on their
journey after a godly sort, thou shalt do well. Make it your ambition
to be faithful in all things. That's what I want for myself. That's what you want for yourself.
That's what we want for each other. Faithful individuals. That means we believe. I want
to believe all God says. I'm so tired of unbelief. I'm
talking about my own unbelief. I'm so tired of unbelief. I want
to believe what God says from the top of my head to the bottom
of my feet. Is he not worthy to be trusted?
Is there anything about him that would cause you to not trust
everything he says completely? I have a scripture that keeps
coming to my mind when I think about that. And I've quoted this
several times in the last couple of weeks. It's Aaron Romans 611,
where he says, Reckon yourselves. Believe yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin, but alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, do you believe that about yourself? Sin doesn't have anything
to say to you. Christ answered all of its demands,
and it has been. You have no connection with it.
Now, if God says to reckon yourselves to be that way, there's a reason.
It's because you are. So believe it. Believe that you're
dead to sin. Believe that right now you're
perfect in God's sight. Believe that His righteousness
really is your righteousness, that His shed blood really has
taken away your sins. They're gone. They're not there.
Believe the gospel. And make sure you can be believed,
that you're dependable in whatever you do. Be faithful. Now, we're going to take the
Lord's Table now. And you know, when we take the Lord's Table,
You know the scripture says let a man examine himself. And so
let him eat. Let him examine himself. OK,
I'm examining myself. I come up with some things that.
I'm ashamed of. I'm examining myself. And the
main thing I'm thinking about when I think of examining myself
is is I want to be faithful in all things. The U.S. says, let a man examine himself
and so let him eat. You see, I examine myself and
I see something of my sin, something of it, something of my unworthiness.
It doesn't say let him examine himself and then refrain from
eating, but we believe the gospel over and over again. And the
scripture says, if we confess our sin, that's what I'm doing
right now. I'm confessing my sin before
the Lord. I don't know what they all are.
Doesn't mean I'm naming them all. I don't even. The great
majority of them, I don't even know I've committed them. I realize
that. But I'm confessing my sin before God. Now, the scripture
says, if we confess our sin, he is faithful. Faithful to. the covenant of
grace, faithful to what his son did. God is faithful. He's faithful
to forgive us of our sins, and he's just to forgive us of our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So when we observe
the Lord's table, we are aware of our sin, but you know that
we don't despair in any way because he's faithful and we're celebrating
his faithfulness. I'm celebrating the power of
His shed blood and His broken body. I'm saying when I ate that
bread, He suffered the wrath of God as my substitute. When
I drink that wine, I'm saying His shed blood makes me perfect
in God's sight. And we truly do this in remembrance
of Him. Now, what is the requirement
to take the Lord's table? Somebody's saying, should I take
the Lord's table? There's one requirement for taking the Lord's
table. There's only one. You know what that is? Faith. If you believe the gospel, you
are to take the Lord's table. And if you do not believe the
gospel, you should not take the Lord's table. But if you believe, do this in rejoicing, in a celebration
that His precious blood and His broken body makes you perfect
before God. I suppose this is about as close
as we can come to worship when we observe the Lord's table.