“We walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians
5:7)
Next in this series on the “fruit of the
Spirit,” is “faithfulness,” a word from the
Greek in Galatians 5:22, and it is from the same root as the word “faith” in today’s Scripture. “Faithfulness”
is indeed a “fruit of the Spirit,” which means it
is not from us, it is a gift of God, planted like a seed into the hearts of
those who are willing to believe. In Hebrews 12:2, we find that Jesus Christ is
the “author and finisher of our faith.” And this “faith” is more than we expect: it involves a deep
reliance on Him. We recognize in faith and therefore believe that He truly cares
for us, that He is willing and able to lead us in a way that is higher and
better than anything we could come up with; and because we now
understand that He is our God and King, we personally and utterly surrender our lives
to Him. That’s faith.
Rev. H. W. Horwill, who lived from 1864 to 1952, told of an English boy, ”born into nobility, who, in the 1800’s, was stolen from his
house by a chimney sweep.” Horwill continued, “The
parents spared no expense or trouble in their search for him, but in vain. A few
years later the boy happened to be sent by his new master to sweep the chimneys
in the very house from which he had been stolen, but he was too young to
remember it. The boy had been sweeping the chimney of one of the bedrooms, and
fatigued from the exhausting labor to which so many boys, by the cruel custom of
those times were bound, he quite forgot where he was, flung himself on the clean
bed, and dropped off to sleep. The lady of the house happened to enter the room.
At first she looked in disgust and anger at the filthy black object that was
soiling the bed. But all at once something in the expression of the little dirty
face or some familiar pose of his limbs drew her nearer and in a moment she had
clasped once more in her motherly arms, her long-lost boy.”
That’s the way God looks at each one of us. You have been like a lost child
in His sight, and He will literally move heaven and earth, expending infinite
resources to bring you home. He is like the mother in the story related by Rev.
Horwill, who knew her boy, even though life had changed him and he was covered
with the blackness of this world. He knows your name, He knows your thoughts, He
is aware of your situation, He cares without limit for you, and He will bring
you through. He will rescue you at just the right time, and indeed, He has
already saved you, through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Jesus Himself is the example of “faithfulness”
that shows us what it is. The rest of us, in varying degrees, might
mean well, but we just don’t get it quite right. The Lord has many names because
the offices He holds are infinite, and two of them are found in Revelation 19:11
– He is called “Faithful and True,” and the word
for “faithful” in that verse is yet another form of
“faithfulness” as found in the “fruit of the Spirit.” Our Lord is faithful. It was so in
eternity, it was true when He walked this earth, and it is His nature forever.
Unlike the rest of us He has always been utterly responsive to the will of the
Father and to the Holy Spirit. His name is indeed “Faithful and
True.”
Parents would be descriptive of “faithfulness,”
except that the fathers and mothers of this world have learned to be parents
through on-the-job training, and we’ve all made a lot of mistakes. But there are
good ones who loved, provided, and continued to care, even when the children
were unfaithful and neglectful. But if many have not done well as parents,
children, spouses and friends, God has not failed us for He is always faithful.
Romans 3:3-4 asks the question, “What if some were
unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no
means…” It is GOD who is faithful, but when we trust in Him, we receive
His qualities. Human standards of perfectionism don’t measure up to godly
faithfulness. We are not called to be perfect, but we are called to be faithful.
There are many people in Scripture who exhibit God’s faithfulness and several
interesting examples are found in the Gospel of Luke. You could certainly
mention Mary the mother of Jesus, who risked her reputation in the community and
world by
saying “yes” to the Lord’s call for her life, but for this sermon we will
mention two others.
Humanity would say that both of them were too old for the assignments given
to them by God, but He “has chosen the weak things of the
world to put to shame the things which are mighty” (1 Corinthians 1:27).
God favored each of them with honored positions, for they were selected among all
in history for the offices they held, yet few ever heard of them when they
lived. It is not fame that indicates faithfulness; but rather it is seen in
responsiveness to the call, the leading, the will of God. The two are: Simeon
and Anna. Others who knew them might have said, “Oh,
there’s old Simeon!” or “There’s that old lady,
Anna, again!” but God views them as: faithful.
Simeon was, according to tradition, 112 years old at the moment his life was
fulfilled when he held the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior, in his arms. Anna
the prophetess had been a widow for 84-years, after a 7-year marriage. Her
probable age when she married was 14, making her 105 at the time she publicly “gave thanks to the Lord” for the Messiah’s birth. (Luke
3:25-38). And note that Anna was “of the tribe of Asher,”
a supposedly “lost” tribe of Israel. Nothing is ever lost with God. Anyone in
the age group of Anna and Simeon is likely to be “placed on the shelf” by
humanity. But that is not the way God looks at us and does things. Would you
like to go back in time and HOLD the 8-day old Christ at the moment He was
brought into the Temple in Jerusalem? Many would want to do just that. But also
look at the DECADES Anna and Simeon remained in the Temple, waiting for the
promise of God to unfold. You and I may be honored also, but we must, like Anna and Simeon, learn to wait, for God intends to develop “faithfulness” within you and me.
The beauty of our life in Christ is that even though we are all like that
chimneysweep boy; stained by the sin of this world and deprived of our true
identity, the grace and love of God is ours. We are never too lost for the Lord
to find us. The Father looks at you like the mother looked at her grimy son, and
says, “This is my child.” You were lost in sin as were all of us, but if you
have trusted in Christ, “you were washed…
you were sanctified… you were
justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1
Corinthians 6:11). For “God sent forth His Son, born of a
woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might
receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons and daughters of the
King, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out,
‘Abba, Father!’ Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son,
then an heir of God through Christ” (Galatians 4:4-7). His faithfulness
is given to you.
Lord, help us to “walk,” not merely by what we see, but in “faithfulness”
help us to follow You. Thank You. In Jesus Name. Amen.
