[0:00] I wonder if you'd agree with this. Young lovers cannot say they are in love with one another until they know a considerable amount about each other.
[0:21] In a similar vein, Donald MacLeod, in his great little book, Behold Your God, wrote this as a frontispiece.
[0:38] He was quoting a 17th century writer. It is impossible to honour God as we ought unless we know him as he is.
[0:58] It's impossible to honour him in worship unless we know him as he is. And that means knowing about him.
[1:13] Jesus, praying to his Father, said, this is eternal life. That they, my people, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you sent.
[1:28] And so, it's vitally important as we gather Lord's Day by Lord's Day that we're looking into the character of God such as he has revealed it to us.
[1:43] And to remember how vital it is that we admire and inquire into and search the scriptures to find out who he is.
[1:55] God is faithful.
[2:25] He's faithful to himself. He's faithful to us. And he's faithful to his promises.
[2:39] I've got four things I'd like to say about the faithfulness of God from Psalm 89. And we'll look at them just a little bit each in turn.
[2:57] The first one. God's faithfulness is linked to his love. God's faithfulness is linked to his love.
[3:11] Do you see this in the first two verses? I will sing of the steadfast love of the Lord forever. With my mouth I will make known your faithfulness to all generations.
[3:23] For I said, steadfast love will be built up forever. In the heavens you will establish faithfulness. And so you see these two qualities.
[3:37] His love and his faithfulness. They are in tandem. They are wedded together. And in fact, as we read through the psalm, there are seven times in which these two qualities of God are held together.
[3:57] His love and his faithfulness. On the night when he was betrayed, Jesus went to his disciples in the upper room.
[4:09] And he took off his outer garments. He put a towel around his waist and he got a basin of water. And he started to wash his disciples' feet. And it said this about him as he did so.
[4:24] Having loved his own who were in the world. He loved them to the end. You see, he was infinitely faithful in his love.
[4:41] And that's the quality of the faithfulness of God to us. It is faithfulness in love. And now the second thing from verses 3 and 4.
[4:56] And it closely follows on from the first. And it's this. God's faithfulness is confirmed in his covenant.
[5:09] That is, it is guaranteed by his covenant. Let's read verse 3. You have said, I've made a covenant with my chosen one.
[5:23] I have sworn to David my servant. I will establish your offspring forever. And build your throne for all generations.
[5:35] Now let me try and fill in a little about the richness of this idea of God entering into covenant with his people.
[5:54] There are a sequence of covenants in scripture. And at the heart of every one of them is this truth. God declaring to his people, I will be your God.
[6:14] You will be my people. I will be your God. Not just a passing acquaintance.
[6:29] Not just a fixer of your problems. But your God. Your everything. Your reason for living.
[6:43] Your destiny. Your home. I'll be your God. And then the second part of the covenant declaration.
[6:54] You, says the Lord, will be my people. You will be mine because I've chosen you. You will be mine because I favor you infinitely.
[7:08] You are my treasured possession. You are my treasured possession. When the Old Testament speaks about marriage, get this especially in the last book of the Old Testament, we're told that God spoke to the people, particularly to the men, and told them about their wives and said, your wife, spoke to them as your wife of the covenant.
[7:49] And we see that marriage is a covenant relationship. And when a husband takes to himself a wife, he's doing something very God-like.
[8:06] He's looking into her eyes and said, you are mine, and I am yours. And in the same way, when God enters into covenant with us, it's like a marriage bond.
[8:27] It's like a bond that unites us to him. And then I want us to see, and here we go specifically to the verses 3 and 4, that the covenant that's being spoken of is with David.
[8:49] There were other covenants in the Old Testament, but the psalmist is speaking about the covenant with David. David. And to David, it says, he's his servant.
[9:03] And in the covenant, he says, I will establish your throne forever and build your throne for all... I'm sorry, I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations.
[9:18] Now that was a promise to King David, an eternal promise forever and for all generations. David died.
[9:30] He was buried. But the promise goes on. And the promise to David finds its fulfillment in the Lord Jesus Christ, who came from the line of David.
[9:46] who is the fulfillment of the covenant, the mediator of the covenant, who gave his blood as the blood to seal the covenant.
[10:00] And so, we could say more about the richness of the covenant in Scripture. But I want you to see above all that it is this bond that God makes with his people.
[10:14] in Jesus Christ. And here's the other thing from that verse. It's a bond that cannot be broken.
[10:28] I have sworn, verse 3, he's put himself on oath. And he'll never go back on it.
[10:42] He is the unchanging God. I, the Lord, do not change. He doesn't go back on his word. He doesn't forget. He doesn't lose the place. You know, in our relationships with one another, we're so fickle, aren't we?
[10:59] One day we're smiles and the next day we're tetchy. Some of us go through trauma, deep, damaging trauma, and we're not the same people we once were at the end of it.
[11:15] But God the Lord never changes. He has sworn in his covenant that he will be our God and we will be his people.
[11:37] Faithfulness in God is confirmed in the covenant. Now here's the third thing from Psalm 89 and it's in verse 8 and it's the truth that God's faithfulness is partnered with his power.
[11:59] We could say it's harnessed to his power. He is faithful and his power ensures it. Verse 8, O Lord God of hosts, who is mighty as you are?
[12:15] O Lord, with your faithfulness all around you. Now, in these days, we're getting an awful lot of politicians vying for power and making promises.
[12:36] And we've we've come to we've come to a frame of mind that we really wonder what these promises are worth.
[12:49] Now, they may be made in complete sincerity but what we we've grown to be suspicious of is whether these people have the power to fulfill what they promise.
[13:08] do we not? But the Lord God of hosts is mighty.
[13:22] The psalm speaks about his might in creation. Speaks about his might over angels. Speaks about his might in holding the world together.
[13:35] he stills the raging of the seas. And the Lord God endorses, backs up every single promise that he makes with his unimaginable power.
[13:52] God of God of faithfulness. Okay, God's faithfulness is linked to his love.
[14:08] It's confirmed by his covenant. It's partnered with his power. And the last of the four observations from the psalm. God's faithfulness is joined to his justice.
[14:29] God's faithfulness is joined to his justice. We move on to verse 14. righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.
[14:44] Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you. Do you see the two couplets? His faithfulness is just faithfulness.
[14:59] His love is a righteous love. You see, in all his ways he is consistent.
[15:17] So, he can't take a route that deviates from some other part of his character. What does that mean for you and me?
[15:37] Well, he simply cannot turn a blind eye to our rebellion. He cannot remain true to himself and ignore our sins.
[15:57] He cannot remain true to himself and ignore God. He's a God of faithfulness. Good and upright is he.
[16:14] The two cannot be severed, his justice and his faithfulness. listen to these words of Jesus.
[16:33] Whoever does not believe whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the Son of God.
[16:48] God God has not believed in the name of the God. Now, Christian people, let us develop, let us more and more develop a deep concern for those who have not believed in Jesus Christ and who know about him.
[17:13] they have heard the gospel and they've willfully ignored, turned away, treated it with contempt and they more than anyone else have come into judgment.
[17:37] Indeed, they are condemned already and they more than anyone else need to see that the faithfulness of God is coupled to his justice.
[17:55] They are joined as inseparable twins. Can unbelievers not see that? Well, these are four qualities of God's faithfulness that I've wanted to pull out from the psalm and look at very briefly.
[18:19] His faithfulness is linked to his love. His faithfulness is confirmed by his covenant. His faithfulness is partnered with his power.
[18:30] His faithfulness is joined to his justice. Now, before we go, I want to pick up two New Testament verses which say God is faithful.
[18:55] And I want to try and press home their practical importance. to his obedience. The first one tells us, God is faithful when you are tempted.
[19:20] Again from 1 Corinthians. God is faithful. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
[19:32] God is faithful. And he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will provide for you a way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
[19:52] Do you see there, God is faithful to you when you're under the cosh. God is faithful to you when the fiery trials are such that we wonder if he's deserted us.
[20:11] God is faithful to you when you're saying to yourself, is this battle really winnable, the one I'm going through?
[20:28] You see, we're often under attack from three directions, aren't we? The world is pushing us, cajoling us, shoving us this way.
[20:45] Satan is hitting us with his airstrikes. And then there's the enemy within, the remnant of that fallen, sinful nature.
[20:58] Sometimes, if all three hit us at the same time, the whole thing is absolutely frightening. And God comes with this promise, he says, I am faithful.
[21:13] I will not let you be tempted above what you're able to bear, but with the temptation I'll provide the way of escape. I need to hear that again and again and again.
[21:27] God is faithful. God is faithful. And here's the second verse, which tells us, God is faithful to keep us to the end.
[21:49] letter to the Hebrews. Let's hold fast our confession without wavering, for he who promised is faithful.
[22:13] Let's hold on to Christ, not giving up, because he who promised is faithful. Now I want you to see the two, the two sides.
[22:29] There's a, there's a, there's a coin here with two faces on it. Child of God, scripture is urging you, pleading with you, galvanizing you, to keep going.
[22:50] He's saying to you, frightened Christian, don't be a quitter. Hang in there. Hold on to your confession that you're a believer in Christ.
[23:08] And he's pressing that instruction to you with all the force of the Holy Spirit can bring to bear on your life. Please, he's saying, keep going to the end.
[23:26] And then there's the other side of the coin. He who promised is faithful. faithful. You've got to endure, child of God, brother, sister in Christ.
[23:49] You've got to keep your faith in Jesus. But undergirding everything is this unbreakable promise that he is faithful.
[24:05] Colin's a great lover of Andrew Boner.
[24:17] But it was Andrew's older brother who was the poet. Listen to this. My love is oft times low.
[24:31] my joy still ebbs and flows. But peace with him remains the same.
[24:43] No change Jehovah knows. I change, he changes not. The Christ can never die.
[24:56] His love not mine the resting place. His truth not mine the tie. life. You see, Jesus will stop at nothing to bring you home.
[25:22] He's going to present you pure and spotless on the last day. and he says to us, his flock, I will lose nothing, no one of those whom the Father has given.
[25:44] I am faithful. Thanks be to God for his faithfulness. And just a little epitaph.
[25:58] he'd like us to be faithful like him. Jesus is called the Amen, the faithful and true witness.
[26:10] And you know, as we go out into this week, he says, you be faithful and true as my witnesses. Be the kind of people who keep your promises, who speak the truth.
[26:28] and who can be depended on. And your influence in the world will be amazing.
[26:40] Let's pray. God of faithfulness, without injustice, good and upright is he.
[26:59] Thank you, Lord, that every promise is yes and Amen in Christ. Amen.
[27:11] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[27:34] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.