Dr Greg Bahnsen - The Fruit of the Spirit: Faith (Part 8)

This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonson Institute, where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Turning our Bibles through Galatians 5, we'll continue our study of the fruit of the Spirit. Beginning in verse 16 of Galatians 5, Paul contrasts living by the Holy Spirit and living in the desires of our natural human nature, the flesh, the way we come into this world. In verse 19, he gives a list of those things that the fleshly or the unregenerate nature of man produces, and then he sets them in contrast to the fruit of the spirit. In verse 22, he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such there is no law. I just want to remind you that the list of both the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit are not intended to be exhaustive. The sinful nature does a lot more things than what Paul tells us about. And the Spirit produces many other virtues in the life of the believer than just these. But these are paradigmatic. These are very good model illustrations of what our life are going to be like if we are led by the Spirit. And we've studied love, joy, peace, patience, kindness and goodness. Tonight we come to faithfulness. And if I can keep my remarks brief, we'll also look at gentleness and then a reminder as well, if you'd like to read more about the fruit of the Spirit. The book that I'm following in preparing these brief lessons or devotions is John Sanderson's book, the Fruit of the spirit. Dr. Sanderson says about faithfulness that it is not possible for a man to be faithful if he's concerned only with himself. I thought it'd be good for us to stop and reflect on that as we begin tonight. Why is it that a person who only thinks of himself or herself, it's not possible for him to be faithful? See, the faithful person is going to be somebody who's committed to principle. And if you're committed to principle, then that means you do the right thing, even when it hurts you, even when it's not to your advantage. And so if you are a person or you know, somebody that's only concerned with their own welfare and interest, then they are not going to be faithful people. This insight is valuable for us because we need to know that the first question we ask when some moral challenge or conflict or trouble comes into our life, first question that we ask should not be, how will it affect me If I respond this way, or that the first question is, what is right? What is Godly? What is principled? If we are faithful people, we learn to think that way. I hate sharing my own weaknesses with you, but if it helps you at all, I know that many of you probably are like this too. Sometimes I think about what is in my best interest first, and then I say to myself, well, I know that I'm not supposed to do that, that this is what God wants me to do. And I think that's better than just being selfish and doing. But you see how much better it would be if I were a person who had developed the habit and the virtue of not even thinking of myself first. I'm just thinking, first of all, what is the principle? What is Godly? What is Christ like in this situation? How would the Spirit lead me here? But this insight from Sanderson has a second application. It seems to me I have had occasion in my life to get discouraged with people that I thought were good people, people who have disappointed me, who have not turned out to be what they seem to profess to be, whether it has to do with their moral standing or their friendship with me or whatever it may be. And whenever that happens to me, and probably to you, we really struggle. We go, how could this person be? I mean, what was wrong? You see, faithfulness is not to be found in a person doing the right thing. Stop and think about that. Because a person might be doing the right thing because it's in their best interest. We may know people who seem to be faithful because they're doing the right things, either before God or in their relationship to others, their relationship to us. And then later it seems like they've changed. Well, actually, they didn't change because they're still following the principle they were all along, which is think of themselves first. But they've never had the occasion, the conflict between the principle that God would have them follow and their own interest, where you, if you will, put their faithfulness to the test. Am I making sense to you that if we see faithfulness as a commitment to principle, not self interest, then you can understand why some people who looked like they were faithful weren't. They were really following self interest all along, but they never really got into a situation where what was best for them is so far off how they should have lived in terms of their faithfulness that it became apparent? I think you notice that it worked a lot. People will say and do certain things to get their fellow workers to like and boss. Oh, yeah, but they're completely. That is not the first time, maybe in a staff meeting or the hallway. And always shining, shining people on right. Seems to me that's a good example of what we talked about earlier when we looked at kindness and I said, the artificial fruit of kindness is what, manipulation. Yeah. People can be nice to other people when they're going to get something out of it. In the same way, people may appear to be faithful. You know, they're taking a hard line theologically, they're doing the right thing and so forth. And then some conflict comes up where they're going to suffer if they do what is right. And then you just wonder how they fold. What was it? Did the person have some kind of a regression morally? Well, when you consider what faithfulness is, I think the answer doesn't have to be that they progressed. It's just that they never had the opportunity to show that they were thinking of themselves first. So the conflict came up. Sanderson says faithfulness must flow from our faith in God. It cannot flow just from a commitment to principle. That's where I started this discussion. But it must come from personal trust in God. If we are trusting God, we have faith in God, we can develop a steadiness of character and a dependability that does not rest upon circumstances. And if you say, well, you know, this person's going to keep his promise as long as everything's going okay, what you're saying is that person is going to keep his promise if the circumstances don't change, if he is not going to be hurt by keeping the promise, what have you. But a person who says, God is in control, and I trust him, is not going to look at how it affects him or the circumstances. He's going to do it because it's the right thing to do. He's going to do it because he knows God is in control. Obviously, the opposite of faithfulness, the dependability, reliability that stems from living by principle out of faith in God and His control of all things. The opposite of that attitude is undependability. If you look in your Bibles at Hebrews chapters three and four, I think I can prove real quickly to you that unfaithfulness is the same as disobedience in the eyes of God. Look first at Hebrews 3:19. We read, and we see that they were not able to enter in. This is to enter into the promised land. They were not able to enter into the promised land because of unbelief. They did not have faith. They were faithless. But then go into chapter four and look at verse six where the same situation is explained this seeing, therefore it remaineth that some should enter thereinto and they to whom the good tidings or the gospel were before preached failed to enter in because of disobedience. Again he says, so why didn't they enter the promised land? Was it because they were faithless or because they were disobedient? The answer is that's just two different ways to describe the same thing. A person who is undependable, who is faithless, is a disobedient person. The Hebrew word that we translate, Amen. We end our prayers, we say that, and sometimes when the preacher says the thing we like, we say Amen. Presbyterians don't do that as much as they should. But nevertheless, when we say Amen, the Hebrew word has two meanings. Actually. Both the English word truth and the English word faithful come from that Hebrew word. Or that Hebrew word can be translated in those two different ways. In the Hebrew conception, the man who is unfaithful is the untruthful man. The unfaithful man is dishonest. He is, whether verbally or not, he's considered a liar. To not be reliable, to not be a person of Amen is to not be a person of truth or not to be a person of faithfulness. We live in a day. If you look at the world round about you, if you look at people at work, you look at families and politicians especially, it's a good day to talk about that. We live in a day of general faithlessness. People don't keep their word, they don't keep their promises. I hit politicians. We have what is called a politician's promise, right? What that means is one that's not intended to be kept. Sadly, politicians live up to it, but it's not just politicians. We live in a day when people, if they don't get caught, they're willing to break the rules at work, to break civil law, the irs, tax code, whatever it is. People are not faithful and loyal in their friendships, people are not faithful in their marriages. We just live in a very dishonest age where you can't count on people. That's the reason why we have so many government bureaus, so many government regulations, isn't it? It's because those who regulate our lives and oversee us know that if we don't have all those rules, people are going to try to fudge and weasel and get around what they were supposed to do. So you have one set of regulations and they engender a larger set of regulations to Help the first set get enforced properly and kept as really an indictment of the day that we live in, or an indictment of the culture in which we live, that we have to have so many regulations in our lives so we know what unfaithfulness is like. Before I talk about the genuine article, truth, faithfulness, let's stop for a minute and ask about an artificial kind of faithfulness, the artificial fruit, if you will. I think we can see a fake kind of faithfulness in half heartedness and people who go through the motions of outward conformity to principle. A kind of I'll do what it's required of me. But there's a formalism about it, a ritual about it where their hearts are not in it. They're not doing it because they're committed to principle. They're just doing it because, well, they don't want the consequences of being unfaithful. They don't want people to look poorly upon them. And so they really don't have a commitment, a moral commitment, a personal stake in doing the right thing or being faithful. And so they're like Pharisees. Pharisees, you know, put everything, all their stock, in the outward appearance. We have a lot of people today who live that way too, a lot of Christians, you know, it's the outward appearance that counts. But the real test of faithfulness is when you're alone and when you can get away with it. What do you do? That's a good question to ask yourself. Now, if I could get away with this, would I do it? Or what kind of attitudes do you have? What kind of behavior do you have when you're alone and there's no one there to see you? There will be people who won't. I'm picking a real picky Yoon example. People who won't use the phone at work to make a long distance phone call that they shouldn't make when the boss is there. I mean, they wouldn't dare pick up the phone and call their friend in Atlanta. But if the boss is gone and they figure they're not going to be able to trace this call, then they'll do that. Isn't that horrible? People are like that. We're like that. It's a question of when no one's looking, what would I be willing to do? That's artificial faithfulness. It's the fake fruit, half hearted, outward conformity to things. Sanderson points to one of the most awkward verses in the Bible for people. Malachi 2, 3. This is the prophet's response to people who Have a half heartedness in following God. Behold, I will rebuke your seed and will spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your feast, and you shall be taken away with it. That's not a very pleasant verse. Most of our translators have made it a little bit easier because they use what is kind of a polite archaic word, dung. Malachi was not trying to be polite. I think that should be obvious to you. God says, I'm going to spread crap on your face. That's what I think of this outward ritual and your half hearted following of me. Just the strength of that language ought to be enough to make us realize how God hates our formalism when we don't have a heart that truly follows Him. I mentioned the Pharisees. Let's look at Matthew 23, verse 23 as just one example of the indictment of the New Testament against the Pharisaical attitude that is not truly faithful because the heart is not in obedience. Matthew 23:23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. For you tithe, mint and anise and plummen, and have left undone the weightier matters of the law, justice, mercy, and faith. These you ought to have done without leaving the other undone. Verse 25 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites, you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within you are full of extortion and excess. Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, you hypocrites. For you like unto whited sepulchres, which appear outwardly beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. The outward formal conformity to a principle, but no heart attitude, no inward love for that, or desire to do what is right. I'll tell you how bad faithlessness is. It's not just that it makes you a Pharisee and God wants to throw crap in your face. But the Bible tells you you can't dwell with God if you're faithless. Psalm 15:4 to put this in context, let's remember that verse one asks this Jehovah, who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill? Who can live with God? Who can be in his presence? The answer is given in this Psalm. Verse 4 says, in whose eyes a reprobate is despised, but who honoreth them that fear Jehovah? And now listen. He who swears to his own hurt, and yet doesn't change only the faithful person, the person who when he or she is committed to something, it doesn't back off because it's found out later that it's going to be to their disadvantage, it's going to be inconvenient, it's going to hurt them in some way. That's the only kind of person who can dwell with God. Let's look at an amazing example of faithfulness from the Old Testament. And as we look at it, put it in contrast to our own culture, turn to Second Kings 12, verse 15. Second Kings 12:15. In order to appreciate the verse, let's put it in context. I'm going to go back to verse nine and read for you. But Jehoiada, the priest took a chest and bored a hole in the of it and set it beside the altar on the right side, as one comes into the house of Jehovah. And the priests that kept the threshold put therein all the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah. And it was so when they saw that there was much money in the chest that the king scribed and the high priest came up and they put up in bags and counted the money that was found in the house of Jehovah. And they gave the money that was weighed out into the hands of them that did the work. They had the oversight of the house of Jehovah, and they paid it out to the carpenters and the builders that wrought upon the house of Jehovah, and to the masons and the hewers of stone, and for buying timber and hewn stone to repair the breaches of the house of Jehovah, and for all that was laid out for the house to repair it. But there were not made for the house of Jehovah cups of silver, snuffers, basins, trumpets, any vessels of gold or vessels of of silver, of the money that was brought into the house of Jehovah. For they gave that to them that did the work and repaired therewith the house of Jehovah. Moreover, they reckoned not with the men into whose hand they delivered the money to give to them that did the work. For they dealt faithfully the money for the trespass offerings. And the money of the sin offerings was not brought into the house of Jehovah, it was the priest. They didn't have to negotiate, they didn't have to worry about being paid, because those who were distributing this dealt faithfully. Can you imagine us in our culture today getting by without contracts and negotiations? A worker comes and he says, look, I'm going to repair your house. I'll Take care of everything and you pay me when I'm done. I trust you. Not a chance. You know, it just doesn't happen that way. But if we were a faithful culture, we would trust each other. That way we wouldn't have to worry about getting everything in writing. Now, I'm not telling you, don't protect yourself. We do live in a wicked culture. But wouldn't it be nice if Christian principles spread and the work of the Spirit so change people in our culture that we could just say, I don't have to reckon with you, I don't have to negotiate. You'll pay me, I know you will. Another example of faithfulness that we can consider in the Bible comes from the New Testament. And that's the example of Timothy Philippians 2:19 and following. Many times when I am to preach at an installation or ordination service, I like to look at this text. I can go really important, not just for those who are serving officially or as ordained officers in the church, but for all of us. Look at the example of Timothy Philippians 2:19. Paul is talking about sending someone to the Philippians. He's in jail in Rome, he's in prison and he wants to send somebody to help them, to minister to them, to communicate back and forth, and so forth. Verse 19. But I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For I have no man like minded who will care truly for your state. For they all seek their own, not the things of Jesus Christ, but you know, the proof of him, that as a child serves a father, so he served with men, but furtherance of the Gospel. And therefore I hope to sin therewith so soon as I shall see how it will go with me so forth. What a commendation. Wouldn't that be wonderful if it could be truly said of us in contrast to all the others who just seek their own. I mean even those who are in the ministry. Isn't that shameful Here Paul says all these other people that I might consider candidates, I know they're really looking out for themselves ultimately. But not Timothy. He's somebody who cares for the things of the Lord above all. That makes him faithful. That makes him worthy as an ambassador. We've looked at a couple of examples in the Bible that I hope will stick with you as models of faithfulness. But we haven't touched the greatest example of faithfulness in the Bible. What's the highest example of faithfulness that can be found? Well, Christ or God himself? The very Character of God is faithful. Psalm 89 stresses that. Before we run out of time tonight I want to read through the psalm talks about God's covenant with David. I will sing of the loving kindness of Jehovah forever With my mouth will I make known by faithful faithfulness to all generations. For I've said, mercy shall be built up forever. Thy faithfulness wilt thou establish in the very heavens. We might have a few examples of faithfulness. Think about a commendation that is given to you for being faithful, written on a nice piece of parchment or something. And then think of another commendation that's given to you. And you might lay that one on top of the other one. And then two, three, four, five more, they begin to pile up. Right. There are tokens of your faithfulness. Where is God's faithfulness established? Thy faithfulness wilt thou establish in the very heavens? God's faithfulness is above the earth and the sky. It extends to the very heavens. I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworn unto David my servant. Thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations. And the heavens shall praise thy wonders. O Jehovah, Thy faithfulness also in the assembly of the saints. For who in the skies can be compared unto Jehovah? Who among the sons of the mighty is like unto Jehovah, a God very terrible in the counsel of the saints and to be feared above all them that are round about him? O Jehovah, God of hosts, who is a mighty one like unto thee, O Jehovah, and thy faithfulness round about thee. Thou rulest the pride of the sea. When the waves thereof arise, thou stillest them Thou hast broken, Rahab, in pieces, as one that is slain. Thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strength. The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine, the world and the fullness thereof. Thou hast founded them, the north and the south Thou hast created them. Tabor and Hermon rejoice in thy name. Thou hast a mighty arm, strong as thy hand and high as thy right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of thy throne. Loving kindness and truth go before thee. Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they walk, O Jehovah, in the light of thy countenance. In thy name do they rejoice all the day. And in thy righteousness are they exalted. For thou art the glory of their strength and in thy favor are horns shall be exalted. For our shield belongeth unto Jehovah and our King to the Holy One of Israel. You know, we can go on here. Maybe you'd like to read this for devotions before you go to sleep tonight. It's that God is so reliable you can count on God. It just fills the heaven. The very creation itself is a reflection and a reminder of God's stability. The Bible tells us that God is faithful even when it doesn't seem to us that he's being faithful to us. Even in affliction, we should remember the faithfulness of God. Psalm 119:75 I know, O Jehovah, that thy judgments are righteous, and that in faithfulness thou hast afflicted me. That's a tough prayer to pray, say God, I know that you are faithful, even though I am going through affliction. Our own faithfulness, obviously then, is going to be increased. We are going to be motivated to greater faithfulness, not simply by looking at the examples of a person like a Timothy, but above all by reflecting on the very character of God and meditating on Him. Our faithfulness depends not on circumstances. Our faithfulness depends not upon others who do or do not let us down. Our faithfulness depends upon God. I'm not going to worry about the way people have treated me. I'm not going to worry about how things go for me as a consequence of being principled. I'm going to rely upon God and reflect on his character. The Bible tells us that faithfulness extends in our personal relationship to honest and constructive criticism of our friends. Proverbs 27:6 Faithful Faithful are the wounds of a friend, but the kisses of an enemy are profuse. When someone comes to us with a genuine desire to constructively criticize, and we feel wounded. The proverb says, if you're wise, you remember that friend has been faithful to you. An enemy can kiss you, kiss up to you, but a friend will be faithful, will tell you what you need to hear. Psalm 141:5 Let the righteous smite me it shall be a kindness, and let him reprove me. It shall be as oil upon the head. Let not my head refuse it, for even in their wickedness shall my proof continue. The beginning of this verse David says, when I am reproved by the righteous, I don't want to refuse that. I want to accept it, like anointing upon my head, or like perfume. I want to take it as a blessing, not as a curse, when the faithful are willing to reprove me. Are we good friends to each other? Are we faithful friends to each other? If we allow one another to go on in self destructive or compromising ways of living or with attitudes that aren't pleasing to God. To be honest, I have so often, it seems to me, either lost the friendship or the support of people because I felt I had to share something with them that was for their good, but not the sort of thing that's easily heard. I mean, it's wounding to hear the criticism or the reproof that has happened so often. I mean, when I was younger and idealistic, you know, I said, well, you know, that's just that person or something. But I'm to the point now where I'm almost gun shy to share criticism with people because you just know what they're going to do. They're going to hate you for it. But the Bible says if I'm faithful, I know I'm not always, but I want to live by the Spirit, not by the flesh. If I am faithful, I'll be willing to wound my friends and take the reproof to them that they need to hear. Three real quick ways that we can cultivate faithfulness and then obviously it'll take another lesson to get to gentleness. There's just so much good stuff here that every time I come I'm committed to going fast and then I don't do it. So I'll just stop saying I'm going to do it. I guess one of these days. Anyway, Let me conclude our discussion of faithfulness by suggesting if you reflect upon three things, it'll help you become a more faithful person. The first one you already know, because I've been talking about it for the last few minutes. You need to reflect upon God Himself, 2nd Chronicles 19:9 2nd Chronicles 19:9 and he charged them, saying, thus shall ye do in the fear of Jehovah faithfully and with a perfect heart. If we would be faithful in carrying out our duties, we would do it in the fear of Jehovah. If we thought about God, if we reflected upon and stood in awe and wonder before him, we would dare not be faithless. Do you live in the fear of God when you're at work, when you're at the store, when you're watching tv, when you're doing whatever you do, do you consider that you're in the very presence of God, and that he's infinitely holy? Do you live in reverence and awe of him and his majesty? If you live in the fear of God, then you'll act faithfully. 2nd Chronicles says, Secondly, reflect upon the gospel, Titus 2:10 Titus 2 and the 10th verse. Paul says, not Purloining, but showing all good faithfulness that you may adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in all things. You know, when we are faithless people, we bring reproach to the gospel, to the doctrine of God our Savior, but we enhance the gospel, we bring credit to it. We adorn the doctrine of God our Savior, according to Paul, when we live in a way that shows honesty and integrity, showing all good fidelity, he says, and adorning the gospel. Think about God and live in the fear of God. Think about the gospel and how you might adorn it. And then one other thing that seems to me the Bible uses to help us cultivate faithfulness, and that's reflection on the return of Christ. Matthew 25, verse 21. Matthew 25, verse 21. Here in the parable of the talents, when the Lord has come back and he's rewarding his servants. Verse 21 says, the Lord said unto him, well done, good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will set thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. That servant knew that the master was coming back and that when the master came back, he was going to give an account of the work he had done, how he had lived his life. And here the word faithfulness is emphasized. Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over so much, I will give you authority over more. If we think about the fact that our Master is coming back, the Lord is returning and we should strive to have him say to us, well done, good and faithful servant. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, please help us tonight to be committed to principle and not to our own self interest. And above all to be committed to principle. Because we trust you, we have a living, vibrant relationship with you. Help us to look to you and to your faithfulness, to trust you and not to worry about the outcome of things. And in that trust be able to be obedient and honest and to show integrity. Lord, we realize your disdain for those who are not faithful. We know that we cannot dwell with you if we are a faithless people. So we do pray that your spirit would work in our lives and take away our inconsistency, take away our selfishness and make us faithful to you. Help us to reflect upon you and to stand in reverence before you. Help us by our lives to adorn the gospel that we proclaim. Help us to remember that, Lord Jesus, you will return one day and for us to desire that you would see us as faithful servants. Do fill us with this fruit as all of the fruit of the Spirit, that your name would be glorified. And we do pray again that you would forgive our sins, for we are truly indicted as we think about these things. Forgive us and make us acceptable, not because of any accomplishment of our own or any works righteousness, but simply because of the righteousness of faith. Do accept us for the sake of Christ our Savior. We pray in his name. Amen. This recording has been released into the public domain by the Bonsen Institute. Duplication sharing and distribution is encouraged. For more information about the life and Ministry of Dr. Greg L. Bonson, visit our website, bonsoninstitute.com where we aim to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.