God’s Faithfulness
But, secondly, in our text we have a rich source of comfort in the words: ‘but God is faithful.’ ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.’
‘God is faithful.’ Oh, how I love those words! They sound in my heart like heavenly music. ‘God is faithful.’ You are not faithful, my brother or sister; at least, I know I am not, in the full sense of the term, faithful – full of faith, and faithful. ‘But’ (a blessed ‘but’), ‘but God is faithful’! ‘If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful’ – always true to every promise he has made, always gracious to every child whom he has adopted into his family, and ‘a very present help in trouble’. He preserves us from sinking in our sea of trouble, and he delivers us from the trouble when it has accomplished the purpose for which it was sent.
‘God is faithful’ – faithful to the first promise which came into your soul when you yielded yourself to Jesus, and he whispered in your heart, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ Do you remember that promise, and has not the Lord been faithful to it?
‘God is faithful’ to all his promises; and in your experience, my brother or sister, he has been faithful to the promises which met your case in all your changing circumstances. Can you put your finger upon a single page of your diary, and say, ‘God was unfaithful then’?
Your friend, who ate bread with you, has lifted up his heel against you; but has your God forsaken you? Even your children have been unkind and ungrateful to you, but has the Lord ever treated you badly? Where you had the most hope among your earthly friends and acquaintances, you have had the most disappointments; but has the Lord ever been a wilderness unto you?
Even if any of you are facing a feared sickness or a painful operation, or business losses which may sink you from your present comfortable position, think of this truth, ‘God is faithful.’ The whole world may reel to and fro, like a drunken man; but the Rock of Ages stands secure.
The shooting stars of temporary prosperity may die out in everlasting night, but God is ‘the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.’ ‘God is faithful.’
Whatever your future trials are to be, put this short sweet sentence into your mouth, and keep it there, as a heavenly lozenge which shall sustain you at all times. Make it also into a jubilant refrain as you go on your way – ‘God is faithful.’
Trials and temptations will assail you; ‘but God is faithful.’ Friends will fail and forsake you; ‘but God is faithful.’ Health may be lost, and property may vanish; ‘but God is faithful.’ What do you want more than this, soldiers of Christ? Here you have breastplate, helmet, sword, shield, spear – the whole panoply of God.
But, secondly, in our text we have a rich source of comfort in the words: ‘but God is faithful.’ ‘There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.’
‘God is faithful.’ Oh, how I love those words! They sound in my heart like heavenly music. ‘God is faithful.’ You are not faithful, my brother or sister; at least, I know I am not, in the full sense of the term, faithful – full of faith, and faithful. ‘But’ (a blessed ‘but’), ‘but God is faithful’! ‘If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful’ – always true to every promise he has made, always gracious to every child whom he has adopted into his family, and ‘a very present help in trouble’. He preserves us from sinking in our sea of trouble, and he delivers us from the trouble when it has accomplished the purpose for which it was sent.
‘God is faithful’ – faithful to the first promise which came into your soul when you yielded yourself to Jesus, and he whispered in your heart, ‘I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.’ Do you remember that promise, and has not the Lord been faithful to it?
‘God is faithful’ to all his promises; and in your experience, my brother or sister, he has been faithful to the promises which met your case in all your changing circumstances. Can you put your finger upon a single page of your diary, and say, ‘God was unfaithful then’?
Your friend, who ate bread with you, has lifted up his heel against you; but has your God forsaken you? Even your children have been unkind and ungrateful to you, but has the Lord ever treated you badly? Where you had the most hope among your earthly friends and acquaintances, you have had the most disappointments; but has the Lord ever been a wilderness unto you?
The whole world may reel to and fro, but the Rock of Ages stands secure.‘All men are liars,’ you have said in the bitterness of your spirit, when you had trusted in them and they have failed you in the time of trial, but have you ever found Christ false to his Word? Can you not join your testimony with that of all the saints above, and the saints below, and say with Paul, ‘God is faithful’?
Even if any of you are facing a feared sickness or a painful operation, or business losses which may sink you from your present comfortable position, think of this truth, ‘God is faithful.’ The whole world may reel to and fro, like a drunken man; but the Rock of Ages stands secure.
The shooting stars of temporary prosperity may die out in everlasting night, but God is ‘the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.’ ‘God is faithful.’
Whatever your future trials are to be, put this short sweet sentence into your mouth, and keep it there, as a heavenly lozenge which shall sustain you at all times. Make it also into a jubilant refrain as you go on your way – ‘God is faithful.’
Trials and temptations will assail you; ‘but God is faithful.’ Friends will fail and forsake you; ‘but God is faithful.’ Health may be lost, and property may vanish; ‘but God is faithful.’ What do you want more than this, soldiers of Christ? Here you have breastplate, helmet, sword, shield, spear – the whole panoply of God.
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