THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD
[p. 455] THE FAITHFULNESS OF GOD
1 Corinthians 1:9; Genesis 8:22; Genesis 9:11 - 15; Genesis 21:33,34; Genesis 22:19; Genesis 26:22 - 25; Genesis 26:33
I wish to speak about the faithfulness of God. I have read from 1 Corinthians for the connection of it in the New Testament, hoping to illustrate it from the Old Testament.
Corinthians and Romans run together, dealing with believers in their initial stages of growth. Romans treats of the individual — the side of the truth that appertains to us severally, leading up to our being set together as “one body in Christ” Romans 12:5. The epistles to the Corinthians treat of Christians as so set, regarded as the assembly of God, and in both the epistle to the Romans and in those to the Corinthians the idea of the faithfulness of God is emphasised. In Colossians and Ephesians the thought is not so evident, for it is young believers who need it particularly, that is to say, believers in their early growth.
There is what may be called the tender stage to which the faithfulness of God applies as a steadying factor, but as we advance in the knowledge of God, and have learnt to reckon upon His faithfulness, then we think more of His love, we rest more in His love. We never lose sight of His faithfulness; if not for ourselves directly, certainly for our households, and for the saints in general. The faithfulness of God as reaching “unto the clouds” (Psalm 36:5) ever remains with us, but we rest more in His love. As we know His love we do not ask for promises. It is in our initial stages that the promise and the oath become of especial importance; God intervenes then with two unchangeable things upon which the believer may rest with the utmost confidence, in order that we might have strong encouragement. The old ones never forget the value of [p. 456] the promise and the oath, but having come to know God they require neither the one nor the other; in the language of another they can say, “I know whom I have believed” 2 Timothy 1:12. But the promise and the oath are, as I have said, of supreme importance to the believer in his initial stages.
And so we have it in this passage in Corinthians, “God is faithful”. As called into the fellowship of God’s Son we may reckon unfailingly on the faithfulness of God. He is concerned about His Son, about the fellowship of His Son. Then again we have the assurance in chapter 10 that God is faithful and will not allow us to be tempted above that we are able. One has proved in one’s experience how God orders things for young believers, so that they should not come into temptation beyond that they are able to bear. In fact it applies to all, for each one of us has his measure; the most advanced is exposed, and has to reckon on the faithfulness of God to keep him out of the way of temptation. And further in the second epistle the apostle speaks of God’s faithfulness in regard to what is preached — that the word preached to us, the gospel of the Son of God, is not yea and nay, but yea is in Him — in the Son of God, Jesus Christ. For in Him all the promises of God are yea and amen, so that if you have not found out that what the word of the gospel proposes is verified in Christ, there is some want in your soul, for if God ministers His word in the gospel to us, and we believe it, He confirms it.
I believe in the principle of confirmation, not in the ecclesiastical sense, of course, but in the divine sense, and no young believer should be without it; he should see to it that he is confirmed. And so what the apostle preached found its verification in Christ; He is the divine Amen of every divine proposal. So Paul says to the Corinthians, He who “has anointed us is God” (2 Corinthians 1:21); he says also that God has “sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts” 2 Corinthians 1:22. That is what I call confirmation. God does it. He anoints us, and seals us, and He gives us a portion for our own hearts in the Spirit. Thousands of believers are not confirmed, whereas confirmation is one of the most important features; we need to be sure of the things we have believed, and this is by the Spirit.
That I am anointed means that I am set up in dignity here, and in the light of that I renounce all natural dignity, whatever it may be; secondly, I am sealed, which means that I am marked off as the property of God. In the power of that I deny all other claims. The world puts forth its claims, nature puts forth its claims, but the divine claim is paramount. “God must be obeyed rather than men” Acts 5:29. Sealing is the token of divine ownership: “Ye have been bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20), “ye are not your own” 1 Corinthians 6:19. And then finally I have something in my heart — the earnest of the Spirit. I am not set up without the means of living accordingly, and those means lie in the Spirit, the earnest in the heart, and that is for myself. It is as if God says, I do not wish you to be in a dignified position without means of support. It is in these three things, beloved young people, that you are confirmed.
Now I wish to connect the great principle of the faithfulness of God with the scriptures read in Genesis. Those who have been confirmed will understand (for they indeed are the only ones who can rightly do so) the covenant made with Noah, with every living creature and with the earth. It was a very wide covenant. Believers in Christ who have the Holy Spirit alone understand it. Every man and woman in the world have benefited by it, I may say, as much as believers have. The prodigal in Luke 15, as he went out from his father’s house, used the [p. 458] benefits accruing from this covenant; it is a covenant that alludes to the Gentile world.
How few of them thank God as seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter continue! As God sends His rain, giving fruitful seasons, filling men’s hearts with food and gladness, how many thank God for these things? The sun that shines today is proof of the faithfulness of God, so too is the rain that comes down, the crops that come up from the earth, and the food that we eat; at every turn men are reminded of the faithfulness of God. There has been no change. His faithfulness is wonderful, and the whole race of mankind has benefited from God engaging Himself in this way in connection with creation, and continues to do so. There is no change.
So the apostle says, “He did not leave himself without witness, doing good ... filling your hearts with food and gladness” Acts 14:17. The prodigal used the mercies, but he never thanked God, and so when repentance came into his soul he says, “I have sinned against heaven” (Luke 15:18), for heaven had showered down these blessings upon him, and he was unthankful. He appropriated the things ministered, but without reference of heart to God. But there the covenant stands, and the bow in the clouds — the token of it — is given as the pledge of divine faithfulness to that covenant. And so as God resumes His direct relations with the earth in Revelation 4 we find the bow is round about the throne — the testimony to the race of mankind that God is faithful. Centuries do not change God; His word never fails, and so there is the bow around the throne. He has come in in faithfulness to remove that which prevented man enjoying the benefits of His covenant. Men do not know it, but the believer knows it — God’s covenant with Noah, with the cattle, and with the earth itself. We glorify God by giving thanks for the benefits every day.
[p. 459] I want to come now to what is spiritual; and so chapter 21 of Genesis presents us with the believer in the light represented by the weaning of Isaac, which does not go far in our spiritual progress — we simply apprehend the weaning. The reference is not a question of the Person of Christ, but of our apprehension of Christ, and it belongs to the initial stage of the believer’s progress. You connect Him with yourself, He is your Saviour, He died for you, but as yet you do not see Him in His own connection in relation to God. It has dawned on you that He has such a relation, and the light of it is coming into your soul. You apprehend Him as detached from Israel after the flesh. Isaac is weaned. Still you may retain your Ishmael, your own product, and therefore it is a very initial stage; it is the Galatian feature. You apprehend Christ but very little in His personal relation, for you would have your Ishmael with Him — your own product. You are loth to part with the product of nature, with what you have produced yourself. You have been winking at it all these years, and you would fain add it to Christ. The voice comes, “Cast out this handmaid and her son” Genesis 21:10. And Abraham opposes, he was loth to do it, but he did do it, thank God. You will make no spiritual head-way until you do it.
This is a question of the history of your soul, of moving into a region where Christ is all and everything. You are on the way to it, and as Ishmael is cast out you have advanced, and others take account of you as having advanced; so the Philistine king comes to Abraham immediately afterwards, and brings with him the captain of his army. He knew he had to do with a great man. Typically, a great person was in his house, that is Christ. Abraham had cast out the bondwoman and her son, he had advanced in his soul; the Philistine knows Abraham’s greatness and he comes, and Abraham enters into a covenant [p. 460] with him. It is not yet a covenant of God. It is a covenant the believer enters into, it is an engagement; it is no partnership with the world, it meant no partnership with Abimelech. Abraham enters into an engagement that he will do no harm to the Philistine - either to him or to his son. The believer need not be afraid of that engagement. We are not here to harm anyone; we avow at the outset of our spiritual history that we are not here to harm people; we are here to bless and to be a blessing.
And so Abraham accepts, and enters into a covenant with Abimelech, and then he reproves him. Reproof is no harm, as it says, “Do not have fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather also reprove them” Ephesians 5:11. And Abraham does it. And then he enriches Abimelech and brings forward seven ewe-lambs. Abimelech inquires, “What mean these?” Genesis 21:29. They do not agree with his idea of greatness and power; he would think of an army, for he has a captain there, but they pointed to the power that marked Abraham. He says to the Philistine that they are to be a witness that I dug this well, that is to say, that Abraham’s power lay in the Spirit. The Philistine would interfere with that, and so the young believer may assert his right; he is confirmed in it, and these seven ewe-lambs are a witness that the power of the Spirit is not harmful, is not hurtful, it is benign; it overcomes evil with good; and they were to be a witness to Abimelech for ever of the power of the Christian expressed in the scripture when it says, “For thy sake we are put to death all the day long; we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter” (Romans 8:36), and further, “We more than conquer through him that has loved us” Romans 8:37. The Philistine can never say that — he is more than a conqueror. The Christian can, and it is in the spirit of the ewe-lambs that he can do so.
I come now to verses 33 and 34, where we get the [p. 461] position denoting the faithfulness of God. Beersheba is the place of the oath, and Abraham planted a grove there and called on the name of the everlasting God. It is as if he were to say, ‘I have entered into an engagement and I need your help’. The eternal God! Calling on His name means that I shall need Him tomorrow; I proved Him yesterday, I am proving Him today, but I shall need Him tomorrow. It is a definite reckoning of faith; at Beersheba you have entered into an engagement, and you need the support of the everlasting God, and you will get it.
In the next chapter Abraham offers up Isaac. It says, “After these things” (Genesis 22:1), that is, we have the sequel. Abraham has called upon the everlasting God. What is God going to do? He is going to give Abraham further blessing, further light. He has raised Christ, He has set Him down in heaven, and thus every promise is secure. And so Isaac is offered up and received back in a figure. How many of us understand what it is to receive Him back, to apprehend Christ risen, and that He is on our side?
We now touch on Colossians, we are touching ground that leads us outside this world, and so as Abraham is put to the test the voice from heaven is “Abraham, Abraham” (Genesis 22:11), meaning he is known there, and in this connection he is tested, and he answers to the test, for he is willing to part with all that he has on this side, he is willing to trust God. He had called upon the everlasting God; he can trust Him now, and he can give up Isaac. And so God enters into a fresh covenant with him, so that Beersheba is no longer the well of his engagement, it is the well of God’s engagement, and Abraham goes and dwells there. He does not call upon the name of Jehovah now, he needs no help for God’s engagement. It was an engagement, a covenant from God’s side entirely, there is no mediator in it; God enters this engagement, and Abraham dwells under the shelter of it.
[p. 462] But he did not dwell there alone. He had left Isaac and now he has “his young men”. Isaac is received back from the dead, and nothing more is said of him in the chapter. Abraham returns to his young men and they go together to Beersheba. They go together to Beersheba — a picture of the saints being together in the light of the faithfulness of God, of His covenant; and they dwell there. Now he has company. It is delightful to be dwelling under the shelter of the faithfulness of God in company with others. And they are young men. On the one hand we see Abraham, who was an old man, one with experience which they had not had; they had not been up the mountain, they were afar off, but they would come into the value of Abraham’s wonderful experience there, as young brothers gain now from the old ones; on the other hand, you see the value of the young men as companions; how fresh they are. The assembly is composed of the old and the young.
It is to be noted that it is here that Abraham hears about Rebekah. We are free now for the assembly; we are free, under the wing of the faithfulness of God, to think of Rebekah, and so as Abraham dwelt there light came to him of the birth of Rebekah. It is not a question of Rebekah’s personality, but the fact that there was such a person, and that she was related to Isaac. Dwelling together we come to realise that we are for Christ, not for ourselves, but for Him who died for us and rose again. So we come to the introduction of Rebekah, and hence the wonderful chapter 24. Each one of these scriptures would be enough for a sermon in itself, but I am sure you follow with delight as you think of a company old and young dwelling at Beersheba, and the light of the assembly coming in there. The assembly is for Christ, and hence chapter 24 brings in Rebekah and she is for Isaac.
I turn now to chapter 26, where it is a question of [p. 463] being sustained in the land. It is full advancement here. Isaac is told to remain in the land, not to remove into Egypt. He is in the land, he claims those wells which Abraham had digged and which the Philistines had stopped, and he dug others. Here you will be opposed by Satan and the way of opposition is to cut off the means of support, the supply, so the wells were stopped. The enemy knows that if he can cut off the supplies you must give up the position, and so the wells are filled up with earth and other wells are contended for, but God makes room for Isaac; God does it. How could we get on collectively unless God came in? but He does come in. It is a question of holding the ground in the land, in other words, of maintaining the testimony. Thus the Lord makes room for us. We should never be in each other’s way. I need not interfere with another’s service, God gives plenty of room. The last well Isaac dug he named Rehoboth, which means Broadways. Then we read that he comes to Beersheba.
I wish to dwell on this point particularly, for it is a question of our being sustained in testimony in the land, and that there should be increase spiritually. It was in Isaac’s mind that he should be fruitful in the land, for when he dug a well for which they strove not he said, “Jehovah has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land”. All that we are bears on the testimony of God — on the heavenly position of the saints. So Isaac went up to Beersheba and Jehovah appeared to him there the same night. It is as though God says, I know what is in your mind, I will support your spiritual resolves and you will go through; and then He says, I am the God of Abraham, “I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham’s sake”. He says to you virtually, if you have spiritual resolves, I see your desires and will support you, but I want you to understand it is not to honour you, it is in relation to [p. 464] Christ. And so Isaac accepts it, and at Beersheba he builded an altar and called on the name of Jehovah. He owns in that way, I need your help; he needed the help of Jehovah in this new untried position, and so do you, but first be sure that, having a right spiritual resolve, you have the divine approval, and He will help you.
And now Abimelech comes to him again with his captain and with his friend. We have advanced, we have come into the circle of the saints, we are in the light of the assembly, and the world would seek to impress us with its military power, with its political and also with its social power, and we are in danger of these as the Colossians were. How is it with us, beloved? Referring to Abimelech, his captain was a military man, he knew about the army, he could speak about the strength of it, but if I come to Abimelech’s friend, what would he speak about? Social entertainments, social attractions; the world is full of these, and they are great snares to the people of God. But Isaac is not deceived. He says, “Ye hate me” Genesis 26:27. John said, “Do not wonder ... if the world hate you” 1 John 3:13. Like Abraham, Isaac enters into a covenant not to hurt Abimelech, and as he sends away Abimelech and his captain and his friend, Isaac’s servants come and say, “We have found water” Genesis 26:32. As you refuse the world, God comes in and gives refreshment; so Isaac calls the name of that city Beersheba; it is now an ordered place, a place of administration, as you may say, a place for divine rule.
I think you will have some conception from what has been said of the faithfulness of God. You can rely upon it, so that you may be sustained in independence of the world, and be found in the land, and thus there will be maintained here a heavenly testimony outside everything which is of man in this world.