“A FAITHFUL MAN”
Proverbs 20:6; Nehemiah 7:1,2; Revelation 1:4-6
I would like to say a few words if the Lord helps me. The first scripture is a question, “a faithful man who shall find?”. It is something that we can all take to ourselves.
The second scripture refers to two men. Things were difficult in Nehemiah’s time, but Nehemiah was working with a view to furthering the things of God. He selected two men who appeared to him to be suitable for the work of looking after Jerusalem. The commendation of one was that “he was a faithful man and feared God above many”, which is a fine commendation. We are burying the body of our brother today and I would say simply that he was a faithful man and has stood by the small gathering in Buckie for a lifetime through all the ups and downs. Nehemiah said of Hanani that “he was a faithful man and feared God above many”. From our side, things are always relative: you might compare this and that, and say, ’He was a faithful man above many’. I would not make any comparisons; the Lord Jesus will do that in His own time; He will assess everything perfectly. But I would say that our brother has stood by the small gathering in Buckie for a lifetime.
When we come to this chapter in Revelation, the verse I chiefly had in mind was “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness”. There is nothing relative about this statement, it is absolute, it needs no qualification: “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness”. There is much that could be said about these verses, but they speak for themselves. It says “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead”. We are in the presence of death at this moment and it is a sober matter, it is a sorrowful matter. David said at one point, “I go the way of all the earth”, 1 Kings 2:2. We have to take account of things and assess things from a sober point of view. I refer again to the first scripture in Proverbs, “a faithful man who shall find?”. We should look at ourselves and see how these things bear on us. It says in Romans that we should “not have high thoughts above what he should think” (chap.12:3). We should not have high thoughts about ourselves, or think too highly of ourselves, but we are not to think too lowly of ourselves either. The same verse says we are “to think so as to be wise”; we are to have a sober judgment of things. We might look at ourselves and consider the matter of faithfulness.
Further to this reference, “Jesus Christ, the faithful witness”, I thought of that lovely hymn:
‘Faithful amidst unfaithfulness,
‘Mid darkness only light,
Thou didst Thy Father’s name confess,
And in His will delight;’ (Hymn 230)
Think of that blessed Man, the faithful witness; it needs no qualification.
We often speak about how this scripture conveys the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who has been into death and come out of it. We are facing the matter of death, and there is one Man who has been into death and come out of it, come out of it as the Victor! We often refer to John’s gospel chapter 1, Colossians 1, and Hebrews 1 – all full of the glories of Christ. The scripture says, “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”, John 21:25. What a Person we know. He loves us, and that is for our comfort at a time like this, especially for our brethren that are bereaved, firstly our sister. It says, “To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father: to him be the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen”.
May we prove the comfort of the Lord Jesus; and of the Spirit of God, “another Comforter” (John 14:16), a Comforter of hearts; and the comfort of the Father Himself, of whom the Lord says He “has affection for you”, John 16:27. He is the Person of the Godhead who has retained His place of supremacy in the Godhead, and Paul says “to us there is one God, the Father” (1 Cor.8:6), and He Himself has affection for us. The whole Godhead is operating in view of our comfort and blessing at this time.
May the Lord help us, for His name’s sake.
James Webster