I imagine most of us have been to Yellowstone National Park at some point in our lives, and seen the most famous geyser in all the world, or we have at least heard of it. It got its name on September 18th, 1870 when the members of the Washburn-Langford-Doane Expedition were traveling through that area. Here is what Nathaniel Langford, a member of that expedition, wrote about that occasion, “Judge, then, what must have been our astonishment, as we entered the basin at mid-afternoon of our second day’s travel, to see in the clear sunlight, at no great distance, an immense volume of clear, sparkling water projected into the air to the height of one hundred and twenty-five feet. ‘Geysers! Geysers!’ exclaimed one of our company, and, spurring our jaded horses, we soon gathered around this wonderful phenomenon. It was indeed a perfect geyser … It spouted at regular intervals nine times during our stay, the columns of boiling water being thrown from ninety to one hundred and twenty-five feet at each discharge… We gave it the name of ‘Old Faithful.’” And it has continued to work like clockwork ever since. It will erupt at intervals of either 65 or 91 minutes, dependent on the length of the prior eruption. It is one of the most predictable geographical features in the world. And that’s the reason it’s the most famous. There are bigger geysers. There are ones that will spray to greater heights. There are ones that are arguably more scenic. But they’re not near as faithful, dependable, reliable, consistent or trustworthy.
In the eyes of God, the people who stand out among all other people are not necessarily the most talented or best looking or most intelligent or wealthy or powerful or most awarded or most influential. It’s not necessarily those who did the most outstanding things one time or on occasion. It is those who develop in cooperation with His Spirit a faithful character, where God and people can count on them to consistently keep their word, follow through with their commitments and do the right thing no matter who they’re around or how their circumstances may change.
Numbers 12:7 mentions why God took such delight in Moses and honored Him and spoke with Him like a man speaks with His friend. God said, “He is faithful in all my house.”
Nehemiah 9:8 speaks of why God delighted in Abraham and blessed Him so abundantly. Nehemiah said, “You [LORD] found his heart faithful before you…”
Proverbs 12:22, “… those who act faithfully are His delight.”
Proverbs 28:20, “A faithful man will abound with blessings…”
Psalm 101:6, “I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, that they may dwell with me; he who walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.”
Being faithful means that God can trust you to be obedient and long term in whatever situation you find yourself. When life gets hard, you keep on praying and worshiping and doing good. If life gets easy, you don’t stop praying and worshipping and doing good. When among unbelieving friends and family, you will not compromise your faith or values to fit in. He can trust you to be alone with a computer. He can trust you to still be a Christian while you’re away by yourself on a business trip or on a vacation. If He brings someone your way needing your help, He can trust you to help them.
It’s the faithful who standout to God among all people and are His delight. At the end of our lives here we will find that there’s nothing more important. In a parable in Matthew 25, Jesus said that when He comes to settle all accounts and set things right, we will come before Him and to those with whom He is pleased, He will say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.” Can you imagine anything greater than hearing Jesus say that to you? I cannot think of anything more wonderful. When I remember that that’s available to me, that He would say that to me, then that’s the goal of my life. That’s what I’m living for. And that is available to every one of us. It doesn’t matter what your past has been, Christ died for all that. Through Jesus we can all be on good terms with God and remain faithful the rest of our lives and be a delight to His heart.
Our Bible reading plan has us in Deuteronomy, which is much about how important it was for the people of Israel to be faithful to God and to the covenant they made with God, and how to be faithful. The book of Deuteronomy is mainly three sermons, a song and a blessing that Moses delivered to the Israelites camped on the east side of the Jordan River, just before he died and they crossed over into the land God promised them. So Deuteronomy is basically Moses’ farewell speeches to these people. I just want to share with you some wisdom from Deuteronomy on how to stay faithful to God.
First, we need to do whatever it takes to remember some things.
I counted the word “remember” 14 times in Deuteronomy. And the word “forget,” as in phrases like “do not forget” and “lest you forgot,” I counted 10 times. If these people were going to be faithful, they had to remember some stuff.
They had to remember the covenant they’d made with God. They needed to remember the words God had spoken to them, His commands and promises and warnings. And Moses told them they needed to do whatever it took to remember God’s word. He said write these words on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Talk about them all the time and with your kids when you sit in the house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise. He told them when they enter the promised land to set up large stones on Mt. Ebal and plaster them and write on them all the words of this law so people can read them and remember (Deuteronomy 27). We too must remember the deal we’ve made with God to follow Christ and in that enjoy His forgiveness, acceptance, attention to our prayers and eternal life. And we must not forget what we learn from His Word. And we know how to do that. When we were in school and had a big test coming up that we needed to remember the material for, we knew we had to review the material over and over until it stuck.
Another thing they were to never forget was who they would be, apart from the grace of God. Deuteronomy 5:15, “You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm.” They were also to remember how on many occasions since they had been set free they committed sins deserving of death. 9:7, “Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness. From the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place, you have been rebellious against the LORD.” It was by the grace of God they were still alive, let alone free.
Who would you be, apart from the grace of God? I would be a prisoner on death row. If God had ignored me, I would be in the prison of sin and darkness, unable to see anything beyond this natural realm and the here and now. All would appear hopeless and futile. I’d be enslaved to shallow fleeting dishonorable pleasures to escape the misery. There I would be until it was time for my execution. I was to be executed and never enjoy life again. And I must never forget that’s who I would be. But God came for me and paid the sentence for me. Then He showed me how He did that and I followed Him out of the darkness into the glorious light thru the water, out of prison. And now I’m free to live in righteousness, to walk in love and fellowship with God and have a joy and peace you can never find in the prison. And life has no end now for me. I will live forever. And I suspect that’s your story too. We have been pardoned and released from death row and prison. We must never forget that.
They also needed to remember all the interventions of God in their past, in which He revealed to them that He was with them and revealed His power, His faithfulness to His promises, His care of them and His hatred of sin. Deuteronomy 4:9, “Only take care, and keep your soul diligently, lest you forget the things that your eyes have seen, and lest they depart from your heart all the days of your life. Make them known to your children and your children’s children.” They needed to remember the plagues God brought on Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the time when they gathered at Mt. Sinai and the mountain was quaking and burning under God’s presence and God audibly spoke to them the Ten Commandments. They needed to remember how He had fed them manna in the wilderness for the last 40 years and kept their clothing and sandals from wearing out, how He had delivered enemy nations and territories into their hands. How He disciplined them with plagues and snakes and in other ways for their sinfulness. And there were three annual feasts instituted to help them remember, Passover where they would remember their deliverance from slavery in Egypt. Then Pentecost or the Feasts of Weeks where they would remember entering a covenant with God and the giving of the Law at Mt. Sinai. And then the Feasts of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles where they would remember their journey in the wilderness and all God did for them there.
We regularly take the Lord’s Supper to keep fresh in our minds things the Lord has done and especially the cross and what it means for us. Remembrance is not the only purpose of the Lord’s Supper, but definitely one of them.
We need to remember the ways God has intervened in our personal lives and the lives of those we know, that reveal that He is with us and His goodness and that He is everything we read of in the Scriptures. I don’t know what all those things are in your life. I know recently Gary witnessed the Lord do something wonderful for a client of his when they prayed. He was telling us about it on Wednesday night. Kim a few years ago was paralyzed, if you didn’t know, and had been paralyzed for 3 years and in a time of prayer experienced the healing power of the Lord. Those “God” events, we can’t let ourselves forget. And I’ve put reminders in my office at my house. I’ve got a piece of paper in a frame that has a drawing of a gun and a bullet and a poem about being a bullet of God. I won’t go through the story of when that was given to me. It was an occasion in my life when the presence of God and His love was undeniable to me and I don’t ever want to forget that. And then I’ve got some other knickknacks in my office that symbolize to me significant things God has done in my life that I don’t ever want to forget.
Sometimes in prayer, look back on your life and recall those “God” moments, those things that showed you He’s real and good and worth living for. It renews my faith to do that. It renews my awareness of His presence and who He is, it renews my joy and my strength. It keeps me faithful.
We must remember what God has done for us and taught us. Something else you see all over the place in Deuteronomy…
We must know that our well being and the well being of our children depend on our obedience to what God has commanded of us.
Over and over and over in Deuteronomy, Moses tells the people to “be careful to obey all the commands of the Lord so that it may go well with you and with your children after you, that you may live long in that land that the LORD your God is giving you, that you may prosper in all you do, that He may multiply you, and multiply your flocks and herds and the produce of your field and vineyards, that He may remove sickness from you, that He may give your enemies into your hand… that He may bless you in every way.”
And over and over and over, Moses warned them that if they’re disobedient it will not go well for them. They will not live long in the land. They will not prosper. They will not be protected from their enemies and from disease…. And so forth. In chapter 28 there is a vivid description of the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.
And to impress this understanding on their hearts there was a ceremony that Moses commanded the people to go through when they entered the promised land. Six of the tribes of Israel were to stand on the fertile slope of Mt. Gerizim, to represent having God’s blessing. And the other six tribes were to stand across the valley on the barren slop of Mt. Ebal to represent being under the curse. And the tribe of Levi were to shout out curses on those who engage in various forms of disobedience to God and all the people were to respond to each curse with “Amen!”
Deuteronomy 27:14, “And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice: 15 “‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’ 16 “‘Cursed be anyone who dishonors his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ 17 “‘Cursed be anyone who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’… and so it went through many different evils they might do. And perhaps they were to do the same with blessings. The Levites shouting things like, “Blessed is the man whose God is YHVH who does not make an idol or molten image.” And all the people say “Amen.” “Blessed is the man who loves his neighbor as himself.” And all the people say “Amen.” They had to realize that their well-being depended on obedience.
And though we are in a different covenant with God as followers of Jesus, it is still just as true that our well-being and the well-being of our children, to a degree, depend on our obedience. God still blesses obedience and disciplines disobedience. Many in the church at Corinth had prideful and sinful attitudes and were mistreating each other. And Paul said, I Corinthians 11:30, “This is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.” God still disciplines sin. I Timothy 4:7-8, Paul was talking to Timothy about training himself for godliness, like an athlete trains for his sport. I think it’s by the spiritual disciplining, prayer, the study of the Word, fasting, worship, meditation on God and so forth. Those things we can do to connect with God and be built up spiritually. Paul said, “For bodily exercise is only of little profit, but godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” You will be blessed in this life and the life to come for obedience. Mark 10:29, Jesus told His disciples what they could expect in following Him, saying, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.” So Jesus says God still rewards obedience and sacrifice. What you lose to obey the Lord, He will repay a hundredfold in this life. However, He says there will also be persecution. That comes with following Jesus well. But as the Lord explained elsewhere, persecution is actually a blessing in disguise, because it’s confirmation that you’re on the right track and all the persecution you endure will be rewarded. So in the Sermon on the Mount He told His disciples, “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” So obedience brings blessing and reward in this life with persecution. I think of Psalm 23, “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” And then in the age to come, eternal life.
And it keeps us faithful when we know that, when we know obedience is the path of blessing and disobedience is the path of pain and loss.
Now, I was thinking maybe we should do something like the Israelites were to do when they entered the promised land to impress on their hearts what God has said about the outcomes of certain attitudes and lifestyles. If you’d like to participate, I’ll be like the Levites and you be like the people of Israel. I’ll recite some of the curses that we find in the NT, and if you realize it’s what God has said, say “Amen.” Should we try that?
I want to first read four NT Scriptures that confirm the curses I’ll state. So you know I’m not making stuff up.
Matthew 25:41, Jesus said He’s going to say this to a bunch of people, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’
I Corinthians 16:22, “If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed.”
Matthew 6:14-15, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
I Corinthians 6:9-10, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
So I’ll state a curse and say “Amen” if you see that it’s what God has said.
Cursed is the person who ignores the needs of others… Cursed is the person who doesn’t love the Lord… Cursed is the person who will not forgive… Curse is the person who won’t stop stealing from others…Cursed is the person who won’t stop committing sexual immorality… Cursed is the person who won’t stop getting drunk…
Now, on a happier note: Blessed are the poor in spirit… Blessed are the meek… Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness… Blessed are the merciful… Blessed are the pure in heart… Blessed are the peacemakers… Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness… And from James 1:12, “Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him.”
One last thing that I’ll just briefly mention from Deuteronomy for staying faithful that has application to what we watch, read, listen to and the friends we run with. God told them to
Get rid of unnecessary evil influences.
When they entered the land, they were to get rid of every trace of idolatry. Destroy all the pagan alters and pillars and images. And they were to execute members of their society who were blatantly rebellious against God and would not repent.
Nine times in Deuteronomy you find the phrase, “you shall purge the evil from your midst.”
That’s part of how we stay faithful. We don’t tolerate unnecessary evil influences in our homes or church. Because whether we succeed or fail according to Romans 8, has to do with whether we set our minds on the things of the Spirit or we set our mind on the things of the flesh. Garbage in, garbage out. Good stuff in, good stuff out. So let’s intake just good stuff.
-James Williams