“When we woke up on Wednesday morning, the world was suddenly a more scary and less predictable place.” So wrote one political commentator (Robert Peston) about the news that Donald Trump has been elected to be the next President of the United States. Other people expressed stronger reactions of deep unease, panic and even despair, describing it as a “dark” and a “devastating” day. The website for applications for Canadian citizenship crashed on the news and there have even been reports that State of California is contemplating breaking away from the United States altogether. Many American cities have seen protests and even riots with slogans such as, “Not my President”. For me that rejection of the democratic process is much more disturbing than the actual outcome of the election.

The analysists and the media did not see any realistic likelihood of the “uniquely unqualified” Donald Trump beating the supremely qualified Hillary Clinton to win the Presidency. Even those who did were surprised by the margin of his victory! It appears that a major reason why Trump won was because he tapped into the feelings of a number of marginalised groups, particularly white working class men and rural voters, who felt that the current political establishment and economic systems were just not working for them. People who saw the big cities and the coastal elites prospering while their farms and their factories were closed and their communities left to decay. People who felt overlooked and left behind viewed Donald Trump as “their candidate” precisely because he was the underdog and the outsider, both to Washington politics and to his own Republican Party. Perhaps more than anything else, many people were just voting for a change from the status quo. Many Americans, and among then many Christians, were prepared to overlook Donald Trump’s personal flaws and were swayed instead by allegations of deception by Hillary Clinton. Some probably saw Trump as the lesser of two evils. Even more than the unexpected result of the Brexit Referendum, the outcome of this Presidential election has many lessons for us all, and not least for the churches in America. This election may just prove to be the most significant political event in my lifetime. Because the result has left many people very worried.

People are troubled because Trump’s campaign has been extremely divisive and discriminatory, sexist and racist and playing on people’s fears. People are nervous of his foreign policies in relationships with Russia, China, North Korea and NATO. Many businesses are optimistic but financial markets are troubled by his wish to abandon Free Trade deals with Canada and Mexico. And while the world is reeling from this news, we pause today to remember those who gave their lives to win our freedom. We are reminded of so many examples of man’s inhumanity to man – the legacy of Auschwitz and Belsen and the horrors of the Holocaust. Such atrocities continue even today at the hands of Daesh – the so called Islamic State. The recent wars in Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan and Nigeria have taken at least two million lives. With all this on top of Tuesday’s election, no wonder many people think that the world is in a bigger mess than ever!

As Christians, what should we think about all these things? How can we avoid being dragged down into the depression and despair so many people seem to be trapped in? The message for today is very simple. God is still on the throne! Whoever is on the thrones of human empires, this Almighty and Eternal God is still on the throne of heaven and earth! Donald Trump may be going to be President of the United States, but Jesus Christ is still King of Kings and Lord of Lords. There will always be wars and rumours of wars. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places.” But we must never forget – God is still on the throne!

Today is a day to proclaim the surpassing greatness of God – the greatness no-one can fathom.
Psalm 150:2 Praise him for his acts of power; praise him for his surpassing greatness.

J.B.Phillips wrote a book, Your God is too small, and he was right!! WHATEVER ideas you have about God, your God just isn’t big enough! Your ideas about God aren’t great enough! God’s surpassing greatness is so great – no-one can fathom it! Although we can catch glimpses that greatness. The Bible reminds us in so many places about the awesome power of the natural world. In Creation we see a greatness which is so much bigger than we are, and that shows us just a fraction of the greatness of God. The heights of the mountains and the vastness of the oceans and the unstoppable power of a hurricane or a glacier give us just a glimpse of the even greater greatness of God.

Job 38: 4 ¶ “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you
understand. 5 Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a
measuring line across it? 6 On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone- 7 while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

Back in the 18th century Thomas Paine wrote “Do we want to contemplate God’s power? We see it in the immensity of the creation. Do we want to contemplate his wisdom? We see it in the unchangeable order by which the incomprehensible whole is governed. Do we want to contemplate his munificence? We see it in the abundance with which he fills the earth.”

Of course the whole of Creation is much, much, much bigger than our little planet Earth! Our minds stretch to consider the vastness of space – God is bigger than space.

Isaiah 40:25 “To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One. 26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

Job 38:31 “Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion?
32 Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? 33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up [God’s] dominion over the earth?
We lift our eyes to the grandeur of creation and the vastness of space. God is bigger than space. Then consider the sheer power displayed in the natural world. God is so much greater than hurricanes and earthquakes and volcanos and tsunamis. I have never experienced a hurricane or a tornado but I have sat huddled on Kinder Scout in the Peak District battered by the driving rain and wind as lightning struck the hillside less than 50 yards away. When you are outdoors, thunderstorms can be terrifying, even in England!

When God spoke out of the power of a storm, Job realised that God is much bigger, much greater, much more powerful than he can possibly imagine.
Job 37:14 ¶ “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders.
15 Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?
16 Do you know how the clouds hang poised, those wonders of him who is
perfect in knowledge?

A. W. Tozer wrote,
“ Our concepts of measurement embrace mountains and men, atoms and stars, gravity, energy, numbers, speed, but never God. We cannot speak of measure or amount or size or weight and at the same time be speaking of God, for these tell of degrees and there are no degrees in God. All that he is he is without growth or addition or development. … To say that God is infinite is to say that he is measureless. …. (God) is above all this, outside of it, beyond it. Indeed God is above and outside and beyond the whole of creation. Before anything in the universe existed, there was God Almighty!”

The laws of nature, the rules of space and time, only exist because God created them! They only continue because God keeps them going. God is powerful enough to bend or break or change those rules whenever and wherever He chooses. God is THAT great and Almighty!

Jim Packer wrote: “Your thoughts of God are too human. This is where most of us go astray. Our thoughts of God are not great enough; we fail to reckon with the reality of his limitless wisdom and power. Put this mistake right: learn to acknowledge the full majesty of your incomparable God and Saviour.”

God is beyond our ken—infinite, immense, and his real greatness is known to himself alone. Our mind is too limited to understand him.

Psalms 145:3 Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no-one can fathom.

Think for a while about the unsurpassable unfathomable greatness of God.

God is OMNIPOTENT. God is Almighty God can do absolutely ANYTHING He chooses. “Nothing is impossible for God” (Luke 1:37)

God is OMNISCIENT. God has TOTAL knowledge, understanding and wisdom
God knows everything there is to know about the past, the present and the future
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)
Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counsellor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? (Isaiah 40:13-14)
So God completely understands our situations.

God is OMNIPRESENT. God is everywhere and with us all the time
Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. (Psalm 139:7-10)
God is with us whatever problems we face.

God is ETERNAL. God is outside time and beyond time. God is before created time and after created time.
With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8
I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. Isaiah 46:10
God sees this world and God sees every detail of each of our lives from the perspective of eternity.

Here is the unsurpassable unfathomable greatness of God. Omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, eternal. Bow down and worship – for THIS is your God!
ISAIAH 40:12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? 15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. 23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
To Almighty God, the nations of the earth are like a drop in the bucket and dust on the scales. God reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. Donald Trump may be President Elect of the United States, arguably the most powerful individual in the Western world. But God is on the throne of heaven. Jesus Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. The word that theologians use to describe this state of affairs is the Sovereignty of God. God is Sovereign

In his landmark book, “The Sovereignty of God”, A.W.Pink explained things this way. By the sovereignty of God, “We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou?

Daniel 4 34 … I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. 35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”
Pink goes on, “To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will.

Psalm 115 3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among the nations”, setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as best pleases Him.

Psalm 22:28 Dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.

To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15) This is the God of the Bible.”

The Bible declares God’s Sovereignty in so many places!
Isaiah 14:26 This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. 27 For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
God is ruler of all things – God is Sovereign. I am sad to say that too often Christians today have lost sight of the Sovereignty of God. We have lost confidence in the fact that God is on the throne, God is ruler of all things, God is in control, God is the boss!
Ultimately nothing happens on earth unless He has allowed it!

Who can speak and have it happen if the Lord has not decreed it?
Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both calamities and good things come? (Lamentations 3:37-38)

God is Sovereign whether the peoples of the world choose to recognise that sovereignty or not! God is sovereign. Jesus is not Lord because people invite him or allow Him to be Lord. Jesus is not only Lord of the people who recognise and submit to His Lordship. Jesus is Lord of all! Exclamation Mark! God is Sovereign over everything! Exclamation Mark! God is Ruler of all things. God is in control. God is the boss!
God is in control of the big things and God is in control of the little things as well. God rules over men and nations, and God rules over the smallest details of all of our lives. It is not usually world events which cause Christians to question whether God is really on the throne. Nor is it usually the abstract philosophical problem of innocent suffering.
Rather it is suffering in our own lives or in the lives of people we love. It is illnesses and accidents and bereavements which more often cause us to doubt whether God is really in control of our lives. It is events and experiences in our own lives which lead us to ask whether God really intended that terrible thing to happen to me, or to that person I love. And it is also when other people hurt us or disappoint us that we start to question whether God is Sovereign or not.

What we need to remember is that God never promises that our lives will be comfortable or easy. What He does promise is that, however hard life gets, and however much it may appear otherwise, God will never fail us or forsake us. The Almighty Creator God is entirely powerful enough to keep His many promises to us. And the Sovereign God is faithful and He will care for us!

Today we mourn in Remembrance for the horrors of the World Wars of the last century. We are saddened by the conflicts which continue in Syria and Iraq and Afghanistan and Nigeria. We are troubled by the plight of refugees in Europe and benefits claimants in our own country. Many here today are weighed down by our own illnesses and griefs and anxieties and fears. And on top of all this, we contemplate a future with Donald Trump as President of the United States. Closer to home we face all the uncertainties which Britain leaving the European Union will bring. So now is the time to declare with faith that God is still on the throne. Jesus Christ is still King of Kings and Lord of Lords! Our Almighty, All-knowing, Ever-present, Eternal Creator God is still Sovereign. God encourages us to put our trust in Him. And He says to us,
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

This was the first sermon I preached at NSBC before I became their minister. Belatedly I post it here because it fits very well into the series “Prepared to Answer”.

There is a lovely story about a woman who went into an ice cream shop to buy an ice cream. While she was ordering, another customer came in. She placed her order, turned and found herself staring face to face at the legendary actor Paul Newman. He was in town making a film. His blue eyes and his smile were overwhelming. The woman finished paying and quickly walked out of the store with her heart still racing. Then she realised that she hadn’t got her ice cream! She turned to go back in and met Paul Newman at the door coming out. He smiled gently and asked her, “Are you looking for your ice cream cone?” She was too overawed to speak but nodded yes. “Don’t worry,” he said, “You put it in your handbag with your change.”

When was the last time that the presence of God made you forget what was going on around you? Made you forget the dinner cooking at home? Made you forget what you have planned for this afternoon? Made you forget the problems of the week? Made you forget you are sitting in Church? Made you forget what the friends and strangers around you might think if you just let go and worship God? When did you last enjoy being with God so much that nothing else mattered?

Jesus said in John 10:10. “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” To “have life and have it more abundantly.” That is what salvation is. Life in all its fulness. “A rich and satisfying life” (New Living Translation) “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of. (The Message) And this life in all its fulness brings many blessings.

Love – knowing that God loves us and His love will never let us go.
Joy – not the passing happiness which so many people find in the false gods like money and entertainment but true joy which no-one and nothing can take away.
Peace – the calm of knowing that everything is safe in the hands of Almighty God.
Eternal life – which not even death can take away.
Victory over the devil and all the powers of evil – a life which isn’t lived under the circumstances but which triumphs OVER the circumstances.
Freedom – the glorious liberty of the children of God – if the son shall set you free you will be free indeed.

Life in all its fullness! But some Christians are disappointed with the quality of their Christian experience. They have eternal life but they don’t seem to enjoy the love and joy and peace and victory and freedom as much as they hoped they would.

Jesus explains to his disciples and to us what salvation and eternal life and life in all its fullness are really about in John 17:3 as part of His High Priestly prayer.
John 17: 3 Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

That is what eternal life really is all about – knowing God and knowing Christ. Salvation is all about having a personal relationship with God.

That is the whole reason why God has made a way to forgive our sins. There’s no real point in being forgiven in and of itself. The whole point of forgiveness is that God has dealt with the sin which separated human beings from the Holy God. The purpose of forgiveness is so that we can have a relationship with God, that relationship with God for which we were designed and created. Sin has spoiled mankind’s relationship with God. But now the barrier of sin is removed – we can come to know God as He knows us. A personal relationship with God.

Some Christians misunderstand this point. They think that eternal life is some mysterious spiritual something, some quality of life which God gives to Christians when they are born again which stays with them forever. Eternal life isn’t like that at all!! Some Christians think that after we are born again, love and joy and peace and victory and freedom are experiences which will come to us in some way apart from God, separate from God Himself. But that is NOT the way it works. Love and joy and peace and victory and freedom DO come to Christians, but they come THROUGH our relationship with God and not apart from Him. Knowing God brings us love. Knowing God brings us joy. Knowing God brings us peace. Knowing God brings us victory. Knowing God brings us freedom. But all these blessings only arise from and through our relationship with God.

I am going to say that again so everybody will understand. Our relationship with God is a NOT a means by which we can enjoy blessings like love and joy and peace and victory and freedom. Knowing God is not a means to anything – knowing God is the most worthy and desirable end in itself. All the wonderful blessings of salvation are incidental to the true blessing which is the blessing of knowing God. Eternal life IS that relationship with God – and there are NO blessings which come outside of that relationship with God!

We believe in the God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, three persons in one substance, God the three in one. God Himself, within Himself, is relationship and community. In our salvation God invites us to enter into that community within God himself. At the same time we become part of that eternal community, God’s forever family, the body of Christ, the church. This is the key to understanding what salvation and eternal life are all about. Eternal life is experiencing a relationship with the Almighty and Eternal God. Like the relationship between the Good shepherd and His sheep.

John 10:3… the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.
27 My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. 28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.

More than that, Jesus promises His disciples that we will have the same kind of intimate relationship with God the Father as He Himself enjoys.
John 14:16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever— 17 the Spirit of truth. … you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. ….20 On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. …. 23My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

That close personal relationship with God is what Jesus prays for us in John 17: , Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us … . 22 … that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. 26 in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

This is what eternal life is – that relationship with God, God living in us, Father Son and Holy Spirit making their home in us. We experience our relationship with God in a variety of ways. The most important are also the most obvious – prayer, Bible Study, worship, fellowship with our brothers and sisters, and of course communion through bread and wine. These are not just ways which God might choose to bless us. They are the ways in which we talk to God and He talks to us. They are the ways by which we receive the joy and peace which come from loving God and knowing He loves us. They are the ways in which we experience that victory and that freedom which come from our relationship with God. So we should pray and read the Bible and worship because these are the ways we experience that relationship with God which is what eternal life is really about.

So how can we experience this fullness of life which Jesus promises us? Some Christians expect that all they have to do is just sit around, and then love and joy and peace and victory and freedom will flood into their lives. They have missed the point. They will only enjoy those blessings as they enjoy their relationship with God. For example, think about prayer.

God promises in Philippians 4:7, “the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
But how do we come to experience that wonderful peace?
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear
What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer
Oh what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear
All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

God’s peace comes from our relationship with God which lets us commit every part of our lives to Him in prayer. Paul continues,
11 … I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. …. 13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength. ….

God gives us wonderful contentment and divine strength– but these do not come “in abstract”. They come as we enjoy communion with God and draw on His strength!

Isaiah 26:3 says, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is fixed on you, because he trusts in you.”
Again, our peace comes from the act of fixing our minds on God, relying on him and consciously putting our trust in him. Joy is the same. It comes from our relationship with God!

Psalms 16:11 11 You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
Joy in your presence! I don’t understand how some Christians can say they are eager to get to heaven to spend eternity in God’s presence, when they don’t enjoy spending time with God now. The chief end of man, the destiny of human beings, the purpose for which we were created, is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. Our job on earth is to learn to enjoy God – that is what life in all its fulness is all about!

Psalm37:3 Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.
4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
We receive everything we most desire and everything we most need, when we delight ourselves IN THE LORD.

We delight in God and we get to know God through prayer. Prayer isn’t just a useful tool to help us in our Christian service. Richard Foster wrote, “Prayer is nothing more than our ongoing and growing love relationship with God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.” Prayer is the heart of our relationship with God.

Then we also spend time with God by reading and studying our Bibles. The Bible is God’s love letter to the church. It tells us how much God loves us! We should want to spend time listening to what God has to say to us. And we spend time with God in Worship – giving time to praise and thanksgiving and adoration. Worship is God’s children rejoicing in God’s presence. Alone or with others, if we want to enjoy our salvation we need to devote time to meeting with God.

Probably my favourite author, A.W.Tozer has written this.
“The Christian is strong or weak depending upon how closely he has cultivated the knowledge of God. Paul devoted his whole life to the art of knowing Christ. He wrote, “All I want is to know Christ.” …. Progress in the Christian life is exactly equal to the growing knowledge we gain of … God in personal experience. And such experience requires a whole life devoted to it and plenty of time spent at the holy task of cultivating God. God can be known satisfactorily only as we devote time to Him. ,,,
A thousand distractions would woo us away from thoughts of God, but if we are wise we will sternly put them from us and make room for the King and take time to entertain Him. Some things may be neglected with but little loss to the spiritual life, but to neglect communion with God is to hurt ourselves where we cannot afford it.
God will respond to our efforts to know Him. The Bible tells us how; it is altogether a matter of how much determination we bring to the holy task. (A.W.Tozer in The Root of the Righteous)

“Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for God, for they will be satisfied!” God really wants us to know Him better, to love Him more and more, and to “enjoy Him forever”! That is what eternal life is all about – this personal relationship with “Abba, Father”.

Imagine if you will the tragedy of a MARRIAGE which has gone wrong. The husband and the wife never speak to each other and never spend time together. He does all the cooking and prepares all the meals but they never eat together. Although she always does the washing up she never says thank you. He leaves dirty clothes around which she washes and irons but never sees him wearing them. He never sees her to say thank you. That is not what marriage should be. The chores are there but the relationship is not.
But there is a parable of what the Christian life is like for some people.

The story is told of a husband and wife who never spoke to each other anymore. They only communicated by sending one another notes. The wife always got up early and the husband rather later but one day he had a very important early meeting. So the night before he wrote his wife a note explaining the situation and asking her to be sure to wake him up the next morning at seven o’clock.
When he woke up the following morning it was already nine o’clock and he had missed his meeting. The husband was so upset he actually spoke aloud to his wife. “Why on earth didn’t you wake me up?” he asked.
The wife just pointed to a note she had left on the husband’s pillow. In loud capital letters the note read, “WAKE UP – IT’S SEVEN O’CLOCK!”

That is a sad parable of the way some Christians miss out on life in all its fullness. The
blessings of eternal life are all wrapped up in a personal relationship with the living God. A.W.Tozer said “We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.” To glorify God and enjoy Him forever. But we won’t enjoy eternal life, we won’t ever enjoy life in all its fulness, if we can’t be bothered to pray or read our Bibles or worship or meet with other Christians! Because your relationship with God IS life in all its fulness! Eternal life IS your relationship with God!

John 14 15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

I must have read these words from John 14 a hundred times. I have studied the passage dozens of times from looking at John’s Gospel as the A level set text to specialising in the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit as a postgraduate theology student. And I couldn’t count how often I have preached on the Holy Spirit. Listen to the amazing promise Jesus makes to all His disciples.

“I will ask the Father and He will give you another Helper, who will stay with you forever. John 14:16.

The Helper, the Paraclete, the Counsellor, the Comforter, the Advocate – one who comes alongside to help and comfort and strengthen.

“Another counsellor.” “Another helper.” I have pointed out before that the Greek has two different words for “another.” One means “another of the same kind” and the other means, “another of a different kind”. And here the promise is clear: “another of the same kind.” Jesus is the first helper. The Holy Spirit is another Helper, not different to Jesus but another of the same kind as Jesus, another Helper like Jesus, continuing the work of Jesus in our lives. But whereas Jesus was alongside us, Emmanuel, God with us, the Holy Spirit is the Helper living INSIDE us. God IN us!

v 17 , for he lives with you and will be in you
v 20 I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you
v. 23 and we will come to him and make our home with him.

God the Holy Spirit is INSIDE us! We are even closer to God than Adam and Eve were when God walked beside them in the Garden of Eden. In Christ we have gained even more than Adam ever lost by sinning. We are even closer to God than the disciples were when they followed Jesus and listened to Him and ate with Him in Galilee. Because God the Holy Spirit is INSIDE us to be our Helper! There are many occasions when we would wish that Jesus was right there with us, by our side. And the good news is that God is there, not just with us but even better WITHIN us, by the Holy Spirit.

In all the times I have read and studied and preached on John 14:16 I had never noticed before the context of the previous verse. In John 14:15. Jesus says this.

John 14 15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth.

John 14 15 “If you love me, you will obey what I command.

The context is loving and obeying Jesus. If we love Him we will want to obey Him. And THIS is why the Holy Spirit is given to be our Helper, our Comforter, our Counsellor. To help us to love Jesus and to obey Jesus’s commands. There are many ways in which the Holy Spirit comes to be our Helper listed in John chapters 14 to 16, and many other activities of the Holy Spirit we read about elsewhere in the New Testament. But the primary reason Jesus tells us in this passage that God gives us the Holy Spirit is not to bring us blessings but to equip us for obedience.

John 14 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me.

The Holy Spirit helps us to love Jesus and to obey Jesus. And the Spirit our Helper does these things in a number of ways.

Helping us to know Jesus better

John 16:12-15 12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. 13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. 14 He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.

It is the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus to us and helps us to know Jesus.

Rom 8:15-16 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “ Abba , Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.

That new relationship with God is at the heart of what it means to have eternal life, life in all its fullness. The Holy Spirit helps us in our relationship with God. He helps us to know Jesus better in at least two ways:

The Spirit helps us in understanding the Bible
2 Peter 1:20-21 21 For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
we need the Spirit who inspired the Scriptures to help us understand the scriptures

and the Spirit helps us in prayer
Romans 8:26-27. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Ephesians 6 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

Knowing Jesus better –The Holy Spirit helps us to understand the Bible and helps us to pray.

PAUSE TO REFLECT – how would you like the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in THIS area of your life?

Helping us to become more like Jesus

I read an interesting quote from Billy Graham this morning. “Being a Christian is more than an instantaneous conversion – it is a daily process whereby you grow to be more and more like Christ.”

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to change us into the image of Christ!

“All of us, then, reflect the glory of the Lord with uncovered faces; and that same glory, coming from the Lord, who is the Spirit, transforms us into his likeness in an ever greater degree of glory.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

The Spirit “metamorphoses” us into the image of Christ. He is the HOLY Spirit and His work is to make us holy too. That process is called “purification” or “sanctification” depending on which book you read. Oswald Chambers “Sanctification is not something our Lord does in me; sanctification is himself in me.”

It is the work of the Holy Spirit to help us to turn away from sin and evil. And then the Holy Spirit also helps us to do what is right, bringing the fruit of the Spirit
Galatians 5: 22-23. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.

Helping us become more like Jesus – the Holy Spirit helps us to stop sinning and to develop the character of Christ.

PAUSE TO REFLECT – how would you like the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in THIS area of your life?

Helping us to serve Jesus

The Spirit equips us to serve Jesus.

1 Cor 12:7 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8 To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10 to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

EVERY CHRISTIAN is equipped by the Holy Spirit to serve God in one way or another. Whether by teaching or serving, by gifts of prophecy or even miracles, GOD IS INSIDE US to help us do His will and bring glory to Jesus.

Helping us to serve Jesus in the church and in the world.

PAUSE TO REFLECT – how would you like the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in THIS area of your life?

Helping us to tell others about Jesus

“When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, you will be filled with power, and you will be witnesses for me in Jerusalem, in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8)

The Holy Spirit give us power to be witnesses for Jesus, especially in times of trial and persecution.

Jesus said in Mark 13:10-11 10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations. 11 Whenever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say. Just say whatever is given you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit

Helping us to be witnesses and tell others about Jesus.

PAUSE TO REFLECT – how would you like the Holy Spirit to be your Helper in THIS area of your life?

The Spirit is our helper!

D.L. Moody said, “You might as well try to hear without ears, or breathe without lungs, as try to live a Christian life without the Spirit of God in your heart.”

Helping every Christian – and especially needed by Christian leaders.

Tozer writes, “I have reason to suspect that many people are trying to give leadership in Christian circles today without ever having yielded to the wise and effective leading of the Holy Spirit. He truly is the Spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel and power. Knowledge and the reverence of the Lord. We are too heavily leaning on human talents and educated abilities. We forget the illumination of the Holy Spirit of God is a necessity, not only in our ministerial preparation, but in the administrative and leadership functions of our churches.”

Spirit of the Living God, fall afresh on me! Break me, melt me, mould me, fill me!
Spirit of the Living God – fall afresh on me!

“You sum up the whole of New Testament religion if you describe it as the knowledge of God as one’s holy Father. If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all.
For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctively Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. ‘Father’ is the Christian name for God. Our understanding of Christianity cannot be better than our grasp of adoption.”
–J.I. Packer, Knowing God (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1973/1993), 201-202

In Bible there are NO good examples of human fathers. They all messed up one way or the other at some point. Against this backdrop of the failure of fathers stands the image of God the Father, who exemplifies all those characteristics that the flesh-and-blood fathers lack: patience, kindness, firmness, attention.

When we think of God as Father, our understanding is inevitably affected by the fathers we have known and especially our own parents. Some people have problems trusting God as their Father because they only experienced rejection or even abuse from their human father. Human fathers who were inconsiderate or demanding, never satisfied or always angry, undependable or always critical can leave us with unhelpful images of fatherhood. In contrast God is everything that a father should be, and so much more. Patient, always available, kind and giving and supportive, always accepting and protective. Because of their own experiences, some people find it easier to think about God as “the perfect parent”, everything that a parent ought to be.
Jesus the Son of God came and lived and died and rose again so that we might become God’s children too.
Read John 20:17; 17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ”

“How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!” (1 John 3:1 NIV).

The door into this wonderful relationship with God is his everlasting love and amazing forgiveness.
Psalm 103:8-14. 8 The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever;
10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities.
11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
12 as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
13 As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;
14 for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field;
16 the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
17 But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,
and his righteousness with their children’s children—
18 with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

God welcomes us into His forever family whether we have been good children or bad children.
Luke 15:11-24; 11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.
“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.
21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.

Sometimes the problem for Christians is that we can forget that we are God’s children

Luke 15 25 “Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. 26 So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. 27 ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’
31 “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

God the Father provides for all our physical needs
Matthew 6:25-34; 25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

God the Father also provides for all our spiritual needs
Ephesians 1:3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

Ephesians 1 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. 18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
In the Gospels we find God referred to as Father with different frequency. 4 instances in Mark, 44 in Matthew, 15 in Luke, and 109 in John. An even more remarkable variation appears if one considers only the occurrences of the absolute form, “the Father”: once in Mark, twice in Matthew, three times in Luke, seventy-three times in John. It is almost always only Jesus who calls God Father or the Father or my Father. In John only Jesus is “the Son”

Jesus’s relationship with Father was unique but it reveals what God as Father is like and gives a pattern for our relationship should be. In all Paul’s letters the opening greeting describes God as Father. Father of Jesus Christ, glorious Father, Father of mercies. In Paul’s writings God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and by adoption God is the Father of all Christians. But this relationship only comes through God’s redemptive activity.

Jesus called God “Abba” and the Holy Spirit gives us the privilege of calling God “Abba”.

Jesus Himself used the Aramaic title “Abba” for His Father, in Mark 14:36.
6 “Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

We see there both intimacy but also respect and obedience. Even though Abba is the name which by even the youngest children call their fathers in the middle east even today, it is mistake to say that Abba is the equivalent of Daddy. In the OT and then the NT, as in all ancient cultures, fathers held authority over their children in ways not found today, even when the children become adults. Bible fathers look after their children’s needs, especially spiritual needs. And it is fathers’ responsibility to teach their children. So as well as intimacy, the title Abba implies a respect which Daddy does not. It really means “Dear Father.”

And it is the work of the Holy Spirit to enable believers to call God “Abba”

Romans 8:15-18; 15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” 16 The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. 17 Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

Galatians 4 4 But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, 5 to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. 6 Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

Knowing God as Father affects our praying.
Luke 11:; 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say: “ ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.

Luke 11 9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

There is a name for Jesus which is used 82 times in the Gospels. It is the name Jesus used most often for Himself. That name is “The Son of Man.” Instead of saying “I”, Jesus would often refer to Himself in the third person as “The Son of Man.” But what does that mean? And what does it mean for us that Jesus is “The Son of Man.”
First, we need to be clear about one thing. “The Son of Man” was not a title in use in first century Palestine so that everybody would know what Jesus meant when He used it of Himself. Although there are echoes from the Old Testament which we will see in a few minutes, “The Son of Man” was NOT a specific person found in the Old Testament. If it meant anything in the world Jesus lived in, “Son of Man” just meant a human being, or perhaps, “a man like me.” So we need to understand that when Jesus called Himself “The Son of Man” that title didn’t have a whole bundle of ideas already associated with it. The phrase means what Jesus used it to mean.
Jesus did not announce Himself as the Messiah. In the synoptic Gospels Matthew, Mark and Luke Jesus generally did not call Himself the Son of God, or even the Son, but rather “The Son of Man”. In John’s Gospel Jesus usually referred to Himself as the Son, but even there He also called Himself the Son of Man sometimes. There are four threads we can pick out of the ways Jesus spoke of Himself as the Son of Man. But as we do so, just a reminder that this series is about Knowing God Better. So our principal purpose is to learn things which help us develop our relationships with God, particularly in our prayer and our worship and everyday Christian living. How does the fact that Jesus is The Son of Man affect the way we think and feel about our Saviour, and how we speak to Him and how we trust and depend upon Him in our daily lives?

As the Son of Man Jesus shared all our human experiences
We don’t generally find the phrase “The Son of Man” very often in the Old Testament. When we do it usually means “a human being” and stresses the mortality of human beings and the “smallness” of humanity in comparison to the Almighty and Eternal God..
Psalm 144 3 O LORD, what is man that you care for him, the son of man that you think of him?
4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a fleeting shadow.
Psalm 8 3When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
4what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?

In calling Himself The Son of Man Jesus was emphasising His complete humanity and His solidarity with all human beings, and especially with the poor and the oppressed and the marginalised.
Matt 8 20 Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”
Matt 11 19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ’
Matt 20 26 whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave— 28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Zacchaeus Luke 19 9 Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”
PAUSE TO REFLECT
The Son of Man shared all our human experiences and there is one aspect of the human condition which The Son of Man particularly identified Himself with.
As the Son of Man Jesus suffered as a human being
Matt 17 22 When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. 23 They will kill him, and on the third day he will be raised to life.” And the disciples were filled with grief.

Matt 26 24 The Son of Man will go just as it is written about him. But woe to that man who betrays the Son of Man!”
John 3 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. 14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.
So the Son of Man was completely human.
PAUSE TO REFLECT
The Son of Man suffered as a human being, completely human. Yet at the same time as He took that title for Himself, Jesus said and did things which proved He was much more than just a human being.
As the Son of Man Jesus has unique authority
Matt 9 4 Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? 5 Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? 6 But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins….” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” 7 And the man got up and went home. 8 When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.
Matt 128 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
Matt 12 39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
So although He called Himself The Son of Man, Jesus’s disciples came to realise Who He really was!
Matt 16 13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”
14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

PAUSE TO REFLECT
The Son of Man has unique authority. But there’s more! At the same time as confirming His humanity, Jesus was revealing bit by bit that there is much more to The Son of Man than that.
As the Son of Man Jesus has a glorious destiny!
Matt 13 36 Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”
37 He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.
40 “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

Matt 16 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? 27 For the Son of Man is going to come in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward each person according to what he has done.

Matt 19 28 Jesus said to them, “I tell you the truth, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man sits on his glorious throne, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29 And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. 30 But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
I said earlier that in the Old Testament the phrase Son of Man usually just meant “human beings.” One exception to that is the Book of Ezekiel whether God addresses his prophet time and again as “son of man.” But the one really interesting use of “Son of Man” comes in a vision of God we read about in Daniel chapter 7.

Daniel 7 9 “As I looked, “thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow; the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire, and its wheels were all ablaze.
10A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him; ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. ….
13 “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. 14 He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

So here we see God give authority over all things and an everlasting dominion and an indestructible kingdom, to “one like a son of man”. Jesus is clearly referring to Daniel 7 when He is teaching in Jerusalem about the last days.
Luke 21 25 “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. 26 Men will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, for the heavenly bodies will be shaken. 27 At that time they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.
Finally at the end of His life, on trial before the High Priest, Jesus reveals that The Son of Man is indeed that “One like a Son of Man” foretold by Daniel.
Matt 26 63 The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
64 “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
This is the glorious destiny of “One like a Son of Man.” And Jesus claims that be be His own destiny as He defends Himself before the High Priest. When Jesus admits that He is that “Son of Man” , He is admitting that, yes, He is indeed the Christ, the Son of God! And with hindsight and the eye of faith we might see that amazing claim every time Jesus refers to Himself as “The Son of Man.” Completely human, yet at the same time the Christ, the Son of God, whose destiny is to sit at the right hand of God and one day to come again in glory on the clouds of heaven.
So here is Jesus, “The Son of Man.” As the Son of Man Jesus shared all our human experiences. As the Son of Man Jesus suffered as a human being. As the Son of Man Jesus has unique authority. As the Son of Man Jesus has a glorious destiny!
Wisdom unsearchable, God the invisible, Love indestructible In frailty appears.
Lord of infinity, Stooping so tenderly, Lifts our humanity To the heights of His throne.
O what a mystery, Meekness and majesty.
Bow down and worship For this is your God, This is your God.

PAUSE TO REFLECT

In his classic book The Sovereignty of God, A.W.Pink explains the Sovereignty of God like this.
“What do we mean by [the sovereignty of God]? We mean the supremacy of God, the kingship of God, the god-hood of God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that God is God. To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Most High, doing according to His will in the army of Heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, so that none can stay His hand or say unto Him what doest Thou?.
Daniel 4 34 At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven, and my sanity was restored. Then I praised the Most High; I honored and glorified him who lives forever.
His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation.
35 All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth.No one can hold back his hand or say to him: “What have you done?”
Pink goes on, “To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the Almighty, the Possessor of all power in Heaven and earth, so that none can defeat His counsels, thwart His purpose, or resist His will.
Psalm 115 3 Our God is in heaven; he does whatever pleases him.
To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is “The Governor among the nations”, setting up kingdoms, overthrowing empires, and determining the course of dynasties as pleaseth Him best.
Psalm 22 27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,
28 for dominion belongs to the LORD and he rules over the nations.
To say that God is Sovereign is to declare that He is the “Only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords” (1 Tim. 6:15). Such is the God of the Bible.”
1 Timothy 6 15 God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
God is ruler of all things – God is Sovereign. But I fear that too often Christians today have lost sight of the Sovereignty of God. We have lost confidence in the fact that God is on the throne, God is ruler of all things, God is in control, God is the boss! There may be different reasons for this. I talked about this last year in the first of our sermons from the Book of Ezra, so let me remind you of the important issues.

1 The problem of innocent suffering.
Suffering like the natural disaster in Haiti. Suffering at the hands of evil men like that of children in Auschwitz and Belsen – the horrors of the Holocaust. How can we believe God is in control, people will ask, when such terrible things happen and there is such awful suffering in the world?
Classically the problem of suffering is expressed like this. If God is all-loving he would not allow suffering. If God is all-powerful he would not allow suffering. But suffering happens – so either God is not all loving or he is not all powerful.
As Christians we major on the God of love. We will defend at all costs the truth that God is love and that everything He does is an act of love. But the result is that especially since the wars of the last century many Christians have a much more vague concept of the Sovereignty of God. To preserve our understanding of the love of God when we see innocent suffering we water down our ideas about God as ruler of all things. Perhaps God isn’t in control quite as much as we thought.
Of course the problem is actually in the formulation of the logical proposal. Its first assumption is that if God was perfectly loving he would stop suffering – and that assumption is wrong. In fact God IS all loving BUT he allows some human suffering for purposes which for much of the time we just can’t understand. The presence of suffering in the world is NOT proof that God is not all powerful. Suffering does NOT negate the Sovereignty of God. In fact, If God was not sovereign in all of His ways this world would be in much worse shape than it is now. If God’s protection and restraining hand was not “sovereignly operating” on this earth – we would all be living in a hell on earth.
But God is Sovereign – ultimately nothing happens on earth unless He has allowed it!
Lamentations 3:37-38, NAS
37 Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass, Unless the LORD has commanded it?
38 Is it not from the mouth of the Most High That both good and ill go forth?
And even as people are suffering, the Sovereign God is at work bringing good out of evil. Romans 8:28 assures us,
… we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.

2. The question of predestination
The Sovereignty of God is unpopular with some Christians because of the answer it gives to a vital question. Who chooses who is saved and who is lost? Is it the Christian who chooses God? Or is it God who chooses us? Are we predestined to be saved – or do we get to decide for ourselves?
The problem is that some people are so keen to defend the idea of human free will that they diminish the Sovereignty of God. Who chose who? Time and time again the Bible makes clear that God is Sovereign. His grace leads some to believe. In other cases the Bible is specific that God hardens some people’s hearts so that they will not believe and be saved. I don’t want to start any arguments about Pre-destination and free will. Nobody has properly unravelled that dilemma. But I do want to say that so many times the Bible teaches us that God is God – creator and ruler of all things – God is Sovereign!
God is Sovereign even though there is suffering in the world. God is Sovereign even though that gets our heads into a spin about who chooses who is saved – whether we chose God or he chose us. And God is Sovereign whether people choose to submit to that sovereignty or not! God is sovereign. Jesus is not just Lord because we invite him or allow Him to be Lord. Jesus is not Lord only of the people who recognise and submit to His Lordship. Jesus is Lord! Exclamation Mark! God is Sovereign. Exclamation Mark. God is Ruler of all things. God is in control. God is the boss!
God is in control of the big things and God is in control of the little things as well. God rules over men and nations, and God rules over the smallest details of all of our lives. The reality is that it is not the abstract philosophical problem of innocent suffering which causes most Christians to question the Sovereignty of God, but rather suffering in our own lives or in the lives of people we love. It is the illnesses and the accidents and the bereavements which more often cause us to doubt whether God is really in control of our lives. And in truth not many Christians are really distressed by the theological question of predestination or free will. It is events and experiences in our own lives which cause us to wonder whether God really intended that terrible thing to happen to me, or to that person I love. It is when people hurt us or disappoint us that we start to care about whether God is Sovereign or not.
And that is the point where we need to remember that God never promises that our lives will be comfortable or easy. What He does promise is that, however hard life gets, and however much it may appear otherwise, God will never fail us or forsake us. The Sovereign God is completely enough to keep His many promises and God is faithful and He will do so!!!
The Bible declares God’s Sovereignty in so many places!
Proverbs 21: 30 There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the LORD.
31 The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but victory rests with the LORD.
It is God who is in control! Time and again Isaiah reminded the Israelites in Exile in Babylon of the Sovereignty of God.
Isaiah 14:26 This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations.
27 For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?
So let us be comforted as we listen to two glorious passages which reassure us that God is on the Throne, God is in control. First from the Old Testament.

Isaiah 40:10 See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him.
11 He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young.
12 Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?
Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?
13 Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor?
14 Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way?
Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?
15 Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales;
he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust.
21 Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood since the earth was founded?
22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.
He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.
23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.
24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.
25 “To whom will you compare me?Or who is my equal?” says the Holy One.
26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these?
He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.
Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.
27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel,
“My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God”?
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

And now from the New Testament. Remember how the Early Church reacted when the apostles were arrested for healing the lame man and preaching the gospel. They put their trust in the Sovereign God, Ruler of All

Acts 4 23 On their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. 24 When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. 25 You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David:
“ ‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain?
26 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together
against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’
27 Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. 28 They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen. 29 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. 30 Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
31 After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

1 Timothy 6 15 God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen !!!!

“This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.” (I John 1:5

The village of Theydon Bois is very unusual. You only notice that outstanding feature when you visit Theydon Bois at night, as I did when I was the Moderator of the church there a few years ago. For the evening Deacons’ Meetings and Church Meetings some of the people arrived by car even though they only live 200 yards along the very flat road. Others arrived carrying enormous torches. Theydon Bois is inside the M25 and has its own tube station. But the village stands out because even though it has 4000 people it has no street lights at all. When night falls, it gets dark. Very dark. Surprisingly dark. Darker than most of us who live in towns are used to.

Of course we only notice the dark in places like Theydon Bois because we are so used to having light. We live in a 24 hour a day society. You can buy almost anything you might fancy at Tescos at 3 am six days of the week. And in the darkest month of the year you can go clothes shopping in Lakeside until 11 pm – 7 hours after it will have gone dark and cold outside. We are surrounded by light – 24 hours a day if we want to be!

Life was not always like that. Until gas lighting became popular in Victorian England most people preferred to be safe inside their houses once night fell outside. The same would be true outside the cities and away from electricity supplies in most of Africa or India or South America even today. People may have oil lamps or candles indoors but outside at night it is dark, very dark. We can surround ourselves with as much electric light as we want. But our ancestors could not. Billions of people around the world still cannot. No wonder most people have an instinctive and completely rational fear of the dark. The dark contains unseen dangers, obstacles, wild animals and evil men which we can only imagine. So darkness came to represent all that is unknown, all that is sinister, all that is evil in the world.

That is the context in which the Bible was written. That is the context in which the Bible says “God is Light.”

“God is Light” is a metaphor, a symbolic representation of a deep truth. Metaphors touch not only our minds but also our hearts. So there are parts of God’s Word which engage our emotions and our imaginations as much as, if not more than, our minds. The statement that “God is light” is one such truth.

1 John 15 This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.

God is light. God is not darkness. So what does this reveal to us about the God we worship?

The whole universe started out in darkness. God spoke and there was light.
1 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day”, and the darkness he called “night”. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.

God speaks and light brings life. Right from the very beginning there was a distinction between day and night, light and darkness. Day was safe – night was dangerous.

In the Bible light is a picture of many things. It is a picture of joy and blessing and life. In contrast darkness is a picture of sorrow, adversity and even death. Light signifies God’s presence and His blessing and so light also represents salvation. Outside God’s presence is only darkness.

Dark is full of unseen hazards and dangers. Light guides us and keeps us safe.

Remember how God manifested Himself to the Israelites all through the Exodus and the wilderness.

Exodus 13 21 By day the LORD went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, so that they could travel by day or night. 22 Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people.

God as light brings blessings to His people.

Numbers 6 22 The LORD said to Moses, 23 “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them:
24 “ ‘ “The LORD bless you
and keep you;
25 the LORD make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
26 the LORD turn his face toward you
and give you peace.” ’

Psa 27 1 The LORD is my light and my salvation—
whom shall I fear?
The LORD is the stronghold of my life—
of whom shall I be afraid?

Light is also a symbol of God’s holiness. And God’s glory. And God’s truth.

1 Timothy 6 God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.

Beyond that light and dark also come to represent good and evil. God has saved us out of darkness and brought us into His wonderful light. So the Bible calls Christians the “Children of Light” and “the Light of the World”!

John 3: 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”

Colossians 1 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

And Jesus describes Himself as the Light of the World.

John 8:12 When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

Jesus said, John 12:46 I have come into the world as a light, so that no-one who believes in me should stay in darkness.

Into this dark world God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to be the light of the world. To bring light to our darkness. To rescue us from the gloom and sadness and bring us joy and happiness. To set us free from our fears and give us peace and hope. To deliver us from ignorance and bring us knowledge and wisdom. To drive out sinister creeping evil and bring us goodness.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. 9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

Light brings life. Without light there is no life. Apart from God who is the source of all life there is only darkness.

A wise man* once said, “There is no greater darkness than a soul that has lost its way.” That wise man was actually G’Kar, one of the aliens in the science fiction series Babylon 5. But the saying is no less true for that. “There is no greater darkness than a soul that has lost its way.” And it’s true. If you turn your back to the light, all you can see is your own shadow. For the last 2000 years Christians and Churches, and the Jews for a thousand years before that, have been lighting candles to proclaim and celebrate the truth that God is Light and in Him there is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:1-3 John talks of “what WE have seen and heard.” He is surely remembering his own experience of how Jesus’s glory was revealed to Peter, James and John, in the Transfiguration. I find it fascinating that Matthew, Mark and Luke use different words and similes to describe the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ – the testimony of three different eyewitnesses to the Transfiguration.

Matt 17 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

Mark 9 3 His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.

Luke 9 29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.

And John describes encountering the Risen Christ in a similar way.

Revelation 1 12 I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was someone “like a son of man,” dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. 14 His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. 15 His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. 16 In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

One day we will all see God’s glory in this way!

Isa 60:1 “Arise, shine, for your light has come,
and the glory of the LORD rises upon you.
2 See, darkness covers the earth
and thick darkness is over the peoples,
but the LORD rises upon you
and his glory appears over you.
3 Nations will come to your light,
and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
….. 19 The sun will no more be your light by day,
nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you,
for the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your God will be your glory.
20 Your sun will never set again,
and your moon will wane no more;
the LORD will be your everlasting light,
and your days of sorrow will end.

Rev 22:1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

What images do the words ‘faithful’ and ‘faithfulness’ bring to our minds? We might think of an ancient butler, ‘the faithful retainer’, the good and faithful servant. Or we might think of ‘a faithful friend’ who sticks with us through thick and thin. As examples of faithfulness other people might think first about a pet dog, or a ‘faithful wife/husband’. Sermons on faithfulness usually focus on a call for us to be faithful to God. Tonight I want us to think not about us being faithful, but about God being faithful. I want us to reflect on the faithfulness of God.

What do the words ‘faithful’ and ‘faithfulness’ actually mean? If somebody is faithful, it means we can trust them. We can rely on them. They will keep their promises to us. And God is truly faithful, more trustworthy, more reliable than any human being we may know. God will keep His promises to us.

God’s faithfulness is an expression of His eternal nature and His unchanging character. God revealed Himself as the faithful God to Moses on Mount Sinai.

Exodus 34: 5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed his name, the LORD. 6 And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

Deuteronomy 7 6 For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
7 The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9 Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands. 10 But
those who hate him he will repay to their face by destruction;
he will not be slow to repay to their face those who hate him.
11 Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

Psalm 145 13 Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.
The LORD is faithful to all his promises
and loving toward all he has made.
14 The LORD upholds all those who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.

So the people of God respond to His faithfulness in prayer and worship.
Psalm 71:22 I will praise you with the harp
for your faithfulness, O my God;
I will sing praise to you with the lyre,
O Holy One of Israel.

Psalm 89:5-8 5 The heavens praise your wonders, O LORD,
your faithfulness too, in the assembly of the holy ones.
6 For who in the skies above can compare with the LORD?
Who is like the LORD among the heavenly beings?
7 In the council of the holy ones God is greatly feared;
he is more awesome than all who surround him.
8 O LORD God Almighty, who is like you?
You are mighty, O LORD, and your faithfulness surrounds you.

Psalm 98: 1 Sing to the LORD a new song,
for he has done marvelous things;
his right hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2 The LORD has made his salvation known
and revealed his righteousness to the nations.
3 He has remembered his love
and his faithfulness to the house of Israel;
all the ends of the earth have seen
the salvation of our God.
Psa 100: 4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
5 For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.
Psa 117 1 Praise the LORD, all you nations;
extol him, all you peoples.
2 For great is his love toward us,
and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.
Praise the LORD
God is always faithful. So we need never fear that God will let us down. God’s love will never run out!

We experience God’s faithfulness in a variety of ways.
1 Cor 1 7 Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. 8 He will keep you strong to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful.

1 Corinthians 10 13 No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it

1 Thessalonians 33 But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one.

Psalm 143 1 O LORD, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.

Psa 146 5 Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the LORD his God,
6 the Maker of heaven and earth,
the sea, and everything in them—
the LORD, who remains faithful forever.
7 He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The LORD sets prisoners free,
8 the LORD gives sight to the blind,
the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down,
the LORD loves the righteous.
9 The LORD watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked.
10 The LORD reigns forever,
your God, O Zion, for all generations.

We experience God’s faithfulness from day to day!

Great Is Thy Faithfulness O God my Father!
There is no shadow of turning with thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions,
they fail not: As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon, and stars in their
course above, Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great
faithfulness, mercy, and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer
and to guide, Strength for today and bright hope foe tomorrow- Blessings all
mine, with ten thousand beside!

We may not be as aware of God’s faithfulness as Christians who serve him in more difficult and challenging circumstances. Overseas missionaries depend on God’s faithfulness.
Missionary statesman Hudson Taylor had complete trust in God’s faithfulness. In his journal he wrote: “Our heavenly Father is a very experienced One. He knows very well that His children wake up with a good appetite every morning … He sustained 3 million Israelites in the wilderness for 40 years. We do not expect He will send 3 million missionaries to China; but if He did, He would have ample means to sustain them all … Depend on it, God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply.”

• “He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just. A faithful God who does not wrong, upright and just is he” (Deuteronomy 32:4).

Lamentations 3
19 I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall.
20 I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me.
21 Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:
22 Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.
23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
24 I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”
25 The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him,to the one who seeks him;

So now spend some time responding to God, the Faithful God, in reflection, praise and prayer!