TEXT: 2 Kings 14: 26, 27

INTRODUCTION: Faithfulness is adhering to whatever or whoever you owe allegiance. It is doing what you say you will do and acting according to your nature. God is faithful because His nature is unchanging. He is the unchanging changer. Because of the nature of God our hope finds a strong foundation. If God were not faithful, our salvation to eternal life could be in jeopardy. Is 25:1 and 14:27 say “O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. “For the Lord Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? Rom. 8:29-30 declares “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. God has not been slack to provide a savior as He promised, but what we have been experiencing has been the failure of man to be faithful to God. God is faithful to His word and I pray that as many as are justified will be glorified as they stand firm in the faith in Jesus name.

  1. It is independent of man’s unfaithfulness: The history of Israel teaches us a lot about ourselves and how we easily forget the blessings of God. In order to keep man in alignment with His will plan and purposes God set the laws, statutes and commandments to follow so as to enjoy His full blessings. More than once and in fact even up till now man has the tendency to be unfaithful in his observance and keeping the commandments of God fully. The wisest man who ever lived was unfaithful, not heeding God given wisdom. At the beginning of his reign, application of God’s wisdom made him and Israel dwell in peace and became a role model to all surrounding kings and those from afar 1ki. 3:14; 4:25, 34. At the end of life his heart which he did not keep (Prov.4:23) made him to go after wealth, pleasure and power foreign women all of which were tantamount to idolatry. God never gave up on His plan of His messiah coming through the seed of David (Matt. 1:1-16 some names are omitted). In our text of today we see one of the offspring of David Amaziah also unfaithful. God had given him victory over Edom but, he brought with him the idol of the Edomites that could not protect and give them victory, to Jerusalem to worship. Jeroboam II, another king of Israel did evil in the eyes of the Lord following after the worship of Baal. During his reign of 41 years Israel fell to the depths of unfaithfulness to God and selfishness that was unparalleled. God who does not depend on man considered and remained faithful because of His covenant with Abraham Isaac and Jacob (Gen. 13:16; 17: 2-7; Ex. 32:13). He saw their affliction and kept His promise of not leaving Israel without a helper. Jeroboam was unfaithful but God was faithful to His covenant by using Jeroboam as a savior of His people. We are still unfaithful today but God’s Savior who never turned away from God remained faithful to the heavenly father to atone for our sins. He leaves us with a hope that if we confess our sins and repent of them, God is faithful to forgive and cleanse us from all our unrighteousness (1Jn. 1:9, 10)

2. It is founded on His nature: God’s nature is made up of His many characters or attributes, one of which is faithfulness. Do you know why God tests us? He does so that we can trust His faithfulness. Charles Spurgeon reminds us that “we must be tried or we cannot magnify the faithful God, who will not leave His people”. As we trust God’s word, His nature of faithfulness is made practical to us. In essence, when trust God’s word you will experience His faithfulness. God is the truth and what this means is that everything He says and does is certain (Rev. 19:1). He is 100% reliable 100% of the time. He does not fail, forget, falter, change or disappoint (Lewis Sperry Chafer). God is unchangeable in nature and this is confirmed to us by experience in His faithfulness or dependability. He is not fickle and does not fluctuate Ps. 36:5 declares “Your unfailing love, O Lord is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds”

3. It is precipitated on His word: God is His word. He is bound by it. That is why Ps. 132:2 declares God has exalted His word above His name. His name bears authority but God would not use His authority to counter what He has promised. The soul that sins shall die. Men often use their authority to nullify what they had earlier pronounced. This not so with God who will not break His word. God had promised that the name of Israel would not be blotted from under the heavens and He did everything in His power to ensure it preserved even till today. When the word is not obeyed, the authority in the name of God cannot work. This is the divine set up. For example, the Jewish exorcists, sons of Sceva, a chief priest, who tried to invoke the name of Jesus over those with evil spirits were thoroughly beaten because they had not obeyed the word of God. The evil spirit that beat them up knew the scripture more than them “Jesus I know, Paul I know, but who are you. When you do not know the word you are a nobody to call on the authority in the name of Jesus. A tongue that is controlled by the devil cannot cast him out (Mk.3:23). Obeying God’s word is our proof that we trust Him and that what He says cannot fail. The word of God need to saturate our lives as Jesus advised; “If ye abide in me (word) and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you”. He is God He is never unfaithful.