FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
FAITHFULNESS
DR. JIM DIXON
REVELATION 1 :12-20, REVELATION 2:9-13
JANUARY 24, 1993
This past Wednesday, January 20, William Jefferson Clinton took the oath of office from the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, William Rehnquist. With one hand on his grandmother’s Bible, Bill Clinton swore to faithfully discharge this nation’s highest office. Subsequent generations will discuss his faithfulness, but it remains for God to truly make that judgement. Only God can evaluate anyone’s faithfulness. God wants each and every one of you who believe in His Son, each and every one of you who are Christians, to know that you have made an oath, you have made a commitment greater than the commitment Bill Clinton made this week. You made a commitment to faithfully serve Jesus Christ and His kingdom. You made that commitment when first you embraced Christ as Lord. This is not a 4-year commitment. It is not an 8-year commitment. It is a commitment for a lifetime, and it spans all the time of eternity itself. The Holy Spirit of God has come into you and His supreme purpose is to make you faithful to God’s Son.
This morning I would like us to examine three subjects really. These three subjects are all in the Bible discussed with respect to the theme of faithfulness. All three of these areas require faithfulness. The first is the subject of evangelism. As Christians we are not simply called to keep the faith. We are called to share the faith. It takes faithfulness.
On a horror-filled night, April 15, 1912, a giant iceberg ripped a 300-foot gash in the side of the Titanic. Laughter turned to screaming as 1,517 people went down into a watery grave in the cold dark waters of the northern Atlantic. A subsequent official investigation stated that it was not necessary. There had been ample warnings. The phone rang in the wheel room of the Titanic repeatedly and the officer in charge, for whatever reason, refused to answer it. When he finally did pick it up, the message came from the crow’s nest, “iceberg dead ahead,” and it was too late.
Now even after that great allegedly unsinkable ship was going down, there was ample opportunity to rescue people. According to the official investigation which followed, there was another ship called the California that was within sight of the Titanic. In fact, only 45 minutes earlier the radio operator on the Titanic had talked to the radio operator on the California. He tried to call him again but the radio operator on the California had gone to sleep. The Titanic from 1:00 AM to 2:15 AM sent flares heavenward. There were people on the California that saw those flares. They told superior officers, and those officers did nothing about it. More than 1,500 people paid with their life.
Now if you believe the Bible, then you believe that we are engaged in a great struggle for the souls of men and women. We live in a world where men and women are dying spiritually, and they are in danger of dying eternally. The Bible tells us the gospel has the power to save them. The Apostle Paul said, “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation.” As Christians, we have been given the Great Commission. “Go ye into all the world and make disciples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. Lo, I am with you always.” Those are the final words of our Lord as He left this world and ascended to the Father. His final words to us were, “You shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.” His witnesses. We are called to faithfulness in this task. We need to be faithful to take the gospel to the nations. As a church, certainly we have sought faithfulness there. We also need to be faithful to take the gospel to our community right here. Each and every one of you who believe in Christ are called to be His witnesses, to go forth and share the gospel of Jesus Christ as the Holy Spirit leads you in the marketplace, in your neighborhood, in this community.
You know, almost 150 years ago, a group of prosecutors who lived in Bannack, Montana set out in search of gold. They had horses—it was a long journey. It was a hard journey. Some of them were afflicted with disease and they died along the way. Others were injured and died. Ultimately, they fell into total despair as they were captured by Indians and the Indians took their horses. These prospectors, and there were only three of them left, decided to walk back to Bannack, Montana, on foot. A couple of days in on their return journey they came to a creek, a small creek. One of the prospectors leaned down and picked up a little rock and he broke it open. He was amazed to see gold inside. He showed the other two men, and they were excited.
That day they found $12 worth of gold in that little creek, the next day $50 worth. That was a lot of money 150 years ago. They decided they would return to Bannack; they would get supplies and they would come back, and they would be rich the rest of their lives. They decided that when they returned to Bannack, they would tell nobody. They would keep it a secret. They did return to Bannack. They got their supplies. The morning after, the three of them set forth to find that creek to get their gold. They were stunned, they were amazed, to turn around and see three hundred people following them. None of them had talked. Not one of the three had said a word, but three hundred people had noticed something different on their face. Three hundred people could see that their faces showed some level of excitement they had never had before, and they just followed what they saw on their faces.
Now it would be wonderful if evangelism worked like that. It really would. I mean, if hundreds of people just followed you to church because they could see something on your face, that you were excited… it would be wonderful if hundreds of people just followed you to Christ and to the throne of Christ because they could see you were excited about something you had discovered. But, you see, evangelism normally does not work as simply as that. Usually the Spirit of God leads us to say something. We need to say something. The Bible says, “Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. But how are they to call upon Him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how are they to hear unless someone speaks to them the gospel?” “Faith comes by hearing,” the Bible says, “and hearing by the word of God.” So we have this sacred trust. The gospel has been entrusted to you that you might take it forth and rescue the dying. We have been called to faithfulness in this task. A second subject relating to faithfulness is the subject of stewardship. Oftentimes in the Bible, faithfulness is associated with this theme of stewardship.
Now, most of you have heard of Salmon Chase. Years ago, he was the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. During the Lincoln administration, Chase was Secretary of the Treasury. It was during the Civil War. One day during the Civil War, Chase received a letter from a minister. The letter expressed the minister’s concern for this nation. The minister quoted the Bible that “a house divided could not long stand.” The minister shared his hope that somehow this nation might look to God, begin to trust its tomorrows to God. It was because of this letter that Chase made that great effort to get those words “In God We Trust” on all American currency. He was the great mover behind that. Today you can see those words on every coin, whether you are looking at a penny or a silver dollar. On every coin you see those words “In God We Trust.” On every bill you see those words whether you are looking at a $1 bill or a $10,000 bill A $10,000 bill, by the way, has Salmon Chase’s picture on it. I’ve never had one in my hand, but each bill also has those words “In God We Trust.”
Yet truthfully, from the prospective of stewardship, there should be other words on our currency. I think the words that should be on our currency are these: “In Us, God Trusts,” because, you see, that is what stewardship is all about. In us, God trusts. He has entrusted that money to us. He has entrusted that money to you. The issue is, are you going to be faithful? That is what stewardship is all about. If you read Matthew, chapter 25, in the parable of the talents, or Luke, chapter 19, in the parable of the pounds, you see how the Master and Lord entrusts His property to His servants and the Master and Lord goes away with the promise that one day He will come again. He longs to come back and say to those servants, “Well done, My good and faithful servants. You have been faithful over little. I will set you over much.” Faithfulness in stewardship.
To one servant, the Master gave one talent. Now, that is equal to 15 years wages. To another servant, the Master gave two. To another, five talents—equal to 75 years’ worth of wages and yet little to the Master. It did not matter what they had received. The only question was were they going to be faithful. It does not matter what you have. The only question is “Are you going to be faithful?” In the parables, there is no question. It is not up for grabs. Faithfulness requires that you use what has been entrusted to you to serve supremely the Master. The minimal standard of faithfulness is revealed in God’s word in the concept of the tithe. Everything belongs to the Master. All of your money belongs to the Master. All of your property, everything you have—it belongs to the Master. Your very life comes from Him. Your very soul belongs to Him. You would not have the ability to make a penny were it not for Him and it all belongs to Him.
The minimal standard is that we would give 10% of what is entrusted to us to the service of the kingdom of Christ in this world. That is the minimal standard of faithfulness. Are you faithful? The Bible says, “Will men rob God? You are robbing Me, the whole nation of you, and you say, ‘How are we robbing you?’ In your tithes and your offerings. You are cursed with a curse, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithes into My house,” says the Lord, “and see if I will not open up the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.”
I really believe a lot of Christians really do not believe that they are going to have to give an account on stewardship because, you see, so many Christians do not tithe. So many of you do not tithe. That would not be possible unless you really do not believe you are going to have to give account for this. You must not believe God means business about this. You must not believe you are going to stand before Him someday. Maybe you do not care to hear Him say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant.”
Are we faithful as a church? Last year in the calendar year 1992, this congregation gave $5.6 million to the ministry of this church. The aggregate revenue of this church last year was almost $6 million. It has been said that the people of this church maybe are not giving like they did in times past. That is not true. You are giving more than you have ever given before. You are giving more faithfully than you have ever given in the past. The problem is it is not enough. The revenue of this church in 1992 was $6 million. The problem was we needed $7 million, or we needed near $7 million. Our operating budget was $3.8 million, and we gave $3.5 million. We were $300,000 short and that is why we had to cut so many staff.
In the first 15 months of our building program, by way of our pledge commitment, we should have given $3.5 million. But in the first 15 months to the new building we have given $2.8 million. That puts us $700,000 behind. The lenders, those who would lend to us, are not excited about that. It does not seem as faithful as they would like. Our move to a new site is perhaps delayed, depending on what the lenders choose to do. The issue really is faithfulness. Some of you have approached me and you have said, “Well, are we still going to seek to make this move?” I think some of you would kind of like me to say “uncle” on this and maybe the Session to just say, “We give up and we’re going to stay here and we’re just going to work here and that’s great.”
I would say, you know, from the standpoint of humility before God, we would be happy to do that. We have searched our hearts and we have prayed anew saying, “God, what are you saying to us? Have we misheard anything because we are fallen and we are flawed?” I must tell you, the more I pray and the more we pray, we really do feel God is leading us to move. I will tell you this. If we do not move, it will not be because God did not call. It will be because we were not faithful Why did the children of Israel fail to enter the promise land under the leadership of Moses? It was not because God did not call. It was because they were not faithful.
God calls us to faithfulness. I would be unfaithful if I did not say this. I want to say many of you really have been faithful in your stewardship. I mean we have a wonderful core of people in this church and many of you have been very faithful in your giving. I think we have about a thousand people in this church who carry the church. I think we have about a thousand of you in this church who just give so faithfully. You tithe and you go beyond tithe because you love Christ, and you love His kingdom, and you want to see it go forth in power. But I also think we have thousands of you who are more or less spectators. Some of you we understand that you do not yet know the Lord. Some of you have only been attending for a short period of time. But there are other of you who know Christ and you have been attending here and receiving from the ministries here for a great deal of time and you are not being faithful.
I believe in the time to come God is calling us to seek to do a better job to disciple you that this church might be able to do what God is calling it to do. I do believe God will bless our future. I do believe this church will accomplish what God has called us to do. I think it might take some time, and you know it is kind of like a bottle. I mean we are trying to get out of this bottle that feels oppressive, and we have to pass through the bottleneck. Sometimes you have to be a little lean to get through that bottleneck. Sometimes the neck of the bottle is a little longer than you would like it to be. We are right in that neck of the bottle right now and it seems a little tight but by the grace of God and by your faithfulness, we will make it.
Well there is a third subject that I want us to take a look at this morning with regard to faithfulness. It is the subject of persecution. You see, overwhelmingly in the Bible this word faithfulness is associated with the concept of persecution, being faithful in the midst of testing and faithful in the midst of trial That’s the call of Christ upon His people in this age of the world, faithfulness in the midst of trial.
Now, a week ago Saturday night, I had really a night I will never forget. A week ago Saturday night was one of the it was an unbelievably hard night. I was home alone. My wife, Barb, was in the mountains with some of her friends on a retreat. My son, Drew, was at a Christian camp, a ski camp. He would go to any ski camp even if it were not Christian. Our daughter, Heather, was babysitting. She called me about 8:15 and said, “Dad, I’m a little concerned.” I said, “Well what’s happened?” She said “Well, I just got a phone call, and it seemed kind of weird. It was a man, and he knew the name of the mother of the kids, and he knew the names of the kids. He sounded really angry, and he asked me if I was the only one here. He sounded kind of scary. Maybe it’s nothing but I wanted to call you and give you my phone number so you could kind of call and check in periodically.” I told her I would do that, and I said, you know, “Make sure the doors are locked. If you hear anything or if you just want to talk, give me a call.”
Well, I waited a half hour, and I thought I will give her a call and see how she is doing. I called her. It was about quarter to nine, maybe about ten minutes to nine, and no answer. I called her a few minutes later and no answer. I kept calling for 15 minutes and no one answered the phone. I was concerned. I decided to call 911 and I talked to the police. They said, “Well, do you know the address?” I said, “I don’t know the address. I know the phone number.” They said that they could find the address from the phone number. “Give us the phone number. We’ll find the house and we’ll go over there and see if your daughter is there, and we’ll have her give you a call.”
I waited for the police to call me or for Heather to call me for another half hour. About 9:30 the police called. They said, “Mr. Dixon, we’re here at the house. Your daughter’s not here. The children are not here. There is no car here. There seems to be a problem. Would your daughter have taken the kids anywhere?” I said, “No way.” They were 2 years old and 4 years old and I know Heather would not have done that. They said, “Well we need to know what kind of car she has.” They suggested the possibility of abduction and that maybe someone had taken her or forced her in her car. They wanted to put a search out for the car.
Well, I was just, you know… it is hard to describe the feelings you have at that moment. I had never felt anything like that. I wanted to call Barb, but I did not think it would be too smart given the circumstances. I called my brother Greg and his wife, Barb, who just live up the street. They came down and we just kind of were concerned together. The cops ultimately came over to the house and the police were also, of course, over at this other house. Finally, my brother Greg said “You know… Where is this house? What area is it in?” I said, “Well, it’s somewhere off Ridge Road and Heather said it’s a real swanky area.” “Sundown is a real swanky area,” Greg suggested. Greg and Barb said that they would drive over and look through Sundown for her car. The police wanted me to stay at my house.
So Greg and Barb drove through Sundown, and they found Heather’s car. They went up to the house the car was in front of and amazingly Heather was inside with the two kids, and she was fine. They called me and said they were fine, and it was just unbelievable. Of course, you wonder what happened. The police wondered what happened. Well what happened was Heather had taken the phone number off of the phone in the house and given me that number, but it was not really the number of the house. They had three phones in the house and all three phones had different phone numbers and none of them were the number of that house. So when I called to get Heather, I was calling the wrong number. I was calling a number where no one was home. When the police surrounded the house, they were surrounding the wrong house. They were surrounding a house where nobody was.
So, you know, after two hours I said to the cop, “You know I am so sorry to have led you guys on a wild goose chase.” He said “Hey, don’t apologize. We love wild goose chases.” He said, “This is the way we want it to turn out. We’re thankful when it turns out this way.” You know I started thinking about the police and how grateful I am for the police and their faithfulness in service. You know, they are faithful unto death. I mean if Heather had been kidnapped and they found Heather and the kidnapper had a gun, the police would not say, “Oh he has a gun so let’s leave.” The police would have stayed there because they are faithful. They are faithful unto death.
Do you realize how wonderful that is? For us as Christians, God wants us to know we have been called to be faithful unto death. We have been called to be faithful unto death… and even a greater cause. You know our passage of scripture for today, Christ speaks to two churches, the church at Smyrna and the church at Pergamum. In one church He mentions Antipas who was His witness, a martyr who died. Jesus called him “My faithful one.” The church at Smyrna was under persecution and Jesus’s message to them was, “Be faithful unto death.” Of course this all seems kind of alien to us, to remember that in the first century Christians were persecuted unto death. They were rolled in tar. They were lit on fire that they might be human torches to amuse the Roman upper class. They had animal flesh tied about them and then they were given to wild animals while they were yet alive. They were killed in the Coliseum and in the Circus Maximus.
In Smyrna and Pergamum, where emperor worship was prominent, Christians were forced to go to the Roman temple and to offer incense to the Roman gods and deities and even the Roman Emperor and to say, “Caesar is Lord.” Many of those Christians refused. They said, “Jesus is Lord,” and some of them died. Faithful unto death.
You might be thinking, “Well I sure hope it doesn’t get that way here in America,” and it probably won’t get that way here in America where we’re actually physically killed for our faith. But understand this. We are being persecuted even now, and we have been called to be faithful. It is not going to get easier. Some of you appreciated my sermon last week and I appreciate your letters of encouragement that you have written me, but I have to say I think that message I gave last week… and I think the tape from that message is the kind of thing that someday could be used in a secular public educational situation for mockery. I think 10 or 20 years from now, people could play that tape and I think they would say, “Can you believe people ever used to think like that’?” They would consider that thinking Neanderthal and some people already think it Neanderthal and they would call it bigoted. Some people already call it bigoted.
I think it is going to get more and more that way because the Judeo-Christian values are eroding, and the Bible tells us in the prophetic passages of scripture that we are moving towards Armageddon. The darkness is going to grow as we approach the consummation of the age. The world is not getting better and better. The world thinks it is more and more enlightened. All the while the darkness is growing and, you see, the message to us—to the church, to the people of Christ—is let your light shine brighter than ever. But no. It is going to meet increasing resistance. Be faithful. Be faithful. I think that is the message of Christ to the church at the end of the 20th century. “Be faithful unto death. I’ll give you the crown of life.” The reward is great. The call is great. Let us close with a word of prayer.