The Church and Faithfulness - Part 1

 Temple Baptist Church - 10-25-2026

2 Timothy 2:11-13

 

Introduction:

A. As I continue to preach on the local church, it’s imperative that I preach on faithfulness.  As I thought on our faithfulness, I realized that we cannot be faithful outside of the faithfulness of God.  The faithfulness of God needs to be the foundation for the faithfulness of the believer. So, first things first.

 

2 Timothy 2:11-13  It is a faithful saying: For if we be dead with him, we shall also live with him:  (12)  If we suffer, we shall also reign with him: if we deny him, he also will deny us:  (13)  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

 

Four times we find the word “if,” in these verses which is conditional on our part.  God’s faithfulness does not depend upon ours.

 

B. I want to testify this morning to the faithfulness of the Lord to His children.  The person and purposes of God never vary.  GOD IS FAITHFUL! 

 

C. Once again, notice the supposedly “archaic” (supposedly outdated) word “abideth.”  From eternity past until eternity future (I use these two expressions of eternity because we cannot fully understand it), God has been, God is, and God will always be faithful.

 

D. The great “I AM THAT I AM,” the One who inhabits eternity which has no past nor future.  “I AM THAT I AM” means eternally self-existing.  Not “I WAS” or “I WILL BE,” but “I AM!”

 

1. Our perspective of God as Paul said, “That I may know Him.” is great in one manner but extremely limited in another because we cannot understand anything without beginning or end, therefore, we use the words past and future when speaking of eternity which means infinity and perpetuality: constancy.

 

2. Eternity is an eternal moment, just one tick of time: a moment, an instance. Unfathomable! One day, we shall see Him as He is and then be like Him in our purity and eternality. Just sit and think about that for a while!

 

E. “Abideth” is in a present continuing sense. In our understanding, the same yesterday, today, and forever! Ever present, ever the same, ever faithful to Himself as verse 13 says, “He abideth faithful: He cannot deny himself!”

 

F. I do not understand all that I know, but I believe that the Lord wants me to “hammer home” the blessed truth that our God is FAITHFUL!  If we can ever grasp this one truth, then we can not only survive in this world, but we can also thrive in this world.

 

G. The importance is found in 2 Peter 1:3:  “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:”

 

H. Notice the phrase “All things that pertain into!” All means ALL, and that’s ALL ALL means.  We need to grasp this! 

 

1. ALL things that pertain unto life.  This is the life that we all live now.  We spend half our lives worrying about temporal things when the Bible says that God has got this!

 

2. ALL things that pertain unto godliness.  We who are saved are perfectly capable of living lives that are holy and acceptable unto God. This is mentioned in Romans 12:1:  “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” 

 

3. We can do this!  We can live our lives in faith and holiness because: “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13) And, yes, another ‘Archaic,” “eth” ending!

 

J. We can be faithful because our God is and remains faithful!

 

1.  God Is Faithful To His Person - Malachi 3:6  For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.

 

2.  God Is Faithful To His People - Lamentations 3:22-23  It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

 

3.  God Is Faithful In His Preservation - 1 Peter 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

 

John 10:28-30  And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.  My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.  I and my Father are one.

 

4.  God Is Faithful In His Protection - Psalms 4:8  I will both lay me down in peace, and sleep: for thou, LORD, only makest me dwell in safety.

 

5.  God Is Faithful In His Provision - Philippians 4:19  But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

 

6. God Is Faithful To His Promises - 2 Timothy 2:13  If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.

 

7.  God Is Faithful To His Purposes - Job 23:13-15  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.  Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.

 

8.  God Is Faithful Perpetually - Hebrews 13:8  Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.  (Hallelujah, what a Savior!)

 

Conclusion: If God is this faithful to His person, promises, purposes, and people, and He is —is it not a valid request that His people be found faithful to him?