Episode 135: For He Who Promised Is Faithful - 2023 Abide Convention Message - Jason Ruis

“What, therefore, are we to do? Let us call upon the name of the Lord, and beseech him that he will rule by his direction this greatest and most weighty of all causes, in which both his own glory and the safety of the Church are bound up together, and also that, in so critical a conjuncture of affairs, in his own set time he would shew, that nothing is more precious to him than that heavenly wisdom which he has revealed to us in the Gospel, and those souls which he has redeemed with the sacred blood of his own Son. On that account, therefore, we must both seek and knock with frequent importunity, and with our whole heart and mind, to ascertain his will, the more uncertain everything on all hands appears to us. When we weigh and consider carefully the whole course and progress of this work of Reformation, we shall find that he himself had overruled, by wonderful methods, all the events in providence, without the advice or help of man, even contrary to all expectation. Upon this strength, therefore, which he has so often put forth in our behalf, let us, in the midst of so much perplexity, place our whole and entire dependence.” - John Calvin

(John Calvin, Tracts and Letters, 4.245)

Manuscript of This Talk

Almost ten years ago, I found myself sitting at my desk at two or three in the morning with my head in my hands, weeping. Our church had been in pretty heavy conflict for the past seven years. Many of us had been working hard to move our church in a healthy direction and we thought we were getting there. We thought we were on the cusp of moving past the conflict and dysfunction. Then, a small group of people in the church began using their power and influence to shut things down. They way overstepped the bounds of what was appropriate in order to get their own way. And they eventually did. They overturned the work of many people and the majority of the congregation (sound familiar?). 

In the midst of this, one of my closest friends called me in tears asking, “How much longer? How much longer are they going to do this stuff? I don’t know how much longer I can put up with this. I can’t take it.” I couldn’t either. I was broken, tired, and worn out. I couldn’t sleep. So, I went to my office and wept…and prayed. 

Someone once told me that when you don’t know what to pray, pray the Psalms. So, I opened up my bible and turned to Psalm 13. I maybe didn’t quite know what to pray, but I knew what I wanted to pray.  And the words came fairly easily: “How long O Lord? Will you forget us forever? How long will you watch this crap go on and do nothing? How long will you let these people run roughshod over this church? I’m sick of waiting. I’m sick of fighting. I need to hear from you before I lose hope. I don’t think I can go on any longer. Will you let them win?.......” That went on for quite a while. But then I was completely stopped in my tracks and the words no longer came easily.

Could I really pray the next line? Could I pray, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love?” I had come to Psalm 13 because I wanted to cry out my heart to God and let him know everything I was tired of. I hadn’t come there for this. I hadn’t come there to be faced with this question, “Was I trusting in His steadfast love? Was I trusting in His steadfast love in the midst of this conflict?” I realized I wasn’t trusting in his steadfast love and faithfulness. I was trying to do it all on my own and in my own strength. I had been so caught up in the difficulties and the “battle” that I had forgotten how faithful God has been to me and that church. I stared at my bible for quite a while, then I repented and confessed and sought forgiveness from the Lord. Eventually, I was able to write, “BUT, I have trusted in your steadfast love and I will continue to trust in your steadfast love. You will lead your church!” 

This is the question for us this morning—for all of us who are fighting for and leading reformation in the CRCNA—are we trusting in ourselves? OR are we trusting in the steadfast love and faithfulness of our God? Have we forgotten the faithfulness of our God? It is easy for us to say, “He who promised is faithful,” but it’s much harder for us to live that way and fight that way. Has this truth—the faithfulness of our God—penetrated so deeply into your heart that it has changed the way you live and serve and fight for reformation in this church? 

In many ways, I have one of the easiest messages of this entire conference because one of the most indisputable statements in all of the Bible is “He who promised is faithful.” Do any of us doubt this? When God promised a son to Abraham and Sara, was he faithful? Of course. When God promised Jacob a position of leadership and authority, was he faithful? Of course. Did it go the way he thought it would go? No. Was it a smooth journey? No. Was it messy? Yes. BUT was God faithful? Absolutely. When God promised to lead Israel out of Egypt into the Promised Land, was he faithful? Definitely. Was it smooth and painless? No. Was it difficult? Yes. But God was still faithful. When God promised to place someone on David’s throne forever and ever, was he faithful? When God promised to send the Messiah to cleanse us and forgive us and renew us, was he faithful? When God promised to crush the head of the serpent, has he been faithful? When God promised that he would destroy Satan’s kingdom and establish his kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven, has he been faithful? When God promised that he would build his church, has he been faithful? Absolutely. 

Yet, even in the midst of such clear, indisputable evidences of God’s overwhelming faithfulness, we have the audacity and foolishness to continually try to rely on ourselves. Then what happens? We despair. We give up. We clearly see that the task ahead of us is too much. There’s no way we can accomplish this in our own strength. We’re too weak. We’re too unstable. We’re an unfaithful people. So, we despair and give up. We walk away looking for greener pastures. 

I’m going to say something very strong and hard here, brothers and sisters. I don’t say this lightly, but, I say it because I think it needs to be said and I think we all need to examine our own hearts on this matter—including myself. 

It’s become a common sentiment that institutions leak left and break right. People have simply taken that as the law of the land. Yet, this is not something we should be proud of as conservatives. In many ways, this is saying that conservatives are the first ones to give up and walk away. Conservatives are the ones who despair and leave the quickest, looking for greener pastures in other institutions and denominations. This should be a rebuke for us. 

I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out what is going on inside of us that is causing this to happen. What is happening inside conservatives that causes us to leave so quickly? When I look at my own heart and my own tendencies, it’s been because I’ve stopped trusting in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness. I think we need to take a long, hard look at each of our hearts and ask if this is why we’re so tempted to leave and walk away and start something new. Are we despairing because we’ve stopped trusting in God’s steadfast love and faithfulness, and begun trusting in ourselves? Are we dreaming of heading off to greener pastures because we doubt that the God who promised to build his church is faithful? 

When we truly get this truth into our hearts—not just in our heads and coming out of our mouths, but deep in our hearts—we hold fast. That’s what this passage says, right? It says “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, FOR he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23, ESV). Why do we hold fast? Why do we do it without wavering? BECAUSE God is faithful. That’s why we don’t despair and quit. That’s why we don’t give up and walk away. The God who promised is faithful and has proven himself faithful over and over and over and over again throughout history and throughout your life. So, hold fast. Stand firm. Do it without wavering. 

I want to take some time to show how this has worked itself out in a very practical example. I want to show you how this truth worked itself out in John Calvin’s life and his ministry in Geneva. I’ve found this to be extremely helpful for me in my ministry at my church AND the fight for reformation in the CRCNA. 

I think it’s important for us to remember how difficult it was for Calvin to do ministry in Geneva. We often think of Geneva as this little piece of heaven on earth—probably because of John Knox called it “the most perfect school of Christ that ever was in earth since the days of the Apostles.” Yet, that’s not the way things began—nor was it the way John Calvin viewed Geneva, even at his death. 

Listen to John Calvin’s description of his ministry in Geneva. After being kicked out of Geneva, then being asked to come back, Calvin says this about considering taking this call, “This I can truly testify, that not a day passed away in which I did not ten times over long for death.” (Calvin’s Tracts and Letters, 4.266). He also says, “Wherever you turn your eyes, you may find innumerable causes of lamentation. And while, of a certainty, I see no way of putting an end to it…” (4.172). This was extremely difficult. He says, everywhere he looked he saw causes to lament and he saw no way to put an end to it. He had no understanding of how to correct things or make them right. He didn’t see a path forward. On top of that, he remember the first time he served there and how he had longed for death ten times a day. Not an easy call. 

My favorite description of ministry in Geneva comes from Calvin on his deathbed. He says, “When I first came to this church, I found almost nothing in it. There was preaching and that was all. They would look out for idols it is true, and they burned them. But there was no reformation. Everything was in disorder…I have lived here amid continual bickerings. I have been from derision saluted of an evening before my door with forty or fifty shots of an arquebuse [muzzleloader]. How think you must that have astonished a poor scholar timid as I am, and as I have always been, I confess? Then afterwards I was expelled from this town and went away to Strasbourg, and when I had lived there some time I was called back hither, but I had no less trouble when I wished to discharge my duty than heretofore. They set the dogs at my heels, crying, Hère! hère! and these snapped at my gown and my legs. I went my way to the council of the two hundred when they were fighting, and I kept back the others who wanted to go, and who had nothing to do there...as I entered, people said to me, ‘Withdraw, sir, we have nothing to say to you.’ I replied, ‘I will do no such thing—come, come, wicked men that you are; kill me, and my blood will rise up against you, and these very benches will require it.’ Thus I have been amid combats, and you will experience that there will be others not less but greater. For you are a perverse and unhappy nation…” (Calvin’s Tracts and Letters. 7.373). There was no reformation in Geneva when Calvin got there. Everything was in disorder. There was bickering and politicking. People were sending their dogs after him. They were shooting off guns outside his house. And, to correct John Knox’s overly sentimental description of Geneva, Calvin says that there will be even more combats after his death because they are a perverse and unhappy nation. 

I also think it’s important for us to remember that Calvin struggled to implement church discipline in Geneva. That’s really what got him kicked out of Geneva the first time. He writes this during his first call in Geneva: “This, however, I will venture to throw out in passing, that it does appear to me, that we shall have no lasting Church unless that ancient apostolic discipline be completely restored, which in many respects is much needed among us. We have not yet been able to obtain, that the faithful and holy exercise of ecclesiastical excommunication be rescued from the oblivion into which it has fallen…” (Calvin's Tracts & Letters, 4.66). Do you catch the tension in that statement? On the one hand, he says we cannot have a lasting church unless we restored church discipline, but then he says that he hasn’t been able to rescue it from oblivion. He also has this great line about church discipline where he says, “For as doctrine is the soul of the Church for quickening, so discipline and the correction of vices are like the nerves to sustain the body in a state of health and vigour.” (Calvin's Tracts & Letters, 5.182). 

So, Calvin sees church discipline as essential to the life and health of the church, yet he struggled to implement it in Geneva. After his first year back in Geneva, he writes, “My chief regret is, that there does not appear to be the amount of fruit that one may reasonably expect from the labour bestowed…” (Calvin's Tracts & Letters, 4.374). That seems normal to us. We’ve all heard the line, “We overestimate what we can accomplish in a year, but underestimate what we can accomplish in five to ten years.” So, Calvin is probably overestimating what he can do in a year, but things were probably much better after ten years, right? Not really. Twelve years after his second call to Geneva Calvin says this, “Those desirous of living a life of licentiousness, have not ceased for the past seven years to oppose the discipline of the Church, which is in a tolerable state of efficiency here.” (Calvin's Letters, 5.422-423). After twelve years in Geneva, faithfully and diligently working to implement church discipline, Calvin describes it as being in a tolerable state. This was not an easy task, nor an easy calling. 

Yet, Calvin never considered deserting his calling in Geneva. To expand my earlier quote, he says, “This I can truly testify, that not a day passed away in which I did not ten times over long for death; but as for leaving the Church to remove elsewhere, such a thought never once came into my mind.”  (Tracts and Letters, 4.266). What held Calvin fast in the midst of such a difficult calling? What held Calvin in Geneva when people were shooting outside his house? What held Calvin fast when he believed so strongly that discipline was essential to the church, but repeatedly struggled to implement that discipline in Geneva? What held him so fast that he never considered leaving his post?

I’ll let him tell you in his own words. I’ll first expand another quote from earlier. He says, ”Wherever you turn your eyes, you may find innumerable causes of lamentation. And while, of a certainty, I see no way of putting an end to it, my courage would entirely fail me, if this single thought did not sustain me, that whatever may happen, the work of the Lord is never to be deserted. Notwithstanding, in the midst of so many evils, the Lord from time to time bestows somewhat that refreshes us.” (Calvin's Letters, 4.172). Calvin held fast in Geneva because he believed his God was faithful and would never leave him nor forsake him. 

Calvin also says, “This one thing comforts me, that whatever may happen in desperate circumstances, the so utterly unbridled rule and dominion of the wicked cannot exist any longer unchecked; and the Lord, as you truly observe, will at length vindicate his own cause. There are many influences at work, both at home and abroad, more than enough, and many more spring up daily, which would not merely weaken, but entirely crush us if we were not well aware that we are fellow-workers with himself in the reformation of the Church. In our deepest misery, therefore, this consideration has sufficed to support us, that Christ has once for all obtained the victory over the world, the fruit of which deliverance we may at all times partake of.” (Calvin's Letters, 4.321). Calvin held fast in Geneva because he believed He who promised is faithful. He who promised to build his church and obtain victory over the world is faithful, so Calvin didn’t leave. He stayed in a difficult place, with a difficult ministry, and didn’t run off to greener pastures, but held fast and ministered faithfully and trusted his God and God blessed it beyond anything he could have asked or imagined. 

This is a powerful word of reminder for us this morning. When we stop relying on ourselves, and we believe and trust that He who promised is faithful, we are strengthened and firmed up to stay and fight—to hold fast in the midst of the storm. This is what happened with Abraham. We’re told, “He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. That is why his faith was “counted to him as righteousness.”” (Romans 4:19–22, ESV). When Abraham was fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised—that He who promised is faithful—he grew strong in his faith and didn’t waiver. He held fast. He held fast even when the promise seemed ridiculous and crazy. He held fast when it seemed like there was no conceivable way that God’s promises could come to fruition. How did he hold fast and remain strong in his faith in the midst of those difficulties? He was fully convinced—believed it deep down in his heart—that He who promised is faithful. 

It’s time for us to do the same. Are we fully convinced that God is able to do what he has promised? Do we believe that He who promised is faithful? Then hold fast and trust our faithful God. It’s time for things to change. It’s time for conservatives to stop leaving, stop wavering, and stop relying on ourselves. Rather, we need to become fully convinced that he who promised is faithful and allow that truth to strengthen us, firm us up, and hold us fast as we faithfully carry out the work God has called us to do. This has nothing to do with how good and strong we are. This has nothing to do with us. This has everything to do with our God and his faithfulness. This was also what Calvin told the ministers in Geneva on his deathbed. After talking about how difficult things had been in Geneva and how difficult they will be and how much work needs to be done, he still says this: “But take courage and fortify yourselves, for God will make use of this church and will maintain it, and assures you that he will protect it.” (Calvin’s Tracts & Letters, 7.375). 

I also think it’s important to correct a potential—and likely—misunderstanding of what I’ve just said. Many people automatically hear these words to be a passive thing. Many respond to messages like this and automatically think something like, “Ok, I trust my God is faithful. He has promised to build his church. I believe that. So, I will sit back and let God build his church. That’s how much I trust him.” That’s not the way God has called us to trust him. That’s not what it means to hold fast. Holding fast is not a passive thing. Holding fast is an active pursuit of reformation  WHILE we trust our faithful God. It’s working and trusting at the same time. It’s definitely not working without trusting—which we’ve been guilty of to some degree—but it’s also trusting without working—which we’ve also been guilty of. It looks more like Philippians 2: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12–13, ESV). Do it because God is working in you. Confidently live out your faith—work out your salvation—because He who promised is faithful. Confidently work and fight for reformation in your hearts, in your churches, and in this denomination FOR God is working in you—FOR he who promised is faithful. It changes the way we work and fight. We work and fight NOT because we are strong or faithful, but because He who promised is faithful.

This doesn’t mean things will be easy. Things have never been easy for God’s people. It will actually get harder because we’ll stop running away from the difficult things, we’ll stop looking for greener pastures, and we’ll stop coming up with excuses. Instead, we’ll hold fast in the midst of the storm. We’ll hold fast in the midst of frustration and anger. We’ll hold fast in the midst of suffering and difficulty. Why? Because He who promised is faithful! That’s why Peter says, “Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.” (1 Peter 4:19, ESV). We will suffer. We will have pain and sorry. But He who promised is faithful. So we can entrust our souls to this faithful Creator, while we give our lives in service to him—in fighting for this reformation. 

This also means that holding fast requires a patient diligence. It’s a long road to reformation—that’s true of our own hearts, and it’s definitely true of this denomination. So, if we are going to hold fast and trust our faithful God, we must also commit to a patient diligence. We must be patient, not freaking out or giving up every time there’s a little setback or when things don’t go our way. But we must also be diligent, never backing down, always moving things forward little by little by little, because know that He who promised is faithful. Calvin said this about Geneva, "There are many other things besides, which, although we desire intensely to see amended, we can find out no means of doing so, unless that can be accomplished by faith, by diligence, and by perseverance on the part of all." (Calvin's Letters, 4.66). This is true of the CRCNA as well. There are so many things that we intensely wish to see changed and fixed AND we have no idea how those things will be changed and fixed. The only way that will happen is through faith, diligence, and perseverance on the part of all. The only way it will happen is by faithfully holding fast, and diligently working while we trust that He who promised is faithful. 

Don’t forget the words of Hebrews 12. Our passages are in Hebrews 10, which leads to Hebrews 11, where we not only hear about the faith of many people but we’re reminded of the Faithful God and his faithfulness in the life of his people. Then we read this, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.” (Hebrews 12:1–3, ESV). How do we not grow weary or fainthearted in this long, drawn-out battle? How do we keep fighting the good fight in this messy reformation? We hold fast because He who promised is faithful. We look to Jesus who was faithful for us. We look to Jesus who held fast in the midst of tremendous pain and hostility, because he knew He who promised was faithful. We look to Jesus who faithfully endured the cross and despised its shame for us, not only to cleanse us from our sin and shame but also to renew and restore us into his image, so that we can hold fast by faith. Then we will not grow weary and fainthearted because we know that He who promised is faithful. 

And because we know He who promised is faithful, we also know that God will do the work. It will happen because God always finishes what he starts. Every. Single. Time. He’s promised to finish what he started in you—the author and perfector of your faith—and he’s promised to finish what he started in his church. So, we live and work with that level of confidence. God will finish what he started. 

Calvin says, “What, therefore, are we to do? Let us call upon the name of the Lord, and beseech him that he will rule by his direction this greatest and most weighty of all causes, in which both his own glory and the safety of the Church are bound up together, and also that, in so critical a conjuncture of affairs, in his own set time he would shew, that nothing is more precious to him than that heavenly wisdom which he has revealed to us in the Gospel, and those souls which he has redeemed with the sacred blood of his own Son. On that account, therefore, we must both seek and knock with frequent importunity, and with our whole heart and mind, to ascertain his will, the more uncertain everything on all hands appears to us. When we weigh and consider carefully the whole course and progress of this work of Reformation, we shall find that he himself had overruled, by wonderful methods, all the events in providence, without the advice or help of man, even contrary to all expectation. Upon this strength, therefore, which he has so often put forth in our behalf, let us, in the midst of so much perplexity, place our whole and entire dependence.” (Calvin's Letters, 4.245).

Or better yet, what Paul says to the Thessalonians: “Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24, ESV). He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it because our faithful God finishes what he starts. Every. Single. Time. He will finish what he has started in your life AND he will finish what he has started in His church. So, let us rest in him. Let us trust him. Let us hold fast because he who promised is faithful. Let us work hard and let us keep on fighting the good fight. He will surely do it.