But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self-control. Against such things there is no law. We've been thinking about these words, and

we've come today to the third and last triad of Gracus in Paul's description of the fruit

of the spirit in the life of the Christian believer. Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

Today it's faithfulness. Sometimes the reason a marriage breaks up, as people

say, is because one spouse was unfaithful. It's the kind of question actually young people

should always ask before they go any further in a relationship, isn't it? Do I have some sense that this is the kind of young man or young woman who will be faithful?

That's important.

And actually it's of the essence of being able to respect someone.

You can't respect a person.

You can't trust to be faithful.

And actually you shouldn't marry someone. You can't

respect. It's always been very interesting to me that the words for faithfulness and faith

in the Old Testament have the same root as the word amen. Faithfulness is just saying an ongoing amen to the commitments that we've made.

God has given us a model of what this means. We don't have to make it up because we see it

perfectly expressed in the life and ministry of the Lord Jesus.

The author of Hebrews tells us that in serving as the apostle and high priest of our confession,

the Lord Jesus was faithful to Him who appointed Him. He was determined to say Amen in his own life

to every aspect of his Father's covenant promise and covenant commands.

Indeed, Paul says that all the promises of God find an answering yes and amen in Jesus Christ.

And this was especially true when it came to the hardest to keep promise of all,

going to the cross to die for our sins.

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