Our text for this Monday evening is found in II Thess. 3:3 But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.
	There are several aspects to this passage which we will look at this morning in relation to our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. The first is the matter of fact statement made by the Apostle Paul which is the overriding element of our very lives. But the Lord is faithful... Consider the weight of this statement. It is on the basis of this truth that all the reality of Christ depends. It is in the faithfulness of Christ that we have our salvation by believing on Him as Lord, as Savior, as the very essence of our beings. it is the faithfulness of God that alone has called us forth from the darkness of this defiled realm into the very light of the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ through the effective ministry of the Holy Spirit. Aside from this gracious fact of God, we have no basis for any standing before God.
	The preceding verse of today’s passage reflected upon the truth that in mankind, there is a wanton faithlessness. We cannot count of a person, any person of this realm to be utterly faithful, because that is not part of the unregenerate man’s nature. Rather, man, apart form God is the most utterly faithless of all creation. 
	Consider the fact that Adam and Eve were created in a situation that has been called paradise. They had every advantage that mankind today craves. They were fully cared for, wanted nothing, had been given dominion over all creation, could freely frolic in the morning sun’s rays without a deadline to meet. They were situated in a position that only required a faithful attendance unto God. It was not a job, but rather their single responsibility, yet even they, without the pressures of a defiled realm, were unable to be faithful unto God. They manifested the reality of what mankind, by him or herself, characterize in all of creation, a faithless being set upon self. This is the very basis of faithlessness. It is the desire after what will make me better off than her. It is what I can get without regard for what will happen to them. It is selfishness at its very base element. Consider every instance of faithlessness, in your life, and in the lives of your contacts, and at the root of each and everyone of them is the element of self in all its vile deformity. 
	Such was not, and will never be the case with our Lord Jesus Christ. When we consider Christ, in all His faithfulness, we are taken to the cross. We are put into the consideration of just how much He loved each and every one of us to undergo such a perverted humanity as to crucify, as a common criminal, the very perfect Son of God. He chose to die for our sins, in utter faithfulness to God the Father and to us. He counted on the supreme faithfulness of God to resurrect Him from that sepulcher of death, and then characterized that complete faithfulness in the provision of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who would but accept Him as their Savior and Lord.
	This is a key to why one must accept Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, and why it is truly an individual and personal commitment that we make to God in our acceptance of Jesus as our Savior. There are those who teach that one can go to heaven if a person is simply a good person who does good things in the community. This, however, if it were possible, would serve to negate what Christ has accomplished as only Christ could accomplish it. In faithfulness, He fulfilled all the tenants of the law. In faithfulness, He paid the price of our sin. In faithfulness, He made every provision for our salvation. In faithfulness, He made every provision for our indwelling by the Holy Spirit. In faithfulness, He loves us unto Himself. In faithfulness, His grace abounds to us who believe upon Him and who call upon Him. 
	It is only by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ, that we are established in this realm, to withstand all the elements that would serve to destroy our relationship with God. The Holy Spirit faithfully works to bring into our lives those elements which serve to bring about a greater and ever increasing dependence upon God to be our life-source. He faithfully works to manifest our utter need for Christ, not just as a savior, as the One in whom we have redemption, but as the very source of our every-day life on this earth. This is another abiding element of God’s faithfulness in Christ. We are not alone on this earth to face the ravages and the storms of this dying domain. God is faithfully in our lives, every moment of the day and night to guide and to correct and to protect and to further develop our living relationship with Him. Christianity does not begin and end at the cross of Christ. We are not called to simply be saved and then endure our salvation until we pass from this realm into heaven.
	We are called to be established in Christ to such an end that our very lives reflect the One Who now indwells us. We are called into the very faithfulness of Christ, in Whom we have every source of life and every guard against the evil of this realm. This is the true aspect of the cross of Christ, the ever increasing measure of Him and the ever decreasing measure of us. As we submit unto His faithfulness, so are we the recipients of an increasing measure of His faithfulness to live forth from us unto others.
	He loves us in all faithfulness, and never ceases to work His faithfulness into us, unto His desire to bring that love unto others as we faithfully submit unto Him. This is the Easter message, to live in the faithfulness that raised Christ from the dead, and raised us from our spiritual death into the Body of believers that utterly relies upon the faithfulness of God each and every day, now and forever.
 But the Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you, and keep you from evil.