Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Hebrews chapter 1 and reading
for our text part of verse 11. Part of verse 11, the words but
thou remainest. The whole verse If we read from
verse 10, Thou, Lord, in the beginning, hast laid the foundation
of the earth, and the heavens are the works of thine hands.
They shall perish, but thou remainest, and they all shall wax old as
doth a garment. And as a vesture shalt thou fold
them up, and they shall be changed, but thou art the same. Thy years
shall not fail. But it is these words are upon
my spirit that thou remainest. Many times in the experience
of God's children, they get into very, very low places in great
discouragements, times when they may lose things providentially
in their lives. the things they possess, or their
loved ones, or their friends, and feel to be very alone. And
this word then has been a real comfort and a help to them. But thou remainest. God remains. He is still there. He is still the same. And it is in this way then And I
desire to bring it before us this morning. I want to look firstly at Thou. Thou the Eternal, Eternal God. And then secondly, the God of
salvation remains. and thirdly, our God remains. But firstly, thou, thou the eternal
God. We have a picture here of the
God that created the heavens and the earth. The word of God
begins in the beginning, God. The gospels begin In the same
way, bringing our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to prominence as
being in the creation. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. All things were by Him, and without
Him was not anything made that was made. This is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let us make man in our own image. The Trinity, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, moved upon the face of the waters. It is God then that made the
earth, the seas, the heavens, and all things that are in them.
And it is He that in His time and in His way shall dissolve
all of those things. Time, which is created, shall
be no more. The heavens and the earth that
are now, that they shall be destroyed by fire. There shall be then
a new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
But that God that made, He is the one that takes away, and
yet He remains. God is the same. He is eternal,
from everlasting to everlasting. and He comes into the way of
salvation. He is the author and finisher
of our faith. He begins it, then He takes it
away. He gives faith, and then that
faith shall be turned to sight. He is the Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the ending. And many times we are reminded
of this in the Word of God. The Lord is eternal, He spans
over the beginning of a thing, and over the end of a thing,
but when that thing finishes, He is still there. He is in control. That thing finishing doesn't
finish Him. It doesn't make God cease to
exist, because He still exists, He still remains. And this is what is set before
us here. In Deuteronomy we read that the
eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting
arms. Paul, when he writes to Timothy,
and in his first epistle, in the first chapter, he says now,
unto the king eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God,
be honour and glory for ever and ever. Amen. It is set before
us right through the Word of God that this is the Word of
Him that liveth for ever and for ever. It is the Word of Him
that does not change. that He is the same yesterday
and today and forever. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that
eternal God. The end of the first epistle
of John, chapter 5, we read, We know that the Son of God is
come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is
true, And we are in Him, that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Our Lord said to the Jews, you
believe in God, believe also in Me. And the God that we believe
in, and it is the eternal God that remains, is the God of the
Bible. All that we know of God is told
to us in the Word of God. It is not in our thoughts, it's
not what we think, it's not what we conjecture up in our own minds. It is that which is written of
Him, that which is testified of Him. John, when he sets forth
the Lord Jesus Christ as the true God, the eternal God, He
says of those things that may be written and set forth, many
signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which
are not written in this book, but these are written that ye
might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that
believing ye might have life through his name. And when we
think of our Lord as the Son of God, He is Emmanuel, God with
us, God manifest in the flesh. He whom Solomon spoke of, that
the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee.
How much less this house that I builded, but will God in very
deed dwell upon the earth. He saw and he knew clearly the
need that God himself should dwell here. God should abide
here, that we should look upon Him as God and as the God of
our text that abides forever and ever. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He had died, He then rose again from the dead and ascended
up on high. And there He sits on the throne
of God. He is the truth. and the Living
God. And so this Eternal God, the
God of the Bible, a holy, holy, holy and pure God, He abides,
He remains. He that begins, He that continues
a thing, He that finishes a thing, He will never cease to exist. Man cannot fathom, cannot understand,
cannot enter into those truths that concern the true and living
God. We read in Hebrews 11 concerning
faith, how vital it is for us to have faith, to see Him who
cannot be seen with the natural eye. Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. And we are told that without
faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God
must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them
that diligently seek Him. How vital it is when we think
of the first commandment, Thou shalt have no other gods before
me, But we can manufacture gods in our own mind that are not
the gods of the Bible. We can even give Him the name
of Jesus. We can even give Him the name
of Jehovah. But our Lord, when He was upon
earth, He says, Thou dost call Me, Lord, Lord, and Thou sayest,
Well, for so I am, but ye do not the things that I say. And that authority is taken away
from God. Where God remains, then it is
that he remains as he is. He does not change. He's the
same holy God. He's the same God that appeared
to the fathers before us, who created Adam, who gave the law
at Mount Sinai, who suffered blood and died at Calvary, who
rose again. Through all the scenes of time,
this God remains the same to every generation. He is that
eternal God. And may we think of Him, meditate
upon Him, be in awe of His presence, to realize that He not only sees
us, But He knows us, He knows the intention of our hearts,
He knows our thoughts, He knows our words, He knows our actions,
all are weighed in the balances of the sanctuary and weighed
by the Lord Himself. And at last, the Judgment Day,
we shall have to give an account, we shall have to meet Him, this
Eternal God, this same God, that has ever existed, we shall stand
before Him. Thou remainest. I believe in many times it is
this word that is to be a comfort for the people of God. But where
we are not worshipping Him in a right way, where we have manufactured
another God and not this God, then that will not be a comfort
to us but a terror to us that the Lord remains and is the same. But where we do know Him and
where He is our God, though we change, He changes not. And that
which we have known of Him as a God of mercy and God of truth,
And that shall be a great comfort to us, that all the earth be
gone, that all our friends be gone, that we be left alone to
have the Lord that remains, is a wonderful, precious and great
thing. You know, in all of the scenes
of time, may it be that the trials that we go through bring us to
want this more than anything else. and that is the witness
of His Spirit with our spirit that we are a child of God, that
our relationship with this eternal God is true, is right, is a relationship
that will be for eternity, that it is according to the scriptures
here below, and it will be according to His mercy forever and forever,
that we do not deceive ourselves, in our relationship to this God
that remains, and that we know Him through all the scenes of
time, and it is our comfort that we shall know Him eternally.
I believe there will be those times the Lord really tests and
tries us, whether we do know Him, or what He is to us. When He does remove from us those
things that we may lean to, look to, rest upon, apart from the
Lord, so that it is that only the Lord does remain, and that
we find Him then to be all that we need, our true, our eternal
God. The hymn writer says, I could
from all things parted be, but never, never, Lord from Thee,
brought to that point that if the Lord were not to remain,
we've lost everything. But where he does remain, though
we may lose everything else, we have everything, and he is
all, and in all to us. The heavens, they shall perish,
but thou remainest. They all shall wax old as doth
a garment, as a vesture, shall thou fold them up, and they shall
be changed, but thou art the same, and thy years shall not
fail. I want to look then, secondly,
at the God of salvation remains. The God of salvation. In these
scenes of time, there is great things that are done, eternal
things. In the scenes of our lives, there
are great things that are done. In the history of the world,
sin enters into the world and death by sin and condemnation. But in the history of the world
as well, the same God that created, the same God that gave the law
has also provided a way of escape, a way of salvation through the
gospel of his beloved son. And it is then that at Calvary,
the Lord paid that debt that was due for the sins of his people,
suffering, bleeding, dying on Calvary's tree, that has laid
on him the iniquity of us all, but is that which is done with
an eternal transaction, a settlement of the payment of blood that
is to have eternal consequences for the people of God. And we
should remember that. And that has already been done.
It is set forth in the Word of God that this eternal God, Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever, has done in
the scenes of time. But then in the scenes of time
in our life, there shall be wrought, if we are the people of God,
a work of grace. It may be a great concern that
we do have God's work in our souls as a work of divine grace,
that we have been quickened into divine life, but though we were
once dead in trespasses of sins, but now we are quickened into
life. And as the apostle says, the
life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. And it is a vital thing. that we do examine ourselves
as to whether we do have this light and we do have this life
and are not just walking in the sparks of our own kindling or
in a religion of our own making that has certain aspects of the
Word of God upon it but does not follow the Lord fully and
take on board everything that the Lord has commanded and set
before us. So when we think of Thou Remainest,
there are those things that remain with Him, and especially concerning
salvation. Imagine if we, in a natural sense,
had several friends around us, and those of varying abilities,
and One by one, they went away. And there were certain things
that we needed to get done and needed to be accomplished. And
we were left with one person. And it was said, well, this person
now remains. But that particular person, they
had no money, they had no might, they had no power, they had no
skill, they had no ability. And you look upon them and say,
yes, you may remain, but you have no use to me. You cannot
help me, you cannot be a comfort to me, a strength to me, you
cannot give me any wisdom, any help in any shape at all. So
this word here is to be a help to us, thou remainest, there
must be in thou, in the eternal God, in God, that which is a
help and a comfort to us as sinners. and that that which remains in
the Lord is for our good, our comfort, and our strength. And so I want to look at some
of those things that remain and that are for the good of the
Church of God, the good of the people of God. The first thing
I'd say, these are not in any particular order, though maybe
in an order relatively right, But the first is the word of
promise. When Adam and Eve first fell,
there was the promise of the seed of the woman to bruise the
serpent's head. And it is vital that it be realized
that while we are on this earth, and especially those yet unconverted,
that there still is a promise. If you were to look a couple
of chapters along, in chapter four of Hebrews, we have there
the word, let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us
of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short
of it. And so here is the promise, and
here is the fear and the searching, whether we come short of that
promise. It's a great blessing to still
have this promise. We have in another place that
by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to
lie, that we might have a strong consolation who have fled for
refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. It's at the end
of chapter six in Hebrews and those two things. a God's promise
and it is His oath that that promise will be fulfilled. His counsel, His purpose, all
it is confirmed by an oath. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Christ Jesus. Now imagine in a natural sense
if we had a person that was powerful, that was very rich and had much
ability of being able to impart their wisdom, their wealth, their
power for our good, and they had made us some promise. They
had made that when we came into need, we'd only need to ask them
and they would help us, or that they would appear for us at a
certain time. We would then rest upon that
promise, especially if they were the only one that was left, and
all that was left to us was this person who was so powerful, so
able to supply our need, and there was a promise. And so it
may be with us personally as well, there are promises in the
Word of God, promises of grace, promises of mercy, promises of
help. Call upon me in the day of trouble,
I will deliver thee, thou shalt glorify me. All those promises
of the Grace of God that he has promised to his people, my grace
is sufficient for thee. Some of you may have those promises
that the Lord has given you and you plead them before the Lord.
Maybe it is concerning the house of God itself or maybe ourselves
or our loved ones and the Lord has promised these things and
as yet they are not fulfilled. We think of the children of Israel
as they developed from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and they all had
those promises. They were given to them, promises
of Christ. Abraham saw Christ's day and
he rejoiced at it. They had those things that they
were looking for in the short term. It was the land of Canaan
and that they were to enter into that in due time. Even though
they had those years of bitterness in Egypt, and seen that the Lord
wasn't with them at all. And then through the wilderness
as well, yet he did fulfill that promise. He did bring them into
the promised land. And in these gospel days, we
can see that. We can see what God did in doing
that. He said he would do it, he did
it. He said he would bring forth his son, he did bring forth his
son. He said he would rise again from the dead, he did rise again
from the dead. He said he would send the Holy
Spirit and he did send the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost. And so when we read here that
thou remainest, that means he remains to fulfil his promises,
to do what he has said that he will do. May we then have regard
not only to him that remains, but to the promises that remain
with him. But then we have His righteousness
that is also remaining. It is an everlasting righteousness
and how vital that that is for the people of God. In Psalm 103,
we read of that righteousness and in verse 17, that the mercy
of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. upon them that
fear him and his righteousness unto children's children." An
everlasting mercy, an everlasting righteousness, they belong to
the everlasting God. The psalmist in Psalm 119 also
takes up the same great blessings. And He says, Thy righteousness
is an everlasting righteousness, and Thy law is truth. And the
righteousness of the Lord is that which He wrought out at
Calvary, that He wrought out all the way through His holy,
perfect, pure life. A righteousness to give to the
people of God, Righteousness that Paul sets before the Romans,
so very different from our own, which is but sin and disgrace,
our own righteousness as filthy rags, but that righteousness
of God, as described like a robe, is pure and spotless, and that
enables us to stand faultless before his throne. The God of salvation remains. and all that he has remains,
his promises, his mercy, his righteousness, and his power
to save that precious blood. He is able to save unto the uttermost
all that come unto God by him, because he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. He ever liveth. He still is on
his throne. He still is in control. He still waits to answer prayer. He still is appearing in the
presence of God as a lamb that had been slain. We are reminded
in the ordinances of the house of God. He still lives, who died
and rose again. We are to show forth his death
until he come, not just some people, the redeemed. those that he has bought with
his precious blood, this do in remembrance of May. And if we
have been made partaker of that blood, and if we value that precious
blood, then we should in obedience show forth his death till he
come. And we should gather round his
table remembering that he lives, that died, that shed his precious
blood. to show what we think of it,
and how we value it, and how we trust in it, and shelter beneath
it, that we do not neglect these things. His power to save is
still the same. How many, perhaps it is, the
prayers we have for our loved ones, our friends, for our congregations,
and we wonder why, why they're still so hard, so far off, so
unconcerned, There's no lack in the Lord, He's still able
to save. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. He remains, thou remainest. Love remains. Yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. We read in that beautiful chapter
of the 13th, the first epistle to Hebrews, of faith, hope, charity. The greatest of these is charity.
When we come to die, we shall not need faith anymore. We will
not need hope anymore. Those are laid down. But love
that still remains. The love of God that passeth
all understanding. That love shall be an eternal
love. and that shall abide. The love
that he has to his people, it doesn't diminish. Having loved
his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. May that be a help, a comfort
to us this morning. But thou remainest, his love
to us remains. Did Jesus once upon me shine? Then Jesus is forever mine. Did He show me the love of stopping
me in my mad career? Did He show me that love of chastening
and correcting my soul? Did He show me that love of hearing
and answering my poor cries? Then that love is still the same.
We read at the end of Psalm 107, Who so is wise and will observe
these things, even though he shall understand the loving kindness
of the Lord. And that remains the same. We
think of the purposes of God. When Paul wrote to the Ephesians,
he says to them in chapter 3, verse 11, according to the eternal
purpose, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. And everything that he does is
according to that purpose. Some of us, we might have a purpose,
of doing something, and we keep to that purpose, and we seek
to achieve what we've set out to achieve. When I was in engineering,
and there would be a first purpose for a firm to request a certain
machine, a quotation would be made, a contract would be entered
into, and there's an end in view, that machine was to be built. It was to do what it was intended
to do, on time, on budget, and to actually accomplish what it
was done. That purpose, that end in view,
had to be kept in mind by all involved in that process. There
was an end in view. They didn't ask for one type
of machine and get another. It had to be what they wanted. It had to be fit for that purpose.
And so it is that God has a purpose. He does have an end in view.
We have those little glimpses of it. This people have I formed
for myself. They shall show forth my praise. He has a purpose. He gets Noah
to build an ark. Why? There's no water. There
is a purpose. There's a reason. And at that
time, the very day that Noah entered into the ark, then the
foundations of the great deep were opened up and the heavens
were opened. The Lord had a purpose, had a
reason, and is aiming for that. The Lord knows what he himself
would do. We don't, often we don't. What
I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. But
what the Lord is doing, he does know, and we need to remember
that when we read that the Lord remains. His purpose is still
remains. His purpose is still true. He's
still carrying out His decrees. He's still ordering the things
of this world. While the earth remains, sea,
time and harvest, summer and winter, they shall not cease. He sits upon that throne. The psalmist, he speaks of that
in the 93rd Psalm of the throne of God. And may we think also
of the prayer of our Lord. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. We read in Psalm 93, the Lord
reigneth, he is clothed with majesty. The Lord is clothed
with strength wherewith he hath girded himself. The world also
is established that it cannot be moved. Thy throne is established
of old. Thou art lifted, Thou art from
everlasting. And then we have, and may this
be a help to some this morning. The floods have lifted up, O
Lord. The floods have lifted up their
voice. The floods lift up their waves. The Lord on high is mightier
than the waves, the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty
waves of the sea. Thy testimonies are very sure
holiness becometh on house. I believe there's several parts
in the world where there are stones with these vases that
overlook the sea and when the sea is looked at and the waves
are beating upon the rocks and those great waves, that's a reminder. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters, may be your soul and mine This
morning is many waters, many ways, many things stirred up
by troubles and tribulations and sorrows. They may be very
loud in our lives and in our minds and resounding high. The Lord on high is mightier
than the noise of many waters. Yes, His throne is eternal. His covenant that also abides,
it remaineth forever and forever. You read of his covenant in Isaiah,
because Isaiah is very beautiful. It begins, of course, the 61st
of Isaiah is the words that our Lord used when he began his ministry. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings
unto the meek and so forth. But later on in that In a chapter,
a beautiful chapter, we read, For I, the Lord, love judgment,
I hate robbery, for burnt offering, and I will direct their work
in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring
among the people. All that see them shall acknowledge
them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed. My soul shall be joyful in my
God, for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he
hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom,
taketh herself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. And these promises and the realisation
of the covenant and promises of the eternal God, They remain. His salvation remains. But thou remainest. May we remember
that then. Those of you that seek salvation,
those of you yet who don't have assurance, that don't have comfort,
to remember that the God of salvation, He does remain. He does ever
abide and remain. and that be a comfort and help
to us. We think of how it's set forth
in Psalm 68, and it's a beautiful psalm, but it speaks of that
God of salvation. Blessed, in verse 19, blessed
be the Lord who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God
of our salvation, Selah. He that is our God is the God
of salvation. And unto God the Lord belong
the issues from death. But God shall wound the head
of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such an one who as goeth
on still in his trespasses. We'll want to look lastly then
at our God remains. How vital that we're able to
join with dear Thomas, my Lord and my God. Maybe that's the temptation and
trial today. He says, all right, saying that
Thou remainest, the God of salvation remaineth, but O may it be that
my God remains, that I know that He is my God. At the end of Psalm
48, we have these words, for this God is our God forever and
ever. He will be our guide even unto
death, this God. and set forth is this God. Think of how the psalm begins.
Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised, where? In the
city of our God, in the beauty, in the mountain of His holiness.
Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount
Sinai. It's the church of God. The gathering together of the
people of God. There is the Praise in his temple,
everyone shall speak of his glory. If we went round through the
streets of Cranbrook today, if we went into assemblies for sport
and assemblies for the amusements of this world, there'd be many
that not only wouldn't speak of his glory, but would pull
his glory down. They only consult, cast him down
from his excellency, we read. But in his temple, Everyone shall
speak of his glory. What a different air, what a
different atmosphere. No wonder there's that roaring,
the traction and that love for the people of God. Now David,
when he was separated because of running away from Amsalem
or the other trials, and when Saul was pursuing him, he longed
for the courts of the Lord. long for the house of God that
he couldn't go to, he was shut out from them. There are those
times that the people of God are especially being comforted
in this word, but they're remainist. When David came to Ziklag, and
there was burnt with fire, he lost his wives, all that he had,
and those that were with him, they were talking of stoning
him But we read that David encouraged himself in the Lord his God. The Lord remained for him. The
Lord wonderfully blessed him and helped him at that time,
appeared for him. I remember that, what the Lord
was to him at that time when he found himself so alone and
in such a low, low place. We think of Job. He lost all
of his goods, his family, his health, his strength. Even his
wife said, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and
die. And his friends that came to
support him at the end, they falsely applied the truths to
him, made out that he was a wicked man. Miserable comforters, he
says, are ye all. And yet he did have that further
trial. of not being able to see his
God. Though that I knew where I might
find him, that I might come even unto his seat. We see from Jo's
case, though we have this precious word, but there remainers, sometimes
the dear people of God don't feel that he remains. They don't
have the comfort of it, but that doesn't change the fact that
he does remain. May Job's case be a help to us,
because the Lord did appear for him and did help him. We think
of dear Jonah, so prone to anger, rebellion, running away from
the Lord, would not walk in the way the Lord had set him in,
would not preach to the Gentiles, would not go to Nineveh. He ended
up in a very low place for that rebellion and for that unwillingness,
didn't he? even felt cast out of the sight
of the Lord. And yet he says, out of the belly
of hell cried I. He said, though I am cast out
of thy sight, yet will I look again toward thy holy temple. Really looking to the Lord. And
Jonah, our Lord, spoke of him as being a sign to the Ninevites. Three days and three nights in
the heart of the earth. But dear Jonah, thou remainest. What else did he have in the
whale's belly? Nothing. And all to accompany
him was his own thoughts, his own rebellions, his own running
away. He got himself into that position. Maybe you and I feel like that
this morning. Got ourselves into this position. Got ourselves into this low place. Even running away from the Lord.
But thou remainest. The Lord spake. That's all it
needs, dear friends. The Lord to speak. He still can
speak. He spoke to the fish, vomited
him out on the dry ground, did exactly what the Lord wanted
him to do. The Lord can speak the same today,
do exactly the same what he wanted him to do. You think of Elijah. Elijah thought he was the only
one left in Israel. But the Lord remained, and the
Lord made sure there was those 7,000 that had not bowed the
knee unto Baal. The Lord remained, and he knew
where all his people were. He was in control, not Jezebel,
not Ahab, not the Baal worshippers. The Lord was in control. Even
though that people that had so departed from him, so rebelled,
so grieved him, the Lord remained amongst his people still. What
encouragement there is when we're so convinced of our rebellion,
our sins, our departures from the Lord. The children of Israel,
as they sat before us, the Lord was still there for them. He still remained. We think of
dear Jacob when Esau was coming against him. Yes, Jacob had many
possessions. He had wives, he had little ones,
he had children. But he feared for them all, were
they all going to be destroyed by Esau? 400 men he had with
him. So Jacob, he puts them all over
the brook and there was no man with him but the Lord only. Jacob was left alone, we read. And there wrestled a man with
him to the breaking of the day. In that lonely place where there
only one remained, thou remains, There His name was changed from
Jacob to Israel. There He prevailed with God.
There He obtained the blessing. May we think of the same when
we are left in such a place. We may say, Thou remainest. May
we then have those wrestlings with God, wrestlings with Him
who is the same yesterday and today and forever. May the Lord bless this word
to us. Thou, but Thou reminest. Amen.