So as I said before, sometimes
I can't stop myself. I say things before I plan to. Reading what we just read, all
of Hebrews 10 and into 11, throughout that entire scripture he's speaking
of the former way of doing things. The old sacrifices that they
had to make before Christ and how they really truly paid for
zero sins. They had to be done over and over and over and over
again because sin was never truly paid for. until Christ came. He says in here multiple times
just in this scripture that I read today that it was made a sacrifice
for all of the sins of his people once for all that they would
be forgiven forever. There's nothing more important
in all the world than that. I was reading it and I came to
the end of where we finished where it says Let us hold unswervingly
to the hope we profess, for he who promises is faithful. That promise, that all the sins
of God's people are paid for, now and forever, once for all,
is faithful promise, because it's a faithful God that made
it. One of the biggest differences
between the world we live in and the things of God, the things
of this world and the things of God is change. The things of this world change
all the time. I mean, every minute. Whether
you're looking at a big picture, a societal worldview, or an individual
view, each individual person, we change constantly. I know
I do. I mean, from one minute I feel
fantastic to the next minute I feel awful. And that's just
in my head. That doesn't have anything to
do with what's going on. Not to mention all the things that
are actually going on. Especially right now. A lot going on. We change. This world changes. From happy to sad, from strong
to weak, From harmonious to chaos, from belief to unbelief, we change,
our world changes. On the opposite spectrum, the
things of God, or God himself, simply cannot change. Not that he isn't capable of
change, that's not what I'm saying, he's capable of anything, but
if you think about it, God is already perfectly good in every
single way. He is right in everything he
does. If he were to change, it could
only go downhill, and God can't do that. So if God is already
perfectly good and perfectly righteous, no change is certainly
necessary, and no change is even possible. God can be no less
than perfect and good. So even if you think about it
in a logical way, God can't change, okay? Not to mention the fact
that he tells us he can't. Anything other than what God
is now would be less, and God can't be less than what he is.
If God is the apex of all things, Any change from that would be
a step down. It is impossible for God to be less than perfectly
lovely and good. He is unchangeable. He is glorious. He is constant. He is steadfast. He is faithful. That word is
used a lot, faithful. And that's the subject for today's
sermon. God is faithful. God is always faithful, which
you don't even have to say always because that's what faithful
means. If you actually look up in the dictionary what faithful
means, it's loyal, constant, and steadfast, unchanging. The reason I do that is because
as a kid I remember hearing that word faithful, and to me it sounded
like something that has a lot of faith, because it's faithful.
But the definition is not that. It is constant, steadfast, and
unchanging. Knowing and believing this is
not natural for humans. We don't naturally believe that
God is faithful. The only way a human being can
truly believe that God is faithful is if he's been given sight,
if he's been saved, if he's been given the ability to believe.
And that is not a natural thing, that is a spiritual thing done
through the Holy Spirit, done through God and only through
Christ. It's not always a knowledge that
we hold strongly to even once we believe it. Our emotions definitely
get in the way sometimes. Mine do all the time. But that
understanding, that belief that God doesn't change and doesn't
waver and that his promises are true is always there. When it
comes down to it, our hope is in God's promise through Jesus
Christ. Even on the days where it feels like your unbelief is
incredibly powerful, if it comes down to it, what do you do at
that point? Do you go pray? Do you turn to
God? Or do you turn away? The hardest
days I've ever been through, and there's been some, we've
all been through hard days. And I'm not even talking going
through difficult times, I'm talking through a day where you
just feel separated. Like in the scriptures that when
a man says, I believe, forgive my unbelief. I connect with that
on a daily basis. It is so easy to doubt. That's what we are made of. We're
humans. We're flesh. But when it comes
down to it, there's belief. Even when there's unbelief. I
believe, forgive my unbelief. And that is only there always,
not because of us, not because of, ah, yeah, I might go through
tough times, but my faith is still there. God doesn't let
me go. If he did, I'd be running out
the door. And I believe that. The promise, our hope in God's
promise through Jesus Christ. And that promise is true and
unchangeable, but like I said, this world that we live in, that
we partially belong to right now, changes constantly. Right
now is an incredibly good example of that. Both COVID-19. I mean, I'm not gonna try to
get into a lot of the topics of today, but they just happen
to fit really well with this sermon. This has been on my mind
for a while, and as I'm going through it yesterday, I'm like,
wow, this, not to mention everything that's going on in our country
the last week, I think this place changes some. This world goes
through times of change. COVID-19 shut this building down,
basically, for two months. 40 million people are out of
work. Can't imagine what it's like to be a farmer right now.
I mean, this world changes, and it can get awful. It can be very
difficult to see the hate and the anger and the politics and
the judgment And then you've got what's going on this past
week where an awful act spurs thousands of awful acts. And
it can just be exhausting. You see all this and you're surrounded
by what feels like darkness and evil and hatred. And it's so
easy to get wound up on it and think this world is so far from
God right now, right? It's hard not to have that thought.
I'm here to tell you today that is an absolute lie. This world
is not far from God, ever. So if you look at the global
picture of how this place changes, the societal view, COVID-19,
the rioting that's happening right now, I mean, terrible things. And I'm not judging anybody. The only reason I'm not out there
right now with them is because for some reason God has me here.
That's it. If it wasn't for God's mercy,
God's grace, and I'm not boasting in any way, I'm only boasting
in that right now, because I would probably alongside them otherwise. But in all of this, combined
with media and social media that can make you feel like you're
immersed in negativity. Like this world is absolutely
hopeless. These situations, someone like me, my wife will tell you
I call myself a sponge a lot. Like I tend to take the emotion
from what's around me and it takes over. So if I'm in a place,
especially like I see these riots going on, it just, sucks the
life out of me. I just get into a terrible place. It makes me... I don't even know
if sad's the word. It makes me just feel lost, like,
what is going on, you know? And that's me, and I'm sure I'm
not alone. So much hate and anger and fear
and violence, it's easy to feel like things are out of control.
But they aren't. The world is going through changes
like this, and it means absolutely nothing to what's important.
The earth and its inhabitants are doing exactly as God has
planned. Every single aspect of this world
from the most minute thing you can think of, the flapping of
a butterfly wing, all the way to the riots happening right
now, to COVID-19, to whatever you can imagine. Every single
aspect of it is tied to the will of God. The source of all things, pleasant
or unpleasant, happy or sad, healthy or unhealthy, strong
or weak, all things, the source, is the unchanging God who is
perfectly good in every way. Turn to Psalm 33, verse four. For the word of the Lord is right
and true. He is faithful, he is faithful
in all he does. The Lord loves righteousness
and justice. The earth is full of his unfailing
love. Even now, with the way things
can feel to us, the word of the Lord is right and true and the
world is full of his unfailing love. Unfailing, unchanging. It may feel like this world is
lost and we're in a terrible place and it's empty of love,
but that's an absolute lie. It says it right there. His word
is right and true. He is faithful in all that he
does and this world is full of his unfailing love. Full, not
separated. It's not like his love is here
with us today and not in Minneapolis. or not in, pick a place, North
Korea, China, any place, pick it. God doesn't have places where
he resides. He created this world. He rules
over every molecule. To feel like this world is lost
and out of control is not true. It's simply not true. This God
is sovereign, absolute control over everything. It says this world is full of
his love. His love, his power, his grace,
his mercy, it's everywhere. Just because we can't perceive
it means nothing. God does as he wills. He loves
as he wills, he has saved as he wills, he has condemned as
he wills. He is God and he is good and
right in all things that happen in the world. He knows how this world began.
And he knows how this world is going to end. And he knows absolutely
everything that has to happen in between. And this is part
of it. God is faithful. Christ is faithful. So just in
the big picture, just like the big picture, the global societal
view, God is faithful. But the individual view is just
as true. And to me, it's so much more
important. Turn to 1 Corinthians 1, 8 through
9. I read this earlier. I think I would have these marked
ahead of time. That would make sense. 1 Corinthians 1, 8-9, He will keep
you strong to the end so that you will be blameless on the
day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God who has called you into fellowship
with His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is faithful. This is what
really truly matters. Our comfort in this world is
passing. To know that this world is under His control is helpful
for our comfort. But it's fleeting. Our comfort
in everything in this world is fleeting. It will come to an
end. But what doesn't come to an end is exactly what this is
talking about. He will keep you strong to the end so that you
will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God who has called you into fellowship
with his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, is faithful. If he has
called you into fellowship with his son, he is faithful in that
calling. If you believe in Christ, that
will never change, and on the day he comes back, you will be
found in love. That's forever. That's the truth. That's what matters. It's easy to get swallowed up
by the things of this world, but this is what matters. So often, we speak about the
Lord and his people, we refer to them as a group. There's nothing
wrong with that. But personally, I go through
times where I need to remember how personal Christ's sacrifice
and Christ's love is. God's love and grace for his
people is an incredibly personal thing. What Jesus did for his
people was incredibly personal. In Isaiah 43 it says, So think
on that. So often, and I'm only saying
this because this is how my brain works sometimes, so often you
talk about Christ saving his people, saving his church. And
that's absolutely true. But his people are full of individuals. And it's not like when Christ
was doing that work, he was only thinking of a group. He had each
and every one of you personally on his mind. He knew you by name. Think on that. Do you believe
in Christ? Do you believe He is your only
hope? If you do, He called you by name. He knows you better than you
know you. And He loves you more than you will ever understand.
And it's personal. It's not because you're one of
His group. It's He loves you. Jesus Christ doesn't just love
his people as a group. He loves each individual. Don't
think about the rest of his people, the rest of humanity. Jesus loves
every one of his people with a love that you can't fathom.
He loves you. Now think about that you. Make
it personal right now. You believe on Christ. Think
about this. He loves you so much that when he went to the cross
and died and was punished by the Lord Almighty, He had you
on his heart. You, individually. He knew you by name before the
world began. He knew you by name when he was
a baby in a manger. He knew you by name as he was
preaching the gospel. That's a fact. It's hard to imagine,
but think about that. He knew you by name when He was
beaten and mocked and spit on and hung on a cross. It wasn't for a group, it was
for you. If you believe on Him, He had
you on His heart during that. And you want something humbling,
think about this. He personally knew every single sin you've
ever done and will ever do on that day. He didn't just feel the punishment
for a bunch. He felt the punishment for every
individual sin of every individual that he saved. More than we can
comprehend. Saying it doesn't even cover
it. He knew you by name as He felt
the punishment for every single sin, and He knew you by name
when the last of your sins was paid for. Every one. They eventually ran
out. He paid for every one. Sin of
every one of His people until they were gone and there was
no more punishment to be had. He's the only one that could
do that. And he also knew you by name
when he rose and walked out of the tomb victorious. And even now he knows you by
name as he sits on the throne ruling over the world. And the beauty of all of that
is that Christ is faithful. that everything I just said will
never change. No matter what we go through
here, no matter what we go through up here, that doesn't change. He paid for every single one
of your sins personally. That can't be undone. You can't
add to it. You can't take away from it.
It's already finished. Everything about Christ is faithful.
His love, his word, and his work. The death that he died for his
people is faithful in a way that it doesn't change. It's steadfast,
unchanging. But we change. We change all
the time, minute to minute. I have great days where I feel
so full of faith and belief that I just feel like I'm walking
on a cloud. And the very next day, I feel like I don't believe
at all. Followed by the days where I'm
right in the middle, followed by days where I don't even think
about it. We change all the time. And you know what? That will
never change. Not while we're here. There's a Christian artist. I'm not going to say anything
negative. I'm not a huge fan of contemporary
Christian music, just not. I think I don't agree with some
of it. It raises a red flag for me, and maybe I'm too sensitive,
but I'm just not a huge fan. But there's a song, and I don't
know how I ended up getting into it, a song by, I'm sure some
of you here probably know her, Lauren Daigle, a Christian artist. And the song is extremely popular,
which also makes me usually raise a red flag. But the words in
this song are absolutely spot on about how we can feel from
day to day and how that doesn't really change, it doesn't change
what God has done. So the words start, I keep fighting
voices in my mind that say I'm not enough. Does that sound familiar? It
does to me all the time. Whether it's the amount of sin
I do on a minutely basis or the lack of prayer in my life or
the lack of even time thinking about God, I can feel so guilty
and I hear those voices in my head saying that I'm not enough.
And then the second line is, every single lie that tells me
I will never measure up. You know, I know the gospel.
I was blessed enough to grow up hearing it. And I know the
truth, and I believe in Christ, but that doesn't mean I don't
hear these lies in my head every day. But that's what they are,
they're lies. It's not the truth telling me
I don't measure up. You're gonna feel that, I do,
all the time. But does that change what God
has done? What Christ has done? Nope. The next line is, am I more than
just the sum of every high and every low? And that one, for
some reason, hits me so hard, because I feel like I have so
many ups and downs, and I know I'm not alone here. I cannot simply be the sum of
those highs and lows. Then I've got no hope. Because
my highs aren't gonna outweigh my lows. And the only hope I
have is perfection, and I don't have that. But Christ does, and
he gave it to me. And then it says, remind me once
again just who I am, because I need to know. That is so powerful. Remind me once again just who
I am. Do you know who you are? If you are a believer, if you
are one of God's people, do you know what that means you are?
You are priceless. You can't have a value put on
you. God, the creator of all things,
loves you and loves you so much he gave his own son for you. We all need to be reminded on
a daily basis just who we really are. We're loved by Christ and
by God. And it follows that, I'm just
gonna keep going through this. It says, you say I'm loved when
I can't feel a thing. That's me. Some days I feel nothing. But I read that it says I am
loved and it's like, I just don't feel it. You say I'm strong when
I feel so weak. You say I am held when I know
I'm falling short. And when I feel I don't belong,
you say I am yours. This is the perfect example of
how we change but Christ doesn't. and what it comes down to is
us believing it. You say I am loved when I can't
feel a thing, but he says I'm loved. That is more powerful
than what I feel. You say I am strong when I feel
I'm weak. What he says is more powerful
than what I feel. When you say, I am held, I feel
like I'm falling short. Again, what he says is truth,
and is final, and is powerful, and what I feel is nothing. It
changes from day to day. How can it be anything? How can
you have any belief in your emotion? Emotion is junk. It goes out
the window. I'm amazed at how my emotions
can change from second to second, but this truth never changes.
When I feel like I don't belong, which is quite often, you say,
I am yours. I'm a son of God. Who else in
this world, when you call a person yours, who says that? A parent
says it to their child. I can say that Oliver and May
are mine. That's exactly what he's saying
in the Bible when God says, my people, you are mine. And in a way that I can never
say it about Oliver and May. I'll do everything I can to keep
them safe and have a wonderful life, but I'm limited beyond
belief. God, unlimited love, unlimited
power to do everything needed for his children to be saved. So when he says you are mine,
rejoice. You are his and everything's
gonna be okay. And then it ends with, and I
believe what you say of me, I believe, and that's it. Are you gonna
put your trust in your failing, faltering emotions, in the failing,
decrepit world we live in? Or are you gonna put it in the
unchanging word of God, the unchanging grace, the unchanging blood of
Christ? I already read this once today,
but if you read it again, Isaiah 43, it says, but now, that is
what the Lord says. He who created you, Jacob, he
who formed you, Israel, do not fear, for I have redeemed you.
I have summoned you by name. which we already covered, it's
an individual personal summon. And in these three words, I summon
you by name, you are mine. What a wonderful, wonderful group
of words. He is faithful, he is faithful
to you individually as one of his people. Your belief in him
will never change. It will falter up here, but your
faith in him will never change. It is given to you by him. So
it says in the Bible, faith is a gift of God. It's not created
by us, it's given to us. So that faith can't be faltered
like it's something we would make. Anything we make is worthless.
But God created that faith and gave it to us. So even though
we may not perceive that faith every day, it is always there.
And it is never not enough. Throughout every second of your
life, personally, think about this, every second of your life,
as a believer in Christ, as one of his people, you had a faithful
Christ with you every second. I mean, go through your memories.
I did that the other day and it blew my mind. Now, maybe this
won't blow your mind and it'll seem silly to you, but I mean,
I thought about like the day I was born, Christ was there
and he was faithful to me. You know, and 10-year-old opening
gifts, Christ was there with me being faithful. I don't even
know it. I don't know it half the time. When I got married
to Katie, Christ was there being faithful to me. When you struggle to believe,
Christ is there being faithful to you. When you're looking for him,
he's there. When you haven't thought about him for two weeks,
he's there. When times are great, he's there.
When times are unbearable, he's there. When you grow old, he's
there. We waver, we have highs, we have
lows. We are fickle and we cannot be counted on in any way. But
Jesus is unchanging. He is faithful. He is always
there and his work is done. And when you die, He is there. And through all of that, He has
been with you and your sins have been paid for since you were
born, since your 10th birthday, since you got married, since
you got old, until you die. Your sins were paid for and He
was there with you, faithful. He has covered you with his unfailing
love, showered you with grace your entire life and beyond. And that day when you die, you
will wake in heaven. He will be there and you'll finally
see him. Without the veil of this world
and this flesh, someday you'll truly see that he's there. What a glorious and wonderful
God we have. What an indescribable Savior. And if you're here today thinking,
that makes sense, I want that, I'm a sinner, I know that, and
I have no hope of fixing this on my own. I want a Savior like
that, who has done it all, once and for all, has saved his people
and is faithful and unchanging, pray to Christ. Ask him to save
you. And another wonderful aspect
of his faithfulness happens in John 6, 33. It says, all those
the Father gives me will come to me. And whomever comes to
me, I will never drive away. If you come to Christ and ask
for salvation, knowing you need it, and knowing you have no other
hope but Him, He will never say no. That is a promise made by
Him, and He is faithful. He is unchanging. I want to end with the last verse
that I started with today. Hebrews 11, 23. Take this with
you. I need to take this with me. Let us hold unswervingly to the
hope that we profess. I would love to be able to hold
unswervingly to this. For he who promised is faithful. Crazy world out there, crazy
mind up here sometimes. But for he who promised is faithful. Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, we thank you
so much for you and your faithfulness. We thank you that everything
you have done is absolutely confirmed and final. and unchanging. That your love for your people
can never change. That every single one of your people is
yours. That can never change. We thank
you God that you are so constant and so steadfast. There's nothing
around us is. Help us to hold unswervingly
to that truth. That you are the only real truth
there is. Nothing else can be truth because
it can change. You cannot. Your truth cannot. The power of your blood can never
change. And if we've been washed by it,
we are washed forever. We thank you God so much. for
everything that you are. And we pray this in your name,
amen.