I'm glad to be back, and I'm
glad you're glad to have me back. Pastor Tom Harding and
I were talking this past week on setting the mood for worship,
and that's how it's done. That's how it's done. Turn to
Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews chapter 13. I'm going to read one verse in verse 8. We'll have prayer then we'll
look at this. In Hebrews 13 verse 8, Jesus
Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. The title of the lesson this
morning is this. He never changes. He never changes. Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
Our Father, we thank you for this opportunity this morning
to gather here in your presence and to give unto you the glory
and the honor due unto your name. Our Father, we thank you for
the desire to be here and the ability to be here. Thank you,
Father. Enable us this morning to worship
you in spirit and in truth. Send forth your word in power. Enable your people here this
morning to rejoice in God, our Savior. Enable me to preach,
Father. No man is sufficient for these
things. Our God is our sufficiency. And what we pray for ourselves
here this morning, we pray for your people and your servants
who are standing to preach throughout this world. Father, thank you
most of all for Jesus Christ. In him, we are complete. In him,
we stand in your presence accepted. Thank you. Thank you for him. In his name, we pray. And amen. He never changes. I've seen a lot of changes now. From my early childhood, as far
as I can remember, back as far as I can remember, to now, I've
seen a lot of changes. I've seen changes in this country.
The most changes I see is in the mirror in the morning. I
see a lot of changes. Changes in my health. There's
a change in the way I see this world now than when I was 20
years old. I can say truth, Lord, the whole
world lies in wickedness. I see that now. When I was 20,
it was a playground. I saw it as a playground. But
now I see it. I see it for what it is. I see
the evil of this world. I understand the scriptures when
it says, he that is a friend of the world is an enemy of God.
I understand why and how that is. I understand how God can be a
just God and a Savior. I understand that. And there
was a time I didn't. Seen a lot of changes. And I thank God as I grow older
and things change inside and out. that there is one who never
changes. There's one who is solid rock.
He never changes. Let me give you some things in
which he never changes. I wrote this, actually I wrote
this article several years ago in a bulletin and it was reprinted
several weeks ago and I thought, I looked at that and read it
and I thought I'm going to preach from that. I'm going to use that outline
and I'm going to give it to you this morning. First of all, His
love, God's love to me, God's love to you, if you're in Christ,
you believe Christ, you love Christ, God's love to you never
ever changes. Ours does. That's sad, but it's
so. Sin has marred us so much, it's
marred our minds, our bodies, it's marred everything about
us. What was the charge that was
laid against the church of Ephesus in Revelations? You left your
first love. There's another scripture that
says, in the latter days, the love of many will wax cold. His love to me never, never waxes
cold. Even when I'm at my coldest,
Or at my worst. I've got my mind on something
else. His love to me never changes. Never changes. Look over in Jeremiah
31. In Jeremiah 31. This is good news. What I have
this morning is good news. In Jeremiah chapter 31. In verse
3, it says, The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea,
I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. I have loved you with an everlasting
love. In other words, there was never
a time, and I can't explain this, there was never a time that God
did not love me. If I'm His, I've always been
His. I can't explain that. I cannot explain that. And then His power, His power
never changes. He is just as able to keep me
from falling today as when I first began. He's able to keep me. He's still, Jesus Christ is still
able to save unto the uttermost, then to come unto God by Him,
seeing whoever lives to make intercession for them. He's still
able. His power, time, time has not diminished His power. He's
still God. His power is infinite. He's still able to rule and overrule
all enemies, all angels, all principalities. There is nothing,
nothing in this world that is not under the power, the authority,
and the rule of Jesus Christ. Absolutely nothing. That fly
that was pestering us last night, that's under His power. That
fly, that was His fly. We was trying to kill it, but
it was his fly. There's nothing that's not under
the power of Jesus Christ. When he says to one, come, he
comes. When he says, go, he gotta go. When you read the Gospels,
and he cast out devils, we never read where one of them says,
no, I'm not going, this is my house. Every time He said leave,
what'd they do? They left. Where the word of
a king is, there's power. And when King Jesus speaks, there's
power. There's power. All He needs to
do this morning, all He needs to do this morning is speak.
Speak. Speak to my heart. Speak to your
heart. And He can make all our troubles
seem like nothing. like nothing. His power never
changes, it never diminishes. His love to me never changes. And listen, His word, His word
never changes. Have you ever given somebody
your word or telling them you're going to do something and then
you're not able to do it? Now I know if you live long enough
that's happened. I thought I wasn't going to be
able to make it Friday night or was it Thursday? Thursday,
I got sick. I didn't go to work Friday, I thought, I'm not going
to be able to go down. I'm not going to be able to keep my word.
I'm going to have to call and cancel. But I got feeling better. Our Lord, His word, His promises,
the promises that we have written in the Word of God, they never,
never changed. They are always, always, yes
and amen in Christ. You can hang your hat on God's
promises. You can't do that on my promises.
I have no control over anything. What do I really have? What do
you really have control over? Nothing. Nothing. I don't, but the Lord does. The
Lord does. Listen to this scripture. God
is not a man that he should lie. He's not like a man that he should
lie. Neither the Son of Man that he should repent. Hath he said? Hath he said and shall he not
do it? Has he not given his word and
shall he not fulfill his word? You know the scriptures teach
us that God has magnified his word above his name because you
are only as good as your word. He said, neither the son of man
that he should repent, hath he said it, shall he not do it?
Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Come unto
me, all you that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. He will make that good. I'll
give you rest. He that cometh to me, and this
is a promise I have hung my hat on for getting close to 40 years. Come to me. He that cometh to
me, I will never cast him out. He that cometh unto me, I'll
never cast him out. All that the Father giveth to
me, cometh to me, and he that cometh to me, I'll never cast
him out. Lord, you said you would never cast him out. And I come. I come on this promise. You gave
me your word on it. Call upon me in the day of trouble,
and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me. That's
a promise. That's a promise. Now, the delivery
may come weeks down the road, months down the road. It may
come sometime down the road, but I tell you what, it'll come.
It'll come. Because he promised it. He promised it. And then, fourthly, his election
of me shall never change. Isn't that good? Isn't that good? His choice, His election of me
shall never change. He will never cast off those
whom He has chosen. Never. Listen, I will never do anything
that He did not already know about. I will never do anything
that He did not already see long before creation. I will never,
ever do anything that takes God by surprise. When Adam fell,
God was not surprised. It happened just as He had ordained
it, just as He had purposed in Christ. Look at Malachi 3. Malachi 3,
right before Matthew. Malachi chapter 3 in verse 6. For I am the Lord,
I change not. And because of this, therefore,
therefore you sons of Jacob, Henry read it like this one time,
you sons of election are not consumed. That's why you're not
consumed. It's because the Lord changes
not. His election of me, His election
of His people will absolutely never, ever, ever change. Ever. I will never leave thee, He said
in Hebrews 13, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Never. Never, no never, no never,
no never. That's a promise. And then the power of His blood
never changes. The power of His blood never
changes. It still cleanses from all sins. All sins. No matter how deep
the stain has gone, the blood of Jesus Christ is able to put
it away. David committed adultery, and
then he had Bathsheba's husband killed. And Nathan came to him,
told him his story about a little ewe lamb, and David said, I'll
just kill that man, I'll just kill him. And Nathan said, you're
the man. David, you are the man. You pass
sentence on yourself. You are the man. But God, you're
not gonna die if God's put away your sin. He's already taken
care of it. He's already taken care of it. Now the sword never
left his house, there's consequences for our choices. And sometimes
they last a lifetime. But there's forgiveness. And
there's cleansing. The power of his blood shall
never, ever change. It'll never weaken. It'll never
weaken. Always able to cleanse us from
the vilest of sins. Isn't that good news? It is if
you're a sinner. It is if you know what sin is
and you know who God is. That's good news. And then His sacrifice will never
change. It will never lose its effectiveness. You know in the Old Testament
they had to offer those sacrifices continually. It had to be continually. He offered it one time, by one
sacrifice, and it will never ever lose its
effectiveness. I want you to turn to Revelation
chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5. It says in verse 6 in Revelations chapter 5, And
I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four
beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a lamb as it had
been slain. That sacrifice that Christ made
on Calvary is fresh before God this morning. It's fresh. And he said, and in the midst
of the elders stood a lamb as it had been slain, having seven
horns, seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent
forth into all the earth. But his sacrifice for me, for
you, you who believe, those who shall believe. will never ever
lose its effectiveness. We have, now listen to this,
we have before God a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice. Brethren, we don't worship a
dead Christ, we worship one who's alive. We worship a living Christ. And then His grace never changes. God's grace never changes. First
of all, salvation will always be by grace. That will not change. That will not change. It will
always, always be by grace. And His grace, His grace will
always be sufficient. It will always be sufficient.
No matter how severe the trial may be, how much it may hurt,
How low God may lay me. His grace is sufficient. It's sufficient. That'll never
change. It'll never change. The way God
saves sinners will never change. We're not a more enlightened
age and we don't need this, no. It'll always be, God will always
save sinners by Christ, in Christ, through Christ, and through the
preaching of Christ. What I'm doing right now, that
will never change. God will always have His preacher
standing before a congregation preaching Jesus Christ and Him
crucified. And when one of His sheep hear
it, they say, I hear, I see. I see. That will never change. We don't
substitute preaching for anything. We don't put anything in its
place. It is please God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe and it will always be that way. We are not
going to get into entertainment business. We are going to stay
in the proclamation business. We are going to proclaim Him.
declare Him. And then His covenant, His covenant of grace, this covenant
of grace with Christ that was made between
the Father and the Son, there's a real covenant now, this is
a real covenant, will never change, never change. I read something over in Ezekiel,
you know over in Ezekiel 16, I'm not going to read all that,
it's too long. But over in Ezekiel 16, let me see if I can find
that. Ezekiel chapter 16, this is when
he says here, Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations. And say,
Thus saith the Lord God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy
nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amorite, and
thy mother Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the
day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou
swashed in water to supple thee. Thou wast not salted at all,
nor swaddled at all. Nobody pitted you. And he goes
down to verse six and says, when I passed by thee and saw thee
polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. Now she grows up and she comes
to the age of marriage. He said thy time was a time of
love later on in this chapter. And when she grows up and her
time that she can be married, you know what she does? She turns
into a harlot. After you read that, he talks
about, he said, I washed you with water, I thoroughly washed
you away thy blood, and I clothed you, I decked you, and your beauty,
I made you beautiful. Made you beautiful. And what
she does, she ends up playing the harlot. That's what she does.
You go on down and read the rest of that chapter. But now I want
you to listen to this in verse 60. Nevertheless, nevertheless,
I will remember my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth.
God is not a covenant breaker. Nevertheless, you played the
harlot. I did all these things for you
and you went out and did all those wicked things. Nevertheless, Nevertheless, I will remember
my covenant with thee in the days of thy youth, and I will
establish unto thee an everlasting covenant." Isn't that amazing? I can say with Paul, and you
can say with Paul, oh wretched man that I am. I know what I am by nature. I know
that in my heart I'm wicked. I'm wicked as hell in my heart.
I know that. By nature. I know that old nature. I know that. And yet God said,
I have made an everlasting covenant. And you're mine. You're mine. God made an everlasting covenant
with His Son concerning me and that will never change. And there
He is. Now listen, there is absolutely
nothing that I can do to break it. I can't do anything to break
it. It's an everlasting covenant. It's what He called everlasting.
When God calls something everlasting, that's exactly what He means.
It's everlasting. It cannot be broken. Because
it's made between Him and Christ. And me and Christ. And Christ
surely will never break it. When he came into this world, he did everything that pleased
the Father. Everything that pleased the Father. This is my beloved
son whom I'm well pleased. He loved God as he ought to love
God. He loved his neighbor as he ought
to love his neighbor. He believed God as God ought
to be believed. And you know what? That is my
righteousness. That's my righteousness. All
His obedience is my righteousness. That covenant can't be broken
because it's all on His shoulders, not mine. He said in another
place, I will give thee as a covenant of the people. He made a covenant
with Him and He is that covenant. Just like He said, take my yoke
upon you and learn of what? Me. Me, I'm in. He's everything. He's everything
I need to study. Everything. And this being so,
this being so, His love never changes. His power never changes. His word never changes. His election
of me never changes. The power of His blood never
changes. His sacrifice never changes. His grace never changes. The way God saves sinners never
changes. And this being so, the message will never change. The
message will never change. I'm not looking for another message.
I'm not worried or thinking about, now what am I going to preach
to them? I'm going down there, going someplace this week. Now what
am I going to preach? I'm going to preach Christ. It's just where am I
going to preach Him? From what book, what passage
of scripture am I going to preach Christ? Because He's the message. He's the message. Isn't that
good news? That's good news. He never changes. Through all the changes that
we go through and through all the changes that we see this
country going through, there are things we don't like and
there are some things we like and there are some things going
on that's very concerning, but I tell you this, the one who
never changes is seated at God's right hand and He's running this
thing. What may look like chaos to us
is orchestrated chaos. It's orchestrated by him. Orchestrated by him. Well, I hope that was good news
to you. It is to me. I like to know that there's one
who doesn't change. He doesn't move. He's where he
is. You don't know where did he go?
No, it's where did I go? He's in the same place. He's
in the same place. All right.