Open your Bibles to Psalm 63. There is a phrase in Malachi chapter
3 that's just a delight. It's a delight to me, so I assume
it's a delight to everybody. But in it God says, for I am
the Lord, I do not change. And therefore you are not consumed,
O sons of Jacob. Now you can see on the surface
of it why that is a delight to a needy sinner. But there's another
reason that that would make a needy sinner feel at peace. Because
if you couple that with what Jesus has said, He said that
all that the Father gives me will come to me and the one who
comes to me, I will by no means cast out. That means that if
every sinner that comes to Christ is accepted in the beloved, and
if God does not change His mind about that, then there will never
be a sinner cast out that has come to Christ. There just won't
be. So if you look at Psalm 63, and
let's read verses 7 and 8, it says, because you have been my
help, this is the Psalm of David, therefore in the shadow of your
wings I will rejoice. My soul follows close behind
you. Your right hand upholds me. Now God simply does not change
His mind. Not for you, not for me, not
for the Old Testament prophets, and not for the apostles. We
think of them all as great people because they were singled out
in this very, very large book. To be a character here would
make you think you have a place of prominence. But He didn't
change His mind for even them. And of course, he doesn't change
it for those preachers on the TV, no matter what they say.
But before we were born, God had already decided who we should
be, who we should not be. And no one has changed into a
person that God did not want them to be, no matter how much
they have begged. You remember Paul, take this
thorn, take this thorn away from me, whatever it happened to be.
And God didn't. In fact, he told him he wouldn't. Now, God is good and He does
not change. And that goodness that passed
before Moses when he was in the mountain, he said, I will place
you here and I will cause my goodness to pass before you.
That is the same goodness that manifested itself in the man,
Jesus Christ. But we tend to think that God's
like us. that he has some good days or
some bad days or he can be surprised or he can be confused. We just
put that on him even though there's no reason for us to do that.
So we think that God is angry with us if some great disaster
strikes somewhere like those two towers in New York or a world
war or the plague of COVID-19, whatever. Now, God doesn't have
to wait for us to be bad to punish us. We're already bad. That's
us. We're already sinners. But we
also think on the flip side that God's anger is placated if suddenly
everybody goes to church or at least a large percentage of people
are going to church. Everybody's got religion. That
must mean God's okay with what we're doing. But God is not so
fickle. Mankind certainly is fickle and
we have a good day followed by a bad day followed by a good
week or a bad month a terrible year and then we're moody and
we just despise everything and everybody. We're just grouches. And then the cycle repeats and
that's what we do until we die. That's us in a box. But I ask you, what cause, what
reason do we have to change our minds about God? Why do we think
He is this way and not this way? Now, if we sit down and we consider
what He's done for us needy sinners, for His elect, can we come up
with any reason to be angry? Like, you know, something didn't
go our way. Our way. Can we come up with any reason
to be sad or to shake our fists? This we know. Everything that
concerns our eternal salvation has been achieved. It's done. And He has not left us to ourselves
while we just trudge on in His creation. He's with us always. He's omnipresent, as they say. And not only has He provided
all for the saving of our souls, which is number one as far as
we're concerned, but he's also provided everything for our physical
selves, what we need here. We need sustenance and shelter
and protection in general, and he's also provided things that
we enjoy. We've got families, we've got
activities, we've got nature to go out in and look at, history
to read about, great books, So what does it mean if A, God
doesn't change, and B, we get angry or afraid? What does that
mean? It means we changed. We changed
our opinion, we changed our mind. It means, ultimately, that we
stopped looking to Jesus. We just stopped looking. We looked
somewhere else. We went to something else that
cannot guarantee our safety. And I'm not saying that God's
promised a peaceful life here on earth. There is no peace for a believer,
except for the peace of salvation. Our life is going to be full
of worries and strife. What I am saying, though, is
that God has promised peace that surpasses all understanding.
which is the knowledge that our sin debt has been paid and that
our souls are forever safe. Forever safe. Because they're in the care of
the Savior. And God never moves. That's the point I actually want
to bring out here. God never moves. If we're angry
or afraid, we've moved. We've looked away. We've got to put the blame where
it belongs. Do you remember the story of
those children that approached Jesus, or were at least brought
to Him by their parents, and the disciples tried to shoo them
away? Now, what did He say to those
disciples? He said, Let the little children come to Me, and do not
forbid them, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Now, all the
preachers I've listened to, all of them I've read and heard,
when they preached on this passage, It's that as a child fully trusts
his parents' words, so too must we fully trust Jesus Christ's
words, what he said about himself, what he said about the Father.
And also that as a child feels safe in his parents' arms, so
too should we feel safe in the arms of our Savior. Why would
we be afraid to be in the hands of a living God? And also that
as a child is at peace when he can see his parents. Because
when he can't see them, he's lost. If you're in a crowd, as a child, and you can't see
mom and dad, that's scary. That's scary. But we should also feel at peace
when our eyes are on the Lord. So I'd like to reread part of
Malachi 3. It says, for I am the Lord, I
do not change. It's also, for I am the Lord,
I do not move. God is always on the throne.
He's always in heaven. I do not move. He's like a mountain,
he doesn't move. He's always gonna be in that
place where that mountain has always stood. Now one day, Devin
and I, well Devin wanted to come with me on a run, and he brought
along a little kick scooter. And I don't run fast, so he easily
got in front of me. And we got onto a trail, And
Devin just started out ahead of me and almost immediately
he stopped and he turned around and he said to me, Daddy, can
I go behind you? As if he needed permission. Can
I go behind you? I don't want to get too far ahead. I don't want to get too far ahead. And he wanted to be close to
me because he knows he's safest when he's close by Dad. And that's
the attitude we should have toward God. We should want to be close. Now there is sin in this world,
and it's powerful. It's too powerful for us. The
Lord told Cain, if you do not do well, sin lies at the door.
It's kind of like we're welcoming it in. And he said, and its desire
is for you. And the sin that is in everyone,
that's in our rulers, that's in the powerful and the weak,
everybody's got it. All of it works against God's
ways. And it can't do anything else
except war against God. That's just its nature. It must
war against God. That's just the definition of
sin. Even believers still battle with it. What thoughts that we think are
pure are tainted by sin. And what charity we show toward
others can come from impure motives. We might seek to gain something
out of it. It might just be a little thank
you, a little appreciation, but still, do we do it for nothing?
Sometimes we don't. And this is the sin of our flesh,
and we'll just carry that until we die. But from this sin, we
do need protection. We do. If we're not protected
from the sin of our flesh, this life would be unbearable and
unlivable if God let and allowed everybody to do whatever they
wanted. The problem is our flesh knows
only how to sin. It cannot do good. And if we
want sure protection from the desires of our flesh, we need
protection from the Sovereign God, who is our Heavenly Father,
and oh yeah, it doesn't change. He doesn't move. Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations
3, verse 22, through the Lord's mercies we are not consumed. Sounds a lot like the previous
that we read. Because His compassions, they
fail not. His compassions fail not. Who are His compassions for?
His elect, His people. And they won't fail. We should not want to get too
far ahead of the one whose compassions never fail. If all around us
is being consumed, We should want to get behind our God. The problem is, of course, we
tend to wander. We tend to look away from God.
Let's look a little bit at what happens to those who God lets
wander. He lets them wander. Turn to
Psalm 49. Psalm 49. just a little bit back, verses
six and seven. The psalmist says, those who
trust in their wealth and boast in the multitude of their riches,
none of them can by any means redeem his brother, nor give
to God a ransom for him. The one who trusts in his own
wealth is no longer looking to God. He's in danger. That's dangerous. And in verse 11 of the same one
of the same psalm, it says their inner thought is that their house,
their houses will last forever. They're dwelling places to all
generations. But then he says of them in verse
13, this is the way of those who are foolish. Foolish. God has never asked us to trust
in our riches. He's never asked us to trust
in what we can gain here. Riches and possessions and treasure
are just a snare. Just think of them as a snare
laid for you. They trap us and it's easy to feel like we need
more and more of it. Once we got a little, we need
a little bit more and a little bit more. But if you ever feel that way,
just stop and look. Just stop. Take a look where
you are. I can tell you, you've gone too
far. What you should be doing is getting
back behind Jesus where it is safe. He doesn't need your riches. Sinner, did you know that there
are unsearchable riches in Christ Jesus? It says so in Ephesians
3. They're unsearchable. You can't
know how much there are. If that's the case, what need
do you have of earthly possessions? if there are vast riches in Christ. Now it says in verse 17 of Psalm
49 that when the rich one dies, he shall carry nothing away.
He shall carry nothing away of all his riches. That's because
these material riches are fleeting. They only benefit the body. They're
powerless to provide for the salvation of the soul. Those riches cause us to trust
more in our riches than we should. If God's given you something, He might give you a spirit to
handle it. We all have our gifts. I don't
know how many people God has given the gift to to manage riches.
There are some. I can remember back in the 90s, There was a man who went to one
of the churches, and I know it's probably in the Southeast states
somewhere, but he had a car dealership and he up and gave a car to my
mother. We couldn't pay for that car, but apparently that man could
manage these things. But that's not for everybody.
I don't know very many people that can manage riches and be
a believer. I know that sounds weird. It's
kind of like, you know, how could you be anything and be a believer? But riches are such a snare. But if you are rich or have come
into riches, and you find that you're trusting a little too
much in those. You need to hear the words of
Christ who said, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth
where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
He says, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven where neither
moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. Our treasure's not here. It's
not in lands or money. It's Christ. That's our treasure. You can't hold it. You can't
spend it and buy yourself a TV. You can't. It's Christ. God has no need of our collection
of cars or houses or lands or the dollar bills we have in our
wallet. He doesn't need anything from
us. We need everything from Him.
We've got this all backwards. Now we know that those who trust
in riches aren't the only ones who stop looking to Christ. Many
fall into a snare of a different kind. There's a snare of unbelief. Turn to Matthew 21. Matthew 21. We'll start reading in verse
23. We'll see what happens to men
who, what happens to men who, what
they believe when God doesn't correct their hearts. Matthew 21, starting in verse
23, it says, Now when He came, that is Jesus, into the temple,
The chief priests and the elders of the people confronted him
as he was teaching, and they said, by what authority are you
doing these things? And who gave you this authority?
But Jesus answered and said to them, I also will ask you one
thing, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what
authority I do these things. The baptism of John. Where was
it from? From heaven? or from men. And
they reasoned among themselves saying, if we say from heaven,
he will say to us, why then did you not believe him? But if we
say from men, we fear the multitude for all count John as a prophet. This is what men believe when
God doesn't correct them. Paul says of these people that
they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. It causes their trust for salvation
to be misplaced. These don't come to God in repentance. Instead, they're like Cain. They
come to God with whatever they've done and just expect Him to accept
it. Look what we have done. These
Pharisees, they had memorized the Scripture. That's something.
It's hard to do, so it must be something. But God knows that
they're seeking after their own righteousness. And He won't accept
their sacrifices. He accepts just one sacrifice,
and that of His only Son, Jesus Christ. And God spoke of His
Christ. That's important, His Christ,
His Messiah. He spoke of him through Isaiah
in chapter 42 where he says, Behold my servant whom I uphold
and my elect one in whom my soul delights. He never said, Behold
the man who stands at the corner praying loudly for all to hear.
He never said that. Yet that's what the Pharisees
would do. He never praised anyone for outward
morality or do-gooding. Jesus even condemned the scribes
and Pharisees for such a thing. In Matthew 23, He said, For you
cleanse the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are
full of extortion and self-indulgence. Because God looks on the heart. He doesn't look at what you've
done outwardly Like I'm wearing a suit today. Does that mean
I look better in God's eyes than maybe last week where I wore,
I don't know what I wore, a polo shirt maybe? No. That sounds silly to us. Sounds ridiculous. But that's
what people believe if God doesn't correct them. Now those who profess
to be believers yet don't believe that they are dead in trespasses
and sins, they think God is too much like themselves. They will
think that God accepts effort and showiness and a serious expression
in church. Ooh, so serious, so grave. But
those who worship Him, worship Him in spirit, not in the flesh. God hasn't demanded the best
actors or pretenders. He doesn't want those. He said that He desires mercy
and not sacrifice. He desires to show mercy, for
which He receives all the glory. You know, if He accepted us because
of what we wore, we would get a little glory, wouldn't we?
If He accepted us for what we drove, what camel we rode, I
guess, depending on the year you lived in, that would be a
little bit of glory to us. But we worship in spirit. And
if we come to God with our sacrifices as the Pharisees and the scribes
did, He will reject us. He has said so. But if we come
to Him pleading Christ crucified, then we'll be accepted because
that's His Messiah. And He doesn't change. We need
to follow where He leads us. Now that sounds like a A hard
thing, especially if you go by a false Christianity's way of
following Christ. But I tell you, don't fret about
following the Lord. It's very easy. Remember, He
doesn't change. All of these churches, they've
changed their ways throughout the generations. See, He started
out guiding His sheep to heaven lovingly, patiently, And he continues to do that to
this day. His ways haven't changed. The
Lord's not faltered as Peter did on the waves because the
Lord does not change. He doesn't move. You know, when
Peter walked to Jesus on the waves, which of the two started
sinking? Which of the two needed rescuing?
It wasn't Jesus. It wasn't the Messiah. He is
always a refuge and that will never change. When Peter started
to sink, it was because he saw, it's written right here, he saw
that the wind was boisterous. How did he see that if he was
looking to Christ? Well, he saw it because he wasn't looking
to Christ. He saw that the wind was boisterous. It was troublesome. His problem was that he looked
away from Christ, but his rescue came from the very person he
looked away from. And when Peter started to sink,
he didn't say, James, brother of John, save me. And he didn't
say, and this will get you in trouble with the Catholics, he
didn't say, Mary, mother of Jesus, save me. What would they have
done? They would have sank right to. He looked to Christ and cried,
Lord, save me. Lord, because that's who he is.
He has the power to save. And you'll never guess what happened.
The Lord saved him. Where do you suppose Peter stayed
after that situation? I'd say he's right beside Christ.
He's just right there. I imagined myself in that position. I'd be stuck to him like glue. And that's what we do when God
allows us to go through a terrible situation. We go right on back.
As we should. As we should. It's a blessing
to go right back to Jesus. It teaches us to stick to Him. Problem is that over time we
grow confident in ourselves. Life goes well because we're
beside God. We forget that He's the one providing
the means that gives us this easy life. We here in America,
we've got it pretty easy. But then we start to trust too
much in what we can see around us. You know, our house is there. It's not on fire. It won't be
on fire tomorrow or next week. It's good. We trust too much. that things continue as they
are. But that's when we move our eyes off Christ. When we do that, we move our
eyes off what the Bible calls wisdom, wisdom and guidance. And off of the good way, we become
like Lot. who chose the land that looked
better for material enrichment. He saw that lands were good for,
I think it was cattle and all that. But it was in a couple
of cities that were not good, not good for the soul. Or we
become like David, who had a man murdered after David went into
the man's wife and made her pregnant. He chose something he could see. God sent the prophet Nathan to
bring David back near himself, near to God. Now it hurt David
for this to happen. It hurt a lot, but it brought
him back to the Lord. And God sent angels to recover
Lot from those horrible people and that tainted land, and it
hurt Lot when that happened. He even lost his wife. Yet Lot is remembered forever
as Righteous Lot because God desired to show mercy and he
rescued him. So I ask, have you taken your
eyes off Christ recently? Yes. Was it this morning? Where had you put your confidence
when you did? If you sit and think about it,
where was your confidence? You've been healthy for months,
so you're going to continue to be healthy, and then whoop, he
brings along disease. It could be anything. Did you know that God did not
move when you looked away from Him? He didn't go hide. He stayed
right where He's always been. And when He finally called you
back or made you notice that you were no longer near Him,
that you had wandered, did He punish you? Did He punish you? No, He did
not. He drew you to Himself in mercy
and compassion, the way He's always done it. So what is God's response to
our wanderings? I'll close with just this. Paraphrasing. Come back. Come back. Come near. I don't move. I'm still here. I am always where I have been
and will forever be right there. May the Lord be praised by the
message. Bruce, will you close us please?