I want to begin by reading just
one verse here in Hebrews 13. What a blessed comfort this is. Verse 8. Did you guess that was
it? Hebrews 13 and 8. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, and today, and forever. That was the text
that I preached from just a couple of weeks after I moved down here. I came here in late October,
and I preached from this text the second week or so of November. 10 years, my soul. Almost anniversary of that, isn't
it, Timmy? It doesn't matter. It just flies
by, doesn't it? And we've seen in those 10 years,
we've seen some changes happen. There's been some changes. We've
shared some very precious, rare, blessed times. What I mean by
that, as we're doing this morning, this is a rare, precious thing. This is what The psalmist was
referring to when he wrote, behold, behold, look at this sight. This is rare. This is precious.
Behold, take time. Behold how good and how pleasant
it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. We dwell with our elder
brother, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. That's a rare and precious
thing. He said, where two or three are
gathered together in my name, there am I. There am I, my soul. Now what could be better than
that? There am I. Whether it be two or three, just
two or three, if they gather in my name for my honor, filling
their need of me. He's promised I'm going to be
there. I'm going to be in the midst
of them. Oh, precious Savior, fulfill
that promise to us this morning because we need you. We need
your presence. We've enjoyed it, haven't we?
We've also shared in the past 10 years some sad times, and
I don't want to dwell on that. I don't want to cause any unnecessary
sorrow, but it's evident just looking around at the places
where those we loved sat, those places are now vacant. Happy
for them, sorry for us. Thinking along that line, I was reminded of the hymn on
page 75 of our hymn book, Abide With Me. Often when I'm choosing
hymns for our service, or sometimes not, I try to find the history of
that hymn. I think it's interesting. When
the hymn was written and so forth, like John Newton, oh, what a
wicked man, the captain of a slave ship. and then God saved him
and he writes amazing grace. Why wouldn't he? The man who
wrote Abide With Me, his name was Henry Francis Lytte, L-Y-T-E,
but he was a pastor. The last 24 years of his life,
he pastored a little congregation on the southern coast of England.
That man became an orphan at nine years old, but father had
left him, abandoned him. His mother and brother had died.
But anyway, he was always frail. He never did enjoy good health. It became so bad that a doctor
instructed him that he would need to move to a better climate. And he gave him this advice.
He said, you're dying of consumption. And the best thing you can do
is to move to a better climate. And he advised him to soak up
all the sun you can. It's your only hope of recovery.
Well, on the Sunday before he moved, the Sunday before he was
due to depart in September of 1847, he ascended his pulpit
for the last time. And of course, his congregation
knew it. They knew he was leaving. And his people wondered, because
he was so frail, so sickly, they wondered if he had the strength
to even speak to them one more time. And God gave him grace
to do it. He said this, among other things,
to his beloved flock. He said, I stand before you today
as a lie from the dead, that I may hope to impress upon you
to prepare for that solemn hour when we must all come to stand
before God. And he begged them, this biographer
said. He begged them once more to put
their trust in Jesus Christ. That was his last message. Now
I read several accounts of the history of the hymn and about
this man's life. One account said that he wrote
that hymn, Abide With Me, for that very occasion and included
it in his farewell address that Sunday morning. Another says
that he wrote to him after he gave that his last address, his
farewell address to the church, and wrote to him after he got
home that night. Whichever is accurate, whichever
is the case, it really doesn't matter, but it does shed light. Whichever it may have been, it
does shed light, I believe, and gives us a better appreciation
of that hymn with that background. The first verse of the hymn,
and the original had five verses, but abide with me. Fast falls the evening tide. The darkness deepens. Lord, with
me abide. When other helpers fail and comforts
flee, help of the helpless, oh, abide with me. Abide with me. Swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. Earth's joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay all around I
see. Oh, thou who changes not, abide
with me. There's our foundation. There's
our sure hope. An unchanging Savior. A changeless Savior. He went
on to write, I need thy presence every passing hour. Every moment
of every hour of every day. What but thy grace can foil the
tempter's power? Who like thyself my guide and
stay can be? Through cloud and sunshine, Lord,
abide with me. This is the verse that's omitted
from our version in our hymn book. I fear no foe with thee
at hand to bless. Eels have no weight and tears
no bitterness. Where is death's sting, where
grave thy victory? I triumph still if thou abide
with me. And the last verse. Hold thou
thy word before my closing eyes, shine through the gloom and point
me to the skies. Heaven's morning breaks, and
earth's vain shadows flee. That'll be all right. Heaven's morning breaks, and
earth's vain shadows flee. In life, in death, O Lord, abide
with me. We know. We know. We would be
lying if we denied it, the truth of that old hymn. Change and
decay is evident all around us, all around us. We see someone
that we hadn't seen for years, and we think within ourselves,
my, my, my, they're not aging well. And in our vanity, we think
we are. And they think the same thing
about us. Like the season, I think I saw
in the news yesterday, that Wednesday is the last day of summer. Fall
begins. And those beautiful flowers in
the backyard that Robin had me plant a few years ago, put it
here, put it there. Maybe my back will. One more,
one more. But they are beautiful. It was
worth the effort. In a few more days, they'll shrivel
and die, decay, and be gone. Such is our lives. Is it not so? Psalm 90 verses
5 and 6. Have you noticed in so many of
the Psalms and throughout Scripture, our life, the totality of our
life, is pictured as being one day. Just one day. Psalm 90 verses 5 and 6. Thou
carriest, that is God, thou carriest them away as with a flood. They
are as asleep in the morning. In the morning, the youth, the
youth of our life. In the morning they are like
grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes.
Oh, young, young. Remember when you thought 40
was old? I don't think that anymore, Terry. Oh, but in the morning
it flourishes. Young, vital. and groweth up,
but in the evening, in the evening, oh, from morning to evening,
so is her light. It is cut down and withereth
a single day. Likewise, Psalm 103, verses 15
and 16. As for man, his days are as grass,
as a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passeth
overeth, And it is gone. Gone. And the place thereof shall
know it no more. But. But. Because of our changeless
Savior, that's not all. That's not the end of the story. Again, from Psalm 103, verse
17, but. Oh, but. The mercy of the Lord is from
everlasting to everlasting. God's mercy like himself had
no beginning and it'll never end. Thy mercy of the Lord is
from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him and his
righteousness unto children's children. One more, Isaiah chapter
40. Isaiah chapter 40, verses 6 through
8. This is God's instruction to
his prophet. This is a picture, this was of
course to Isaiah, but it's also a prophecy of John the Baptist. The boy said, cry. And he said,
what shall I cry? All flesh. All flesh is grass. I am and you are. There are no
exceptions. All flesh is grass. And all the
goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. The grass withereth, the flower
fadeth. Because the Spirit of the Lord
bloweth upon it, surely the people is grass. The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth. But again, because Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever, that's not all. The prophet went on to say, But
the word of our God shall stand forever. The Word of our God
shall stand forever, and remember, remember, that Word that was
in the beginning with God, and that Word that was Himself God,
that same Word was made flesh and dwelt for a little while,
that Word, that eternal Word, that very expression of God Himself,
that One who bore the very image of God, was made flesh, and tabernacled
among us. And John said, we beheld his
glory, the glory as the only begotten of his Father, the Father
full of grace and truth. And that same one is who our
text speaks of. The same one that John saw. John
saw wrapped in flesh, made like unto his brethren. Because his
brethren were flesh and blood, he took part of the same in order
to redeem them. in order in the flesh to please
God and lay down His life for us. That same everlasting word
is the one our text speaks of. Jesus Christ the same. The same. Always the same. Eternally the
same. Yesterday. All my yesterdays,
He never changed. I changed. Oh, I'm up and I'm
down. And I'd like to say I won't do
that anymore. Oh, but I know I will. I know I will. So little faith, so little love,
so little appreciation, so little desire to know the true and living
God. Oh, but Jesus Christ is always
the same. The same yesterday, the day,
and forever. Consider first this blessed fact
of an unchanging Savior, our changeless Savior. That's the
truth. And what sweet comfort, we'll
think about that too. The sweet comfort of our changeless
Savior. And then, the sure victory of
our changeless Savior. First consider this blessed fact.
Was there a program, I think there was, I'm sure there was,
it was, what was it, Dragnet? Those two detectives? And they
would be investigating the case. They would always say, now, just
the facts, please. They would be speaking to the
witnesses, and they would go off track, and they would say,
just the facts, please. I think that's right, isn't it?
Well, here's the fact. Here's the glorious fact. Here's
the truth, the eternal, everlasting truth. Jesus Christ is our changeless
Savior. Look at that verse again. Look
at it again. Just feast your eyes upon it. Look at it. And pray that God
would impress it upon your heart. Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
and today, and forever. If there is one, if there is
one that I most need never to change, never to change, it's
this one. my great God and Savior. Is that
not right? Who is more important to me than
Him? Whom do I need more than Him? If you, if you cease to love
me, now that's hard to imagine anybody not loving me, but if
you should cease to love me, if you would cease to be my friend,
it would hurt. It would hurt. but it won't determine
where I spend eternity. Now if you decide I don't like
you, don't want you around anymore, don't let the door hit you on
the way out, that would hurt, but it wouldn't determine where
I spend eternity. It won't determine my acceptance
before a holy God. It won't determine whether I
hear Him say, enter into the joy or depart into everlasting
darkness. Oh, but my relationship to the
Lord Jesus Christ does determine all those things. If Jesus Christ
ever stops loving me, if Jesus Christ ever stops caring for
me, if He ever changes in any way toward me, I'm a doomed man. I'm a goner. I'm a goner. And so is everyone that ever
trusted him. Oh, but this blessed promise,
this glorious fact of our changeless Savior tells us that's impossible. Jesus Christ cannot change. He was who he was yesterday,
today, and he will be forever. He's everlastingly God. Is it
Psalms 90? The song of Moses that said,
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. He was saying this,
thou art everlastingly God. There's never been a time that
you weren't. Malachi 3, the last prophet of
the Old Testament says, For I am the Lord, I change not," our
God says in Malachi 3 and 6. I am the Lord, I change not. Well, why would He? Why would
He? I mean, we change either for
the better or for the worse. We change our mind. Because I
remember seeing a truck somewhere one time and they had this advertisement. We fix what your husband broke.
Call us. We have to back up. We have to
change our plans. We do things wrong. We make mistakes. Not God. Not our Savior. He doesn't change. He's already
perfect. He's perfect. Why would He change? He's the perfect God. And He's
perfect man. We join with the bride of Solomon's
song and say concerning our great God and Savior, He's altogether
lovely. I don't see any flaw in Him.
He's perfect. He's perfect. He's everything
I need. He's perfect righteousness. He's
perfect in every way. He's the perfect reason I stand
before God. He's a perfect savior. He's the
perfect shepherd. He's the perfect mediator. Everything
he does, everything he is, everything he'll ever do is perfect. That's why God says, I'm well
pleased in him. And he never said that about
anybody else. Abraham was the friend of God.
David was a man after God's own heart. Enoch walks with God,
but only of Jesus Christ did God Almighty look down from heaven
and say, listen, I'm well pleased in Him. In Him, I am well pleased. Here ye in. And brothers and
sisters, in Christ, in Christ, He's well pleased with us as
well. Numbers 23, verse 19. God is not a man that he should
lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Has he said,
and shall he not do it? Has he spoken, and shall he not
make it good? He's as good as his word. Isaiah
45. You're familiar with these verses.
Isaiah 45 verse 4. I am the Lord, and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I
girded thee, though thou did not know me. that they may know
from the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none
beside me, I am the Lord, and there is none else, our changeless
Savior. I form light and create darkness.
I make peace and create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. And because He's our changeless,
great God and Savior, we read this, but Israel shall be saved
in the Lord. Paul said in Romans 11, so all
Israel shall be saved. Not that little nation. No, all
God's people. All God's true people. Jew, Gentile,
all the elect of God. Israel shall be saved in the
Lord with an everlasting salvation. Ye shall not be ashamed. Paul sat in that dungeon cell
and he said, this has come to pass. For as man is concerned
because of the preaching of the gospel, but he said, I'm not
ashamed. I'm not ashamed. I know whom I have believed.
Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation
and you shall not be ashamed or confounded world without end. This truth of a changeless Savior
means this. He's always my mighty God. He's always my faithful shepherd. He's always the prince of peace. There's never been a time, there
will never be a time that anything is too hard for him. If it's
true that he himself is the truth, and he is, then with him nothing,
nothing is impossible. Never, never. Oh my soul, that
thought, that thought, if God would be pleased to impress it
upon our hearts, must resort in us bowing down before Him
and exclaiming, Hallelujah, what a Savior! Never? He's never failed
at anything He put His hand to? Never one time? Never? And He never will. You can stamp this at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ, he shall not fail. Never. If God's committed all the sheep
into the hand of the shepherd, he shall not fail. He will bring
them all to glory. He will resent them without thought
before the throne of God. He's our changeless Savior. Who's going to stop him? Who's
going to prevent him? And as we often have heard it
said, and sadly it's true, especially true of this man that's trying
to preach to you, we don't always trust him. Oh, for grace to trust
him more, but he's always trustworthy, isn't he? He's always trustworthy. He's never let me down. Oh, I've
let him down, but he's never let me down. Therefore, therefore,
with such a great God, such a changeless Savior, He says, look unto Me
and be ye saved. Look unto Me, only Me. Come unto Me. People think they
can come to God and take a detour around Jesus Christ. People do
it all the time. I hope none of us have. They
think they can detour Christ, come to God through five points
of Calvinism. through the water, through the
doctrine, through my orthodoxy. No, Christ said, no, no, no,
no, no. Look unto me. Look unto me. And he said, come
unto me and find rest. Are you thirsty, Christ said?
Come to me. Oh, my soul, there's a difference.
We can know that salvation is of the Lord. We can know that
here, but never have experienced it in our heart. Oh, may God
never allow such a thing to be. Look unto me, he said, and be
ye saved. We can't be saved by looking
to anything other but Him. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified, and shall glow red. There's the fact. The
blessed, sweet truth of a changeless Savior. And these things are
blended together, aren't they? Here's another thought. the sweet
comfort of that truth of a changeless Savior. The fact is, I am the
Lord, I change not. And that's just not dead orthodoxy. The immutability of the Son of
God is not just a matter for theologians to sit around and
discuss and dissect and analyze and scrutinize until it becomes
as dead and dry as they are themselves. Oh no, this is a glorious truth.
This is something I can fall down on. When I'm lying up on
my bed at night and I'm in a sleep just won't come. When I'm tossed
to and fro like a vessel on a stormy sea, oh here, here's my pillow. Here's my pillow. The Son of
God loves me no matter what I think. No matter what I'm passing through,
the Son of God loves me and He's promised. He's staked His honor. He's staked His reputation on
it. I'll never leave you, Lord, and
I'll never forsake you. And if He does, if He does, the
fault will be His. It will reflect upon Him, not
me. Not me. Oh, that can never happen. That can never happen. There
are some glorious therefores associated with this blessed
truth of a changeless Savior. I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Therefore, because He is the
Lord that changes not, He is our ever-faithful, good, great
Shepherd. He says, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give them eternal life.
and they shall never perish. They shall never perish. Neither
shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Thank God that he's
able, always able, never unable, to save to the uttermost all
that come unto God by him." I like that word, uttermost, don't you?
As much as I need saving, he'll save me. From the dominion of
sin, the penalty of sin, and one day, one day, from the very
presence of sin. No sin in heaven, oh, but more,
no sin in me. Oh, what a mighty, mighty Savior
He is. We read in John, John's Gospel,
chapter 13, before our Lord went to the garden where Judas would
be trained Verse 1 of that chapter says, Now before the feast of
the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that
He should depart out of the world unto the Father, having loved
His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. He
loved them from eternity past, and He'll love them for eternity
to come. He'll never stop loving His own. Never. Never. There's nothing
that I can do that can make Him stop loving me? How about that? Behold what matter
of love that the Father hath bestowed upon us. The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Here's another blessed, therefore.
Therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. These are
infallible therefores because they come from the lips of our
infallible God, our unchanging Savior. It is true. As long as we are
in this flesh, as long as we're in this world, in this life, child of God, there'll never
be a time that we won't join with the Apostle in confessing
and crying out, O wretched man that I am. That's so. That's
just so. But this is also true. Jesus
Christ is able to save me, able to keep me, and able to bring
me to glory. He's my Savior. He's my Savior. That's His business. Call His
name Jesus. Why? Because He shall save. He
shall save. Everything necessary, everything
God requires, everything it takes, He shall do. He shall save His
people from their sins. That's why He's called Jesus. I'm sure I've shared with you
this story. If I remember right, I read it
from a sermon that Mr. Spurgeon prayed. One time in this village, there
was a woodworker. He lay dying. And the village
priest came to visit him. And he comes in and this poor
dying man, this so-called priest, comes in and holds up a wooden
crucifix and says, behold, you're a god. And that poor man looked
and said, my god. My god, I made that. I made that. So sad. that so many people have
done the same thing today. They've carved out a God, not
out of wood, not out of stone, but out of their own imaginations.
David in Psalm 115 describes that very thing, doesn't he?
He says, their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They that make them are like
them, so is everyone that trusteth in them. A God that requires
my help, In order to save me is an idol, a figment of my imagination. It's the work of a man's hand.
It's a man-made God. I imagine those that our Lord
spoke of in Matthew 7 that stand before him, a multitude, were
trusting an idol. And they hear him say, depart
from me. Oh, what a time to find out that
they were trusting another Jesus. Thank God, thank God for the
precious gift of faith that He gave to you and I to behold His
Son. Christ is the light, my pastor
wrote, but only He can give you light. Christ is the door, but
only He can open the door. Christ is the way, but only He
can put you in the way. Christ is the truth, but only
He can teach you the truth. Christ is the life, but only
He can give you life. Christ is the one we must see,
but only He can enable us to see. Yes, we must look to Him
if we would live, but He alone can cause the blind to see. If
we would know the Savior, He must reveal Himself to us. That's
just the fact. That's just the fact. You can say it under the gospel,
not another gospel, but the gospel. All your life long, you can hear
it, you can understand it intellectually, but until God Almighty turns
the light on, unless God Almighty is pleased to reveal His Son
to you and in you, you'll sit in darkness all your life. Oh,
if that is so, and it is, that's what the book teaches, How thankful
we are if we can say with Peter, in answer to our Lord's question,
whom do men say that I am? And Peter said, you're the Christ.
You're the Christ. Can you say that? What else much
matters then? Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood is not revealed unto you, but my Father, which
art in heaven. J.C. Philpott said, when one
is spiritually reborn, he sees at one and the same moment God
himself, justice and guilt, power and helplessness, the holy law
and the broken commandment, eternity and time, the purity of the creator
and the filthiness of the creature. And all these things he sees,
not merely as declared in the Bible, but as revealed in himself
as a personal reality. I'm the man. I'm the man, David
said. I'm the man. I'm the sinner. Oh, but what unspeakable joy
when God brings us down to that state and we know it's not a
matter of doctrine. I know in my heart
I'm the sinner. That's what I am. It's not just
what I do, that's what I am. And if I'll never say it, God'll
have to do it. God'll have to do it. Oh, depth
of mercy, can there be? Remember that? Oh, depth of mercy,
can there be? Mercy's still reserved for me.
Can my God His wrath forbearing me, the chief of sinners, spare
me? And then he turned the light on. Look unto me and be ye saved. And he made the light the shine
of the darkness to reveal in your souls the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. And now we join with David in
that sweet song in declaring, oh, the Lord is my shepherd. Move over, David. Move over. He's not just your shepherd. He's my shepherd. He leadeth
me beside the still waters. He restores my soul. He prepares
the table before me in the presence of my name. And surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. And I, wonder
of wonders, I, this sinner, will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever. Forever. Praise God from whom
all blessings flow. Let me wrap this up. We mentioned
this sweet, sweet promise concerning the victory of our great God
and Savior, our changeless Savior, that He shall not fail. Psalm
107, it says, He setteth the poor on high. As He Himself was
highly exalted and given a name above every name, The psalmist
says concerning those who believe in him, he setteth the portal
high. How high? How high? An old preacher
wrote this. How high? Above the reach of
the curse, which shall never touch them. Above the power of
Satan, which shall never ruin them. Above the reigning influence
of sin, which shall not have dominion over them. Above the
possibility of being banished from his presence, for Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Thank
God for our changeless Savior. All that the Father giveth me,
he said, shall come to me. And him that cometh unto me I
will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. To Him, the only wise God our
Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now
and forever. Amen. Let me close this. These are the words of an old
Puritan named Thomas Brooks. This is good instruction. He
wrote, in times of crosses and losses and miseries, It's the
wisdom of believers to look more upon the crown than upon the
cross, to dwell more upon the glory than upon the misery, to
eye more the brazen serpent which is lifted up than the fiery serpent
which bites and stings. You remember, after our Lord's
resurrection, we read in Luke chapter 24 that there were two
disciples walking along brokenhearted and sad, just as confused as
they can be, concerning the death of Christ. And our Lord joins
them in their walk to Emmaus. And as they drew nigh unto the
village, we read in Luke 24, whither they went, and he made
that is Christ, as though he would have gone further, they
constrained him, saying, Abide with us, abide with us, for it
is toward evening, and the day is far spent. Abide with us,
remember when I mentioned about our life being a day, morning
and evening, and then it's gone. Abide with us, for it is toward
evening, and the day is far, far spanned. Abide with me. Fast falls the evening tide.
The darkness deepens. Lord, with me abide. When other
helpers fail and comforts flee, help of the helpless, oh, abide
with me. God, help us to remember, as
we journey through this world, that we are never alone. I feel
like I am at times, I do too, but it's not true. Here's the
word of your great changeless shepherd. I will never leave
you. I will never forsake you. Jesus
Christ the same yesterday and today and forever. God bless
you.