Verse 31, heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away. Now pass away is used to describe
death, isn't it? They've passed away. Now, I want you to think about
this. I want me to think about this. Everything that we can see and
everything that we can touch is going to pass away. Everything material, every fleshly
relationship, whatever it might be, is going to pass away. The songwriter said, change and
decay in all around I see. O thou that changest not, abide
with me. Now the fact that his words shall
not pass away. He said everything else is gonna
pass away. But my words shall not pass away. This is grounded in who he is. He didn't say God's words shall
not pass away. He said my words shall not pass
away. The reason they're not going
to pass away is they're grounded in His deity. I love saying this,
Jesus is God. I don't know of anything I like
saying more than that. Jesus Christ is God Almighty,
the blessed and only potentate, the Lord of lords. and the king
of kings. And his words shall not pass
away because they're his words. His words shall not pass away
as grounded in his immutability. I want to read a passage of scripture
from Hebrews chapter one, beginning in verse 10. Thou Lord in the
beginning has laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens
are the work of thine hands. They shall perish, but thou remainest. They all shall wax old, as doth
a garment. You've seen an old garment that
you fold up and put away. Everything is gonna wax old. Like a garment, as a vesture,
shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed, but thou
art the same. and thy years shall not fail. Jesus Christ the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Now I say this, I hope with reference,
but do you know that the Lord Jesus Christ is utterly predictable? He's always going to be. who
He is. And He is always going to act
in accordance with who He is. He's utterly predictable in that
sense. Now, I'm not saying I know what
the Lord's doing in Providence and I can predict this and predict
that. I don't know, but I do know this. The Lord Jesus Christ
is utterly and completely predictable because He's immutable. He does
not change. Utterly faithful. Now, in the
context of him making this statement, we read in verse 25, and the
stars of the heaven shall fall and the powers that are in heaven
should be shaken. Everything that we think is stable
is not stable. That's the point, I mean, men
out on the sea, they look at the stars to navigate which direction
they're going. They're fixed, so they think,
and we can't mess up here if we follow this. Yeah, you can. Those shall be shaken. And then we read in verse 26,
and then shall they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds. with great power and glory. Speaking of the second coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, even so come Lord Jesus. And then shall he send his angels
and shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from
the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven.
I love the way the Lord says that. Who's he coming for? His
elect. Who's he gonna gather? His elect. Who's He gonna save? His elect. I'm so thankful for God's election. I wouldn't be saved if it was
not for God's election. Verse 28, now learn a parable
of the fig tree. When her branch is yet tender
and putteth forth her leaves, you know that summer is near.
So ye in like manner, when you shall see these things come to
pass, know that it's nigh. even at the doors. Verily I say
unto you, that this generation shall not pass, till all these
things be done. Heaven and earth shall pass away,
but my words shall not pass away. Peter tells us that the day of
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, and the elements
shall melt with a fervent heat, and the earth and the works therein
shall be burned up. As I said, everything you can
see, everything you can touch, it's all going to be burned,
even the elements. There was a time when they thought
elements could not be destroyed, but they can. They shall melt
with a fervent heaped the works thereof, and gonna be burned
up. You see, his word, while everything
else is gonna pass away, his word is not going to pass away. God said that he has magnified
his word above all his name. Now I wish I could comment on
that. I'm better off just reading it and adoring what he says. Thou hast magnified thy word
above all thy name. David said, forever, O Lord,
thy word is settled. Settled. in the heavens. The Lord said in John 6, 63,
it's the spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. My words shall not pass
away. Turn with me for a moment to Isaiah chapter 40. The voice, verse six, the voice
said, cry. And he said, what shall I cry? This is a good place to be whenever
I'm thinking, what should I say? What should I preach? What should
I cry? Well, he gives a definite Word
to cry. The voice said, cry, and he said,
what shall I cry? All flesh. Now that's me and
you. That's us as we're born into
this world. All flesh. Kings, peasants, rich
people, poor people, educated, uneducated, Influential, unknown,
intelligent, not very intelligent, religious, unreligious, irreligious,
my flesh, your flesh, all flesh is grass. We've got a Herbie Kirby, and
that's how valuable the grass is. It's just thrown away. And look what he says next. The goodliness thereof is as
the flower of the field. Now, Lynn loves fresh flowers. We have them in our home all
the time. Roses, there's three or four different pots or vases
right now with fresh flowers in them. Lynn loves fresh flowers. And they're beautiful. I love
to look at them. But give them a couple of weeks,
and all of a sudden they get a little brown tinge on them.
And they're not quite as pretty as they used to be. As beautiful
as they were, they're going downhill. Give them another week, and they're
ugly, they're disgusting, you want them out of the house, they're
thrown away. That flower that was so beautiful,
is now so ugly. You take the best flesh, the
goodliest flesh, the best man, and here is his end. Now, I'm not talking like human
life is of no value. We were created in the image
of God, and every life is valuable. I believe that. Everybody should
be respected. We should not be disrespectful
toward anybody. That being said, All flesh is
grass. And all the goodliness thereof
is like the flower of the grass. The flower fades. It withers. But what endures? Look what he says. Verse seven,
the grass withers. The flower fades because the
spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it. Surely the people is grass. The grass withers. The flower
faded, but The word of our God shall stand forever. Christ is the word of God and
he tells us that his words shall never pass away. Thy word is truth, being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the
word of God. His words shall not pass away. Now, here's the only thing that
is stable. What he says, not what you feel.
I love that song, feelings come, feelings go. Feelings are deceiving. My word is the word of God. Nought else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel
condemned for want of some sweet token, there is one greater than
my heart, whose word cannot be broken. I'll trust in God's unchanging
word till soul and body sever, For though all things shall pass
away, his word shall stand forever. That's the only sure foundation.
Any foundation we come up with, I read somewhere where a man
made this statement about men. He said, every man has their
feet firmly planted in the air. What's that mean? Well, you ever
watch the football game when A fella jumps up, say, to get
a pass, and somebody crushes him, and he doesn't have any
footing. He gets knocked backwards, flipped
all over. He has nothing to make him stand. Every man, me and
you, our feet are planted firmly in the air. We can get knocked
back and forth so easily. But his word abides forever. They shall not pass away. Now what I'd like to do is look
at four or five things that will not pass away. Would you turn
with me to Matthew chapter five? Verse 17. Think not. You know every time the Lord
says think not, we gotta think about what he's saying. He's
saying don't think this way. Think not that I'm come to destroy
the law or the prophets. I'm not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one till shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Now he's talking about
God's holy law, the law he revealed to Moses on Sinai, the Ten Commandments
and all the commandments that go along with that. But he's
talking about everything he said, everything he said is law. And
it's all going to be fulfilled. All the threats, every one of
them will be fulfilled. All the punishments threatened,
they're all going to take places. All the promises of reward for
obedience, they're all going to take place. And they all took
place in the Lord Jesus Christ. He made the way for the law to
be honored and fulfilled and the way for God to be just. Oh,
I hope this isn't something that just goes over our head and we
don't think about the glory of this. He's made the way for God
to be just, absolutely just, absolutely holy, consistent with
his holy law, and yet justify somebody like me or you. When
he said, I'll be by no means clear of the guilty, he's made
a way for me to be not guilty. all the law shall be fulfilled. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. Now what I thought about is that
publican. in the temple, beating on his
breast, and who can know what all was on his mind when he was
saying this, but he said, God, be merciful, be propitious, be
gracious to me, the sinner. That's all he saw himself as,
is the sinner, not just a sinner, the sinner, the worst man to
ever live. And you know what the Lord Jesus
Christ said about that man? He said, I tell you, that man
went down to his house. justified, sinless, without guilt,
with a perfect standing before God's holy law. I love the law of God, don't
you? I love everything in the law of God. I remember hearing
one person say, since the gospel's here, we might as well throw
the Ten Commandments in the trash can. I love God's law. And I'm not afraid of God's law
because I've kept God's law in Jesus Christ. I'm not a law breaker,
I'm a law keeper in the Lord Jesus Christ and everything that
he said in his law shall take place. Turn to Matthew chapter
26. Verse 37. And he took with him Peter and
the two sons of Zebedee, James and John, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Now this is a sorrow and a heaviness
that you and I don't know anything about. Then he said unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tear ye here and
watch with me. And he went a little further
and fell on his face. This is the Son of God. He fell on his face and prayed,
saying, O my Father, If it be possible, let this cup pass from
me. If it be possible. If there's
any way it can be done. You say, well, how, if he's the
son of God, how can he pray something like that? If he already knew
it, he did. If it be possible, let this cup
pass from me. Now, here's my question. Was
it possible for this cup to pass from him? Well, first, before we answer
that question, what was in that cup? Now, this is so Mysterious,
is there something when I'm talking about it, I feel so completely
unqualified to talk about it, but I'm saying this because I
see it's in the scripture, I believe it. Do I enter into it? Of course not, neither does any
other human being. But I know what was in that cup. The cup
was the sins of the elect. It wasn't just punishment. My
sin, my individual sins, The sins of all of his people were
in that cup. Now, it doesn't bother us anywhere
near as it should because we're used to sin. Scripture says man
drinks iniquity like water. And we've drunk plenty of sin
and it hadn't really bothered us. But this is the holy son
of God. And you think of the most disgusting,
nauseating thing that you could think of to drink, whatever it
is. that would be nothing compared to what the son felt as he knew
he was called upon to drink up the sins of his people. And that's
how he bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He didn't just
bear punishment. He bore our sins. He drank that
cup and those sins came into him. And the scripture says he
bare our own sins in his body. They were in His body. And He
looked at that cup. And He said, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from Me. But the fact of the matter is,
it was not possible. Not for Me and you to be saved.
It was not possible. You see, this is God's eternal
purpose. Christ is called the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. This is God's eternal purpose. Now I try to think, how did the
father feel when his son said to him, oh father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me? How did the father feel? I don't
know, but I can't even imagine it. Yet the father knew it was
not possible. Now, if it were possible, and
God could have saved some other way, you'd think He would have
done it to keep His Son from going through all that. But it
was not possible. And when He saw, before He even
drank the cup, when He saw the contents of that cup, the Scripture
says He sweat great drops of blood. And as the angels came and strengthened
Him, He said in John chapter 18, the cup that my father has
given me to drink, shall I not drink it? And that is precisely
what took place on Calvary's tree. And for me or you to be
saved, no That cup could not pass from him for the father's
will to be done. No, that cup could not pass from
him. He did it out of love to his
father. He did it out of love to his people. I stand amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He could
love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. Turn to 2 Corinthians
5. Verse 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become
new. Now, my old nature hadn't passed
away. It will one of these days. When
I die, I won't deal with it anymore. But my old man, my old nature
is still here and he's just as bad and he's just as strong as
he ever was. I'm not saying that simply because
I've heard other people say it. I know it's the fact with regard
to me. My old nature has not passed away. It will, but it
hasn't yet. But the old covenant, the covenant
of works, is passed away. It's dead. It has no power. It's gone. My old standing is
guilty before the broken law of God has passed It means it's
dead. That means it's gone. That means it is no more. My
old relationship with the law as my husband has passed away. Now, I love God's law. God's
law was a rough husband. All it could do is point out
fault. All it could do is expose sin. It was a husband I couldn't satisfy. It was a husband that was always
displeased with me. It was a husband that had the
white gloves on and would find out everything that I'd left
out, everything that I had not done. But you know, he's dead. And now I am married to the Lord
Jesus Christ. My old husband has passed away. The Lord said, behold, I make
all things new. Now, because Christ makes all
things new, you know what that means? That means I have a new
history. All my past is passed away. I have a new history. And when He says all things have
become new, that means this cannot be reversed. I cannot go back
to my old history. The former things are passed
away. Now, when the Lord defeated Satan,
when Satan tempted Him those three times, I did too. I won. I just beat the devil. And I
say that very carefully. It's because the Lord beat the
devil, not me. But when he did, I did. When he kept the law,
I did. When he died, I did. When he was raised from the dead,
I was raised from the dead. Where were you when He lived? In Him. Where were you when He
died? In Him. Where were you when He
was raised from the dead? In Him. Where are you as He's
seated at the right hand of the Father, even right now? In Him. My personal history is His story. As he is, 1 John 4, 17, as he
is, so are we in this world. Now here's how complete this
is. This is how irreversible it is. This is how it can't be
anything but this. Paul said, for whom he did foreknow,
Them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom
he called, them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. Now, if I'm glorified, I'm glorified. That cannot be reversed. That cannot pass away. Heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. I am the way, and that will never
pass away. I am the truth. I love the way
the Lord says that I am the truth and that shall not pass away. I am the life. He's my life before God. And
that shall not pass away. It is finished. That shall not pass away. Now, when he says my words shall not
pass away, there's only one conclusion. They won't pass away. Now in closing, I want to use
this word same Greek word. It's used in a little bit of
a different sense, but it's so glorious. There was a man by
the name of Bartimaeus. He was a blind man. He was the
son of a beggar. And he could not see. And he was set by the highway
begging. every day. Now one day as he
was begging, he heard a story of Jesus of Nazareth giving sight
to one who was born blind. And he knew instantly he's the
Messiah. The Messiah will give sight to
the blind. He is the Messiah. And he thought
to himself, if he ever comes this way, oh, how I'm going to
cry. Well, one day as he was sitting
there begging, he heard a commotion. He says, what's this all about?
And somebody said, Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. That's the word. And what did
he do immediately? Jesus! Thou son of David, have
mercy on me. Now, let me remind you about
this thing of mercy. Mercy is only for those whose
sin is all their fault. If you're a victim, if your sin
somehow is not your fault, You don't need mercy, you need justice.
That's what you need. If you've been falsely accused,
you don't need mercy, you need justice. If what you did is not
all that bad, you don't need mercy, you need justice. But if your sin is all your fault,
every bit of it, what you need is mercy. And do you know, when
he began to cry out for mercy, the scripture says, Jesus stood
still. Now, if you tell him about how
you're going to straighten up, if you tell him about how you're
going to reform your life, and if you tell him anything, he's
gonna keep going. He's not gonna listen to you.
He's not gonna pay a bit of attention to it. But any sinner who ever
asks for mercy, they really believe they're guilty. That's all they
can say about themselves. Don't say anything else. Don't
say have mercy on me because I'm sorry and I promise not. No, don't say anything like that.
Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. There had never been anybody
in the history of the universe that prayed that prayer that
he turned down. Jesus, thou son of David, have
mercy on me. He always stops when he hears
that cry. Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. Pass me not, O tender Savior,
Hear my humble cry, while on others thou art calling, do not
pass me by. Trusting only in thy merit, would
I seek thy face, heal my wounded, broken spirit, save me by thy
grace. Savior, Savior, hear my humble
cry, while on others thou art calling, do not pass me by. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
words that shall not pass away. How we thank you for your fulfillment
of your holy law in our behalf, that it's not put asunder, but that it's honored
and fulfilled. How we thank you that you were
willing and that you did drink that cup, that it did not pass
away, to put away our sins. How we thank you that Our old
standing of works and our guilt has passed away to never be brought
up again, and that we're complete in our son. How we thank you
that the Lord is our husband, who will never divorce us. Lord, how we thank you that you
hear the cry for mercy. And Lord, we ask in Christ's
name that you would be merciful to us for Christ's sake. In his
name we pray, amen.