We will be in Hebrews chapter
13. Hebrews chapter 13. Everything, everything that we
see around us is changing. Everything that we see around
us is changing, it's decaying, it's going back to, all men are
going back to the dust from which they came. Everything around
us is changing, except for one thing, the word of God. Now it is true that the written
word is on paper and bound by leather, most of them are imitation
leather, and therefore it too will vanish as far as the physical
copy. But the Word of God is unchangeable. The Word of God is unchangeable.
It's forever settled in heaven. What comfort do we have as the
Lord's people knowing that what he has spoken cannot be undone? Cannot be undone. Not by you. Not by me. Not by anyone. Not by powers or principalities.
Not by angels. The Lord has spoken. He's forever
settled in heaven. His word is unchangeable. You
know why his word is unchangeable? Because God's unchangeable. I've
titled this message Our Unchangeable God. Our Unchangeable God. Let's read this together. Hebrews
13, verse seven through nine. Remember them which have the
rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose
faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Jesus
Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Be not carried about
with the diverse and strange doctrines, for it is good thing
that the heart be established with grace, not with meats, which
have not profited them that have been occupied therein. First, I would like to address
verse one. And this is a verse that's actually
used, and several verses are used, as to browbeat the sheep. To say, look at me, I'm in charge. Pastors saying, I'm in charge,
I'm the boss, I'm the king out of attitude. Yeah, that's contrary
to scripture. You won't find that anywhere.
The Lord never said to do that. Well, the Lord say, Peter, do
you love me? Feed my sheep. That's what he said. Feed my
sheep. That word rule doesn't mean rule
and reign like a king with authority or a dictator. Um, it means to
guide or to lead. That's what it means to guide
or to lead. If you ever hear a man preaching,
say pastors are in rule over the church and everyone should
submit. That's a misinterpretation of scripture. We're one body
together with one heart. You knit together under Christ
one voice that says Christ gets all the glory. We're the same
in that regard, aren't we? And that's the Lord's church.
There's no one man that's over us except for the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's over all. God's pastors do not beat up
people over They don't obligate people. They don't use the pulpit
to promote themselves, nor do they use it in order to get service. Well, you should be doing this,
and you should be doing that, and you should do this better
and that better. If we come across a passage that says something,
clearly I will bring it out, but the message is Christ. The message is Christ. We preach
Christ crucified and ourself servants. There's the word. Servants, not only to each other,
But for yourself, for Christ's sake, service for the Lord's
sake, because he's our servant. He was our servant, wasn't he?
My responsibility is to feed the Lord's sheep, declaring the
finished work of Christ faithfully. No pulpit should ever be used
to promote self or demand service from the people that's in the
congregation. No pastor should ever have his hand out saying,
woe is me. There should always be, Christ
should be the focal point of every single message, every single
message. That's what feeds the sheep,
the gospel, the bread of life, the bread of life. This is not my pulpit. and this is not your pulpit,
this is God's pulpit. This is not your church and this
is not my church, this is God's church. Thank God he allowed
us to be here together and to have it together in the sense
of keeping it and the upkeep of it. I am to guard this pulpit
because of the charge that's been given to me, but my responsibility
is to declare Christ. This is in the passage here,
verse seven, and so that's why we're dealing with it this morning.
and I don't wanna spend too much time on it, but my hope is that
the Lord will allow me to faithfully declare the gospel each and every
time I stand here. And for every man that stands
in this pulpit, that they would faithfully declare the gospel
of Jesus Christ. If we do fail in that, we have
failed in everything. We've failed in everything. But
he tells us how to faithfully declare. In verse seven, he says,
remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken
unto you the word of God. Preach the word. That's what
Paul told Timothy. Preach the word. Be instant in season, out
of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with
all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when men
will not endure sound doctrine, but heed to themselves teachers
having itching ears. See, the Lord has already warned
us these will be turned to fables because they go away from the
truth. So if the man that's saying he's a man of God is not preaching
the gospel, he's no man of God. He's no man of God. He says that
we preach the gospel. Now, what he's saying here, those
who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow,
considering the end of their conversation, whose faith follow.
So what he's saying is, is the preacher of the gospel's life
should reflect the gospel that he's preaching. Now, what do
I mean by that? That means if I preach grace alone, if I preach
Christ is all in salvation, and yet, when I get outside of this
building, I start talking more about legalism, and I start saying,
well, you need to be doing this better, and you need to be doing
that better. That's not looking to Christ as all, looking to
grace as all. You have to live what you preach.
We don't just preach it and then not believe it outside the pulpit. There's some that do that. There's
some that do that. And they sow discord by trying
to weasel their way in and putting people under the law again. And
that's not the responsibility of the pastor. Whenever we leave,
No matter where I see you, we should be able to have the same
conversation that we're having right now. I know I'm doing all
the speaking, but it's Christ is all. Christ is all. Oh, I
can't believe I saw so-and-so down there. I'm gonna go talk
to them and tell them, oh, you don't need to be doing that.
You don't need to be doing this. Christ is all. Christ is all. We look to him to order and provide. That's what he means by, that's
what I meant by the life should reflect it. You can't just turn
around and promote legalism after preaching Christ. Therefore,
man preaches the gospel. He says, consider the end of
the conversation. Then he gives us the end of the
conversation. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. That's the end of the conversation. That
should be the beginning of the conversation and the end of the
conversation. That's what he's saying. That's what he's saying
here. And I love the conversation where
it actually means conduct and behavior, conduct and behavior.
So you should see in, we do see in each other, we're not trying
to have, we're not trying to show it forth, but we love to
talk about our savior. We love to talk about the finished
work. We love pointing each other to Christ. And he's done that
because of the love that he's knit in our heart together, together. And so what is our conduct? Well,
we talk about him when we're together, don't we? We tell each
other how good he is. We point each other to Christ.
This is what he's talking about. We don't add to the grace of
God. We still speak the same. And then he says these words, which
I struggled with a little bit studying. He says, whose faith
follow? So you're supposed to follow
my faith? No, the object. The object of our faith, that's
who we follow, we follow after Christ together. Together we
follow after him because he is faithful, that's promised. We
don't look to a man and exalt him. And sure, we can esteem,
I esteem my pastor Greg highly, but that's not what this is about
here. It's saying you have to have
the same focal point. You have to have the, he has
to, the message that the man preaches has to match up with
how he talks outside of preaching. And he also, he's saying if he's
looking to Christ and he's trying to lead you to Christ, and Paul
said it this way, as I follow Christ, follow me. Don't look
to me. Follow after Christ, that's the point. If I'm following him,
we can follow him together, can't we? Follow him together. Paul said, follow me as I follow
Christ. Now if anyone, if I, and I'm
talking about myself now, if I or anyone else speak something
contrary to the truth, don't believe it. Don't receive it.
Just because a certain man that you might care for says it, doesn't
make it right. Make sure the Lord's the one that said it.
Make sure it's the truth. Don't be deceived. Galatians
1.8, Paul says this, these are some strong words. He said, though,
but though we or an angel from heaven, think about that, an
angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that
which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed, cut off,
doomed, damned. That's what it means. Lord's
very serious about his gospel. This is why we have come together,
is to hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that he might
be glorified and magnified, not to exalt the flesh in any way,
nor do we do it outside of the church or the pulpit. That's
right, that's what he's saying to us. We don't glorify ourself,
we're looking to him. There's but one Lord, one faith,
one baptism, same as it's always been. Now he gives us the reason that
Christ should be our focal point. Every one of us are aging. Every
one of us is changing. And every year that passes, we
get a year older. That's true, isn't it? And why
do I say that? Because if your focal point is
on me, or my focal point is on you, you're going to change.
I'm going to change. What should our focal point be
on? Well, he tells us, verse eight, Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, the same today, and the same forever. That should
be the focal point. He should be the object of our
affection. He should be the object of our desire. He should be the
object of our focus. Why? He's unchangeable. He won't
let you down. I may let you down, you may let
each other down. The Lord won't ever let you down. He promised
never to leave us. That's in the same chapter here. The Lord never leave us nor forsake
us. He'll go with us all the way up into the end. He is unchangeable,
therefore his message is unchangeable. What was God's message from the
beginning in the past? Was it not Jesus Christ? Was
it not Jesus Christ? Why? Because Christ is the same
yesterday. He's the same yesterday. What's
God's message today? Is it not Jesus Christ? Why?
Because Jesus Christ is the same today. Yesterday, today, and
what's his message always going to be? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever and ever. This is an everlasting message.
It's never gonna end. Never gonna end. And he says, I don't like coming
to church very much. Well, you're gonna hate heaven
because the message in heaven is the same. Jesus Christ, the
same yesterday, today, and forever. You can read in Revelation where
they say, worthy is the Lamb, all glory and honor and power
and praise to the Lamb forever. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God Almighty. In the Old Testament, whether
he's seen in the sacrifices, the blood of sprinkling, the
Sabbaths, Offerings, it's Jesus Christ. And he's the same now,
it's his blood now, it's his sacrifice now, he is our Sabbath,
it's all him. All the pictures and types, it's
all him, he's seen the same. He's seen the same, he is the
message that we must declare. Only when we preach Christ, him
crucified, only when we preach his gospel, honor that. If I preach anything, what did
Paul say? If I preach anything else, well he said himself, if
you hear any other gospel let him be accursed. Paul is including
himself in that. If I or anybody else comes to
you and preaches this, another gospel, let him be accursed.
That's the truth isn't it? Because this gospel is the only
gospel whereby, well what did he say in Romans chapter 1 verse
16? For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, why? It is the power of God unto salvation
that everyone believeth, to Jew first and also to the Greek.
That is the power of God unto salvation. Jesus Christ was the same then
as he is now. He's God, he's the same then
as he is now, as he always will be. He's always not gonna change. Does that comfort you? Because
if he said it is finished, that means it's still finished. It'll
always be finished, he can't change. He can't change, he doesn't
change his mind. You and I, we change our minds
sometimes, don't we? We'll have a favorite this or a favorite
that, and someday maybe we'll find a different favorite. You
know, this is true. We get a new object, a car, let's
use a car for example, and we love that car. Boy, this is a
nice car. Happy to have this. And it may not be brand new,
but it's new to us. It's something that we, well, this one doesn't
break down like the last one did. This is something a little
bit better than the other one. And after a while, what happens?
Well, that car starts changing, doesn't it? Put miles on it,
then what happens? Well, I'm gonna have to get it
repaired. I'm gonna have to start losing
patience with the car. Now I need a new car. When it comes to the
Lord, he does not change like we change. We change our mind,
he doesn't change his mind. Now he says, I have loved you
with an everlasting love. Never had a beginning, it'll
never have an end. You are my treasure. That means
you're always gonna be my treasure. That's what he says. That's what
he says. Is the blood enough right now? Blood's gonna be enough forever.
When you go home today, the blood is still enough. More than enough. I don't want to sound like I'm
making it less than what it is. It's always going to have its
power. Perfect salvation. That's what it accomplished.
What about tonight when you lay your pillow on your bed? Is the
blood going to be enough then? Yes. Yes. No matter what comes
your way, no matter what happens in your life, the blood of Jesus
Christ was sufficient in putting away the sin of all of God's
people. How do we know that? He can't change. That's how we
know it's still enough, that it's still sufficient. He can't
change. He's the alpha and the omega.
He's the beginning and the end. He's the first and the last.
He's the one which was, which is, and which is to come, exactly
as he always has been. And we can't wrap our brains
around that because you and I are changing. We were talking about
losing hair back there. aches and pains, all kinds of
things that we're experiencing. The Lord don't have those problems.
He's timeless, He's eternal. And the good news is, brethren,
for those who are worried about aches and pains and hair loss,
He said, I've given you a new body, a glorified body, one liken
unto mine. And not only is it, we're not
worried about the aches and pains as much, but it's sinless. That's
the good news, isn't it? It's a sinless body reserved
in heaven for you. That's what He said. He said,
I've reserved that. Created all things for His glory,
for the purpose of saving His people from their sin, giving
them a new body. One likened to His, He's the
only infinite one. Think about that, He's infinite.
They talk about outer space being infinite. That doesn't intrigue me. It
may intrigue some people. I don't care about that. I'm
too fascinated with my Savior. We're too fascinated with our
Savior to worry about that. I don't need to spend hour after
hour looking up information about the universe that God created. He created it. I can just rest
in the Lord in that. Whatever it is, He did it. So
I'm resting in Him. And if there's people that enjoy
that, that's fine. They can do that if they want
to. I'm not knocking anybody. I'm just saying I am really satisfied
with the infiniteness. I haven't got over that yet.
Somebody told me one time that the Lord measured the waters
in the hollow of his hand, and that's fascinating to me. I love
that about our God. But what's even more fascinating
than that is, is God became a man. God, that's, I can't understand
that, but he did. Why? To save his people from
their sin, that's why. And he did just that. He did
just that. Because he is unchangeable, when
he became a man, That didn't change his nature, did you know
that? That didn't change his power. Did not the winds and
waves still obey his voice? They knew who spoke to them.
The creator was speaking. Peace, be still, and it stopped.
That would be an eerie feeling, wouldn't it? To be on the boat
with the disciples and all of a sudden just the waves are turbulent,
the winds are blowing, and all of a sudden the Lord says, peace,
be still, and everything stops. What kind of manner of man is
this that the winds and seas obey his voice? That's what they
said, wasn't it? That's what they said. That's what they said. All the things they see and they
were still surprised when they saw the Lord do something else.
Isn't that amazing? That's us, isn't it, iron belief? Our Lord has infinite wisdom.
As the fullness of the Godhead bodily, he was sinful, he could
do no sin. He alone was found worthy to
redeem before time ever began. Scripture tells us in Revelation
that the declare went forth of who is worthy to loose the seals
and open the book thereof, sealed perfectly with seven seals. That's
the book of life, that's what that is. The Lamb's book of life.
We call it the Lamb's Book of Life because the Lamb is the
only one that could open the seals. And that's the point here.
Uh, said they looked in heaven and earth and under the earth
and none was found worthy. And John began to weep much, but an elder
touched him and said, weep not John for behold, the line of
the tribe of Judah, the root of Jesse, he's prevailed and
he's worthy to open the book and loose the seals thereof.
What was that? What were those seals wrapped? It's a judgment
of God. That was what he endured on the cross of Calvary. That's
how those seals were opened. That's the only way that those
inside could be saved and redeemed back to the Father is if he endured
the full wrath of God. And that's exactly what he did.
That's exactly what he did. Well, how do you know it's sufficient?
Because he said it's finished and God resurrected him. How
do you know it's always gonna be sufficient? Because he's our
unchangeable God. He's unchangeable. He can't change. It's an impossibility. I preached a message here a few
times getting away from me. It could've been a year ago now.
I was gonna say just a couple months, but it was on the things
God cannot do, and that's one of them. He can't change. He
can't lie. There's a lot of comfort in knowing that. There's a lot
of comfort in knowing that. Our Lord always has had infinite
power. He has infinite power now, and
he always will have infinite power. Infinite is something
we don't understand. There's nothing about us that's
infinite, is there? Nothing about us that's infinite. Everything
about him is infinite. Everything. He has infinite wisdom. He always
had, he always will. He's the everlasting father.
Always has been, always will be. He's the successful redeemer
of God's chosen people. We can rest. and our Lord, seeing
him in this way. By his life, we're declared perfect. By his life, we're declared perfect. He gave us his life. Whenever
he died, we took his place. He gave us his life. And our
life is hid with Christ in God. Hid with God in Christ. I said
that wrong. And his suffering, he put away
our sin. It's gone. How long is it gonna
stay gone? Forever and ever. He said, I'll
remember them no more. And he can't change, nor can
he lie. Never remember them again. Why? They're gone. He's the only
one that can speak something into existence out of nothing.
And the only one that can actually make something disappear, go
away. You know, there's a lot of magic tricks out there. People
have sleight of hand. That wasn't sleight of hand on
the cross of Calvary. He literally made the sin go away. It's gone.
It'll never be found again. And I love the thought that every
time Satan brings up to our Lord the sin of the Lord's people,
Lord says, what sin? What sin? It's gone. He's got
his son right there to prove it. That's it. The blood's right
here. There's no sin. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. No sin, it's gone. By his death, we were made the
righteousness of God in him. How long will we be righteous
for? Forever? Why? Because he declared his
people as righteous. He said, he had made him sin
for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. That might wasn't, we may be. That might was, that's
the reason he did it. That we would be made the righteousness
of God in him. So if you're righteous right now, you always will be.
How can we believe that? Well, God said it. That settles
it. And he cannot change. He cannot change. By his resurrection, we know
of a surety that we've been justified freely by his grace. Why? Because
he was raised because of our justification. It was to prove
what had happened. His resurrection declared what
he had already spoken. It was the sign given. You know,
the Lord told, said, a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh
after a sign, but no sign will be given but that of the prophet
Jonah. What was that? Three days and three nights in the fish's
belly. Then what happened? He came forth. That's the sign.
The Lord Jesus Christ's resurrection is the sign that God's people
have forever been redeemed before the throne of God. Nothing can
ever be brought up again against them. And the best part about all this
is it cannot be altered, it cannot be added to, it cannot be taken
away from, it cannot be changed, it cannot be threatened. Salvation
is secure. Salvation is secure. In so much that the scripture
says his works were finished before the foundation of the
world. His works were finished from the foundation of the world.
That means God's always seen his people as sinless. Sinful, vile creatures. He made
righteous. He made clean by his own blood. I said this before, but I wanna
reiterate this again. We forget to remember. We don't exactly
forget. Can't forget the blood. but we
forget to remember, ponder upon it sometimes. But when you wake
up tomorrow morning, the blood is still enough. It doesn't matter
what happens. No matter what happens in your
life, no matter what you're facing, the blood is still enough to
cleanse the deepest stain. Whether you're working or sleeping
or waking or whatever you're doing, the blood will always,
always be enough. The father said, sit thou here
at my right hand till I make the enemies that footstool. He
said by his own blood, he hath purged our sin. And after that,
he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. God was
pleased with that sacrifice that he redeemed every person that
he died for with his own blood. Blood will still be sufficient
next week, next month. It'll be sufficient next year.
It'll be as long as there's time and for all eternity. And we
use terms like all eternity, you can't, how do you describe
eternity? Somebody said, where are you
gonna spend eternity? You can't spend eternity, that's the point. It's
just gonna be forever and ever and ever. But for eternity, that
blood's gonna be sufficient. That blood's gonna be sufficient.
Because God said justified, and he cannot change. He said, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you, and he cannot change. He
cannot change. He told his people who he told
it to, but he says these words, I am the Lord. And I love whenever
he expresses his isness, his deity, his sovereignty. I am
the Lord. I change not. Therefore, Because
I'm the Lord and I change not, you sons of Jacob are not consumed.
What's the sons of Jacob? That's all of God's elect. It's
all of God's chosen people. In closing, look at verse nine
again. Oh, we haven't made it to verse nine, so look at verse
nine. Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines,
for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,
not with meats which have not profited them that have been
occupied therein." Now what is he talking about established
with grace and then he's talking about meats? That's the Old Testament
sacrifices. The meats that they partook in,
it didn't profit them. Why? Because their sacrifice
could never put away sin. but the Lord Jesus Christ, his
sacrifice did. Therefore, we're not justified
by eating of the sacrifice physically. We're justified by Christ's body
on the cross. We're justified by his death
on the cross. And we eat that by faith, by grace, through faith. That's how I would say that,
by grace, through faith, through faith. He's saying never depart
these truths and go back to the law. That old meat, The Old Testament,
it never brought eternal life to anyone, but it was the object
of faith in the operation of those sacrifices, meaning that's
how they worshiped. Whenever they would do that,
they weren't doing that to be justified, they were looking
to Christ through the eyes of faith. And if they were justified,
they were justified the same as you and I are. Justified freely
by His grace and given faith, to believe him, to believe him. You ever been around those who
chase after strange doctrines for more knowledge? They're looking
for more information. Remember Rob and I were talking
one time about get people used to we get in debates. I didn't
even know who Rob was when this was happening. He didn't know
who I was, but they were doing the same thing down in Tennessee. Y'all were
doing up here in Pennsylvania, wherever else. It's just how
people, men were. They were, look at what I know. Look at
what I know. Look at what I know. What is it that we do now? Look
to Christ. He is all. Rest in him. Don't
go after these, what these, isms and schisms and whatever else
they may be that you might find in books that men come up with. Look to Christ. He's all sufficient. He's enough. And he's the only
unchangeable thing. That's why the word of God is
unchangeable because it's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who
it is. Christ is more than enough. God's
gospel is enough. How he saved his people, that's
the only good thing. That's the only sufficient thing
the Lord's people need, is Him alone. He makes us delight in
Him. He makes us honored to hear of
Him. He makes us satisfied with Him.
He's the only thing that can satisfy the thirst that He gives
and the hunger that He gives. Bless them, the hunger and thirst
after what? Righteousness. It is his righteousness
alone. Thank God that he satisfies his
people for time and eternity. And he is unchangeable. He's
unchangeable, our unchangeable God. Let's pray. Father, we ask
that you would take these words and bless it to our understanding
for your glory in Christ's name. Amen.