Alright. Turn to Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews
chapter 13. Before I get into this, let's
ask the Lord to bless His Word and to bless us. and to enable
us to worship Him this morning in spirit and truth. That's why
we're here. That's the number one reason why we are here, is
to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, we come into your
presence this morning. We gather here as your children,
desiring to hear a word from our Father. Instruct us this
morning arrest our attention, enable us to give unto you the
glory that's due unto your name, enable us to, as much as possible,
to forget the cares of this life, to cast all our cares upon thee,
and to worship, to worship our Father, to give thanks, to be
instructed, teach us this morning, enable us to grow in grace and
in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Bless Tom and Bridget
as they take some time off. Lord, bless them and bring them
home safely. And what we pray and ask for
ourselves here this morning, we pray and ask for all your
people and all your servants who are standing to preach We
recognize that no man is sufficient for these things. God is our
sufficiency. We look to Thee this morning
in spite of us. Get glory to Your name. Enable
us to leave this place this morning rejoicing in God our Savior. It's in the name of Jesus Christ
we ask these things, and amen. Look in verse 8. Verse 8 is where
I'm going to bring the message from. But verse 7, it says, Remember
them which have the rule over you, that is, over in the margin,
it says, are the guides. They are your guides. God has
given to the church pastors and teachers to do just what I'm
doing this morning. To instruct, to teach, and to
guide the flock. They're not lords over God's
heritage, but guides, like a shepherd would guide sheep. And then he
says, here, remember them who have the rule over you, who have
spoken unto you the word of God. Tom takes the word of God here,
and I listened to him on the radio this morning coming up.
I remembered. I told Vicki, I said, he's on
at 8.30. Brought a good message, good message out of the word
of God. And you have that preached to you every week. Can you imagine
the mercy of God? As we go through our lives every
week, and we stumble and fall, and we don't worship God, and
we don't render unto Him the glory that's due unto His name
as we ought to. And yet, every week, he feeds
us. Not only physically, but spiritually,
he feeds us. He feeds us out of his word.
He provides you with a pastor to instruct and teach, and how
we ought to give thanks to God for that every day, every day,
and to pray for your pastor. Pray for your pastor. You know,
Spurgeon would always say that he accounted that part of his,
attributed a great part of his power in preaching which is that
the flock prayed for him. The people prayed for him. It says, whose faith follow.
Someone said to me one time, said, you follow Henry Mahan. You just follow him. I said,
so what? What's your point? Paul said, follow me as I follow
the Lord. You know, if you got a faithful
pastor, follow him. Follow his instructions. God
gave him. considering the end of their
conversation. What's the end of Tom's conversation
here every Sunday and every Wednesday? Christ. Pointing you to Christ. That's the end, and that'll be
the end of my conversation with you today, is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And my subject this morning has
to do with Jesus Christ the same. Yesterday, today, And forever, I'm so thankful,
I'm so thankful that there's one who never changes, doesn't
even cast a shadow of change at all. I'm so thankful there's
one, because I've changed a lot over the years. You know, Vicki
and I was talking coming up this morning about the early ministry
that we sat under Henry Mahan. I heard Henry when I was about
23 years old. We packed our bags and we moved
to Ashland and what, we was talking about what a powerful ministry
that the Lord gave him and what we sat under and I've seen a
lot of changes go on over the years. I was 23 years old and
now I'm 60. Turned 60 this year and Henry
turned 90 and he was 53 when I went there. And I've seen a lot of changes.
Think of the changes our grandparents have seen. My dad would talk
about going up the creek in a wagon. They was in the wagon days. And
look what they've seen. I think what my grandparents,
the changes they have witnessed. Well, they're gone now, but what
they had witnessed while they were here, they went from horse
and buggy to flying airplanes and driving fast cars and turning
on the lights. I can remember visiting an uncle
of mine who had gas lights. They had gas lights in their
house, and now it's just electric and air-conditioned. And I remember
growing up on the farm, I had to sleep upstairs, and it was
like a sweat box. It was absolutely like a sweat
box. And now it's just so comfortable. The home is so comfortable. What
changes we've gone through and what changes our country's gone
through. I don't think my grandkids will know the country I've known
growing up. I just don't think they will
and all the changes that's gone on. But there's one that hasn't
changed at all. in any way, in absolutely any
way, shape, or form. When you ever, sometimes you
run into someone you haven't seen for a long time, you say,
boy, you've changed a lot. He hasn't changed not one bit
at all. And I want to talk about a few
things here that he hasn't changed in, things that are dear to us,
that are very meaningful to us. And the first one is this, His
love, His love to me never changes. How many times have we seen Him
say, I do, then later on, I don't? I mean, it happens. Human love
grows cold. Human love grows cold. But God's
love never changes. Through all the changes that
I go through, And through all the sinfulness that I am and
that I still do, Paul said, I do that which I would not do. We
do that every day, don't we? We do things every day. We think
things every day that we wish we wouldn't think. You say, how
many times have you said, why did I say that? Why did I do
that? You just want to kick yourself. But His love to me, Through all the changes that
I go through, it never changes. It's still just as fervent, just
as pure as when He first loved me. He has loved us, the scripture
says, with an everlasting love. Turn over to Jeremiah 31. We
need to see this in the Word of God. Jeremiah 31. Let me look at the verse, Jeremiah
31 verse 3. The LORD hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore, because of this, because
I have loved you with an everlasting love, with lovingkindness have
I drawn thee. Why did God call you by the gospel? Why do you believe the gospel?
Why are you here this morning? Because God loved you with an
everlasting love. And he said, I've drawn you.
And he drew us here again this morning. If he left us alone,
we'd leave him alone. If God would leave me alone,
I'd leave him alone. You know, He said to His disciples one
time concerning the Pharisees, leave them alone. But He hasn't left us alone.
He's loved us with an everlasting love and that love never changes. It doesn't matter if a David
commits adultery, if he has her husband murdered, God's love
toward him doesn't waver one bit. That's hard to comprehend,
isn't it? It's hard to comprehend. His love never changes, and then
His power never changes. His ability to keep me from falling
never changes. You know, time has a lot of effect
on our power, doesn't it? It has a real effect on us. It
has no effect on Him. Whatever my situation might be
right now, whatever maybe tough trial I may be going through
right now, is not a reflection on the power of Christ, but on
the will of Christ. Whatever I'm going through is
according to His will. I mean, it is. Everything I'm going through,
if I'm His, if I'm His, absolutely nothing happens that's not according
to His will. And His power to control it is,
oh, if you and I could grab a hold of this. I mean, He's got the
power just to move it this way, that way. He has the power. His power never
changes, never weakens. He's just as able to say to the
uttermost now as before. And he'll still be able to do
that tomorrow. He's able to rule and overrule
all things, all enemies, all principalities of power are under
his power. Really and truly, none can rise
up and challenge His power. There's no challenge to God's
power. No. No challenge to His power whatsoever.
He says, I say to one, go and he goes. Come and he comes. The centurion recognized that.
He said, Lord, I have power. I have power. I can say to this
one, go and he goes, and come and he comes. And all you have
to do is speak. And my servant will be healed.
My son will be healed. And then here's something else.
His Word, God's Word, never changes. God's Word never changes. I wrote
this as an article in a bulletin back a few years ago at Hurricane
Road, and they reprinted it here a few weeks ago, and I read it
and I thought, I'm going to use that article. And that's why
I'm bringing it from that article this morning. But his word never
changes. Have you ever changed your word? Have you ever given anybody your
word and not able to carry through with it? I've done that. You
know, owning a business, you fall into that trap. You try
to tell men, here's what you want to do, here's what you want
to pay them, and then all of a sudden the economy goes kaput, and then
there you are. You can't fulfill your word,
your promises, what you wanted to do, you're disappointed, God's
Word does not change. It says this in Numbers, and
I'll read it to you. I wrote it down. God is not a man that
he should lie, neither the Son of Man that he should repent.
Well, I'm sorry, I can't do it. I wanted to do it, but I can't.
That never falls from the lips of our Lord. I can't will never
fall from His lips. What He has promised, He will
fulfill. You can count on it. All the
promises of God in Christ are what? That's right, yea and amen. Hath He said, and shall He not
do it? Call upon Me in the day of trouble,
and I'll deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify Me. He'll do that. You say, well, I've done that
and I'm still going through trouble. Oh, He'll deliver you. And He'll
do it by carrying you through it. Carry you through it. When you go through the waters,
I'll be with you. But when you look back, you'll
realize He's delivered you through it. He delivered you. Hath He said, and shall He not
do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? Come unto me, all you that labor,
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Hath he spoken,
and shall he not make that good? He that cometh to me, and this
is a scripture that just gave me great, well, kept me hanging
on when I was a young man, I first heard the gospel. He that cometh
to me, I will in no wise cast out. That's a promise. And I tell
you what, you can hang your hat on His promise. That's in Numbers
23, 19. Scripture says, He has magnified
His Word above His name. Now turn over to Revelations
21. Revelations 21. I'm going to
read you a few verses. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away, and there was no more at sea. And I, John, saw the holy
city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared
as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And he
that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, Write, for these words are true." and faithful. These words, the Word of God,
they're true and it'll happen just as He said it would. Are
you looking for that? Do you honestly believe this
is going to happen? God said it's going to happen
just as sure as creation happened, just as sure as we are here this
morning. This is going to happen in God's
time. We have His word on it. And then
His election of me shall never change. His election of me shall
never change. He shall never cast off those
whom He has chosen. Never, never. You and I who believe
the gospel And if we truly believe the gospel, we believe because
we were chosen of God, called by His grace, born of His Spirit,
given ears to hear and eyes to see. Blessed are your eyes, they
see, and your ears, for they hear. You and I will never do anything
that He did not already see. I won't do anything that God
does not and did not already know about. When He put us in Christ, He knew everything about me.
All my down sittings, my uprisings, He knew my thoughts afar off.
That's what the psalmist said. You know my thoughts afar off,
you know my down sittings, my uprisings, you know everything
about me. And yet you still chose me. Now
what will I ever do that He doesn't already know about? Now listen,
it hasn't already taken care of. My sins, if I live to be 90,
my sins from this day forward are gone. They're gone, as well
as my sins from right now backwards. They're gone, they're all gone.
My sins, not in part, but the whole, they're all taken away. They're gone. They're gone. And that means
his election of me shall never change. He says over Malachi,
you've got to see old Malachi, that's right before Matthew.
It's the last book. I want you to see Malachi chapter
3. In Malachi chapter 3, In verse
6, for I am the Lord, I am the Lord, that's who I am, for I
the Lord, I change not. I change not. Now listen what
follows. Therefore, because of this, this
is the reason, you sons of Jacob, or I can say it like this, you
sons of election, are not consumed. Because I don't change. Isn't that powerful? And that's,
my brother, we can live on that. That's bread this morning. That's
bread now. That's spiritual bread. That is spiritual nourishment
right there. The reason You don't perish with
the rest of this world, this unbelieving, God-hating world.
The reason you don't perish with Satan. God says, because I don't
change. I've loved you with an everlasting
love. I've chosen you. I've drawn you. And I'm going
to keep you. And that's not going to change.
That's not going to change. Then the power of His blood never
changes. There is no sin that his blood
cannot wash away. There is no death that I could
falter. And I think David fell to the
bottom that his blood cannot cleanse. It still cleanses from all sin. No matter how deep the stain
is gone, His blood washes it away. And then His sacrifice will never
change. What He did on the cross, who
He did it for, will never ever change. That's why we preach
the gospel. If the world stands another thousand years or ten
thousand years, The way God saves sinners will still be through
the preaching of what? Christ and Him crucified. Because that sacrifice never
changes. Turn to Revelation chapter 5.
It's always fresh. It's always fresh in God's presence. In Revelation chapter 5 and verse
6, He says, And I beheld, and lo,
in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the
midst of the elders, stood a lamb, as it had been slain. And you know what? It's still
there. That lamb's still standing before
the throne, as it had been slain. Fresh! Fresh! It's not rotting. We serve a
living Lord. We have a living sacrifice before
the throne of God. I don't have a dead sacrifice
before God. I have a living sacrifice before
God. You know, when they offered up
in the Old Testament the blood of bulls and goats, those bulls
and goats did not live again. They rotted. They took their
hides outside the camp. But our sacrifice is living,
ever fresh, ever fresh before the throne of God. And then His grace never changes. God's grace. Salvation, first
of all, will always be by grace. That will never change. It will
always be by grace. We'll be saved by grace, we'll
live by grace, we'll die in grace, and we'll go to stand before
God by His grace. And then from the time God saved
us by His grace, well, He put us in Christ before the world
began by grace. That was grace. From the time
He saves us by grace to the time we die and everything He puts
us through, His grace will always be sufficient. Always. Always. And the way God saves sinners
will never change. We don't need to come up with
any kind of new method or we don't need to come up with any
new message We don't need to embellish the gospel. I was talking
to Paul Mahan after he preached one time at home. Oh, it just
brought a great message. And I said, that was so good. And I said, Paul, you know, one
time I was at a restaurant and I ordered steak. And she said,
would you like some A1 sauce with it? I said, not if it's
good. You don't have to embellish it if it's good. If that's a
good steak, I don't need to put anything on it. But if it's not
that good, then I'm going to have to doctor it up, you know.
We don't have to embellish the gospel. It will always be salvation in
Christ, by Christ, through Christ. He will always be the focal point
of salvation. It'll always be through faith
in Christ and preaching Christ crucified. That will never change. Never change. And His covenant
of grace, that covenant of grace that was made between God the
Father and His Son concerning me and you, will never change. Now as you and I go through all
these changes, You know, I can look now, I can look at Tom,
white-handed. When I knew Tom in the beginning,
he was black-handed. He was black, but now it's white.
I haven't aged as much as Tom, see. He's about three or four years
older than me is all. But through all the changes we
go through, our families, this world, this country, the Jesus
Christ never changes. And that covenant that God made
with him will never change. Isn't that good? It's like a
marriage contract. I'll never alter it. I'll never
change it. I'll never change it. I thank
God for that. Thank God that there is one Jesus
Christ who never changes.