Teach me, Lord, to wait down
on my knees till in your own good time you answer my pleas. Teach me not to rely on what
others do, but to wait In prayer for an answer from you. They that wait upon the Lord
shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings
as the eagle. They shall grieve and not be
weary, they shall walk and not faint Teach me, Lord, teach me,
Lord, to wait Teach me, Lord, to wait while hearts are aflame. Let me humble my pride and call
on your name. Keep my faith renewed by eyes
only. Let me be on this earth what
you want me to be. There's a time and a season for
all things You promised in Your Word to answer my plea I'm crying
to You, Lord, to grant sweet relief O Lord, remove all my
unbelief Faith that weighed upon the Lord shall renew their strength
They shall mount up with wings as the eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord,
to wait. Teach me, Lord. Teach me, Lord, to wait. This is the second Sunday in
the month of October. 47 years ago, 1977, the second Sunday
in October, we held our first service in a rented auditorium
at a middle school. And it occurred to me last week
that this day was coming. And I began to think of all the
changes I spoke with several, spoke with David about the various
changes that I've observed and witnessed over these 47 years. Seen many born, grow up, graduate
from school, marry, have children. We've just seen a lot, a lot
of changes. But this morning, rather than
think about changes, I'm going to bring a message to us today
concerning four things that have not changed. Four things that
have not changed in these 47 years, and they never will change. The first is this. God has not
changed. In Malachi, the last book in
the Old Testament, chapter three and verse six, we have this statement,
for I am the Lord, I change not. We know that this is one of the
characteristics or attributes of God. We refer to it as his
immutability. And it's certainly one that we
love to think about and are so thankful for that The Lord alone,
God, is immutable, that He is eternal, and He is from eternity
to eternity the same. He is the creator of all things. Matter, matter is not eternal. If we could use the word time
this morning, you know what I'm saying is true. There was a time
when nothing existed. other than God. That's a tremendous thought,
isn't it? God alone, needing nothing, sufficient in himself, God Almighty, immutable. I am the Lord, I change not. And over these 47 years, he hasn't
changed and he never will change. The Apostle James in his letter
tells us this, every good gift and every perfect gift cometh
down from the father of lights with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. The fact that he is the father
of lights, reveals unto us that he is the creator of all things. You young people here this morning
especially do not be deceived by hearing that somehow there
was just a big bang and everything came into being. That there's
been an evolution over many thousands of years and now we have arrived
where we are. That is a lie of Satan. He was a liar from the beginning,
the Lord Jesus Christ said. No, he's a father of lights. And before he created the great
light, the sun to rule by day, he had already created light.
That's amazing in itself, isn't it? When God said, let there
be light, And light was. And it wasn't until several days
later, in that week of creation, when God created the great light,
the sun, to rule by day, and the lesser lights to rule by
night, the moon and the stars. God is eternal. And he's always
been the same. He always will be the same. You
know, in the first letter of John, He speaks about God's holiness
under the emblem of light. He said, God is light. God is light, and in him, I mean,
that would've been enough. If he just said, God is light,
that just settled the whole matter. But just in case, just to make
sure that no one would ever think that he is not absolutely holy. God is light and in him is no
darkness at all. The same when James wrote, there's
not the shadow of turning in him. He is immutable in every
way and everything. God has a purpose. It's beyond imagination how men
who supposedly confess the Lord God and yet they act and teach
as though God had no purpose when he created all things. Yes,
God has a purpose and his purpose has never changed. It's being
worked out over time, but his purpose is the same. He said,
I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it. I will also do it. There's a
church building close to where I live. And they've got a sign
out, a couple of signs, in fact. And it reads, My God Votes. I know what they're doing. They're
trying to encourage their members to go to the polls and vote.
And that's good. How could you ever believe in
a God who votes? Do you tell me that maybe he
won't win? That someone's going to out-vote
him? God has a purpose, my friends. And I know all of us, I'm sure
we have our rathers concerning this upcoming election, but let
me remind us of this. No matter which one is elected,
God is still on the throne and his purpose is still being accomplished. Just as he said, I have purposed
it, I will also do it. And I wanted to tell that pastor
especially, your God votes, mine doesn't. Mine doesn't vote. Mine wills and executes His will
according to His good purpose. Isn't that what Nebuchadnezzar
learned when God sent him out there in the field to eat grass
like an ox for seven years? It sure is. God rules and reigns
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
And no one can stay his hand and say unto him, question him,
what doest thou? What gives you the right to do
this? His right is because he's God. He's God almighty. And yes, he
is a God who never changed. Not only is he immutable in his
purpose, but in the execution of his covenant of grace. He
says this in Isaiah 46, and he speaks of it as a covenant of
peace there, his everlasting covenant. For the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed. But my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall my covenant of peace be removed. Saith the
Lord that hath mercy upon thee. We were in 2 Samuel 23 last Wednesday
evening and David's words were, he hath made with me an everlasting
covenant ordered in all things and sure. ordered in all things. His covenant of grace has never
changed and it never will change. Man, you know, over the years
we've seen the Rock of Gibraltar. I remember there was an insurance
company years ago that used to use that in their advertisements
because the Rock of Gibraltar supposedly never changes, but
you and I know that it does. It does. It may be imperceptible,
But the Mediterranean spray beats upon that rock day after day,
year after year. And little by little, there is
change. There has to be change. Not in
God. Not in God. And so we love to
sing that hymn, Great is Thy Faithfulness, O God my Father. There's no shadow of turning
with Thee. Thou changest not. Thou compassions,
they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou forever
will be. Now this is a God that men may
worship. And that's what we're here to
do today, isn't it? It's to worship Him. He's worthy
of our worship. God changes not. The second thing
I want to mention is God's hatred of sin has not changed. Over
the 47 years, or over the 2,000, the 4,000, the 6,000 years, or
however long it's been since sin entered into God's creation,
God's hatred of sin has not changed. In 1 John, The apostle gives
us the only definition really in the scripture that I can think
of, of what sin is. And he tells us sin is the transgression
of the law. Now, all men are God's creatures. And in the beginning when God
created Adam and Eve, he gave them a law. A law which was easy
when you think about it, easy to obey. They were not to eat
of that one tree. That was the law. Thou shalt
not eat of the tree of good and of evil. What is sin? Transgressing the law of God,
yes, but it's more than that. Sin is an attack upon God. Years ago, I remember a preacher
saying, sin is like a man raping God. All sin is committed against
God. David, in his prayer of repentance,
you remember, after having sinned against Bathsheba and sinned
against her husband, yet against thee and thee only have I sinned,
O God, and done this evil in thy sight. Sin is against God. It is an
attack upon God, His Godhood. It would take God off the throne
if it could. God rules and reigns from his
throne, and sin, if it could, would just push God off the throne
and put man in his place. It's an attack upon God. Now,
there's much I confessed this morning about the origin of sin
that we're not told, that we're not told. But three things I
would bring to us here this morning quickly about sin, and it is
a mystery. It is a mystery. I'll be the
first to confess. It is a mystery. But about sin
and Satan, first of all. And yes, there is a being called
Satan or the devil. He has several names, the accuser
of the brethren, slanderer, What about sin and the devil? Well, we read this. Thou wast
perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created. And he was created. He's a created
being. Only God is uncreated. Thou wast
perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till,
and here's the to me. Till iniquity was found in thee. He was perfect. Holy. Till iniquity was found in him. And it appears from other verse
of scripture that his iniquity, it seems to have been pride.
Pride. Thine heart was lifted up because
of thy beauty. Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom
by reason of thy brightness. God said, I will cast thee down
to the ground. His sin was, I will be like the
most high God. Pride. And isn't it amazing that
he came and tempted Adam and Eve with the same temptation. Thou shalt be as God. knowing
the difference or knowing good and evil. That was his sin, pride,
to be like God, to be worshiped like God. And God said no, that
he would cast him down to the ground. And as I've already said,
the Lord Jesus said this about Satan. He was a murderer from
the beginning. That is, he came in the Garden
of Eden to tempt Adam and Eve to commit the sin which they
committed and bring death on himself and upon all of his posterity. He was a murderer from the beginning.
When I say the beginning, I'm talking about in the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth. Now, Satan had a beginning
before he came and tempted Adam and Eve, but he was a murderer
from the beginning of creation. And abode not in the truth, because
there's no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Sin and Satan. What about sin
and man? We're told this about Adam. He
was tempted by Satan and Satan came to tempt him in the form
of a serpent. And that was his temptation to
eat that fruit and disobedience unto God. He transgressed that
law. What is sin? Sin is the transgression
of the law. And he transgressed the law of
God under which he had been created and placed there in the garden.
And he became a sinner. Remember this, Adam is the only
man, only individual, who ever became a sinner by sinning. You understand that, don't you?
He's the only person who ever became a sinner by sinning. He disobeyed God, he sinned,
he broke God's law, and he became a sinner. Everyone since then,
we have come into this world born sinners, and sin because
we are sinners. Even from the womb, the scripture
says, men go astray from the womb, speaking lies. For by one
man, Paul tells us in Romans 5, for by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, death by sin. And death hath passed upon all
men, for that all have sinned. At one particular time, one point
in time, all men sinned, all men were In Adams, as he's the
father of all men, and he was also the representative head
of all men, and we all sinned in him. And, you know, we illustrate
this so often by little children. No parent has ever taught their
child to lie. You teach them, sweetheart, don't
tell untruth. Don't tell a lie. You don't have
to teach them. Don't take that. That was your
playmate's toy. Don't steal that. Never have
to teach a child to do wrong, do we? Of course not. Why? And why do children die in infancy? Because they have inherited that
sinful nature from Adam. Death came because of sin. God told Adam that. In the day
that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die the death. What does this mean? We come
into this world as sinners. Well, first of all, it means
that our understanding is darkened. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. Why? Because they are spiritually
discerned. We have inherited an understanding
that is darkened to the things of God. And we have a heart. We've inherited a heart, the
scripture says, that is desperately wicked and deceitful above all
things. And we have a will. that is in
bondage to our nature, so that the Lord Jesus Christ said to
some one day, you will not come to me that you might have life. A will that is in bondage to
sin. Well, a word about sin and God. I said a word about sin and Satan,
a word about sin and man, now a word about sin and God. God
hates sin. Scriptures tell us concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, he loves righteousness and hates iniquity,
hates sin. This is what causes separation
between God and man. How would we picture, I was thinking
about this, how this morning could I picture, could I bring
this home to every one of us? God hates sin. Well, I thought about when God
drove Adam and Eve out of the garden. Shows that he hated sin. When God took Noah and seven
others in that ark and destroyed all living beings outside the
ark, shows that God hates sin. When God rained fire and brimstone
out of heaven, destroying the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah,
showing that God hates sin. But you know where we can really,
really, really see that God hates sin? At the cross. At the cross. God hates sin. And when the sin, God never hated
his son. He loved his son. But when his
son was loaded down with all the sins of all of his people,
You see God's hatred of sin. He did not spare his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, the scripture says. The wrath
of God was poured out upon his darling son there, as he was
dying as a substitute for you, if you're one of his children
this morning. And because God's wrath was poured
out upon him, your substitute, God will never pour out his wrath
upon you. No. The Lord Jesus Christ, praise
God, he's already borne the wrath of God in the place instead of
his people. That's the good news of the gospel,
isn't it? Sure it is. Here's my third Thing that I
wanted to mention, I want you to turn to Zechariah. Now that's
next to the last book in the Old Testament. Zechariah chapter
13. God's remedy for sin has not
changed. God's remedy for sin has not
changed. God speaking through the prophet
Zechariah here in verse one said, in that day, there shall be a fountain opened
to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
for sin and for uncleanness. God through Zechariah told of
a day that was future. in that day, in that day, and
that day would take place some over 400 years later, that day
came. And it was a day, think about
it, it was a day when man's sin had reached its highest peak,
the zenith of man's sin on that day when the darling son of the
Lord God was spit upon. Have you ever been spit upon?
I don't think I ever have. But I know that shows contempt
for a person like nothing else. And here we have the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Holy One of God, spit upon by His own creatures
and then taken out to Mount Calvary and nailed to a tree. Think about
this, a tree. of which the cross was made of,
he had caused that tree to grow even. And here he is, being crucified between two thieves,
between heaven and earth, showing that earth, we will not have
this man to reign over us, cast out. But what was happening really? This prophecy was being fulfilled. God was opening up a fountain. Fountains are beautiful. Some
of them are. When I was just a kid, this was
something that I must have been less than 10 years of age, but
every once in a while, My dad would drive us in that old Chevrolet, I believe it was,
out to Forest Park Funeral Home on Lawndale. And they had a fountain
out there. And they had lights on that fountain.
And for a little child, that was beautiful, because there
were different colors, you know. There's beautiful fountains in
this world. But this fountain was not open
to be admired. It was open for sinners to wash
in, for sin-laden sinners to bathe in, and come out white
as snow, and at the same time receive a change of raiment.
to cast off those old filthy rags of our own righteousness
and be dressed in a robe of perfect righteousness, that of Jesus
Christ, that which he wove for us. The remedy for sin has never
changed. You know, we love to sing that
hymn, and we're going to sing a few verses in just a few minutes
of William Cowper. You're familiar with William
Cowper. He suffered from depression. Many of God's children have suffered from many different things, but
from depression. He was a friend of John Newton,
the man who wrote Amazing Grace, but William Cowper wrote the
words to the hymn. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stain. I just thought something I heard
Ralph Barnard say years ago. Him and his family, they were
traveling out west, and they went up on Pike's Peak, I believe
it was, and he said they had those pools of hot water, steaming
water. And he said, he pulled out his
handkerchief. It was white, but he said, you
know, we'd had to stop on the way and clean the spark plugs
on that old Model T or whatever it was and dry our hands. And he said, my handkerchief
was pretty dirty. And I took that handkerchief and I dropped it
down in one of those pools. And he said, I brought it up, and it was perfectly
white. And he said, I started singing
that hymn, There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, drawn from
Emmanuel's veins. And he said, I looked around,
and other people there were singing the same hymn. That was a different
day, wasn't it? That was a different day. How
many people today, religious people, they know nothing about
the fountain filled with blood. They think Christ was a good
man and he died as a great example, and we need to follow his example.
Well, we need to follow his example, but my friends, Christ died as
a sacrifice. He died as a substitute. He shed
his blood to cleanse his people from our sins. And the last thing
that I wanted to mention that has not changed, I want you to
look in Luke with me just a moment, Luke 15. And this is an accusation
that the enemies of Christ leveled against him in verse two. And the Pharisees, Luke chapter
15 in verse 2, and the Pharisees and scribes murmured saying,
here it is, this man receiveth sinners and eateth with them. Aren't you thankful that hasn't
changed? This man, he still receives sinners. and eats with them, comes in
and fellowships with them. And then our Lord here in this
passage, he went on to give that parable that speaks about a lost
sheep, a lost corn and a lost son. And every illustration there
is to show how ready and thankful to receive that which was lost
back. This man receiveth sinners. Has he received you? I'm not
asking if you received him. Has he received you? Has he? If he has, what a blessing, right? What a blessing to know your sins are gone. You
say, how far are they gone? They're gone so far nobody can
find them, I tell you that. They're cast in the sea of God's
forgetfulness. And God will never remember them
against you, never. Well, I'm a Lord willing, I may
next Sunday preach a thought of some other things that haven't
changed. I may come back to this. But there's four things that
haven't changed. God hasn't changed. God's hatred
of sin hasn't changed. God's remedy for sin hasn't changed. And this man receives sinners. Let's sing a few verses of that
hymn. Number two.