1 00:00:04,550 --> 00:00:09,150 Next Sunday night I hope to speak on 2 00:00:09,150 --> 00:00:14,290 the omniscience of God, which means that God 3 00:00:14,290 --> 00:00:17,570 knows all that can be known. 4 00:00:18,430 --> 00:00:22,890 And I want to explain that, and then 5 00:00:22,890 --> 00:00:25,470 apply it and show what that means to 6 00:00:25,470 --> 00:00:25,770 us. 7 00:00:27,130 --> 00:00:30,350 Tonight I am to speak on the immutability 8 00:00:30,350 --> 00:00:35,030 of God, and try to show what that 9 00:00:35,030 --> 00:00:36,490 means to us. 10 00:00:37,770 --> 00:00:40,330 I have some texts which I'll read, though 11 00:00:40,330 --> 00:00:42,890 the entire Bible is the text. 12 00:00:45,300 --> 00:00:47,980 But in Malachi 3, there is that well 13 00:00:47,980 --> 00:00:51,760 -known verse 6, "...for I am the Lord, 14 00:00:52,240 --> 00:00:54,420 I change not." 15 00:00:55,930 --> 00:01:00,130 And then over in the book of Hebrews, 16 00:01:00,890 --> 00:01:11,020 we read verse 17 of chapter 6, "...wherein 17 00:01:11,020 --> 00:01:14,160 God, willing more abundantly to show unto the 18 00:01:14,160 --> 00:01:17,240 heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, 19 00:01:18,620 --> 00:01:22,360 confirmed it by an oath, that by two 20 00:01:22,360 --> 00:01:25,140 immutable things is the promise and the oath, 21 00:01:26,840 --> 00:01:28,940 in which it was impossible for God to 22 00:01:28,940 --> 00:01:32,440 lie, we might have a strong consolation, who 23 00:01:32,440 --> 00:01:34,380 have fled for refuge to lay hold upon 24 00:01:34,380 --> 00:01:36,660 the hope that is set before us." 25 00:01:38,290 --> 00:01:43,870 And then in the book of James, these 26 00:01:43,870 --> 00:01:49,970 words, first chapter, verse 16, "...every good gift 27 00:01:49,970 --> 00:01:53,950 and every perfect gift is from above, and 28 00:01:53,950 --> 00:01:57,230 cometh down from the Father of lights, with 29 00:01:57,230 --> 00:02:02,510 whom there is no variableness, neither shadow of 30 00:02:02,510 --> 00:02:04,210 turning." 31 00:02:04,210 --> 00:02:07,990 And then that very well-known and loved 32 00:02:07,990 --> 00:02:14,470 verse, in the 13th chapter of Hebrews, verse 33 00:02:14,470 --> 00:02:24,410 8, "...Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, 34 00:02:25,410 --> 00:02:27,210 and forever." 35 00:02:30,910 --> 00:02:35,510 Now, the immutability of God, to announce that 36 00:02:35,510 --> 00:02:37,570 you are going to speak on the immutability 37 00:02:37,570 --> 00:02:41,010 of God, is almost like putting up a 38 00:02:41,010 --> 00:02:43,490 sign saying, there will be no service here 39 00:02:43,490 --> 00:02:43,970 tonight. 40 00:02:45,030 --> 00:02:47,950 Nobody wants to hear anybody talk about it, 41 00:02:47,990 --> 00:02:51,010 I suppose, just left like that, the immutability 42 00:02:51,010 --> 00:02:51,750 of God. 43 00:02:53,110 --> 00:02:55,610 But when it's explained, you will find you 44 00:02:55,610 --> 00:03:02,170 have struck gold and diamonds and meat and 45 00:03:02,170 --> 00:03:03,070 milk and honey. 46 00:03:04,670 --> 00:03:07,510 Now, the word immutable, of course, is the 47 00:03:07,510 --> 00:03:08,870 negative of mutable. 48 00:03:10,310 --> 00:03:13,410 And mutable is from the Latin meaning, subject 49 00:03:13,410 --> 00:03:14,310 to change. 50 00:03:14,750 --> 00:03:18,650 Mutation is a word we often use, meaning 51 00:03:18,650 --> 00:03:20,150 there has been a change. 52 00:03:20,790 --> 00:03:24,290 There is a change in form or nature 53 00:03:24,290 --> 00:03:25,230 or substance. 54 00:03:27,670 --> 00:03:32,510 And mutability is subject to change, and immutability 55 00:03:32,510 --> 00:03:35,050 means that it's not subject to change. 56 00:03:38,090 --> 00:03:39,990 I think we could get an idea of 57 00:03:39,990 --> 00:03:43,230 what we mean if we would remember Shelley's 58 00:03:43,230 --> 00:03:46,570 little poem on the cloud that you learned 59 00:03:46,570 --> 00:03:47,990 when you were in high school. 60 00:03:48,930 --> 00:03:52,370 It starts out with the cloud talking and 61 00:03:52,370 --> 00:03:54,990 says, "...I am the daughter of earth and 62 00:03:54,990 --> 00:03:57,450 water and the nursling of the sky. 63 00:03:58,470 --> 00:04:00,630 I pass through the pores of the ocean 64 00:04:00,630 --> 00:04:05,010 and shores, I change, but I cannot die." 65 00:04:05,010 --> 00:04:06,010 That's a cloud. 66 00:04:06,210 --> 00:04:10,610 It's cloud now, rain tomorrow, fog the next 67 00:04:10,610 --> 00:04:14,250 day, cloud again, snow the next day, ice 68 00:04:14,250 --> 00:04:17,829 the next day, boiling hot one day and 69 00:04:17,829 --> 00:04:21,010 the next day, cool the next day. 70 00:04:21,890 --> 00:04:25,110 It's vaporized and becomes a cloud again. 71 00:04:25,230 --> 00:04:28,370 It's constantly changing and passing through the pores 72 00:04:28,370 --> 00:04:31,470 of the ocean and shores, and it changes 73 00:04:31,470 --> 00:04:35,370 because it's mutable, but it cannot die. 74 00:04:36,750 --> 00:04:40,630 Now there is in God no mutation possible. 75 00:04:41,570 --> 00:04:45,450 That is, it says there in James, "...with 76 00:04:45,450 --> 00:04:48,950 whom there is no variation or shadow due 77 00:04:48,950 --> 00:04:50,710 to change." 78 00:04:50,710 --> 00:04:55,470 And that verse, "...I am Jehovah, I change 79 00:04:55,470 --> 00:04:56,650 not." 80 00:04:56,650 --> 00:04:58,890 You couldn't make it any cleaner than that. 81 00:04:59,030 --> 00:05:01,430 There isn't one trace of poetry in that. 82 00:05:02,110 --> 00:05:05,190 There is no figure of speech, no metaphor. 83 00:05:06,110 --> 00:05:09,590 It is just as blunt and prosaic as 84 00:05:09,590 --> 00:05:13,410 for me to say, this is February 12, 85 00:05:13,590 --> 00:05:15,190 1961, period. 86 00:05:15,830 --> 00:05:17,750 There isn't any way to interpret that. 87 00:05:17,850 --> 00:05:19,550 There isn't anything you do with it. 88 00:05:19,570 --> 00:05:21,350 You don't go to a scholar and say, 89 00:05:21,430 --> 00:05:22,250 what does this mean? 90 00:05:22,250 --> 00:05:23,190 You don't need to. 91 00:05:23,670 --> 00:05:27,410 "...I am Jehovah, I change not." 92 00:05:27,410 --> 00:05:29,830 Two sentences, "...I change not." 93 00:05:29,830 --> 00:05:31,570 Incidentally, he's the only one who can say 94 00:05:31,570 --> 00:05:32,450 that in the universe. 95 00:05:33,550 --> 00:05:35,470 But he did say it, and he simply 96 00:05:35,470 --> 00:05:37,090 says that he never changes. 97 00:05:37,750 --> 00:05:40,510 That is, there is no change possible in 98 00:05:40,510 --> 00:05:41,010 God. 99 00:05:42,110 --> 00:05:44,130 God never differs from himself. 100 00:05:44,410 --> 00:05:46,170 Now you get a hold of this, my 101 00:05:46,170 --> 00:05:46,570 friend. 102 00:05:47,090 --> 00:05:49,410 It may be to you an anchor in 103 00:05:49,410 --> 00:05:52,490 a storm, it may be to you a 104 00:05:52,490 --> 00:05:55,050 hiding place in danger. 105 00:05:55,550 --> 00:05:58,650 There is no possibility of changing in God, 106 00:05:58,890 --> 00:06:01,630 and God never differs from himself. 107 00:06:02,430 --> 00:06:05,410 One of the sickest pains that we know 108 00:06:05,410 --> 00:06:09,270 in our lives is how people change. 109 00:06:09,910 --> 00:06:12,770 Men smile at you one day, and two 110 00:06:12,770 --> 00:06:15,110 weeks later they'll turn their face away. 111 00:06:15,670 --> 00:06:17,810 A friend to whom you used to write 112 00:06:17,810 --> 00:06:20,590 once a week, you haven't written in five 113 00:06:20,590 --> 00:06:25,190 years now, because there's a change taking place. 114 00:06:25,310 --> 00:06:29,350 They've changed, you've changed, circumstances have changed. 115 00:06:30,330 --> 00:06:32,910 The little babies, I dedicated five, I think, 116 00:06:32,990 --> 00:06:35,930 this morning, they're here now little chaps, little, 117 00:06:36,110 --> 00:06:38,010 tiny, soft things you pick up. 118 00:06:38,770 --> 00:06:41,270 Give them a little while and they'll change. 119 00:06:41,890 --> 00:06:45,570 These doting parents who hold these little, tender, 120 00:06:45,950 --> 00:06:48,290 pink things in their arms and admire and 121 00:06:48,290 --> 00:06:50,770 love them until their love becomes a pain 122 00:06:50,770 --> 00:06:55,450 in them, they'll be startled, surprised and somewhat 123 00:06:55,450 --> 00:06:59,310 confused and somewhat pleased to see one of 124 00:06:59,310 --> 00:07:02,390 these days that little fat body begin to 125 00:07:02,390 --> 00:07:06,210 lengthen out and those little dimpled knees becoming 126 00:07:06,210 --> 00:07:07,990 undimpled and getting bony. 127 00:07:08,950 --> 00:07:13,950 And that tendency to cling to mama disappearing, 128 00:07:14,230 --> 00:07:15,650 and the little guy will put his hands 129 00:07:15,650 --> 00:07:18,090 on his hips and back off, and he's 130 00:07:18,090 --> 00:07:19,110 somebody now. 131 00:07:19,710 --> 00:07:22,110 And that's change, that's change. 132 00:07:22,390 --> 00:07:24,930 We look at their pictures, my wife and 133 00:07:24,930 --> 00:07:26,890 I take the pictures out of the family 134 00:07:26,890 --> 00:07:28,550 every once in a while and just look 135 00:07:28,550 --> 00:07:31,050 at them, such pretty little fellows they were, 136 00:07:31,610 --> 00:07:34,830 and so delightful, but they're great, long, lean 137 00:07:34,830 --> 00:07:38,610 fellows now, lanky and tall and bronze, and 138 00:07:38,610 --> 00:07:41,410 they're not the way they were, and that's 139 00:07:41,410 --> 00:07:42,230 not the worst. 140 00:07:42,710 --> 00:07:45,870 Give them forty years more and they won't 141 00:07:45,870 --> 00:07:47,230 be as they are now. 142 00:07:47,730 --> 00:07:51,990 There is change, always change, change and decay 143 00:07:51,990 --> 00:07:54,090 in all around I see. 144 00:07:54,910 --> 00:07:58,170 The English poet said, O Lord, my heart 145 00:07:58,170 --> 00:08:01,810 is sick, sick of this everlasting change and 146 00:08:01,810 --> 00:08:06,390 life runs tediously quick through its unresting race 147 00:08:06,390 --> 00:08:07,370 and varied reign. 148 00:08:07,630 --> 00:08:12,050 Change finds no likeness to itself in thee 149 00:08:12,050 --> 00:08:15,890 and wakes no echo of thy mute eternity. 150 00:08:16,690 --> 00:08:19,970 There is only one thing God does not 151 00:08:19,970 --> 00:08:24,330 change, and all that changes only proclaims that 152 00:08:24,330 --> 00:08:25,670 God changes not. 153 00:08:26,170 --> 00:08:29,470 But all things as they change proclaim the 154 00:08:29,470 --> 00:08:31,250 Lord eternally the same. 155 00:08:32,010 --> 00:08:34,770 That's a theological fact, that's something you can 156 00:08:34,770 --> 00:08:35,530 build on. 157 00:08:36,070 --> 00:08:37,710 That is revealed truth. 158 00:08:38,210 --> 00:08:41,470 That needs no support of poetry, that needs 159 00:08:41,470 --> 00:08:43,110 no support of reason. 160 00:08:43,810 --> 00:08:46,550 But when once a truth has been declared 161 00:08:46,550 --> 00:08:49,410 and established, then I like to reason in 162 00:08:49,410 --> 00:08:50,170 it. 163 00:08:50,270 --> 00:08:52,650 To quote Ann Selm again, I do not 164 00:08:52,650 --> 00:08:56,430 reason or think that I might believe, I 165 00:08:56,430 --> 00:08:58,070 reason because I believe. 166 00:08:58,770 --> 00:09:01,690 I think not that I might have faith, 167 00:09:01,810 --> 00:09:03,550 but I think because I have faith. 168 00:09:04,290 --> 00:09:06,930 So I'd like to show you tonight, briefly 169 00:09:06,930 --> 00:09:10,650 as I can, three reasons why God cannot 170 00:09:10,650 --> 00:09:11,250 change. 171 00:09:11,370 --> 00:09:13,130 That's reasoning within the scriptures. 172 00:09:14,010 --> 00:09:17,150 For God to alter or change at all, 173 00:09:17,650 --> 00:09:20,630 for God to be different from himself or 174 00:09:20,630 --> 00:09:25,070 change in any manner whatsoever from himself, one 175 00:09:25,070 --> 00:09:27,150 of three things has to take place. 176 00:09:27,930 --> 00:09:30,430 Either God must go from better to worse, 177 00:09:30,470 --> 00:09:32,270 or he must go from worse to better, 178 00:09:32,670 --> 00:09:35,170 or he must change from one kind of 179 00:09:35,170 --> 00:09:36,110 being to another. 180 00:09:36,810 --> 00:09:40,190 That's so plain that there is nothing profound 181 00:09:40,190 --> 00:09:41,310 about that. 182 00:09:41,450 --> 00:09:44,010 Occasionally somebody will say, I preach over their 183 00:09:44,010 --> 00:09:44,290 head. 184 00:09:44,350 --> 00:09:46,170 All I can say is, they must have 185 00:09:46,170 --> 00:09:49,330 their head awfully low, because there is nothing 186 00:09:49,330 --> 00:09:51,290 profound about this whatsoever. 187 00:09:52,330 --> 00:09:53,430 Isn't it reasonable? 188 00:09:53,570 --> 00:09:56,210 If anything changes, it has to change from 189 00:09:56,210 --> 00:09:56,950 better to worse. 190 00:09:57,050 --> 00:09:59,810 An apple out there hanging on the bough 191 00:09:59,810 --> 00:10:02,310 changes from green to ripe. 192 00:10:02,670 --> 00:10:05,090 That's from worse to better. 193 00:10:05,690 --> 00:10:06,950 And if a little boy eats it when 194 00:10:06,950 --> 00:10:08,590 it's green as I used to, he'll get 195 00:10:08,590 --> 00:10:08,870 sick. 196 00:10:08,950 --> 00:10:10,810 I did it once or twice every year 197 00:10:10,810 --> 00:10:12,150 when I was a little chap on the 198 00:10:12,150 --> 00:10:14,850 farm and went to bed with Paul Remorbis 199 00:10:14,850 --> 00:10:16,290 because I'd eaten green apples. 200 00:10:16,950 --> 00:10:19,750 Well, when it ripens, it has changed from 201 00:10:19,750 --> 00:10:22,030 worse to better, from our standpoint. 202 00:10:22,790 --> 00:10:25,370 Let it hang there long enough and it 203 00:10:25,370 --> 00:10:27,570 will change from better to worse, and it 204 00:10:27,570 --> 00:10:29,650 will rot there and fall away. 205 00:10:30,530 --> 00:10:33,290 And so it gets worse from its better 206 00:10:33,290 --> 00:10:35,690 state as it had gotten better from its 207 00:10:35,690 --> 00:10:36,330 worse state. 208 00:10:36,390 --> 00:10:38,450 Now, anybody can get a hold of that. 209 00:10:38,570 --> 00:10:40,070 If you can't get a hold of it, 210 00:10:40,150 --> 00:10:42,010 brother, shake your head real hard and see 211 00:10:42,010 --> 00:10:44,710 if you can't wake up the cells in 212 00:10:44,710 --> 00:10:44,970 there. 213 00:10:45,390 --> 00:10:46,270 That's so simple. 214 00:10:46,270 --> 00:10:50,430 Now, that being true, then if God is 215 00:10:50,430 --> 00:10:52,890 to change any, then God has to either 216 00:10:52,890 --> 00:10:55,470 get better or worse or different. 217 00:10:56,210 --> 00:10:58,530 And God can't go from better to worse 218 00:10:58,530 --> 00:11:00,530 because God is a holy God. 219 00:11:01,230 --> 00:11:04,590 And God being a moral creature, being a 220 00:11:04,590 --> 00:11:06,690 moral being, not a creature, we are creatures, 221 00:11:06,830 --> 00:11:08,470 he's the being who gave us life. 222 00:11:08,990 --> 00:11:12,230 God being eternal holiness can never be any 223 00:11:12,230 --> 00:11:13,930 less holy than he is now. 224 00:11:14,050 --> 00:11:15,730 But of course, he never can be any 225 00:11:15,730 --> 00:11:18,670 more holy than he is now, because he's 226 00:11:18,670 --> 00:11:21,030 perfect as it is and there'll be no 227 00:11:21,030 --> 00:11:22,030 change in God. 228 00:11:22,090 --> 00:11:23,730 No change is necessary. 229 00:11:24,370 --> 00:11:27,770 Changes are necessary in things and people and 230 00:11:27,770 --> 00:11:31,090 creatures, but no change is necessary in God, 231 00:11:31,190 --> 00:11:32,770 therefore God changes not. 232 00:11:33,450 --> 00:11:37,170 And God being the eternal holy God, he 233 00:11:37,170 --> 00:11:41,010 cannot change, and therefore he will not go 234 00:11:41,010 --> 00:11:42,090 from better to worse. 235 00:11:42,090 --> 00:11:44,670 You cannot think of God being any less 236 00:11:44,670 --> 00:11:47,390 holy than he is now, any less righteous 237 00:11:47,390 --> 00:11:48,390 than he is now. 238 00:11:48,730 --> 00:11:54,950 God must remain infinitely holy, therefore fixed forever, 239 00:11:55,650 --> 00:11:57,150 unchanging in holiness. 240 00:11:57,970 --> 00:12:01,090 He cannot go from worse to better for 241 00:12:01,090 --> 00:12:04,870 the simple reason that God being absolutely holy 242 00:12:04,870 --> 00:12:06,730 cannot go beyond himself. 243 00:12:07,270 --> 00:12:09,590 God cannot get any more holy than he 244 00:12:09,590 --> 00:12:13,010 is now, going from less good to better, 245 00:12:13,350 --> 00:12:14,250 on up and up. 246 00:12:14,330 --> 00:12:15,850 God can't increase that way. 247 00:12:15,950 --> 00:12:17,750 You can, you and I can. 248 00:12:17,850 --> 00:12:19,110 Thank God we can. 249 00:12:19,690 --> 00:12:22,090 Let him that is holy be getting holier 250 00:12:22,090 --> 00:12:23,730 still, it says in Revelation. 251 00:12:24,410 --> 00:12:26,490 And I believe that since we are creatures 252 00:12:26,490 --> 00:12:30,050 and capable of mutation upward toward the image 253 00:12:30,050 --> 00:12:33,830 of God, we will become holier and wiser 254 00:12:33,830 --> 00:12:36,130 and better while the ages roll. 255 00:12:37,030 --> 00:12:40,270 But remember that in becoming holier and better 256 00:12:40,270 --> 00:12:43,230 and wiser, we will only be moving on 257 00:12:43,230 --> 00:12:46,530 toward the perfect likeness of God, who is 258 00:12:46,530 --> 00:12:50,550 already all-wise and all-good and all 259 00:12:50,550 --> 00:12:51,150 -holy. 260 00:12:51,750 --> 00:12:54,410 So God cannot become any better than he 261 00:12:54,410 --> 00:12:54,790 is. 262 00:12:55,530 --> 00:13:01,210 These words that you and I use, we 263 00:13:01,210 --> 00:13:02,490 use them about ourselves. 264 00:13:02,750 --> 00:13:04,530 A man is a good man, another man 265 00:13:04,530 --> 00:13:05,450 is a better man. 266 00:13:06,190 --> 00:13:09,670 But you cannot say better about God, because 267 00:13:09,670 --> 00:13:11,070 God is already there. 268 00:13:11,230 --> 00:13:13,610 God is the apex, the fountain, the top. 269 00:13:13,830 --> 00:13:16,730 There are no degrees in God. 270 00:13:16,810 --> 00:13:20,030 There are degrees in angels, I suppose, and 271 00:13:20,030 --> 00:13:22,630 there are certainly degrees in people, but there 272 00:13:22,630 --> 00:13:24,370 are no degrees in God. 273 00:13:25,030 --> 00:13:27,990 Therefore you cannot apply such words as greater 274 00:13:27,990 --> 00:13:28,590 to God. 275 00:13:28,650 --> 00:13:31,050 God is not greater, God is great. 276 00:13:31,830 --> 00:13:34,390 And greater is a word applied to creatures 277 00:13:34,390 --> 00:13:36,890 who are trying to be like God. 278 00:13:37,630 --> 00:13:39,870 But you cannot say that God is greater, 279 00:13:39,970 --> 00:13:42,010 because that would put God in a position 280 00:13:42,010 --> 00:13:44,830 where he was in competition with one else 281 00:13:44,830 --> 00:13:45,430 who was great. 282 00:13:45,570 --> 00:13:47,750 God is simply God. 283 00:13:48,410 --> 00:13:50,730 So you cannot say God is less, God 284 00:13:50,730 --> 00:13:53,310 is more, God is older, God is younger. 285 00:13:53,310 --> 00:13:56,890 You cannot say God is older, because God 286 00:13:56,890 --> 00:14:00,630 has in his bosom all of time, and 287 00:14:00,630 --> 00:14:04,630 time casts no shadow on God and changes 288 00:14:04,630 --> 00:14:06,030 God not at all. 289 00:14:06,530 --> 00:14:08,750 God does not live according to the tick 290 00:14:08,750 --> 00:14:10,890 of a clock, nor according to the revolution 291 00:14:10,890 --> 00:14:12,390 of the earth around the sun. 292 00:14:13,090 --> 00:14:15,910 God does not observe seasons or days, though 293 00:14:15,910 --> 00:14:17,930 he allows us to, because we are caught 294 00:14:17,930 --> 00:14:20,230 in the stream of time and the sun 295 00:14:20,230 --> 00:14:22,110 that goes down at night and rises in 296 00:14:22,110 --> 00:14:24,230 the morning, or the earth that goes around 297 00:14:24,230 --> 00:14:27,070 the sun in 360 days. 298 00:14:27,490 --> 00:14:30,670 This always tells us where we are in 299 00:14:30,670 --> 00:14:31,130 time. 300 00:14:32,130 --> 00:14:35,330 But not God. 301 00:14:35,450 --> 00:14:39,790 God remains eternally the same, absolutely the same. 302 00:14:40,710 --> 00:14:42,930 And I'd like to point out another thing, 303 00:14:42,990 --> 00:14:45,550 that these suffixes that we have that we 304 00:14:45,550 --> 00:14:48,370 apply to ourselves, they are direction words, such 305 00:14:48,370 --> 00:14:50,630 as back and down and upward and all 306 00:14:50,630 --> 00:14:51,950 such words. 307 00:14:52,070 --> 00:14:53,470 You can't apply them to God. 308 00:14:53,570 --> 00:14:55,970 God can't go back because God is already 309 00:14:55,970 --> 00:14:57,550 there, being omnipresent. 310 00:14:58,070 --> 00:15:00,770 God can't go forward because God is already 311 00:15:00,770 --> 00:15:02,190 there, being omnipresent. 312 00:15:02,330 --> 00:15:04,190 God can't go to right or left because 313 00:15:04,190 --> 00:15:07,970 God is already everywhere, and the heaven of 314 00:15:07,970 --> 00:15:10,010 heavens cannot contain him. 315 00:15:10,670 --> 00:15:12,630 So we do not say that God came 316 00:15:12,630 --> 00:15:14,310 from or God goes to. 317 00:15:14,350 --> 00:15:16,890 We use the words, but we don't mean 318 00:15:16,890 --> 00:15:19,330 about God what we mean about ourselves. 319 00:15:20,390 --> 00:15:23,530 Direction words haven't anything to do with next 320 00:15:23,530 --> 00:15:24,350 Monday of the week. 321 00:15:24,510 --> 00:15:26,250 I'm going to get on an airplane and 322 00:15:26,250 --> 00:15:28,230 fly down to Chicago and get on another 323 00:15:28,230 --> 00:15:30,450 one there and fly down to Wichita, wherever 324 00:15:30,450 --> 00:15:33,090 that is, and get in an automobile and 325 00:15:33,090 --> 00:15:34,590 go to Newton, wherever that is. 326 00:15:34,870 --> 00:15:36,890 They're both in Kansas, incidentally. 327 00:15:37,390 --> 00:15:38,910 And I'll preach a while there in a 328 00:15:38,910 --> 00:15:39,870 Bible conference. 329 00:15:40,370 --> 00:15:42,530 I will be going somewhere. 330 00:15:42,790 --> 00:15:44,330 I will be, and then I will be 331 00:15:44,330 --> 00:15:45,770 moving toward somewhere. 332 00:15:46,490 --> 00:15:49,310 But God is not one place moving toward 333 00:15:49,310 --> 00:15:52,090 another because God fills all places. 334 00:15:52,850 --> 00:15:55,290 And whether you be in India or Australia 335 00:15:55,290 --> 00:15:58,570 or South America or California or wherever you 336 00:15:58,570 --> 00:16:01,150 be around the world or out in stellar 337 00:16:01,150 --> 00:16:03,270 spaces, God's already there. 338 00:16:03,350 --> 00:16:04,770 If I take the wings of the morning 339 00:16:04,770 --> 00:16:06,590 and go to the uttermost parts of the 340 00:16:06,590 --> 00:16:07,430 sea, God's there. 341 00:16:07,490 --> 00:16:08,770 And if I go up into heaven, he's 342 00:16:08,770 --> 00:16:08,990 there. 343 00:16:09,030 --> 00:16:10,430 And if I go down to hell, even 344 00:16:10,430 --> 00:16:12,230 there, God will be. 345 00:16:12,790 --> 00:16:15,430 So these words, these greater and lesser words 346 00:16:15,430 --> 00:16:18,610 and these suffixes, backward, downward, upward, onward, these 347 00:16:18,610 --> 00:16:19,730 words can't apply to God. 348 00:16:19,810 --> 00:16:25,110 God the Eternal God remains unchanging, that is, 349 00:16:25,150 --> 00:16:26,090 he is immutable. 350 00:16:26,590 --> 00:16:29,030 Then there's a third possibility in changing. 351 00:16:29,510 --> 00:16:31,170 A man can go, or a creature can 352 00:16:31,170 --> 00:16:33,730 go, from one kind of being to another. 353 00:16:34,590 --> 00:16:39,170 That beautiful butterfly that you squeal over in 354 00:16:39,170 --> 00:16:41,970 the springtime when it's there so lovely, or 355 00:16:41,970 --> 00:16:44,070 maybe occasionally this lovely thing will happen. 356 00:16:44,170 --> 00:16:45,630 I've seen this happen in our home a 357 00:16:45,630 --> 00:16:46,090 few times. 358 00:16:46,310 --> 00:16:47,550 I never knew how they got in. 359 00:16:48,390 --> 00:16:50,790 But a moth, one of those great broad 360 00:16:50,790 --> 00:16:53,170 moths, as large and wide as my hand, 361 00:16:53,250 --> 00:16:55,410 a wingspread as wide as my hand, and 362 00:16:55,410 --> 00:16:56,730 just covered with falcon powder. 363 00:16:56,830 --> 00:16:58,910 You've seen them just go absolutely lovely. 364 00:16:59,710 --> 00:17:01,230 There they are, they usually get on a 365 00:17:01,230 --> 00:17:02,730 curtain trying to get to the light. 366 00:17:02,850 --> 00:17:04,130 They've hatched there somewhere. 367 00:17:04,849 --> 00:17:07,390 And it's so beautiful, we say, isn't it 368 00:17:07,390 --> 00:17:09,569 lovely, isn't that a beautiful thing? 369 00:17:09,910 --> 00:17:11,770 You pick it up and tenderly take it 370 00:17:11,770 --> 00:17:13,329 to the door and let it fly away. 371 00:17:14,150 --> 00:17:16,670 But just a little while before, if you'd 372 00:17:16,670 --> 00:17:19,450 seen it, you'd turn away from it, you 373 00:17:19,450 --> 00:17:21,329 wouldn't want to touch it, because it was 374 00:17:21,329 --> 00:17:23,790 a cocoon, which is a worm all wrapped 375 00:17:23,790 --> 00:17:24,990 up in winter clothes. 376 00:17:25,750 --> 00:17:29,950 And when that beautiful little butterfly that breathes 377 00:17:29,950 --> 00:17:31,290 with its wings, you know they do it 378 00:17:31,290 --> 00:17:34,270 that way, sitting there on the flower, just 379 00:17:34,270 --> 00:17:36,290 a little while ago he was a miserable 380 00:17:36,290 --> 00:17:38,430 hairy worm crawling across the road. 381 00:17:38,570 --> 00:17:40,090 And you wouldn't have touched him, and you'd 382 00:17:40,090 --> 00:17:41,630 have put him down on the table before 383 00:17:41,630 --> 00:17:43,830 he'd have squealed and got up and left. 384 00:17:44,350 --> 00:17:46,050 But now you see, isn't it beautiful? 385 00:17:46,570 --> 00:17:47,970 There is change, you see. 386 00:17:48,090 --> 00:17:50,330 Things go from one kind of creature to 387 00:17:50,330 --> 00:17:50,630 another. 388 00:17:51,010 --> 00:17:53,310 And then there is moral changes that are 389 00:17:53,310 --> 00:17:53,610 made. 390 00:17:53,690 --> 00:17:55,910 A man can be a good man and 391 00:17:55,910 --> 00:17:57,550 change and be a bad man. 392 00:17:58,090 --> 00:18:00,050 And then, thank God, he can be a 393 00:18:00,050 --> 00:18:01,970 bad man and by the grace of God 394 00:18:01,970 --> 00:18:03,770 change and be a good man. 395 00:18:04,110 --> 00:18:07,750 We sing sometimes the songs of John Newton. 396 00:18:08,450 --> 00:18:10,410 Don't you know John Newton was one of 397 00:18:10,410 --> 00:18:12,210 the vilest men that ever lived by his 398 00:18:12,210 --> 00:18:12,870 own confession? 399 00:18:13,430 --> 00:18:15,270 Don't you know that John Bunyan was one 400 00:18:15,270 --> 00:18:16,870 of the evilest men that ever lived by 401 00:18:16,870 --> 00:18:17,630 his own confession? 402 00:18:18,190 --> 00:18:20,210 Don't you know that the Apostle Paul was 403 00:18:20,210 --> 00:18:22,090 one of the worst men, the cheapest of 404 00:18:22,090 --> 00:18:23,610 sinners by his own testimony? 405 00:18:24,490 --> 00:18:27,370 But these men became Saints of God. 406 00:18:27,450 --> 00:18:29,390 And we don't canonize men in the Protestant 407 00:18:29,390 --> 00:18:32,030 Church, but if we did, we'd have St. 408 00:18:32,150 --> 00:18:35,010 John Bunyan and St. John Newton and St. 409 00:18:35,130 --> 00:18:35,630 John Lewis. 410 00:18:35,650 --> 00:18:37,310 I don't know how the Johns got so 411 00:18:37,310 --> 00:18:39,150 many good things, but there are so many 412 00:18:39,150 --> 00:18:40,450 good Johns, bless them. 413 00:18:41,410 --> 00:18:43,890 They change, it's possible to change. 414 00:18:44,070 --> 00:18:45,490 And some of you who are sitting here 415 00:18:45,490 --> 00:18:47,570 now, getting a bit of spiritual help out 416 00:18:47,570 --> 00:18:49,230 of this talk about God, there was a 417 00:18:49,230 --> 00:18:50,870 time when you would have been bored to 418 00:18:50,870 --> 00:18:52,670 tears, as they say, to listen to it. 419 00:18:52,970 --> 00:18:55,490 You've changed, you've changed, there's been mutation. 420 00:18:55,890 --> 00:18:58,430 You're not immutable, thank God you're not immutable. 421 00:18:59,170 --> 00:19:01,810 You're able to change, to change from worse 422 00:19:01,810 --> 00:19:03,750 to better, to go from one kind of 423 00:19:03,750 --> 00:19:05,590 creature to another kind of creature. 424 00:19:05,790 --> 00:19:07,770 But you can't think of that about God. 425 00:19:08,250 --> 00:19:09,170 God cannot go. 426 00:19:09,270 --> 00:19:10,230 That's unthinkable. 427 00:19:10,870 --> 00:19:13,210 The perfect and the absolute and the infinite 428 00:19:13,210 --> 00:19:15,690 God cannot become anything else but what he 429 00:19:15,690 --> 00:19:15,990 is. 430 00:19:16,910 --> 00:19:19,970 Now, let us remember that in teaching the 431 00:19:19,970 --> 00:19:22,430 doctrine of the incarnation, we do not teach 432 00:19:22,430 --> 00:19:25,910 that God became man in the sense that 433 00:19:25,910 --> 00:19:28,430 God left his deity and took humanity. 434 00:19:28,590 --> 00:19:31,310 He did that in that Jesus Christ was 435 00:19:31,310 --> 00:19:32,890 both God and man. 436 00:19:33,550 --> 00:19:36,990 But his manhood and his Godhood, while mysteriously 437 00:19:38,390 --> 00:19:41,610 fused, they never passed over into each other. 438 00:19:42,350 --> 00:19:45,430 The old Athanasian Creed makes that very clear. 439 00:19:45,570 --> 00:19:47,690 Our Father, way back there in the days 440 00:19:47,690 --> 00:19:49,750 of Athanasius, makes it very clear. 441 00:19:50,290 --> 00:19:54,070 They say that Jesus Christ is man, or 442 00:19:54,070 --> 00:19:58,230 God became man, not by the degradation of 443 00:19:58,230 --> 00:20:00,870 his Godhood into man, but by the lifting 444 00:20:00,870 --> 00:20:02,510 up of his manhood into God. 445 00:20:03,470 --> 00:20:05,830 And so while Christ is divine and is 446 00:20:05,830 --> 00:20:08,550 God, and was with the Father before the 447 00:20:08,550 --> 00:20:11,630 world was, when Jesus was born of the 448 00:20:11,630 --> 00:20:15,010 Virgin Mary, he took a tabernacle on himself, 449 00:20:15,190 --> 00:20:17,450 but his deity didn't become humanity. 450 00:20:17,850 --> 00:20:20,930 His deity was joined to his humanity in 451 00:20:20,930 --> 00:20:25,730 one person forever, but God, eternal, uncreated, can 452 00:20:25,730 --> 00:20:26,910 never become created. 453 00:20:28,330 --> 00:20:30,070 Now, I stand by that, my brethren. 454 00:20:30,190 --> 00:20:32,130 I'll stand by that right down to the 455 00:20:32,130 --> 00:20:32,490 end. 456 00:20:33,050 --> 00:20:36,170 That which is not God cannot become God, 457 00:20:36,270 --> 00:20:38,310 and that which is God cannot become that 458 00:20:38,310 --> 00:20:39,230 which is not God. 459 00:20:40,130 --> 00:20:42,670 But God can come and dwell imminently within 460 00:20:42,670 --> 00:20:43,330 this creature. 461 00:20:44,090 --> 00:20:46,550 You do not become God when God comes 462 00:20:46,550 --> 00:20:48,770 into your nature and fills you with himself. 463 00:20:49,470 --> 00:20:51,310 And God does not become you. 464 00:20:51,590 --> 00:20:53,290 There is that pantheism. 465 00:20:54,130 --> 00:20:57,030 But you and God remain two beings. 466 00:20:57,250 --> 00:20:58,790 God is your Father and you are his 467 00:20:58,790 --> 00:21:00,970 child, but he dwells in your heart. 468 00:21:01,510 --> 00:21:05,250 And experientially you are one, but actually and 469 00:21:05,250 --> 00:21:06,610 metaphysically you are two. 470 00:21:09,490 --> 00:21:13,030 Buddhists teach that we pass away into nirvana, 471 00:21:13,290 --> 00:21:15,830 pass on out into the eternal sea of 472 00:21:15,830 --> 00:21:18,750 deity and cease to be like a drop 473 00:21:18,750 --> 00:21:19,850 of water into the ocean. 474 00:21:20,650 --> 00:21:22,370 I wouldn't look forward to that. 475 00:21:22,410 --> 00:21:24,410 If I were on my deathbed and some 476 00:21:24,410 --> 00:21:27,230 priest were to come and say, well, Brother 477 00:21:27,230 --> 00:21:31,150 Toter, you're just about to pass out and 478 00:21:31,150 --> 00:21:33,730 your personality will cease to be and you 479 00:21:33,730 --> 00:21:36,290 will be lost and melted up into the 480 00:21:36,290 --> 00:21:39,450 vast personality that is God, I'd say, I'm 481 00:21:39,450 --> 00:21:40,650 not looking forward to it. 482 00:21:40,670 --> 00:21:42,210 I'm going to hang on to my own 483 00:21:42,210 --> 00:21:45,050 personality as long as I can, because I 484 00:21:45,050 --> 00:21:47,610 like my dreams and my memories and I 485 00:21:47,610 --> 00:21:51,270 like my thoughts and my worship and my 486 00:21:51,270 --> 00:21:55,050 happiness and to see and to hear and 487 00:21:55,050 --> 00:21:56,230 to feel, I like it. 488 00:21:56,590 --> 00:21:58,770 I like to be human being and alive 489 00:21:58,770 --> 00:22:00,130 and have my own personality. 490 00:22:00,810 --> 00:22:02,630 So I never look forward to the time 491 00:22:02,630 --> 00:22:04,790 that I shall be dissolved in God and 492 00:22:04,790 --> 00:22:05,130 forgotten. 493 00:22:05,650 --> 00:22:06,730 I'll never be forgotten. 494 00:22:06,910 --> 00:22:09,630 God will always keep me a being, an 495 00:22:09,630 --> 00:22:12,010 individual being in his heart, but an individual 496 00:22:12,010 --> 00:22:15,830 being capable of memory, capable of imagination, capable 497 00:22:15,830 --> 00:22:19,610 of thought, capable of drawing conclusions, capable of 498 00:22:19,610 --> 00:22:19,930 worship. 499 00:22:22,050 --> 00:22:26,570 Well, oh, I'll skip a lot of this 500 00:22:26,570 --> 00:22:31,330 tonight because we started late, but we come 501 00:22:31,330 --> 00:22:31,830 to this. 502 00:22:31,870 --> 00:22:34,770 Thine own self forever filling, said the same 503 00:22:34,770 --> 00:22:38,870 poet, with self-kindled flame, in thyself thou 504 00:22:38,870 --> 00:22:43,810 art distilling unctions without name, without veiling of 505 00:22:43,810 --> 00:22:47,550 thy features, without worshiping of creatures, God always 506 00:22:47,550 --> 00:22:48,390 the same. 507 00:22:49,070 --> 00:22:51,250 That was Faber, and I'd like to talk 508 00:22:51,250 --> 00:22:53,690 a little more about God always the same. 509 00:22:54,190 --> 00:22:56,390 And remember when I say that God is 510 00:22:56,390 --> 00:22:58,950 the same always, I'm talking about the three 511 00:22:58,950 --> 00:22:59,470 persons. 512 00:22:59,690 --> 00:23:02,930 You'll remember that I quoted before, but it 513 00:23:02,930 --> 00:23:06,730 says that such as the Father is, such 514 00:23:06,730 --> 00:23:08,730 also is the Son, and such is the 515 00:23:08,730 --> 00:23:09,390 Holy Ghost. 516 00:23:09,930 --> 00:23:12,630 The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, 517 00:23:12,730 --> 00:23:14,490 and the Holy Ghost is uncreated. 518 00:23:14,970 --> 00:23:17,010 And yet there are not three uncreated, but 519 00:23:17,010 --> 00:23:17,990 one uncreated. 520 00:23:18,590 --> 00:23:21,930 The Father is incomprehensible, the Son is incomprehensible, 521 00:23:22,110 --> 00:23:24,110 and the Spirit is comprehensible, yet there are 522 00:23:24,110 --> 00:23:27,350 not three incomprehensibles, but one incomprehensible. 523 00:23:27,670 --> 00:23:29,630 So you can run through all the gamut 524 00:23:29,630 --> 00:23:31,930 of the attributes of the Deity, and what 525 00:23:31,930 --> 00:23:33,610 you say about the Father you can say 526 00:23:33,610 --> 00:23:36,670 about the Son without modification, and what you 527 00:23:36,670 --> 00:23:38,170 say about the Father and the Son you 528 00:23:38,170 --> 00:23:41,130 can say about the Spirit without modification, for 529 00:23:41,130 --> 00:23:43,370 they are one substance and are together to 530 00:23:43,370 --> 00:23:45,010 be worshiped and glorified. 531 00:23:45,710 --> 00:23:47,550 So when we say God is the same, 532 00:23:47,670 --> 00:23:49,550 we say Jesus Christ is the same. 533 00:23:49,950 --> 00:23:51,470 And when we say the Father and the 534 00:23:51,470 --> 00:23:53,610 Son are the same, we say the Holy 535 00:23:53,610 --> 00:23:54,790 Ghost is the same. 536 00:23:55,290 --> 00:23:58,250 All that God ever was, God still is. 537 00:23:58,710 --> 00:24:00,930 And all that God was and is, God 538 00:24:00,930 --> 00:24:01,810 will ever be. 539 00:24:02,530 --> 00:24:04,130 You'll remember that, my friend. 540 00:24:04,210 --> 00:24:05,770 It will help you in the hour of 541 00:24:05,770 --> 00:24:06,090 trial. 542 00:24:06,490 --> 00:24:07,910 It will help you at death. 543 00:24:07,970 --> 00:24:09,450 It will help you in the resurrection. 544 00:24:09,610 --> 00:24:11,030 It will help you in the world to 545 00:24:11,030 --> 00:24:13,790 come to know that all that God ever 546 00:24:13,790 --> 00:24:15,170 was, God still is. 547 00:24:15,770 --> 00:24:17,890 And all that God was and is, God 548 00:24:17,890 --> 00:24:19,270 ever will be. 549 00:24:19,710 --> 00:24:23,590 His nature and his attributes are eternally unchanging. 550 00:24:24,330 --> 00:24:29,530 I preached about the selfhood of God, the 551 00:24:29,530 --> 00:24:31,070 uncreated selfhood of God. 552 00:24:31,150 --> 00:24:33,210 I'll never have to change that nor edit 553 00:24:33,210 --> 00:24:34,490 it in any way. 554 00:24:35,330 --> 00:24:37,250 I go back over some of my old 555 00:24:37,250 --> 00:24:39,230 sermons and some of the old articles I've 556 00:24:39,230 --> 00:24:40,990 written, and I wonder why I wrote them 557 00:24:40,990 --> 00:24:41,410 like that. 558 00:24:41,470 --> 00:24:43,210 I could improve them now. 559 00:24:43,970 --> 00:24:45,950 But I can't improve it when I state 560 00:24:45,950 --> 00:24:49,050 that God is always the same, that God 561 00:24:49,050 --> 00:24:51,950 is self-sufficient, that God is self-existent, 562 00:24:52,030 --> 00:24:54,710 that God is eternal, and that God is 563 00:24:54,710 --> 00:24:57,050 omnipresent and that God is immutable. 564 00:24:57,570 --> 00:24:59,350 There will be no reason to change that, 565 00:24:59,430 --> 00:25:01,290 because God changes not. 566 00:25:01,810 --> 00:25:04,690 His nature and his attributes are eternally unchanging, 567 00:25:04,910 --> 00:25:05,530 I repeat. 568 00:25:06,690 --> 00:25:09,290 However God ever felt about anything, he still 569 00:25:09,290 --> 00:25:09,730 feels. 570 00:25:10,550 --> 00:25:13,910 However he ever thought about anyone, he still 571 00:25:13,910 --> 00:25:14,390 thinks. 572 00:25:15,130 --> 00:25:18,030 And whatever he wants approved, he still approves. 573 00:25:18,110 --> 00:25:20,710 And whatever he condemned, he still condemns, all 574 00:25:20,710 --> 00:25:21,530 down the years. 575 00:25:22,310 --> 00:25:24,350 You know what we have now in our 576 00:25:24,350 --> 00:25:27,210 colleges, and some of our bright young pastors 577 00:25:27,210 --> 00:25:29,710 have taken it over, and we have what 578 00:25:29,710 --> 00:25:32,550 we call the relativity of morals. 579 00:25:32,830 --> 00:25:35,670 They say, well, you can't be too tough 580 00:25:35,670 --> 00:25:38,430 on people after all, right and wrong are 581 00:25:38,430 --> 00:25:39,710 relative terms. 582 00:25:40,470 --> 00:25:43,550 What's right in Timbuktu is wrong in New 583 00:25:43,550 --> 00:25:45,730 York, and what's wrong in New York may 584 00:25:45,730 --> 00:25:48,370 be entirely right in Buenos Aires. 585 00:25:49,170 --> 00:25:52,990 And therefore there's a difference, you see, there's 586 00:25:52,990 --> 00:25:54,670 a relativity there. 587 00:25:55,310 --> 00:25:59,110 My friend, remember this, that God never changes, 588 00:25:59,530 --> 00:26:03,330 and that the holiness is conformity to the 589 00:26:03,330 --> 00:26:03,970 will of God. 590 00:26:04,150 --> 00:26:06,630 Righteousness is conformity to the will of God. 591 00:26:07,130 --> 00:26:09,190 And the will of God never changes for 592 00:26:09,190 --> 00:26:09,970 moral creatures. 593 00:26:10,550 --> 00:26:13,190 God means that moral creatures should always be 594 00:26:13,190 --> 00:26:16,410 like him, always be right, always be holy, 595 00:26:16,570 --> 00:26:20,750 always be pure, always be true, always, forever, 596 00:26:21,350 --> 00:26:25,050 and never, while God sometimes winked in ancient 597 00:26:25,050 --> 00:26:27,590 days because men didn't understand, and the work 598 00:26:27,590 --> 00:26:29,790 of salvation was not yet wrought out for 599 00:26:29,790 --> 00:26:30,110 men. 600 00:26:30,710 --> 00:26:32,450 And while God puts up with some things 601 00:26:32,450 --> 00:26:34,870 yet in us because we're still children and 602 00:26:34,870 --> 00:26:37,810 don't know and can't yet grasp his eternal 603 00:26:37,810 --> 00:26:40,910 purposes for us, he's not excusing it, my 604 00:26:40,910 --> 00:26:41,290 friend. 605 00:26:41,710 --> 00:26:44,010 He's simply patiently putting up with us until 606 00:26:44,010 --> 00:26:45,530 we come around to ourselves. 607 00:26:46,070 --> 00:26:48,210 But God always thinks the same. 608 00:26:48,590 --> 00:26:51,350 I love to think that Jesus Christ is 609 00:26:51,350 --> 00:26:52,210 what God is. 610 00:26:52,290 --> 00:26:53,910 If you want to know what God is 611 00:26:53,910 --> 00:26:56,690 like, read the story of Jesus Christ our 612 00:26:56,690 --> 00:26:58,610 Lord and you'll find that what God is 613 00:26:58,610 --> 00:26:58,830 like. 614 00:26:58,910 --> 00:27:00,390 For he that has seen the Father has 615 00:27:00,390 --> 00:27:02,130 seen me, or he that has seen me 616 00:27:02,130 --> 00:27:03,650 has seen the Father, either one. 617 00:27:04,350 --> 00:27:07,490 So that however Jesus felt about anything, God 618 00:27:07,490 --> 00:27:08,630 feels about anything. 619 00:27:08,770 --> 00:27:10,330 The Father feels that way. 620 00:27:10,930 --> 00:27:12,710 When Jesus picked a baby up and put 621 00:27:12,710 --> 00:27:15,190 his hands on its head, that's the way 622 00:27:15,190 --> 00:27:16,850 God feels about babies. 623 00:27:16,950 --> 00:27:19,170 Now I can understand how God can love 624 00:27:19,170 --> 00:27:19,530 babies. 625 00:27:19,590 --> 00:27:21,550 There are some things I don't understand why 626 00:27:21,550 --> 00:27:22,210 God loves. 627 00:27:22,730 --> 00:27:24,910 I never have been able to understand why 628 00:27:24,910 --> 00:27:25,770 God loved me. 629 00:27:25,950 --> 00:27:28,310 That is one of my deep theological difficulties, 630 00:27:28,430 --> 00:27:29,690 and I'm not trying to be humble, I'm 631 00:27:29,690 --> 00:27:30,470 stating a fact. 632 00:27:30,810 --> 00:27:32,830 I don't know why God loved me, but 633 00:27:32,830 --> 00:27:34,210 I can know and I can understand why 634 00:27:34,210 --> 00:27:35,010 he loved babies. 635 00:27:35,210 --> 00:27:36,930 I don't understand anybody that couldn't. 636 00:27:38,370 --> 00:27:40,190 And Jesus did, and he picked them up 637 00:27:40,190 --> 00:27:42,310 and brought them to him, and the disciples 638 00:27:42,310 --> 00:27:43,850 said, I'll take those kids away. 639 00:27:43,970 --> 00:27:44,170 Why? 640 00:27:44,290 --> 00:27:46,550 This is a theological school, don't you know? 641 00:27:46,910 --> 00:27:48,990 Here is our faculty, Jesus Christ, and we're 642 00:27:48,990 --> 00:27:49,550 the students. 643 00:27:49,730 --> 00:27:52,450 We're busy thinkers and we're talking theology. 644 00:27:53,030 --> 00:27:54,350 Get those babies away. 645 00:27:54,530 --> 00:27:55,770 And the Lord said, Let the little ones 646 00:27:55,770 --> 00:27:57,550 come unto me, and forbid them not. 647 00:27:57,950 --> 00:27:59,350 And such is the kingdom of heaven. 648 00:27:59,490 --> 00:28:01,510 Over in the city of Chicago they had 649 00:28:01,510 --> 00:28:04,630 a school among the Italians, and one little 650 00:28:04,630 --> 00:28:07,930 girl, Rosie, she memorized the verse, so for 651 00:28:07,930 --> 00:28:09,570 the little children to come unto me. 652 00:28:09,710 --> 00:28:11,630 And she lived on the street, and on 653 00:28:11,630 --> 00:28:16,110 her home playpen was the sidewalk, and her 654 00:28:16,110 --> 00:28:17,250 language wasn't the best. 655 00:28:18,210 --> 00:28:20,810 And the next day, Sunday, they asked her 656 00:28:20,810 --> 00:28:22,610 to quote the passage she had learned the 657 00:28:22,610 --> 00:28:24,450 Sunday before, and whoever could. 658 00:28:24,610 --> 00:28:26,250 And one little brown hand went up and 659 00:28:26,250 --> 00:28:28,070 shook, and it was Rosie, and they said, 660 00:28:28,150 --> 00:28:29,470 All right, Rosie, you quote it. 661 00:28:29,510 --> 00:28:31,190 It was, of course, so for the little 662 00:28:31,190 --> 00:28:32,970 children to come unto me and forbid them 663 00:28:32,970 --> 00:28:34,330 not, for such is the kingdom of heaven. 664 00:28:34,930 --> 00:28:36,530 And she got the essence of it, but 665 00:28:36,530 --> 00:28:38,430 she didn't have the King James Version, and 666 00:28:38,430 --> 00:28:40,210 she said, Let the little kids come to 667 00:28:40,210 --> 00:28:42,150 me, and don't you tell them they can't, 668 00:28:42,270 --> 00:28:43,790 because they belong by me. 669 00:28:44,290 --> 00:28:46,310 She had it all right, she had it, 670 00:28:46,370 --> 00:28:48,190 but she didn't have the King James Version. 671 00:28:49,590 --> 00:28:51,830 Now the Lord loves little ones like that, 672 00:28:51,930 --> 00:28:53,130 and he still does. 673 00:28:53,610 --> 00:28:55,750 And he still thinks the same of a 674 00:28:55,750 --> 00:28:57,750 penitent harlot that he always did, and he 675 00:28:57,750 --> 00:29:00,330 still thinks the same of a tender-eyed 676 00:29:00,330 --> 00:29:02,110 man seeking eternal life. 677 00:29:02,550 --> 00:29:05,250 Always he feels the same about everything, for 678 00:29:05,250 --> 00:29:06,910 he did not and does not and cannot 679 00:29:06,910 --> 00:29:07,590 change. 680 00:29:10,250 --> 00:29:12,590 Now, things serve their end, you know. 681 00:29:12,870 --> 00:29:14,030 Things serve their end. 682 00:29:14,110 --> 00:29:14,710 They change. 683 00:29:14,810 --> 00:29:16,330 We're in the middle of a world that's 684 00:29:16,330 --> 00:29:18,050 changing all the time, and I, for one, 685 00:29:18,110 --> 00:29:19,070 am glad it's changing. 686 00:29:19,230 --> 00:29:21,510 I'm glad weather changes, aren't you? 687 00:29:21,970 --> 00:29:24,930 I'm glad weather changes, that there isn't any 688 00:29:25,410 --> 00:29:27,290 doubt about it, but if we can hold 689 00:29:27,290 --> 00:29:29,090 out, the spring will come around and the 690 00:29:29,090 --> 00:29:31,370 birds will come back, those cowards. 691 00:29:31,810 --> 00:29:33,710 They leave us just when it gets cold, 692 00:29:33,850 --> 00:29:35,790 and down they go to Florida and South 693 00:29:35,790 --> 00:29:37,650 America, and they live down there. 694 00:29:38,450 --> 00:29:40,670 I always did feel just a little bit 695 00:29:40,670 --> 00:29:42,330 put out when the birds that I love 696 00:29:42,330 --> 00:29:44,470 so much all leave me and go south. 697 00:29:44,910 --> 00:29:45,690 They never come back. 698 00:29:45,750 --> 00:29:47,330 Of course, that's not only true of birds, 699 00:29:47,430 --> 00:29:49,490 that's true of a lot of these reliance 700 00:29:49,490 --> 00:29:50,230 birds, too. 701 00:29:50,850 --> 00:29:53,230 They go down south, you know, and don't 702 00:29:53,230 --> 00:29:53,890 come back. 703 00:29:53,910 --> 00:29:55,850 They don't come back until they can sit 704 00:29:55,850 --> 00:29:57,730 out on the front porch. 705 00:29:58,850 --> 00:30:00,410 Some of us have to stick right through 706 00:30:00,410 --> 00:30:02,270 thick and thin, but we're glad for the 707 00:30:02,270 --> 00:30:02,710 change. 708 00:30:02,850 --> 00:30:04,910 We're glad when the weatherman says there'll be 709 00:30:04,910 --> 00:30:05,610 a moderation. 710 00:30:06,430 --> 00:30:08,570 Moderation's another word for mutation, you know. 711 00:30:08,650 --> 00:30:10,110 It's going to change and warm up a 712 00:30:10,110 --> 00:30:10,510 little bit. 713 00:30:10,590 --> 00:30:12,790 We like that, unless it's August, and then 714 00:30:12,790 --> 00:30:13,710 we don't want to hear it. 715 00:30:15,610 --> 00:30:19,070 Well, in the world of nature, I hardly 716 00:30:19,070 --> 00:30:20,050 need to mention it. 717 00:30:20,050 --> 00:30:22,770 You know how a seed will produce a 718 00:30:22,770 --> 00:30:24,510 plant, and a plant will produce a flower, 719 00:30:24,590 --> 00:30:26,250 and a flower will produce a seed, and 720 00:30:26,250 --> 00:30:28,110 a seed will produce a flower, and a 721 00:30:28,110 --> 00:30:30,190 plant again, and so on, around and around 722 00:30:30,190 --> 00:30:31,350 through the eternal cycle. 723 00:30:32,010 --> 00:30:32,910 Things are changing. 724 00:30:33,770 --> 00:30:36,230 And in the book of Hebrews, which I've 725 00:30:36,230 --> 00:30:39,650 quoted before, we learn how God allowed things 726 00:30:39,650 --> 00:30:42,410 to change in order that he might establish 727 00:30:42,410 --> 00:30:44,130 that which cannot change. 728 00:30:44,650 --> 00:30:46,530 The book of Hebrews has this for its 729 00:30:46,530 --> 00:30:51,310 thesis, that the altar changed from the temporary 730 00:30:51,310 --> 00:30:54,050 altar to the eternal altar, that the priesthood 731 00:30:54,050 --> 00:30:56,890 changed from the temporary priesthood of Aaron to 732 00:30:56,890 --> 00:31:00,470 the eternal priesthood of Christ, which cannot change. 733 00:31:00,830 --> 00:31:02,690 He hath an unchanging priesthood. 734 00:31:03,490 --> 00:31:06,470 And the tabernacle changed from the temporary tabernacle 735 00:31:06,470 --> 00:31:09,290 in Jerusalem to the tabernacle eternal in the 736 00:31:09,290 --> 00:31:09,570 heavens. 737 00:31:10,590 --> 00:31:14,010 And the blood sacrificed changed from the blood 738 00:31:14,010 --> 00:31:16,170 that was shed every day or every week 739 00:31:16,170 --> 00:31:18,470 or every month and every year, to the 740 00:31:18,470 --> 00:31:20,450 blood that was shed once for all and 741 00:31:20,450 --> 00:31:21,770 needs not to be repeated. 742 00:31:22,350 --> 00:31:27,110 The permanency, the immutability of God's redemptive scheme 743 00:31:27,540 --> 00:31:29,590 is set forth in the book of Hebrews. 744 00:31:30,690 --> 00:31:33,870 Things changed until they perfected themselves, and they 745 00:31:33,870 --> 00:31:34,890 changed no more. 746 00:31:36,650 --> 00:31:39,430 And all things, as they change, proclaim the 747 00:31:39,430 --> 00:31:41,210 Lord eternally the same. 748 00:31:42,150 --> 00:31:44,010 Now what does all this mean to you 749 00:31:44,010 --> 00:31:44,330 and me? 750 00:31:44,510 --> 00:31:45,890 Well, it means a lot. 751 00:31:46,350 --> 00:31:48,170 It means, as I have preached through the 752 00:31:48,170 --> 00:31:51,670 uncreated selfhood of God, it means that my 753 00:31:51,670 --> 00:31:55,610 dependent self, my poor, helpless, dependent self, finds 754 00:31:55,610 --> 00:31:56,770 a home in God. 755 00:31:57,290 --> 00:31:59,570 God is our home. 756 00:32:00,550 --> 00:32:00,870 M. 757 00:32:00,910 --> 00:32:03,130 Simpson wrote a hymn on God being our 758 00:32:03,130 --> 00:32:03,610 home. 759 00:32:03,670 --> 00:32:06,710 My home is God, and we have found 760 00:32:06,710 --> 00:32:07,990 in God a home. 761 00:32:08,630 --> 00:32:10,570 We look forward, I look forward not so 762 00:32:10,570 --> 00:32:12,430 much to heaven as my home, but as 763 00:32:12,430 --> 00:32:14,930 God is my home in his heaven. 764 00:32:14,930 --> 00:32:18,910 And the eternity of God, we poor victims 765 00:32:18,910 --> 00:32:21,710 of the passing moment, we have found a 766 00:32:21,710 --> 00:32:22,950 timeless one. 767 00:32:23,790 --> 00:32:25,690 Some of you, since I've been preaching, have 768 00:32:25,690 --> 00:32:27,150 been looking at your wristwatch. 769 00:32:27,290 --> 00:32:28,790 Somebody said it will be all right so 770 00:32:28,790 --> 00:32:30,230 long as you don't look at the calendar. 771 00:32:30,970 --> 00:32:33,890 But your wristwatch, you're weary, weary. 772 00:32:34,050 --> 00:32:36,630 These boys are always doing this, always doing 773 00:32:36,630 --> 00:32:36,910 this. 774 00:32:36,950 --> 00:32:38,910 I get the heebie-jeebies when I see 775 00:32:38,910 --> 00:32:39,050 it. 776 00:32:39,250 --> 00:32:39,930 Always this. 777 00:32:40,170 --> 00:32:43,270 They are victims of time, always victims of 778 00:32:43,270 --> 00:32:48,330 time, counting our pulse beating, tearing off from 779 00:32:48,330 --> 00:32:50,550 the calendar that sheet that tells us we've 780 00:32:50,550 --> 00:32:53,030 gone one more month on our way. 781 00:32:53,850 --> 00:32:56,850 Time, we're victims of time, but there is 782 00:32:56,850 --> 00:32:59,450 one who contains time in his bosom. 783 00:33:00,030 --> 00:33:02,430 There is the timeless one who stepped out 784 00:33:02,430 --> 00:33:04,850 of eternity into time in the womb of 785 00:33:04,850 --> 00:33:07,330 the Virgin Mary and died and rose and 786 00:33:07,330 --> 00:33:09,230 lives at the right hand of God for 787 00:33:09,230 --> 00:33:12,030 us and invites us into his bosom where 788 00:33:12,030 --> 00:33:13,210 time is no more. 789 00:33:13,950 --> 00:33:16,090 And instead of our getting old, we stay 790 00:33:16,090 --> 00:33:17,890 young in Jesus Christ. 791 00:33:18,390 --> 00:33:20,650 Have you ever thought that St. Paul, who 792 00:33:20,650 --> 00:33:25,630 would now be over 1900 years old, did 793 00:33:25,630 --> 00:33:27,610 you ever stop to think in that moment 794 00:33:27,610 --> 00:33:29,970 when our Lord returns, St. Paul will be 795 00:33:29,970 --> 00:33:32,310 as young as he ever was. 796 00:33:32,970 --> 00:33:34,470 Did you ever stop to think those dear 797 00:33:34,470 --> 00:33:36,690 old people that we take out old and 798 00:33:36,690 --> 00:33:40,370 battered and wrinkled and caved in and sick 799 00:33:40,370 --> 00:33:43,290 and pale, and we take them out and 800 00:33:43,290 --> 00:33:45,350 with a few flowers unto him we lay 801 00:33:45,350 --> 00:33:47,970 them away, did you ever stop to think 802 00:33:47,970 --> 00:33:50,170 that they're the victims of the stream of 803 00:33:50,170 --> 00:33:50,670 time? 804 00:33:51,090 --> 00:33:53,270 Time has done this thing to them, or 805 00:33:53,270 --> 00:33:55,570 change has done it, for all time is 806 00:33:55,570 --> 00:33:57,530 is a word we use to account for 807 00:33:57,530 --> 00:33:58,150 change. 808 00:33:58,650 --> 00:34:01,590 Change has done this, but there will be 809 00:34:01,590 --> 00:34:04,310 a time, there will be a period there 810 00:34:04,310 --> 00:34:07,230 when they rise in newness of life and 811 00:34:07,230 --> 00:34:10,190 with a body like unto his glorified body, 812 00:34:10,370 --> 00:34:13,070 whereby he is able to subject all things 813 00:34:13,070 --> 00:34:14,030 unto himself. 814 00:34:14,929 --> 00:34:19,130 Then that old wrinkled lady without teeth and 815 00:34:19,130 --> 00:34:23,630 with her poor old cheeks leathery, never looked 816 00:34:23,630 --> 00:34:25,830 in the glass anymore, she was too discouraged. 817 00:34:27,370 --> 00:34:30,230 Now she looked young as the Virgin Mary, 818 00:34:30,590 --> 00:34:33,090 now she looked like an angel in the 819 00:34:33,090 --> 00:34:34,090 presence of God. 820 00:34:35,250 --> 00:34:38,929 I wouldn't put this down as a dogma 821 00:34:38,929 --> 00:34:42,070 that you've got to subscribe to, but we 822 00:34:42,070 --> 00:34:46,350 appear to reach our intellectual and physical maturity 823 00:34:46,350 --> 00:34:48,230 when we're about 30 or a little later. 824 00:34:49,210 --> 00:34:51,630 And if that's true, then Jesus Christ died, 825 00:34:51,670 --> 00:34:53,210 he had his life cut off out of 826 00:34:53,210 --> 00:34:55,130 the living when he was 33. 827 00:34:55,870 --> 00:34:57,550 God raised him from the dead and they 828 00:34:57,550 --> 00:34:59,790 recognized him as being the same one that 829 00:34:59,790 --> 00:35:00,430 had gone in. 830 00:35:00,490 --> 00:35:02,070 He was not younger nor older, he was 831 00:35:02,070 --> 00:35:03,310 the same one who'd gone in. 832 00:35:03,970 --> 00:35:05,550 And I wonder if it won't mean that 833 00:35:05,550 --> 00:35:08,750 forever and ever we will have that supreme 834 00:35:08,750 --> 00:35:15,950 apex of mental, moral and physical life which 835 00:35:15,950 --> 00:35:17,950 a normal healthy person has when he's 30. 836 00:35:18,970 --> 00:35:21,130 We'll all be neither, we'll not be babies. 837 00:35:21,330 --> 00:35:22,710 Some of you are looking forward to meeting 838 00:35:22,710 --> 00:35:23,870 your babies over there. 839 00:35:23,950 --> 00:35:25,930 Well, it's too late and too involved to 840 00:35:25,930 --> 00:35:27,670 talk about that tonight, but there'll be no 841 00:35:27,670 --> 00:35:28,450 babies in heaven. 842 00:35:28,950 --> 00:35:31,010 A lot of babies go there, of course. 843 00:35:31,150 --> 00:35:33,630 I believe that babies go there, but I 844 00:35:33,630 --> 00:35:36,450 also believe that they do not cease to 845 00:35:36,450 --> 00:35:37,390 mature and grow. 846 00:35:37,590 --> 00:35:39,810 And when our Lord comes, even the babes 847 00:35:39,810 --> 00:35:42,270 of a day old shall be like their 848 00:35:42,270 --> 00:35:45,290 Lord, as well as the old patriarchs of 849 00:35:45,290 --> 00:35:47,670 a hundred ripe years shall be like their 850 00:35:47,670 --> 00:35:48,190 Lord. 851 00:35:51,010 --> 00:35:54,550 Timeless God, an unchanging God. 852 00:35:56,030 --> 00:36:00,350 Well, now we sing, you know, that song, 853 00:36:00,510 --> 00:36:03,710 Rest My Long Divided Heart Fixed on This 854 00:36:03,710 --> 00:36:05,150 Blissful Center, Rest. 855 00:36:05,550 --> 00:36:08,210 I suppose nobody paid much attention to that. 856 00:36:08,290 --> 00:36:10,050 Usually we don't know what we're singing about 857 00:36:10,050 --> 00:36:11,010 when we sing songs. 858 00:36:11,170 --> 00:36:12,850 We call that preliminary. 859 00:36:14,470 --> 00:36:15,550 That's preliminary. 860 00:36:15,950 --> 00:36:17,790 I never knew what was preliminary, too. 861 00:36:18,270 --> 00:36:20,490 I've heard some sermons that needed some preliminary 862 00:36:20,490 --> 00:36:22,750 support, all right, and I've preached some. 863 00:36:23,550 --> 00:36:25,790 But we call that the preliminary, and so 864 00:36:25,790 --> 00:36:28,710 we wade through the preliminary waiting for somebody 865 00:36:28,710 --> 00:36:29,810 to be here in person. 866 00:36:30,610 --> 00:36:32,390 He'll be here in person and sing. 867 00:36:32,510 --> 00:36:34,310 I don't know how a man could be 868 00:36:34,310 --> 00:36:35,930 there if he wasn't there in person, maybe 869 00:36:35,930 --> 00:36:37,250 a sandy shirt or something. 870 00:36:37,610 --> 00:36:40,210 But he's there in person. 871 00:36:40,630 --> 00:36:42,190 Of course he's there in person, so he'll 872 00:36:42,190 --> 00:36:42,410 sing. 873 00:36:42,470 --> 00:36:43,050 Well, he does. 874 00:36:43,350 --> 00:36:44,150 He's there in person. 875 00:36:44,530 --> 00:36:46,330 Our brother will be there in person and 876 00:36:46,330 --> 00:36:48,750 will preach, and we sing the preliminary. 877 00:36:49,390 --> 00:36:50,830 You ever start to think that some of 878 00:36:50,830 --> 00:36:53,170 those preliminaries might have more in them than 879 00:36:53,170 --> 00:36:54,310 the sermon that follows? 880 00:36:54,830 --> 00:36:55,610 Listen to this. 881 00:36:55,670 --> 00:36:59,370 Now, Rest My Long Divided Heart Fixed on 882 00:36:59,370 --> 00:37:01,090 This Blissful Center, Rest. 883 00:37:01,530 --> 00:37:02,830 John Newton. 884 00:37:03,110 --> 00:37:03,770 What do you mean? 885 00:37:04,510 --> 00:37:07,610 Rest My Long Divided Heart. 886 00:37:08,150 --> 00:37:11,470 A house divided against itself cannot stand, said 887 00:37:11,470 --> 00:37:12,010 our Lord. 888 00:37:12,730 --> 00:37:15,850 And confusion in the little kingdom of man's 889 00:37:15,850 --> 00:37:21,310 soul, revolution and tumult, until we find rest 890 00:37:21,310 --> 00:37:23,610 in Christ, that blissful center. 891 00:37:23,710 --> 00:37:25,090 Who is that blissful center? 892 00:37:25,250 --> 00:37:26,610 What is that blissful center? 893 00:37:27,090 --> 00:37:29,270 That blissful center is none other than the 894 00:37:29,270 --> 00:37:32,390 Son of God made flesh, crucified and risen. 895 00:37:33,830 --> 00:37:36,030 And he invites us to rest in that 896 00:37:36,030 --> 00:37:38,110 bosom of his, the blissful center. 897 00:37:38,370 --> 00:37:40,890 Fixed on this blissful center, rest. 898 00:37:41,770 --> 00:37:43,350 And there is a real sense in which 899 00:37:43,350 --> 00:37:46,190 nobody knows rest of mind or heart until 900 00:37:46,190 --> 00:37:48,090 they find it in Jesus Christ the Lord. 901 00:37:48,630 --> 00:37:50,470 God has made us for himself, and we 902 00:37:50,470 --> 00:37:52,290 find not rest until we find it in 903 00:37:52,290 --> 00:37:53,530 thee, said Augustine. 904 00:37:56,070 --> 00:37:59,270 Those wise disciples, how wise they were on 905 00:37:59,270 --> 00:38:01,910 that road to Emmaus, they said to the 906 00:38:01,910 --> 00:38:04,050 Lord Jesus, Come on in and abide with 907 00:38:04,050 --> 00:38:06,510 us, because the day is far spent and 908 00:38:06,510 --> 00:38:07,650 the night is at hand. 909 00:38:08,110 --> 00:38:10,070 And he went in and ate with them, 910 00:38:10,230 --> 00:38:12,350 and they made himself known to them in 911 00:38:12,350 --> 00:38:13,470 the breaking of the bread. 912 00:38:14,210 --> 00:38:17,270 You will find that same Jesus makes himself 913 00:38:17,270 --> 00:38:19,070 known in the breaking of the bread. 914 00:38:19,750 --> 00:38:22,210 Ah, I say in the old song we 915 00:38:22,210 --> 00:38:24,410 used to sing, but we sing no more 916 00:38:24,410 --> 00:38:25,850 in the great congregation. 917 00:38:26,290 --> 00:38:28,550 Come, sinners, to the Living One. 918 00:38:28,670 --> 00:38:31,310 He's just the same Jesus as when he 919 00:38:31,310 --> 00:38:34,930 raised the widow's son, the very same Jesus. 920 00:38:35,410 --> 00:38:37,590 Come, feast upon the living bread. 921 00:38:37,710 --> 00:38:40,030 He's just the same Jesus as when the 922 00:38:40,030 --> 00:38:43,510 multitudes he fed, the very same Jesus. 923 00:38:44,250 --> 00:38:46,510 Come, tell him all your griefs and fears. 924 00:38:46,790 --> 00:38:49,550 He's just the same Jesus as when he 925 00:38:49,550 --> 00:38:54,150 shed those loving tears, the very same Jesus. 926 00:38:54,850 --> 00:38:57,030 Calm midst the waves of trouble be. 927 00:38:57,210 --> 00:38:59,170 He's just the same Jesus as when he 928 00:38:59,170 --> 00:39:02,590 calmed the raging sea, the very same Jesus. 929 00:39:03,150 --> 00:39:05,490 And someday our raptured eyes shall see. 930 00:39:05,990 --> 00:39:09,290 He's just the same Jesus, O blessed day 931 00:39:09,290 --> 00:39:12,550 for you and me, the very same Jesus. 932 00:39:13,510 --> 00:39:15,630 And the chorus runs, He's just the same 933 00:39:15,630 --> 00:39:19,130 Jesus, the wonder-working Jesus, O praise his 934 00:39:19,130 --> 00:39:19,430 name. 935 00:39:19,490 --> 00:39:22,710 He's just the same, the very same Jesus. 936 00:39:23,890 --> 00:39:25,850 And you will find him yesterday and today 937 00:39:25,850 --> 00:39:27,350 and forever the same. 938 00:39:27,570 --> 00:39:30,890 He has not receded into history past. 939 00:39:31,550 --> 00:39:34,390 He is the same today as before he 940 00:39:34,390 --> 00:39:35,090 went away. 941 00:39:35,790 --> 00:39:38,490 He is the same Jesus Christ the Lord. 942 00:39:39,410 --> 00:39:41,890 And if you will turn to him now, 943 00:39:42,450 --> 00:39:44,710 as Mary turned to him and as the 944 00:39:44,710 --> 00:39:47,790 rich ruler turned to him and as Jairus 945 00:39:47,790 --> 00:39:50,230 turned to him and many others, you will 946 00:39:50,230 --> 00:39:51,730 find he'll not fail you. 947 00:39:52,150 --> 00:39:53,750 He's not visible to our sight. 948 00:39:54,170 --> 00:39:56,110 But lo, I am with you always, even 949 00:39:56,110 --> 00:39:57,590 into the end of the world. 950 00:39:58,410 --> 00:39:59,830 And if you will turn to him for 951 00:39:59,830 --> 00:40:01,970 clear light, you will find him the same 952 00:40:01,970 --> 00:40:04,190 Jesus as when he gave the blind their 953 00:40:04,190 --> 00:40:06,170 sight, the very same Jesus. 954 00:40:06,910 --> 00:40:08,510 He'll feed you as he fed the multitude. 955 00:40:08,790 --> 00:40:10,450 He'll calm you as he calmed the sea. 956 00:40:10,730 --> 00:40:12,790 He'll bless you as he blessed the children. 957 00:40:13,190 --> 00:40:15,330 He'll forgive you as he forgave the woman 958 00:40:15,330 --> 00:40:17,150 that fell at his feet in her shame. 959 00:40:18,470 --> 00:40:20,550 He'll give you eternal life as he gave 960 00:40:20,550 --> 00:40:22,050 eternal life to his people. 961 00:40:22,990 --> 00:40:25,190 He'll wash you as you wash their feet 962 00:40:25,190 --> 00:40:25,890 back there. 963 00:40:26,490 --> 00:40:27,330 He is the same. 964 00:40:27,710 --> 00:40:29,610 The God we preach is the same, God 965 00:40:29,610 --> 00:40:32,730 unchanging, unchangeable forever and ever and ever. 966 00:40:33,610 --> 00:40:36,230 Let men change, God remains the same. 967 00:40:36,330 --> 00:40:39,090 Let theology change, God remains the same. 968 00:40:40,510 --> 00:40:42,950 I have seen theology change in the last 969 00:40:42,950 --> 00:40:44,530 years, the years of my ministry. 970 00:40:44,730 --> 00:40:46,650 It hasn't been too long, judged by Abraham 971 00:40:46,650 --> 00:40:50,230 and Job, but long enough, judged by ordinary 972 00:40:50,230 --> 00:40:51,570 length of life. 973 00:40:52,250 --> 00:40:53,390 And I have seen it change. 974 00:40:53,810 --> 00:40:57,150 I have seen eschatology change from a vivid, 975 00:40:57,310 --> 00:40:59,990 eager expectation of Jesus to apologies. 976 00:41:00,770 --> 00:41:03,330 We're apologizing for the coming of Christ now. 977 00:41:03,790 --> 00:41:05,130 I've seen that change. 978 00:41:05,690 --> 00:41:10,010 I've seen theology change in evangelical circles from 979 00:41:10,010 --> 00:41:14,350 a severe certainty of the inspiration of the 980 00:41:14,350 --> 00:41:18,550 scriptures, to an uncertainty and apology now in 981 00:41:18,550 --> 00:41:19,670 evangelical circles. 982 00:41:19,850 --> 00:41:20,790 I've seen it. 983 00:41:21,450 --> 00:41:24,950 I have seen it change from believing that 984 00:41:24,950 --> 00:41:26,990 the Church of Christ should separate from the 985 00:41:26,990 --> 00:41:30,930 world, to a slow breaking down of that, 986 00:41:31,410 --> 00:41:33,770 to a point now where men are apologizing 987 00:41:33,770 --> 00:41:36,610 for our attitude toward the world and trying 988 00:41:36,610 --> 00:41:38,850 to strike a common ground of understanding. 989 00:41:40,370 --> 00:41:42,110 Anybody loves the world, the love of the 990 00:41:42,110 --> 00:41:44,230 Father, I've seen all that change. 991 00:41:45,750 --> 00:41:48,350 But God hasn't changed, the Bible hasn't changed, 992 00:41:48,690 --> 00:41:52,070 truth hasn't changed, human hearts haven't changed, and 993 00:41:52,070 --> 00:41:53,690 the blood hasn't changed. 994 00:41:54,630 --> 00:41:57,750 So that you'll come to him for clear 995 00:41:57,750 --> 00:42:00,350 light, you'll find him the same Jesus as 996 00:42:00,350 --> 00:42:02,310 when he gave the blind their sight, the 997 00:42:02,310 --> 00:42:03,990 very same Jesus. 998 00:42:04,690 --> 00:42:06,710 So I recommend Jesus Christ to you tonight, 999 00:42:06,830 --> 00:42:07,910 the unchanging one. 1000 00:42:07,910 --> 00:42:10,590 I recommend to you tonight God's answer to 1001 00:42:10,590 --> 00:42:13,970 your questions, God's solution to your problems, God's 1002 00:42:13,970 --> 00:42:17,830 life for your dying soul, God's cleansing for 1003 00:42:17,830 --> 00:42:21,990 your sin-cursed spirit, God's rest for your 1004 00:42:21,990 --> 00:42:27,210 restless mind, God's resurrection for your poor dying 1005 00:42:27,210 --> 00:42:31,630 body, and your advocate above. 1006 00:42:31,770 --> 00:42:33,010 I recommend him to you. 1007 00:42:33,330 --> 00:42:36,350 Turn to him tonight, now, and you'll find 1008 00:42:36,350 --> 00:42:39,730 him all he ever was, the very, very 1009 00:42:39,730 --> 00:42:40,910 same Jesus. 1010 00:42:42,270 --> 00:42:43,470 Now, we're going to sing... 1011 00:42:43,470 --> 00:42:48,060 This concludes sermon number seven. 1012 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:52,420 For sermon number eight, next in the series 1013 00:42:52,420 --> 00:42:55,900 on the attributes of God, please refer to 1014 00:42:55,900 --> 00:42:56,940 tape number eight.