God Is Unchanging In Our Ever-Changing World

"God is Unchanging in Our Ever-changing World"

A sermon from the pulpit of Bayview Baptist Church

Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8

Our world is more subject to change today than it has ever been in Human history. More information has been produced in the last 30 years than in the previous 500 years.

Just recently, one trip of the space shuttle Challenger produced enough information to fill 44,000 books. Ninety percent of all the items in the supermarket didn’t exist 10 years ago. Fifty percent of the college graduates are going to jobs that didn’t exist when they were born. For the most part these new places of employment are due to the age of high technology and especially the computer. Ninety percent of the businesses in the United States were started in the last 25 years.

Over the next five years, the way we communicate will go through revolutionary changes. Within one to five years, you will have crystal clear digital high definition television pictures with 200 or more channels to choose from, and the ability to talk back to your television set to change the outcome of the program you are watching. Internet connections will be so powerful and fast you can make a video of your new baby and email it to aunt Martha in Paris in a split second. Or you will be able to download an entire encyclopedia in a matter of minutes. The word for the future is, speed, speed, speed.

These kinds of changes are an example of our changing world. One man put it this way: "My great-grandfather rode a horse, but he was afraid of a train. My grandfather rode a train, but he was afraid of a car. My father rode in a car, but he was afraid of an airplane. I ride in an airplane, but I’m afraid of a horse." That’s certainly making a full circle!

The rate of change is so great today that we can hardly get our selves used to the constant upheavals it causes. The results are, we are suffering from a version of constant cultural shock! That’s especially true when it comes to the change in how people inflict pain and suffering on others throughout our world today. We either need a tranquilizer to live in our world today.

I read a story recently about two brothers. These brothers were rich, but they were also wicked. Both of them lived on the wild side and they used their great wealth to cover up the dark side of their lives. On the surface they looked like up-right citizens. They both attended the same church almost every Sunday, and contributed very large sums of money to their church. Their church had a pastor who preached the Truth from the Word of God with great courage. Before long, the church attendance had grown so much that the church needed to build a new building. Suddenly, one of the brothers died, and the pastor who always preached the Truth from God’s Word was called upon to preach the funeral. The day before the funeral, the surviving brother handed the minister an envelope. There was a note inside the envelope. It read: "Here’s a check to pay for the entire amount you need for the new church. All I ask is one favor. Tell the people at the funeral that my brother he was a saint!" The pastor gave the brother his word that he would do precisely what he asked. So, that afternoon, he deposited the check into the church’s bank account. The next day, the pastor stood before the casket at the funeral service, and said with a firm conviction: "This man was an ungodly sinner, and he was wicked to the core! He was unfaithful to his wife! He was hot tempered and ruthless in business. He was a hypocrite in church! But, compared to his brother, he was a saint!"

In the midst of our world today, God is an anchor for our soul, and a fixed point of reference for our decisions. He is an axis around which our lives can revolve. In Malachi 3:6, the bible tells us: "I the Lord do not change." These simple words were spoken in a time of great change. Worship had become casual, as people gave only their second or third best to God. The moral law of God was being disregarded. God’s command to tithe was being ignored, and neither the priest nor the people of Malachi’s day took seriously the threat of the approaching judgment of God. It was in that kind of world that God still kept His promises He had spoken.

If you turn to the New Testament you find In Hebrews 13:8 a passage that describes Jesus as "...the same yesterday and today and forever." These words were also written in a time of great change. The old structures were crumbling and new ones were emerging. Persecution was intensifying, and to assure God’s people that He would never leave them, God emphasized the fact that Christ, God’s only Son never changes. Because God doesn’t change, there are at least four other things that will never change, and I want to share those with you at this time.