"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.
I. First. our Christian faith never changes!
The word "faith" refers to Christian doctrine without any additions or deletions. The revelation of God is full and complete in Jesus Christ, God’s Son. That doesn’t mean that our faith doesn’t need to be re-examined, re-expressed, or even re-applied. Every person and every generation needs to do that. Our challenge is always to have a deeper understanding, and clearer expression, as well as a broader application of our faith.
If my father and grandfather understood God’s revelation correctly, then I should believe the same as they did. That’s not being old fashioned! That’s just being smart! One of the glories of the church is that it usually doesn’t change too much or too fast. There is something stabilizing about coming to church and singing "Amazing Grace" and "The Old Rugged Cross"; the same hymns that my parents and your parents sang.
We’ve got to figure out how to stay on the cutting edge without being on the bleeding edge of life, and without compromising the message of Christ and the Truth of the gospel. My faith tells me the Bible is true in all its parts. If God never changes, then neither does our Christian faith.
II. The second thing that never changes is our ethical and our moral obligations!
There is no area in our lives where change has been more drastic and more disturbing than our ethics and our morals. Confusion and inconsistency can be seen everywhere today. All we have to do is point back in recent history to the violence in our nation’s schools to know that confusion and inconsistency is in many homes in America today. In our kind of world it’s not unusual to be invited to attend a seminar on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, only to have the seminar proceeded by a two-hour cocktail hour. In the last seventy years, movies have gone from silent movies to language that’s unspeakable. And many of our daytime and prime time television talk shows have become centered on dysfunctional people, talking to dysfunctional hosts, talking about their miserable lives. Then, they get on national television and have a knock down fight so the whole world can see the foolishness that’s going on in American homes today. Don’t you know that the rest of the world laughs at the way Americans behave when they look at television shows like this! The odds are now that when a couple walks down the aisle of their church to be married, their marriage won’t last seven years. One of them will leave their marriage before the warranty on their refrigerator runs out.
The church must accept at least a part of the responsibility for the moral decay of our society. We, as a church, have become a self-seeking church in a feel good society. Our fear of being labeled old fashioned has helped us as church members to develop a complacent attitude toward sin. Some preachers never use the word "sin" in their sermons because it’s too negative a word. Folks, there is nothing that Satan would like so much as to silence the church. If America is to have a rebirth of morality, we must call sin what it really is from the pulpit, and preach the Word of God straight from the scriptures.
It’s easy to preach morality, but it’s difficult to establish a doctrinal basis for it. Ultimately, right and wrong must be rooted in a personal relationship with a personal God. If we are going to find our way out of our moral mess in America and the world, we have to find a way to return our families and our homes to God. Right is right because God says so! And God never changes, so neither does right or wrong! If something was right yesterday, then it’s right today! When we purchase a car; it comes with an owner’s manual. The Bible is our personal manufacturers operations manual. We need to follow it for the rest of our life. Because God never changes, our ethical, and moral obligations never change.
III. Third. a most awesome thought is that our personal accountability never changes!
The attempt to evade our personal responsibility for our actions isn’t anything new. Ever since Adam was caught red-handed with forbidden fruit in his hand, people have tried to blame shift their own wrong choices and negative behavior on someone or something else. You remember; Adam blamed Eve, and Eve blamed the serpent.
Our American culture hasn’t learned to take personal responsibility for our actions. We have no fault insurance, no fault divorce and no fault sin. We blame everything on heredity, environment, someone else, our parents, our church, the computer; and our teachers at our schools. We never want to take responsibility for it ourselves. Galatians 6: 7 says: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." Dr. R. G. Lee always said in his sermons, "We can’t have our ’heyday’ without a ’payday!" And he was right! How do we know God will punish the wicked for their sins? We know it because of God’s unchanging character and His unchanging faithfulness. If God spares America, He’s going to have to apologize to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah!
I saw a billboard sign last week that read, "Don’t Make Me Come Down There!" It was signed, God! I want to assure you today that our personal accountability does not change. God hates sin, but He loves the sinner!
IV. Because God does not change, our ultimate hope does not change!
What is our hope? Our hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ! When Lyndon B. Johnson was president, he said, "The answer to all the problems of the world comes down to one word: that word is education." People were saying during that time period in American history: "Open the schools and close the jails!" Well, our schools are better schools today in many ways, and our jails are more crowded than ever. Now we have metal detectors and armed guards in many schools. In the 1950’s and 60’s the biggest problems in the school was cigarette smoking, and throwing spitballs on the ceiling. Today, some of the major problems are deadly weapons such as knives, assault weapons and bombs made in children’s homes capable of blowing up the building. Our hope isn’t education in the form of science or any other subject. Our hope is that in a new heaven and a new earth everything will one day be right!
But what about the meantime? What about that interim between now and when Christ returns? God is still our hope. Wherever you go, God never changes. In the final analysis, what does this mean to you and to me? It means there can be stability in our lives in our changing world. Those are things you can count on because it’s all right here in the Bible! God is our unchanging God in our ever-changing world. Don’t miss the truth of this promise of God for your life.
You were purchased by the precious shed blood of the Lamb. Would you right where you are today, examine your heart and your personal relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? If you have never confessed your sins publicly and trusted Jesus Christ as your personal savior please make this most important decision right now in your life. Right where you are at this moment, you can have a new beginning with God in your life!
Rev. Jimmy Davis
Title revised by Rev. Chaplain Ted Keller of the Truck Stop Ministry, Transport For Christ, I-20 & Exit 71, Columbia, SC
Bayview Baptist Church
5300 Two Notch Road
Columbia, SC 29204
Email: BayviewBaptist@aol.com
Telephone: 803-754-8690
