Calvary Road Baptist Church
“UNCHANGEABLE THINGS”
Most Americans think something truly important occurred today, what with the Supreme Court of the United States rulings concerning the same sex marriage topic. While I do not deny that it is an important reflection of the current state of our society and nation, I believe God would have me to challenge you at this time with a reminder about unchangeable things. We live in a world that is constantly changing, with many people of the persuasion that everything is wrong and that any kind of change that takes place invariably results in improvements for mankind. I would suggest that kind of thinking is shortsighted because history does not support such conclusions.
Shall we reflect a bit? Two thousand years ago the eternal Son of the living God was born of a virgin, lived sinlessly to mid-adulthood before sacrificing Himself for the sins of mankind, rose from the dead, and ascended to the throne room of heaven where He has since been seated at God’s right hand. Of course, all of this was foretold centuries in advance, with prophetic fulfillments related to Christ’s death, burial, resurrection, and ascension to heaven attesting to the accuracy of the many Old Testament predictions. Thus introduced to a remote corner of the Roman Empire at the very height of their supremacy over the Mediterranean world, the gospel was spread by those early Christians in the face of great opposition. You see, Christianity was disruptive to the established order, with their insistence on God’s Word as their final authority instead of Roman law, with their ultimate allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ and not to Caesar, with their worship of the one true and living God instead of the Roman pantheon, and their commitment to personal holiness and integrity in their relations to their fellow man rather than the predatory approach of taking advantage of others that was the way of the world.
Our people were thought to be atheists because we worshipped only God. We were imagined to be anarchists because our loyalties were to one higher than Caesar. Surely such as we were must be revolutionaries, the Jews and Romans believed. If one’s personal philosophy was placed on a scale, two thousand years ago a Christian with exactly the same beliefs that I embrace was thought to be something of a left-wing radical seeking the overthrow of the Empire, despite our holy scriptures commanding us to pray for those in authority and for peace with our fellow man.[1]
Today, on the other hand, Christians who worship and serve God, who read and believe the Bible, and who show respect, love, and courtesy for their fellow man, are caricatured as right wing nut jobs who are filled with hate for anyone different than we are, without any regard for how we actually treat individual people. We are evil for adopting God’s value system of right and wrong, and for daring to demonstrate loyalty to the Savior who died on the cross for us, for His cause, and for His Word? As I mentioned moments ago, the world seems in many respects to be convulsing. There is political upheaval, financial and economic upheaval, social upheaval, and national turmoil in many countries of the world. Change, change, change, there is so much change, with much change being eagerly sought be people who want change for the better, yet who end up being bitterly disappointed when change leaves matters worse. It is almost as if no one is aware that with respect to scientific observation there is something called the Third Law of Thermodynamics, which posits that change will invariably result in increasing disorder.[2] That kind of change is not usually pleasant or beneficial.
Change is not always good, or beneficial. As a matter of fact, change proves something if it can be relied upon to established anything at all. Change proves that the state of affairs is not perfect. If things are perfect they cannot change for the better, and therefore change establishes that things are not as good as they could be, and perhaps getting worse than they have been. Therefore, in light of recent events and the tendency of both the California and United States Supreme Courts to overturn the expressed will of the population as evidenced by votes cast, I would like to balance all of the changes that have occurred and that you might expect to develop with some time spent reflecting on unchangeable things.
Seven unchangeable things for you to contemplate and take advantage of this evening:
First, GOD IS UNCHANGEABLE (Malachi 3.6; James 1.17)
Next, GOD’S SON IS UNCHANGEABLE (John 8.58; Hebrews 1.12; 13.8)
Third, GOD’S WORD IS UNCHANGEABLE (Matthew 24.35; First Peter 1.25; Psalm 119.89)
Fourth, GOD’S VERDICT IS UNCHANGEABLE (Romans 5.12; James 1.15; First John 3.4, 8)
Fifth, GOD’S WRATH IS UNCHANGEABLE (Daniel 12.2; Matthew 25.41, 46; Hebrews 6.2; Jude 13)
Sixth, GOD’S GRACE IS UNCHANGEABLE (Genesis 6.8; John 1.17; Ephesians 2.5)
Finally, GOD’S GOSPEL IS UNCHANGEABLE (Revelation 14.6; First Corinthians 15.1-4)
There are other things that are unchangeable, but I wanted to limit your focus to those things most profitable, spending no time showing that Satan is unchangeable since his sin, showing that sin is unchangeable, and showing that but for God’s intervention with the gospel message sinners are unchangeable, and doomed. All around us changes except for the important things. Important things do not change. Two thousand years ago our people stood for truth in a corrupt society, clinging to unchangeable things and being upheld through difficult times by our unchangeable God and Savior, the unchangeable Word and grace, so we might declare the unchangeable gospel message that Jesus saves. However, Jesus Christ saves from sins, Matthew 1.21. Therefore, our mission and fidelity to the truth absolutely demands that we do not change what we show people to be the truth about the sins they need to be saved from. Speak the truth in love, but speak the truth.[3]
[1] 1 Timothy 2.1-2
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laws_of_thermodynamics 6/26/13
[3] Ephesians 4.15
Would you like to contact Dr. Waldrip about this sermon? Please contact him by clicking on the link below. Please do not change the subject within your email message. Thank you.
Pastor@CalvaryRoadBaptist.Church