Beacon Sunday Service - June 7th, 2026

Behold God King Nothing can compare come little suit to the Lord of His words who can teach them wondrous all things all his wondrous great joy and just a pleasure it is to be able to come before the Lord to worship him just as his people.

As we begin this morning, uh in our prayers as we prepare our hearts, can we acknowledge God as our creator, as the sovereign one who spoke all things into existence? And as we come before him, let us just come before him with humble hearts, just acknowledging that he's fully in control of everything in our lives. And so in that way, may we uh just lift up prayers of worship unto the Lord. And so let's pray together.

Lord, we just want to thank you so much for being sovereign over us. Uh God, we acknowledge that you are our creator, you are the sovereign one who spoke all things into existence, and you are absolutely in control. And so, what can we do but to humble ourselves before you and just acknowledge you? We come before you today with just great joy, being able to worship you together as your people, and we just pray that you would be uh pleased with what we have to offer you. I pray, Lord, that you would be glorified in our midst, and that your Holy Spirit will just continue to do uh his work of sanctification in our lives. So we thank you, O Lord, and it's in Jesus' name we pray, Amen. Let's all rise.

Uh I want to read from James chapter one verses seventeen to eighteen, and just as we've acknowledged him as the creator, he is a God who gives us every uh perfect gift and good thing. And it says this, every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. In the exercise of his will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among his creatures. And so as we uh just begin this time of worship, let's acknowledge our Lord who is immutable, he's unchangeable, he is the Alpha and the Omega, and He's the same yesterday, today, and the day of bread. And so let us uh sing to our great God.

Before the mountains were brought for days of spring and summer filthy from everlasting. You are God. We dwell, we dwell beneath the stars in ancient skies. A thousand years are nothing in your sight from everlasting. You are God, and all our days are held within your hands.

Within the wisdom of your plan, everlasting God.

And loss reminds us life is but a sight from everlasting.

Your perfect love and favor have no end no we rest within the wisdom of your plan. Everlasting God.

Satisfy, so satisfy us in our number days, establish every effort while we wait from everlasting. You are God, and all our days are held within your hand.

Oh we rest within the wisdom of your plan. Everlasting, and all our days are held within your hands.

Oh we rest within the wisdom of your plan. Everlasting God. Continue to sing to our everlasting God. Promise maker. Promise keeper. You finish what you begin our provision through the deserter. You see it through the end. You see it through till the end. Lord our God is ever faithful, never changing through the ages.

From this darkness, you will lead us, and forever we will say, You're the Lord God in the silence, in the silence, in the waiting, still we can know you are good, so good. All your plans are for your glory. Yes, we can know you are good. Yes, we can know you are good, Lord our God is ever faithful, never changing through the ages from this darkness, you will lead us, and forever we'll say you're the Lord our God, we will move, and we won't move without you, we won't move without you.

And all that we need.

All that we need, we will move, we will move without you, we will move without you.

We will move, and we won't move without you, we won't move without you, you're the light of all, and all that we need, Lord our God is ever faithful, never changing through the ages, from this darkness, you will lead us, and forever we will say you're the Lord our game, the Lord our God, Lord our God is ever faithful, never changing through the ages from this darkness, you will lead us, and forever we will say you're the Lord our God.

He is so faithful. This morning we will confess our faith using a catechism for Christian growth. In this question and answer, we'll confess about our immutable, unchangeable God. And so here's the question. Does God change his mind or make mistakes? And together no God is an eternal and perfect being and has no variation or shadow due to change. But still, God responds to our prayers and encourages us amid our trials. Amen. What a great truth that we have confessed. God is a promise keeper.

And so let's sing of his great faithfulness today. Great is thy faithfulness. Great thy faithfulness.

Thou changes not thy passions. They fail not as thou has been thou forever will be great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness.

Summer and winter and spring time and harvest sun moon and stars in their courses.

Mercy and love.

Mercies I see.

Pardon for sin. For sin, and peace sad thy own dear presence to cheer and to God strength for day and bright hope for blessings all with ten thousand streams. Great is thy faithfulness. Great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning. You mercies I see.

All I have needed thy hand has provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Sing that again with our voices. Great is thy faithfulness.

All I have needed thy friend. Today's confession of sin. The theme is gonna be on idolatry and just what our eyes focus on when we're not focusing on the Lord. So together, let us say, have mercy on us, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundance, mercy, blot out our transgressions, wash us thoroughly from our iniquity, and cleanse us from our sin. We cast aside every idol that raises itself against you. You are hope, hope, and happiness, significance, and security. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated.

We will now take a time of offering. If you're visiting today, please do not feel obligated to give. But as a member of our church, we ask that you continue to give with an accordance with uh Christ's Lordship over your life. Let us pray. Father, we know that there are so many things in this world that take our eyes away from you. There's no amount of money, things that we could acquire that could ever replace you and your greatness. So, Lord, allow us, Father, to truly have hearts that want to serve you, that want to give to you, that your kingdom would come in this place, Father, and that our desire is to just glorify your name, your great name. So, Lord, we ask that whatever we give today would be used according to your will and just for your great purpose.

Father, we just thank you for today and just the people that have come to worship you today. May they be filled with the Spirit and just fed by your word. We lift up our brother Pastor Peter as he brings the word today that he also would just be filled with the Spirit and that the abundance of grace that you have shown him would just come across in the words that he speaks.

We thank you for all of these things today. May your name be glorified. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. Children, you're dismissed. Please have a great Sunday school with teacher Stephen and teacher Abraham. We're gonna go over a few announcements today. New Testament survey will be at the end of this summer. So if you are hanging around, we're gonna start October August 2nd, and it's gonna go through every Sunday to the 23rd. It's gonna be a bring your own lunch. So immediately after service is done, we're gonna have a brief time of fellowship, and then at 12:30, we're gonna start, and then we're just gonna eat the lunches that we bring and go through the survey together. Um it's not up there, but we're gonna show a few uh pictures of just two uh two weeks ago we had a fun children's ministry unit and review.

Uh, and uh you you can keep going through the slides. Uh the kids learned about um just the Hebrew names of God. It was a really fun just experience. That's those this was the result of all of those cardboard boxes that you guys brought in. Um, Tiff just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who brought them in, the cardboard boxes for his children's ministry. It was part of the unit and review celebrating the Hebrew names of God and just their understanding and learning of them. Uh, she said she asked that you please continue to pray for uh them, the children and the teachers as they are learning will turn to deep affection for Christ. Uh she also said, now please start saving any styrofoam flat pieces you might have starting in the fall.

Um she also wanted to shout out everyone who helped building the tunnel. Uh she said that that was a big part of just her worries and then all the help that she got made this event um just this special uh class and lesson uh just um work and come together. So let's continue to pray for our children's ministry. With that, I'm gonna ask you all to rise and welcome your neighborhood with grace and peace to you. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Jesus said.

Um there aren't too many Sundays where like I'm actually very excited. Uh it's always good, and it's always a blessed thing to preach the word of God. But today, uh, I came in very excited because I cut out so much of my sermon, and I'm like, ah, and um, I'm so I was so blessed by my sermon this week. And uh I'm so excited to share it with you. Um, but please do know I carved out a lot. Um, and uh hopefully we'll get back to this passage so I can include that next time. But if you uh are able, please rise back on your feet and I want to read for us first Peter. This is the last two verses of chapter one, verses 24 to 25, and it reads, for all flesh is like grass and all its glory, like the flower of grass, the grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word which was proclaimed to you as good news. Let me pray for us. Father, would you speak to your people in ways that are life-giving? And that we would be so well equipped, not just with information, but with joy, so that our love for Christ would be infectious to other Christians and a peculiar curious magnetic thing for the non-Christians around us. As we think about who we will become in the future, I pray that you would help us to get excited to die and excited to move on to the next life. And we pray that while we are here, whether it's for a short time or for the next several decades, that we would commit ourselves to serving you faithfully and to representing your kingdom and your values appropriately to those in the world.

We are so thankful for your teaching, and I pray that you would protect and bless it this morning. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Go ahead and take your seat. Well, the Bible is an old book. And some of the books in the Bible date to as early as 1500 BC. And each and every book has stood the test of time. And you guys know that the Bible is a document that's been scrutinized and challenged many times over, but no charge of contradiction or inaccuracy against it has ever stuck. So contrary to popular and uninformed belief, there has never been a scientific discovery or an archaeological finding that has disproven anything that we see in the scriptures. Alright. So if anything, science and archaeology have only confirmed the things that are mentioned in the Bible.

So the truths that we see in the Bible are timeless. And many of these timeless truths in the Bible have been affirmed by both religious and non-religious people alike. A big page of what I cut out was all the non-religious people affirming the Bible. So I was like, just take me at my word. Alright. But uh Genesis and Job are two of the oldest books of the Bible. Ecclesiastes was written by the wisest of men, King Solomon. And there is a timeless truth mentioned in all three of those books. And here's one timeless truth. It's that everything is constantly changing and then trending toward decay and death. Science calls this the second law of thermodynamics. Everything in the universe is constantly changing and then trending towards decay and death.

Everything. So Genesis, Job, and Ecclesiastes are just three of the many books that refer to this. So everything is in a circular and a downward change. Right? The seasons change. Living things reproduce only to eventually perish. So human beings are born and then human beings die. Cultures evolve and then devolve. Empires rise and empires fall. So all things are in constant flux, a constant state of change, and there is nothing in this created universe that remains the same. So historians have noted it. Philosophers have espoused on it. Geologists and other scientists have observed it. Even the great stars in the universe are in constant motion and in constant change. You guys know this. Stars too have a lifespan.

So stars also eventually die. So everything, whether great or microscopic, is transient. Nothing stays the same, nothing endures, everything dies. Every single created thing is transient and moving towards decay. This is universal, literally universal law. And this is what Apostle Peter was affirming as he's quoting from Isaiah chapter 40. So through our first Peter passage today, we're going to be thinking together upon the transience of man and then the permanence of the word of God. So the transience of man and the permanence of the word of God. Transience can be defined as a state or quality of being temporary, brief, or fleeting. Right? Comes and goes. So let me read 1 Peter 1, 24 to 25 again for us.

For all flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flower of grass, the grass withers, and the flower falls off. But the word of the Lord endures forever. And this is the word which was proclaimed to you as good news. So writers of both the old and new testaments have always written about and spoken plainly about the truth the truth of these things. Decay and death are results of the fall. Okay, decay and death and transience have come upon man as a curse. And this was all in a response and a punishment to Adam's disobedience, right? So we're gonna be looking at the outline of the sermon this morning in the following way. First, we're gonna be looking about at the constant change or the transience of all creative things.

Verse 24. And you can think of it as the bad news, as opposed to the good news that you see at the end of the verse, right? The transience is the bad news. Second, we're gonna be looking at the permanence of God, the creator. So he was and is and always will be.

So there will be a new heaven and a new earth that do not change or decay or trend toward death. You and I, who are currently transient and changing, will be made permanent and eternal. And that's what the apostle Peter is gonna say at the end of chapter one. And it's gonna blow your mind. So let's look at the first point, the transience of all things. For all flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flower of grass, the grass withers and the flower falls off. So literally, here today, gone tomorrow. And that's how man and man's legacies are being described here. And we all understand this. How many of you know your great-grandparents' names? Your great-grandparents. My cousins in our chat thread, we studied about our great grandfather, and I've forgotten his name already.

He's just Mr. Kang. Okay, I'm part Kang. Okay? But they're do you know your great grandparents' name? Do you even care? Most likely not, because they're gone. And we are not at all affected by their absence. Most of us don't even care that we don't remember their names. So it's very unlikely that your great get grandchildren will even remember you. Right? Here today, gone tomorrow. So no matter how beautiful a flower, it falls off. And that's 1 Peter 124. So most of our passage today is a quote. The apostle Peter is quoting from Isaiah chapter 40, verses 6 to 8. And the context of Isaiah chapter 40 is of supreme importance. Okay, so I'm gonna first take you to the context of Isaiah 40. The book of Isaiah on the whole, you can think of it as the Old Testament gospel.

Alright, the gospel of Isaiah. The prophecy of Isaiah is the gospel to the oppressed people of the old covenant. And as with many presentations of the gospel, the good news of Isaiah begins with bad news. Okay? 39 chapters of it. So if you, for you guys who are in the Old Testament survey class, the book of Isaiah has 66 chapters, just like the Bible consists of 66 books, right? The Bible is broken up into two parts. The Old Testament, the New Testament, 39 in the old, 27 in the new. Easy way to remember. 39 equals 27. Three times nine equals 27. 39 in the old, 27 in the new. So interestingly, the breakdown of the book of Isaiah is similarly easy to remember. Okay. The first 39 chapters of Isaiah are broadly about how sin ruined the nation of Israel and all mankind.

And that's the bad news. The latter 27 chapters, Isaiah chapters 40 to 66, are all about the promised Messiah to come. The Messiah, a suffering servant, will reverse the curse and restore men back to the Creator. And that's good news. Though men's sins were as scarlet, they shall be as white as what? Snow. That's Isaiah 118. So 39 chapters in Isaiah of bitterness and sorrow, 27 chapters of the future hope through the Messiah to come. 39 chapters of bad news, 27 chapters of good. So this first Peter quote comes from the turning point of the book of Isaiah, chapter 40. And I want to read the opening verses of chapter 40 for you. And it begins with a message of comfort and encouragement.

Speak to the heart of Jerusalem, call out to her that her warfare has been fulfilled, that her iniquity has been removed, that she has received from the hand of Yahweh, double for all her sins. A voice is calling, prepare the way for Yahweh in the wilderness. Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. So chapter 40, the beginning of the good news part of the gospel of Isaiah, starts with a message of great comfort. So if you see the words receive from the hand of Yahweh double for all her sins, that's a figure of speech, meaning that Yahweh's justice has been fully satisfied, doubly paid for. Okay? So Yahweh has received full and sufficient payment for all their sins. So the good news of the prophecy here is that the wrath of God has been satisfied.

Messiah will come, and that's great news. Amen.

It's the voice of the future John the Baptist. There will be a forerunner who will herald the coming of the Messiah. So what Isaiah is telling the people is you will know that the day of the Lord has been ushered in by the appearing of this forerunner. So that's the context of Isaiah chapter 40. Those are the opening verses. So fast forward to verses 6 to 8. The passage that the apostle Peter is quoting. He is gonna recount what has happened to mankind since the time of the fall. So here's a description of the fallen man's curse, again, which is the bad news. Okay, verses 6 to 8. The voice says, call out. Then he answered, What shall I call out? All flesh is like grass, all its loving kindness is like the flower of the field.

The grass withers, the flower fades. When the breath of Yahweh blows upon it, surely the people are grass, the grass withers, the flower fades. But the word of the Lord, the word of God, our God stands forever. The eternal word of God stood as judgment, bad news. And then the following verses literally will proclaim good news. Here's verse 9. So get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news. Raise up your voice powerfully, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news. Raise it up, do not fear, say to the cities of Judah, behold your God.

They're still waiting for this. So the apostle Peter is quoting this well known passage to the saints. This was the message of great hope for the first century Jewish people. And Peter quotes it to say that this has been fulfilled. The Messiah has come. Good news. But again, the good news begins with bad news, verses six to eight. So we are given a recounting here of the things that had befallen man because of Adam and Eve's disobedience. Man had become grass. The once godlike Hesed, loving kindness. It's translated glory in the Septuagint, which is the Greek version of the Old Testament. So the beauty and the glory of man has become like transient flowers. Perhaps pretty to look at for a moment, but then it quickly withers and wilts away.

Remember, man was originally created in the image of God. Right? And man was immortal and non-transient. He was created immortal in the image of immortal God. Immortal God had breathed into man whom he had created, and he had breathed life into him. You guys know this in the beginning of Genesis, right? And that breathing made man immortal too. And through this breath, God has made many and distinct from the rest of creation. And here in verse 7, the breath of Yahweh is mentioned. Did you guys see this? So I'm going to take you back to Genesis 2.7. Then Yahweh God formed man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And so the man became a living being.

Okay? So do horses and cats breathe. Yes. Even fish breathe, right? But only man was breathed into with the breath of God, and only man was given Zoe. So God specially and purposely breathed immortality and the fullness of immortality into the dust to fashion it into immortal man. So you got to pay attention here. Man had initially been created immortal. You guys trekking? So remember, what was the warning to man before the fall? Eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, then you shall surely die. So immortal man was warned of mortality. So had Adam not disobeyed, man would have remained immortal. But with the fall, man who had once was created immortal, became like grass.

Man still has biased life like grass, but man had lost Zoe. Man has lost the fullness of life. What did Jesus say? When he came, I came to give life, and what? Give life to the full. Okay, soward, man existed, but he did not truly live. And going forward, man became nothing more than an object of wrath. Jews and Gentiles, everybody, Ephesians 2.4. Man became like grass. Temporary grass, which is here today, tomorrow is thrown into the furnace. Matthew 6 30. You're not even sad when someone mows your law. You're happy. You pay people to kill your grass, right? That's what man becomes. Transient, fleeting, destroyed in the fire, here today, gone tomorrow. So at death, man, all man breathes his last.

His breath would depart, his body would decay, and then return to the dust, and his spirit would die. And this is how death is described by the psalmist in Psalm 104. God turns away from man, God takes away the breath of the man, man returns to the dust, and this is going to be the same outcome awaiting both the billionaire and the beggar. You guys know this? This is what awaits both the king and the pauper. This is what happens regardless of whether a person has lived to a hundred years old or died on the day he was born. God takes away breath. Man returns to dust. No matter how famous or how celebrated he was while he lived, he returns to dust. Right? All of his glory is like the flower of grass.

Flowers look pretty for a moment and then they wilt and wither away, and nobody cares. All men surely die. Why? Because we all inherited Adam's disobedience. And that's the bad news, right? So Genesis 2.17. I want to remind you of that command, and this was a very important command. But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat from it, for in the day that you eat from it, you will surely die. Now, obviously, Adam and Eve did not just drop dead onto the ground. But on that day, man began to die. On that day, immortal man and woman instantly became mortal. I believe that it was in that precise moment that the law of decay entered into the DNA, and then onto the laws of the entire cosmos as well.

Sin entered into the world. And that's what the apostle Paul makes clear in Romans 5.12. So the curse affected not only man, but all of creation. Adam's disobedience cursed all creation. Everything now would be in constant change and chaos and would trend toward decay and death. I want to read Romans 8 20 to 22 for you.

In hope that the creation itself will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. Decay and death are now universal to the cosmos. Decay and death are not limited to this planet. Remember, even stars eventually burn out and die. You guys know this, right? Science calls this the second law of thermodynamics. And I had another page on this, but I'm gonna, I don't, you guys, this is not apologetic, uh, it's not an apologetics. So I'm just gonna preach the word, all right? But here. The second law of thermodynamics is the scientific law governing the inevitability of death and decay.

So things always change towards death and decay. You guys have heard this before, right? The second law of thermodynamics dictates that over time, all isolated systems naturally progress from a state of organized order to a state of disorder and chaos. And this relentless increase in chaos is known as entropy. So all of creation has been subjected to futility to this entropy. All creation is now in slavery to corruption, decay, and chaos. Romans 8 21. So that's the word curse in a nutshell. Change is constant, decay is constant, death is constant, and with time, everything in the created world goes from a state of order to a state of chaos and eventually death. Okay. History has proved it. Philosophy has mused upon it, science has observed it.

Everything is now like grass. So 1 Peter 124 to 25, all flesh is like grass, all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off. All creation has been subjected to the second law of thermodynamics. So think soberly about what you are pursuing. If you are pursuing wealth or comfort, just remember that your only boast is your humiliation. Because like the book of James, who also quotes this Isaiah passage.

So too the rich man in the midst of his pursuits will fade away. So for everything, scorching heat awaits. But that's not the bad news by itself. The bad news is that for people, judgment awaits. A second death awaits. Okay? Hebrews 9 27. It's appointed for men to die a first time. And then after that death comes judgment. So transient man had become an object of wrath. Transient creation has also been reserved for fire. 2 Peter 3 7, but by his word, the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire. That's where I believe that global warming is probably a real thing. It's from God. Everything is being reserved for fire. Nuclear war could just burn everything. Yeah, that too could be from God, right?

So everything is going to be burned. So Peter starts with the transience of all creation, and then he speaks on the permanence of the creator. Verse 24 25, for all flesh is like grass, all its glory is like the flower of grass. The grass withers, the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever. So Peter quoting Isaiah the prophet, verse 25, the word of the Lord endures forever. This word of the Lord endures forever, because the Lord endures forever. Amen. All of God's attributes, all of God's deeds endure forever because God endures forever. So God is eternal and unchanging. While everything in creation is in constant state of change and is finite, God is infinite, eternal, and unchanging.

So he is very different from everything he created. This truth is all over the pages of the Bible, right? James, the Lord's brother described God as one in whom there is no variation or change or shift, none. Not even a temporary shift, like a shadow moving. He doesn't do even that. James 117. And he's very different from man. And I want to read Numbers 23:19. God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change. Repent. Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and he will not establish it? So because he is unchanging, God is not fickle. You guys following this.

And because the promises of our immutable, unchanging God are permanent and unbreakable, we are saved. Because he said, I will make a way. That's how we got saved, because God is unchanging. And that's what Malachi was told, right? For I, Yahweh, do not change. Therefore, you, O sons of Jacob, are not consumed. The fact that you and I are not consumed is because God is unchanging. That's a mind-blowing concept. Theologian Wayne Grudham defines immutability in the following way. God is unchanging in his being, perfections, purposes, okay. Remember that, purposes and promises. Yet God does act and feel the emotions, and he acts and feels differently in response to different situations. So there's a distinction there.

So the immutability of God means that who God was before creation, and even before the beginning of time itself is who he is at present. Amen. And who he will continue to be even when we stand before him in eternity.

His word does not change. His utterances do not change. In 1 Peter 125, Peter is referring to the unchangeableness of the statements of God. Okay, God is unchanging, and Peter is talking about his statements are unchanging. What we see in 1 Peter 125 describes the remma of the Lord enduring forever. Interesting because earlier in verse 23, Peter wrote that believers have been born again through incorruptible seed, which is the living and enduring Lagos of the Word of God. In chapter 2, verse 2, which we're going to be looking at next week, the pure milk of the word is also the Lagos in the Greek. And when you hear Lagos, what do you think of? In the beginning was the Lagos, right? The word, and you're thinking Jesus.

So it's not necessarily incorrect to understand that Lagos as a spirit of Christ, who was with God from the beginning. But in verse 25, when Peter makes mention of the word of the Lord that endures forever, and the word which was proclaimed to believers as good news, he actually twice uses the word remmah. Interesting, right? Why does Peter use two different words to describe the word of God? Well, first, it's because Peter is simply directly quoting the Greek translation of Isaiah 40, verse 8. And in that it's a word, it's written Remah. So in this section, you can see it as it's Lagos and Remah are one and the same thing. But we get insight into what was meant to Isaiah when he was told the word of God.

And it can be better understood to us as the utterances of God, the statements of God, the promises and the proclamations of God. So Lagos, yes, it is used of Jesus as the word, but here the word is better understood as what was declared by God. You guys tracking? So God is unchanging. So his words, his statements are unchanging. What he said, what he meant to the people of 1500 BC is what he says and what he means even today. Amen.

Remember, cultures, they come and go.

And the gospel which saves us is the same. The bad news of God's hatred towards sin has not changed. God's hatred towards sin is unchanging and eternal. Amen. The prerequisite of repentance for salvation has not changed. You can't live in sin and then accept a free gift of the gospel. That's never been the case. The truth of Jesus being the only way to the Father has not changed. God is unchanging. Hebrews 13 8, right? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Can this be said of the Holy Spirit? Same. Can this be said of God the Father? Of course. So in Hebrews 1 3, we read that Jesus, who was the same yesterday, today, and forever, is the exact representation of the nature of the Father.

So Father, Son, and Spirit are all eternal and unchanging. The three persons of the one triune God are all immutable. So the arrival of Jesus to the earth, his physical life, his death, and his resurrection, didn't change anything. Or do away with anything to the regard of what was written in the Old Testament. Are you guys following me? Jesus coming to the earth did not change the Old Testament at all. What did Jesus say in Matthew chapter 5? He did not come to do away with the law.

His arrival fulfilled the law and satisfy God's wrath. It didn't change what immutable God loved and what he hated. Jesus' arrival did not change the requirements or the purposes or the plans of God.

Are you guys tracking? The God of the Old Testament is no different from the God of the New Testament. The Holy Spirit who is indwelling in believers, who is indwelling within you today, is the same person who wrote the book of Leviticus. Okay? You guys, you guys following this, right? So the God who destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of gross sexual immorality, the God who viewed homosexuality as an abomination in Leviticus 18 and Leviticus 20, twice mentioned. He abhors it today.

Because now he is all about acceptance and love. Jesus still hates. Read Revelation. He hates even more intensely than he hated in the Old Testament. So the statements of God, the utterances of God, the Rhema of God, every single letter, every single yacht and tittle, every small stroke of the pen remain timeless and unchanging, Matthew 5.18. Do you guys know it says, until heaven and earth pass away, not a single stroke, not a letter will pass away until everything is accomplished. So God designed men and women equally in his image. Amen.

Right? Did you know that the Hebrew word for helper is the same word as Hebrew word for the Holy Spirit? So it's a significant person, right? But men and women have always been different in function. Equal in worth, different in function. In the book of Genesis, this is very clear. Right? That continued all the way into the New Testament. God had designed men to lead and women to support. And both had done a bad job. But God had designed men to lead, women to Jesus. You guys know this. There were many women who loved and served Jesus. But Jesus chosen empowered 12 men as apostles to build a church. The entire church global for the next 1800 years were always led by men, albeit flawed, of course.

Did immutable God over the last hundred and fifty years all of a sudden change his mind and say, well, since men have done such a horrible job, let's start giving women a chance to lead.

Antoinette Brown Blackwell is recognized widely as the first woman to be ordained as a minister in 1853. Until that time, it was universally understood that men and women function differently in the church. Did God all of a sudden change his mind? Or did he change his strategy? No, what have we been learning? He is immutable. So the remnant of God is unchanging because God is unchanging. His statements are unchanging. This is important for you to think through because there's a lot of belief today that it's okay with women being pastors, and it's actually fully endorsed, and a church like ours is actually seen as backwards. But here's an important question that my many Christian friends, my many pastor friends who believe that it's okay for a woman to be a pastor, they have to answer this question.

Did God all of us suddenly change his strategy? Or for nearly 1800 years, men who had the Holy Spirit of God, did they all get it wrong? Every argument against what we consider to be the traditional understanding of the word has to take sources from outside the Bible to prove a different point. So the fair question to ask is did God change his mind? People change, cultures change, but did God change his mind? Did God take back what he said? So the Remah, Peter writes, is the good news that was proclaimed to the Christians of Asia Minor. And this is the same good news that we are saved by, and that is why we don't turn from it to the left or to the right, Deuteronomy 28, 14. This is why we don't add to his words, Proverbs 36, and then the book of Revelation says the same thing, 2218.

This is why we don't erase or delete anything, Deuteronomy 4 2. This is why we don't change the interpretation of the scriptures have always meant.

Amen. So we go into all the nations and make disciples of all the nations by baptizing and teaching them to do everything that Jesus had taught. The unchanging Son of God, Genesis to Revelation. Because this unchanging word is the gospel that's been proclaimed to all mankind as good news. So good news is contained in doctrine, it's not contained in some popular pastor's book. I don't care what other pastors say. There's no authority in what other pastors say. There's no authority in what I say. The good news of the gospel is in doctrine. Good news is absorbed by us in Bible study. So if you don't regularly engage in Bible study, you are thinking according to your own opinion, or you are swayed by someone else's opinion who's articulate.

It's not swayed by the scriptures. Good news is found in solid theology. Good news is contained in the Ramah, the statements of God. This has always been the case because God has not changed. God is immutable. His word is immutable.

The law of the Lord is perfect. Psalm 19 7. Well, what does it say there? Reviving the soul. The law of the Lord contains good news. And what's the good news? That through Jesus, we have not only been restored to the Creator, we have been promised that we will become unchanging and permanent, like the unchanging and permanent Creator who has saved us. That's the good news. Think about this. You are gonna stop changing. You are gonna stop decaying. You're no longer gonna be fickle. You're gonna be perfect, incorruptible, undefiled, just like the perfect, undefiled, incorrupt God who saved you. That's the good news. So I'm gonna take you back to chapter one, verse four, to obtain an inheritance, incorruptible, undefiled, unfading.

You know what unfading means? It doesn't decay, it doesn't disappear, it doesn't go away. Having been kept in heaven for you. So our inheritance laid up in heaven is unfading. What this means is there is a permanence to what we will be inheriting. Now, here in the present, until the Lord returns, we are in a state of constant change and constant decay. Our earthly bodies are still corruptible. In the flesh, we are still defiled and in dishonor. We are still mired in weakness. And this is going to be permanently and irreversibly changed. So we who are new creations will be newly created into perfection, and we will become unchanging. There will no longer be death or mourning or crying or pain, Revelation 21, 4, or decay.

So here's what the apostle Paul says about the future. And I want to start with creation itself.

There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for stars different, differs from stars in glory. So even the stars are going to be different. Paul talked about the future of beasts, birds, and fish in verse 39. Okay? So there is a glory that awaits all creation, and even the celestial objects are gonna change. He continues, verse 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown a corruptible body, but it is raised an incorruptible body. It is sown in dishonor, it's raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, raised in power. It's sown in natural body, but raised in the spiritual body. Yes, if there is a natural body, there is a spiritual body. So as also it is written, the first Adam became a living soul through the theopnustas, the breath of God, the last Adam will become a life-giving spirit.

So through Jesus Christ, the last Adam, it eternal and incorruptible glory awaits us.

Okay? 1 Corinthians 15. Now I say this, brothers. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does a corruptible inherit the incorruptible.

We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound. What's the word? Incorruptible. And we will be changed, finally, permanently. For the corruptible must put on the incorruptible, the mortal must put back on immortality. Did you guys catch that? We who are presently being changed into greater and greater decay, and we're moving towards physical death. Instantaneously, we will be changed in the completely opposite and supernatural direction. And we're gonna be raised incorruptible, and we're gonna put on immortality. Connect the dots here. And let's continue to read. And when this corruptible puts on the incorruptible, and this mortal puts on immortality, then will come about the word that is written, death is swallowed up in victory.

Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin. The power of sin is a law, but thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, be steadfast, be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. So here's the good news. I don't care how much money you're going to have in the future or how healthy you will be because of Jesus saves you. I don't care about that. It's not about that. The good news is you and I will now become incorruptible and immortal as how God designed it from the beginning. Amen? That's the good news. There will be a permanent and final reversal.

Death will be permanently swallowed up. Verse 58 says, Therefore, in the present, we remain unmovable and unshaken. Things around us will change. False churches, false pastors will come up and say funny things. There's going to be an increase in wickedness, Matthew chapter 24. Because of the increase in the wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. You guys know this, right? But the gospel is still going to be proclaimed. We remain unmovable and unshaken, and we help others to access this future glory. That's the labor he's talking about in 48. Do you guys see it? Our labor in the Lord is gospel ministry. So we abound in this gospel ministry. That's the purpose of your existence. Your purpose of your existence is gospel ministry.

The only alternative is decay. Your purpose is gospel ministry. So with what you have, just like Adam was told in Genesis 1, be fruitful and multiply. We preach the good news. Not a news that God has a wonderful plan for you in this short, decaying, transient, grass-like, flower-like falls off, wilts, withers, dies, burn in the fire life. God has a wonderful plan for your eternity. And that's the good news. So we're in constant change. We're in the constant process of decay. But one day, when he appears, we're going to be just like him. Eternal, eternal and immutable. 1 John 1 3 2. Why? We shall see him as he is. This has to freak you out in the best of ways.

Profound.

Eternally and see him face to face. That's absurd that a sinful being like me can be so transformed the other way. Where my flower doesn't ever fall off. It's permanent. May we labor hard because of the future that awaits us. Amen. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would help us to chew on this. Help us to live with the reality of this. Help us to understand that the inheritance is far beyond what our earthly minds can fathom here. Help us, Lord, to get our eyes off of this place and have our thoughts fixed upon heaven. Help us to have our minds girded for action. Help us to be sober in spirit and help us to fix our hope completely on the joy to be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

We pray all this in his name. Amen. Let's all rise and respond in worship. Let's give just praise to our unchanging God who is just ever faithful.

Let's sing together.

Before the skies were born, before the oceans roar, before the mountains reach for the burning star through all your words and ways, through every promise made, through every means of grace that reveals your heart, you are unchanging, faithful, unfailing, now and forever. Everasting, sovereign and reigning now and forever, in every season here, in waves of joy and tears, in all the ways our eyes only see in part with every trial we face with every test of faith with our eternal hope, written in your sky, you are unchanging, faithful, unfailing now and forever.

Sovereign and reigning now and forever.

One side has bloomed from faith.

Yes, then all will be made right, and every tear will dry, and your redeeming lie will destroy the dawn.

Faithful, unfailing, now and forever.

Sovereign and reigning now and forever. God ever, sovereign and reigning now and forever.

You are unchanging, faithful, unfailing now and forever.

Sovereign and reigning now and forever.

Help us not to turn from it. Help us to see everything through the lens of what we see in the scriptures. Empower and equip your people. So now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God our Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with each and every one of us who drinks deeply from the well of his word. Now and forevermore. Amen.