Forever the Same – Jesus

The writer to the Hebrews reminds us that

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.

Hebrews 13:v8

This precious verse showcases the often neglected, but very vital doctrine of the “immutability” of God. In simple terms, the doctrine of immutability means that God Almighty has never, can never and will never change. He is, by His very nature, unchangeable! This means that He is as powerful as ever.

He is as loving as ever, as merciful as ever, as full of grace as ever, as holy as ever, and as much in control as He has ever been. He is still God and He will always be God. He is absolutely unchangeable. This is one of the essential doctrines of Christianity! Why is the immutability so important? Because change implies imperfection and God is absolutely perfect. Therefore, He cannot change, ever! This truth is borne out in

a multitude of Scripture passages, listen as I read just a few …

•Ps 90:2, “Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.”

•Mal 3:6, “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

•James 1:17, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning” – and …

•Rev 1:8, “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.” (Oh and let me say that if He is Almighty, which he is, then he is Mighty in All)

Today, I would like to share with you a few areas where Jesus is absolutely unchangeable, and if you can grasp these truths –

they have the potential to be life-changing.

First of all consider that Jesus will never change in regard to:

HIS PERSONALITY

Therefore, any attributes which He possessed in the beginning, He still possesses today, and He will always possess them into eternity future. That which He was, He is and He ever will be! Therefore, His personality will never change! Consider that …

He Is Love – (I John 4:8) According to this verse, God is love! That is, in His very nature God is a God of love. Everything He does is an expression and an extension of His love and that will never change. If God is love, and He is, then there will never be a time when you will not be loved by God; irrespective of your behaviour and/or your responsiveness to his love. God loved you before He saved you, He loves you now and He will love you forever! He is love and you are the object of His love! I am convinced that the reason why so many Christians are living and walking without Joy, is simply because they do not yet fully realize just how much they are loved. We may sing

“Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so”

Yet for many of us while we really do know that in our heads, we don’t yet know it in our hearts? Let me reassure you today with every fibre of my being that Jesus truly does love you, a thousand times more than you could ever imagine. And if you don’t believe me then just picture him on the Cross and say to yourself “he hung there for me”.

The Old Testament is full of LAW, – rules

and regulations which God gave through Moses and the Prophets in order that mankind could through their own obedience merit the favour and blessing of God. But when God saw that man could not keep the law, that it was humanly impossible for man to be obedient in all, out of Love, Jesus became a man, so that He could take on him

– all of our BAD, and put on us – all of his GOOD!

We didn’t deserve it then, and we still don’t deserve it now, – it is all about Grace (undeserved favour) and all about Love! But more about Gods loving nature later!

Then, He Is Light – (John 8:12) By His very nature, Jesus is Light. His very purpose in coming into the world was to bring the light of God to those drowning in a sea of darkness. He came to manifest the Father to a fallen man. He is still in that business today and He ever will be. He is the Light and He will ever be the Light! He offers hope to those in darkness. He can and will bring them out that darkness into the Light of God. In the Church we are often confused about “those in darkness” and usually recon that only those still in the world and outside of Christ are in darkness. Yet it is possible to be in Christ and still walk in darkness even though Jesus is your light.

Let me teach you that just because you have a revelation about your Salvation, or a revelation about your healing, or a revelation about your freedom, or a revelation about your finances, … these revelations are merely “seeds” and they need to be planted, nourished and matured before they will bear fruit. Every week I am sowing seed, I am planting Gods Word into your life – but that does not mean that you immediately have the answer. You have “light” but you may not have enough light to progress or move on. If you are climbing the stairs in a tower-block, during a power-cut because the lift is out, and I give you a match at the bottom, that match will take you only a few steps upwards. You will need more matches, or a candle or a lamp to get you to the top.

Jesus is the light, but unless and until you are using that light every moment of every day, you will stumble through this life in the dark, and hurt yourself a few times in the process. Believe me I know! This is why we should never be contented with past blessings or past revelations – God wants his Children to be in the NOW and in the KNOW!

Remember also that He Is Lord – (Acts 2:36) As I have shared with you in the past, and contrary to Church opinion, no one “makes” Jesus the Lord of their life. He is already Lord whether you and I acknowledge it or not! This world certainly does not live like Jesus is Lord, but that changes nothing! Many Churches and many Christians do not live like He is Lord, but that too changes nothing! Jesus is Lord! He will ever be Lord! He is Lord!

One day, His power and position as Lord of all will be revealed to everyone. He is Lord and the best you and I

can do is live like we know it, believe it and walk in it!

Then He is Life – (John 14:6) Jesus is not just another life, He is the Life! It is in Him and in Him alone that dead sinners can live. To know Jesus is to know life, to be without Him is to abide in death, 1 John 5:12. He is Life and He will ever be Life. All the life on this planet sprang from Him, read about it in Genesis Ch‘s. 1+2. Every man

has life today because the Creator breathed the breath of life into man, Gen. 2:7. He is the Creator of life and He is also the sustainer of life. This will never change! For a man to truly live, he must know Jesus – anything else is mere existence. But Jesus came to give us not only Life Eternal, but Life Abundant (John 10:10) and abundant life is all about walking in a garment (a pure spotless covering)

that is not our own.

The Garment of Salvation is woven and worked through and through by His Righteousness. Jesus is Right, He was always Right, he is always Right, and He will be always Right. There is NO wrong associated or attached to his personality; and surprise, surprise … He loves you so much that he MADE you righteous. This is all part and parcel of the Cross Work of Christ. The Apostle Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:v21 “For he (that is God) hath made him (Jesus) to be sin for us, (Jesus) who knew no sin; that we (that’s you and me) might be made the righteousness of God in him“.

Let me ask you a Question, … If you have been MADE Righteous, what part of you is Unrighteous?

If your tongue was made righteous, by lying does it suddenly become unrighteous? If your mind was made righteous, by thinking proud or envious thoughts does it suddenly become unrighteous? If your hands were made righteous, by stealing

do they suddenly become unrighteous?

If you were made righteous, then you ARE righteous. It is when we fully grasp the love that has made us righteous, at that point we come into the place spoken of by John in

1 John 3:v9 “Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for

his seed (Gods seed) remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God“. Many Christians are trying to walk without sin, when what they should be doing is walking in Love. Let me say it Long and let me say it Loud …

If you walk in Love you will not sin!

Not only did he MAKE you Righteous,

He has also SEALED you Righteous.

This takes us beyond His Personality, to His Power.

Matthew. 28:18 says: “He has been given all power in heaven and in Earth” but what does that mean? The word power comes from the Greek word Exousia, We get our word Exude from this word. This word literally means; power of choice, the power of authority (influence) and of right (privilege) the power of rule or government. Simply stated, Jesus is the all-powerful Lord. Also, notice that Jesus said that this power had been “given” unto Him. This word is in the Passive, Indicative. This simply means that at some time in the past, God the Father gave Jesus power and authority and that this gift has ongoing power into the future, In other words, it is God’s will that Jesus possess all power in Heaven and Earth and nothing can change this fact.

Consider His Redemptive Power – Jesus is the Author and the Finisher of our faith, Heb. 12:v2. That is, He paid the price and He is the only One in whom salvation can be found, Acts 4:12. He will never lose His saving power!

Then there is His Protective Power – Jesus is still the Good Shepherd, John 10:11 and He will care for the sheep until they all arrive safely home. In Psalm 23, The Lord

promises to care for His sheep in ever conceivable manner. If He will do it for others, He will do it for you, He will see you safely to Heaven! One of the weapons in the deceptive armoury of the Devil is to get us to think that we are not quite like the rest of Gods Sheep, Gods Children?

The devil will tell us that while God may well answer the prayers of others he could not answer our prayers. So we fall into despair and despondency and are deceived into thinking that we have fallen from the grace of God.

Years ago, in Sunday School, we used to sing a little Chorus that went …

“I have a Saviour who’s Mighty to Keep, all day on Sunday and Six days a Week”

We could not keep ourselves in the Love of God, we cannot keep ourselves from failing, we will not keep our Salvation to the end, IT IS GOD THAT KEEPS US?

And God keeps all of us. Preacher and People alike!

God alone has Power to Keep.

Let me share with you a common failing amongst the people of God. You may be failing in this way too, and if you continue you will live all your life in the bondage of failure and never enjoy the liberty and life abundant that God has for you.

The Devil wants to steal your life and give you death. Walking with Jesus is life, walking under the deceptions of Satan is Death. Death to your Joy, death to your peace, death to your sense of worth, death to your victories, death to your ambitions and so on, in short fear brings death.

Hebrews 2: v14 & 15 reads: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he (Jesus) also himself

likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage“.

Listen to the Devils lies and you will live only in Bondage.

Listen to Jesus and you will walk in Blessing – always.

Let me illustrate this teaching …

Supposing you have been praying for something and you are not seeing God respond. You are agonizing over and issue, crying about a problem, or struggling with a temptation, and seeing no answer and no way out. Immediately the Devil moves in on your fears and tells you that you must have done something wrong to displease God and to destroy his favour working in your life. So you go back in the pages of your memory to try to locate the BAD things, so that you can justify your unanswered prayers. This is Lies, lies and more lies from the pit of Hell itself – and if you listen to these you will live all

your lifetime in bondage.

Remember Jesus took all of your BAD and gave you all of His GOOD. There is no BAD that can be reckoned up before God in your life – “As far as the east is from the west – so far has he removed your transgressions from you” Psalm 103:12 (yet if you don’t or wont believe it – you will continue to walk in death)

When you live and walk in this kind of in/out up/down saved/lost fashion, you are not walking in GRACE

and therefore not walking in Gods favour – you are essentially tying Gods hands through unbelief – and you

are belittling the finished and completed Cross-Work of Jesus Christ? You’ll end up Doubting and Fearing your Salvation and ignoring your new identity in Jesus.

So then we have considered the unchanging nature of

His Personality and His Power

In closing, let us consider the permanency of

HIS PROMISES.

Jesus Has Promised To Save Us – He Has Promised To Supply Us – He Has Promised To Satisfy Us – He Has Promised To Secure Us and He Has Promised To Sustain Us – but in this final word today, I want us to glory in the amazing promise that he has SEALED us?

In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians he writes in … Eph 4:v30 “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption“.

And again in

2 Cor 1:22 “Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest (or guarantee) of the Spirit in our hearts“.

What is it to be SEALED by God?

Supposing in the throne room of Heaven God writes you a private and personal letter, seals it with his signet ring and hands it to the Arch-Angel Michael to deliver in person to you. Do you imagine for one minute that Michael or any of the Seraphim Angels in Heaven would dare to open it? Do you imagine that the Devil or any demon in hell would try to intercept it and open it? Do you imagine that any Government, any Dictator or any

Security Company on Earth could break that seal and see what God wrote in the privacy of His hand for your eyes only? The very idea is preposterous! Once God has sealed something, that seal cannot ever be broken NEVER!

“… I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39 When I was made Righteous, I was Sealed Righteous, not to be tampered with under any hellish or earthly circumstances.

Praise God for evermore!

Things are always changing for you and me. I find it very refreshing and comforting to know that the God that I serve and the Lord that I have received as my Saviour will never change.

His Personality His Power and His Promises

Can never change and never fail.

God Bless You

Amen.