An Unchanging Christ

Hebrews 13. We have looked as far as verse 6, so let me pick up at verse 7 and read a few verses here. Hebrews 13, verse 7, the Word of God says, “‘Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. Be not carried about with diverse and strange doctrines, for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. We have an altar whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle, for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin are burned without the camp. Wherefore, Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth, therefore, unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come. Amen.’”

What you have heard is the word of the eternal God, which you would receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray, beloved. Let’s seek the Lord.

Our gracious God, we look to Thee. We look to Thee for help. Circumstances of Thy people this morning are varied. Some are on the mountaintop; they have known tremendous blessing in recent days, and they are full of gratitude. Others are struggling. Others have a sense of uncertainty about the future, and they are concerned and anxious. And others, Lord, are cold at heart. The biggest problem in their life is their spiritual condition before Thee.

Lord, whatever the need is, we’re asking now in these quiet moments before we look to Thy Word that Thou wilt work by Thy Spirit. Make this a day to remember for all the right reasons. Let us not be found among the fickle crowds of men who will here in this place sing Hosanna to the King and walk out of here and, in some sense, say, Crucify Him. God, let it never be said of any of us. We fear our response to Thy Word if it be not right. And Lord Jesus warned that we’re not to be like the man who builds his house upon sand. He hears the word but does not do it. So grant us grace to believe and follow through in Thy Word.

Come now, exalt Thy Son; make much of all Thine own person and work, we pray, in Jesus’ name. Amen.

We live in a world in which there’s always been the challenge of the shifting sands of men’s opinions. Even with regard to that which is called truth, there are times when truth itself is questioned, doubted, attacked, and opposed to such a degree that the culture, the society, or perhaps even the home makes an effort to remove that truth altogether.

Of course, the result of that — the product and fruit of that — is that men do not have a footing. They have nowhere to stand, and while it may last for a period of time, ultimately they will realize that they have no solid foundation. When the real challenges of life come, when we’re faced with things like death and eternity — which are coming for us all — we’ll find that their footing is not so sure and doubts will prevail upon the heart.

The devil is always seeking then to work to unsteady men, to destabilize men, and the church has always faced varied dangers. For example, think of the effect even of living in the passage of time and how we can have a momentary experience that fades as time goes on. We feel a certain way in a given moment, but that feeling dissipates, evaporates. It came out even in the prayers just before we preached this morning — that sense in which we can be here and our feelings and aspirations to live for God can be elevated, but before long, when we’ve left this place, all of a sudden it’s no longer there.

So time becomes a challenge to us. It passes. The memory dulls. The mercies of God do not come into focus so well, and we step aside from our commitments. Satan comes with his lies as well and tries through his lies to distract us, to remove us from a stable footing upon which we are to stand and live for the Lord.

Ultimately, really what is going on behind all of these varied things is a challenge to remain steadfast in our Christian life: being steadfast, finding our place in Christ, knowing what we’re called to do every day, steadfastly living in the diligent exercise of our duties and our love for God, showing an expression of that love through our obedience, and offering thanksgiving no matter what happens. All these things become a challenge to us.

The Apostle Paul through the book of Hebrews has constantly elevated Christ. It pivots on Him. Everything revolves around Him. The whole goal of his ministry in this sermon is to drive the Hebrews to keep in mind Christ. He does not get bogged down with many of the particulars of what they’re going through. Some of that comes up for sure. But his main focus is, regardless of what you’re doing or where you are or what is happening, you are to look on to Jesus. Look on to Jesus.

That exhortation permeates — explicitly in chapter 12, of course — but it permeates the whole book. Look on to Jesus, no matter what. You come to God’s house; you’re here this morning, you’re wondering, I need a word from the Lord — this is the Word. Look on to Jesus. The past week we’ve been distracted with family cares and responsibilities. Many of those things have been a blessing to us; they’re not wrong. We may have been overcome with other matters as well — challenges, difficulties, fears, and concerns.

But whatever your station right now in this moment, the Word to you is: look on to Jesus. As I looked over the remaining verses of chapter 13, I endeavored to see the unifying theme, and I hope I’m right in this. I’ve gone with two words: steadfast living. So all the titles of the forthcoming sermons, God willing, will begin that way: Steadfast Living. What we’re looking at this morning is steadfast living under an unchanging Christ. Steadfast living under an unchanging Christ. That’s what the Lord is looking for.

We are moved; we are shaken; we are threatened; we have constant varied challenges that we go through in different seasons of life. The effort, the call, the responsibility is to remain steadfast. That’s a simple exhortation with profound implications.

One of the encouragements on Wednesday night as we had our Thanksgiving service — for those of you who weren’t there — one of the blessings was hearing people express different ways in which ultimately you could distill it into this: God has enabled them to remain steadfast. They’ve had their wavering moments; they’ve had their challenges — threats have come, difficulties and circumstances of their life — but they can get up and publicly say, Here’s what the Lord has done. And ultimately, undergirding that is sufficient grace to help them remain steadfast.

The apostle then closes out this sermon with various exhortations. Ultimately, this is the sum of it: to be steadfast in your life for the Lord. And you see then what is before us in verses 7 through 9. There’s a lot here. I’m hoping I can get through it in one sermon, and I’m hoping that we can enjoy the blessing of what is here as we consider this subject: steadfast living under an unchanging Christ.

We’ll see three primary thoughts: first, remember faithful rulers; second, rest in a faithful Redeemer; and third, resist faithless religion.

First, consider then a call to remember faithful rulers. Verse 7: “‘Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation.’”

Now the language here in the Authorized Version may throw you a little because of the way they have translated one of the Greek words that’s here. “‘Remember them which have the rule over you’ — which have the rule. It’s not so much a problem, but just for clarification, it’s not speaking here of present rulers. It does that, I think, in verse 17 and verse 24. It talks about rulers that are presently there and they’re responsible for them. But in this context, it is a sense of looking back upon those which have spoken the Word of God. So you have it there in the tense: have spoken unto you the Word of God, and then also in the context, considering the end of their whole manner of life. And so really what he is calling them to remember, to recall, is that there are those in your life that are not like those in Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11 is that great hall of faith where you have these varied characters that are named and some that are unnamed, but the point is: here are those who have lived their life from their conversion to the end looking on to Jesus Christ. We take them then as examples for us to follow. And now what the apostle says is, you have people in your own life, and they are now gone. They were your rulers. They were your teachers, your instructors — those, if we take the language of Hebrews 2 and 3, that first brought the gospel to you, first brought the Word of God to you — those who carry the message of the gospel to you. And you are to remember them, not to idolize them, not to elevate them and deify them in some way, but you are to remember them in a way that contributes to your steadfast living.

There are those who have finished the race that you know. Many of you — especially those of you more mature; if you’re 40 and up, I would say that pretty much everyone 40 and up, and certainly some younger anyway — it’s very difficult to get to the age of 40 and not have people in your life who made a massive contribution in your Christian life, and you’re called to remember them.

You’re not to keep them in mind in some vague way. It says, remember, follow, consider. See the language there? Bring them to mind; follow; and in the following, what are we doing? We’re not just following something that is abstract. We are considering the end of their conversation, the end of their whole manner of life. These people spoke the Word of God, so we’re thinking specifically of those who were teachers. They adorned that preaching with a life that followed through on what they said. You can consider the end of their whole conduct of life. They have now lived their life; they’ve now run their race. Put your arms around their testimony and see how what they preached is married to how they lived. And you’re to think upon them — these people who died trusting the Christ that they preached. And what a difference it made. Now you’re to think upon them. You’re called to remember them.

Not the names of authors of a bygone era who may have been helpful to you. Isn’t it amazing how we put emphasis there? And we all do it. We all do it. What books have made an impact in your life? You give a book written by some person you’ve never met, and you elevate it. You elevate their memory. You have really no clue about them, very little. And now, of course, the media has different forms. We have podcasts. And of course the sermon is being recorded; it’s going to go out on the Internet. Some people will listen who are not here. Some people may listen in such a way where there’s an elevated perspective: these preachers that you’ve listened to in the past, the impact of the scrolls and so on and so forth. These people have impacted all of us, but God’s Word’s not calling us to remember them. God’s Word’s calling us to remember those who had a direct impact in our life. As ordinary as their ministry may have been, we are to remember them.

God’s Word often emphasizes things that you can’t get through a book, that you can’t really get through a podcast, that you can’t get through some other form of media that comes from afar. You can’t get the real character. And God’s Word places emphasis on character. I don’t care whether you name Exodus 18 and what leaders are meant to be like as given there by Jethro, or Deuteronomy 17 and the characteristics of a king that’s outlined there, or of course elders in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 and so on. These passages that give us — here’s what leaders are to look like — are laden with a weight of their character. What kind of a man are they? Now, yes, they have to be apt to teach. They have a certain ability to communicate God’s Word. But the weight is on their character. Don’t forget that. And when you’re watching or listening to a podcast or a video or whatever, you don’t get that. You don’t get it. So the apostle reminds us: this is more relevant perhaps now than it was even then, given the proliferation of media today and the way things come to us.

This comes to us and says, don’t so much think upon them; remember those you know that you met, that you watched. You could actually speak of their flaws too. You know their shortcomings, because you were close enough to see their shortcomings. You see the areas where they’re really strong here, but they have weaknesses there. You can’t tell that, really, through a book. It’s hard. You can’t tell it through podcasts and videos and whatever — all the forms of media. It’s one-dimensional. Those people that you see and listen to — it’s one-dimensional. The things that you hear are scripted. The book has gone through an editorial process. It’s all refined to the nth degree.

But you’re to remember those flesh-and-blood people that you saw that impacted your life. Remember them. Follow their faith because see how it terminated — in this steadfast trust in Jesus Christ.

There are many of you here who, as I preach this message, I couldn’t help but think of names that I know you know. You should think upon them.

A few things we can consider about these faithful rulers: they were appointed men. They were appointed men. I should just say, by the way, they were men. It shouldn’t need to be said, but in the day in which we live, they are men. These leaders who spoke the Word of God were men. God, in His order of things, that’s the way it is — He appoints men. You may have women in your life who had an impact on you, of course — like Timothy: think of his mother and his grandmother. It’s not undermining that. But the focus of the text is remembering the men.

They were appointed men. They had the rule over you. They were set to this responsibility of being a spiritual guide. How did they accomplish that? How come they were in that position? If we take the language of Acts 20:28, it’s because the Holy Ghost made them overseers — the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost put them in that position and clothed them with that authority. So God appoints them. God sets them. He would have those in such positions in His church. As you endeavor to live a steadfast life, He enables or helps by appointing men to this responsibility.

These appointed men then are to be taken seriously. When the Lord Jesus sent His disciples in Luke 10, verse 16 says, “He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me.” Insofar as they would speak the Word of God, it was considered to be as if the Lord Himself was communicating through them. Their response to that word was really a response to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, we are really good at hearing things we don’t particularly like and trying to say, I don’t believe that’s what it says — rejecting it while believing that we’re not rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ. Can you do that? Yes, you can, because if what was spoken is genuinely wrong, then that’s fine. But you have to be careful. You have to make sure that what you’re rejecting isn’t something that’s for your own convenience. I don’t want that to be true; I want to believe that that is the case, and then you reject it. Well, what you’re doing is rejecting the Lord. The Lord Himself is very much tied to the word that He speaks. That’s why the Bereans tested the Scriptures, whether those things Paul spoke were so. Acts 17 then is a good model for us to get back to the Word of God and test it, see whether it’s true, see the veracity of what they were saying.

They were appointed men, and the church isn’t always in need of this. Very often the men who ought to be appointed and God intends to appoint are the humble ones who don’t really aspire to the position. I completely get that. It’s a strange sort of specimen who aspires to leadership and reads James 3:1 and disregards its warning as if it’s nothing: “Be not many masters, knowing ye shall receive the greater judgment.” Those words used to haunt me; still do somewhat. It haunted me in a way that kept me from ever wanting to be in a position of leadership. No way. No way. I don’t want greater judgment. Who wants greater judgment? That’s what I say. It’s a strange specimen who thinks, I think I’m perfect to be a leader. When God’s saying greater judgment, I have to live with that. Every man God calls to leadership has to live with that higher judgment. These men took it on. These men that you remember have run their race and run it well. They were appointed by God.

They’re not only appointed men; they were able men, weren’t they? “Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God.” No, they weren’t necessarily naturally impressive — and that’s what we look for. We look for the one who has a naturally impressive demeanor, presence. It’d be interesting to study the average height of American presidents in relation to the general population at the time. George Bush wasn’t exactly tall, but most presidents I can think of were taller than average; they had imposing presence. People can have that effect. They look like leaders. But that’s not what God necessarily appoints. I’m not disregarding those who are tall, by the way. I have friends in ministry — one very good friend who’s six foot seven — so he’s not short of an inch or two when it comes to his imposing presence.

To be an able man, think of what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3:5–6: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, “but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament.” God had made him able. God had equipped him for this task. Specifically, the task is to give the Word of God — to speak the Word of God. That’s what they gave themselves to. Their primary task was to bring you the Word. Some of those people you know, if you took them into another context — take them out to golf, soccer, baseball, or fishing — you might see they’re not good at everything. They weren’t called to be good at everything; they were called to this. They were called to speak the Word of God. That’s what they gave themselves to, and your honor and memory of them is in this: they taught me the Word of God, expressed to me the mind of God, helped me understand the precious truths of God’s Word. That Word came to you, shaped you, influenced you, and impacted you, and you thank God for it.

They were perhaps not as popular as itinerant preachers — the man who can manage to get away by having two dozen sermons in his pocket and go anywhere and preach. You look at him as he preaches and think, oh, he doesn’t seem to use his notes. That’s because it’s the 150th time he’s brought the message. If he doesn’t know it by heart by now, there’s something wrong. The luxury of that eloquence comes with the fact that they’ve been preaching the same message over and over again. You listen to apologists with persuasive arguments and wonder how they are so capable — they’re off the cuff answering because this is all they do. They’re one-trick ponies. They’re able to get up there and sound eloquent, but it’s rehearsed. They’ve gone over it many, many times.

I teach on personal evangelism. If you keep doing personal evangelism — talking one-to-one — your mind starts to function like a flowchart: you ask a question, you get an answer, and you move on because you know exactly what to say. If you do evangelism enough, your mind ends up developing that kind of flowchart: Do you believe in God? Yes. No. Do you believe the Bible is the Word of God? Yes. No. And you move through it like that.

But the people who brought them the Word of God were studying the Word, laboring. The people you know maybe preached three, four, five times a week, constantly having to bring you a message, speak the Word of God, communicate the mind of God, elevate God’s Son in your presence, urging and encouraging you to look to Him. They’re standing before the same audience, trying to find new, fresh ways to make it land, thinking carefully about how to apply it and drive it home without sounding like a broken record every week.

A lot of the people who get attention today — you would be tempted to honor them because of how they get under your skin — are different from these faithful men. These men who were before them were like parents. The outside people are like grandparents: they come in with chocolate and ice cream and do the fun stuff. Mom and dad are there for the nuts and bolts of real life — dealing with tears and heartache, frustrations, anxiety, burdens, and cares. Through the midst of that battle, there can be a real struggle. Grandparents come in, have fun, and leave the drama behind. That’s like honoring these other people. But the faithful rulers are those who are there, laboring, praying over your soul, naming you before God, seeing you drift and beginning to cry, “Lord, rescue them.” They name people with particular focus and prayer because they’re concerned where they’re going.

Remember them. Some of you, many of you, have them: they’ve spoken, they had the rule over you, and they’ve spoken the Word of God to you. They were appointed men, able men, admirable men whose faith followed, considering the end of their conversation — the whole manner of their life. You can look at and assess; yes, you may see dips in performance and inconsistencies in expression, but ultimately you can see there is a life. You can put it right there in Hebrews 11.

You can see the flaws of Abraham; you can see the shortcomings of other characters named in that great chapter. But ultimately they had a faith that persevered to the end. They looked on to Jesus Christ. They kept resting in Him and living for Him, prioritizing His will. You can do the same. They not only preached it, they lived it.

“Whose faith follow.” Think of them. Think of them today. We’re memorizing Psalm 37, at least a section of it. Later in that Psalm, verse 37, it says, “Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace.” That’s what you can do with these people you’re to remember. See the end. There’s a certain peace that envelops such a person. So your call to follow them is not to copy mannerisms or accents, not to fall into superficial things, but to imitate their trust in Jesus Christ to the end. Christ was their anchor. By anchoring themselves in Christ, look how they lived and how they died.

Secondly, not only remember faithful rulers, but rest in our faithful Redeemer: Jesus Christ, “the same yesterday and today and forever.”

I fear this tends to stand on its own so much that we can’t even really see the connection. It’s one of those capital texts. It can stand on its own. It can be the pinnacle of this whole environment, the Everest of an entire section of the book. You can just look and admire the peak. But you do have to see the context. It’s important to see how it’s tied into what has come before and what follows.

What did they preach? They had spoken unto you the Word of God, and this then sums up that Word that they both preached and they lived: “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever.” It is a sense of the permanence of the personal work of Christ. It is a sense: this was all that they uttered; it was the focus of their living; it was everything.

In contrast, verse 9 speaks of diverse and strange doctrines — things that are changed and multiplied, always new ideas that go around. Instead of giving themselves to all these new ideas, these strange or foreign doctrines, this is how they lived: they beat the same drum. When they were first in their ministry and speaking the Word of God at thirty years of age, their whole theme was Jesus Christ. When you heard them preach at sixty-five, it was the same: Jesus Christ. Their whole subject matter and the way they lived was about this unchanging Christ in a changing world with changing ideas and changing philosophies.

The world in which we live doesn’t necessarily like what is implied by verse 8. There’s a sermon by Jonathan Edwards that talks about the natural man; he says the natural man does not like God’s immutability — the unchangingness of God. The reason is this: by immutability, God never will be otherwise than He is — an infinitely holy God. A wicked person, even when meeting a holy man, might comfort himself with the thought that the man can be corrupted or changed. Not so with God. What God has stated will always be stated; what God has said will always be so. He will not bend for anyone.

To the believer, this is not a threat; it’s encouragement, a blessing. His gospel doesn’t change. If you cast anchor in Christ thirty years ago and took Jesus Christ to be your Savior, nothing has changed on His part to this day. When you confessed your sins and He appeared to be interested in your sins thirty years ago — you brought your sins to Him, wept over them, confessed them, took Christ as your Savior and believed on Him — He has not changed today. He is still receiving your confession, still pardoning your sins, and still promising acceptance. He has not changed at all. What a comfort that is.

Every time you change, vary, go up and down in your commitment to God, there He is standing unmovable: Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. The immutability of this God-Man who never changes. The message they brought played into this, exposed this, brought it to the fore. Their constant message was: don’t let go of Him. He is the same. He will not fail you.

Perhaps those who had the rule over them did feel doubts at times. They weren’t always perfect, but they always told you the same thing: don’t follow me, follow Him. That’s what you follow about them — the fact that they were directing you to Jesus Christ, the unchanging Redeemer.

Think upon His constancy: He is the same yesterday and today and forever. Hebrews has already used language like this to reveal this characteristic. Go back to chapter 1, verse 10: “Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of thine hands. They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.”

In this we are called to worship along with the angels this unchanging Christ. Time changes, leaders change, nations change, things come and go, but Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. All those promises He made to you are as true today as they were when you first heard them. It doesn’t change.

It’s amazing how we go through lapses of assurance. Some of you have been Christians a long time and have known days of assurance, and yet, even though you thought you could never be shaken, 25 years down the road your whole being is rattled. You begin to wonder, Am I really saved? Am I really His? Am I one of the elect? You lose the answer to that.

It’s the same truth you first rested in. “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” “If thou shalt confess thy sins, He is faithful and just to forgive thee thy sins, and to cleanse thee from all unrighteousness.” “If any man thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.” “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved.” You come again; He doesn’t contradict Himself. He doesn’t change His mind. He remains the same.

Your comfort then is not found in the strength of your faith, or the constancy of your own faith, or the intensity of your feelings, but in the constancy of the Redeemer Himself, Jesus Christ the same. Whether you’re looking at Him yesterday, today, or any time in the future, He is the same. Your sin may be great and your problems may overwhelm; your faith may be weak, but He remains the same. He saves His people from their sins. He takes them in and welcomes them.

Many of you have gone through dark seasons. Many of those you’re to remember who have spoken unto you the Word of God went through dark seasons as well. They went through seasons they could barely utter in public. You might think, But I thought you’re meant to be a leader — not meant to have doubts and questions, not meant to go through struggles. Yet in their hearts they went through wrestling moments and challenging times, where they got up and preached to themselves and to you the same thing: Jesus Christ.

“Same yesterday and today and forever” — His constancy and His continuance. Everything about Him continues. This whole book stresses the continuance of His priesthood in comparison to the Levitical priests who rise and fall: they live and they die; they are there and then gone. There is this one who has an unchangeable priesthood. He lives in the power of an endless life. He conquered death. He had victory over the great enemy; He passed through death and rose again. He stands constant, this consistency of His person and His work continuing before us. He continueth ever in this unchangeable priesthood.

Because of that, chapter 7 goes on to say that He is able to save them to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him. He is able to save; He is able to keep you. This is because He is always praying and interceding, and He will keep you to the very end. Look at His character, His continuance, the same yesterday and today and forever — there is where you find your hope.

He is appointed priest to care for the people, to lead them through the wilderness of life and cross the Jordan and into the promised land. And you wonder, Will I get there? Will I obtain that eternal inheritance? Your hope is based on this unchanging priest who is leading the way. He is the Joshua who leads us into victory, guaranteeing it.

All those old saints in Hebrews 11 died in faith without having received the promises, but Jesus died and rose again and bestows these promises upon His people. The one who brought you to Himself will keep you in Himself. He will never leave nor forsake you.

Verse 8: He is the same yesterday and today and forever. This brings us early then to the third point: resist faithless religion.

Very quickly: faithless religion is that which does not direct you to Jesus Christ. In contrast with the Word that was spoken to you by those who led you to Christ, and in contrast with the One who Himself never changes, there are messages that go out which carry you about like a twig on a river. They are not anchored; they are not secured; they move about. Be not carried about with these different or foreign doctrines.

This faithless religion is undermining. It makes you be carried about; you’re constantly shaken and unstable and not sure what way to turn. That’s intentional. This is what Satan is about. False teachers endeavor to do this. It goes back to those Jews who are bringing you back to Sinai — the Old Covenant can be shaken. The Old Covenant is not stable; it’s not trustworthy.

But Zion and the King of Zion give you something that stays, that remains steadfast. These messages that go back to the Old Covenant — to the temple and the sacrifices and the feasts — are driving them back there, but that’s not permanent. The message spoken to you is Jesus Christ: He’s the permanent one, the permanent Savior, the permanent priest, the one you can depend on. These other messages undermine you.

There are many interesting things we could address in any context and even in the church; many subjects we could look to and delve into. There’s a place for them. But there is in our worship a prioritization. I was reading a Puritan sermon recently and was struck by the lack of Christ-centered emphasis in it. The content was tremendous, but the bulk of it was so heavily involved in things that did not lead to Jesus Christ. There’s a place for those things, don’t get me wrong, but we have to come back and ask ourselves: what are people meant to hear? What are they to be anchored in? It is the personal work of Christ. God blesses His Son. The Holy Spirit elevates the Son, bears witness to the Son. The message is Jesus Christ. He is the only unchangeable One.

Other messages may entice our intellect, but they may undermine our faith, especially if they distract from — remember in Ephesians 4 where Paul exhorts us to be no more children, tossed to and fro, carried about with every wind of doctrine — the answer is in the knowledge of the Son of God. The knowledge of the Son of God prevents you from being children tossed to and fro. What has to happen in leaders who preach the Word is that their focus is on the knowledge of the Son of God so that you’re not children easily turned away or carried about.

It’s not only undermining; it’s also unprofitable. “For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein.” “Meats” ties in all the Jewish rituals. There’s more to say there, but to summarize: all these Jewish practices — and there are still people today who want you to observe ceremonial meals and the rest — they think Christians should look to these things and they say it elevates their faith. The apostle says it’s unprofitable.

The apostles talk about the Jews’ Passover. I’m always fascinated: if you say “the Jews’ Passover” you create distance from it. In the New Testament, believers moved away from these things. They were unprofitable; they were not the focus of their life. There was still some practice leading up to AD 70, but the apostle is preparing the way. He’s saying, don’t be caught up with those things. Your heart needs to be established in grace — not in what you do but in what Christ has done and bestows freely to you. That’s what grace is: something unmerited. Your heart is not established by, I do this and I go there, I visit Jerusalem and practice these things. Your heart is not established by ticking off that you attend church, read the Bible, and pray. Grace establishes the heart. The message of grace communicates good news: you didn’t do it; it’s not about you. It’s about what Jesus Christ has done, and we receive the benefit.

When Paul argues to the Galatians, summarizing verse 9, he warns against making circumcision or Old Testament requirements necessary part of Christianity. In Galatians 5:2 he says, “Christ shall profit you nothing” if you add such things. The grasp of the hand of faith can only hold Christ without anything additional. If you add circumcision, meats, festivals, or other things, Christ falls out of your hands. Christ profits nothing if you add anything to Him.

Why would you try to add anything to the one who is the same yesterday and today and forever? Why mix Him with your own works, or even things God appointed in a bygone time? Should we gather? Yes: “forsake not the assembling of ourselves.” Are there things we should give ourselves to? Absolutely. But if you’re a grass believer, the establishment of your heart in grace comes by treasuring the God-Man, the Son of God, Jesus Christ — crucified and risen from the dead, seated at the right hand of the Father, living to pray for you continually, returning to gather you to be with Himself. You are taken up with that. That’s where the heart truly becomes established with grace.

If you want to live steadfastly, it is with this central focus: it is enough that I have Jesus Christ. I need nothing else.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

There are many distractions in your life. They may not be the same as the Jewish context of this epistle. They may not be meats, but there are other things the world will try to impose upon you and Satan will try to distract you with, and they will not profit you if you’re occupied therein. Turn to Christ, love and worship Him, live for Him, and your heart will be established with grace.

Lord, bless Thy Word. We do thank Thee for the memory of those who in simplicity and yet faithfully brought to us the Word of God. We thank Thee for those that when we take time just to ponder our past, we owe a great debt of gratitude, because they focused upon Thy Son. Lord, we pray that Thou wilt help us to consider their end and follow their faith and end as well as they did — or as they would desire that we might end even better than them. So help us to be consistent to the end. In order to help us with that, keep our gaze upon the unchanging Christ.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of every child of God now and evermore. Amen.