If you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn today to Deuteronomy chapter 33. Take a brief break from our series on Galatians to consider Deuteronomy chapter 33, verses 26 through 29. There we read, There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine. Also his heavens shall drop down dew. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is likened to thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy Excellency, and thine enemies shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places." As Covenanters in the coming years, we may face some significant changes. Changes that we would likely not have chosen for ourselves, but clearly changes God has chosen for us. We may have to face the change of not having the financial resources to sustain a paid ministry. with weekly sermons or a permanent church court that maintains discipline within the church. We may face the change of having to relocate in order to find jobs and to provide for our families. We may find greater opposition and persecution to us and our scriptural terms of communion as more and more people forsake what is faithful and true in order to embrace what is convenient and easy in a nation and world that hates the supremacy of Jesus Christ over the nations, over the church, over our families, over our callings, and over our lives. For example, consider how many hate the doctrine of occasional hearings. Even those who once embraced it as the only biblical way to promote and preserve the visible unity of Christ's church have found it to be excess baggage that must be cast off. But dear ones, we cannot promote the visible unity of Christ's church and at the same time promote a visible presence of ourselves, a visible separation from one another by having different church courts. We cannot visibly attend these churches while separated and having different church courts. To maintain that we can attend different Presbyterian churches that are schismatically different, one from another, into different denominations, and they have different church courts, one from another, and all within the same nation, and at times even within the same city, and yet embrace the doctrine of the visible unity of Christ and His one church upon the earth, is a delusion at best, and a lie at worst. Consider, dear ones, that Christ prayed for the visible unity of his one church rather than some kind of denominational unity. In John chapter 17 verses 20 through 21, when before the Lord went to the cross, his church was heavy upon his heart. And he prayed, as we read there in the prayer, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me." Again, the unity for which the Lord prays must be something that's visible. Otherwise, how would the world come to believe that the Father and the Son are one if we maintain this diversity and disunity amongst the visible Church of Jesus Christ? It's the very fact of the visible unity of Christ that Jesus says will drive people to see that the Father and the Son are one. Consider that the Lord did not establish different denominations either in the Old Testament or in the New Testament. And thus denominationalism not only does not have the blessing of Christ, it is an express contradiction to our oneness in the faith. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 10, there we read Now, I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. No divisions among you." If that was true, In speaking to the Church of Corinth, which was speaking of divisions within the church that had not separated into separate church courts, how much more it is the case when that actually takes place. Likewise, we read in Ephesians chapter 4 verses 3-6, all of the ones, one body, one faith, one baptism, one Lord, one Father, one Spirit. Dear ones, denominationalism is not only not given the blessing by Christ, denominationalism, sectarianism is condemned by Christ. And yet it is continually promoted by those who support these sinful and schismatic divisions within Christ's body by occasionally attending these unfaithful churches and sitting under these unfaithful ministers. Dear ones, occasional hearing is a grievous sin because it destroys, destroys the visible unity of Christ's church and it leads to the toleration of sin and error of every kind in order to allow this diverse group of people to be able to come together on the Lord's Day in one building or in one gathering or to hold membership within one church. This diversity and this occasional attendance and presence under unfaithful ministries tears down, destroys ultimately the terms of communion for which we stand and believe to be what God has taught in his word. It allows a diverse group of people holding to many different and opposing doctrines, practices, and worship in church government to come to the Lord's table and to pretend as if they have fellowship and communion in the truth around that table. mockery, dear ones, it's a mockery of biblical unity. Although I firmly believe in the descending obligation of the Solemn League and Covenant as it applies to us who live in the United States, Canada, and other British dominions, or former dominions, And although the Solemn League and Covenant adds further obligations for us not to sin by practicing occasional hearing, listen closely, our obligation not to sin by practicing occasional hearing is founded upon the moral principles just stated from Scripture and not based upon or founded upon the Solemn League and Covenant. The Solemn Ligon Covenant simply takes those moral principles that are already found in the Bible and applies them and states them in a covenant. So that one who argues that occasional hearing is only a sin if the Solemn Ligon Covenant binds us as a nation has in fact believed a lie. Beloved, although God may bring many changes and circumstances into our nation our church, our families, and our lives. We cannot change in the matter of occasional hearing or change and alter our faithful terms of communion without departing from the faith which Christ has committed to us to preserve for ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren for generations to come. Changes in our circumstances are bound to come. But God forbid the changes should come in our covenanting distinctives, for they are founded upon the moral unchangeable principles of God's Word. Where do you turn? Where do you turn when so many things are changing? When new careers must be sought When the relative safety and security you once knew is removed. When loved ones die. When unfaithful churches grow and faithful churches diminish. When there are enemies that would seek to silence you or to destroy your testimony for the truth. Where do you turn when everything in this world seems changeable and nothing in this world seems stable? You turn, dear ones, to the unchangeable God. You turn to the unchangeable God. In Psalm 46, 1 through 3, you turn to the God who has revealed this about himself through his prophet. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof." It is the comfort and encouragement of all who trust alone in Christ alone. that regardless of what may change in their world, the Rock and God of their salvation will never change. Malachi 3.6 says, God speaking, for I am the Lord, I change not. There is something that you can cling to in all the changes that occur in the world, in the church, in your family, and in your life. I am the Lord, I change not." Or Hebrews 13.8, Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever. We may at times know and understand to some degree the distress of Job when he cried in Job 10.17, changes and war. Changes and war are against me. for significant changes in our circumstances, whether in our health, wealth, or in matters related to our family, job, church, or nation, can bring about a war and a battle within us, and a war and a battle with others. But dear ones, our most sovereign and gracious God is not disturbed or unsettled in the least by all the changes that may occur in your life or mine. He is not sitting on the edge of his seat, as it were, worried sick as to what is going to happen with us at all. No, he is unchangeable, or immutable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth, according to Question 4 of the Shorter Catechism. The Lord our God is in fact working out His most wise and most holy purpose in your life in the very midst of all the changes that occur in your life. We read of many, many changes that occur in our lives, in our world. They are enumerated in Ecclesiastes chapter 3 the first 11 verses. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to kill and a time to heal. A time to break down and a time to build up. A time to weep and a time to laugh. A time to mourn and a time to dance. A time to cast away stones and a time to gather stones together. A time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing. A time to get and a time to lose. A time to keep and a time to cast away. A time to rend and a time to sew. A time to keep silence and a time to speak. A time to love and a time to hate. A time of war and a time of peace. What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboreth? I have seen the travail which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it. He hath made everything beautiful in his time." Dear ones, this alone is your hope. in maintaining your faith and even your sanity, when your whole world seems to be shaking beneath you, that God is in control, that He never changes, that He's ordered all things wisely, justly, lovingly, for His glory and for your good and for your well-being. You see, change, change casts us off of ourself and upon God. Change demonstrates how shallow and how temporal and shakable the things in this life are and it casts us upon that which cannot be shaken. Change shows us that we cannot put our faith and confidence in men, in ecclesiastical leaders or world leaders as if they are the ones who can lead us to that which is always for our benefit and our good, as if they can prevent bad things from happening to us. It casts us upon God's divine leadership, changed us. From our text today, let us lift up the eye of faith. to our unchangeable Savior who reveals himself to be, number one, sovereign, in Deuteronomy 33.26, reveals himself, secondly, to be eternal, Deuteronomy 33.27a, and third, reveals himself to be victorious, in Deuteronomy 33.27b-29. So let us consider our first main point. Our unchangeable God is sovereign. Look with me at Deuteronomy 33 verse 26. There is none like unto the God of Jeshuan, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky. As we consider the historical context of our text today, we see that God is about to take Moses from this earth and will replace Moses as the human leader over Israel with a new leader, Joshua. This may not seem like such a big deal or such a big change to us because we change leaders so often in our nation. However, this was a huge and monumental change that God's people were facing. One of the greatest, if not the greatest, mere human leaders of all time, Moses, was passing on the baton of leadership to his successor, Joshua. Moses had been God's appointed leader for about 40 years. as an entire generation. An entire generation had grown up knowing only one leader over God's people, Moses. How do you fill the shoes of a Moses? That's what Joshua might have been wondering as well as the rest of God's people. How do you replace a Moses? Moses had been used by God to deliver millions of Israelites from Egypt by means of ten supernatural plagues, and to delivering them from the pursuing Egyptian army by bringing them through the Red Sea on dry ground. God had used Moses to deliver the Israelites by way of his uplifted hands in victory over the Amalekites. God had used Moses to intercede on behalf of Israel when God would have destroyed them for their gross idolatry. God had used Moses to bring to the people a gracious covenant at Mount Sinai. God had used Moses to render as a judge the justice of God in pertaining to all of Israel. This same Moses was about to die. Leadership was being passed now from the experienced, proven Moses to Joshua who had not been in those shoes up to that point. He certainly through his life had shown himself qualified by God to step into that place and God chose him as Moses' successor. but he had not actually filled the shoes of Moses until Moses died. Were the people to look ultimately to either Moses or Joshua as that which would provide for their safety and stability? In this significant change in the life of God's church and nation, to whom were they to look? Moses, in giving his farewell address here in Deuteronomy 33, does not focus upon the loss of Israel when he dies, or the able or capable leader that Joshua shall be, but rather upon the qualifications of the unchangeable God to lead them regardless of the changeable circumstances they may face. the changeable leadership that they may face in the future. The changes, dear ones, in our lives and our circumstances do not change God. In reality, the leadership of God's people had not changed at all in being passed from Moses to Joshua. They still had the same leader. the unchangeable God was still their covenant God and leader. And such is and always will be the case with we who are covenanters and maintain our faithful terms of communion, regardless of the change in circumstances. Dear ones, human leadership may change, but the God who has called us and led us to faith and to his truth will never change. Whether there is a formal functioning session or not is not ultimately the most important issue here. Faithful Covenanters were without a faithful pastor for a few years after the death of Donald Cargill and were without a faithful pastor for about 18 years after the death of James Rennick. And even when there was a faithful minister, they did not have one in their immediate location. but were severely limited by way of communication and transportation in their ability to enjoy the fruits of ministry. You see, dear ones, God uses even a limited leadership or even the dissolution of leadership to reveal to His faithful remnant who He is. That He is their true leader. He is the unchangeable God. even in the midst of changeable circumstances in leadership. And as leaders, dear ones, we must always see ourselves, and you must always see us, as being beneficial, certainly, to your lives. But at the same time, expendable. Being unnecessary, if God so chooses. Leadership does not define the being of the Church, or the essence of the Church, but rather it adds to the well-being of the Church. Christ's Church continues even without ordained leadership, or with a limited leadership. For Christ is the one and only Head of the Church. Not the pastor, not the elders, not a bishop, not a pope, Christ. He alone is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The first qualification in the unchangeable God that Moses emphasizes in his final sermon to God's people is that God is sovereign and mighty. He powerfully rides upon the clouds like chariots to come to the help and aid of his faithful people, even if they be a mere remnant or a little flock that have been led into captivity away from enjoying the ordinances and sacraments of Christ. He rides upon the clouds to minister, to aid, and to help his people. See, to tie Christ so intrinsically and immediately and necessarily to the sacraments and to the ordinances as if Christ cannot work outside of those is a Romish view. It's not a Protestant view. We believe in the well-being of the sacraments and of the ordinances, but not in the absolute necessity of them to enjoy Christ's presence. They're an aid to our faith, but they're not necessary. They are not absolutely necessary to our faith. Jesus Christ is necessary to our faith. His word is necessary to our faith. Even in those places of isolation and captivity, the Lord promises to come to his people, even when there is no visible ministry, to be a little sanctuary to them. In Ezekiel 11 verse 16, in that particular passage, God's people have been taken into captivity, into various foreign nations. And there they were. They did not have the temple. They did not have the priesthood. They did not have the sacrificial system. They did not have these ordinances which the Lord had appointed. But God says, in that place I will be a little sanctuary to them. I will be, by way of my invisible presence, a place where they can meet. and find that I will come to their aid, riding upon the clouds of heaven to help them, to sustain them, to be with them." Were they still bound in that time of isolation and captivity? Were they still bound by the covenant of their forefathers? Though in a foreign land, Were they still bound by the covenant of their forefathers even though they were without a functioning ministry? Yes, they were. They were still bound by the covenant of their forefathers even though they didn't have the ordinances. They were still bound, so they didn't have a ministry, a functioning ministry. And we, likewise, are bound by the faithful covenant of our forefathers. even when there is a limited ministry or no ministry at all. Those faithful covenants continue to bind us likewise. Dear ones, for any of us to act as though there is no use in faithfully maintaining our six terms of communion and the attainments which we have reached historically because there is either a limited ministry, a limited eldership, or no ministry, no eldership at all, would be to place our faith and trust in the ministry or in the eldership. This is not only a sin because it is a misplaced faith in weak clay pots. It's not only a sin because It's an aggravation of our not honoring God and recognizing His power and His authority. But dear ones, even more so, or even not more so, but also, it is a burden. It is a huge and enormous burden that you would place upon mere men, expecting that mere men are the source of your joy in the Lord. Mere men are the source of your peace and contentment and growth in Jesus Christ. That's not a burden that any mere man can bear. It would be like a wife looking to her husband and expecting her husband to meet all of her spiritual needs. A husband is not equipped to do that, nor are elders and ministers equipped to do so. And to expect it is a sin, but also a grievous burden. Ministers and elders may be a pillar and support to your faith, to uphold you in the faithful terms of communion and attainment. But our terms of communion and attainments do not live or die based upon the ministry or the eldership. They live because Christ, the head of the church, lives and has established them. Jesus Christ has promised in his word to build his church and that the very gates of hell will not prevail against her. Dear ones, God is unchangeable in His sovereignty and in His power. The Lord not only freely set His undeserved love upon us and made unimaginable promises to sinners, to ungodly sinners, to wicked sinners like you and me, but is able and even willing to bring those promises to pass for his people who trust him because he is absolutely sovereign, and rides upon the clouds to help and to minister to his people in their distress, in their tribulation, in their weaknesses, in their afflictions and trials, and even in their failures, and even in their failures. Deuteronomy 33.26, Moses says, there is none like unto the God of Jeshurun. None. No God, no being to whom you can compare to God. He is totally unlike every other being, for He is uncreated. Every other being or creature is created. He is unchangeable. Everything else is changeable. Jeshurun is a name for Israel. We find it used in other places as in Isaiah 44 too. The name means the upright one. Jeshurun means the upright one. It points God's people to their calling as God's people to be upright and not crooked. in both doctrine and in life. Without a sovereign God who is unchangeable in His power and might, His covenant promises, dear ones, to be with us and to bless us regardless of the changes we face would simply be wishful thinking. If He was not sovereign, if He did not ride upon the clouds to aid His people, it would be simply mere wishful thinking. It would be like God were to say, if He was not sovereign, I want to help them, but I can't. I can't help them. It's like parents. So often we want to help our children, but we are limited in so many ways. We can't help them. And primarily, I mean, another reason is even There are times we don't even know what is best for them. We even pray very ignorantly or contrary to the will of God. We think so often that we want to help them and what we consider to be help is to take them out of a painful situation when in fact it may be best for their character, for their good to be in that painful situation. When Moses speaks of God riding upon the heaven He speaks of the supreme exultation of God in power and might. It is also a backhanded slap in the face of the supreme Canaanite God, Baal, who is also pictured in the Canaanite drawings that they left behind. Baal rides upon a cloud. And so it was a slap in the face of the Canaanite gods that, no, it's not Baal, it's not any other god, it is Jehovah who rides upon the cloud to the aid and help of his people. Here Moses turns the attention of God's people to the one true unchangeable God who reigns supreme over all so-called gods and circumstances of life that we might be tempted to fear. And carefully note that the unchangeable God rides upon the clouds as his chariot in order to help all those who cast themselves upon him as their help, acknowledging their sin and their weakness to help themselves. He is a savior to those who need saving. He is a help to the helpless. He shows himself mighty and powerful to those who look in faith. outside of themselves to a righteous and faithful covenant keeping God. The Lord can stop the sun and the moon if necessary in order to come to the help of his people as he did in Joshua chapter 10 verses 2-4. Or he can fill the barrel of a widow with oil and keep it full so that it does not run out if he chooses to do so as he did in 1 Kings chapter 17 verse 8. Beloved, when the world is changing, look in faith to the potter and not to us who are mere clay pots. Look to the unchangeable God. Second, our unchangeable God is eternal. Notice what Moses says to Israel in his farewell sermon in verse 27a. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. Dear ones, a God who is bound by time and space, a God who can only be in one place at the same time, or who is confined to only one point of time, is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is infinite and unlimited by both times. or space. Time and space are God's creations. He is not bound by them. He created them. Moses speaks here of the eternal God as being our refuge and who has everlasting arms. Eternal God and everlasting arms. And He has those everlasting arms in order to catch us when we fall into temptation, and in order to hold us that we never fall from His grace. The Lord fills all space, dear ones, in the universe at the same time. And even the vast universe cannot contain Him, any more than a cup can contain the whole Pacific Ocean. King Solomon prays at the dedication of the temple in 1 Kings 8.27. But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house that I have built it." You see, dear ones, God transcends all time and is not bound to time. Moses, the human author of Psalm 90, declares, even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God. That is why it is such a grave and serious sin to reduce God, whether Father, Son, or Holy Spirit to any form of art, to try to represent or picture God. He is infinite, without boundaries and limitations, and anything you might create to picture God is a finite representation of the infinite God who has commanded us, Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth. In Exodus 20 verse 4. Whatever man makes to represent God therefore is a gross lie. Even pictures or movies of Jesus Christ. Because God is eternal and has everlasting arms, time does not work against God. Time only works for God. Changeable circumstances within time do not work against God. They can only work for God. We may say, if only I had a little more time to straighten out this mess or to think through this decision, this problem, things might be different. But God doesn't need more time. God never runs out of time. God always has enough time to accomplish His eternal purposes, to fulfill His promises, and to come to be the refuge we need in the time of trouble. And dear ones, God is never late in doing so. Never one second too late. We may be worrying and fretting and saying time's running out, but time is never running out according to God's clock or calendar. God is never late in doing so. He's always right on time. Whatever your need, whatever it may be, because the Lord is eternal, because the Lord is unchangeable, because the Lord is omnipresent. He is always there to be your help, even when Moses, Joshua, ministers and elders may not be there. God is always there. The Lord is not, quote, an ever future help in the time of trouble, according to God's Psalm 46, but rather an ever-present help in the time of trouble and in the time of life-shaking changes. An ever-present help. It's always present for God. It's always the right time for God to help. He lives in an eternal, everlasting presence. And we find here that these particular changes that we face then under the second point that they again do not change God, they do not shape God, but rather God uses these changes to conform us to his image. Our third and final main point is this, our unchangeable God is victorious. In Deuteronomy 33 verses 27-29 we read, And he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone. The fountain of Jacob shall be upon a land of corn and wine. Also his heaven shall drop down due. Happy art thou, O Israel, who is likened to thee, O people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency. And thine enemy shall be found liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. In speaking to Israel in the historical context, we find Moses' farewell sermon herein. The fact that they were about to enter into the promised land, God was saying to them that they would face enemies within the promised land. God wasn't simply going to remove the enemies before they got there. He wasn't going to remove those who would seek to destroy them just because they were God's people, just because they were a covenanted people. God was going to take them from one group of people, one nation to the next, and they were going to have to face those people. Early on, when they first faced entering the promised land, and sent out spies. There came back the majority report which basically said we can't take these nations, they're giants, we're like grasshoppers before them. There were two faithful witnesses in the minority report, Joshua and Caleb, and they said they're bread in our hands. We're going to consume them as we would consume bread, because God is faithful to his word and to his promises. They can't stand before us. You see, it's all in how you view the giants. The giants are really there, but how do you view them? Do you view them as being those that cannot be overcome, from whom you must run and cower in fear? Do you view them as already conquered in Jesus Christ because He has already legally overcome all of his enemies by way of his death and his resurrection from the dead. How do you view your enemies? How do you view those enemies within? Those various sins and temptations within? How do you view those who would seek to destroy our covenanted faith? Rob us of our covenanted faith? They are not those who can overcome, ultimately overcome the Lord and His promises. Furthermore, not only does this have, I think, a historical but a prophetic part to it as well, in that Israel will yet be the blessed people of God restored unto the Lord again, and they will subdue through Jesus Christ as a covenanted nation, as a nation that renews their covenant with Jesus Christ, will bring their enemies unto their feet. That will yet occur. And so, in effect, these particular promises have been fulfilled and will yet be fulfilled in the millennial period. Dear ones, our unchangeable God is victorious over all his enemies. Moses reminds your spiritual fathers who are there in the wilderness, waiting to enter into the promised land, he reminds them, there are enemies that you will face as you go forth. You're not going to win any popularity contest with your enemies. You'll be hated by others. for what you believe and in whom you trust. But regardless of the hostility and opposition you face, you are not losers. You are not victims. You are victors through Jesus Christ. You are victors through your unchangeable God who goes with you to fight with you and for you. as noted earlier, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but also the ascension of Jesus Christ, and furthermore, the session or the seating of Jesus Christ at God's right hand in demonstration of His great power and glory proves that all power and authority in heaven and upon earth has been given to Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords. It is already legally his. There is not an enemy that can stand before the Lord, whether it's Satan, Magistrate, Pope, or multitudes of people. None can stand before the Lord. All will be forced to bow the knee to our unchangeable God. We live in an age of victimization. in which so many of the so-called experts would tell you that because of this or that event that happened to you in this changeable world that you are in some way doomed to be a victim for the rest of your life, that you are not able to overcome this particular victimization. You may have been victimized or you may have brought upon yourself certain things as is described with alcoholics. in the medical field, they treat alcoholism as a medical problem and use a medical model as if it is a disease, and that one must always be recovering from this disease. Or one must always be recovering from one's victimization, but never fully recovered, we are told. But dear ones, my Bible tells me that you can be delivered and set free by the grace of God, and by the promise of Christ, and by the power of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians 6.11, the Apostle Paul, having enumerated various types of sins, a laundry list of various gross says, and such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. That was once true of you, but it is no longer true of you because of the power, the victory that Jesus Christ has purchased on behalf of you as people who trust in Him and embrace Him. Beloved, you are victors already legally because Christ is our victor and our conqueror and we are united by faith in Him. What is His is yours by faith. And thus the reasons you do not and I do not live as victors but as losers and as beggars rather than as the children of the king is either due to our own ignorance or due to our own unbelief. We're simply not trusting the Lord. We're simply not laying hold of his promises, believing what he has said about us. Beloved, in a world of change, The God who never changes, but is sovereign, eternal, and victorious is the only one to whom you can cling. In conclusion, in facing various ecclesiastical changes that we face, I'm reminded of Elijah, who called out to God and prayed, Lord, I'm all alone. I'm all by myself here in Israel, but was reminded by the promise of God that God had reserved unto himself 7,000 who had not vowed the need to be ill. You are not alone. You are not, as you worship and as we worship, in this setting or in any other setting, you are not alone. Especially as we indicated in our opening prayer, we meet with all God's people, even in the heavenly places. We meet with them each Sabbath day, in our earthly Sabbaths, as they worship God continuously in that eternal Sabbath. We're not alone. But even beyond that, as God said to Elijah, he's reserved 7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Bill. He's reserved his people. We may not know, we may not see, we may not know how God is going to work all these circumstances out, but our faith and confidence is in the unchangeable God. And I am also reminded how God took his faithful covenanting church through far more serious changes than we are presently facing and brought them through all changes by his unchangeable grace and his unchangeable faithfulness. to preserve His faithful remnant who adhered to those covenanting principles, did not compromise them, did not cast them off, did not throw them by the wayside just because it became more difficult but clung to them. So the Lord will preserve us. So the Lord will preserve our testimony for the truth as we, His covenanted people, as we lean upon Him, trusting in the unchangeable God. Let us stand in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we praise Thee and thank Thee that Thou art unchangeable. We lean upon Thee in the midst of all our changes We cast ourselves upon Thee, our God. We would maintain, O Lord, our faithful terms of communion and the attainments to which we have reached, and not cast any aside. We pray, our Father, that Thou would help us, Lord, to not worry, to not fear, But O God, even view these changes as challenges for our faith. That Thou art teaching us, O Lord, to trust Thee, even in dark hallways and dark rooms where the light is not so readily present to us, but nevertheless going forth into those dark hallways and dark rooms, knowing that Thou hast given to us a word that thou wilt be with us, the unchangeable God. He who has declared that he is the God and does not change will go with us each step of the way. And so, our Lord, we pray, build up our faith today in thee. Cast us, O Lord, upon thee, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. You are welcome to make copies and give them to those in need. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. It is likely that the sermon or book that you just listened to is also available on cassette or video, or as a printed book or booklet. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail order catalog, Thank you. by phone at 780-450-3730 by fax at 780-468-1096 or by mail at 4710-37A Edmonton, that's E-D-M-O-N-T-O-N Alberta, abbreviated capital A, capital B, Canada, T6L3T5. You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Kelvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised. There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle is adopted by the papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error. The Prophet's words, then, are very important, when he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.