Thank you, Joshua. Let's open our Bibles together,
please, to 100 and Second Psalm. I'm beginning
today a series for this Christmas season entitled
The Carols of the Christ. In this series, we're
going to explore some of the texts from the Bible's
hymnal, that is, the Book of Psalms, which point
to the Messiah. The references that we will look
at These prophecies that we call Messianic will
be authenticated by the New Testament reference
to them. Today we look at Psalm 102 and I'm going
to begin reading in verse 25. And all of them
will wear out like a garment, like clothing,
thou will change them, and they will be changed,
but thou art the same, and thy years will not
come to an end." Now if you'll turn to the New
Testament to Hebrews chapter 1, we'll see where
the Holy Spirit authenticates the fact that this
text that I've read refers to the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Jewish rabbis did not consider Psalm
102 to be a Messianic Psalm, but the Holy Spirit
shows us, in fact, that that is the case. In
Hebrews chapter 1 in verse 6, it says, In the
beginning did slay the foundation of the earth,
and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They
will perish but thou remainest, and they all
will become old as a garment, and as a mantle
thou wilt roll them up. As a garment they will
also be changed, but thou art the same, and thy
years will not come to an end. Let's pray together.
Father, I pray that you will open our eyes to
see the Savior in these texts, these words that
we have read. And having seen Him, may He be
exalted in our eyes. May our hearts be drawn
to Him in faith and love and devotion. In Jesus'
name, amen. The carols of the Christ. The word
Christ comes from the Greek language and the
word Christos. That word in the Greek is equivalent
to the Hebrew word mashia or Messiah as we say
The word Messiah or the word Christ simply means
the anointed one Jewish priests and kings and
prophets were all said to be anointed but the
superlative use of this idea of the anointed
one is reserved for the promised, long -anticipated
Deliverer of Israel. We recognize in light of
the New Testament that Jesus of Nazareth was,
in fact, that Deliverer and Savior of Israel.
Thus He is called Jesus Christ. Christ, you see,
is His title. He is Jesus the Anointed One. Now
the Psalm that we're looking at today has an
inscription or an introduction. And you will
notice that it says, The Psalm is anonymous,
although some attribute it to David, and that
may be the case. But whoever wrote it, he sees
himself as one who is afflicted, and he offers
to God his supplication. His complaint as it
says here and he expresses his faith in God He
acknowledges that his days are frail and even
suggests that God may have shortened his days
in some respect You will see in the first eleven
verses how he explains his situation and his
life is passing away before him He is in pain
of soul, as well as body. But beginning in verse
12 he says, But thou, O Lord, dost abide forever,
and thy name to all generations. Then he moves
through his prayer until he comes to the text
that we have read for this morning. To Jesus
Christ, as we see in the book of Hebrews, To
Jesus Christ is attributed this text. To Him
is attributed the nature of one who is God. This
morning I want to explore that idea as we find
it revealed to us in these simple verses. That
to Jesus Christ is attributed the nature of one
who is deity himself. In the first place I want
you to notice that Christ stands apart from the
creation. He existed before the creation. It
says, in the beginning He existed. From of old
thou didst form the earth. Jesus Christ is pre
-existent. That is, He subsisted before the time,
space and matter universe came into being. As
the prophet Micah would write, As for you, Bethlehem,
Ephrata, too little to be among the clans of
Judah, from you one will go forth for me to be
ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long
ago, from the days of eternity. An amazing statement
that Micah makes prophetically to the people
of Israel. He says that the one who will be born
as a ruler in little insignificant Bethlehem,
is the one whose goings forth have been from
long ago, even from days of eternity. That is,
before there was time, says Micah, this one existed,
and one day Bethlehem, he will come forth from
you. The Apostle John writes in the New Testament
in his Gospel, the first chapter, in the beginning
was the Word. The Word is a name, a title for
Jesus. He says, in the beginning was the Word.
He goes on to say, he was in the beginning with
God. That is, when God spoke, everything into
existence. In the beginning, He, Jesus, the Word,
the Messiah, already was. My point is that He
stands apart from the creation. Colossians 1
.17 says, He is before all things. Therefore,
He Himself is not among those things created.
In fact, He was the agent of creation. In the
beginning, it was by Him that all things came
into existence. As John says in his Gospel, chapter
1, verse 3, all things came into being through
Him, by Him. And apart from Him, nothing came
into being that has come into being. In other
words, the fingerprints of the Christ are all
over His creation. Paul again says in Colossians,
By Him all things were created, both in the heavens
and on earth, visible and invisible. where the
thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities,
all things have been created by Him and for Him.
And so the Christ stands apart from His creation.
He founded the earth. He put into place the natural
laws making life possible. The heavens are the
work of thy hands. The Father says to the Son,
The heavens are the work of thy hands. That is,
you have arranged the physical, the astronomical
principles that keep the world together. Today
we observe those. We investigate them. We discover
them. We don't create them. And we have a difficult
time even comprehending what they mean. The November
3rd issue of Newsweek. was devoted to a story
entitled When Galaxies Collide Perhaps You Saw
It. It talks about the Hubble Space Telescope
and the amazing things that have been unveiled,
revealed, discovered by this telescope. I think
of all of the things in my lifetime that have
astounded me and thrilled me. Hubble Space Telescope
would be one of the five or maybe ten things
that just stand out to me. As we're able to get
out into space on a platform, as it were, and
then look into the heavens away from the distortion
of the atmosphere. I quote from Time Magazine,
or excuse me, Newsweek Magazine, when it says,
Collections of stars, gas and dust that speckle
the universe like beacons in a dark sea are not
the isolated static structures they were once
thought to be. Instead, they collide and merge
and cannibalize each other, fade and flare and
change shape like flubber. This is a huge revolution
in thought, says astrophysicist Alan Dressler
of the Carnegie Observatories in Pasadena, California.
We all believe that galaxies look the same for
all time, but they don't. The Hubble Space Telescope
by telling us about how galaxies formed and evolved
is telling us something about how we got here.
It's amazing that humans could learn that. Well,
not really. But he thinks so because he doesn't
accept what God has said about how we got here.
It goes on to say they can tell us this because
the space telescope orbiting some 370 miles above
the Earth has provided earthlings with front
-row seats for some of the grandest shows the
universe has staged. It has brought us spectacular
in our own backyard like Comet Shoemaker Levy,
pummeling Jupiter in 1994, as well as fireworks
far, far away, like the black hole at the center
of galaxy M87, slurping up surrounding matter.
It has found exploding stars, supernovas, blowing
celestial smoke rings, and pillars of creation,
trillions of miles high where stars are being
born. The thing that is so amazing says astronomer
Mario Livio. of the Telescope Institute is that
literally every place HST has looked, it has
found something fantastic. It says of all the
secrets that the Hubble has unlocked, its images
of galaxies that formed when the universe was
in its infancy would be at the top of my list
of its achievements, says one astrophysicist.
The images in the Hubble Deep Field The deep
field means the furthest reaches into the universe.
He says the images in the Hubble deep field appear
as they were roughly 11 .7 billion to 10 .4 billion
years ago. What do these objects look like today?
Only an astronomer 10 billion years in the future
will know. That's of course because light, we
think, travels at a certain speed, and therefore
we measure what we think the distances of the
universe are. But then the article goes on to
say, the second surprise from the deep field
is that the universe's lights, listen to this,
contrary to astronomers hunch, turned on in one
great burst. It was as if every chandelier in
a mansion were flicked on simultaneously on a
moonless night. Did you hear that? It says the
second surprise from the deep field is that the
universe's lights turned on in one great burst.
You almost get the idea that someone might have
said, let there be light. Right? Marvelous things
were discovering with this Hubble Space Telescope.
Now whatever the times and the distances, the
pictures coming back are truly fantastic. It's
difficult for our minds to grasp the enormity
of these galaxies that we are seeing. My friend,
the Messiah, Jesus, is the one who created all
of this. He's the one who holds together everything
that's out there. He is the one who said, let
there be light, and the chandeliers of God's
mansion as it were came on. That is an attribute
of deity that comes to Him who is our Savior,
the Lord Jesus. Not only then depart from the
creation, because He is the one who founded it,
it says, But in our text it also suggests that
Christ stands apart from change. You and I look
out there at the universe and we marvel that
our Lord Jesus looked at that same moon, so beautiful
in its fullness, its brilliance. He prayed underneath
that moon. He looked up at it, perhaps waved
to it because He put it there. But then we think
of David who lived before that, or we think of
Moses, hundreds of years before David. And they
all looked up at that same moon and wondered
at its beauty. They lived under the same stars
that we look at. Job talks about the constellations
that we still know today by the same names that
he used. And so we look at these heavenly bodies,
and we think of them as changeless. But that
is not the case. In fact, it says here they will
perish. All of them will wear out like a garment.
Now it's difficult for us to see that because
our lifetimes are so brief. And the distances
of space seem to be so enormous. that it's difficult
for us to see and observe these changes ourselves,
but we're able to see it through the HST. In
fact, the scientists had this to say in the article
that I quoted from earlier. The Milky Way is
closing in on the Adromeda galaxy at 300 ,000
miles per hour. The Adromeda, of course, is the
closest galaxy to us. and it says that our galaxy,
the Milky Way galaxy, is moving toward Andromeda
at that enormous speed of 300 ,000 miles an hour.
Now, don't exactly get worried about that at
this point in your life, because the Andromeda
is 2 .2 million light -years away. That means
it's 13 billion billion miles away, and so it's
going to take about 5 billion years for this
collision to occur. Your life insurance will
long have expired by that time. And it says,
since galaxies are mostly dust and gas, the collision
will not be like ricocheting billiard balls instead
when the two galaxies are up on one another.
The two cold clouds of gas in the milky way,
or excuse me, the cold clouds of gas in the milky
way will be compressed like those in the antenna,
another galaxy. and millions of new stars will
ignite. The Milky Way's flat disk on the outer
fringes of which our sun and nine planets orbit
will be ripped apart. Eventually Andromeda will
plunge into the heart of the Milky Way, triggering
a fourth of July finale of starbursts. And then
the two galaxies, originally shaped like pinwheels,
will be one shaped like an egg. Now as I say,
don't wait for this to happen. because this is
a long time in the future. But what we're saying
is that indeed scientists are confirming that
even our own galaxy someday will change. The
heavens are wearing out. They're getting like
an old garment that grows thin with age. Even
the Bible says that the creation is not lasting,
that it's going to be done away with. Peter writes,
the day of the Lord will come like a thief in
which the heavens will pass away with a roar
and the elements will be destroyed with intense
heat and the earth and its works will be burned
up. I imagine ancient people scratched their
heads when they saw these words and they said,
how could this be? God must light a match or
something. But we know today that all God has
to do is to release the energy that is in A few
atoms will take care of this problem. In fact,
what is described here is very much like anatomic
explosion, isn't it? Since all these things are
to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people
ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?
Looking for hastening the coming of the day of
God on account of which the heavens will be destroyed
by burning and the elements will melt with intense
heat. Jesus himself said, heaven and earth will
pass away. And the apostle John stood at a certain
place in the time spectrum and he said, and I
saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first
heaven and the first earth were passed away.
Now my point is this, that we look at the heavens
as a symbol of that which is unchanging. It represents
in our thinking very often what is constant.
But the Bible says not so. There is change going
on even now in the heavens, and someday the heavens
as we know them will be burned up. They will
be destroyed, but Christ is unchanging. All of
these things it says will perish. They'll wear
out like a garment, but thou dost endure. says
the psalmist about Christ. He says in verse 27,
literally he says, the idea is, I think Luther
captures it well in his translation, in other
words, the Lord, the Christ of God. always remains
the same, and the writer of Hebrews in the New
Testament tells us this is true. It says, Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and yes,
forever. Now that cannot be said of any mere
man. We humans are frail. We are a part of this
universe that is changing, that is passing away.
We are created. We are inseparably linked to
this created and fallen order. We are mortal,
as we saw in our study in 1 Corinthians 15. But
not so of the Christ. He not only stands apart
from creation, He brought all of it into existence,
but He stands apart from the change that is occurring
within His creation. He does not age. He neither
grows nor is diminished in wisdom or understanding.
All knowledge is always His. He is never weakened
by time. Being eternal and being the source of
all knowledge, He has no need or capacity to
be enhanced. or to be refined, or to be augmented,
or to progress or evolve in any respect whatsoever.
And as you may know, today, the theory of evolution
is being applied to theology, like it has been
to biology. And there are theologians telling
us that God is changing and evolving with time.
Bologna. God does not change, and His Son, the
Christ, is likewise unchanging. And so in this
messy, enic text that we've looked at in this
carol of the Christ, we observe two attributes
of deity and deity only. They are that God is
eternal and that God is immutable. He is not
a part of the creation. He is a part from time.
He is eternal. And He stands apart from the change
that occurs in the creation. He is immutable,
unchanging. And we have seen that these attributes
belong to Jesus Christ. He is eternal. He is
not created. He is the Creator. He has always
been. He will forever be. He is the I am. And
He is immutable. He is constant. He is unchanging.
And that is very good news for us. Let me tell
you why. The Jewish background for this term,
anointed one, I've already suggested, it was
used in three offices of the Jewish people, that
of prophet, priest, and king. Our eternal immutable
Christ fills each of those offices in a unique
sense. Christ is the anointed prophet. Therefore,
his promises stand forever. It means that the
one who loved us and who gave himself for us
and who loves us forever will never change in
that respect. He has promised us the gift of
his own existence, his own endless existence,
and we share that eternal life. Because Christ
is the anointed prophet and His promises stand
forever, you and I can rest with assurance that
our souls' destiny are fixed. He has said, I
love you with an everlasting love. Jesus Himself
said, I give eternal life to them, my sheep.
And they shall never perish, and no one shall
snatch them out of my hand." Who said that? Christ,
the eternal, immutable, anointed prophet. His
promises must stand. He said, heaven and earth
shall pass away, but what? My words shall not
pass away. Christ is the anointed prophet. Secondly,
Christ is the anointed priest. The priest of
ancient Israel was also anointed. Christ is the
anointed priest. And his prayers prevail forever.
Forever. Think of that. The writer of Hebrews
says it is evident that our Lord was descended
from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses
spoke nothing concerning priests. And this is
clear still, if another priest arises, according
to the likeness of Melchizedek, who has become
such, not on the basis of a law, a physical requirement,
but according to the power of an indestructible
life, for it is witnessed of him, thou art a
priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek."
Now we're going to dip into this a little further
in a coming week. But my point is here this morning
is that Jesus Christ has been anointed as the
high priest of an eternal order of priests. He
is a priest forever. He is such not because he
descended from a certain tribe of Israel like
the Levitical priests. But he is this priest
because of the power of an indestructible life
that he has in his resurrection. And so he will
always represent us before the Father. He will
always be before the Father's throne there on
our behalf. And he prays for you. I thank God
for the many people in this church who pray for
me. It means a great deal to me. And there are
some who pray for me and for my family and for
other pastoral staff and for the leaders of our
church every day. That's invaluable. I thank
God for that. But let me tell you, there's one
who prays even more than that for me and for
you. And that is the Lord Jesus, the anointed
priest. Therefore, we can choose to believe that
all of our circumstances are providential. There's
nothing that befalls me in my life but has not
first passed through the screen of His prayers
for me. Do I face some disappointment today?
Have I experienced a loss? Is my life in danger
because of some disease? Is my security threatened?
Whatever it be in my circumstances, it comes
from Him. His prayers have gone before the events
of my life, forging them, shaping them, determining
that all things will work together for my good.
He is my high priest. My Christ is yours too.
Not only is he the anointed prophet and the anointed
priest, he is the anointed king. Jesus Christ
as the eternal immutable one is the anointed
king. His power rules forever. In Revelation
we read these words, the kingdom of this world
has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His
Christ, and He will reign forever and ever. That
is His kingdom, and you and I, who are in His
family, who have trusted Him, are already citizens
in that kingdom that is forever. We are citizens
of an eternal kingdom, therefore we need to live
like it and determine to live for what is significant.
How easy it is for us to live for what is self
-fulfilling. How easy it is to focus upon that
which is personally rewarding because everyone
else in our culture does that. How easy it is
to live for what is popular, but how significant
it is to live for what advances his eternal kingdom.
What a great way to bring focus and direction
to our lives to determine that this week My number
one priority is going to be to live with Kingdom
values for Kingdom purposes Because the Christ
who is eternal and immutable is the King of that
Kingdom and I'm one of his subjects and when
I choose to live for that Kingdom I'm living
for what is truly significant. So do you see
how important it is what we've talked about?
That Jesus the Christ is eternal and unchanging.
We're part of an unchanging kingdom. We're part
of a priesthood that is eternal and unchanging.
We have promises that will be fulfilled, that
cannot change. An Eastern Monarch was one time
brought his counselors before him and he asked
them formulate a statement of wisdom that will
be true in all times and in all circumstances
and so the counselors went back and they began
to think and to write and to come up with some
proverb that would be eternally true and this
is what they came back to him with it is just
this little statement and this too shall pass
away. Do you think about that? Is it a blessing?
This too will pass away. Is it a disappointment?
This too will pass away. Is it life itself? This
too will pass away. That is a statement of wisdom
for this world of friends. You and I, having
trusted the Lord Jesus Christ, are part of a
kingdom. We have a relationship with one who
is forever. And that gives our lives significance
that is beyond this time and beyond this world.
Let's pray together. Father, if we are living
for things of this world, the voting our energies
to what is passing away already, then show us
that convictus of that terrible waste. And show
us how living in a world that is passing away,
we can also live for what is eternal. And reorder
the priorities of our lives, I pray. Reorder
them so that we will live for what lasts and
what is significant. I don't know how that may
apply to your life. I know how it applies to
mine. May God help us to determine today to live
for those things that belong to the kingdom of
our Christ. Lord Jesus, eternal God, unchanging
deity, we worship You, and we give ourselves
to be fully devoted followers of You. And as
we go from here into the rest of this day and
into the new week before us, may we glorify and
bring honor to you, our prophet, our priests,
and our eternal King. Amen.