“Thus saith the Lord, stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; then you will find rest for your souls.” (Jer. 6:16)

Since we had to reset our clocks last night in order to change to Daylight Savings Time, we’re sitting here yawning and nodding, aren’t we?  And it’s not due to the preacher or his sermon, it’s because we lost an hour of sleep our “circadian rhythm” is out of whack and may be so for a couple of days.

Now, having read my opening paragraph, can you guess what our topic is going to be about today?  You got it - “TIME.”  We’re going to talk a little about time and it’s effect on us and then, with the Good Lord’s help, I’ll try and tie these thoughts to some passages from His Word and come up with a spiritual lesson.

I think that one of the things that time causes in our lives is that, as we grow older, we have a tendency to look back a lot more often.  Which is sort of ironic when you think about it, because our memory seems to get worse as we age and yet we want to go back in time and recall the “good old days,” don’t we?  I have the words to an old song entitled “Time, Just Time” and they fit so well with the way most of us think.  Read them with me and see if you don’t agree.

“Ain’t the snow falling just a bit deeper these days;   Ain’t they building the stairs a bit steeper these days;  And the towns’ really changing in so many ways; Time, just time.

And the young folks they’re growing exceptionally tall; Newspaper print, it’s becoming so small; And folks talk so soft you can barely hear at all; Time just time.

And the jokes aren’t as witty as the old jokes once were; The girls ain’t half as pretty as I remember her; And today in the park, a grown man called me Sir; Time, just time.

And you know I ain’t quite so anxious now for fame or success; And my eye finds the girl in the plain simple dress; And I cling a bit longer to each warm caress; Time, just time.

So it takes a bit longer to walk up a hill; Well what of it, my life now’s much more fulfilled; But they’re tearing down buildings that I watched them build; Time, just time.”

Oh yes, what or where would we be without our memories?  And, it’s our memories that tell us how much things have changed in our lives.  Plus, it seems like the older I get, the faster they change.  Have you noticed that too?

Here are a few things that I’ve taken particular notice of that relate to the changes in my life.  I miss the days when everything worked with just an “ON” or “OFF.”  I’ve noticed that more and more people are whispering these days.  I find that I seem to sleep better in my recliner with the TV on than in my bed.  I hear that they call that “pre-sleep.”  And, I like to go out, but coming home is better.  In my mind, many of the old ways are good - the old songs, the old movies and best of all, the old friends.

Well, how do my ramblings here-to-fore apply to a spiritual lesson today.  The first and foremost thing that comes to my mind is something that is a great blessing and one that many people probably don’t even consider and that is, God and His Word doesn’t change.  Don’t you consider that to be a blessing?  That there is something that never changes?

Why do I consider that to be a blessing?  Because we don’t have to remember different laws.  Jude touches on this thought in verse 3 where he makes reference to the “common salvation,” the “faith” that was “once delivered unto the saints.”  Just for further informational purposes, the Greek word translated as “once” means “a single time.”

And that tells me that there is only One Gospel that was delivered only one time for everybody’s salvation by the One God.  (Check Eph. 4:5)   There are not going to be any more or other gospels coming down the road.  To put this in computer parlance, there’s not going to be any updates, upgrades or new software versions to contend with.  Keeping with computerese, what you see is what you get.

Living an earthly life in which everything we know relates to time, thus to change, isn’t it nice that something is constant?  Something that doesn’t change, with that “something” being our “way of salvation?”  That we don’t miss out on salvation because we missed an “update” or didn’t download the latest version of the Gospel? 

There’s a powerful statement in Mal. 3:6 - “I am the Lord, I change not....”  Think about it a moment.  It’s on that basis that we have the full assurance that, if we are obedient to His Gospel, we will be saved eternally.  He’s not going to change the rules somewhere a long the line on us.  His Word/Law is constant and unchangeable to the very end.  Remember what Christ said in Luke 21:33.  “Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away.” 

The apostle Peter said it this way: “But the word of the Lord endureth forever.  And this is the word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.”    The writer of Hebrews says in 6:17 that God’s “council” (word) is “immutable” which simply means that it’s permanent or not subject to change.  He goes on to say in verse 19 that this permanency is our “anchor of the soul” - “sure and steadfast.”

Let me wrap these thoughts up with a couple more applicable passages.  Psalm 9:7 tells us that “the Lord shall endure forever” and then in Psa. 89:36 we read that “His seed shall endure forever.”  Those faithful to His Word, once and only delivered to the world, are “His seed.”  We can follow this on out and read in Matt. 24:13 “But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.”

If we like the simpler things, the simpler times, isn’t it a blessing to know that if God is constant, then His Word is constant.  That He and His Word is unchangeable, immutable.   And because of that fact, we can have the full assurance during our changeable lives that if we are obedient to the end, that our salvation is secure.  The only thing that can change that is US.

Ron Covey