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TIMES ARE CHANGING, BUT GOD ISN'T “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” (Mal. 3:6) “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.” (Dan. 7:25) In our first verse, God made it clear that he does not change. Ecclesiastes 3:14 even says that whatsoever God does shall be forever. Being a holy God, he does and says everything right the first time, so there’s no need to ever change anything. But the devil is just the opposite, always changing and shifting around in order to hide himself and his evil devices. II Corinthians 11:14 even says that he is transformed into an angel of light. That means he changes in order to deceive. So when someone says that “times are changing,” that’s only because Satan is the “god of this world” (II Cor. 4:4), and he keeps changing things in order to move society closer and closer to worshiping himself. Paul said that the mystery of iniquity was already working in his day (II Ths. 2:7) and that it will keep working until the devil sits in the temple of God “shewing himself that he is God” (II Ths. 2:4). That’s where the world is headed, and that’s where YOU are headed, if you are anchored in the world instead of in the word. That’s why God tells us in Proverbs 24:21, “My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change.” That means to mark and avoid the change agents by exercising some righteous judgment (John 7:24). Naturally, the devil will raise up people to yell, “Judge not!” because he can’t keep changing things and moving society to reject Jesus Christ and worship the antichrist, if he gets exposed and people learn the truth about him. He has to sell change as a good and progressive thing, a thing that decent and “open-minded” people embrace. But to tolerate or embrace change is not enough. He wants people to love change and feel good about it. But even that’s not enough. He wants them to feel like superior beings for promoting change. That way, people like you and I who reject change become viewed as enemies of society and will eventually be persecuted and killed. If you doubt me, just read Revelation 13. That’s where the world is headed. 100 years ago, our national debt was a greater concern, even though it was under 22 billion dollars. Today it's over 34 trillion and no one even talks about it. 100 years ago, abortion was illegal in every state of the union. Today it's legal in 36 states. 100 years ago, 42 states had the death penalty. Today only 27 have it. 100 years ago, Sodomy was universally frowned upon, even by the medical profession, yet today it's widely embraced and promoted. You probably know people personally who once condemned this sin, yet today they tolerate it. Why is that? Why do people change? It has to do with WHERE THEY'RE ANCHORED: In the WORD or in the WORLD. Our physical planet is constantly spinning and rotating as a warning to all believers that it is unstable and insecure. That's why God gave us his word, so we could anchor in something real and solid and permanent. If you anchor in the world, YOU WILL ALWAYS MOVE. If you anchor in the word, you will never move, because you are secured by God, not man, and, as we are about to see, that's exactly what God wants and commands. Let’s take a little Bible tour and visit a few signs along the King’s highway that warn us about changing with the world instead of always standing with God. First, get Jeremiah 20:9: “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name. But his word was in mine heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.” Jeremiah, in a moment of weakness, wanted to change and stop preaching, but he said that he couldn’t do so because God’s word was in his heart! That means he was ANCHORED in the word, instead of in the world. That means that he had INSURED himself against change. Think about that! Rather than trusting his own will and strength, he hid God’s word in his heart that he might not sin. Every time you read God’s word or listen to God’s word, you are buying stedfast insurance that helps to keep you standing instead of changing. Look at Jeremiah 2:11: “Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.” To get along with the world around them, God’s people had changed and embraced idolatry, a violation of the second commandment, yet they justified it because everyone else was doing it. They were anchored in the world, not in the word. Drop down to verse 36: “Why gaddest thou about so much to change thy way? thou also shalt be ashamed of Egypt, as thou wast ashamed of Assyria.” Egypt? That’s a type of the world. God is saying that the day will come when you will be ashamed that you trusted the world instead of the word. You wanted to be hip instead of holy, but hip isn’t very hip at the Judgment Seat of Christ! Alright, turn to Psalm 15. In this Psalm, God is describing some of the characteristics of a righteous man. In verse 4, he says, “. . . He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.” Look at that! That’s a man who says, “I’m going to stand with God and never change, even if I get persecuted or killed for it.” God is saying that THAT is his kind of man. Most people will move when the devil brings the heat. God likes the man who doesn’t. Let me show you a man like that. Turn to Esther chapter 3. Haman is an evil man, but many of the people can’t see it, including the king. But Mordecai knows he’s a devil, so he refuses to honor or reverence him in any way. Notice verse 2: “And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.” He didn’t care what others were doing; he cared about what was RIGHT. Look at Esther 5:9: “Then went Haman forth that day joyful and with a glad heart: but when Haman saw Mordecai in the king's gate, that he stood not up, nor moved for him, he was full of indignation against Mordecai.” LOL! Done made the devil mad, yet Mordecai was never harmed in any way. Imagine that! Forever, Mordecai will wear that badge of honor! Just like the three Hebrew children who wouldn’t bow, wouldn’t bend and wouldn’t burn, and just like Micaiah who went up against an evil king and queen and hundreds of their false prophets after saying, “As the LORD liveth, what the LORD saith unto me, that will I speak.” (I Kings 22:14) Unchangable! Unmovable! That’s what God wants in these ever-changing times. Alright, look at Isaiah 24:5: “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” You see that? They didn’t stay anchored in the word, so they changed, and almost all change is for the worse, not the better. They’ll promote the change as being for the better (“Hope and Change,” Obama, 2008), but nearly every change that man makes is a move further from God and God’s word. A good policy for all believers is “You can KEEP the change! I want nothing to do with it.” Next, get Acts 28:4-6: “And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no harm. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead suddenly: but after they had looked a great while, and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and said that he was a god.” See how fickle people can be when they aren’t anchored in the word? Paul went from being a felon to being a god in just a couple minutes! Those are the kinds of people who will end up worshipping the Antichrist. Now get Romans 1. Please notice the changes that happen as we read verses 21 through 28: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.” The book says that people who keep changing will end up with reprobate minds. That agrees with II Thessalonians 2:11 where God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe a lie. Righteous people don’t believe lies, but worldly people are prone to believe anything, because the world is always changing and moving closer to the great deception and strong delusion of the Great Tribulation. They’re going to keep changing until they have a global law that demands people to worship Satan in the flesh. Change, change, change until the DEVIL is worshipped instead of God! Don’t participate! Don't give an inch! Don't help his evil cause in even the slightest measure! Alright, let’s look at a good change, a change that God makes. There’s nothing wrong with change as long as God is the one making the change. Get Job 14:14: “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come.” See that? Change is not something that we are supposed to DO. Change is something that we patiently wait for GOD to do. Okay, finally, look at I Corinthians 15: Verses 51 and 52: “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” That’s what ole Job was talking about! Change is coming, but we must remain UNCHANGABLE until it comes, or, as verse 58 says, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” They will call us fanatics, stubborn, old fogies, narrow-minded, dogmatic, racist, prejudiced, bigoted and set in our ways, but the truth is that we are set in GOD’S ways and they aren’t. God help us to not move an inch until he moves us in the rapture.