Times Have Changed, But God Is The Same

by Kevin Burton

   Live long enough and you’re going to see some things.  Changes, technology, innovations. Mores and standards gone by the wayside.

   It can be dizzying.

   Isn’t it comforting to know, as a Christian, that the same God who reigned in Moses’s day, and that of King David and of the apostles, still reigns today?

  And isn’t it a further comfort to know that He can work in your life just the way He did in theirs?

   The saints from biblical times had a special place in the church, but so do you. So let’s not mystify the ancients, write Alistair Begg, speaker on the Truth For Life radio ministry.

   “We are very apt to regard the apostolic saints as if they were saints in a more special manner than the other children of God. All are saints whom God has called by His grace and sanctified by His Spirit;” Begg writes.

   “It is a delightful and profitable occupation to mark the hand of God in the lives of ancient saints and to observe His goodness in delivering them, His mercy in pardoning them, and His faithfulness in keeping His covenant with them,” Begg writes.

   “But would it not be even more interesting and profitable for us to observe the hand of God in our own lives? Should we not look upon our own history as being at least as full of God, as full of His goodness and of His truth, as much a proof of His faithfulness and veracity as the lives of any of the saints who have gone before?”

   “We do our Lord an injustice when we suppose that He performed all His mighty acts and showed Himself strong for those in the early time but does not perform wonders or lay bare His arm for the saints who are now upon the earth. Let us review our own lives. Surely in these we may discover some happy incidents, refreshing to ourselves and glorifying to our God.”

   “Have you had no deliverances? Have you passed through no rivers, supported by the divine presence? Have you walked through no fires unharmed? Have you had no manifestations? Have you had no choice favors? The God who gave Solomon the desire of his heart, has He never listened to you and answered your requests? That God of lavish bounty of whom David sang, “who satisfies you with good,”¹ has He never filled you up to overflowing? Have you never been made to lie down in green pastures? Have you never been led by the still waters?”

   “Do not, then, look upon the ancient saints as being exempt either from infirmities or sins; and do not regard them with that mystic reverence that will almost make us idolaters. Their holiness is attainable even by us.”

   “We are ‘called to be saints’ (Rom. 1:7) by that same voice that constrained them to their high vocation. It is a Christian’s duty to force his way into the inner circle of saintship; and if these saints were superior to us in their attainments, as they certainly were, let us follow them; let us emulate their passion and holiness,” Begg writes.

   “We have the same light that they had, the same grace is accessible to us, and why should we rest satisfied until we have equaled them in heavenly character? They lived with Jesus, they lived for Jesus, therefore they grew like Jesus. Let us live by the same Spirit as they did, “looking to Jesus,”¹ and our saintship will soon be apparent.

   “Surely the goodness of God has been the same to us as to the saints of old. Let us, then, weave His mercies into a song. Let us take the pure gold of thankfulness and the jewels of praise and make them into another crown for the head of Jesus. Let our souls produce music as sweet and as exhilarating as came from David’s harp while we praise the Lord whose mercy endures forever.”