They're probably pretty glad
to get rid of me once in a while. After about 30 years, you know,
a fellow sort of wears on you maybe a little bit. I'm glad
to be here. I'm thankful for this congregation
and for the encouragement that you are to me. I really am. I have two verses of scripture
for my text this morning. One is in the Old Testament,
and if you'll turn there in the book of Malachi, Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. And then my other text is in
Hebrews chapter 13. Hebrews 13 in the New Testament and the 8th verse. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. I want to speak as carefully and as clearly as
I can today to you. My subject is Jesus Christ the
same. I came across an old hymn recently. by an old writer sometime in
the 1700s. And I thought when I read the verses
how that I believe he had some understanding of God as he is
in Christ. I want to read three verses to
you and listen to them carefully. Thy throne eternal ages stood
ere seas or stars were made. Thou art the ever-living God
where all the nations did. Eternity with all its years stands
present in thy view. To thee, there's nothing old
appears. To thee, there's nothing new. Our lives through various scenes
are drawn. and vexed with trifling cares,
while thine eternal thought moves on, thine undisturbed affairs." He said, your view stands present. Your eternal view stands present. And with you, there's nothing
old appears. And with you, there's nothing
new. Every attribute of God is essential to his being God. And not only that, but each attribute
makes the others what they are. And furthermore, each attribute
of God requires us to confront something about God as he is
and in what he does. And such an attribute is what
is called the immutability of God. You can look at all the
books of theology, and under their doctrine of God, sometimes
you'll find this as a heading under his attributes, the immutability
of God. And by the immutability of God,
we mean that he always is and was and will be the same. That he undergoes no changes
either of his essence or of his being or of his properties or
of his perfections. Immutability is simply the fact
that God does not change. And that's what he says in our
first text there in Malachi 3. He says, I am the Lord. I change not. And that means that the God with
whom we have to do is not only the same God of Adam and of Moses,
the God of Abraham and of Peter, James and John and Paul, but
he is also the same as he was then in each of their times. He is the same. And he cannot change for the
better, and he will not change for the worst. He remains the
holy self-existent, perfect, and eternal God. And when Moses asked him who
it was that he was to tell Pharaoh that sent him, he simply gave
that name which exemplifies him as being just exactly that. He says, and God said unto Moses,
I am that I am. And when he asked you, you say
to him and to the children of Israel, I am. And that's probably like the
old preacher expressed it may be best of all. I am is simply
I am was, I am is, and I am gonna be. I am the Lord and I change
not. Plus, Whatever he required then,
hated then, said then, he does now and will for all of time
and eternity. What offended him then, what
provoked him then, still does. He is described as the high and
lofty one that inhabits eternity. And so times change and men change,
but God doesn't change. And for that reason, it is not
a contemporary gospel that men need, but the everlasting gospel
that God has already given. And he will not change his mind
today, nor will he change it when his enemies have been in
hell for a billion years. He'll still be the same. And that really ought to make
us to think and be concerned for our eternal souls. Because God will not change regarding
his threats. He is always the same. But this is also the reason for
hope. This is also the reason why we
ought to be encouraged in a measure because that which guarantees
the eternal punishment of those who are called the vessels of
wrath also guarantees the eternal salvation of those who are called
the vessels of mercy. You see, he'll be the same. He
will not change toward both. And if there was a way that he
could be gracious to Adam, if there was a way that he could
be gracious to Abraham, who was an idolater, If there was a way
that he could be gracious to Moses or Caleb or Joshua or any
of the Old Testament saints, if there was a way he could be
merciful and gracious to those we read about in the New Testament,
then there's still a way. He says, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Now Jacob is that name that is
given to the people of God to show exactly what they are by
nature and in themselves. It is not a name of praise at
all. Because the elect of God, though
they are the objects of his grace and mercy, they are of themselves,
as we all are by nature, these Jacobs, these sinners and connivers
and supplanters. And they, if left to themselves,
would consume themselves and therefore be consumed by the
wrath of Almighty God. But he says to these sons of
Jacob, I am the Lord, I change not, and because of that you
are not consumed. Because the Lord God is unchanging
in himself and unchanging in his grace and mercy toward them. It is for that reason that they
are not consumed. And it is for this reason that
it assures that he gets all the glory. I don't know if you figured this
out or not. If you have, it certainly was
not of your own doing, but God will have everything in salvation
as well as every other thing, but especially in salvation,
everything will work to the praise of the glory of His grace. And it is for this reason that
he will get all the glory because God's immutability assures the
salvation of his people. That is, God is unchanging in
his mercy and gracious to these he calls the sons of Jacob. They are these who elsewhere
are called his elect. a people that he for reasons
known only to himself loved and chose in old eternity. And he chose these sinners in
Christ before the world began. And since then, he has not altered
or changed in the thoughts that he thought toward them. He said, you may not know them,
but I know the thoughts that I have thought toward you. And you can say, every one of
God's people, that long before they are ever brought to have
a single thought about the true God, or a single thought of His
purpose and grace toward them in Christ, God thought thoughts
of them, and He knows them, and He has not changed their salvation
has always been in Jesus Christ. You see, His coming into this
world and most especially he is dying on that cross outside
of Jerusalem in order to save them. That is not an afterthought
with God. It is not a contingency plan
of God. And I know that dispensationalists
say, well, God tried to save me in this way and that didn't
work. And he tried to save me in the other way and it didn't
work. He used law, he used morality, he used all these things. And
when none of those things didn't work, he sent his son into the
world and saved them by him and by his grace. That's rubbish. That is nonsense. Because he
is the Lord and he changes not. And you see, the Lord that we
read about in Malachi 3 is none other than Jehovah, who is none
other than Jehovah Jesus. And he has to be. Because what is said of the Lord
Jesus Christ is said of God showing that He is God. He says it in Malachi 3, I am
the Lord, I change not. And he says it in Hebrews 13,
Jesus Christ. In other words, the apostles
say, this is the message of those that have the rule over you.
It is this, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and
forever. And the only way. that this man,
Jesus Christ, can be said to be the same yesterday and today
and forever. The only way that this attribute
that is reserved to God can be said of him is for him to be
God. He is Jesus Christ the same. And the word that was made flesh
and dwelt among us is, as John says, the same word that was
with God in the beginning and the same as was God. You see right at the heart of
man's natural unbelief. Right at the heart of most every
false doctrine and false religion is this denial that this man,
Jesus Christ, who walked on this earth in human flesh, is one
and the same, immutable, unchanging God, manifest in the flesh. So what does this mean? Well,
it means that whatever Jesus Christ is to his people now,
he was to them before time began and he will be when time is no
more. He's the same. He changes not. Whatever he purposed to do, he
did and he will do, and especially when it comes to saving every
one of them because he is the author of what? Eternal salvation. Because the blood that he shed
is described, not in some random way, not even in some present
sense, but it is the blood of the everlasting covenant. This morning at the motel, I
sat there and I did a search And I just searched quickly.
That's the one good thing about this little phone I've got. You
know, I got a Bible program on it, and I can search real quickly. If I want to find something real
fast, then I'm not where I can get near a concordance or my
computer. And so I did a search. I just
wanted to search and see. I was going to count for you
how many times that word everlasting is in the scripture. I can tell you this, more times
than I had time to count this morning. He's the everlasting
God. Christ is the author of eternal
salvation. His blood, as I said, is the
blood of the everlasting covenant. And what He is to His people,
He has been and always Will be. Always will be. Did God change with regard to
his people? Did he begin to love them, though
one time he didn't love them? Did he change in viewing them
what they are as his children? I've heard preachers say this
many times. They say, well, the Bible says
that we are children of wrath and God in his grace can take
us if you'll let him and you'll be changed from a child of wrath
to a child of God. If that takes place, God changed. It doesn't say we're children
of wrath. It says we're by nature children of wrath. And that's
what every one of us are by nature, children of wrath. But in God's
grace, we are what we've always been in Christ Jesus, the children
of God. And what we became in Adam has
never changed what God thought concerning us in the Lord Jesus
Christ. That happened. He changed. But he's the same. And that's
why in that Christ is set forth as the lamb slain before the
foundation of the world, and he is the lamb hanging on that
cross outside of Jerusalem, and he's that lamb that appears newly
slain when John sees him in the revelation in heaven. He's that
lamb that is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high. We don't do anything but change, but he doesn't change. We're
as fickle and as faulty as we can be, but he doesn't change. I read this that an old writer
said. He said, I thought about all
the things men do to warrant salvation or earnest. I thought about how for so long
I strove to deserve God's favor and merit his mercy. But then
it occurred to me, I know that all that I do, all the good things
for the wrong reasons, all the ulterior motives, all my works
tainted with sin, and my good intentions won't earn me anything,
only condemn me. But there is also nothing I can do
to keep the Lord from saving me. Isn't that something? And do I did. And do I'm doing,
it looks like, Winston, everything I can to keep the Lord from saving
me. But I can't do anything. Just
as I couldn't do anything to save myself, I can't do anything
to keep him from saving me, because he's the Lord. He changes not. You see, his immutability assures
us that all his pledges and promises in the everlasting covenant,
all his purpose of grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began, shall not fail. Somebody said, well,
I'm not, I'm not too, I'm not, my problem isn't me, I'm worried
about me failing. Well, my friend, if you ever
think for one minute you might possibly not fail, you don't
have any hope. He says, the counsel of the Lord
standeth forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. There are many devices in a man's
heart. Nevertheless, the counsel of
the Lord, that shall stand everywhere in this book. is this constant
reassurance and reminder that the will and purpose and covenant
of God in Jesus Christ shall stand. He says, who hath done,
who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from
the beginning, I the Lord, the first and with the last, I am
he. He can't change. He can't change. Turn over to Hebrews 6. Hebrews
6. If you look down in verse 13,
listen. to what it says concerning Abraham
and as it is Abraham, the father of all who believe those people
of God. He says in verse 13, and when
God made promise to Abraham because he could swear by no greater,
he swear by himself. Well. You see, in this business of
salvation, that's why men like to take the doctrine of election.
They say, here's the way election is. God votes for you, man votes,
the devil votes against, and you cast the deciding vote. No. We weren't there. The devil wasn't
there. No other person was there except
that one person. who is himself described as the
beginning. The wisdom of God, Jesus Christ. And if he purposed to save this
people that he gave to Christ, they're gonna be saved. You say,
well, you just cast off all responsibility with man. You don't preach responsibility. No, I don't preach ability. No man can come to me, Christ
said, except the Father draw him. But here is the hope of all who
would be saved. It is in the purpose and will
of God in Christ Jesus. He says, saying, surely, blessing, I will
bless thee, and multiplying, I will multiply thee. You ever stop and think, as men
often do, well, what about if Abraham doesn't do this? Or what
about if Abraham doesn't do that? God says, I will bless you. Can anybody stop him? I'll bless you. If I have to
kill you, I'll bless you. If I have to take everything
you've got away from you, I'll bless you. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy and I'll be gracious to whom I'll be gracious. We
look at that in our natural state and we say, well, you know, what
about man's free will and what about this kind of stuff and
that kind of stuff, you know, or, oh, I don't like that, that
sounds so negative. That's the only positive thing
that there is concerning us. God's saying, I will. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. He says, and so, after he had
patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men barely swear
by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is to them an end
of all strife. Wherein God, willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel
confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which
it was impossible for God to lie. we might have a strong consolation,
who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before
us, which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil, whither
the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus. made an high priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. Now what do they say about Melchizedek? Christ is a priest forever after
the order of Melchizedek. Said he had neither beginning
of days or end of days. That means he has an eternal
priesthood. And in that eternal priesthood,
he is the unchangeable one. And all of God's counsel and
oath, his purpose and his promise, the whole of his will is in Christ. You see it and whether or not
we will for him to save us, that's our salvation. It's Christ doing
the will of God that is our salvation. I love what it says in Daniel
9. When he talks about what he does, what the Messiah
would do. You remember what he says the Messiah would do? Look down in Daniel chapter 9
in verse 24. He says, 70 weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon the holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness. That's a strange language, isn't
it? To bring in everlasting righteousness. That's exactly what it's been. If He's the Lord our righteousness,
He's always been the Lord our righteousness because He changes
not. He is the everlasting righteousness. He is as God, the eternal son,
God's mediator, God's priest, God's prophet, God's king, and
he took to himself these glorious offices upon which all our salvation
hinges. Long time ago. He says, I was set up from everlasting,
from the beginning, wherever the earth was. And he is now
the same. I don't know about that. That's
what he says. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today. and forever. And because he changes
not, his other attributes change not. In Lamentations, Jeremiah
says, it is the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed because
his compassions fail not. He says by the psalmist in Psalm
118, His mercy endures forever. He says, the works of his hands
are verity and judgment. All his commandments are sure.
They stand fast forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is his name. The truth. of the Lord endures
forever. Jeremiah said, The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Every one of thy righteous judgments
endure forever. That's the message of this book.
Right down to that book that we have coming through the hands
of that very austere man, James. Some people took the book of
James and cut it out of their Bibles. They said it wasn't inspired. But I'll tell you what James
said. He said every good gift and every
perfect gift is from above and comes down from the father of
lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. All that God gives in his grace
in Christ, he gives as the one who never changes. No variableness, no turning. His grace in the Lord Jesus Christ
changes not, and what he has promised in the gospel, which
is to receive all who come to him in Christ, that stands unchanged
at this hour. There is only one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. There is only one way to God
and it is him who is called the way. There is only one way for
God to be just and to justify us. And that's through the blood
of Jesus Christ. There is only one way, one ground
upon which he can bless us. And that is in the doing and
dying of the Lord Jesus. But I'll say two things of that. Although there's only one way,
one mediator, there is a way. And he's always been the way. And he'll always be the way because
he never changes. And for that reason he says,
all that the father giveth me shall come to me and him that
comes to me I will in no wise cast out. And every soul that God chose
in Christ, that made Christ surety for them, that blessed with all
spiritual blessings in Christ, which is all who are brought
to believe on him, if he's the same, they're safe. They're safe. No matter what changes in this
world. And change it does, doesn't it? He's always the same. It always amazes me that everywhere
everybody is either wanting change or lamenting over the change
that has come, which shows that they're never,
ever satisfied. they want nothing to do with
the one who changes not. Christ's everlasting unchangeableness,
that who he was before all times and continues in all ages, will
be in all times so continued He is the one which is and which
was and which is to come. What a reason it is to seek him for mercy, for grace,
for forgiveness, for full salvation. And what a reason it is to trust
him and to rest in him and to rejoice in his unchanging person
and work and faithfulness. And to be comforted in these
days and to have hope in spite of our own fickle, sinful selves. And because the Lord Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And because he changes
not, his people will never be consumed. They'll not be consumed
by their sins. They'll not be consumed by the
devil. They'll not be consumed by the
world. They'll not even be consumed
by themselves. Because he changes not. Feelings change. Circumstances
change. Family changes. Friends change. Health changes. Local churches
change. Preachers change. Everything changes. but the one
who's the same. Old John Owen said, the last
circumstance of distress is death. With the way and manner of whereby
it may approach us, and how soon this will be we know not. And
the soul's relief lies in God's immutability. That we shall find
him the same to us in death as he was in life. And much more. Much more. He's always the savior of his
people. He never changes. And that's the most solid ground
upon us for us to rest upon who he is and what he has done in
his cross work. God help us to rest in his unchanging
self and son. Thank you.