I was thinking as the scriptures
were being read about what an encouraging passage
that is to me. It says that Paul preached till
midnight. And it says that a man went to
sleep while he was preaching. And then it says that he went
to preaching again until the daybreak. There may be hope for
me yet. I have thoroughly enjoyed being
with you, and I'd be the first to tell
you that I'm nothing special, but it's felt really good being
treated as if I were, and I appreciate you. I want you to turn tonight
to the book of Malachi. Just in case you haven't been
in the book of Malachi this week, if you can find the Gospel of
Matthew, you can find the book of Malachi. And I'm just going to read one
verse of scripture, a very important verse of scripture. And it is found in the third
chapter. And it is the sixth verse. The prophet, like the prophets were, becomes the voice of the Messiah. And so he says, for I am the
Lord. I love those singulars that refer
to our God. For I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. There is a verse in an old hymn. It's entitled, Abide With Me. And that verse says something
like this. Swift to its close ebbs our life's
little day. Earth joys grow dim, its glories
pass away. Change and decay in all around
I see. O thou who changeth not, abide with me. Our God not only reigns, but our God changes not. He doesn't change. And the Lord declares through
this prophet Malachi, and in many other places by many
other voices, what might be called his immutability. Theologians have to have a name
like that, you know, to describe a doctrine. His immutability is simply the
fact that he changes not. He cannot change for the better
because he's already perfect. And being perfect, he will not
change for the worse. He changes not. And this very fact makes foolish
all the cries in our day and in every changing generation
for a contemporary God, for a relevant message. for a relative gospel. And these cries and these demands
for such a God and a gospel, they just show man's ignorance
of God. Because essential to all that
he is, is this absolute truth. He changes not. And God's gospel is always the
same. It's always the same while man
is constantly looking for the next new best thing. Man is always the same And sin
is always the same. And therefore, God is always
the same. And his gospel is the same. He's the same in all his attributes. In his holiness. In his justness. In his righteousness. In his
glory, he will not change and therefore will not alter or diminish. He'll be the same with his threats
of punishment against sin as he is the same with his promises
of mercy. And He is the same in all His
decrees. They are eternal and unchangeable. And that being the case, He does
not act on foreseen faith or anything else in men, nor does
He react to things. as if he just discovered something
new. He's the same. Absolutely changes
not. And he sees all things in one entire and eternal view
before him. He sees everything all at once. And this means that whatever
he is to me, that's what he's always been.
And also it means whatever I am to him, that's what I've always been. Because he changes not. And because the one who's speaking
here, all his people are said to be in him. In him. If I'm in him now, I've
always been in him. If I am in Him as one blessed
in Christ, as one chosen in Him before the foundation of the
world, I've always been in Him. And so the prophet Isaiah is
led to write in Isaiah 46, remember the former things of old. For I am God and there is none
else. I am God and there is none like
me. Declaring the end from the beginning. and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure. And though there can be very,
very much said about God in the light of this truth, in the light
of this fact about Him, I want tonight to follow his
example and look at it as he sets it forth here in Malachi
chapter 3 and verse 6 as an encouragement and blessing to his people in
Christ. You see, they are called by two
names. And they are called by those
two names that God gave to one man by the name of Jacob. The name Jacob means supplanter
or conniver. And the name Israel means Prince
of God. And he gave these two names to
this one man to show what each and every one of his people are. First by nature, ye sons of Jacob,
and then by grace, Prince of God. or Israel. It was the same man. And it is in this character that
we are by nature that we struggle. And I am thankful that he not
only describes himself as the God of Jacob, but he addresses us as these
sons of Jacob. And you see, actually, the one
speaking here is the Lord Jesus Christ. The word Lord is Jehovah, and
Christ is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is Jehovah Jesus. There's just one Lord. And if
you'll turn with me to Hebrews chapter 13, look at what it says
in Hebrews 13. In verse 18. As we find it in the midst of
all of these warnings and all these instructions and in all
these admonitions, in verse 8, at what almost seems like something
out of place to us, he says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday
and today and forever. He is the Lord that changes not. And of all that could be said
and of all that should be said about the glorious Son of God, The apostle emphasizes this single
major thing here. He is Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday and today and forever. And he is as was commanded his
earthly parents to name him. Jesus or Jehovah's Savior or
Jehovah the Savior who shall save his people from their sins. He is the Christ of God. He is the anointed of God. He is that prophet and that king
and that priest But the emphasis here in Malachi
is he's the same. And that means in the midst of
all the instability within us and around us and throughout
this ever-changing world, there is one. who is eternally and
unchangeably the same. He is the Lord that changes not,
and it is because of His unchangeableness, His immutability, that you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. We're like Jacob. And if you read about the life
of Jacob, you find that he is a rather fickle fella. He's up and he's down. He's here and he's there. He's
a conniver and a supplanter one minute, He's a worshipper the
next minute. But it is because Christ is the
same. And all that is associated with
Christ, all that is given his people in Christ, it's always
the same. Turn back and look in Hebrews
6. In Hebrews 6, he speaks of the promises and
the pledge of God. You know the scriptures say that
all the promises of God are yay or yes and fixed, true. A yay and amen in Christ Jesus. All the promises. Not one here
and one there, not one true today, but not true tomorrow. They're
all the same, yes and amen, in him. And the apostle writes,
and he says in verse 16, he says, for men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife. We're in God. willing more abundantly
to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability, the unchangeableness
of his counsel. He 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. God, by His unchanging
oath and covenant promise, makes sure everything to the
heirs of promise. And Jesus Christ is eternally
the same and the revelation of God in him is final and never
to be superseded or supplemented. It's all the same in Christ. And that means that he is the
same toward us. Now, let me ask you this. How
many others could you say that about? Have you ever found anybody in
your whole life Or maybe I should say, have you ever been to anybody
in your whole life always exactly the same? Not one person. I don't care
what it is. I don't care what it was. You're
not the same. We don't even look the same. My granddaughter the other day
saw some pictures that she thought were quite amusing of me in my
youth. And the thing that she noticed
most was the fact, she said, Papa, you have hair. She told me once, she said, I
told her I'd be her prince. She said, Papa, you can't be
a prince. I said, why not? She said, you don't have any
hair. But in every aspect of our being,
from the way that we look, from our health in our body, from
our thoughts or our intentions, it doesn't matter what it is,
all around us, as well as in us, is change. And the amazing thing is people
get so bent out of shape when somebody promises them something and they don't fulfill it. I'll tell you this, when the
Lord God revealed to me the perfect Son of God, I quit looking for it in anybody
else. He's the only perfect one. He's the only unchangeable one. And everything that He gives
us, everything that He is to us, He remains that and we possess
that in Him. He's a covenant God. and his covenant is described
as the everlasting covenant. And David laid down on his deathbed
after having failed and sinned and done a multitude of wicked
things being a clear picture of Jacob and Israel in the one
person But he laid down on his deathbed and he said, The Lord hath made
with me this everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and sure,
this is all my hope, this is all my salvation. He had changed. And he had changed a number of
times, but God's covenant pledge to him, his promise to him, that
never changed. In other words, all the change
in David and change he did and change we do, none of it ever
changes this unchangeable God, therefore it never changes His
covenant pledge and promises. Every gift that He gives is a
gift of His grace. Turn over and look in James.
The book of James, just a few pages over, in James chapter
1, and listen to what it says in verse 17. Now he's just said, do not err,
my beloved brethren. Look at what he follows it with.
He says, every good gift And every perfect gift is from above. And cometh down from the Father
of lights in whom or with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Has anybody ever promised you
something? and then reneged on that promise?
Has anybody pledged themselves to you and then fallen so far
short of that pledge? Has anybody ever promised to
give you something that you had your heart set on, that you based
your life on, and then didn't do it? You don't have to worry about
That with every good gift and every perfect gift because they
come down from above. And they come down from the Father
of lights with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. But what does that mean to us
and to all our situations? Well, it says he's the same yesterday. We have a past that concerns
us, don't we? As we like to say, we have a
history. Don't look at me like you don't
have a history. You have a history and I have
a history. But to all our history, which
is a sin history, He says He's the same yesterday. And then we have also all these
present crises to deal with, and it says He's the same today. And then we have an eternity
that's before us. And He's the same forever. And there's one thing about this
that we have need of seeing, and that is this affirms the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because that can only be said
of one who is God himself. But there's a man. who is the
same yesterday and today and forever. And the reason that
he's the same yesterday and today and forever as a man is because
he's the God-man. He's God manifest in the flesh. And it was said of him by the
psalmist, he says, but thou art the same and thy years shall
have no end. And he calls out to his people.
And he says, hearken unto me. Hearken to me, O Jacob and Israel,
my called. I am he. I am the first. I also am the last. As a matter of fact, in human
flesh, He said, I am the I am. He never changes. And this shows
the continuation of Christ because He was yesterday, which does
not mean the day immediately before, nor some little time
past, but of ancient times, of old, And it extends to eternity
and is further than to the days of his flesh here on this earth.
He's always the same. He was the same in the whole
Old Testament dispensation. He was the same even to the beginning
of the world. when He existed not only as the
Eternal Word, but as the everlasting I Am, but also as the Savior
and Redeemer of His people. He's always been the same. He's always been their Redeemer.
He's always been the Savior. And then he frequently appeared
in human form throughout all the Old Testament in what theologians
again call those Theophanies, such as to Abraham and to others. And he was the sum of all their
prophecies. He was the sum of all their promises. He was the substance of all the
types and all the shadows. He was the spiritual food of
his people. Yesterday. And then he is today in this
gospel dispensation in his person as the God man. And in his offices
as prophet, priest, and king. And he will be so forever. And his kingdom is an everlasting
kingdom. And his priesthood is an unchangeable
priesthood. And this is a marvelous thing
to think about. Because what characterizes him
is just the opposite of what characterizes us. Some days we feel so encouraged
in the Lord, as we say. Others' days, we don't hardly
give Him a thought. One day we rejoice in the things
of Christ. The next day, He may not hardly
even enter into our minds. And if we just looked at ourselves,
we'd say, well, I'm saved today. The next day comes, I'm lost
today. But He's the same. He's the Lord. He changes not. And in all our
situations, and in all our circumstances, in all our falls, in all our
failures, He's the rock upon which we're
fixed. Somebody said, I felt myself
tremble often times on the rock, but I never felt the rock tremble.
Why? Because he's the same. His promises are the same. He is the same in that great
eternal yesterday. He is the one who came and he
drank the last drop of the cup of God's wrath concerning our
sin on the cross. He's the one who rose again to
usher in a glorious today. He doesn't change. He doesn't change. And his righteousness by the
way, which is the only one there is, is described as an everlasting
righteousness. When he came, he brought in or
he made manifest this everlasting righteousness. And his great immutability is
the source of our comfort. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He's unchangeable in His person. He's unchangeable in His perfections. He cannot get better. He need
not get better because in His humanity, The father spoke audibly
from heaven and said this, this is my well beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. And he cannot change in his essence
as God. Now let me just say this, one of the things that really
concerns me In the view that some have taken
concerning this business of Christ being made sin is a problem with this right
here. Is he God manifest in the flesh? Is He that One that is described
throughout Scripture, specially emphasized in the New Testament
as the One who knew no sin, the One who is holy and harmless,
the One who offered Himself without spot to God? This I'm sure of. He became no sinner because He
changes not. He can't change. If there was
nothing else to govern our thought concerning this very thing, if
there was nothing else by which we could form thoughts concerning
whether something is right or wrong, This would be right at
the very forefront of it. He wasn't a sinless one who became
a sinner. He wasn't holy and became unholy. He wasn't pure and without spot
and became blemished. He couldn't have because He changes
not. He changes not. He changes not
in His love for His people. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. He changes not in the fullness
of His grace. His grace is just what grace
is, free grace. He changes not in the efficacy
of His blood. When John saw the lamb in the
revelation, he said, I saw as it were a lamb that had been
newly slain. His work is finished, but his
work is always fresh because he changes not. He changes not. The old hymn writer said, His
blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed, Church
of God, be saved to sin no more. He's the same in the virtue of
His sacrifice. and in the value of His righteousness. He will not change toward us
because He abides faithful. And because we are in Him, we
will never change before God. Do you believe that? I'll tell you, that's got to
be a settled matter before you ever worship God. Because this is what He says.
through the Apostle John, he says, as he is, so are we in this world. If he put us in Christ, we'll always be in Christ. You
say you can't tell people that, preacher. Why not? God did. You say all they'll do is go
out and they'll just sin all they want to. That's not my problem. My problem is I sin more than
I want to. My thought is how can I, in the
face of such unchanging, everlasting love and mercy, how can I say
the things I say? How can I think the thoughts
that I think? How can I do the things that
I do? But he doesn't change. He doesn't
change. I'll read in the Psalms where
he talks about how the Lord said unto my Lord, how the Father
says unto the Son, all these various things. And then he says
this, you have the due of your youth. What does that mean? It means
he changes not. It may take two jars of wrinkle
cream to pull all the wrinkles out of your face, or maybe the
guy who sets up tent for Barnum and Bailey, I don't know to pull
them all out, but I know this, he doesn't change. And the way we are in his sight
doesn't change. Oh, I love how he says, how the
bridegroom says to the bride in the Song of Solomon, he says
as he looks at her, thou art all fair. He saw us as all fair in Christ
before the world began. He saw us in Christ hanging on
that cross as all fair, and he sees us and shall see us for
all eternity as all fair in his sight. And this text particularly shows
that he's the same all-sufficient Savior. He's the same messenger
and ratifier of every covenant blessing. He's the same intercessor
that he was to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and David and all the
prophets and all the apostles. And his will and his purpose
And his doctrine is the same. Our generation, well really every
generation, loves novelty. But you can't rest in novelty. You can't rest in this next best
thing, religion, in our day. You can't find peace. You can't know rest for your
soul. You can't know righteousness
before God apart from him. who's the same yesterday and
today and forever. Now let me tell you this, two things. Number one, in the
days ahead, I don't care who you are, if you're the Lord's
child, you're going to find change in yourself. that really may
rattle you. But in that day, may the Lord
bring this back to your mind. Though I'm up and down and fickle
and failing and full of unbelief at times, the blessing is He's the same. He's the same toward me. He's
the same yesterday and today and forever. And then the other thing is you're
going to experience some change amongst those that you know. Some are going to die. Some are
going to prove unfaithful. But you can rest in this, the Lord changes not. And for
that reason, ye sons of Jacob shall not be consumed. Our hope rests in his unchangeable
faithfulness, not in ourselves. Now I could give you a whole
lot of things, a lot of rules and regulations, and you may even imagine that
you keep them for a while, but they'll come an hour when
you won't. Where are you going to be then? Let me lay down safely in the
arms of the immutable God. Let me hear him say, I am the
Lord. I change not. And for that reason, you can either lying, cheating,
scoundrels, which is what Jacob was. Sorry, that's what he was. And that's what God calls us. For that reason, you're not consumed. You would consume yourselves.
The world would consume you. The devil would surely consume
you. Divine justice would consume
you, but you won't be consumed because He changes not. The Lord
bless you. Thank you for letting me come.