I knew something of the gospel. Turn with me back to Malachi
chapter three. Malachi chapter three. I asked a brother to read this
chapter for us. For our scripture reading last
Sunday morning, this is the the chapter that was read. Last Sunday
morning and I've not been able to get this one verse out of
my mind ever since. Verse 6 Malachi 3. Verse 6 it says. For I am the
Lord. This is our Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. The Lord our God. He said, for I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. I've been most excited to deliver
this message tonight of everything that I've had today. I just,
this has just touched me. You've heard it all. You've heard,
you've heard the whole outline. You've heard it all. We stop
right now. You heard it all. I am the Lord. I change not. That is, that's
good news. Therefore, you sons of Jacob,
are not consumed. That's why you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Listen to this little poem. I don't know who wrote this,
but based on the honesty of it, it sounds like this person knew
something of our Lord and knew something of his true gospel. And you're going to, if you belong
to the Lord, you're going to enter into this. Okay. You're
going to enter into this. It's very short, but this poem
says, if ever it should come to pass, that sheep of Christ might fall
away. Alas, my fickle, feeble soul
would fall a thousand times a day. If ever it could come to pass,
that sheep of Christ could fall away. Alas, My fickle, feeble
soul would fall a thousand times a day. Thank God he said, I am
the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not concerned. Thank God that's just not a possibility. Thank God that is just not a
possibility. This is a sure word of a sure
promise. And it brings so much comfort
to God's people. I just want to break down each
line and consider and enjoy, and I pray be blessed by each
line in this verse for a minute, beginning with this glorious
statement right here. I am the Lord. That's the authority in this
verse. That's the authority of what's
being said right here. I am the Lord. When Moses said, Lord, who should
I say sent me? The Lord appeared to Moses and
he said, I want you to go tell Pharaoh. I want you to go tell
my people. And Moses said, Lord, who should I say sent me? He said, you tell him I am sent
you. I love that. I am that I am. You tell them I am that I am
sent you. What does that mean? What is
he saying in saying that? Here's what he's saying. I am
God. I am God. That's what he's saying. I am the eternal God. I am the eternal authority. I am the Lord. What a declaration to start a
statement with. He said, here it is. I am the
Lord. We can get lost in that one statement. Really? We could just get lost
in that one statement. Our Lord is. He said, I am. because He always is. It's not
that He was or He will be. We say it like that all the time.
I'm gonna say it in this message. And the reason is because that's
the only way we can understand Him. That's the only way our
minds can fathom anything concerning His purpose, His will, before
the foundation of the world and things to come. That's the only
way we can fathom. But in the beginning, He is. In the end, He is. He is the beginning. He is the
end. He said, I am Alpha and Omega. He wasn't just in the beginning.
He is the beginning. He is not gonna just be in the
end. He is the end. I am Alpha and
Omega. He is the eternal almighty God. God, I love that. Turn over to
Deuteronomy 33. I'm going to turn a lot, turn
quite a bit. I'm going to try to keep this
short, but I'm going to turn a lot. Deuteronomy 33. Deuteronomy 33 verse 27. This is so good. Deuteronomy
33 verse 27, it says, the eternal God is thy refuge. And underneath are the everlasting
arms. The eternal God. is thy refuge, and underneath
are the everlasting arms." If His arms, if the arms of the
eternal God are underneath you, they are everlastingly underneath
you. Everlastingly. Turn with me to
1 Timothy chapter 1. You all know this is one of my
favorites. I can't read it without telling you, this is one of my
absolute favorites. 1 Timothy 1, verse 17. Now unto the king eternal. Honestly, nothing gives me more
peace than knowing that no one will ever take that throne from
him. No one. Now unto the king eternal, immortal. He's immortal. Invisible, the
only wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. The King eternal, the eternal
God and His everlasting arms. Such good news, isn't it? Everything
about Him is eternal. This is the Lord eternal. Everything
about Him is eternal. The scripture says, I'm just
going to quote these to you. The scripture says in Romans
1 verse 20, His power is eternal. All power forever. His power is eternal. Second
Corinthians 4 verse 17 says, His glory is eternal. is eternal glory. And that, and I love that for
all eternity, we're going to glorify him and praise him. Ephesians
3 11 says his purpose is eternal. His will, his purpose, Hebrews
5 verse 9 says, His salvation is eternal. People say, you believe
in once saved, always saved? I've been asked that a few times.
You believe in once saved, always saved? If God saved you, absolutely. Now, if I saved myself, if I
go around telling everybody I got saved, I saved me, I decided
to save, no, you're going to lose that pretty quick. But if God ever saved somebody,
yeah. Hebrews 6 verse 2 says, His judgment
is eternal. Listen to this. Thank God, His
judgment, our judgment in Him, the judgment
He bore for us, that judgment is eternal. That's an eternal
judgment. The judgment of His Word, His
judgment. is eternal, not one word of this
will ever fail, never. We're gonna have His judgment
forever. Hebrews 9 verse 12 says, His
redemption is eternal, eternal redemption. I'm really enjoying this. Like
I really, the Lord is helping me and blessing me. I was looking
so forward to this. Our redemption is eternal. It's
eternal. Redeemed. You know, we use that
phrase, you know, he totally redeemed himself. Well, nobody
in this situation redeems themselves, but if God redeems us, it's eternal. If he puts us back, we fell from
this place. If he scoops us up, picks us
up and puts us back, it's eternal. Eternal redemption. Hebrews 9.14
says His Spirit is eternal. Hebrews 9.15 says His inheritance
is eternal. It's never going to run out. Down here you get an inheritance
and it don't take long, buddy. You can blow right through it.
Not up there. His inheritance is eternal. First
John 2.25, and all over the place, it says His life is eternal.
Eternal life. eternal life for him to say,
I am the Lord. That means this is the eternal
God speaking. This is the eternal authority
speaking. This is how it is. This is how
it is. Count on it. Bank on it. Hang
your soul on it. Go with me back to Malachi three. Malachi 3 verse 6, he said, I
am the Lord. That's the first glorious statement. And then he said, I change not. Oh, how wonderful that is. I'm
gonna tell you something. There's nothing more comforting
and enjoyable than meeting someone who is always the same. Always
the same. You know how to take them. You
don't walk up and wonder how they're going to be now, you
know, wonder what mood they're in now. He's always the same. He's always the same. He does
not change. That is comfort to God's people. That is stability. That's stability. Our Lord does not change. He
doesn't change for the better. He doesn't change for the worse. He does not improve. He does
not deteriorate. He is absolutely perfect, just
as He is. And He will never change from
that perfection. Never. Never. What He is, He told Moses, I
am that I am, I am what I am. What he is, that's what he will
always be. What he is, that's what he'll
always be. What is he? Turn over to Deuteronomy chapter
four. Deuteronomy 4 verse 23. Take heed unto yourselves lest
you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which he made with
you and make you a graven image. Take heed lest you make you a
graven image or the likeness of anything which the Lord thy
God hath forbidden thee. Verse 24 says, for the Lord thy
God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. What is he? He said, what I am, I am that
I am. And what he is, that's what he
will always be. What is he? He is a consuming
fire. He's a consuming fire. When he
comes back, he's coming back in consuming fire. That's what
he is. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. These are consuming fire. Turn over to Psalm 99. Psalm 99 verse 1 says, the Lord
reigneth. What is he? He's sovereign. He is sovereign. The Lord is
sovereign. The Lord doesn't ask anybody
to let him do anything. He is sovereign. He reigns. This
king reigns. Look at verse five, it says,
exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his footstool for
he is holy. He's holy. Verse nine says, exalt
the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord
our God is holy. What is he? He's holy. That means
he must do what's right. That means he's just, he's a
just judge. Turn over to Psalm 145. Psalm
145, look at verse eight. The Lord is gracious. and full
of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. The Lord
is good. How? If he's a consuming fire. If he is sovereign and holy and
just and how? In Christ. In the Lord Jesus
Christ. What is the Lord? Look at verse
17. It says the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all
his works. Verse 18 says the Lord is nigh
unto all them that call upon him to all that call upon him
in truth. That means in Christ. All that
call upon him in Christ. Righteous, holy. Gracious, merciful,
near. Isaiah 45 says He is a just God
and Savior. He's a just God and he's a savior.
How? In Christ. In the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, what I am, that's what
I will always be. Holy, just, right. And in the judgment of Christ
for his people, his eternal holiness and justice and righteousness
demands graciousness and mercy. He doesn't get rid of one and
grab the other one. In the justice and holiness of
his dealings with Christ that demands his graciousness and
mercy and love and forgiveness on his people. That's what he
is and that's what he will forever be because he is the Lord and
he changes not. Go back with me to Malachi 3. Verse six, he said, I am the
Lord. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. You sinful sons of the sinner. You sinful offspring of the sinner,
because he is the Lord and because he does not change. from his
purpose, from his work, from his covenant, because of his
namesake, Savior. You chosen sinners in Jacob are
not consumed. All that sinful man does is change. It's all man does is change. Just look at the history of man,
and this is what you'll see change. Psalm 107 says man is up and
down and he staggers to and fro. There's no stability in man,
none whatsoever. Turn over to Isaiah 57 real quick. I think there's only two more
places to turn, Isaiah 57. Verse 20, Isaiah 57 verse 20,
it says, the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot
rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, just churning. That's
all that can come from the back and forth current of sinful man. He just mire and muck and Man does something and then he
lies about it. That's what man does. Man will
do something and then lie about it. Man will make a promise and
then he'll break his word. He straightens up and he goes
right back to sinning. We can't put one ounce of our
trust in man. There's no help there but God. In God, in Christ Jesus our Lord,
everything concerning us and our eternal salvation is set
in stone. It is all set in stone. I think this is the last one.
Go to Isaiah 54, verse 10. Isaiah 54, verse 10. It says, for the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed. But my kindness shall not depart
from thee. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. That's good news. That is good
news. The mountains shall depart and
the hills are going to be removed. But he said, my kindness to you
is going nowhere. It is going nowhere because of
this covenant of peace that I made concerning you. To have mercy
on you. It's going nowhere. That mercy
that has been shown through my blood to you that is set in stone,
it's all set in stone. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed your sparing of destruction. He said it's
not because of you. Because of me. Your sparing of
destruction is all because of me. It's all because I made a
covenant to do something for you and I will not change from
it. I provoke him daily. And you provoke him daily. And if anyone treated us just
a smidgen of the way that we treat our Lord, we would. That's
it. No more. You think about that. We sin against him and sin against
him, and he's merciful and he's patient and he's kind and he's
loving, and then we sin against him and sin against him. At what
point does he say, that's it, no more? That point will never come. Isn't
that amazing? That point will never come. He does not change concerning
his people. He is unmovable. He's unmovable. A few years ago, Brother Bob
is the one who gave me that illustration of that ship that sank and all
were drowned except for an Irish boy. This ship sank off the coast
of England. And all were drowned except for
this one Irish boy because the waves swept him up onto a great
rock. And in the morning they rescued
him. And they said, lad, didn't you tremble out there on the
rock all night? And he said, sure I trembled.
But the rock never trembled one time. That rock didn't go anywhere. That rock did not move. That
rock did not budge. It did not shift one iota. Standing on the rock, standing
on the promises, standing on the promises, whatever our Lord's
will and purpose was yesterday. That's what his will and purpose
is today. And that's what his will and
purpose will be for all eternity. His purpose is fixed. His will
is stable. His word is settled. His judgment
is sure. If he said he hates sin yesterday,
he hates sin today. He hasn't changed. If he said
he must punish the guilty yesterday, he must punish the guilty today.
He has not changed. Thank God if He said that He
punished all of His people in Christ, on the cross of Calvary,
and it's finished. If He said that yesterday, if
it was finished yesterday, it's finished today, and it's finished
forever. Yesterday, today, forever. The Lord Jesus remains the same.
All else may change, but the Lord Jesus, never. Glory to His
name. This was our hope in the beginning,
the beginning of our salvation. When the Lord first revealed
these things to us, this was our hope in the beginning. This
is our hope right now. Our hope hadn't changed because
Christ is our hope. And this is our hope forever.
He is our Lord and he changes not. Therefore, we sons of Jacob
are not concerned. I think that's the best news
I've ever heard. I say that a lot. I know that.
But it really is.