Turn with me if you would to
Malachi chapter 3, the last book in the Old Testament. Malachi 3, so far in looking
at our Lord's attributes we've seen that our God is solitary. Which means he needs nothing.
He does not need anything. He does not need man. He made
us. And I'm so glad he did, but he
did not need to make us. He sure does not need for man
to do anything for him. He needs nothing. He's self-satisfied. And then we saw His perfect will. Everything that He has purposed
in His heart is perfect. I mean it's perfect. Everything
that happens is perfect. So perfect. And then we looked
at God's knowledge. He knows everything concerning
everything. And that's a comfort, isn't it?
Everything about everything. That leads us to go to him with
ease. He knows. He knows. Everything
about everything. And then we looked at his foreknowledge. The way that he chose to choose
his people. He elected a people. And the
way that he did that. The way he chose to choose them.
Last week we saw the supreme sovereignty of our God. absolute
highest sovereignty it's all in our God now this week I want
us to look at Malachi 3 verse 6 which says for I am the Lord
I change not therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Our God is immutable. And what that means is He does
not change. He does not change. He does not change. Now let me show you a few scriptures.
Look back with me at 2 Samuel 23. 2 Samuel 23, these are the last
words of David. And he said in verse 3, 2 Samuel
23 verse 3, the God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake
to me. The rock of Israel, he that ruleth
over men must be just ruling in the fear of God, the rock
of Israel. Look back up at 2 Samuel 22 verse
47, the Lord liveth and blessed be my rock and exalted be the
God of the rock of my salvation. My rock. Turn back to 1 Samuel
chapter 2. 1 Samuel chapter 2 verse 1, and Hannah prayed and said, my
heart rejoiceth in the Lord. Mine horn is exalted in the Lord,
my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in
thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like
our God." There is no rock like our God. No rock. Deuteronomy 32, go back a few
more pages to Deuteronomy 32. Deuteronomy 32 verse 1 says,
give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak. And hear, O earth, the
words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender herb, as the showers upon the grass, because
I will publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto
our God. He is the rock. His work is perfect. For all
His ways are judgment, a God of truth, and without iniquity,
just and right is He. He's the rock. He's the rock,
just like a rock cliff that's going down into the ocean. A
picture of, you've seen the Rock of Gibraltar, that's somebody's
logo for an insurance company, this big, huge rock. And the
waves going down into the ocean, that ocean swells up on that
rock, and that ocean goes down, it falls down on that rock, and
the waves crash against that rock, and the spray, and all
of this chaos is going on around that rock, and it remains unmovable. Absolutely unmovable. unchangeable. That's our God.
That's our God. That's the God of scripture.
James said concerning him, there is no variableness, neither shadow
upturning. There's no shadow of turning,
no variableness. He does not change. This is so important for men
and women to hear. God does not change. Go with me a few more pages to
Exodus 3. Exodus 3 verse 13. And Moses said unto God, Behold,
when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto
them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they
shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel. I am hath sent me unto you. I am. Our Lord said back in our
text, I am the Lord, I change not. I am. He said in John 8,
before Abraham was, I am. He's always been, I am. Always. He always will be, I am. Always. He's never evolved. He has never grown. He has never
improved. Never. He has never diminished. He's never deteriorated. He just
is. He just is. He that cometh to God must believe
that He is the same yesterday, today, forever. forever. He is unchanging in who He is,
in His essence, everything that He is. He's always going to be,
I am, always. He is unchanging in all of these
attributes. We've been going through all
of these attributes to learn about Him and see who He is.
In everything that we're studying right now, these perfectly describe
Him And they will always perfectly describe him. He's always going
to be just like this. Always. Always. Don't you love
the character trait in a person when that person is always the
same? Don't you love that? You know
what I'm talking about. Somebody's always the same. They're
just always the same. Good or bad, you know what to
expect. Always the same, right? I'll give you a prime example. My dear sweet brother Tom Harding,
every time I've ever walked up to that man he has a smile on
his face and a laugh in his voice every time. Isn't that true? You ask him, how you doing brother
Tom? Oh well, lost my house in a flood. Shall
not the judge of the earth do right? That's precious isn't
it? What a precious trait. Where
does a man get that trait? From God. From God. Now our brother Tom, he's just
like the rest of us, he's a changing man. He's changing. He looks
a little older than the first time I met him. But our God does
not change. Our God does not change. He has
never become one moment older than he has ever been. Never
one moment wiser than he has ever been. Go with me over to
Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2, this is when
our Lord was separated from Mary and Joseph. He was, the scripture
says, 12 years old. And they finally found him in
the temple, and it says in verse 48, Luke 2, verse 48, when they
saw him, they were amazed, and his mother said unto him, son,
why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I
have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is
it that you sought me? What a question. Know you not
that I must be about my father's business? And they understood
not the saying which he spake unto them. And he went down with
them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them. But his
mother kept all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased
in wisdom and stature. and in favor with God and man. Let me read that last verse again.
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with
God and man. Well, I thought you said he doesn't
change. I thought you said he never grew. I thought you said he never became
older. Explain that to me. Great is the mystery of godliness. God. I mean, God. Was manifest in the flesh. The whole time that man, right
there, the whole time that man increased and grew, he never
stopped being the unchangeable God. Explain that to me because
I cannot explain it. I cannot explain it. All I can
do is declare it. That's all I can do is declare
it. That is far above us. We think we have that figured
out. We think, OK, I get it. God became a man. We think we
have it figured out. It's so far above us. So far above us. But that is
the truth. The child that was born never
stopped being the father. Never. Never. The everlasting Father. Even
though there was a moment 2,000 years ago. There was a moment
2,000 years ago where he gave up his ghost, didn't he? And
he died. He went and they saw him. He
went from living to dead. Even though he did that. Before
he did that. Long before he did that, he was
already the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Isn't
that right? He was always the Lamb slain. He never was not the Lamb slain. And then the Lamb was slain.
He didn't change. That's what he was. The Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. God does not change. Now, let me show you another
important scripture. Go with me to Genesis 6. Genesis 6, verse 5. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart.
So does that mean God changed his mind? He wished he'd never made man.
He made man, and look at what happened. Oh, I wish I'd never
made man. Listen to these scriptures. Just
listen to these. This is Numbers 23, 19. God is
not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he
should repent. First Samuel 15 verse 19 says
the strength of Israel will not lie. Nor repent. For he is not a man that he should
repent. So the answer is no. The answer
is no. Man did not surprise him and
man did not disappoint him. Man did not surprise him and
man did not disappoint him. In the scripture, the word repent
has more than one meaning. If you look up the word repent
in the concordance, you can look at all of their original Hebrew
definitions. They give you a number that goes
with them and they all, seven or eight of them, have different
meanings. Same word, different meaning. If Hannah and I clean
out our garage and she wants to throw away something we've
had forever and I say, don't do it, dear. That's dear to me. You see how that has the same
word, different meaning? That's how it is with this. This
word repent does not mean a changed mind. This word repent means
a grieved heart. That's what this one means. He
perfectly knows everything. He knew that man was going to
come to this. He knew that. He knew Adam and
Eve were going to eat that fruit and fall. He knew. He said, in
the day you eat thereof, thou shalt surely die. That's what
he said. He knew it. So what we can take
from that is this, and this is wonderful. Oh, this is so wonderful.
Our God is the living and compassionate God. Alright? He's not the Lincoln
Memorial. He's not a big concrete statue
that's sitting like this and he's unchangeable and he can't
do anything and there's no point in praying to him and there's
no point in witnessing to anybody because it wouldn't change anything
anyway. That's not our God. Our God is the living, compassionate
God. He has a heart in here. All his
works were known from the beginning. He knew that he was gonna punish
sin. He knew he had to punish sin,
but listen to this. Ezekiel 1133 says, as I live,
saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked. Don't you love that about him?
I have no pleasure. Our Lord has to punish sin. I
mean, he has to. His word is unchangeable. His holiness is unchangeable. He has to. But that does not
mean he takes pleasure in it. We don't take pleasure in it
either, do we? We don't take pleasure in that. Oh, the reason
we're preaching the gospel is because our hearts break for
men and women. Our hearts are breaking for people.
So sad. The song says, Change and decay
in all around we see. This is the only hope that a
sinner has. O thou who changes not, abide with me. That's the
only hope we have. We need the one who changes not. We need to be given to him. Here's
the reason. If we have him, we are standing
on the rock. We're standing on the rock. If
we have Him, let me show you what we have. Verse 8, right
here in Genesis 6, verse 8 says, But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. It repented God that He made
man, but Noah found grace. God put Noah in the ark. If we've been given the grace
of God in Christ our ark, then that gift and that calling is
without repentance. It's unchangeable. It's unchangeable. Go with me over to Psalm 107. Psalm 107 verse 1 says, Oh, give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endureth
forever. If we have the mercy of God through
the blood of Christ, if we have been given that, then we have
an unchanging mercy. It will last forever. We love Lamentations 3. Those mercies are new every morning,
doesn't it? That does not mean they're different.
That means they're unexhausted. Not one drop less mercy than
we had yesterday. It's an unchanged mercy. Go with me over to Jeremiah 31. Jeremiah 31 verse 3. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love. Therefore with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. If we have the love of God in
Christ, if God has given that to us, it is an unchangeable
love. Aren't you so glad for that?
Aren't you so glad for that? It's an unchangeable love. It cannot be changed. It cannot
be diminished. It can't be increased. It's perfect. It's already perfect. Now look
one more time at our text. One more time. Malachi 3. Malachi
3 verse 6. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, therefore, you sons
of Jacob, what's Jacob's name? Sinner, trickster, supplanter. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Our Lord said, the mountains
shall depart and the hills be removed. Everything we see is
going to change. All of this is going to change.
These beautiful mountains are going to depart. All of these
hills are going to be removed. But he said, my kindness shall
not depart from thee. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be remembered, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee. will not change. I can't imagine
anything more fickle. I can't imagine anything more
unstable and changing than sinful man. I can't think of anything
more unstable. than sinful man, but thank God
we have a rock. I mean we have a rock, an unchanging,
unending, sure foundation. I love this verse of scripture.
The foundation of God standeth sure. That's good news. Isn't
that good news? When everything's crumbling around
us, everything's falling apart, The bottom's fallen out. We have
this promise from God, the foundation of God. He stands sure. All right, you're dismissed.