Look at one verse of Scripture
there, Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6. For I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed. I want to talk
this evening about God's immutability. When it says He changes not,
He talks about that he has covenant and he made a covenant with his
people and by two immutable promises. That means promises, two of them,
that he made in one place that they cannot change. Immutability
means without a change. It's always the same, never changing,
not capable of changing. He has no beginning and he has
no end. He's everlastingly the same.
God is everlastingly the same. James says, you know, the ever
good gift and perfect gift cometh down from the Father, first of
all, the Father of lights. God can't give nothing but good
things to His people. The ever good and perfect gift
cometh down from the Father of lights. And whom is no variableness. He never changes. No variableness. It's the way the weather changes.
Everything's variable. We're variable. But he said,
there's no variableness in God. He's always the same. And there's
no shadow of turning. You know, when you and I get
out, we cast a shadow. But there's no shadow in God.
Any way he turns, any way he goes, wherever he's at, there's
no shadow whichever way he turns. He's God. He's God. And I want
to talk about God being immutable tonight. I love you. You know,
last week I talked about His glory, glorifying Him. But God
has so much to say about Him. Just so much to say about Him.
And you can take every attribute that He has. Just take His wisdom,
for instance. How in the world do you describe
the wisdom of God? How in the world do you describe
the power of God? So how in the world do we describe
the immutability of God, His inability to change? When you
and I, that's all we are. We're objects of change, subjects
of change. But God is immutable in His essence. There never was a time when He
was not. And there'll never come a time
when He'll cease to be. They never cease to be. God has
not evolved. You know now He can be a man,
He can be a woman. I heard something, I learned
something this week. I learned something I didn't even know
existed. And let me give you something I learned that I've
never known existed. You ever heard of a binary person?
You ever heard of a binary person? I'm going to tell you what a
binary person is. That means a man or a woman who decides
that they don't want to be a man or a woman either, so they're
binary. God's not binary. God's not binary. I just, that kind of stuff just
makes my poor mind just go. But here's what I'm trying to
say. God is not evolved. God has not grown. God has not
improved. All that He is today, He has
always been, and He will always ever be that way. I am the Lord. I change not. Now, I'll tell
you something, beloved. He can't change for the better.
If He's perfect, how could He change for the better? And if
He isn't already perfect, that means that if He could change,
He'd have to change for the worse. And God, it's impossible for
Him to change and be any different than He is. And I love this,
that He's unaffected by anything outside of Himself. You know,
God could have existed by Himself without ever creating the world,
without ever making a man, without doing anything in this world
except being Himself. Totally self-contained. Totally
happy. Joyful. Gloriful. God in Himself. He was perfect in Himself. And somebody's perfect don't
need nothing. He don't need nothing outside
of Himself. He could have stayed in eternity
and enjoy eternity without anybody having to deal with. And he'd
still been God without ever making anybody. He'd have been God if
he had never created a universe. He'd have been God if he had
never created a heaven and an earth. He'd have been God if
he had never ever gave breath to a man. He'd been God. And when it's all said and done,
he's still gonna be God when it's all over. Oh my. You know, for him to improve
or deteriorate is impossible. He's perpetually the same. He
told Moses, when Moses said, who am I going to say sitting
me down there? He said, just say I am that I am. Well, who's
I am that I am? Now, you and I can't say I am.
We can say I'm weak. We can say I'm tired. We can
say I'm sleepy. We can say I'm getting old. We
can say I'm sick. We can say a lot of things about
ourselves. But when you say God says I am
that I am, He's saying there's nothing wrong with me. I'm just
God and I am who I am. And that's all you need to tell
anybody. And our Lord called himself the I Am seven different
times, and two times that he said as they pick up stones to
stone him, because they said he makes himself to be equal
with God. Oh my, his power is ever the
same, and his glory, glory, never fades. He's unaffected by age,
he never ages. There never has been a time that
He wasn't. He's as young as He's ever been, and He's as old as
He's ever been, because He's eternal, has no beginning, no
end. And God is immutable in all of
His attributes. Whatever His attributes were
before He called the universe into existence, He still has. And whatever attributes he had
before he ever made the world and all that's in it, that's
what they are now. And will always be. His attributes
are always the same. You know, in Christ are hid all
the treasures and wisdom of the knowledge of God. Treasures of
it, treasures of it. And I love this, the fact that
this is true. This is so true. God's power
is forever the same. You know our power, you know
I was talking to a guy today and you know I remember when
we built this building. Went up and helped Todd build
their building. Added an addition on to my house down there. I
mean I could go day and night. And could do a lot of things.
Now I don't want to do nothing. I'm content to just sit around
and Get somebody else to do it. But no, no, God's not that way.
His power is forever the same. Our power goes down. His wisdom
is never more or less. His holiness is eternal, just
like Himself. In fact, the Scriptures tells
us He inhabits eternity. Do you know what eternity is?
I don't have a clue. I just know that God says it
exists. I just know that I'm looking
forward to going into eternity. I know I'm looking forward to
when I get to a place where time is no more. That's what Revelation
said, when time shall be no more. Time shall cease to exist. And
that's where I wanna go. I wanna go to that place where
time exists no more. Age exists no more. Powerlessness
exists no more. But right now, God himself, he
inhabits eternity. And so when we get into eternity,
you know who's gonna be there? God. Everybody's slipped into eternity.
You know who he gets in there with? God. Look at the heavens
of heavens. You look at all them stars up
there. You get out some place where there ain't no ambient
light and the stars just go over the endless and endless and endless
and they got all these constellations and all that stuff. God said that he numbered the
stars and called every one of them by name. And when you get
past that and get past that and get past that That's where God's at. These
men say there's these black holes, and if you get in them, they'll
suck you in them, and you don't know where you're gonna go. Well,
I tell you what, God inhabits eternity. Whatever eternity is,
that's where He is. That's where He is. Heavens,
these heavens up here, look at the heavens. He said, this is
my throne. Look at this earth, he said,
that's my footstool. That's our God. We don't even
come close to describing him. His attributes as assures himself. And if every change, if ever
any change comes upon him, then he'll cease to be. You know His
word endureth forever. Thy word, O Lord, is forever
settled in heaven. His truth never changes. His
truth never changes. It's always the same. Whatever
God says is truth, that's the truth. And if He put it in this
book, that's the truth. His truth is ever the same. And
His love, if He inhabited eternity, His love is an eternal thing. You know, we, love starts with
us. I mean, there's a time that love
starts with us. You know, there's a time that
we, you know, parents, when they have a child, they love that
child. And then when that child grows up, they have a child,
they love that child. They meet a man or meet a woman
and they fall in love. But God ain't never fell in love.
He's loved His people with an everlasting love, and with loving
kindness, He'll get you out and start drawing them. Just start drawing them. Just
start drawing them. His love is eternal. It never
had a starting place. Ours does, but His love never
had a starting place. Oh my. And I tell you, this is
something else. I was reading this today and
look at these notes today. His mercy never ceases. His mercy
never ceases. It's everlasting. Somebody read
here a while back that verse that says something, then His
mercy endures forever. His mercy endures forever. His
mercy endures forever. That means His mercy will never
ever cease to be. It'll endure. You think, well,
you know how in the world God's mercy reaches to me? It will
never ever. It always endures. And I tell
you, it takes mercy to endure with me. It does. It takes, you know, it's
God's mercy that endures with me. And oh, let me tell you something
else. The Lord God is immutable in His counsel. When we talk
about His counsel, we're talking about His will. This is something
I didn't lie in. His will never changes. It never,
never varies. Now I'm gonna deal with the thing
tonight, and I want you to look at these two things. Look over
here in Genesis chapter six with me. Genesis chapter six, I want
you to look at this with me. I'm gonna try to explain something
here. I hope I can. In Genesis 6, in verse 5 and 6, look what it said. 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. Now, look over to 1 Samuel, go
over to 1 Samuel, and look in chapter 15, in verse 29. You say, now wait a minute, this
don't make sense. But you just wait, hold on. Over
there, God said, you know, I repented that I made man. Now look what
He says here in verse 29 of 1 Samuel chapter 15. And also the strength
of Israel, see how that's in capital letters, the strength
of Israel, one of His attributes, one of His glorious power, strength
of Israel will not lie nor repent, for He's not a man that He should
repent. Which one of them's right? He
said, I will not, I said, I repented and I made man. And over here
he says, I'm not a man and I don't lie and I don't have to repent.
Now what in the world's going on here? What do you think? Now
I'm just, I'm telling you that God changes not, but that there's
two things that it looks like he's changed on. Well, scriptures
don't contradict themselves. So what's the meaning here? What's
the meaning? When the Lord speaks of Himself, He speaks in language
to accommodate us, to accommodate us. They're called, I've used
this word before, and I'll let you know, I read a book every
once in a while, anthropomorphic. You know what that means? Having parts, using words. Like God says He has eyes. He
said He looks, His eyes run to and fro on the earth. God don't
have eyes. How can he have eyes if he inhabits
eternity? He says he inclines his ear.
God don't have ears. But he uses language to accommodate
us and our feeble minds, our feeble understanding. He says
he has hands. But you know God don't have no
hands. He says my arm is stretched out and it can save. My arm brought me to my own salvation.
God don't have an arm. We're talking about the Eternal
God now. He talks about He wakes. Talks about sleeping. So we're
limited in our capacities, so he uses words to help us understand. And when he makes a change towards,
you know, God wasn't surprised that man was gonna be wicked
in the earth. But he used the language, I'm gonna change my
dealing with this world right now. I'm gonna destroy it, I'm
gonna destroy everybody off of it. And he done it in a way that
would bring glory to himself and throw his just and justifier
in that ark. So when God speaks, he's using
language to accommodate us. You know, because we're so... That's what I mean, God is spirit.
So spirits don't have eyes and hands and ears. That's what I
mean, God sees and knows everything. That's what we're talking about.
He describes his conduct as repenting when he has a change in his dealings
with men. It's like Jonah. God said, go
down to Nineveh. Jonah didn't go. You know what
he did? He made Jonah change his mind. And I tell you, he's immutable
in his counsel. That means, beloved, his gifts
and calling of God were without repentance. And we're talking
about his will. He works all things after the
counsel of his own will. Two things causes a man to change
his mind. You know what two things are?
First of all, if he says, I'm going to do such and such a thing,
well, he can't see the end of it. He has not the foresight
to see everything that's involved in it. And then if he didn't
see everything's involved in it, he had that all figured out
or he doesn't have the power to carry out and execute his
plan. Now God's not like that. God's omniscient. That means
he's all wise. He knows all that is possible.
Everything that's possible. And I'll tell you this, God has
never had no contingency plans. He's never had no plan B. God
has always been the same. He knows all that is and all
that's possible. And the only thing that is, is
what He knows is right and it will happen. There's no impossibilities,
there's no change, there's no difference that could possibly
happen. He's got the wisdom to know how things are going to
be, because He declared the end from the beginning. And then
God is omnipotent, so He never lacks the power to carry out
His will. And I'll tell you, listen, I
can't carry out my will most of the time, But God, He's got the power to
execute His will every moment of every day, in every life,
in every nation, in every place on this earth. I'm going to go up to Bruce Crabtree's
here and I'm going to talk about suffering. This earth suffers. Everybody in this world suffers. There's not a place on the planet
where you can go where men are not suffering. But I tell you,
I know this, that there's nothing in this world that God does not
have the power to carry out His will. Men can say, well, you
know, God can't do anything unless you let Him. I read a little
thing the other day, it says, you know, salvation is just for
the asking. And that God loves you whether
you like it or not. No. You know, God carries out,
when they crucified our Lord Jesus Christ, do you know what
the Scripture says? Even though they did it, the
Scripture says that they did what the determinate counsel
of God determined before to be done. They did just exactly what
they wanted to do, but they're carrying out God's will. It's
going to be damnation for a multitude. It's going to be salvation for
a multitude. Now, I'll tell you, the Scriptures
tell us plainly that they were... One of the priests said it like
this, he says, You know, it's not expedient that the whole
nation perish, but that one man should die for the whole nation
for all the people of God. But Peter says, you know, Him
being delivered by the determinate counsel, the determinate will
and foreknowledge of God, you took and crucified Him with your
wicked hands. So a man's gonna do what he wills
to do, but he's carrying out God's will wherever it goes.
That's right. I mean, I can't understand that,
but that's the way, what God says. Ain't that right? He said, I raised up nations,
set down nations. Well, I got to get on with it.
Oh, what an infinite, infinite distance and difference between
God and man. We come from nothing. We were
nobody's, nothing, people from nowhere that amounted to nothing.
And without God, we'd go right back to being nothing or nobody. The only thing that keeps us
upheld in this world is to be known of God and for God in His
will to sustain us in this world. That's the only thing we've got
going for us, the sustaining will of the power of God. What
if we was left to ourselves just for a little while? Don't want
to do that, do you? No, no. See, being fallen, we're
mutable. We are mutable. God's not. And everything about us is exposed
to God. We're variable. We're variable. You get variable in a service.
You know you'll change in a service. Your mind will wonder here and
go there, and you'll say, well, what am I going to eat when I
get back to the house? And why am I going to do this? You know,
I hope the weather don't get bad tomorrow. You know your mind,
you're a variable. We're a variable. Fallen man is restless and inconsistent. That's why our Lord says, see
she for man. Oh, cease from him. Cease from
the prince. Put no confidences in the prince.
Put no confidence in man. You know why? His breath goeth
out of him, and he ceases to be. No human being can be dependent
upon. It's like Reuben. Reuben. And I tell you, when we talk
about changing and how people are, people who like you today
may hate you tomorrow. You know, the Lord, when Christ
came into Jerusalem on that coat, the fold of an ass, and they
was hollering, Hosanna, Hosanna, throwing garments before Him,
and palms before Him, and throwing their garments before Him. Praising
Him, praising Him, following along, praising Him. A little less than a week, they
said, away with Him, away with Him. Crucify Him, crucify Him. But in the Lord, and his immutability
is comfort, our solidity there, for he changes not. I may fall,
and I know I fell before you, and I know I've disappointed
you many times, and I've been disappointed by my fellow man,
but one thing will never happen. I'll never be disappointed in
God. God will never let me down. He never let me down. And oh,
let me give you this verse of scripture. I tell you, I gotta
hurry. But look over in Isaiah 54. I tell you, God keeps us
in such a wonderful way. Such a comfort. He sets our feet
on a rock. But look what he said here in
Isaiah 54. We can call on him, Isaiah 54 10. 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. In other words, my covenant
ain't gonna never stop. I've made a covenant of peace
with you, and my kindness is gonna always, always be on you. We can call on Him. We can find
great, great assurance in calling on Him. He's immutable. If you
call on someone who grants you a request one day and the next
day, he won't let you have it. And our Lord says this. He said,
if you ask anything according to His will, He'll give it to
you. And what do we want other than His will to be done? But
I tell you this, the immutability of God will be terror for the
lost. You defy Him, act as if He doesn't
exist, lie on His character, charge Him with foolishness.
God hates sin, eternally hates sin, and there's going to be
eternal punishment for it. And one thing we can be certain
of in this world is change. Change in ourselves. Oh, how
we've changed over the years. How we've changed over the years.
I look at my skin, I can't hardly believe that I've got skin like
that. Oh, we change in ourselves. We
go from being young to being old. And our emotions, our emotions
change. Sometimes we get so angry. Sometimes
we weep over just the least thing. Sometimes the message, it really,
really moves us. And other times we think, when's
the preacher going to get done so I can go eat lunch? Our emotions
are up and down. They're full of love one day,
and full of anger one day, and cold one day. And our nation,
look how our nation's changed. When I was a little boy, I mean,
you could go anywhere and nobody would bother you. But now you
scared to death. I remember years ago, I saw a
child, mother had a halter, a thing on her and a leash on her when
it was out in the store. And I thought, boy, that's the
craziest thing I've ever seen, having a child on a leash. I
can understand it now, with all the perverts and all the wickedness
that's out this world taking children and sneaking them out.
I can understand doing that now. I can understand that. Oh, how
our nation's changed. Some of you know it more than
I do, because you remember when you was in Lexington. Lexington
was a small town. Now you can't get around it. When I come down here, half the
Cumberland County was gravel roads. And our nation changes. Oh, look
how it's changed dramatically, dramatically in the last few
years. And our families change. We start out with big families
and they start dwindling away, start dwindling away. Daddy goes,
mama goes, husband goes, wife goes, babies go, kids go. Our families grow and diminish. Change and decay all around I
see. Thou that changest not, Abide
with me. This is our stay, this is our
stronghold, this is our anchor. No matter how many changes we
go through, this world goes through, our nation goes through. God says, I am God, and I change not. And blesses
this wonderful assurance, and because he doesn't change, I'm
never gonna let you go, you'll never be consumed, I'm gonna
protect you. What a glorious God we got. Where do you start? How do you
deal with these things? How do you do it? Our Father, oh our Father, our
blessed Lord Jesus Christ, our Lord, our Savior, our Master,
our king, our prophet, our priest, our all in all. Oh, we come to
worship you. And our hearts just stand in
utter, utter astonishment and wonder and tremble even before
the great and glorious God. To try to describe you in any
way has to be a failure. But oh Lord, I just love talking
about your glory and your power. And Lord, we are just nothing
but change, but you never change. And because you never change,
you made these promises, you made these glorious promises
to us of eternal life, of a new heaven and a new earth, a new
body, sinless perfection one day in glory. Oh, Lord. Oh, Lord. Blessed be your name. Thank you for letting us consider
you again this time of eternity. Bless these dear saints as they
go their way. For Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.