Malachi 3. For I am the Lord,
I change not, therefore your sons of Jacob are not consumed. Talk about God's immutability,
God's blessed, glorious immutability. He says here, For I am the Lord,
I change not. And what a blessing that He changed
not, therefore your sons of Jacob are not consumed. You know, this
Friday is what they call Palm Sunday, or Good Friday. Last Sunday was Palm Sunday.
And what happened is, you know, all those people got palms, and
then when Christ came in riding on the coat, the fold of an ass,
and they waved those palms and said, Hosanna, Hosanna, blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. And then the next
Friday, four days later, five days later, they cried, Crucify
Him, Crucify Him. Man is as unstable as water. But bless God, the reason we're
not consumed is because God changes not. And one of the most glorious
attributes, one of the most glorious attributes of God is His immutability. That means that He is the same
and He never changes. That means that He's not capable
of changing. He does not have the ability
to change. People say all the time, if I
could just change. I'd like to change. I need to
make a change. Preachers tell folks to make
a change. And some people say, if I marry so-and-so, I believe
I can change him. Well, listen. God can't be changed. He don't have the ability to
change. You see, He has no beginning. He has no end. He is everlastingly
the same. Look over in James chapter 1
with me just a moment. James chapter 1. You know, He
has no beginning, no ending. He's everlastingly the same.
And God is immutable in His very essence. What makes Him God? His very being, His very essence,
His very existence, everything about Him, He's immutable. Here in verse 17 of James chapter
1, it says, Every good and every perfect gift is from above. and
cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning." You see there, beloved, with whom
is no variableness. Now, you and I vary. The weather
varies. Oh, you know what it takes to
make us vary from one thing to another? Somebody look at us
wrong. Somebody say the wrong thing to us. Something can happen
any time, any moment, any day, and we vary. Our emotions vary. Our feelings vary. Our health
varies. Our eyesight varies. Our relationships
vary. We're variable. But God never... He's no variableness about Him.
There's no change in Him, and not even no shadow. There's not
even a shadow, an hint of a change. You and I, our shadow, you know,
at certain times of the day, it's real long. Other times,
it's real short. And our shadow changes as the
day changes, as you stand in the light. But God don't have
no shadow of turning. He can turn any way He wants
to, stand any way He wants to, and be where He wants to, and
He ain't going to cast no shadow. There's no danger of Him casting
a shadow. And so that's what that means by that, no variable,
there's no shadow of turning. And beloved, there never was
a time when He was not. There will never come a time
when the Lord Jesus or the Lord God shall cease to be. And I
tell you, let me tell you this about him. God has not evolved.
God has not grown. God has not improved. All that
he is today, he has always been, and he ever will be. He said,
I am the Lord, and I change not. I am the Lord, and I change not. Now, you talk to the average
person and God changes his mind. He evolves, he grows, he improves. But no, no, no, he don't. No,
no. And you assume the reason being
he can't change for the better. He's already perfect. He can't
change for the worse. Well, that means he's not perfect. And this is what I love about
him being immutable. He's unaffected by anything outside
of himself. You know, me or you or anybody
else, what happens in this world is unaffected by God. I mean,
beloved nations, that's why He says, you know, He raises up
nations. Nothing affects Him. He's not
going to change. You and I change when things
affect us. But God's unaffected. Nothing
in this world affects Him. Everything seems to affect us.
It takes very little to affect me. But nothing affects God. And for Him to improve, or deteriorate
is absolutely an impossibility, because, beloved, He cannot change. You and I, we're not improving,
that's for sure. Ain't nobody I know improving,
do you? We're deteriorating pretty bad,
but we're not improving much. And, oh, beloved, and that's
why He says, He is perpetually the same. I am the Lord, and
I change not. You know, his power is ever the
same. The power by which he said he's
faking it was done. He commanded and it stood fast.
The power by which he made the world. The power by which he
created the heavens and the earth. The power, the might, the strength.
The authority, the power, it's ever the same. It don't never
change. He has the power to break a man's
will. He has the power to save a man
or damn a man. He has the authority and the
power to create a thousand worlds if he chooses to do that. He
has the power and authority. to break into a man's soul as
subduing to himself. He's got the power to give sight
to the blind. He's got the power to give life
to the dead. He's got the power to give death
to the hearing. He's got the power to take a
leper and cleanse him from all sin. He's got the power. And
that power is ever the same. It don't get any more powerful
at any one time than it does another. It's the power that
he raised Christ from the dead with. How much power do you reckon
he exerted to do that? How much power did he exert to
create a word? When I said all he done was he
spake. As old Spurgeon says, by fiat,
by word. His power is ever the same. And
beloved, his glory never fades. And oh, to be like Moses, When
Moses said, who will I tell of sitting me down there? Well,
God said, this is who I'm going to tell. I am that I am. That means I'm eternally the
same. I am that I am. That's all they
need to know. I'm God. I'm eternally I am. The eternal I am. I was before
I am, I am, I am. He'll always be the great I am.
He was the I am in eternity. He was the I am on Mount Sinai.
He's the I am now. Christ had seven I am's affixed
to His name. You know what seven means? Perfection.
Seven I am's. Before Abraham was, I am. Except you believe I am He, I
am He, you'll die in your sin. So I tell you, He never changes.
And I'll tell you something else about Him. He's unaffected by
age. God has been from eternity, and
He's the same. He's unaffected by age. Well,
He is. He is. You know, while eternity goes
on, He's not going to age. He's not going to change. He
can't change. He's unaffected by age. And secondly, not only
is he immutable in his essence, but he's immutable in his attributes.
His attributes, things that belong only to him. Whatever his attributes
were before he ever called the universe into existence, that's
what they are right now, and they will always be. All of his
attributes will always be the same, never change. He gave attributes
that never change. And all His power is forever
the same, and His wisdom. Look over here with me in Colossians
2. His wisdom is never more and never less. And that's what we trust. You
know what power upholds us and keeps us is the power of God,
the power of God in Christ. I just read there, you know,
where He's our shield and our strength. You know, this is a hard lesson
for us to learn. It is for me. I shouldn't say
us, but it's a hard lesson for me to learn. We think we can
do some things and do some things and help some things, but the
fact of the matter is that we cannot do anything unless God
gives us the power. Because He's the power that keeps
us. We're preserved in Christ Jesus, kept by the power of God. Christ said, I'll never lose
you, and I'll never leave you, never forsake you. I give unto
my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. We're kept
by this very power of God. And that power never diminishes.
That power is never, ever, it's always the same. The power that
saved you and brought you to Christ is the very power that's
going to keep you and uphold you. The power that, God said
He put the shield around. You know, when Job was at his
very weakest and very lowest, you know the reason he said,
though he slay me, I'll trust him? You know, though he said
not to charge God foolishly, you know why he says, you know,
that he knoweth the way that I take, and I know that my Redeemer
liveth? You know why he said all those things? God kept him. God kept him. And so his power's
ever the same. And then his wisdom's ever the
same. His wisdom's ever the same. Here in Colossians, And here
is where the wisdom of God is clearly seen, manifested in it,
that the hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love,
and under all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to
the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and
of Christ, and whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Oh my, the wisdom of God seen
in Christ, the wisdom of God that never changes, the wisdom
of God that was always the same. But we have
to say He devised a way that He could be just and justified,
that He could punish sin and at the same time save from sin,
that He could justly condemn a man and justly at the same
time acquit the man. How could that be? The only way
it could be was for God to take one equal to himself, charge
our sin to him and him being willing to do it, as in justly
punish him in our sin, and turn around and in wisdom justify
us and clear us and acquit us of all sin. Oh, the wisdom of
God! The wisdom of God that that makes
this world to be what it is. Oh, the wisdom of God, when we
sung, How Great Thou Art, the wisdom of God that made the stars
so men could navigate the globe for centuries and followed by
stars. That men, before they ever had
any instruments and stuff, they could find stars and sail ships
around the world by stars. People could follow stars and
get to a certain place. You know how them wise men found
out where Christ was? They followed a star! Oh, the
wisdom of God. And I'll tell you something else,
that God gives men the wisdom that they have. When they was
getting ready to build Solomon's Temple, God says that he gave,
and I forget his name now, but said that he gave him the wisdom
to do what he did. You know, that's the thing about
it. He didn't have sense enough to build a building. The scripture
says that the Lord gave him the wisdom, and not only gave him
the wisdom to do it, gave him men, and then he taught men what
God taught him. Oh, and it's always the same,
and it's in Christ. And His wisdom's never more or
less. His holiness is as eternal as Himself. God's as holy as
He inhabits eternity. And His attributes are as sure
as Himself. If they ever change, if God's
attributes ever change, He'll cease to be. That's why it's
so despicable, it's so sinful, it's so wicked, it's so despisable
for somebody to limit God in any way. To say He can't unless He wants to, if you'll let Him. Oh, I'll tell you, people are
so irreligious, it's unbelievable. I'll tell you two things I heard
this week about God, just this week, most from Catholics. This
fellow had his daughter, he's Catholic, his wife's Jewish,
said, you know, you have my daughter, you don't take her to church.
Well, he took her to church and had her baptized, and this is
what he said. He's under contempt of court for this, for taking
her to church. He says, well, I had her baptized for insurance. Her baptism for me was an insurance
policy. And then I heard a woman say
yesterday, And she called the priest, and her mother had been
on to her to get her baby, the six-month-old, baptized in the
Catholic Church. He said, I'm not a very good
Catholic. So I tried to call the priest to get it done. He
said, you've got to get it baptized as soon as it's original sin.
So I've got to get it baptized so it'll take care of its original
sin. The priest asked her all kinds of questions. And he figured
out every way in the world and answered all the questions he
possibly could so he could sprinkle that baby. And that sprinkling,
and she was just flipping about. Flippin' it about. Oh my goodness,
that's the way people think. That you can take care of original
sin by sprinkling somebody. And the fellow said it's an insurance
policy. That's exactly the way people
feel like God is for them. You call on Him right at the
last minute, and you sign the policy, and you're guaranteed
to go on through. But God cannot change. He doesn't
have the ability to change. He's holy forevermore. His holiness and His wisdom and
His righteousness is eternally the same. And what He was, He
is. And what He is, He will be forever
and ever and ever and ever. And that's what we love. If you
could change God, would you do it? And oh, beloved, let me show
you something over in Psalm 119. You know, His truth is ever the
same. His truth is ever the same. In
verse 89, Psalm 119, verse 89. His truth is ever the same. That's
another thing I love, that His truth does not change. His truth
does not change. There's a thing, and I've been
reading a little bit about it, and I don't understand it, but
they've got what they call the Emerging Church Movement. And
they've got several fellows that are supposed to be big shots
in this Emerging Church Movement. And I get this stuff in the emails
and things, and I read a little bit about it. And the Emerging
Church Movement, what it's about is, is that we have got to change
things change the truth around, reinterpret the Bible, reinterpret
truth, re-imply truth, or else the church is going to die. Oh,
God's church ain't going to die. Not with Christ as its head,
it's not going to die. And there ain't no emerging church,
there's always been one church, and you know the first member
of that church was Amos. Paul, you know, they talked in
Acts about the church in the wilderness. And what it took
to save Abel is what it's going to take to save people today.
The truth of God. Men say, well, I don't believe
it. Well, who cares what men say, I don't believe this about
God and that about God. Is that going to change it? Will that
change the truth because you say, I don't believe it? Let
every man be a liar and let God be true. And oh, beloved, here
he stands here and his truth is ever the same. And oh, if
it's ever changed, how would we, we'd be the ones to determine
what truth is and what truth ain't. And we'd be a sorry, sorry
measure and stick for truth, wouldn't we? But look what it
says there in Psalm 89, Psalm 119, verse 89. Forever, O Lord,
thy word is settled right in heaven. His truth is ever the
same. It's settled in heaven. You know,
Peter said it like this. He says, The Word of the Lord
endureth forever. So the Word of God cannot change.
The truth of God cannot change. So His truth is ever the same,
and it can never change. His love is eternal, so it can
never change. If He loves you with an everlasting
love, His love is never going to change towards you. Having
loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the
very end. And there's nothing that caused
us to love Him. So there's nothing we can do
that causes Him to stop loving us because there was nothing
about us that ever made Him love us anyway. He just chose to love.
And His love don't vary. Our love varies. We can get mad at somebody, get
hurt by somebody and all that, and it will affect our relationship.
We'll be pout and we'll get mad and we'll, you know, oh my goodness,
just do all kinds of things. But I don't care what we say,
where we go, what we do. God's love towards us is always
the same, never varies. Bless his holy name. People fall
in love and then they say, well, I just don't love you anymore.
Wouldn't it be awful if God done that? Well, you've offended me
enough. You've hurt me enough. You've walked on my mercy too
much. You've despised my grace. You've
walked on my grace. You've sinned too much. You've
thought too much. You've been too carnal. You've
been too cold. You've been too spiritual. Your
faith ain't been perfect. So I say, well, I'm just going
to quit loving you. Oh my! If that would make us
so, it would make us just work and work and work to get God
to love us. But He said, I love you. With an everlasting love. And not only that, but with cords
of a man. Cords of Christ. The love of
God in Christ on the cross. He started drawing us. Huh? And, oh, beloved, in His
mercy, mercy never ceases. And I love the way James prays.
Often he'll say, Lord, I thank You for Your mercies that were
new this morning. Thank You for Your mercies. And
His mercies and His love and His truth, they're everlasting,
never change. And not only is he immutable
in his essence and in his attributes, but he's immutable in his counsel.
And his counsel just means his will. His will never changes. It never varies. But I want you
to see something with me for a minute. I want you to get a
couple of places. First of all, look with me in
Genesis 6. Genesis 6. I want to show you, I want you
to learn a little something right here, because this confuses people
sometimes when we talk about the immutability of God. It says
here in verse 5, Genesis 6, 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. You see, it said it repented
the Lord. And the Lord said, I'll destroy man whom I have
created upon the face of the earth, both man and beast, and
the creeping things and the fowls of the air. For it repenteth
me that I made them." Now, what do you mean, it repents him?
When I just said with his counsel that he cannot change. Now, repentance
means a change of disposition, of mind, of will, of direction. Well, now look with me over here
at Numbers 23. You get Numbers 23 and 19, Numbers 23 and 19,
and also 1 Samuel 15 and 29. Numbers 23 and 19 and 1 Samuel
15 and 29. Samuel is right after Deuteronomy
and Joshua. Judges. Samuel. 1 Samuel and Ruth. 1 Samuel 15-29. Alright, look what it says here
in Numbers right quick. Numbers 23-19. Now it just says
over there, it repented him that he made man. It repents him and
he's going to destroy them all. But he says in verse 19 here,
Numbers 23, God is not a man that he should lie. neither the
Son of Man, that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?" Now
look over here at Samuel, 1 Samuel 15.29. And also, "...the strength
of Israel will not lie nor repent, for he is not a man, that he
should repent." But yet it just said there in Genesis that he
repents, that he makes man. Now the Bible don't contradict
itself, does it? It can't possibly contradict
itself. So what people say when you say God's immutable, they
say right there He changed His mind. So what's the meaning here? Over
there He's not the Son of Man, but He should lie or should repent.
Over here He said He repents. He told Jeremiah, He says, I'm
tired of repenting for you, of repenting after you, talking
about Israel. But here's the thing, when God speaks, and speaking
of Himself, He speaks in a language to accommodate us for our understanding. For our understanding. And I
told you this big word I used here a while back called anthropomorphisms. Anthropomorphism. And what that
means is that God uses language to make us understand Him and
His actions and where He is. He has, He says, He has eyes.
Well, we know He's in Heaven's eternity. He has ears. He has
feet. He has arms. He talks about waking
and sleeping. And because we're limited in
our capacities to understand, he uses words to help us understand. And when he says here that he
repenteth, what it means, beloved, is that he's going to make a
change in his dealings with man. And he describes his conduct
as repenting. Now, he knew that man was going
to be what he was. He knew that Adam was going to
sin before he ever put him in the garden. And He let man go
and go and go, and to make us understand that He's fixing to
destroy man, He says, it repents me that I made man. That doesn't
mean He changed His mind. I'm going to change my dealings
with man, and how He's going to do it, I'm going to have one
man and one woman and their children go into an ark, and I'm going
to start a new race of people on the face of this earth. That's
what He says. And it's like Jonah. When God
sent Jonah to Nineveh, and He says, you start crying when you
get in there, repent, where the judgment of God is going to fall.
And that city was three, it took him three days to go across that
city, cry and repent. And he says, no, everybody repented
from the king down, so I'm going to put sackcloth on everybody
and even put sackcloth on the beast, on the cattle in the field.
He said, we're going to repent. And you know what Jonah said?
Jonah said, I know that's what's going to happen. I know Jesus
is going to show mercy to them. And you know, he says, so you
know, your mind, you told me to go do something that you intended
to do anyway. And yet, he says, you know, but
here he says, he was going to destroy this, but he used his
language. I'm going to change my dealings with this man, and
I'll use words to make you understand it, that I'm not going to inspire
him anymore. He's wickedness is so bad. And, O beloved, not only that,
he's immutable in his counsel, but he's immutable in his counsel. There's two things. Two things
causes a man to change his mind. He didn't have this foresight
to see all that would happen, or he doesn't have the power
to execute his plan. There's only two things that
cause somebody to change their mind. You reckon God couldn't
foresee all that's going to happen? You reckon he didn't have the
power to execute his plan? That's why me and you, our little
old plans fall all to pieces. A fellow called me just the night
before last, he was planning on coming out here next month,
a couple of weeks. And he says, well, I can't come.
He added all his plans, but he couldn't execute the plan. He
didn't foresee what would happen to keep him from keeping his
plan. It was his plan to come to Tennessee. It was his plan
to be here in these services. It was his plan to come visit
me. But now he didn't foresee all the things that would happen
to cause him to change his plan, and he didn't have the power
to execute that plan. But that's not the way God is. He just uses
language to accommodate us. And God is omniscient. He's all-wise. He knows all that is, and He
knows everything that's possible. We sit around and wonder, this
could happen, that could happen. Women especially, you know, as
they get older, they get to thinking, oh my, this could happen, that
could happen. Be careful going here, be careful going there.
Oh, this might happen. They just see everything that
could happen. God not only sees everything that could happen, He knows everything that is happening. You see, not only has God omniscient
or wise, I mean, there's no danger of Him not knowing what's happening. And God is omnipotent, so He
never lacks the power to carry out His will. Is that not right? And oh, He swore by Himself that
He would not change. And oh, beloved, what an infinite,
infinite distance and difference between God and man. There he
is, he's immutable. God in this, you've got all wisdom
and all power. Immutable in everything. He's immutable, cannot change.
But what about us? We come from nothing. Absolutely
come from nothing. He that's born of a woman, how
can he be clean? We come from nothing, and we
go back to nothingness apart from the grace of God. The only
thing that keeps us from nothingness is the will of God and His sustaining
power. That's the only thing. Oh, bless
His name. It's by Him that we live and
move and have our being. It's He that sustains us by His
power. All it takes for us to cease
to be We came from nothing. I'll tell you, my mother's nothing,
my daddy's nothing, my grandma and grandpa's parents was nothing,
and I was nothing when I came into this world, and I'd go right
into nothingness if it wasn't for the sustaining power and
grace of God. And all beloved, because I'm
such a mutable creature, I destroy myself. You know what all of
God's got to do to let a man be lost? Just leave him alone!
He'll destroy himself! And, oh, and being fallen, being
fallen, we're mutable. We are so mutable. And everything
about us is opposed to God. And I said, well, He's not variable.
We're so variable. Oh, how variable we are. Run
hard and cold. High and low. First, second,
fourth, fifth, sixth. Sometimes we run on eight gears.
Sometimes we don't run at all. Sometimes we run so hot and other
times we're so cold that we don't even have a feeling about us. Nowhere in shape. We can't muster
a feeling. Fallen man is a restless creature.
He's inconstant. He cannot, cannot rest in God. Cannot rest in Christ. Got to
be moving. Got to be thinking. Got to be
popping. Got to be thinking. Got to be
working. And oh, beloved, that's why he says, Ruben, Jacob said
about Ruben, he's firstborn, he says, Ruben, you're as unstable
as water. Unstable as water. And you look
at those floods up there in the northeast right now, you know
how unstable water is? You can't control it. And I mean,
running in those rivers, and they stayed in those banks, and
now, beloved, they can't control it. Now it's in the houses, now
it's in the cars, it's destroyed. It's a wonderful thing. But boy,
it's unstable. And no wonder God said, look
over here at Psalm 146 with me. No wonder God said, cease from
man. Cease from man. Cease from man. That means quit
trusting man. Do like Paul said, have no confidence
in the flesh. Cease from man. He said here
in Psalm 146, he says in verse 3, put not your
trust in princes, that means people in power, people in authority,
nor in the Son of Man, that means the person right next to you,
that means any kind of a man, in whom there is no help, I mean,
when you really, really come push, come to shove, what can
they really do for you when you're sick, when you're down? All they
can do is sympathize with you, listen to your talk, but they
can't change you. They can't change your circumstances.
They can't change your state. They can't change your status.
They can't take your trials away. They can't take your burdens
away. They can't take your sickness away. They can't give you help.
And you know, that's what he says here. His breath goeth forth. One of these days, he takes his
final breath and it's gone. And he returns to his earth.
In that very day, his thoughts perish. But now listen to this. Happy, blessed is he that hath
the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the Lord his
God. Oh, my. Ain't it wonderful to
get up every day? Ain't it wonderful that while
Peggy, when that doctor told she had cancer, you all went
to the Lord? You just immediately went. She did too. You did. We
all did. We took her to the Lord. Why? Because that's where our hope
was. That's where our strength was. That's where our help was.
We didn't pray for that doctor. We didn't say, doctor, you do
the best you can. We said, she's in your hands.
No, no. We said, Lord, she's in your
hands. That's because we understand
that. We know that. We're not putting our trust in
princes. Oh, people who like you today
and love you today, married to you today, tomorrow they may
hate you. They may cry, Hosanna today, bless you today, and then
cry tomorrow, I hate you! Away with you! Wish that I never
met you. Wish that I never heard your
name. But all but in the Lord is comfort. In the Lord is solidity,
solemnness. On Christ the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sink and
sand. Oh, man changes in his breath
forth and his thoughts perish, but God changes not. I may fall and I may disappoint
you, disappoint my wife, disappoint myself, and you may fall and
disappoint me. And we may disappoint one another,
but one thing will never happen. God will never, ever let us down,
and we will never be disappointed in God, because He will never
fail or fall for us in any way. Never be disappointed in God,
my Father. He says it. Oh, look at this.
I've got to show you this. I'll be done in a minute. Isaiah
54 and 10. Oh, bless His name. Oh, He sets our feet upon a rock. But I'd never be disappointed
in our God, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Look what it says there
in Isaiah 54 and verse 10. He sets our feet on a rock. For the mountains shall depart,
and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from me. Neither shall the covenant of
my peace be removed, saith the Lord, that hath mercy on me. All the mountains may go, but
I won't. They may be moved, and they do.
Mountains move all the time. They really do. Mountains move
all the time. God says they may do it, but I won't. I won't be
moved. And, O Beloved, we can call on
Him, trust Him, look to Him, and we find great, great assurance
in calling on Him who is immutable, who is immutable, cannot change.
Would you call on someone who one day may grant you requests
and meet the needs of you, and then the next day you ask for
the same thing and He says no, may change and treat the way
He treats you? But, O Beloved, we call on God. He'll never change. But I'll tell you something else
about it. It may be a comfort for us, the immutability of God
and His inability to change is a great comfort to us. But, O
Beloved, it's a terror. It'll be a terror for the lost.
He ain't gonna change when you face Him in eternity. The immutability
of God will be terror for the lost. Defy Him. Act as if He
doesn't exist. Lie on His character. Charge
Him with foolishness. But one thing I know, when you're
facing Him, He'll be ever the same. And if you face Him in
sin, He hates it, He abhors it, and He'll punish it, and He'll
separate you from Him for all eternity, because it cannot change. Thank God. He said, I am the
Lord. I change not. Happy is the people who has the
God of Jacob for their help. You sons of Jacob, you were to
the earth. It changes not. Oh, bless His
name.