The Immutability of God by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. This message was first preached on January 7th in the year 1855.

The text for this morning comes from the Book of Malachi, Malachi chapter 3, verse 6. I, the Lord, do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

It has been said by someone that the proper study of mankind is man. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God. The proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can ever engage the attention of a child of God is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the activities and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father.

There is something very enlightening to the mind in a contemplation of the divinity. It is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity, so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can embrace and grapple with. In studying them we feel somewhat content and go on our way with the thought, see, I am wise. But when we come to this master science, finding that we cannot discover its depth and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that our wisdom fails us and we are like a wild donkey's newborn colt and solemnly cry out, I was only born yesterday and know nothing.

No subject of contemplation will tend to humble the mind more than thoughts of God. We will be obliged to feel, O great God, how infinite you are, what worthless worms we are. But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this tiny globe. He may be a biologist, boasting of his ability to dissect a beetle, analyze a fly, or arrange insects and animals in classes with almost unutterable names. He may be a geologist, able to discuss all kinds of extinct animals, He may imagine that his science, whatever it is, elevates and enlarges his mind. I dare say it does. But truly, the most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity.

Nothing will so enlarge the intellect Nothing will so magnify the soul of man as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And while humbling and expanding us, this subject is eminently comforting. Oh, there is in contemplating Christ an ointment for every wound. In reflecting on the Father there is an end for every grief. and in the influence of the Holy Spirit there is an ointment for every sore. Would you like to remove your sorrows? Would you like to drown your cares? Then go plunge yourself into the Godhead's deepest sea. Become lost in His immensity and you will come out as one getting up from a bed of great rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know of nothing which can so comfort the soul, so calm the swelling clouds of grief and sorrow, so speak peace to the winds of trial as devout meditation on the subject of the Godhead.

It is to that subject that I invite you this morning. We will present you with one view of it, that is, the immutability of the glorious Jehovah. I am, says my text, Jehovah, for so it should be translated. I am Jehovah, I do not change, so you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

There are three things to discuss this morning. First of all, an unchanging God. Secondly, the persons who derive benefit from this glorious attribute, the descendants of Jacob. And thirdly, the benefit they derive. They are not destroyed. We address ourselves to these points.

First of all, we have set before us the doctrine of the immutability of God, the immutability of God. I, the Lord, do not change. Here I will attempt to expound, or rather to enlarge the thought, and then afterwards to bring a few arguments to prove its truth.

I will offer some exposition of my text by first saying that God is Jehovah and His essence never changes. God is Jehovah. and his essence never changes. We cannot tell you what the Godhead is. We do not know what substance that is which we call God. It is an existence. It is a being. But what that is we do not know. However, whatever it is, we call it his essence and that essence never changes.

The substance of mortal things is always changing. The mountains with their snow-white crowns remove their old diadems in summer, its rivers trickling down their sides, while the storm cloud gives them another coronation. The ocean, with its mighty floods, loses its water when the sunbeams kiss the waves and snatch them in mists to heaven. Even the sun himself requires fresh fuel from the hand of the infinite almighty to replenish his ever-burning furnace. All creatures change. Man, especially as to his body, is always undergoing revolution. Most likely, there is not a single cell in my body which was in it a few years ago. This frame has been worn away by activity. Its atoms have been removed by friction. Fresh cells of matter have, in the meantime, constantly accrued to my body. And so it has been replenished, but its substance is altered. The fabric of which this world is made of is always passing away, like a stream of water. Drops are running away and others are following after. keeping the river still full, but always changing in its elements.

But God is perpetually the same. He is not composed of any substance or material, but is pure spirit, essential and heavenly spirit, and therefore He is immutable. He eternally remains the same. There are no wrinkles on his eternal forehead. No aging has weakened him. No years have marked him with the mementos of their passing. He sees ages pass, but with him, it is always before him as the present. He is the great I am, the great unchangeable one.

But note this. His essence did not undergo a change when it became united with human flesh. His essence did not undergo a change when it became united with human flesh. When Christ in years past clothed himself with mortal clay, the essence of his divinity was not changed. Flesh did not become God, nor did God become flesh by a real actual change of nature. No, the two were united in what we call a hypostatical union, but the Godhead was still the same. It was the same when He was a baby in the manger as it was when He created the heavens. It was the same God that hung on the cross. and whose blood flowed down in a purple river, the very same God that holds the world on His everlasting shoulders and bears in His hands the keys of death and hell. God never has been changed in His essence, not even by His incarnation. He remains everlastingly, eternally, the One Unchanging God, the Father of Lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

Secondly, God does not change in His attributes. God does not change in His attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were in the past, they are the same now. And of each of them we may sing, as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

Was he powerful? Was he the mighty God when he spoke the world out of the womb of nonexistence? Was he the omnipotent when he piled up the mountains and scooped out the hollow places for the mighty oceans? Yes, he was powerful then, and his arm is the same now. He is the same giant in his might. The sap of his nourishment is not dried out, and the strength of his soul stands the same forever.

Was he wise when he formed this mighty globe, when he laid the foundations of the universe? Did he have wisdom when he planned the way of our salvation, and when from all eternity he marked out his awesome plans? Yes, and he is wise now. He is not less skillful. He does not have less knowledge. His eye, which sees all things, is as bright as ever. His ear which hears all the cries, sighs, sobs, and groans of his people is not weakened by the years which he has heard their prayers. He is unchanged in his wisdom. He knows as much now as ever, neither more nor less. He has the same supreme skill. and the same infinite knowledge of the future and of the past. He is unchanged. Blessed be His name.

He is unchanged in His justice. He was just and holy in the past and He is just and holy now. He is unchanged in His truth. He has promised and He brings it to pass. He has said it and it will be done. He does not vary in the goodness and the generosity and the benevolence of His nature. He has always been the Almighty Father and has not become an almighty tyrant. And His strong love stands like a granite rock, unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity. and blessed be his dear name, he is unchanged in his love. When he first wrote the covenant, how full his heart was with affection to his people. He knew that his son must die to ratify the articles of that agreement. He knew very well that he must tear his most beloved from his very heart and send him down to earth to bleed and die He did not hesitate to sign that mighty covenant, nor did he shun its fulfillment. He loves as much now as he did then, and when the suns will cease to shine and moons fail to show their feeble light, he still will love on forever and forever.

Take any one attribute of God, and I will write on it the words always the same. Take any one thing you can say of God now, and it may be said not only in the dark past, but in the bright future, it will always remain the same. I, the Lord, do not change. Impressed on his heart, it remains.

Thirdly, God does not change His plans. God does not change His plans. A man once began to build, but he was not able to finish, and therefore he changed his plan, as every wise man would do in such a case. He built on a smaller foundation and started over again. But has it ever been said that God began to build and he was not able to finish? No. When he has unlimited resources at his command and when his own right hand decides to create worlds as numerous as the drops of the morning dew, will he ever fail because he does not have the power? Will God ever reverse or alter or disarrange his plan because he cannot carry it out?

But, say some, perhaps God never had a plan. Do you really think God is more foolish than you? Do you begin to work on a project without a plan? No, you say, I always have a plan. So has God. Every man has his plan, and God has a plan too.

God is a mastermind. He arranged everything in his gigantic intellect long before he did it, and once having settled it, he never alters it. This will be done, he says, and the iron hand of destiny writes it down, and it is brought to pass. This is my purpose, and it stands. Neither earth nor hell can alter it. This is my decree, he says. Publicize it, you angels. Put it on the gates of heaven. Ah, go ahead, you devils. Tear it down from the gate of heaven, but you cannot alter the decree. It will be done.

God does not change his plans. Why should he? He is almighty. and therefore he can carry out whatever his pleasure is. Why should he change any plan? He is the all-wise God and therefore cannot have anything wrong with his plan. Why should he change his plan? He is the everlasting God and therefore cannot die before his plan is accomplished. Why should he change his plan? O you worthless atoms of existence, you passing bubbles of the day, you creeping insects on this small green leaf of existence, you may change your plans, but he will never, never change his.

Then this is the good news, for if he has told me that his plan is to save me, then I am safe. my name from the palms of his hands, eternity will not erase. Impressed on his heart it remains in marks of indelible grace.

Fourthly, God is unchanging in his promises. God is unchanging in his promises. Ah, we love to speak about the sweet promises of God. But if we could ever suppose that one of them could be changed, we would not speak of them again. If I thought that the banknotes from the Bank of England could not be cashed next week, I would decline to take them. Likewise, if I thought that God's promises would never be fulfilled, and if I thought that God would alter some word in his promises, then farewell scriptures. I want unchangeable things and I find that I have unchangeable promises when I turn to the Bible. For by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, he has signed, confirmed, and sealed every promise of his.

The gospel is not yes and no. It is not promising today and denying tomorrow, but the gospel is yes, yes to the glory of God. O believer, there was a delightful promise which you had yesterday, yet this morning when you turned to the Bible, the promise was not so sweet. Do you know why? Do you think the promise had changed? Ah, no, my friend, you changed. That is where the matter lies. You had been eating some of the grapes of Sodom, and therefore your mouth was unable to taste, and you could not detect the sweetness. But there was the same honey there. Depend on it, the same preciousness.

Oh, says one child of God, Once I had built my house firmly upon some stable promises. There came a wind and I said, oh Lord, I am cast down and I will be lost. Oh, my friend, the promises were not cast down. The foundations were not removed. It was your little wood hay stubble hut that you had been building. It was that which fell down. You have been shaken on the rock, but the rock under you did not move.

But let me tell you what is the best way of living in the world. I have heard that a gentleman said to a black man, I can't understand how it is that you are always so happy in the Lord, and I am often so sad. Why, master, he said, I throw myself flat down on the promise. And there I lie. You stand on the promise. You have little to do with it. And down you go when the wind comes, and then you cry, oh, how I have fallen down. Whereas I go flat on the promise at once, and that is why I fear no fall.

Then let us, my friends, let us always say, Lord, there is the promise. It is your business to fulfill it. Down I go on the promise, laying flat on it, no standing up for me. That is where you should go, my friends. Prostrate yourself on the promise and remember, every promise is a rock, an unchanging thing. Therefore, cast yourself at his feet and rest there forever.

But now, but now comes one jarring note to spoil the theme. To some of you, God is unchanging in his warnings. To some of you, God is unchanging in his warnings. If every promise stands firm and every oath of the covenant is fulfilled, then listen, you sinner. Note the words. Hear the bell announcing the death of your carnal hopes. See the funeral of the things you trusted in with your flesh. Every warning of God as well as every promise will be fulfilled. Talk of decrees, I will tell you of a decree. He that does not believe will be damned. That is a decree and a statute that can never change. Be as good as you please. Be as moral as you can. Be as honest as you will. Walk as uprightly as you may. There stands the unchangeable warning. He that does not believe will be damned. What do you say to that, moralist? Oh, you wish you could change it? Change it and say, he that does not live a holy life will be damned. Well, that will be true, but it does not say so. It says, he that does not believe. Here is the stumbling block and the rock of offense, and you cannot change it. You either believe or you are damned, says the Bible.

And note, that threat of God is as unchangeable as God himself. That threat of God is as unchangeable as God himself. And when a thousand years of hell's torments will have passed by, you will look up from hell and see written in the burning letters of fire, he that does not believe will be damned. But Lord, I am damned. Nevertheless, it says, will be. And when a million years of torment have rolled by and you are exhausted by your pains and agonies, you will lift up your eye and still read, will be damned, unchanged, unaltered. And when you will have thought that eternity must have spun out its last thread, that every particle of that which we can call eternity must have run out, you will still see it written up there, will be damned. Oh, what a dreadful thought. How do I dare utter it, but I must. You must be warned, lest you also come to this place of torment. You must be told difficult things, for if God's gospel is not a difficult thing, the law is a difficult thing. Mount Sinai, is a difficult thing. Woe to the watchman! Woe to the minister! Woe to the preacher that does not warn the ungodly! God is unchanging in his warnings. Beware, O sinner, for it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

We must just hint at one more thought before we move on and that is, God is unchanging in the objects of his love, not only in his love but in the objects of it. God is unchanging in the objects of his love, not only in his love but in the objects of it.

If ever it should come to pass that sheep of Christ might fall away my fickled, feeble soul, alas, would fall a thousand times a day. If one dear saint of God has perished, so might all of them. If one of the covenant ones is lost, so all may be. And then there is no true gospel promise, and the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance. I will become an infidel at once when I can believe that a saint of God can never fall from grace, thereby losing their salvation.

If God has loved me once, then he will love me forever. Did Jesus once upon me shine? Then Jesus is forever mine. The objects of everlasting love never change. Those whom God has called, he will justify. Those whom he has justified, he will sanctify. And whom he sanctifies, he will glorify.

Thus, my friends, having taken a great deal too much time, perhaps, in simply expanding the thought of an unchanging God, I will now try to prove that he is unchangeable. I am not much of an argumentative preacher, but one argument that I will mention is this. The very existence and being of God seems to me to imply immutability. The very existence and being of God seems to me to imply immutability.

Let me think for a moment. There is a God. This God rules and governs all things. This God created the world. He upholds it and maintains it. What kind of being must he be? It does strike me that you cannot think of a changeable God. I conceive that the thought is so repugnant to common sense that if you for one moment think of a changing God, the words seem to clash. and you are obliged to say, then he must be a kind of a man, and at that point you have a Mormon concept of God.

I believe it is impossible to conceive of a changing God, at least it is to me. Others may be capable of such an idea, but I could not entertain it. I could no more think of a changing God than I could of a round square or any other absurdity. The thing seems so contrary that I am obliged, when I hear the word God, to include the idea of an unchanging being.

Well, I think that one argument will be enough, but another good argument may be found in the fact of God's perfection. Another good argument may be found in the fact of God's perfection. I believe God is a perfect being. Now if He is a perfect being, He cannot change. Don't you see this? Suppose I am perfect today. If it were possible for me to change, would I be perfect tomorrow after the alteration? If I changed, I must either change from a good state to a better, and then if I could get better, I could not be perfect now. Or else I could change from a better state to a worse state, and if I were worse, I would not be perfect then. If I am perfect, I cannot be altered without becoming imperfect. If I am perfect today, I must be the same tomorrow if I am to remain perfect. So if God is perfect, he must always be the same, for change would imply imperfection now or imperfection then.

Again, there is the fact of God's infinity, which puts change out of the question. The fact of God's infinity. which puts change out of the question. God is an infinite being. What do we mean by that? There is no man who can tell you what he means by an infinite being, but there cannot be two infinities. If one thing is infinite, there is no room for anything else, for infinite means everything. It means it has no limits, not restricted in any way, having no end. Well, there cannot be two infinities. If God is infinite today and then would change and become infinite tomorrow, there would be two different infinities. But that cannot be. Suppose He is infinite and then changes. Then He must become finite and could not be God. Either he is finite today and finite tomorrow, or infinite today and finite tomorrow, or finite today and infinite tomorrow, all of which suppositions are equally absurd. The fact of his being an infinite God immediately nullifies the thought of his being a changeable God. Infinity has written on its very brow the word immutability.

But then, dear friends, let us look at the past and there we will gather some proofs of God's immutable nature. Let us look at the past and there we will gather some proofs of God's immutable nature. Has he spoken and has he not done it? Has he sworn and has it not come to pass? Isn't it true of Jehovah that he has done all that he wills and has accomplished all of his purposes?

Turn and look to Philistia. Ask where she is. God said, Wail, Ashdod, and you gates of Gaza, for you will fall. And where are they today? Where is Edom? Ask Petra and its ruined walls. Will they not echo back the truth, the truth that God had said, Edom will be a victim and will be destroyed? Where is Babel? And where is Nineveh? Where is Moab? Where are the nations that God had said He would destroy? Hasn't He uprooted them and caused them not to be remembered on this earth?

Now let me ask you, has God ever cast off His people? Has he ever once forgotten any of his promises? Has he ever once broken his oath and covenant or ever once departed from his plan? No, never. Point to one instance in history where God has changed. For throughout all history, there stands the fact that God has been immutable in his purposes.

Oh, I think I hear someone say, Oh, I can remember. I can remember one passage in scripture where God changed. Well, my friend, I also thought that once myself. The passages that you are referring to are the ones that speak of the death of Hezekiah. The story goes that Isaiah came in and said, Hezekiah, this is what the Lord says. Put your house in order because you are going to die. You will not recover. Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord. And before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him. Go back and tell Hezekiah, I will add fifteen years to your life.

Now, you may think that proves that God changes, but really I cannot see the slightest proof of that. How do you know that God did not know that? Oh, but God did know it. He knew that Hezekiah would live. Then he did not change. For if he knew that, how could he change? That is what I want to know.

But do you know one little thing? That Hezekiah's son Manasseh was not born at that time, and that had Hezekiah died then, there would have been no Manasseh, and no Josiah, and no Christ, because Christ came from that very line. you will find that Manasseh was twelve years old when his father died, so that he must have been born three years after this. And don't you believe that God decreed the birth of Manasseh and foreknew it? Certainly He did. Then He decreed that Isaiah should go and tell Hezekiah that his disease was incurable, and then also to say, in the same breath, but I will heal you and you will live.

" He said this to stir up Hezekiah to prayer. He spoke in the first place as a man. According to all human probability, your disease is incurable and you must die. Then he waited till Hezekiah prayed. Then came a little implied but at the end of the sentence. Isaiah had not finished the sentence. He said, put your house in order because you are going to die. You will not recover. But, and then he walked out.

Hezekiah prayed a little and then Isaiah came in again and said, but I will heal you. Where is there any contradiction there except in the brain of those who fight against the Lord and wish to make him a changeable God?

Now to our second major point. Let me say a word to the persons to whom this unchangeable God is a benefit. Let me say a word to the persons to whom this unchangeable God is a benefit. I the Lord do not change, so you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed.

Now, who are the descendants of Jacob who can rejoice in an immutable God? First, they are the children of God's election. They are the children of God's election. For it is written, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. Yes, before the twins were born, or had done anything good or bad, it was written, the older will serve the younger. The descendants of Jacob are the children of God's election, who through sovereign grace believe, by eternal destination, grace and glory they receive. The descendants of Jacob here refer to God's elect, those whom he foreknew and predestined to everlasting salvation.

The descendants of Jacob also refer to persons who enjoy special rights and titles. Jacob, as you know, had no rights by birth, but he soon acquired them. He exchanged a bowl of stew with his brother Esau and thus gained the birthright. I do not justify the means, but he did obtain the blessing and so acquired special rights. The descendants of Jacob spoken of here are those persons who have special rights and titles. To them that believe he has given the right and power to become children of God. They have an interest in the blood of Christ. They have a right to enter in through the gates of the city. They have a title to eternal honors. They have a promise to everlasting glory. They have a right to call themselves children of God. Oh, there are special rights and privileges to those who belong to the descendants of Jacob.

Thirdly, these descendants of Jacob were people of special manifestations. These descendants of Jacob were people of special manifestations. Jacob had had special manifestations from his God, and thus he was highly honored. One night he lay down and slept. He had the hedges for his curtains, the sky for his canopy, a stone for his pillow, and the earth for his bed. Oh, it was then he had a special manifestation There was a ladder, and he saw the angels of God ascending and descending on it. He thus had a vision of Christ Jesus as the ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, with angels going up and down, bringing us mercies. Then what a manifestation there was at Mahanim, when the angels of God met him, and again at Peniel, when he wrestled with God and saw him face to face. Those were special manifestations. And this passage refers to those who, like Jacob, have had special manifestations.

Now then, how many of you have had personal manifestations? Oh, you say, that is fanaticism. Well, it is a blessed fanaticism too. For the descendants of Jacob have had special manifestations. They have talked with God as a man talks with his friend. They have whispered in the ear of Jehovah. Christ has been with them to eat with them, and they with Christ. And the Holy Spirit has shone into their souls with such a mighty radiance that they could not doubt that these were special manifestations. The descendants of Jacob are the ones who enjoy these manifestations.

Fourthly, they are people of special trials.

They are people of special trials. Ah, poor Jacob. I would not choose Jacob's lot if I didn't have the prospect of Jacob's blessing. For his was a hard lot. He had to run away from his father's house to Laban's. And then that crusty old Laban cheated him all the years he was there, cheated him of his wife, cheated him in his wages, cheated him in his flocks, and cheated him all through the story. In time, he had to run away from Laban, who pursued him and overtook him. Next came Esau with 400 men to destroy him. Then there was a season of prayer, and afterwards he wrestled and had to live the rest of his life with his hip out of joint. And a little further on, Rachel, his dear beloved wife, died. Then his daughter Dinah was raped by Shechem. And then his own sons murdered the Shechemites. And then Jacob's dear son Joseph is sold as a slave in Egypt. And then a famine comes. Then his son Reuben goes up and sleeps with one of Jacob's concubines. His son Judah commits incest with his own daughter-in-law. and all his sons become a plague to him. Finally, his favorite son Benjamin is taken away, and the old man, almost broken hearted, cries out, Joseph is no more, and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin? Never was a man more tried than Jacob, all because of the one sin of his cheating his brother. All through his life, God disciplined him.

But I believe there are many, many who can sympathize with dear old Jacob. They have had to pass through trials that were very much like his. Well, my cross-bearers, God says, I, the Lord, do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Poor tried souls, You are not destroyed because of the unchanging nature of your God. Now do not fret. Do not fret and say with the self-conceited misery, I am a man who has seen much affliction. Why, the man of sorrows was afflicted more than you. You only see the edges of the garments of affliction. You never have trials like his. You do not understand what troubles mean. You have hardly sipped the cup of trouble. You have only had a drop or two, but Jesus drank the very dregs. Do not fear, says God. I, the Lord, do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, people of special trials, are not destroyed."

Then one more thought about who the descendants of Jacob are. For I would like you to find out whether you yourselves are descendants of Jacob. One more thought about who the descendants of Jacob are. For I would like you to find out whether you yourselves are descendants of Jacob. They are people of special character. They are people of special character. For though there were some things about Jacob's character which we cannot commend, There are one or two things which God commends. There was Jacob's faith, by which Jacob had his name written among the mighty men of faith, who did not obtain the promises on earth, but will obtain them in heaven. Are you people of faith, beloved? Do you know what it is to walk by faith, to live by faith, to get your temporary food by faith, to live on spiritual manna all by faith? Is faith the rule of your life? If so, you are the descendants of Jacob.

Now lastly, Jacob was a man of prayer, a man who wrestled and groaned and prayed. There is a man up in the balcony who never prayed this morning before coming to church. Ah, you poor heathen, don't you pray? No, he says, I never thought of such a thing. For years I have not prayed. Well, I hope you will before you die. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray a lot when you get to hell.

There is a woman, she did not pray this morning. She was so busy sending her children to Sunday school, she had no time to pray. No time to pray? Did you have time to dress? There is a time for every purpose under heaven, and if you had purpose to pray, you would have prayed.

Children of God cannot live without prayer. They are wrestling Jacobs. They are people in whom the Holy Spirit so works that they can no more live without prayer than I can live without breathing. They must pray.

Dear friends, please note that if you are living without prayer, you are living without Christ, and dying like that, your destiny will be in the lake which burns with fire. God redeem you, God rescue you from such a lot.

But you who are the descendants of Jacob, take comfort, for God is immutable.

Thirdly, I can only say a word about our last point, the benefits which these descendants of Jacob receive from an unchanging God. The benefits which these descendants of Jacob receive from an unchanging God.

So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Destroyed? How? How can man be destroyed? Why, there are two ways. We might have been destroyed in hell. If God had been a changing God, the descendants of Jacob here this morning might have been destroyed in hell. Yes, if it wasn't for God's unchanging love, I would have been tormented in the fire.

But there is also a way of being destroyed in this world. There is such a thing as being condemned before you die. condemned already. There is such a thing as being alive and yet being absolutely dead. We might have been left to our own devices and then where would we have been now? Carousing with the drunkard, blaspheming Almighty God, Oh, had he left you, dearly beloved, had he been a changing God, you would have been among the filthiest of the filthy and the vilest of the vile.

Can't you remember in your life times similar to those that I have felt? I have gone right to the very edge of sin. Some strong temptation has taken hold of both of my arms so that I could not wrestle with it. I have been pushed along, dragged, as if by an awful satanic power, to the very edge of some horrid precipice. I have looked down, down, down, and seen my doom. I quivered on the brink of ruin. I have been horrified, with my hair standing on end. I have thought of the sin I was about to commit, the horrible pit into which I was about to fall.

A strong arm reached out and saved me. I have pulled back and cried, O God, could I have gone so near sin and yet come back again? Could I have walked right up to the furnace and not fallen down like Nebuchadnezzar's strong men, devoured by the very heat? Oh, how is it possible that I should be here this morning when I think of the sins I have committed and the crimes which have crossed my wicked imagination? Yes, I am here. I am here undestroyed because the Lord does not change.

Oh, if He had changed, we would have been destroyed in a dozen ways. If the Lord had changed, you and I would have been destroyed by ourselves, for after all, Mr. Self is the worst enemy a Christian has. We would have committed suicide in our own souls. We would have mixed a cup of poison for our own spirits if the Lord had not been an unchanging God and knocked the cup out of our hands when we were about to drink it.

Then we would have been destroyed by God himself if he had not been an immutable God. We call God a father, but there is not a father in this world who would not have killed all his children long ago. So provoked would he have been with them if he had been half as much troubled as God has been with his family. God the Father has the most troublesome family in the whole world. Unbelieving, ungrateful, disobedient, forgetful, rebellious, wandering, murmuring, and stubborn children. Well, it is because he is patient, or else he would have taken not only the rod, but the sword to some of us long ago.

But there was nothing in us to love at first, so there cannot be less now. John Newton used to tell a whimsical story and laugh at it too. of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of election, Ah, sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born, or else he would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards. I am sure it is true in my case, and true in respect to most of God's people. For there is little to love in them after they are born, that if he had not loved them before then, he would not have seen any reason to choose them after. But since he loved them without works, he still loves them without works. Since their good works did not win his affection, bad works cannot sever that affection. Since their righteousness did not bind his love to them, so their wickedness cannot snap the golden links. He loved them out of a pure sovereign grace, and he will continue to love them.

But we would have been destroyed by the devil and by our enemies, destroyed by the world, destroyed by our sins, by our trials and a hundred other ways if God had ever changed. Well, now time fails us and I can only say a little more. I have only just briefly touched on the text I now hand it to you. May the Lord help you, you descendants of Jacob, to take home this portion of meat, digest it well, and feed upon it. May the Holy Spirit sweetly apply the glorious things that are written, and may you have a great feast of choice meats and wines.

Remember, God is the same, whatever is removed. Your friends may abandon you. Your ministers may be taken away. Everything may change, but God does not. Your brethren may change and treat your name as vile, but God will still love you. Let your station in life change and your property be taken away. Let your whole life be shaken and you become weak and sick. Let everything flee away. There is one place where change cannot put its finger. There is one name on which change can never be written. There is one heart which never can alter. That heart is God's. That name is love. Trust Him. He will never deceive you. Though you hardly think of Him, He will never, never leave you, nor will He ever let you leave Him. Amen.