Malachi chapter three, and we'll
read from verse six. Malachi chapter three and verse
six. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers
ye have gone away from mine ordinances, and have not kept them. Return
unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we
return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have
robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed
thee? In tithes and offerings. ye are cursed with a curse, for
ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the
tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house,
and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts. If I will
not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing,
that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will
rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy
the fruits of your ground, neither shall your vine cast her fruit
before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And
all nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome
land, saith the Lord of hosts. Your words have been stout against
me, saith the Lord, Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against
thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve
God, and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and
that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And
now we call the proud happy. Yea, they that work wickedness
are set up. Yea, they that tempt God are
even delivered. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. The Apostle Paul tells us in
Hebrews, Chapter 13, verse 8. I've made an assumption there
that it is indeed the Apostle Paul that wrote the Hebrews.
I believe it was, but it is an assumption. The Apostle tells
us in Hebrews chapter 13 and verse 8, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
and today, and forever. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
and today, and forever. And James, in chapter one, verse
17, says of Christ, he with whom is no variableness, neither shadow
of turning. This attribute of the unchangeableness
of our God is something that we need to know about and to
understand. It undergirds the whole nature
of our God and his revelation to us. We call it the immutability
of God. And by that, we mean that it
doesn't change. It doesn't mutate. It's immutable. And this aspect, this characteristic,
this attribute of our God, his unchangeableness, speaks to his
constancy, his faithfulness, and every good thing which he
gives to his people. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. The Lord tells us through Malachi
in verse six of chapter three, I am the Lord, I change not. And I want us this evening if
we didn't know it before, to know that the Lord our God is
unchangeable as we leave the service this evening. I want
us to have it repeated in our hearing, reinforced in our understanding,
reconfirmed in our appreciation that our God does not change. I am the Lord, I change not. Our God, who is infinite, who
is eternal, is also immutable. Our God, who is the one who is
all-powerful, all-glorious, does not change. And the Lord Jesus
Christ is immutable as God is immutable. For our Lord Jesus
is God. And this attribute of our Saviour,
His unchangeableness, as it is attested in Hebrews, as it is
attested in James, speaks of the divinity of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It flows from the fact that he
is God. Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
is changeless as God and he does not alter. Our God cannot change for the
better because he is already perfect. He cannot change for the worse,
because he's perfect. If we could think about a God
who is outside of time, who sees all things and knows all things,
who is all powerful, It is impossible that that God could change because
he knows the end from the beginning. We sometimes watch science fiction
films where people can time travel and they realise that something
has gone wrong. So they have to go back in time
to fix it. And then the hope is, if it's
a good film with a good ending, that they manage to fix it and
everything works out all right in the end. But our God knows
the end from the beginning. Our God is not constrained by
time. Our God is all-knowing, all-powerful. He knows exactly what His will
is. He knows exactly the desire of
His heart. And He has set in place everything
with such perfection that nothing needs to change. and nothing
does change. The immutability of our God flows
from his omniscience, his knowledge of all things, and his omnipotence,
his all-powerfulness. It is settled, and it is unwavering,
it is stable, it is sure, it is solid. Our Lord is unaffected
by anything outside of himself. Time doesn't change God. Space doesn't change God. Distance doesn't change God. God is not constrained by these
kind of things. Our God transcends all of these
things. Our God is a spirit. He is infinite
and he is unchangeable. We are bound by time and space. I would go so far as to say we
find it impossible to conceive of anything that is not bound
by time and space. That is why our understanding
of God, our understanding of the divine, our understanding
of heaven is so limited. We can only understand in the
terms that God has given us. And so sometimes we discover
that the Lord, as it were, stoops, descends to our level to describe
himself and to speak of himself in terms that we can understand.
So that sometimes God speaks of himself as if he is constrained
by bodily parts. He speaks about his hands, he
speaks about his feet, he speaks about sitting down, he speaks
about standing up. Why is that? Because God stands
up and sits down? No. God doesn't have a body at
all. He's not constrained or confined
by any of these things. But in order to help us to understand
his works and his ways, he speaks to us in terms that are understandable. And so whenever we do read the
scripture of these kind of things that appear to put any constraints
upon these things that we're speaking about, the power of
God, the knowledge of God, the immutability of God, the eternality
of God, the immensity of God, the spirituality of God. Whenever
we find ourselves saying, well, that doesn't seem to work with
these great themes, Think of it in the context of the Lord
descending to our level in order to teach us something which is
otherwise beyond our comprehension. We cannot conceive of existence
outside of the bounds of time and space in which we are contained. But nothing in this universe
Nothing in this creation will cause God ever to alter
himself or his ways or his will. I was hearing a little bit earlier
today, someone was preaching and I was listening in to their
sermon and it said, the builder of the house is greater than
the house which he has built. And that's right about this universe. This universe is the handiwork
of our creator God, but he transcends the universe. The universe has
such dimensions, such impossible dimensions, such brain-stumbling,
inconceivable dimensions, that it causes us to be humbled when
we think of ourselves in the context of what it is that's
out there. And rightly so. That's its purpose. That's its design. That's why
God has made it like he has, to show us our smallness and
his immensity. Nothing in this universe will
ever change God. and nothing in the will of man
can ever change God. Nothing that is known will change
God, and nothing that is unknown will change our God. Nothing
foreseen and nothing unforeseen, because our God declares, I am
the Lord, I change not. I am the Lord. Do you remember
the sayings of the Lord Jesus Christ when during his ministry,
his three years of ministry, he speaks of the I am sayings. There are a number of them that
he uses. The Lord was referring there
to the terms that God used to describe himself to Moses in
the burning bush. You remember how Moses, as he
was out in the desert, having fled away from Egypt, he was
living as a shepherd there, as a renegade out in the desert,
and he saw a bush burning, and he was intrigued by this burning
bush. He saw that it burned, but it
didn't go out, it didn't extinguish, it didn't finish its burning
and disappear into a little puff of smoke and a few cinders as
he expected it to do. I don't know how long he sat
there or stood there and watched it, but he thought, I need to
go over and see what's happening here, and as he went over, He
was aware that he was entering into a dimension that was beyond
his understanding and God met him there at the burning bush. And we're told in Exodus chapter
3 that God spoke to Moses and he said, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto thee. The Lord Jesus Christ used a
number of I am sayings and he did it purposefully to the Jews
when he was speaking to them in order to teach them, to show
them that he was indeed God. In fact, it was the use of those
terms that so irked and annoyed and angered the Jews. They understood
perfectly when Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, I am the
good shepherd, I am the bread, the light, the resurrection,
the door, and the other phrases that he used to describe himself,
that he was making claims beyond a mere metaphor. He was claiming
to be God. He was claiming to be divine.
He was claiming to be this immutable, this eternal. This omnipotent,
omniscient one that is revealed to us in the scriptures, the
one who talked to Moses, the one who came to Abraham, the
one who ministered to David, the one who revealed himself
to Malachi and spoke these very words to the messenger as he
spoke to his own generation there amongst the Jews. I am the Lord,
I change not. And they all speak about the
Lord Jesus Christ and his divine nature and his divine person. And we see in the Lord Jesus
Christ, this unchangeable one, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. And when we consider other attributes
of our God, when we consider his holiness, the holiness of
God is unchangeable. When we consider his wisdom,
God's knowledge and understanding does not ebb and flow with the
unfolding of time or the experiences of men. We don't know what tomorrow
holds, but God does. The justice of God does not change. It is as clear and emphatic and
as adamant as it ever was. God doesn't hold one people to
one standard of holiness at one time and another people to another
standard of holiness at another time because the standard of
holiness is God's holiness and it does not change. The goodness of God doesn't change. The truth of God doesn't change. What is true now has always been
true and will always be true because it is the truth of God,
the love of God. doesn't change. He doesn't love
somebody one day and not love them another day. The love of
God is immutable because it is an attribute of God. God is love
and God is unchangeable. The grace of God doesn't change. The mercy of God doesn't change. Psalm 119 and verse 89 says, O Lord, thy word is settled in
heaven. Jeremiah 31 verse three, 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. John 13, verse one says, having
loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the
end. In Psalm 100, verse five, Psalm
100, verse five, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting,
and his truth endureth to all generations. I change, he changeth
not. And all these attributes of our
God and all the attributes which are the Lord Jesus Christ's and
his divine person, they speak to us of constancy and of faithfulness
and of reliability. I think it was yesterday, maybe
the day before, I passed a church And it had one of these signs
outside. I always try not to read them
and I always read them. And I always say I wish I hadn't
read it. Anyway, since I suffered, you'll suffer
too. So here's the church notice board
and it says, no bungee cords. You know what a bungee cord is?
No bungee cords. We're looking for leaps of faith. That's not my kind of faith. Faith isn't a disengaging of
reason. Let me say that again. Faith
isn't disengaging our reason. Faith is eminently reasonable. Indeed, that's why God says to
his people, come, let's reason together. I'm going to tell you
what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell you what I've
done. I'm going to tell you who I am. and you're going to find
it reasonable because we're going to reason together. And when we come to see the God
with whom we have to do, it is absolutely reasonable that we
trust him. We couldn't do anything else.
If we understand who God is, if we understand what God has
done, I'm not asking you to take a leap of faith. I'm saying to
you, this is the Lord that revealed himself in scripture. This is
God that changes not. And it would only be a fool who
wouldn't trust such a God. It's a fool that says in his
heart, no, God? No. Covenant promises, covenant agreements
are binding contracts for the salvation of sinners. The deliverance of a guilty people,
the liberty of a captive people, all flows from an agreement that
was made in eternity between God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit, the very same God who says, I am
the Lord, I change not. I change not. Will God the Father
and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, will one of those persons
renege on that contract? Will our God go back on his promise,
having struck the deal? having made disagreement between
the persons of the Godhead, will they go back and breach the contract? Will they revoke it or renounce
it? Will they abandon the promises
that have been made? Well, will they? I'd like to hear that answer.
I'd like to hear that answer. because he's trustworthy, he's
dependable, and it is absolutely reasonable to believe him. This council of which we speak,
or it's called in scripture the covenant of peace, is what is
being highlighted here in this passage of Malachi. For all the shortcomings of the
people of God, and they are many, for all the sins of the people
of God, for all their rebelliousness against His person, His name,
His will and His ways, for their forsaking of His ordinances,
for the very robbery that they have perpetrated against Him,
for the stout words that they have spoken, When did we rob you? When did
we say these things against you? Whenever have we been the people
that are guilty of these accusations that you're making? Us? No, not
us. Surely not us. And God, through his messenger,
through his prophet, testifies against these people. And we say, for all of these
breaches of His will and His ways and His ordinances, for
all of this robbery, for all of this backchat, is there no
end to the sinfulness and the transgressions of men? The blatant denial of the glory
and the holiness and the majesty of God We're thieves, we're liars, we're
backbiters, we're contradictory, we're self-righteous religionists. And as the Jews of old in this
passage in Malachi chapter three, we, as God's chosen elect people,
exhibit the very same traits to the very same extent And why are we not consumed? Why are we not separated eternally
from God, chastised with as many stripes as we deserve, sent into
black oblivion, never to see the light of day again? tortured
and tormented in the fires of hell. Why are we not? Why has holiness not waged war
against us? Our gross unrighteousness, our
indulgent selfishness, the ugliness of our souls. Because the Lord doesn't change.
Because the Lord doesn't change. And he made a promise. and he
entered into a contract and he said to his son, if you will
go and pay the price of those sins for those people, I will
deliver them and I will pardon them and I will make them righteous. And the Holy Spirit, he said,
The Lord God chooses the people and places them into the hands
of His Son, and the Lord Jesus Christ pays the price of their
redemption by the very precious blood which He sheds. Then I
will come to them. And I will open their hearts
and their understanding, and I will teach them holy things,
and I will bring them into the experience of grace, and I will
bestow upon them faith by which they will be able to lay hold
upon the blessings of God in Christ. The elect of God are
preserved, protected, provided for because our God, in his love,
in his mercy, in his grace, in his holiness, in his unchangeableness,
has established a way of salvation for sinners like you and like
me. In the eternal councils, the
security of that people was promised upon a surety ship that was God's
own purpose. The Lord Jesus Christ undertook
to pay every debt that those committed into his care would
ever run up against the holiness of God. Every transgression,
every breach of the law, every sin that was committed was taken,
tallied, and placed on the account of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he bore that sin for us. He satisfied for that sin. And the names of all those who
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life and the persons of all
of those people, those names, were those for whom Christ died. The Apostle Paul writing, Titus
says in chapter 1 verse 2, in hope of eternal life which God
that cannot lie, that is who is unchangeable, promised before
the world began. That's speaking about the decrees
of God. That's the promises that God
made between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These promises or
these decrees are a testimony of God. It's what he did. It's the eternal work of God. Going to come back to that in
a moment. In 2 Timothy chapter 1 verse 9, we read there that
the apostle writing to Timothy says, who hath saved us and called
us with unholy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. In the eternal counsel, in the
covenant of peace, Turn with me to Hebrews chapter six. I
want to read some verses there to you, beginning at verse 13. Hebrews chapter six and verse
13. I'm speaking here about the revelation
of these promises, these eternal promises in the Council of Peace. And we have a picture of it given
to us in the experience of this man Abraham who was so blessed
of God, chosen out by God, blessed of God and spoken to personally
by God, a man who met God face to face and spoke to him. Hebrews 6 verse 13 says, For
when God made promise to Abraham, Because he could swear by no
greater, he swear by himself, saying, surely blessing I will
bless thee. So that is God swearing by himself. That is God saying, blessing
upon blessing. God is swearing by himself, he's
saying, a multitude of blessings will be yours. Blessing I will
bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee. There is an eternal
dimension to these statements. In blessing you, I will bless
you. In multiplying, I will multiply
you. There will be a continuity here,
there will be a continuance, there will be a constancy about
the way in which these blessings will come to you. And so, verse
15, after he, that is Abraham, had patiently endured, that is
he had waited into his old age for the giving of the son, which
was the picture of the multiplying. It was the means of the multiply.
How could he multiply Abraham if there was no son, if there
was no child? So Abraham had to wait for the
fulfillment of this promise to come. And so after he had patiently
endured, he obtained the promise. The son was given. for men verily
swear by the greater and an oath for confirmation is to them an
end of all strife. When we make an agreement, we
shake hands or we're in a courtroom, we make an oath and that is it. We've given our word, we've made
our promise, we've said that our honour is hinged upon our
word and that's an end of strife. That's between honourable men,
that's the end of the matter. You've given me your word, that
will suffice. For men verily swear by the greater,
and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife,
wherein God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise
the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath. Okay, that's the decrees of God
that we mentioned earlier. The immutability of his counsel,
the unchangeableness of his will is his decrees. The decrees of
God are his eternal purpose. And that decree of God, that
immutability of his counsel, is shown to the heirs of the
promise. The heirs of the promise. What
promise? The promise that was given to
Abraham. Multiplying, I will multiply
thee. Blessing, I will bless thee.
It was confirmed by an oath. God gave an oath to Abraham. And therefore these two witnesses,
these two immutable things, the eternal counsel of the decrees
of God and the oath that was given to Abraham, in which, verse
18, it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong
consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope
that is set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor
of the soul, both sure and steadfast. there is a reasonableness in
believing our God. God has granted us these immutable,
these unchangeable, these certain, these sure promises. He has made
an eternal decree by which he will deliver his people by the
sacrifice of his Son and the opening of their hearts in conversion
and faith. and he has made an oath and he
has given that oath to Abraham who is the father of the faithful,
all those that believe. So in giving it to Abraham he
has given it to us and we are the heirs of that promise. So we have an anchor for our
soul. In the midst of the storms of
the world, in the midst of the challenges of our life, in the
confusion and the upside down topsy-turvy circumstances in
this world, we have got an anchor for our soul. What is it? the immutability of our God,
the unchangeableness of our God, the decrees that he has made
and the oath which he has given to us. That hope is sure and
steadfast. What shall we say of the blessings
and the promises of our God? We delight in them. We rejoice
in them. They thrill our hearts, they
comfort our souls, they encourage and they bless us. When we hear
these things, when we see these things, when the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ is set out before us, we rejoice in these
things and we see them to be that anchor of our soul, that
promise which gives us hope, hope in this life and hope for
the life to come. This is the promise of God to
his people in Christ, because the Lord Jesus Christ, as we
have seen in the Gospels and in the writings of the apostles,
has fulfilled and satisfied all things for the deliverance, liberty,
and salvation of his people. Look at verse 10 of Malachi chapter
three. Here are some of the blessings
which God promises to this people, this people who are at peace
with him. These blessings flow to us. Not
because we have been obedient to the demands of God, but because
our Saviour has done all things that are necessary for our peace
with God. Verse 10 says, I will open you
the windows of heaven. I will pour you out a blessing. that there shall not be room
enough to receive it. Used to sing a chorus when we
were young. Running over, running over, my
cup's full and running over. I don't know whether you know
it. I'll open the windows of heaven
and pour you out a blessing. To whom? Does this blessing flow? It flows to those who are at
peace with God. It flows to those for whom the
decrees were made. It flows to that people to whom
the promises are given, the heirs of the promises. These blessings
are ours, not blessings to do with tangible things, though
there may be tangible manifestations of them. the peace that we enjoy,
the opportunity to worship God, to come before Him. But these
are divine promises, promises that speak to our heart, promises
that open our spirits, our spiritual understanding to the ways and
to the glory and to the wonder of our God. When we look to the
Lord, when we look in faith, When we understand his covenant
promise and the covenant grace, when we discover Christ, when
we see him to be the fullness, the sufficiency, the abundance
of God's goodness towards us, then Christ himself becomes the
living bread. He becomes the lively manna,
just as that manna was poured out of heaven upon the Jews in
those old days, in times of famine and starvation and need. So the
Lord gives spiritual food in Christ to his people. He opens
the windows of heaven and he pours out a blessing. and it
enters into our hearts and into our souls, and it comforts and
it encourages us, such that there shall not be room enough to receive
it. Do you ever feel like that? Do
you ever feel like that the Lord has just given you so much that
your heart could burst? That your tears begin to flow? that there just isn't enough
in you to contain all the wonder of the ways of salvation. And
you just have to say, thank you, Lord. Thank you. It's all we
can give is our gratitude and our praise. He nourishes our
hearts. He feeds our souls. He refreshes our spirits. And the windows of heaven are
opened and the blessings are poured out. And the saints of
God discover and experience more of Christ every day. More, says the Apostle, than
we could ever ask or think. Ask or imagine. And there's more,
because look at verse 11. That wasn't enough. He says,
Who's the devourer? Is that not Satan? Should we fear the devil? Should we worry about Satan? Should we be anxious at his roaring? And what about his devils and his
minions? What about all those temptations
that we face? What about all those dangers
that seem to be on every side? What about all the things that
encroach upon our lives and get in under our skin and cause us
to worry and fret? Should we be concerned about
these things? Not the devil, not Satan. Don't give him that privilege
of worrying about him. Don't do it. All things are under
the control. All things are under the restraint
of our God and his purpose and his providence. What did we say
about him at the beginning? He doesn't change. He is all-powerful. He is all-knowing. He knows the
beginning from the end. These things are under control
and our God has made promises for the good of his people. and
he will not let us go. He says, I am the Lord, I change
not, therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. There's not anything that happens
in this world that the Lord God could not give a nod at. and it would completely alter
and change at his will. He couldn't just give a glance
at and everything changes. Or raise a finger and everything
works according to his purpose. If he gives a rebuke to the devourer,
then he will easily prevent any doing of damage or hurt to the
saints of God. In fact, we could say this, that
if he doesn't do that, it's only because he's got a greater good
that is going to come from anything that the devil is able to do
or design or perpetrate against us. I will open the windows of heaven. I will rebuke the devourer for
your sakes. And what about verse 12? All
nations shall call you blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome
land. All nations shall call you blessed. And what does that mean? Well,
maybe it means that they will call us blessed because the elect
will be gathered from all nations. There was a time when the gospel
of God was restricted basically to one people. You can count
the exceptions in the Old Testament probably on the fingers of one
hand. It was all about one people, but they were in themselves a
picture of something more marvellous that was going to be revealed
at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ when the very isles, when
the nations, when the gospel would go forth into all the world. And there would be, as we're
told in Revelation, a gathering in of all tribes and all peoples
and all nations. And the nations shall call you
blessed because they'll know who you are. They will see you
in the midst of them. There is a people who are blessed
of God. Or maybe It's the nations themselves,
the nations of the world that are blessed by the coming of
the gospel to them. You know, when the gospel is
preached in a town, that town is blessed. When the gospel is
preached in a city, that city is blessed. When the gospel comes
to a nation, that nation is blessed. And we bless the people of our
neighbourhood by simply living in the streets and in the houses
that we do. We bless the people of Great
Falls because we gather here every Wednesday evening and every
Lord's Day and honour our God. This is a blessed place. The
angels gather round Great Falls. and the people of God are blessed
and the people that we live amongst are blessed for the presence
of the elect amongst them. Or maybe it is in subjection
to God who delights to bless his church. So the good gifts
that come to the people of God, the rebuke of the devourer, the
opening of the windows and the pouring out of the blessings,
they have a consequence, they have an impact, they have a knock-on
effect in the world around about us. Perhaps it's a mix of all
of these things, but all nations, the Lord says, shall call you
blessed, for ye shall be a delightsome land. We are a delightsome land. In Isaiah chapter 62, verse four,
there's a lovely verse, it says this. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken. Neither shall thy land any more
be termed desolate. thou shalt be called Hepzibah,
and thy land Beulah. For the Lord delighteth in thee,
and thy land shall be married. Hepzibah means that the Lord
delights in you. I guess some children get called
Hepzibah. I don't know anybody personally,
but I guess they didn't think that that was an advantage going
through life. But we think it's an advantage.
We think it is to be called Hephzibah because the Lord delights in
us. Our land is called Beulah because it is married to him. Beulah's land, the land that
is the people, the nation that is the Lord's. A land that is
married. Isaiah 62 verse 5 says, as the
bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice
over thee. Those early days of marriage,
that love, that passion that exists between the groom and
his bride. as the bridegroom rejoiceth over
the bride. And all of the purity and all
of the sinlessness of that picture that is set before us of the
Lord Jesus Christ gathering his bride adorned with purity and
holiness and entering into the consummation of this union that
he has set before us. So shall thy God rejoice over
thee. Who makes these statements? Who
is it that's saying these things? Saith the Lord of hosts, saith
the Lord of heaven, saith the Lord who does not lie, who does
not alter, who does not change. Therefore we shall not be consumed. I want to close just with a couple
of applications. This immutability of which we
have been speaking, I am the Lord, I change not, it is both
a comfort and it is a terror. It's a comfort and a terror. It's a comfort for the saint,
it's a comfort for the people of God. Because our God is faithful
and he can be relied upon. You can trust him. You can trust
him. People talk about trusting the
Lord Jesus. Will you trust the Lord Jesus?
Will you believe in Jesus? You can trust him all right.
But not from some weak, shallow desire in a moment of emotion
or passion by which we imagine that we are handing over our
life and our will to the Lord, but in a deep rooted certainty
that he is trustworthy. For He has done all things that
are necessary, needful for the salvation and deliverance of
His people. He has redeemed us from our sins. He has pardoned us. He has cleansed
us. He has set us free. Can we trust
Him? Oh, He is trustworthy. He is
dependable. He is unchangeable. Isaiah 54
verse 10 says, I'm happy to trust him. I'm happy to trust a God
like that. But there is a terror for the
wicked. our God can be relied upon. Ezekiel 8, verse 18 says, Don't
hear too many sermons on that, I guess. the people crying with a loud
voice in the ears of God for mercy. And he declares, I won't
hear you. I won't hear them. God hates
sin with an hatred that is immutable. Our unchanging God hates it eternally. from which flows the eternal
punishment that will rest upon the wicked against all those
who die in their sin, against all those who are outside of
Christ. May God be merciful to us. May
God be our portion and our faith. May God be our possession. And
may we be able to say with Joab, today, Thy servant knoweth that
I have found grace in thy sight, my Lord, O King. Amen.