Turn in your Bibles to Malachi
3. Now, I don't know what I'm going
to do with this message this morning. I don't know whether
I'll be enabled of the Spirit of God to convey to you what
I believe that the Lord has revealed to me from this passage of scripture. But I've spent some time on it.
I've looked carefully into it. There's something here, something
special, something great, something unusual. The title of this message
is Our Unchanging God. Our Unchanging God. Malachi 3,
verse 6. Malachi 3, 6. For I am the Lord,
I change not. For I am the Lord, I change not."
Now, one word here that's very significant, very important,
therefore. Therefore. You hear what he said?
I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore. Therefore there's
something to be realized, there's something to be received, there's
something to rest in, there's something to hold to. only because I'm the Lord, and
I don't change. Therefore you sons of Jacob,"
who is that? "...are not consumed." Now, someone
once said, now listen to me for a little while. Someone once
said that the proper study of mankind is man. If you want to
know what you are, what you really are, not what you claim to be
or what folks think you are, and what I am, not what I claim
to be or what folks think, what I really am, you want to know
what I really am, as a man, human being, or woman, if you want
to know what I really think and what you really think, what you
really think in your innermost thoughts, what you are, what
you think, and what you do and what you are capable of doing.
If you really want to know, then you go back to the Garden of
Evil, the Garden of Eden, which was the Garden of Evil. You go
back there and you pick up man and you follow him all the way
down through history and you study him and study his deeds. and study his greed and study
his lust and envy and covetousness down to this hour, and you'll
know what I am and you are and what we think and what we'll
do and what we do and what we're capable of doing, because man
hadn't changed not that much. He hadn't changed for my daddy
Adam and the dwellers of Sodom and those who drowned in And
those who cried, give us Barabbas and nail Jesus Christ to the
cross, we hadn't changed one iota. That's right. I'm talking
about what we really are, what we're capable of, what we really
think, what we do and what we will do. Jeremiah said, the Ethiopian
can change his skin just as readily as you can do good. When you
see an Ethiopian by his own free will turn to a white man, then
you say, I can do good, but not until. When you see a leopard
whose spots are his nature, those spots are from the nature of
the beast, like an elephant has a trunk. When you see that leopard
by his own ability and will change his spots, then may you do good
that are accustomed to doing evil. The preacher Solomon said
in Ecclesiastes, Vanity, that's all it is. Vanity. I've tried
it all, he said, and it's vanity of vanities. The psalmist said,
man at his best state is altogether, altogether vanity. Vanity. And God said in Genesis
3, 19, dust thou art, to dust thou shalt return. And that's
what you are. And that's what I am. It's true,
the proper study of mankind, naturally speaking, is man. But,
here's what I want to say now. The proper study of God's elect,
the proper study of the believer, and I'm saying that the believer
is not a natural man, he's a spiritual man. The believer is not a man
born of fleshly parents, he's a man born of God. He's a new
creature created in the image of him who created him, a spiritual
man. Now, if you want to know this
man, you study Adam and all the sons of men, this man by nature,
this man of flesh. But if you want to know this
man who is born again, this regenerated man, this son of This child of
the King, if you want to enter into his nature and what he is
and what he will do, you study his God. That's right, you study
his God. Now, it's true that we bear the
image of the earthy. Turn to 1 Corinthians 15. You
need to see this. It is true that we bear the image,
the likeness, the nature of the earthy. It says that in the Bible
here, in 1 Corinthians 15, verse 47, the first man is of the earth
earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy. Isn't that what I said? You want
to know man? Study the history of man. You'll know different.
But as is the heavenly, such are they that are heavenly. We
bear the image of our Redeemer. Verse 49, "...as we have borne
the image of the earthy, his likeness, his character, his
nature, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly." You want
to know the believer, you study his God. You study his God. In Christ the believer is a new
creature. In Christ the believer is created
in the image of Christ already. I'll show you that. Turn to Colossians
3. Colossians 3. I'm saying that
the believer is a new creature, if any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature, and that that believer as such is created in
the image of Christ, Colossians 3.10. Listen to this, Colossians
3.10. We have put on the new man. That's a new man. a new person,
a new nature, which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created him." Already, now are we sons of God. And we bear the likeness of our
Father. And we're created in the image
and likeness of our Father who created us. And if you want to
know the believer, you study his God. You study his gospel. It's true we have this treasure,
Paul said, in earthen vessels. He's talking about the gospel,
but the gospel is a person. We have this person, this nature,
this divine nature, this image of Christ in an earthen vessel. And Paul talked about it in Romans
7. Turn over there just a minute.
Listen to what Paul said. In Romans 7, verse 20, he said,
Now if I do that, I would not. things naturally in the flesh,
things that I do not approve of, things that I do not object
to. It's no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me. I'm a new creature. I'm a new
person. I still have an old nature. I
still have an old man. And he said, if I do think, if
you hear me say things that I don't approve of and hear me See me
do things I don't approve of. Remember, it's not the new man.
It's not the man created in the image of Christ. It's the old
man. Verse 21, I find the law that
when I would do good, that evil nature is right there. He's right
there with me. I, this new man created in the
image of Christ, this new man born of the Spirit of God, this
new man delights in the law of God. He's an inward man after
the inward man, spiritual man. But, unfortunately, and as long
as I live on this earth, I see, I'm aware of another law in my
members, warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. But I'm
a new man. I'm a new Christian. You want
to know me, you meet my God. You want to know the believer,
you meet his God, because the believer, though he has this
treasure in an earthen vessel, he still has it. He has a knowledge
of God. Let me read you something that
John said in 1 John 5. He has a knowledge of God. He
said, The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding
that we may know God, that is true. Jesus Christ, our Lord,
said eternal life is a knowledge of God. A believer has a knowledge
of God. He has the Spirit of God. If
any man have not the Spirit of God, he is none of his. He has
the life of God. Christ said, you eat my flesh
and drink my blood, you have everlasting life and will never
die, never die, never die. Not only that, but he has the
love of God. Any man loved not, he knoweth not God. God is love. And the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So what I'm saying is this, stay
with me. If you would know the believer, the life of the believer,
the love of the believer, the joy of the believer, the rest
of the believer, the peace of the believer, then you've got
to study his God. Now, listen to this, thirdly.
I realize, I realize, as you get a little older, you get a
little smarter anyway, ought to anyway. I realize that man
must study his earth. Man must study his world. I hear where the humane society
is trying to get them to stop using animals for medicinal experiments
and scientific experiments. Man's got to study the animals
and use the animals for the purposes God gave them. Man's got to study
the sciences. He's got to study energy. He's
got to study medicine. We've got to study these things
relating to human life on earth. Let me show you a scripture for
that. You say, is that in the Bible? Yes, it is, very definitely.
In Genesis 1, there's one thing about it, we all can't sit around
saying hymns all day. Somebody's got to work. Somebody's
got to find out what makes this world what it is and so forth.
In Genesis 1, 27, so God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him, male and female, created he them.
And God blessed them, and God said, And I sit under the palm
tree, and sing hymn. No, be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and do what? And subdue it, and subdue
it, conquer it, conquer it, build, have dominion over the fish of
the sea, the fowl of the air, over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth. You're a busy man, you're a king,
you live in a world, conquer it, conquer it. Get out there
and dig the coal and dig the oil and get out there and conquer,
subdue the electricity, put it in wires, light people's homes,
find out what makes folks sick and how to make them well. Man's
got to study his world. He's got to be a producer. If everybody is a taker and no
one's a producer, we're in trouble. Got to be producers. Got to be. And I know that. But what I'm
saying is that all these things will pass away. Turn to 1 Corinthians
7. All these things, whatever a
man gives his life to, physically, materially, it's going to pass
away. It really is. It's just here
today and gone tomorrow. In 1 Corinthians 7, 29, brethren,
I say this to you, brethren, the time is short. It remaineth
that both they that have wives be as though they had none. And
they that weep as though they wept not, and they that rejoice
as though they rejoiced not, and they that buy as though they
possessed not, and they that use this world, and we use it,
but not abusing it, for the fashion, the habit, the material things,
the possessions, the fashion of this world passeth away. So
what I'm saying to you is this. There's got to be work. There's
got to be labor, there's got to be a subduing, a dominion
over this earth, you've got to be the studier. But all of these
things to which we give our minds and our hands in this life are
but fleeting, fading things, they're passing away. A hymn
writer put it this way, swift to its close ebbs out life's
little day. its earth's joys grow dim, its
glories fade away, change and decay in everything I see. O thou that changest not." Now,
that's what I'm interested in. I'm interested in that which
does not change. Now, I've got to have some interest
in the things of this world, not anxious care, overly anxious
care. I can't give too much time to
it. I've got to give what time God would be pleased to allot
to that. But what I've got to study and
what I've got to be interested in is that which doesn't change.
And that's what my text is all about. I am the Lord, I change
not. Would you know life, real true
life? I'm not talking about just health
and happiness here. I'm talking about would you know
life? Would you live forever? Would you lose your sorrows and
your cares? Would you rise? Would you today
rise above the dust and the dirt and the confusion and the vanity
and the corruption of a passing world? Would you? Then seek the
Lord. Seek the Lord. Plunge yourself. One man said, go and plunge yourself
into the study of God. for all that you know of God
and learn of God and love of God will never be lost. Now, every step upward I take
physically or materially in this world is going to all be gone
someday. Everything I gain financially,
materially, everything I gain physically. You say, I feel better
today than I have in ten years. Yeah, but in ten years you'll
be dead. You see, every step upward I take, everything I gain,
every new name I know, every new person I meet, every new
friend physically, materially I meet, it's every bit going
to be someday just taken away. But every bit of knowledge that
I learn of God is permanent. He changes not. Everything I
learn of God. So here's what I'm saying, the
highest science, the mightiest philosophy, the only great subject,
the only enduring knowledge is the study of God. Now brethren,
don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying the study of religion.
You say, I'm going to get some books and read the great thinkers. No sir, that's not what I'm talking
about at all. I'm not talking about studying
the great religions and the great catechisms and the great confessions
of faith and the great fathers. I'm saying that the only true
knowledge, the highest science, the mightiest philosophy, the
only enduring knowledge is the study of God himself. His name
and his nature, his person and his purpose. His Son and His
salvation, His glory and His greatness, His will and His work. O Lord my God, when I in awesome
wonder consider all the worlds Thy hand hath made, I see the
stars, I hear the rolling thunder, Thy power throughout the universe
displayed. How great Thou art! How great
Thou art! Look at my text one more time
before I get into the points of this message. There's a word
here in our text that I said I wanted you to look at, and
this makes this study of God, this look into our unchanging
God of more consequence and value to you and me. It says, look
at the text again, Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord, I change not,
therefore, therefore, you. I, therefore, you. Something
about me and my character and my being, therefore, something
about you. Does that help? You see what
I'm saying? You want to study you and your future? Study God. All right, three things. First
of all, our unchanging God. Now, our God does not change. He said, I am the Lord. I am
thee. Singular, I am the Lord, the
Lord. Beside me there is none else.
I change not. God does not change in his being.
From everlasting to everlasting, I am God. Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever. The God of the Old Testament
is the same God of the New Testament. The God who created Adam is the
God who will destroy the world. He's the same God. He has not
changed in his being. The eternal, everlasting, immutable,
infinite Trinity is the same. God the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. God does not change in his being. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him, worship him in spirit and truth. Secondly, God does
not change in his attributes. He does not change in his attributes. God is almighty. None can stay
his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? God does not change. Somebody says, Well, I don't
want to deal with the God of the Old Testament. He seems to
me to be severe and exact. The God of the Old Testament
seems to me to be so distant and so far off and so fearful. I want to sit at the feet of
sweet Jesus and learn. Let me tell you something. Jesus
Christ is God. And he is the same. And David
sat at the feet of the Lord. David adored and worshiped the
Lord. These men of the Old Testament knew the fear of the Lord. And
men today who know the Christ of the Bible, they know the fear
of the Lord. God has not changed in his attributes. He's almighty. He always has been almighty.
He said, none can stay my hand or say unto me, what doest thou?
He's all-wise. He's called wisdom. God is just,
shall not the judge of the earth do right? God's never done wrong. Right is right because God does
it. God doesn't do anything because
it's right. What is right, it's right because
God does it. God is the same in His holiness. Holy and reverent is His name.
God is the same in His truth. He said, I am the truth. God
does not just speak truth, God is truth. God does not just reveal
love, God is love. God is merciful, God is gracious,
and God is love, and He's unchanging in all of His attributes. And
then thirdly, God does not change in His purposes. It has been
God's purpose since the foundation of the world to redeem a people.
Almighty God will have a new heaven and a new earth. That's
always been His purpose and it is now. God Almighty will populate
that new heaven and that new earth with the people as the
stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore. That has always
been His purpose, and it is His purpose now. God will populate
that new heaven and new earth with a people out of Adam's race,
redeemed by the blood of his Son and robed in the righteousness
of his Son, and that people who populate heaven out of every
tribe, kindred, nation, tongue unto heaven through the blood
of Jesus Christ will all be conformed perfectly to the image of Christ.
And Almighty God will be glorified in his redemption, in his purposes
through Jesus Christ, and every knee in heaven, earth, and hell
will bow and acknowledge that Christ is Lord. He hasn't changed. That's always been his purpose.
And God has not changed in his promises. Hath he said, and shall
he not do it? Hath he spoken, shall it not
come to pass? Turn to Romans 4, verse 20. You see, this was the foundation
of Abraham's faith. This was the foundation of Abraham's
faith. And if I could get the people
who listen to me to stop looking so much at the benefits and start
looking at the benefactor. If I could get the people who
listen to me to stop looking at the gifts and look at the
giver. To stop looking at the blessings and start looking at
the blesser. Believe God! Look to God, look
to me, he said, I am God, there's none else. And this was the foundation
of Abraham's faith. He believed, though the promises
were not realized. That's right, these Old Testament
people died in faith, not having received the promises, but believing
God. In Romans 4, verse 20, he staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God
had promised he was able to perform. God's unchanging in his promises. He has set out from all eternity
to have a people perfectly conformed to Christ. And every revelation
and every dispensation and every type and picture and prophecy
and every appearance of our Lord, his incarnation, his obedience,
his death, his burial, his resurrection, his ascension, his intercession,
is to accomplish that purpose. And it doesn't matter on which
side of the cross you live. Salvation is believing God. That's
right, it doesn't matter on which side of the cross, whether on
this side of the cross or if you live in Moses' day, it's
looking to God and believing his promises, though they're
not fully revealed or manifested. That's right, Cecil, it's believing
God. And it's believing God regardless of what country, in which country
you live. Believing God in redemption.
Now I'm not just saying believing there is a God, the devil believes
that and trembles. I'm saying believing God as he's
revealed in his Word, as he's revealed in his Son, as he's
revealed by his Spirit in his redemptive character. Just and
justifier. That's right. Righteousness but
Redeemer. Truth yet mercy. Believing God
in his redemptive character. is unchanging in his promises.
And then this, God's unchanging in his threatenings too. You
talk about God's promises never changing, the Lord is true, the
Lord is faithful, the Lord will forgive, the Lord will show mercy.
That's right. No man ever looked to Christ,
rested in Christ, believed in Christ, that did not finally
realize the full blessing that God promised in Christ. But I'll
tell you this, his decree of judgment never changes either.
He said to his disciples, you go preach, and he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. You know what he said? But he
also said, he that believeth not shall be damned. And God's
unchanging in that decree. It cannot be altered. When death
comes, And I made some folks mad recently about this, but
I tell you, it's so. God says, he that believeth
not will be damned. And you might be a preacher,
and you've been a real religious fellow, and you've done all these
things, but I tell you, if you have not Christ, you'll be damned.
You may be a sweet little old mother, you know, born children
and brought them into the world and nursed them and cared for
them and washed their dirty clothes and fed them and minded your
own business, but he that believeth not will be damned." Now, you
can write that down. He's unchanging in his promise.
His promises are all in Christ. And when you come to die, if
you have not known Christ and loved Christ and looked to Christ
and been redeemed by Christ and resting in Christ, It's written
across the portals of the gates of death, he that believeth not
will be damned. God's unchanging. And you come
to the judgment, he that believeth not will be damned. And when
all the years of eternity are rolling by, you remember this,
he that believeth not will be damned. I don't know why folks
object to salvation God's way. Salvation God's way through Christ
is the only way. It's the only way God has seen
fit to give. Secondly, not only the only way,
but salvation by Christ, by his sacrifice and substitutionary
work, is the way that God's justice and law is honored and satisfied,
and God can still be God. Why would you object to that?
And then thirdly, it's the easiest way. I tell you, believing God
is a lot easier than obeying the law. Obeying the law is impossible. It's a lot easier to rest in
someone else's work than my own. I don't know why men object to
this. It's a lot easier. And I tell you this, it's a lot
more peaceful. I can rest in Christ. I could
never rest. What, have I done enough? Well,
salvation by works, but have I worked enough? Salvation by
your faith. Well, what if I quit believing?
What if I get old and senile, and the blood doesn't run to
my head anymore, and I get hardening of the arteries, and I can't
read the Bible, and I can't pray, and I can't think, and I don't
know my name? What's going to happen then? Well, I'm just lost.
Not if I'm resting in Christ. I don't know why you want this
modern day religion. It ain't worth a dip of snuff.
It's not. It's nothing. It's just as nauseating
and flighty as dust. God won't have it, why should
I want it? God's unchanging. He's unchanging in the objects
of his love. I've got to go back to the text
again. He says here in the text, and this will lead you into something
I want you to look at here. He said, I am the Lord, I change
not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob.
Our Lord is unchanging in the objects of his love. He set his
love upon some folks. And they identified here with
Jacob, and you know what he said about Jacob? Jacob, have a love.
Esau, have a hating. It was said to Rebekah, the children
were not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand. It was said to her,
The elder shall serve the younger. Jacob, have a love. Jacob, have
a love. And I don't care how Jacob was
born, he was born second. Or how he was raised, he was
a mama's boy. They named him supplanter, chief. He finagled his brother out of
his birthright. He finagled everywhere he went
for so long before God Almighty really brought him to his knees
and to love Christ like he ought to. But God never stopped loving
him, never did. I read a poem one time, if ever
it should come to pass that sheep of Christ might fall away, alas,
my fickle, feeble soul would fall a thousand times a day.
But I'm thankful, he said, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore,
I change not. I change not in my attributes,
I change not in my righteousness, I change not in my holiness,
I change not in my love or the objects of my love, I change
not in my promises toward Christ, I change not in my purposes in
Christ, I change not in my redemptive glory, I change not! Therefore,
you sons of Jacob are not consumed. Let me tell you something about
the sons of Jacob just briefly. First, who are they? Well, first
of all, they're the sons of God's election. He chose Jacob. That's
right, he chose Jacob. He said, Jacob, have a love.
Isn't that correct? God chose Jacob. Secondly, these
sons of Jacob, not only are God chosen, but secondly, they have
a God-given birthright which they do not deserve. That wasn't
Jacob's birthright, that was Esau's birthright, Paul. That's
who it belonged to. Jacob didn't have a birthright,
but God gave him one. God gave him one. And I'll tell
you this, God decreed to give it to him, God determined to
give it to him, and God gave it to him, and nobody could get
it back. It was Jacob's. It's Jacob's. And you and I have a birthright,
and that's not just the inheritance, money-wise, that's a relationship
with God. And we have that birthright,
we don't deserve it, it's not ours by birth, but God gave it
to us. Thirdly, these sons of Jacob
are sons of divine revelation. Jacob saw something nobody else
saw. He lay down at Bethel and put
his head on some rocks, and he saw that night the way to glory. He saw the way to glory. He saw
God Almighty's throne and that ladder that led from the earth
to the throne of God, and he said, this is the gate of heaven,
this is the house of God, this is the Redeemer. He saw God's
way of salvation. And that's what you and I have
seen. And then, fourthly, Jacob got a new name. He wrestled with
the Lord. He was a man of prayer, and he
wrestled with the Lord. And the Lord said to him in Genesis
32, 28, no longer will you be called Jacob, but you shall be
called Israel, which means a prince with God. No longer a cheat,
no longer a supplanter, no longer one that took your brother's
birthright, but you're now a prince of God. But Jacob was a man of
trial. Poor Jacob. He ran away from
home. He married the wrong woman. His
brother Esau tracked him down and tried to destroy him. His
sons, all of them, brought him great grief. God put Joseph,
you know, we think about Joseph's trials. And God put Joseph through
these trials to bring Joseph to Egypt. But I'll tell you,
Joseph wasn't the only fellow suffering. His dad suffered.
That's right, he was gone for 40 some odd years. Didn't know
where he was. And I'll tell you, old Jacob
suffered. So he was a man of suffering. But they're also sons
of faith. If you'll turn to Hebrews 11,
Hebrews chapter 11, listen to this, you sons of Jacob, you
folks that are just like Jacob, you folks that have got the same
blessing of Jacob, I'm the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons
of Jacob, Hebrews 10, Hebrews 11 verse 21, by faith Jacob,
when he died My faith, Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed
both the sons of Joseph in worship, leaning upon the top of his step."
Jacob was a man of faith, a man of faith, by faith. All right,
let me wind this up. I'm saying that the study that's
most profitable, the study in which we ought to be engaged,
the study that will be the greatest blessing is the study of theology.
I'm not talking about religion. Religion has corrupted the way, religion has corrupted the people,
religion has corrupted religion. But the study of God, his name
and his nature, his person and his purposes, his son and his
salvation, his ways and his ways, study God. Come to know God,
I am the Lord thy God, I change not, therefore, because that's
true, You sons of Jacob are not consumed." Now, what does that
mean? Well, one of two things. First of all, we're not consumed
by our sinful natures. We're not consumed by our natural
flesh. God won't let it happen. We're
not consumed by the world. We're not consumed by depression
and grief. We have a hope. We're not consumed
by the curse of the law. We're not even consumed by old
age and death, because God said you'll never die. You'll never
die. We're not consumed by judgment. We're not consumed by eternal
hell. And this is the reason, not because
of your dedication and your faithfulness, but because of His. Not because
you don't change, we do change. We're creatures of change. We're
subject to change. Everything about us changes.
But our God is the same. And I'll tell you, when your
feet is on the rock that never moves, and the rock that never
changes, and the rock that's been tried and proved, and all
these changes that go on about us, our foundation never moves.
And he's our foundation, and our hope, and our refuge. I put
a little poem in the bulletin. I called Martha the other day.
I was reading Spurgeon's books, and I found this little poem.
It's in the bulletin on the back. I think it's just outstanding,
and it's what I feel right now as I come to the close of this
message. See it on the back at the bottom. We have listened
to the preacher. Truth by him has now been shown,
but we need a greater teacher from the everlasting throne.
Application is the work of God alone. May it please thee in your might,
majesty, and glory, in your power, and by your spirit, create in
these hearts of ours a desire to know thee. As the old man
wrote many years ago, Lord, lead me to seek thee, thee, not thy
things, but thee, not even knowledge but Thee. For if I have Thee,
I have knowledge, and I have wisdom, and I have all things.
And seeking Thee to find Thee, not a substitute or a counterfeit
or an imitator, but Thee, to find Thee, finding Thee to love
Thee above all things, more than mother and father, husband, wife,
brother, sister, yea, this life also, to love Thee, to love Thee
above all and loving thee, to glorify thee. Lord, whether in
life or death, success or failure, trial or sorrow, heartache or
happiness, to glorify thee. Oh, that I might know him, the
power of his resurrection. Create a hunger and a thirst
in our hearts for righteousness. Take away our covetousness and
our flesh. That which is in us, it reaches
out to these things that vanish away, that fade away. Subdue
the old nature and the old man. And lead us to reach out to Thee. To be satisfied only when we
awake with our likeness. For Christ's sake we pray. Amen.