Well, it's good to see you out
there. I want to remember those who requested prayer. Put in your prayer list,
Mark Crowe, also Zane Green, who's going into the, I think
it's the Marine Corps, in the Marine Corps today. He's leaving for, I don't know
whether he's going to PI or to, maybe going to Pendleton, I don't
know, but he's going somewhere to start his basic training in
the Marine Corps, He will find it to be a tremendously interesting
experience. I'll guarantee you that. Yeah,
interesting. That's good. Yeah. Certainly
interesting for me. Remember these folks who requested
prayer, and also Dee Parks. I think he's going to New York
City to a cancer center this week to get a second opinion. He's already had his first chemotherapy
treatment. for a second opinion, he's going
to one of those cancer centers that specializes in cancer. This
one up in New York specializes in the type of cancer he has,
so hopefully he'll find something out this week to either solidify
the report he's already been given, the diagnosis he's already
been given, or maybe a change in it, so we'll wait on that. Donnie? Donnie's got cancer? Where? Oh my, well. Is it in late stages, or? It
may be because he had it before and had treatment. Oh, did he? It's back again. Well, generally,
that's not unusual for men in his late years to get prostate
cancer. Most people don't die from it,
they die with it. So, you know, it can be, if it metastasizes,
it can be very dangerous. Cancer goes to the liver, the
brain. remembered on a lot of power in here prayers also don't
fancy daughters the minister to him okay uh... and i can't think of any other
naps at reese's got a birthday this week and if you will know
where birthday present is that's parked out there and it's a beamer nice birthday
present happy birthday Okay, let's begin our worship service
with hymn number 212, Nothing But the Blood of Jesus. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? ? How precious is the flow ? ?
That makes me white as snow ? ? No other fount I know ? ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? ? For my part in this I know ? nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin untold, nothing
but the blood of Jesus, not a good that I have done. ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus
? ? Oh, precious is the flow ? ? That makes me white as snow
? ? No other fount I know ? ? Nothing but the blood of Jesus ? This
is all my hope and peace Nothing but the blood of Jesus This is
all my righteousness Nothing but the blood of Jesus Oh, precious
is the flow ? Makes me white as snow ? No other fount I know
? Nothing but the blood of Jesus After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 474. If you have your Bibles, turn
to the prophet Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament. I want to read one verse of scripture.
The title of my message this morning is Ever the Same. Malachi chapter 3 and verse 6. The Lord says, For I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. Our Father, we bless you and
thank you for your immutability, for the fact that once you have
set a thing on course, you will finish it. Once you have decreed
a thing, you will never change. We are thankful for your eternal
loving grace, which chose us in Christ before the world began.
made Christ to be our surety and assume our sin dead. Then
take on human flesh and come into this world and die in the
room instead of his people. And in that death to make the
payment that we owe to you a death for our sin. And he put away
our sin by the sacrifice of himself. Perfected them that are sanctified
by that one glorious offering and made it so that you will
remember their sins no more because remission has been made there
is no more sacrifice we thank you father that such knowledge
though too high for us and too holy is yet put in our hearts
and in our minds by your spirit And we are given faith to believe
and rest in the glorious work of Jesus Christ. How precious
that is. Father, we pray for those who
are sick. Remember Brother Donnie Hightower, that you'd be with
him as he's been re-diagnosed with his cancer. Mark Crowe is
in the hospice. Zane Green as he prepares to
go into the military to serve his country. We ask, Lord, you'd
watch over him and be with him. Fix his heart and mind upon Jesus
Christ. Continue to pray for Brother
D. Parks as he goes to New York for this new diagnosis of his
cancer. We ask, Lord, you'd be with him
and his wife Christy and the kids, the Morels and the Parks. We ask, Lord, you'd be with them.
I know their heart is broken. Help us now this day to worship
you. as we gather here, as we consider who you are and what
we are, and the great grace that you have shown to us, who deserve
nothing but your wrath. We praise you, Father. Help us
now to pray in Christ's name. Amen. Only a sinner saved by grace. Not have I gotten, but what I
received. Grace hath bestowed it, and I
have believed. Boasting excluded. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner ? Saved by grace
? This is my story ? To God be the glory ? I'm only a sinner
? Saved by grace ? Once I was foolish and sin ruled my heart
? Causing my footsteps from God to depart ? ? Jesus hath found
me, had be my case ? ? I now am a sinner saved by grace ?
? Only a sinner saved by grace ? by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Tears unavailing, O Marin and
I, Mercy had saved me, or else I must die. Sin had alarmed me,
Fearing God's face, but now, saved by grace, only a sinner. Only a sinner Saved by grace
This is my story May God be the glory I'm only a sinner Saved
by grace Tears unavailing No merit had I Save me or else I must die. Sin had alarmed me, fearing God's
face. But now I'm a sinner saved by
grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. Only a sinner. Saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner. Saved by grace. I must have an affection for
that third verse. Sing it twice. Let's sing the
fourth verse now, okay? sinner whose heart overflows
loving his Savior to tell what he knows wants more to tell it
would I embrace I'm only a sinner saved by grace only a sinner
by grace. Only a sinner saved by grace. This is my story. To God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. Ask Steve and Fred to receive
the office this morning, please. Let us pray. Father, again we
come in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, our King, our Master,
our Elder Brother, closer than a brother, our Father, our Savior,
the perfect and wondrous gift that you have given to your people. In Him, you have given them perfect
wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And every good
thing that can be had in this old world, you've given to your
children in Jesus Christ. Help us now as we return unto
thee that which belongs to you. Let us do it with joy and thanksgiving,
we pray in Christ's name. and and you I invite your attention back
to Malachi chapter 3. These words of our Lord are a summation
of what He said to Israel through Malachi. For I am the LORD, and I change
not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. In that phrase there is a presupposition
an intimation, a suggestion that were he to change they would
all be consumed. And the only reason that they're
not consumed is not because they deserve not to be consumed. It's because God says I don't
change. He had chosen them. He had delivered them. He had
given them a religion. He had protected them and watched
over them many, many, many years. And the book of Malachi shows
where natural religion, where religion without Christ, always
ends up. After this book was written,
God did not speak through a prophet for 400 years. for four centuries,
which matched the time of slavery in Egypt. For 400 years, there
was no word from God. Now during that time, the Pharisees,
the men of the temple, kept the books, hidden, watched over them
and kept them so we would have them later on and we can thank
them for it. but they came to believe that
these books were their possession and that they had the right of
interpretation of them and they were the only ones who knew what
they said and they became what they believed to be the voice
of God for 400 years and then a man came on the scene named
John the Baptist who stirred things up considerably came out
of the wilderness wearing camel hair robe and eating wild locusts
and told them to repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. They
didn't feel like they had need of repentance. They were like
the ninety and nine who stood back while the one sheep was
lost and they had no need of repentance. He said you got to
bear fruits of repentance. You got to turn. You got to turn. Four hundred years. and then
a man speaks, but he only had a six months ministry. He preached
for six months and then they cut his head off. But his job was not to speak
for himself but to point the finger at someone else. A man
walking down the road and he said, Behold the Lamb of God. There he is. That's why I'm here. That's what I got to say. Behold
the Lamb of God and take away the sin of the world. Where was religion when our Lord
stepped foot on this earth? Well, He came to His own and
His own received Him not. He came into the world that He
made and created and it received Him not. Religion was going along
well. It hadn't changed. It was doing
just fine. Doing just fine. But it was doing
like it was doing in Malachi. and Malachi is a treatise on
natural religion, the vileness of it, the foulness of it. Our
Lord confronted these people by telling them, I've loved you. I've loved you. He said that
in the very first part of the chapter in verse 2. I have loved
you, saith the Lord. They said, wherein have you loved? Where have you loved us? He said,
I've loved you. Cared for them, watched over
them, protected them, fought their battles, all that stuff
for all these years. When did you love us? When? Then on down here he says this
in verse 6, A son on earth is his father, and a servant his
master. If then I be a father, where
is my honor? And if I be a master, where is my fear, saith the Lord?
O priest, that despise my name, say ye. And they said, when did
we despise your name? When did you love us? When did
you despise our name? When did we despise your name?
He said, well, you offered polluted bread upon mine altar. And you say, wherein have you
polluted thee? And that you say the table of the Lord is contemptible.
and you offer blind, you offer blind for sacrifice, is that
not evil? You offer the lame and the sick,
is that not evil? Offer it now to your governor.
Will he be pleased with thee and accept thy person, saith
the Lord? Over in verse 11 of chapter 2
it says, Judah dealt treacherously. An abomination is committed in
Israel and in Jerusalem, for Judah hath profaned the holiness
of the Lord, which he loved, and hath married the daughter
of a strange God. The Lord will cut off the man
that doeth this, the master and the scholar, out of the tabernacles
of Jacob, and him that offereth the offering unto the Lord of
hosts. And this have ye done again, covering the altar of
the Lord with tears, and weeping, and crying, insomuch that he
regardeth not the offering any more, or receiveth it with the
good of your hand. Yet ye say, Wherefore? When do we do that? This is what
they were doing. This is where religion would
take them. They didn't set up a lamb and wash him fourteen
days to make sure he had no fowler of blemish. They'd go out in
the flock and they'd find one that was wounded, or had cancer,
or a bad eye. That's what they'd offer to the
Lord. The leftovers. The leftovers. And they were
so much into the ceremony that the ceremony meant more than
what the ceremony represented. Oh, they would show up and they
would have a Holy Ghost meeting. There would not be a dry eye
in the house. People would be crying and carrying on. God said
they're crying and carrying on covering that altar with tears
so much so that nobody even regards the sacrifice. It's all about
the tears. It's all about the feeling. It's
all about the sentiment. Verse 17 of chapter 2, he says,
You've wearied me, saith the Lord, with your words. Yet you
say, Wherein have we wearied you? Everything you said they've
done, they call him a liar. They make God a liar. over in
chapter 3 verse 7 it says this even from the days of your fathers
you have gone away from mine ordinances have not kept them
return to me and I will return to you saith the Lord but you
say wherein shall we return wherein shall we return verse 13 of chapter
3 your words have been stout against me saith the Lord and
you say what have we spoken so much against thee This was the
state of the church at this time. It was falling apart. He said
of the feasts that they were offered, he says, I'm going to
rub your faces in the dung of your feasts. He said that in
his book. These people ought to be shot.
They ought to be put in hell. They ought to be thrown out.
They ought to be discarded, disowned, divorced, and left alone. And
the Lord said this, I am the LORD I change not therefore though you deserve
to be consumed you'll not be consumed because I have not changed this is about God's immutability it's an aspect or an attribute
of God And sometimes when we study a certain attribute of
God's character or purpose, men do so at the expense of some
other aspect of God's character or purpose. The main reason for that is not
because they do not believe God, but the finiteness of language
betrays them in their efforts to try to explain things that
need no explanation. If you read the Puritans, you'll
find many of them said, for example, God must be just, but He doesn't
have to show mercy. I understand what they were trying
to convince men that God doesn't have to save anyone in an effort
to say that salvation is by grace alone. I understand the logic
of that and the reasonableness of it. It's often implored by
the Puritans. The only problem is that justice
and mercy don't need to be reconciled. they don't need to be reconciled.
Mercy flies on the wings of satisfied justice. There is no mercy where
justice has not been accomplished. Mercy will not come to you if
justice has not been accomplished for you and justice is exacted
for this reason for this reason because justice is exacted, mercy
will be shown. God didn't say I'll have justice
and not mercy. He didn't even say that at all.
He said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will
have mercy. God will be merciful. He's ready
to show mercy, Scripture said. Sometimes such difficulty arises
that when doing a study on the attributes of God, dealing with
one singular attribute can run a risk of removing it from the
one who has all the attributes. Justice and mercy are incompatible. except in Christ. There, mercy and truth, the psalmist
said, are met together and righteousness and peace have kissed each other. We use terms, or men use terms
like God could have or God might have, when the proper language
to describe God resides entirely and precisely on what He did.
That's how God is measured. That's how God presents Himself
as to what He did. That kind of language might have
and could have doesn't exist in the language of Scripture.
We can find out what God did. We will discover that it was
the only right way that it could be done. It was the only right
way that it could be done. And it was the right and perfect
way to do it. The measure of a thing being
done is that God does it. That's what makes it right. Shall
not the judge of all the earth do right? Yeah. He'll always
do what's right. So if God did it, you can count
on this. It's right. And I know that flies in the
face of human sentimentality. When something horrible happens
like this shooting out in Texas when all these children were
shot. We're all appalled by that. Angry about that. And I can't
tell you how many people say, what kind of God would let this
happen? The kind who always does what's right. That's the one. Could or would
does not even enter into the scheme of immutability. I am
the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Men sometimes debate on whether
Christ as a man could have sinned. I've had men ask me, could Christ
have sinned? I didn't want to say he could
because it would give more power to the fact that he didn't. He
could have sinned. The right question is this. Did
He sin? Did He sin? If He did not, He
could not because He cannot change. For Jesus Christ is the same
yesterday, today, and forever. God is sovereign. For this we
have no doubt. Nothing is too hard for Him.
I can't tell you how much I prayed that prayer when one of our brothers
and sisters was sick or going through a trial. Usually start
out, Lord, there's nothing too hard for you. If it would glorify
you and honor your name, would you do this? I know it's not
a problem with ability. Nothing is too hard. With Him,
all things are possible. He said that. This all has to
do with His power and His ability. There are things that He cannot
do. These things have to do with His will and His character. God
cannot take someone to heaven unless that person is perfectly
holy. He cannot. It must be perfect to be accepted
is what he said in Leviticus 21. And God cannot send a man
to hell if Christ has died for him. God cannot lie. He is not a man
that he should lie. God cannot be unfaithful. He'll
not allow His faithfulness to fail. Even when we don't believe
He abideth faithful, He cannot deny Himself. All these things reside in the
attributes that are clearly declared in this text. God cannot change.
God cannot change. This is This attribute is called
immutability. This means that in the plainest
terms, He cannot change and He cannot be changed and He DOES
NOT change and He HAS NOT changed. All those apply. Also, He WILL
NOT change. From everlasting to everlasting,
He is God and He DOES NOT change. Because this is so, nothing that
He gives will ever be taken away. All the gifts of God are without
repentance, Scripture says. All good and perfect gifts come
from above, from the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness
nor change. Nothing He takes away will ever
be given back. If He takes away your sin, you'll
never be charged for it. Romans 4.8 says, There are those
who walk on this earth to whom God will never charge with sin. He'll never charge. Why? Because
He's taken their sin away by Jesus Christ and He'll never
give it back. And I know that the fact that God does not change
and cannot be changed is a painful thorn in the side of religion,
free will religion. such thrive on the notion that
they can change God, they can get God to do something, that
through much prayer, praying through, or being prayed up,
or adding feet to their prayers, or some silly nonsense like that,
or by raising people's emotional thermometer, I heard a preacher
say that one time, and I was actually in the congregation
when he said it, to some flaming, fevered pitch, or singing the
right song with the right amount of drama, pathos, and sentimentality,
God will be somehow aroused stirred up even obligated to do something
but regardless of the manifold machinations of the flesh the
fact remains and will remain God does not change do what you
will you ain't gonna change him and he according to the prophecy
of Jacob about Judah in Genesis 49 He is an old lion. Who shall rouse him up? Who shall
rouse him up? For the ruined sinner awakened
to the fact that he has no hope in himself and must fall completely
on the grace of God and the mercy of God. The concept that God
does not change is a song in the night to his heeding ears. All that God is is revealed in
Christ And the mention of that name is the declaration that
God has a people and he will save them. Many men say, Why me, Lord? When
they hear the gospel, they say, ought to say, Why not me? I fit
the bill. I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. Maybe you'll save me. Immutability means that all whom
God has chosen will be saved. He's chosen them for the foundation
of the world. All whom He has made to be His people, they'll
be saved. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. He shall. It
is impossible to be otherwise, because God cannot change. This
is the beauty of it. If God has chosen you to salvation,
if God has awakened you to your sinful condition and brought
you to Jesus Christ, that's never going to change. Come hell or
high water, it's never going to change. You may commit murder. That will not change. David did.
You may commit adultery or even incest. That man in 1 Corinthians
did. God didn't change. Why? God loved that man. How could
he do that if God loved him? Because he's a sinner. Don't
think that you can't do anything. Anything that anybody else can
do on the face of God's earth, you can do it too. Because it's
in you. It's part of you! The only thing
that keeps you from it is not your goodness, it's the sovereign
restraint of God. If He was to lift His finger
from this congregation this morning, none of us would make it out
alive, probably. Because the love you have for
one another didn't come from you, it came from God. If He
has given you faith, You will always believe. You will always trust Christ.
And you will always have the faith because He does not change.
If you receive mercy, then you will always have mercy. You will
be like old Jeremiah in Lamentations 3. God has beaten me up plenty
of times. He has grinded my teeth with
stones. He has cast me down into the
dirt. He has shot me full of arrows. Read Lamentations 3 up
to verse 22. He said, Then I call this to
mind, that His mercies are new every
morning. No matter what has happened,
His mercies are new every morning. This is remarkable to consider.
Granted, it's difficult for us to really grasp because we are
mutable and change from day to day and never for the better.
And being mutable does not mean that we can change, it means
that we will. But our constant change has zero
effect on him. He cannot change. He does not change. In our text,
the message is plain. A very singular and simple reason
is given why we, the sons of Jacob, sinners all, are not consumed,
though we deserve to be. We are not consumed for only
one reason, because the Lord changes not. This is why His
long-suffering is called salvation. He doesn't change. The language
of mercy and grace and justice and propitiation and salvation
is the language of immutability. We who have been brought to faith
in Christ through grace are reminded on every hand of our utter unworthiness,
our consummate bent to failure, our feebleness, our vileness.
But thanks be unto God, he has purposed to save us and has done
so by the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ and that will never
change. never change because if he did
he would have changed and he doesn't change I am the Lord
I change not therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed mark
it down this is your salvation it's the only reason you're saved
because God loved you from the beginning and did not change
and cannot change therefore he makes all things for you good
and for his glory as he has chosen you in Christ and given you all
spiritual blessings in Christ according as he has chosen you
in him he predestinated you to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ unto himself all to the praise of the glory of his grace
wherein you may accept him in the beloved and that never changes has God shown you mercy Mercy
will be yours forever. It's always been yours. Has God
shown you grace? He'll always show you grace.
You say, well, I might not deserve it. You don't deserve it. Well,
I might mess up. You will mess up. Thank God our salvation's never
been based on anything we think, act, or do, or are. It's all based on this. God does
not change. Praise His holy name. Father,
bless us to understand and pray in Christ's name. Amen.