Before His throne I'll bow down
I will cling to the Christ on the cross For He is the King
I must crown In the Christ of the cross, and
His blood so divine, a marvelous beauty I see. For He opened my eyes that long
had been blind, to behold Him now. So I'll cherish the Christ of
the Cross And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to
the Christ of the Cross For He is the King To the Christ of the cross I
must ever be true His shame and reproach gladly bear For in love He constrains, Till
all shall be gained His glory. So I'll cherish the Christ on
the cross And before His throne I'll bow down I will cling to
the Christ of the Cross, For He is the King I must crown. The book of Malachi was the last
word from God for over 400 years. God did not speak to a prophet
or a father for 400 years from the time of Malachi until John
the Baptist came on the scene in Matthew. 400 years of silence. What God was saying and what
he's saying to us who have his word complete. Since you have
my word, You are without excuse. Malachi sets forth the corruption
and ruin of the Jewish religion. How ruined it had become. They
called God a liar seven times in that one book. Our Lord promised
that suddenly the messenger of the covenant would appear in
his kingdom and be like a refiner's fire and refine the priesthood
that is the church. So they'd come forth like shining
silver and gold. one of the things he declared
was that he would keep his promise he would keep his promise because
he does not and will not ever change if you were looking for
a doctrine in a theology book this would be called the immutability
of God God does not change now sometimes believing men, men
of goodwill, when seeking to exalt a certain aspect of God's
character or purpose, do so at the expense of some other aspect
of His character and His purpose. The main reason is not because
they do not believe God, but the finiteness of language and
the frailty of the human mind betrays them in their efforts
to try to explain things that do not need explaining or trying
to reconcile things that they suppose are in opposition to
one another when they are not. The Bible is a book of order.
From Genesis to Revelation it has one singular message that
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. In order to exalt God's justice,
for example, I've heard men say God must be just but He doesn't
have to show mercy. God must be just, but He doesn't
have to show mercy. They sometimes create a scenario
in their mind where they see a council of the attributes meeting
in old eternity somewhere in heaven wherein the subject of
saving a sinner is being addressed. In that scenario, mercy and grace
are at odds with justice. Justice wants to destroy the
sinner. Mercy wants to save the sinner, they say. But no such
counsel ever took place to start with. I understand that men are
trying to convince man that God doesn't have to save anyone in
effort to say that salvation is all by grace. It's a logical
argument often employed by the Puritans. The only problem is
that justice and mercy do not need to be reconciled on any
level. And human logic need not advance
its reasoning upon holy writ. Mercy flies on the wings of satisfied
justice. That's how mercy comes to people.
But justice is exacted because mercy must and will be shown. God says, I will. Now when God
says, I will, that means he will. and there's nothing you can do
about it, and you can't stop it. God says, I will, this is
my glory, I will show mercy unto whom I will show mercy, and I
will be gracious unto whom I will be gracious. He said he's going
to be gracious, and he said he's going to show mercy. So somewhere
in this vast realm of humanity, somebody's going to get mercied
by God. Some ones will be graced by God,
because He said, I will show mercy, and the only people whom
He shows mercy to and grace to are sinners. Nobody else. He didn't come to call the righteous,
but bring sinners to repentance. God said He would be merciful,
even as He said He would be just. He said, I am a just God and
a Savior. Therefore, look unto Me, all
ye ends of the earth, and be saved. I'm a just God. and a
Savior. When considering the manifold
attributes of God, human reasoning occasionally runs the risk of
taking a singular attribute and removing it or diminishing it
from the One who has all the attributes combined. Justice and mercy are incompatible,
except when they're seen in Christ. In Him, in His great and magnificent
substitutionary, propitiatory, sacrifice, mercy and truth are
met together, the psalmist said, righteousness and peace have
kissed each other and the result is that God is just and justifier
of him that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now sometimes we
human folk use terms like God could have, I hear that a lot
on TV, God might have, God wants to, when the proper language
to describe God resides entirely and precisely in what He has
done. And the reason for that is we
don't know what He is doing. Now we can look at the paper
tomorrow morning and find out what He's done, but what He's
doing right now we have no idea. In Ecclesiastes chapter 3 the
Lord said, I put the world in their heart that they might not
know what I'm doing. In other words, we view everything
from a worldly view. We view everything from our own
circumstance. We don't know what God is doing.
I hear people say, well, God's working on that man. You don't
know that. I don't know that. I used to hear it when I was
in church many years ago in false religion. They'd see a man troubled,
and they'd say, well, God's working on that man. He might have had
a stomachache. Might have had food poisoning. Might have had
a toothache. Who knows? But you don't know God's working on him.
How do we know God's worked on somebody? We know He's worked
on somebody when they come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Because
all that are taught of the Father, and have learned of the Father,
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. All who are drawn by the Father,
come to the Lord Jesus Christ. So we say, men say things like
God could have, but we say things like God did. Because that's
what He did. That's what we have in Scripture.
If we can find out what He did, we will discover that it was
the only way to do it, and it was right and perfect. The perfect
way to do it. Could and would not even enter
into the realm of acceptable vernacular when referring to
the immutable God. For example, I heard men debate
over whether Christ as a man could have sinned. The right
question is, did He sin? That's the question. Did He sin?
If He did not, which He did not, He could not have, because He
cannot and does not change. He's the same yesterday, today,
and forever. God is sovereign. Nothing is
too hard for Him. With Him, all things are possible.
He is Lord over all. He's out of control. He's out
of control. No human being on earth is out
of control. He's controlled by a thousand
things. God Almighty is out of control. What does that mean?
He does what He wants to do. He's always done what He wanted
to do. He's always done what He was pleased to do and none
can stay in His hand. None can frustrate Him. I hear
people talking about frustrating God. You can't frustrate Him. You can't alter His intent. You
can't change His purpose. You have nothing to do with those
things. nothing whatsoever. This all has to do with his power
and his ability to perform his desire and his design. Yet there
are things that he cannot do. And these things have to do with
his will and his character. God cannot take someone to heaven
unless that person is perfectly holy. God cannot send a man to
hell if Christ has died for him. God cannot lie He's not a man
that he should lie. God cannot be unfaithful. When
we don't believe, yet he about us faithfully cannot deny himself. All of these things reside in
the attribute that we first refer to as the immutability of God. God cannot change. He cannot
change. This means that in the simplest
terms, He cannot be changed, He does not change. He has not
changed. He will not change. From everlasting
to everlasting, thou art God. He has not changed. In Hebrews
13, verse 8, the Lord says of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is
the same yesterday, today, and forever. That means He'll never
change. He'll never change. Because this is so. Nothing that
He gives will ever be taken away. the gifts of God are without
repentance, saith the Scripture. Likewise, nothing he takes away
will ever be given back. When he removes it, it's gone.
I know that the fact that God does not change and cannot be
changed is a torturous thorn in the side of free will religion.
Such religion thrives on the notion that through much prayer,
praying through, or being prayed up, gathering together and joining
hands and praying or raising people's emotions to a fever
pitch or singing the right song at the right amount of drama,
pathos and sentimentality. God is somehow aroused, moved,
indeed obligated to do something because you've done something.
God does not change because you pray. The fact remains will remain.
This is it. You want a motto to put over
your door that you walk out every morning and see before you go
to work, before you join this world? Look up, see it. God does
not change. The poet said change and decay
all around. I say, O thou who changest not,
abide with me. Abide with me. For the ruined
sinner who has no hope in himself, but must fall completely on the
grace and mercy of God, the concept that God does not change is melody
and poetry to his ears. As all that God is, is revealed
in Christ and the very mention of that name. If you say that
name, you have said much doctrine, just saying the name, Jesus. For that name is He will save
His people from their sins. That's why you call Him Jesus.
Just to mention that name is a declaration that God has a
people and He will save them from their sins. Immutability means that all for
whom He has chosen, all whom He has made to be His people,
listen very carefully, all of them, every one of them will
be saved. Why? Well, He said it, didn't
He? And He does not change, and He cannot lie. All whom He died for will be
saved. We do indeed rejoice in the Christ
of the cross. Has He given you faith to believe
Christ? Has He given you faith to trust
in Christ? Then let me tell you something, you'll not lose it.
I hear people say, well, I lost my faith. Well, you don't have
to start with it. What you start with anyway is a gift. If God
has given you faith, you'll die in faith. I'll guarantee that.
Why? Well, you say, I change every
day. Yeah, but God don't. And He's the one that gave you
faith. You'll always have faith because He does not change. Do
you believe? You'll always believe. You'll
go out of this world believing and enter into glory believing.
You'll always be a believer. Because God has given you faith
to believe. Have you received mercy? Well, tomorrow morning
when you wake up, you'll receive mercy again. New mercies every
day. New graces every day. New starts
every day. The child of God has a life of
do-overs. We just do. We start all over
every day. Every day. You'll always have
mercy because He does not change. That's what the prophet said
in Lamentations. Oh, new mercies I see every morning. New mercies. This is a remarkable attribute
to consider. But He just gives such peace
to those who love Jesus Christ, who know Him. Granted, it's difficult
for us to really grasp because we are mutable. We change all
the time. We change from day to day. And
here's the rub, we never change for the better. We just don't. I know people think they get
more holy as they get older. No, that's not true. I think
it was Spurgeon who said the idea of progressive sanctification
is a young man's doctrine because the older you get, the more you
realize how black your heart is, how wicked you are. The thoughts
and intents of your mind and heart are scary. Boy, I'm glad
God don't change. It's difficult. Being mutable
does not mean we can change. It means we will. means we will. But our constant chain has zero
effect on God. Isn't that something? He does
not change. Many times I've sat over in that
old recliner reading this and reading that. I've actually thought,
is there really a God? I've thought that. Why would He have anything to
do with me? And I think he doesn't change I am God I change not therefore
because of that you sons of Jacob who are the sons of Jacob they
are believers he's called the God of Jacob more than he's called
the God of Israel because Jacob is a picture of us we are Jacob
we are supplaters and thieves and snakes and sneaks that's
what we are by nature change and decay everywhere in
us God doesn't change. For those who know Him, this
is pleasant. This is pleasant places. This is high and holy
ground. In our text, the message is plain. Very singular and simple reason
is given for why we are not consumed Surely we know if we know anything
about God because the first thing we learn about God when God gives
us faith is that He's holy and we're not. That's the first thing
we learn. We don't know anything about
sin until God shows us what Christ suffered on the cross. We have
no idea what sin is. We have no idea the extent of
it, the ruin of it, the cost of it, the price it took to pay
for it. We don't have any idea of that
until we see God. We're not consumed, we ought
to be. We ought to be. Why are not we
consumed? Because we bettered ourselves. And we put lipstick on the pig.
We dragged ourselves out of the water at Waller for a while.
Left our vomit on the floor for a while. We'll return to it,
God said. We'll return to it. But God doesn't change. Therefore,
your sons of Jacob are not consumed. There is no other reason for
you not going to hell than the fact that God doesn't change.
That's it. I change not. This is why His
long-suffering toward us is called salvation. And it is long-suffering. What does that mean? He puts
up with us. Puts up with our weaknesses, our frailties, our
sin, our vileness. He puts up with that. Why? Because
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 and reminded on every hand of our utter unworthiness,
our consummate bent to failure, our feebleness and vileness,
it all resounds to thanksgiving unto God. He has purposed to
save us and He has done so by the substitutionary sacrifice
of Christ that will never change because if it did, if salvation
could be lost, He would have changed and He does not. and cannot. You are secure, my
brother, my sister in Christ. You're safe. Why? Because you
pray. No. Because you read your Bible.
Because you come to church. Because you give. Why? Because
God doesn't change. That's it. That's the fullness
and the plainness of it all. God does not change. You see,
He predestinated you to be conformed to the image of His Son. that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? Spare not His own
Son, but freely give Him up for us all. How shall I not with
Him freely give us all things? He'll give us all things, because
He doesn't change. God who has blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ according as He has chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy and without blame before Him in love having predestinated
us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ unto Himself
to the praise of the glory of His grace that we might be accepted
that we are accepted in the beloved Brethren, we are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief in the truth of the Word, until He called
you by our Gospel to the attaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God who has saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace which was given us in Jesus Christ before the world
began. When? Before the world began still the same, because He does
not change. Father, bless us to understand
and pray in Christ's name. Amen.