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Well, I know there are name changes in the news, people changing their names. Reminds me of 2002, a man named Charles Haffey. And Charles Haffey went before the judge and said, I'd like to change my name from Charles Haffey to God.
And surprisingly, the judge said, you cannot change your name to God. Do you have any other options? He said, well, I'd like to be called I Am Who I Am. And the judge allowed it. When asked, what would you like to be called, what's your first name?
Charles Haffey said, my first name, of course, would be I Am. John Flavel said, they that know God will be humble, and they that know themselves cannot be proud. Spurgeon once wrote, the proper study of the Christian is the Godhead, the highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can engage the intention of a child is the name, the nature, the persons, the doings, and the existence of the great God which he calls Father.
And this morning, if you'll take your Bibles and turn to Malachi chapter 2 and 3, we're going to have a wonderful discussion of the attributes of God, a particular attribute of God that will lift your eyes away from yourself and unto the Lord.
This is going to be a great illustration of Jeremiah 9, let a wise man not boast of his wisdom, let not a mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth, for I delight in these things, declares the Lord.
And so today, we're going to look at a particular attribute of God in Malachi. Now, I love to study the attributes of God. Maybe the most life-changing book in all my life outside of Scripture is a book called Attributes of God by A .W. Peake.
How many people have read it? All the elect raised their hand. And it's free online, by the way, the Attributes of God. And for about 18 or 19 chapters, one attribute is put on display using Scripture to teach you who God is.
And it's so wonderful because we become so absorbed just like Charles Haffey with ourselves and me, myself, and I, and we focus inward so much that we're not like Jehoshaphat who said, my eyes are on you.
I want my eyes on you. And that was a problem in Israel's day. It's a problem in our day as well. Where we get so focused on ourselves, we don't see the world through the biblical lens, through a biblical grid.
And we judge evil based on our own perception. And we judge God based on our own perception. And today, we're going to look at an attribute of God that will change all that. Now, what are the well-known attributes?
Maybe mercy. That's a well-known attribute. Rightfully so. Grace. God's gracious. Patient. Maybe holy, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. Very popular attributes. And again, justifiably so. But there's another attribute that's not known as well as it should be that we're going to look at today.
And it's the doctrine that will help you with two things in particular. Number one, it'll protect you from being a moral relativist. What is that, you say? Well, we'll answer that shortly. And it will also help you with your assurance of salvation.
If you're a Christian, you can have assurance of salvation. If you're dealing with the Christian who's struggling with assurance, what's an attribute that you would tell them? What's an attribute that you should say, when you understand this attribute, your assurance of salvation will be rightly settled?
And the answer is that God doesn't change. The immutability of God. If I were going to be teaching young people 35 years ago, I would say, what was that show again? Teenage Mutants. See, they all know.
Mutant Ninja Turtles. Mutable, changeable. And to think God doesn't change. He never changes. Look at chapter three, verse six. Here's what happens. We come to an attribute and we forget the context that the attribute is settled into.
In other words, when you read Malachi 3, 6, for I, the Lord, Yahweh, do not change. Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. We know that teaches that God doesn't change. That He never gets better.
He never gets worse. He never gets tired. He never grows old. He never changes. But what does it mean in context? There's a context because even the first word in chapter three, verse six, is for. Why would Malachi introduce the immutability of God?
What's the situation? What's the occasion? Why would he tell them, listen, God never changes. He can't change for the better. He can't change for the worse. He will not change. He's absolutely perfect.
I think Pink was right when he said in that book that I told you about, this is one of the divine perfections which is not sufficiently pondered. It is one of the excellencies of the Creator which distinguishes Himself from all other creatures.
God is perpetually the same, subject to no change in His being. Attributes are determinations. He has no beginning. He has no end. Therefore, He cannot change. So we're going to look today at the attribute called the immutability of God and see why it's applicable.
And you're going to see the application. I'll tell you ahead of time. It will help you with moral relativism and it'll help you with assurance of salvation. And in a day and age of change, we need this.
I mean, can you think of things that change? I don't know. Gas prices, they change. My affections for people, they change. Your affections for people, they change. But what about God? Now, Malachi is a series of disputations.
It's kind of a question and answer kind of preaching message. And sometimes it gets pretty tough. The people of Israel, they were talking back to God. Do you like sassy kids? How many parents love it when their kids are real sassy, talking back?
And that's what these people were doing. They were being sassy to God. Don't you be sassy to God, is Malachi's statement. It's very fascinating to walk through this wake-up call. And these people were so sassy that they would begin to think, you know what, the other people are the bad ones.
They're the sinners, not us. And by the way, God, we've returned to the promised land after exile. Socially, politically, and economically, we still are deprived. We still are not getting the goods that you promised back in the promised land.
Hey, Moses' tabernacle filled with glory. Solomon's tabernacle filled with glory. Our tabernacle, no manifestation of who God is. These people were discouraged. They were apathetic and just performing ritual duties, eyes on themselves.
And so it says in chapter 2, verse 17, by the way, here's my strategy. Last week, we looked at these verses, but much more needs to be said about them. So I'm going to do that. And then we're going to look at how immutability helps you with moral relativism and with your assurance of salvation.
So let's go through these verses again and make sure our eyes are going to be fixed on the Lord and not get mesmerized by current events, ourselves, or anyone else. Chapter 2, verse 17, it says, in this fourth disputation, you have wearied the Lord with your words.
But you say, how have we wearied Him? By saying this, everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and He delights in them. Hey, God, you bless the wicked people. You also weary the Lord by asking, where's the God of justice?
And see, right away, the focus isn't on the Lord. The focus is, why do these other wicked people get blessed? Aren't you a just God? What about them? And here's what the Israelites were doing, and here's what we need to be protected against.
God, I deserve grace. I deserve grace. That's what I deserve. Instead of Israel rehearsing her blessings, she points to other people and compares. I mean, if I could sing, I would probably say something.
Israel should have been singing the song, count your blessings. Count your blessings, name them what? One by one. Count your many blessings, see what the Lord has done. Is that how the song goes? Count your many blessings, see what God...
And instead, they're looking at everybody else. Had not God blessed Israel, taking them out of Egypt, giving them food in the wilderness, called them His son? By the way, turn to Ephesians 1, just for a moment, please, keeping your finger at Malachi.
In case we ever get tempted into falling into this trap of saying, you know, God blesses other people, but not me. God, what about my circumstance? Don't you understand how difficult this is? Ephesians 1, 3 is our remedy for this very problematic occurrence.
Look at what Paul does. Instead of looking at the world, I bet you he could pick some bad things that were going on in Ephesus and with the emperor. I bet you he could pick some bad things over there in the red light district of Ephesus.
I bet you he could look at all kinds of things going on, Christians hoveling over in the corner while everybody else was eating and drinking and being merry. But what did Paul write? The apostle Paul gives a good example for all of us when we want to say, well, Lord, what about us?
The other people are getting blessed, but are we? And instead of complaining, what does Paul say? This is celebration with praises. That's what the word blessed means. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Instead of Paul saying, God, where are you? You're not the God of justice. Look at how the evil people prosper. Paul got it. Paul got it by divine grace. And he just wants to say praise, celebration. I mean, think about it for a second.
What Jesus has done for us should cause us to just marvel and wonder and just think, this is amazing. I think it was about a year ago, Luke and I were in London and we saw some crowns with jewels on them in a very famous museum.
We paid a lot of money to go to this museum, stand in line. How many people have seen the jewels there in London, crown jewels? And you know what they do? There's a conveyor belt. So you just don't stand there and gawk the whole time because there's some other people in the queue.
And so you get on there and you just slowly start going. I mean, I'm wanting to walk backwards. It's like some kind of Michael Jackson deal, you know. Because you want to look at them. It's the beauty.
It's these gems and they're valuable. And that's kind of what Paul is doing. Listen, we're looking at our problems instead of remembering who God is and how he's revealed himself. And Paul just wants to start from the very beginning.
Don't forget every spiritual blessing God has given you in Christ. He hasn't held anything back. He hasn't said, well, you know, you get the good stuff later. He's blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Now that word to bless, to speak well of, to eulogize, to extol, never used of pagan gods, never used of Zeus, never used of these other gods because they only did things for people after the people did something for them.
But here this God gives its grace. It's unmerited. It's demerited favor. When God gives, to use the language of Jesus, it's of good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, pouring into your lap.
When I was taught how God gives, you know, you get a box of cereal and you open up the cereal. My favorite cereal is the Trader Joe's, some kind of ginger almond cluster. Can't you just taste it right about now?
Oh, it's good. Put some almond milk on there and you open it up and the thing's half full. It just settles down. But when God gives, when the Lord gives, you open up that box, as it were, that container, super abundant blessings, resources, position, privilege, adoption.
And do you notice the text, in the heavenly places? These relate to heaven, not on earth. And so what happens is these people back in those days, they were getting persecuted and other people were prospering and they just focused on those other people instead of saying, what has the Lord done for us?
Let's go back to Malachi chapter 2. God's going to give an answer and here he is the one that gives an answer. He doesn't have Malachi answer, he himself answers. Where's the God of justice? Instead of praising God for his grace, where's the God of justice?
And so God gives a twofold answer. And I think some of this we went over last week. Behold, Malachi 3 .1, there's going to be judgment for those evil people, but there's going to be, in God's grace, first a messenger that will proclaim repentance and he will prepare the way before me.
Who was that, by the way? Looking back on this side of the tomb and this side of the cross and this side of the New Testament, we know that man was John the Baptist. How good of the Lord, how gracious the Lord to bring a messenger before the king.
And that messenger, instead of cleaning up real potholes and filling up real cracks in the Romans road, he would try to fill up the potholes spiritually by saying, repent, the Lord is coming, the king is coming.
Jesus is going to come back. Where's justice? Well, the second coming will soon happen. So get ready, repent. This is what Isaiah said in Isaiah 40, a voice of one calling in the desert, prepare the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God.
Said of John the Baptist in Matthew 11, behold, I will send my messenger before your face who will prepare your way before me. And then Jesus will come back. Where's the God of justice? Verse 1, part B, and the Lord whom you seek, this is God, the Lord, definite article.
Whenever you see Lord with the in front of it, you know it's divinity. The Lord Adonai whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
Jesus is going to come, the messenger of the covenant, all the covenants of Abrahamic, of Davidic, of new covenant nature are going to be filled in Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant. Jesus is going to come back as we looked at last week.
But now the questions come, verse 2 and 3, but who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? The answer is no one. And he cleanses. He's like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap.
And this particular kind of cleansing, he will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver. Those men who did that job would sit and meticulously clean and refine and purify silver. And he will purify starting off the sons of Levi.
Remember, they were the ones who were sinning earlier in the chapter and refine them like gold and silver, and they will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord. In the end days, there will be Israel who will really give good sacrifices with good motives to the Lord.
The nation will be prepared one day, verse 4, the consequences of this cleansing, then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem. All the nation expanding from the sons of Levi will be pleasing to the Lord as in the days of old and as in the former years.
The entire nation is going to be cleansed and ready and worship. Verse 5, then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.
Okay, now here's the thing. Listen, please, carefully. Verse 5, I will draw near to you in judgment. And literally, I'm going to hurry up and be a witness against you. Do you see the text there in ESV?
I will be a swift witness. When God swiftly, with a hurry up kind of attitude, draws near to sinners, listed their sorcerers and swearing falsely. Can you just imagine? Sinful man, holy God, and God quickly, swiftly, with all his holiness, rushes over what's going to happen.
Well, in my mind, here's what's going to happen. A nuclear winter is going to happen. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty. And when he showed up to Isaiah, in Isaiah 6, Isaiah is a man of God who was redeemed.
There was trouble. What about all these wicked sinners? What's going to happen? I'll tell you what I think is going to happen. Fire is going to happen. Consuming is going to happen. I'll tell you what I think is going to happen.
Our God is a consuming fire. Well, is that what happens? Complete obliteration for all these sinners? Verse 6. The context is so important. Many Bibles put verse 6 in the next section. It should be right up, tucked with chapter 2, verse 17 to 3, 5.
When God hurries up to judge sinners, who can stand? Verse 6. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. Wait a second. No consuming of these sinners. Why? Because God doesn't change.
Well, what's the link? Here's the link. Did God promise to bless Israel? Can you think of the Abrahamic covenant? Chapter 12 of Genesis. Chapter 15 of Genesis. Remember, in chapter 15 of Genesis, how would you cut a covenant back in those days?
Well, you take some animals, cut the animals in half, put them on each side, you know, split them apart, and then you would walk down with the person that you're going to cut a covenant with, a promise.
And you would walk arm in arm through these animals, saying, if we break our promise, what's done to those animals should be done to us. And so God has those animals cut up. And then what does he do with Abraham?
Abram, you go over here and you're going to be in a coma. That's your job. Abram, you're in a coma. And God walks through there and promises, I promise to bless Israel. Israel was promised blessing in the Davidic covenant, in the Abrahamic covenant, in the new covenant.
And because I'm God, you're not going to perish. That's fascinating. Those two have to go together, verse 5 and verse 6. Even though they're sin, God doesn't change because he's already promised he would never destroy them ultimately.
Hey, God, you're unfaithful because you're not judging evil people. And God says, I'm completely faithful because you're not destroyed. To use my terminology, Israelites should have been smoked decades ago, centuries ago.
But God promised. Now, by the way, that word changed there in verse 6. Super interesting in its nuances. When I was a younger man, I would try to teach our younger children Bible truths. And I encourage fathers to do this.
So, for instance, you're getting to the point in Genesis and Lot's wife looked back. She was turned to a pillar of what? All the kids had to put their hand out. Salt goes on. It's a little salt lick. We all get it.
Um, sometimes we would do other things with the with the Genesis 15 thing. I couldn't figure out how to kill animals and line them up on the kitchen table without making my wife miffed. And so I just tore up little pieces of napkins and lined them up.
Well, this particular time I get to this passage here that's used of the word change. Same one in Malachi 3, 6. And remember, David wanted to try to fake them out. And so it says, so he changed his behavior before them.
He pretended to be insane in their hands and made marks on the doors of the gate and let his spittle run down his beard. He was afraid of the king. And I remember walking over to that place in Sterling where we lived, scratching the door, letting the spit go down my face.
White frothy stuff, by the way, to make the point. One minute he's the king, he's fine. The next minute the guy's insane. I mean, how unpredictable, how fickle. That's the exact word used here. God is always the same.
And once he sets his love on a people, he's not going to go off the deep end crazy. That word is also used when Jeroboam's wife disguised her face to get information from the prophet in 1 Kings 14. Arise, disguise yourself that it not be known that you are the wife of Jeroboam.
So you got kind of two faces, the regular face and the disguise face, the false face. When it comes to God and his promises to his people, he doesn't act crazy about it. And he also doesn't have two different faces.
This is my good face, this is my bad face. He's not two faced. This word is also used in Jeremiah 2, the word change, changing their allegiance. Israel, you know, Assyria is stronger. We go for them. They're on our team.
It's like, you know, kids today, who's the best football team? Who's the best horse? America's pharaoh. I root for him. Next year, it's somebody else. This word change means to change your allegiance, to alter contracts.
So think about it. Israelites back in Malachi's day should have been destroyed. They were sinful. Sorcerers, false witness they were bearing, and the list goes on. But they weren't. And the answer is not to be found in the people.
The answer was to be found with God kept his promise. He wasn't going to ultimately destroy them. He wasn't going to act two faced. He wasn't going to change his allegiance, sign a contract, and then break it.
Or he wasn't going to go crazy. Matter of fact, there's a different description of God toward Israel and his people. The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for his compassions never fail. They're new every morning.
Great is your what? I am unchanging. Therefore, you will never change from being the object of my affection. That's what he's talking about. Jacob's descendants will not be destroyed. So just a side note.
If ever a movement comes along, I doubt it ever will. But if ever a movement comes along that recognizes a need, men should be men, and lead in their families, and at work, and at church, and all that stuff.
And they're not leading. So let's try to get these men to lead. And just saying, it never would happen, I know. But they came along and said, let's call our movement something like Oath Keepers. Loyalty men.
Don't buy into that. Our Promise Keepers. Because 2 Corinthians 1, it says, for all the promises of God, find their yes in him. He's the one that never changes. He's the one that never is fickle. Unconditional promises.
Look at the passage, please. Verse 6. O children of Jacob, our sons of Jacob. Almost every time in the Old Testament when that phrase is used, it's used of Israel's origin under the covenant of God's promise.
I make a people for myself with the Abrahamic covenant, and they're always going to be mine, no matter what. Psalm 89 of the Davidic covenant says, I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips.
Micah, who's a God who's like you, who pardoned sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance? You do not stay angry forever, but delight to show mercy. You will again have compassion on us.
You will tread our sins underfoot, hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea. You will be true to Jacob and show mercy to Abram. As you pledged an oath to our fathers in long days ago, safe and secure from all alarm because God promised Israel that very thing.
If God changes his view of Abram, Isaac, Jacob, then they're doomed. But he doesn't change. So let me give you a couple exhortations in light of the God who doesn't change. I gave them to you earlier, and I want to spend most of our time today talking about this.
Since God is immutable, avoid all moral relativism. I have in front of me here, the Gallup poll, May 26, 2015, social issues, subtitled Americans continue to shift left on key moral issues. So they interviewed people in the year of 2000, 2001.
And today on, do you think these things are morally acceptable? Gay or lesbian relations, 2001, 40%. 2015, 63%. I mean, are you surprised? I'm not surprised. I think it should be 80. Having a baby outside of marriage, 2001, 45 of the people thought it was acceptable.
2015, 61 think it's acceptable. Sex between an unmarried man and woman, 53 in those days, now 68%. I thought this was interesting. Farther down on the list of change, polygamy, 7 used to think it was morally acceptable in 2001.
And in 2015, 16%. By the way, and that's where we're going. Because once God's definition of marriage is obliterated, then anything goes. Now, as the culture changes, and every man did what was right in his own what?
Eyes. And we vote for social relativism. Maybe it's situational ethics. It depends on the situation if it's right or wrong. Maybe it's social relativism. If we all vote on this, then it must be true. I want you to remember that God never changes.
That means His laws don't change. His nature doesn't change. And God is immutably holy. God is immutably just. God is immutably righteous. God is immutable. He never changes. And so when people say, well, like Israel, evil must be blessed by God.
No, evil is always evil in the sight of God. He never changes based on situation, culture, one's feelings. What is evil to God is always evil to God. Yeah, but doesn't God kind of evolve? You know, kind of that old capricious God of the Old Testament, isn't He evolving?
Who said this phrase, God is dead? What did He mean by that? He didn't even believe in God, so how could God be dead? What Nietzsche believed when he said God is dead is that when the Christian God is out of our perspective, then we can do whatever we want morally.
We just do whatever we want morally. Absence of divine order, there's no objective morality. Nietzsche said in the Gay Science, section 125, God is dead, God remains dead, and we have killed Him. How shall we comfort ourselves?
The murderers of all murderers. What was the holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives. Who will wipe this blood off us? And he knew, if you can get rid of the Bible, to put it in layman's terms, if you can get rid of objective truth, then you can do whatever you want.
Except the thing is, God doesn't what? He doesn't change. I mean, when I was younger, well, let's even go back up a little bit. When my dad was younger, he said, son, I used to love to drive across the Missouri River into Iowa to drive my car.
Why, dad? Because the speed limit was, in certain parts of Iowa, safe and sane. I just would say on the sign, safe and sane. So if you can drive safely and sanely, you can go as fast as you want. I want you to think Autobahn.
Well, then I turned 16, and they took down those signs and changed it to 75. Or maybe, I don't know, when did the whole Carter crisis happen? It went down to 55. No, no, now it's back up to 65. And that's kind of like the way God does it.
Changes his mind. But you know, that's not true. Psalm 111, rather, says, his precepts are trustworthy. They are established forever and ever. Well, you know, if it's true for you, it must be true. God's immutability should help you see through that very false truth.
There are no absolute truths. That's your truth, not mine. And once you say, I believe in an unchanging God, you're going to be labeled intolerant and a bigot. But this is God's way. He is unchangeable.
God does not evolve. God is a creator. He's revealed himself, and his standard is the Word and the Word alone. And basically, what you've seen in our culture is this, Nietzsche has been prophetic. And when the culture says, let's have a funeral for God, it's because we want to do whatever we want in society.
To quote Jeff Thomas, though, what God is today, he always was. He never began to be. That's just mind-blowing to me. There never was a time when he was not. There never was a time when he'll cease to be.
Dogs have evolved remarkably from the first pair that came out of the ark. But God does not evolve or grow or improve. All that God is at this very moment has he ever been and ever will be. He cannot change for the better because he's perfect.
And being perfect, he cannot change for the worse. He has no wrinkles on his brow. No memories, cells die. His power can never diminish. His glory cannot fade. The God we have worshiped today is the same God that created everything in the beginning.
The God who spoke to Adam and Eve. The God of Noah and Abraham. No change. Hebrews 6, the immutability of his counsel. By the way, on a side note, I know if you happen to be an unbeliever here today, this should be a very disturbing doctrine because if God's holy, but not holy all the time, maybe on Judgment Day you'll make it.
But since God is always holy, there's no hope for you unless you put your faith in Christ Jesus. If you're an unbeliever, you think, you know what, well, God's wise, but he's not always wise. And maybe there's a time when I get to Judgment Day that I'll be able to figure out a legal loophole.
But he's immutably wise. But the main thing I wanted to say to you today, church, Bethlehem Bible Church, is that since God is immutable, you can have assurance of your salvation. Since God doesn't change, you can have assurance of your salvation.
Now, let's think through the issues. Let's go back to Ephesians just for a second because I just find my Bible regularly open to Ephesians. I know if you're a Bible scholar and theologian, your Bible should always open to Romans chapter 5.
But if you're like me, I need it to open to Ephesians 1 on a regular basis. Now, let's think through this. God doesn't change. So, how's he going to act toward me when I sin? Now, without giving you all my daddy wounds, I grew up with a father who regularly drank and I didn't really know what he was going to do.
And when he raised his hand, that hand could be, here's five dollars, don't drive to Iowa, or if that hand was going to be whack. And I grew up with the kind of dad that he'd take us on wonderful vacations one minute, but we all knew if dad was in the driver's seat, and he always was, everybody wanted the seat right behind him.
Why? Because old men can't hit like this very well, even if they're six foot four, 240. And if you were over here, dad wouldn't hit you in the car, he would just grab your hair and yank really hard. And for the next three hours up to the cabin, he'd be going like this.
One minute he loved me, and the next minute, he was some kind of, I don't know, what popped into my mind was Godzilla. So, remember that old slogan, if ever he loved me, he'll love me forever. That's the doctrine of immutability, and it's found right here, chapter one, verse four.
Paul has just been doing this praise. He's just praising who God is. And then he says in verse four, even as he chose us in him, before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
When did God start to love the elect? When did God start to love the bride? And if he did ever start, he's never going to finish because God doesn't change. In love, he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.
If God ever loved you in time at Calvary, he's going to love you forever. In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us.
Chapter two, verse four, but God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, our trespasses rather, made us alive together with Christ.
By grace, you've been saved. Christian, when you struggle with assurance, I'm not saying you should never say, is there a pattern of sin in my life? And should I look at that? And have I been in the word?
And have I been working through spiritual disciplines? Of course, that's a factor. Second Peter chapter one talks about that. But your initial thing should be, God loved me in eternity past. He's not going to turn around as it were and fly off the handle and grab me by my hair in the car because it's an unchanging love.
He loved me in eternity past. That means he'll forever love me. He loved me at Calvary. That means he'll forever love me. I mean, here's how you should think about it. Okay, I'll try to do this in a way that helps me remember.
Does God theologically wear bell-bottom jeans when it comes to fashion? Now, some people don't even know what they are. Praise the Lord. What he was is who he is and what he'll always be. I mean, we change so much.
We look at God and think he must change too. They say your taste buds change every seven years. For me, I think, okay, I really like hot food for a while. Then I don't really like it so much. I don't want any salt on my food.
Now I want a lot of salt. Jobs change. Relationships change. I mean, can you imagine a God who never goes back on his promises ever? Hosanna to the son of David. And then shortly, some of those same people crucify him.
And so you're never going to have God because he doesn't change. If ever he's loved you and if you're a child of God, he doesn't say one day you're my son and the next day I'm driving you to the orphanage.
Romans 11 .29, God's gifts and his call are what? Irrevocable. Wow. Eternal love, love at Calvary, a love that never changes. The most hated attribute by unbelievers is his immutability because he's always holy.
And I think one of the most overlooked doctrines of all, the Bible should be the sweetest to the Christian. God never changes. I mean, we have good moods, bad moods. God's love is always the same. I love this poem that has a line that says, my name from the palm of his hands, eternity will not erase.
Impressed on his heart, it remains in marks of indelible grace. Of the disciples, Jesus said, remember the disciples weren't perfect men. Having loved his own, which were in the world, he loved them unto the what?
End. That's comfort. Isaiah 54, for the mountain shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, says the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
Jeremiah 31 .3, I have loved you with a what? An everlasting love. Now, your sins might be different than Israel's sins of sorcery and false witness. But if your sins are like mine and they're of pride and arrogance and self-sufficiency, sometimes losing first love, Jesus Christ is the same what?
Yesterday, today, forever. That's amazing. Thomas said, was God good when he made skins to clothe Adam and Eve? Was God good when he forgave King David his lust and murder? Was the Lord good when he recommissioned Peter and blessed his preaching at Pentecost?
50 days after Peter had sworn he did not know his Lord? Was God good in showing mercy to Saul of Tarsus, who was described as chief of sinners? God is good every day. He is unchangeably good, unchangeably generous, unchangeably gracious.
The everlasting Father does not become an everlasting tyrant. That should give you confidence. True or false, when God calls a sinner, later he can repent of that. Thomas Watson said, when God calls a sinner, he does not repent of it.
God does not, as many friends do today, love one day and hate the other. You know, the symbol of everlasting love, of course, for the Christian is a tulip, for many reasons we won't go into this morning.
Symbolizes sovereign loving grace. But what's the symbol we want to run from? And you know the joke already, but it brings light to it. The Christian flower should not be the daisy. What's the phrase that you use for daisies?
He loves me, he loves me not. Thomas Watson said, this is the blessedness of a saint. God is not like princes who make their subjects favorites one day and afterwards thrown into prison. I mean, look at Joseph.
He's got access to the top dog at the beginning, then he's thrown down into jail. What if God had worked that way? And it seemed like he has every right, because where's the God of justice? If he was just only, they would be thrown into jail.
But he's also unchangeably gracious. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned on repose, I will not, I will not desert to its foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I, says God, never, no, never, no, never, what?
Forsake. No wonder God says that he can cause everything to work together for good to those who love him or are called according to his what? Purpose. No wonder he says in Romans 8, if God be for us, who would be against us?
Because he's always for us. I've been involved in legal things in my life, not too many. But one time I had to do something legally and there was a lawyer in the room, but it wasn't my lawyer. And so then every time they asked me a question, I looked over to the person.
I need a lawyer. And he's like, I'm not your lawyer. Well, you're not, you're not helping me. I'm basically getting deposed for something and you're not my lawyer. Who can help me? Will somebody help me?
Do I have to answer that question? Can I plead the fifth? I need a good lawyer. By the way, if you hire a lawyer, don't go looking in the yellow pages for a lawyer. That's really great. 90 of the time.
That's how they build themselves. We're great for you. 90 of the time, 10 we're on the take or whatever it is standing before God. Don't you need a lawyer? Don't you need someone? And even when I sin, don't I need help?
And then I read of the eternal son. If anyone does sin. Okay. So Christians, what do you do when you sin? Do you lose your salvation? Friends, if you could lose your salvation, you would have lost it years ago.
If you want me to be as direct as I can, because maybe it'll stir some of you up. For those of you that believe you can lose your salvation, you believe in a God who can change his mind. You don't believe in this God here back in these days.
Israel, you cease to be my nation because you sin. No, you cease to be my children because you sin. No, the focus is on God. The focus is on some guy who names himself, I am who I am. But instead, Christian, if you sin, would you this week just say, God, thank you for not changing.
If anyone does sin, 1 John, we have an advocate, present tense, with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And he was the propitiation for our sins. And if God absorbed, the son absorbed all the father's wrath, then we have nothing to pay for and God doesn't change.
And if he loved you, he'll always love you. That's the message of God's immutability. So my answer in closing is this. So why kill yourself with care to try to keep your own salvation? God keeps it and he's immutable.
Father, thank you for our time and your word today. To think that in eternity past, you chose an exact number, not a group, not a large number versus a small number, but an exact number of people that you would set your love on and you would have your son die for.
An exact number, not one more, not one less, but that number. And every one of those number will make it all the way through. Not because we do anything, but because you've known us and you've foreknown us and you've predestined us.
We're thankful that even though you knew all our sins, you still chose us and decided to have your son die for us. Thank you for that. There's no real foe, there's no real adversary for the Christian, because if God is for us, we as Christians should be reminded, and Lord, help us to be reminded that no one can be against us.
What shall we say then to these things? Well, Father, what we should say is thank you. And so now accept this next song as an offering of praise to you, the unchanging God who holds our salvation just like you did Israel's.
In his name we pray, amen.