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That is full of change. There are many ways we see this as we look at world history and how things are today in 2017. Earth started out with two people, Adam and Eve, and now we have over seven billion.
For thousands of years, long-distance communication occurred through handwritten letters. Today, people communicate through phone conversations, email, texting, Skype, and other avenues. Before 1900, people traveled by using horses and wagons.
As you look at the history of this church, we see stories of people traveling to church that way. Long-distance travel was done by ship. Today, travel occurs by cars, trains, and planes. Medicine has also changed.
In the 1700s, doctors believed that you could rid an infection by bleeding the patient out. Today, doctors, thankfully, would do no such thing because of medication that they can prescribe. Our own lives experience change as well.
Who we were 10 years ago is not who we are today. Just recently, I saw a photo of myself with my grandfather at my high school graduation, and I told Brianna, I said, I'm nothing like the person I was then.
And I meant this in a good way by saying that the Lord has done a lot of work in my life during that time. I have changed. The universe is constantly changing, and we change, but God never changes. Each week, we are seeing different ways that God has the different attributes that God has.
We're seeing different ways that God is perfect. Today, we are going to see the perfection of his unchangeableness. Something that I forgot to mention the last several weeks is that the verses that I'm using in my outlines that are in your bulletins, the sermon outlines, all the verses are listed there.
And so, my encouragement to you is that you would look at those verses after the sermon because I realize it's difficult to write them down during the service, which is why I gave them to you this way, and it's kind of like driving in a nail.
The sermon is the nails being driven in half way. When you review the verses that I've given you, it's like the nails being driven the full distance. So, please take note of that. So, as we continue our sermon series this morning through the ultimate pursuit of knowing God, this sermon is titled God Never Changes.
God Never Changes. And our big idea is it is a beautiful reality that God is incapable of changing. And what we're gonna see this morning is that there are three ways that God never changes. The first is that he is unchanging in his being.
He is unchanging in his being. The Bible states clearly that God's own being is incapable of change. And as we have seen over the last several weeks, God is so different than we are. We ourselves change and everything we see changes it.
Our whole life, everything is changing around us. This is precisely what Psalm 102, verses 25 through 27 say. And I read this already this morning. Of old you laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands.
They will perish but you will remain. They will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe and they will pass away. But you are the same and your years have no end. When we talk about God's being, we are talking about all of his attributes.
We've already seen some of his attributes in the first few weeks of this sermon series and we're gonna continue to see his attributes. And so what we're saying is that all of these attributes that God has, they never change.
When God refers to his attributes of patience and mercy, for example, Malachi says this in chapter three, verse six. He says, Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. So God is saying, I do not change.
God does not change with his patience and mercy and he does not change in any of his attributes. We all have received various gifts from God throughout our lives, whether pleasant or painful. These gifts have always come from God and that is not going to change.
Good gifts came in the past and since God does not change, good gifts are going to come from him in the future as well. His character does not vary depending on the day. And this is so much different from us.
We as humans have good days and bad days. Our attitude might be a bit different depending on the day. But God is always the same. He is always consistent. God is perfect and that never changes. He is our creator and we are his creatures.
God is a pure being that is incapable of changing over time. We as humans are beings that are becoming. This means that we change. We are not the same one second ago that we are right now. Have you ever thought about that?
You're not the same one second ago that you are right now. That is one of the most fascinating aspects of life. We don't notice that we are changing, but we really are. And as time goes on, we see clearly that things have changed.
We see gray hairs as we look in the mirror in the morning that used to not be there. We see wrinkles that weren't there before. And some of you men, we will lose our hair over time. And in fact, I'm noticing that my hair is receding a little bit.
My wife has been telling me that at least. And so there's a high probability that five to ten years from now, probably half my hair will be gone. And you've seen my dad, some of you too. And that's because we change over time.
And sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse. And as we look at old photos, you can look at photos from 10, 20, 30, depending on how old you are, 30 years ago, we see how much we have changed.
But God does not change. The eternal God who has always been, has always been the same, and he always will be the same. This is the first way that God never changes, and that this is a beautiful reality.
He is unchanging in his being. The second way that God never changes, and this is a beautiful reality, is that he is unchanging in purpose and promises. In purpose and promises. The foundation of God never changing is his being, as we looked at in our first point, okay?
He doesn't change in his being, so therefore, his purposes and his promises aren't going to change either. And that's what flows from his unchanging being. When God says that he is going to do something, he does it.
Before there was a creation in eternity past, God had plans for his creation. The apostle Matthew writes that the kingdom of God was prepared before the world began. This is what he writes in Matthew 25, 34.
You who are blessed by my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. So God planned the kingdom of God, and he's bringing that to pass. And one day, this kingdom will come to earth officially.
Before God created anything, he planned that you would be saved. Ephesians 1, 4 says, Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. God planned your salvation.
And verse 11 says this as well. The church started 2 ,000 years ago. God planned that there would be a people known as the church before there was a creation. Ephesians chapter 3, verses 9 through 11 says this, in God, who created all things.
So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. So God planned that the church would be, and here it is. And once you become a Christian, you enter the universal church, the church worldwide.
The church is found visibly through local churches just like this one. So Eureka Baptist Church is a visible manifestation of the universal church. So before there was a creation, God planned that Eureka Baptist would be a part of the universal church.
And God planned that each of you would be a part of this as well. And God knows who his true children are. Jesus has a book in heaven, and you've heard of this book. It's called the Lamb's Book of Life.
All believers in the history of the world, from the beginning of creation until now, have their names written in it. And no one's name can ever be blotted out from the Lamb's Book of Life. He knows those who are his, and nothing can change that.
This is what the Apostle Paul writes in 2 Timothy 2 .19. He says,. But God's firm foundation stands. Bearing this seal, the Lord knows those who are his. And Revelation 13 .8 tells us when Jesus wrote the names of all the believers.
He says before the foundation of the world. The Lamb's Book of Life, that's when it was written, before the foundation of the world. God planned your salvation before creation, including how it would come through the death of Christ.
And we see evidence of this in the Old Testament when crucifixion is vividly described. What's fascinating about Old Testament prophecy is that the crucifixion of Christ was described in vivid detail, even before crucifixion was invented.
So this is telling you that the supernatural nature of Scripture, God planned that your salvation would come through a once-for-all sacrifice through Jesus Christ. And it comes to pass this way because God does not change.
He plans it and it comes to pass. God is entirely unique in this, that when he plans something, it is going to happen. We make plans all the time. We make plans to clean the house, mow the lawn. Sometimes it doesn't happen.
But when God does this, it has to happen because his character says it has to. He's always consistent in his being. And God's able to tell the future. We looked at that several times over the past several weeks.
Isaiah 46, 9 -11 says, I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.
I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it. God is saying, my plan is going to come to pass. And God is proving himself to be God by doing this. Who else can describe something way in the future and have it come to pass exactly the way that he said it was going to?
No one can do that but God. And he's proving himself to be God when he does that. God's plans not only come to pass, but he always fulfills his promises. Numbers 23, 19 says that, God is not man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind.
Has he said and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will he not fulfill it? And then 1 Samuel 15, 29 says, and also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret for he is not a man that he should have regret.
So you see, these two passages are contrasting God with man. We change our minds, we lie. We don't like to admit it sometimes but we do. God never does. And we worship him for that. For this attribute that he does not change.
That he does not change his mind. And this should be encouraging to us in regards to our salvation. Once you are saved, you cannot lose your salvation. God does not save you and change his mind later on saying, I'm going to remove the Holy Spirit from you.
No, you are permanently sealed by the Holy Spirit. And here are a few verses to back this up. Philippians 1, 6 says that, Okay? He began a good work in you by giving you the Holy Spirit when you believed in Christ.
He who began a good work in you will carry it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus. John chapter 10, verses 27 through 30. This is one of my favorite verses. My sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me.
I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. The Father who is greater than all. And no one will snatch them from his hand either. Okay? So you see how firm salvation is for those who belong to Jesus.
And then 1 Thessalonians 5, 24 says that, So when he calls you to believe, he is faithful to keep you in the faith.
Now,.
What we're going to look at here over the next minute or two is that sometimes God reacts depending on people's reactions. But the important thing we must remember is that God does not change his mind.
And some people have looked at this. Sometimes you read the Bible and you say, well, it looks like God changed his mind. And the truth is he did not. And let me explain that. There are several places in Scripture where God says that he was going to bring judgment on a place but then did not because people repented.
And to repent is to change your mind about something and then to turn, to turn from sin. That's the definition of repentance. In the book of Jonah, for example, Nineveh was about to be destroyed because of their wickedness.
Some of you are familiar with this story. God sent Jonah to deliver this message to the city that they were going to be destroyed. And, of course, the first time Jonah's sent, what does he do? He flees.
He gets on a ship and he runs. And three days later, he's spit up by the whale after he's thrown overboard and the whale takes him. And then he's finally obedient and then he goes to Nineveh. And this is what he says in Jonah 3, verse 4.
He says, Jonah called out, Okay, so Jonah's saying to them, because of your wickedness, you're going to be overthrown. As Nineveh realized they were going to be destroyed for their sin, they repented.
Verse 5, And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them to the least of them. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way.
Okay, so what we see here.
Is that,.
And then in verse 10 of Jonah, chapter 3, it says that God does not bring the disaster on them. And the reason he doesn't bring the disaster on them is because the people of Nineveh repented. Now, the question is, did God change his mind?
Or,.
Did something else change that made God not bring this judgment upon them? God saw the repentance and he did not destroy them. So the answer is, he did not change his mind. The situation changed. Since the situation changed, not God, the Lord decided not to destroy Nineveh.
And what changed? Their repentance. The people repented and God responded by not destroying Nineveh. And there are other situations where prayer leads God to do something different than what he previously said.
In Isaiah 38, the Lord told King Hezekiah he was going to die. Hezekiah prayed that he would live longer. And how did God answer? God said, okay, I'm going to add 15 years.
To your life.
And so God adds 15 years. Did God change? Or did the situation change? The situation changed. Hezekiah prayed. And God acted based on the prayer. Okay, so we see from these examples of potential places where it looks like God changes that God did not change.
He responded based on what the people were doing. Whether it was repentance or whether it was prayer. And by the way, James tells us you did not receive because you did not ask. And so, when we pray for something, God does something because of our prayers.
Okay, so that's important to remember. So King Hezekiah, if he didn't pray, he would have died. But because he prayed, 15 years were added to his life. So what we have seen here is that God does not change.
So this is the second way that God never changes. And this is a beautiful reality. He is unchanging in purpose and promises. The third way that God never changing is a beautiful reality is that God's unchangeableness is essential for the sturdiness of our faith.
Okay, so this is the point where I'm going to make clear why this is important to you. I've already told you this is important to your salvation. But this is a point we really need to stress. The doctrine that God does not change is so important to you and me.
One thing that I have stressed over the past several weeks is that God is the greatest possible being. Which means that he could not be greater than how he is and who he is. There was a philosopher who lived in the 12th century by the name of Anselm who made an argument for the existence of God where he said that no greater being can be imagined than God.
You cannot go any higher than him. And the argument said that if we can imagine such a being, then he must exist. So since God is the greatest possible being, he cannot become greater. If God could change, then he would not be God.
This is so because change involves becoming better or becoming worse. If God could become better, he would not be God because, by definition, the greatest being cannot become better. If God could become worse, he would not be God since God cannot have any imperfections.
Why is this a beautiful reality to us that God does not change? It is a terrifying thought to think that God could change. If a good God could change and turn evil, we would all be hopeless because God is all-powerful.
We learned this last week. God has unlimited power. And a God who goes from good to evil would unleash evil things upon us and we could do nothing about it because he's all-powerful. Satan is the most powerful being in the universe.
I mean, sorry, Satan is the most evil being in the universe. God is the most powerful. He was once good but is now evil. And we are blessed that Satan's power is limited. God has him on a chain. While Satan is evil and not all-powerful, God is good and all-powerful.
The good God that we worship uses his unlimited power.
For our good.
We could not trust a God who could change because he would go back on his promises. He would go back on his plans. The promises that God made long ago.
Stand forever.
So this is why it is so important for us to understand this doctrine and treasure it. Our faith depends on a God who is going to fulfill his promises and never go back on them. And because God does not change, we can trust him.
And for those of you who are here today who have trusted in Christ for your salvation, the forgiveness of your sins, you must realize how important this doctrine is. This is something you have assumed.
And have faith that God is going to remain faithful. But how many of you have actually thought about this? Stopped to think about the fact that God does not change and thought about how beautiful this is.
So today, I hope you do and I hope you praise God that he does not change. We need to worship him for all of his perfections, including this. God promised that if you believe in Jesus, you will have eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. That's a promise. And you can take it to the bank because God does not change.
With a God that does not change, his promises stand forever. It's not as though one million years from now, when you're in heaven, on the new earth, and God says,.
You know what?
I feel like doing something new. I'm going to change my mind. Okay, this eternal life, I promise this, people. I'm just going to end it now and I'm going to start something new. God doesn't do that. God keeps his promises.
This is his perfection. And we worship him for it. Titus 1, 2 says, Our faith and our hope depends on a God who we can fully trust. And we know from the Bible that God is good and he always keeps his promises.
He is fully worthy of our trust. So this is such a great reality that God does not change. Some of you here today are farmers or have been farmers. Think about God's steadiness, how God's steadiness and his consistency affects your life.
You depend on sun and rain for your crops to grow. He faithfully gives sun and rain so that you can make a living and that all the people on the earth can eat. His plan of providing for us food to eat through the growing of crops is dependent on many of his attributes, including his unchangeability.
His faithfulness to provide nourishment for us never changes. It's not as though God lets several years go by without rain where everybody starves. I mean, there are famines that happen, but God does feed his planet by sending rain and by giving us sun.
And for those of you here who are not farmers, God provides work for you and consistently cares for you by providing the essentials of life. He continually provides for all of us and this is reflected upon his consistent character, his faithfulness, his unchangeability.
So this is the third way that God never changing is a beautiful reality and this attribute is essential for the sturdiness of our faith. As I wrap up here this morning, what I want to say is that if you are a follower of Christ here today, and I know many of you are, you love Jesus.
Jesus is our God. He's our Savior. He's our friend. And I say that Jesus is our friend because he said this in John 15, 15. He said, No longer do I call you servants, but I have called you friends. And Jesus is unlike any friend you have ever had.
It is important for us to not to think of Jesus as our buddy, in some ways to lower him and bring him down to our level. He is God. He is so much greater than us. But the Bible does say clearly, he is our friend.
And so we approach him as a friend with reverence and awe. And we value our friendships in life. And one of the best parts of life is close friendships. Sometimes our friendships come to an end because people change.
You can think of people in your past you're no longer friends with because the person you knew 30, 40, 50 years ago, or 10 years ago, isn't the same person they are today. Someone we used to know becomes different and we grow apart.
Or we become different and we grow apart. Sometimes you become a follower of Christ and you're unbelieving friends. You have nothing in common with them anymore. And so the friendship dissolves over time.
And when we experience this, it is hard. But Jesus is a friend we can always count on and trust. And why is this? You might guess. It's because he doesn't change. Over time, he always remains the same.
Who he was before there was a creation is the same he's always going to be. Hebrews 13 .8 says that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. We can always trust him because he is God and God never changes.
So let us worship him that he is always the same. And this is truly a reality that we must treasure. And indeed, it is a beautiful reality that God is incapable of changing. And we have looked at three ways this morning.
He is unchanging in his being. And out of the overflow of that, he is unchanging in his promises and his plan. And God's unchangeableness is essential for the sturdiness of our faith. Next week, as we continue our sermon series through, Who is God?
As we look at the attributes of God, we are going to look at the attribute of God's wisdom. And I look forward to doing that with you.
Let's pray. Father,.
What a beautiful reality that you do not change. And we worship you for that. And I pray, Lord, that we would understand how wonderful this is and we would praise you. Our faith depends on it. Thank you that the Bible reveals so clearly that you are so unlike man and that you do not change.
You are not a man that you should lie. You are not a man that you should change your mind. You are always consistent. Always unchanging. Always faithful. And you always fulfill your promises. Thank you, Lord.
In Jesus' name, Amen.