8-3-22 - The Immutability Of God

If you have your Bibles, let's jump over to the book of Malachi, and we're going to be looking at chapter number three, just highlighting really one verse tonight that I believe we need to sit on and kind of study through tonight.

Ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Father, we thank you for your word tonight. What a joy it is to come together.

Lord and to study the word of God. Thank you for the faithfulness of the dear people here at lighthouse. And I pray that you'd bless each one of the classes and and the teens and the kids ministries be with the youth that are over it.

Splash camp this week. I pray that you would speak into those hearts as I know there's hundreds of kids out there and and that they're going to be hearing your word. I pray that eternal decisions would be made and those lives and pray that you would be able to. that you would bless the service tonight. If anyone doesn't know Christ, that they would come to know Christ as their savior and that we would be affected and impacted and comforted and encouraged by the truth of the immutability of God. Help us to understand what the Bible says about that wonderful promise and truth.

We ask it in Jesus' name and God's people said, Amen, you may be seated tonight. You know, truth is the greatest thing that we actually possess. And you say, I thought Jesus was the greatest thing we possess. Well, Jesus said, I am the truth. So when you possess the truth, you possess Christ.

You cannot be one who possesses the truth and doesn't possess Christ because he is the truth in salvation. But Jesus said in John 17, verse one through three, some very interesting words. And this is such a unique chapter because John 17 is actually an entire chapter given to prayer. And it says in verse one, these words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee as thou has given him power over all flesh, that he should, notice what it says, give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. And this is life eternal. So Jesus is getting ready to define what eternal life is.

He says that they might know thee, thee, what's the next word? The only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. And so Jesus says here that he wants them to have eternal life.

And the way they have eternal life is by knowing God. And he says, he is the only true God. Jesus, according to Christ, there is only one true God.

And it's God the father. And also the way you know God the father is through knowing Jesus who is God the son. And the Bible tells us here, it says in verse three, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. God the father and God the son are one.

The Bible says they are separate persons, but one deity, one Godhead there. And so salvation is attached, friends, to knowing God. If you don't know God, you don't have salvation.

Ignorance doesn't bring salvation. And so we are called to bring people the truth about God and to deliver them that reality. But here in Malachi three, one of the greatest attributes about God is highlighted. And we need to study these attributes because we need to know who God is.

We need to know what he's like. And really the more we know about God, the more we know about reality. God is ultimate reality. He is truth, he is clarity, he brings lucidness to those hearts and minds who would come to him. He is understanding, he is our wisdom, our knowledge, our life and light, if you would.

But here in Malachi three, there is an attribute that is a unique attribute that's highlighted in verse number six. And it's what's known as the immutability of God, the unchangeableness of God, the changelessness of God. And tonight I wanna look at the meaning of that, the uniqueness of God's immutability.

And then what are the results of that? And so let's talk about the immutability of God. We don't use that word probably very often in our world today because everything changes. But the word means the perfections of God that he changes not in character, will, purpose or aim. God is unchanging and he is unchangeable. We cannot cause God to be changed.

You can go home and your kid's behavior can cause you to be changed. So time or circumstances do not change God. This separates deity from humanity.

This separates God from the creation. We are constantly changing, we age, we physically change, we learn more, we forget things, we grow spiritually, we can have backslidden situations. We're constantly changing, but God is never changing. He never stops possessing any of the divine attributes because if he did so, if he changed from one point to another, then there would be a lessening of something or a growing of something. And that would cause God to become better or worse, but God remains eternally immutable.

Immutability is the perfection of Yahweh that changes not in character, will, purpose or aim. Now the Bible here in Malachi chapter three addresses this because the Lord is confronting the nation of Israel who is filled up with sin. They have rebuilt the temple after they've come back from the Babylonian captivity, Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed the temple, but the years have passed and the people turn from loving and worshiping God in that new temple to now not wanting to worship God, seeing, going to the temple as a bother what they once praised God for and longed for, they now don't want to have. So instead of giving God their best, they're literally bringing God, they're leftovers.

God asks for sacrifices worthy of a king, worthy of the great King of heaven, but they brought sickly animals. They became adulterous, they lied, they oppressed widows and foreigners. They were divorcing their Jewish wives and marrying pagan women from other nations. They were robbing God in tithes and offerings. They became cynical against God.

They proclaimed their innocence while believing that God was the one who was violating his word. And in chapter two, verse 17, we saw last time, the prophet says to them, "'Ye have wearied the Lord with your words, "'you're exhausting him.' "'Yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him?'"

Not like a child talking, rebellious child talking to a parent, doesn't it? "'When ye say, Everyone that doeth evil "'is good in the sight of the Lord, "'and he delighteth in him.'" Or, "'Where is the God of judgment?'" And what they're declaring here is that God is the one who has changed, not them, that they are okay, the problems with God. And last week, we looked at chapter three, verse one through five, where God tells them that he will send a messenger who will purify them and refine them, and that's a prophecy of the coming of John the Baptist, which happens 400 years later in preparation of the coming of Christ.

Then in verse six, it's a parenthesis in the middle of this call to repentance. He's calling them to repentance, and says they said God is the one who changed. God responds to them in verse six and says, "'I am the Lord, I change not. "'Therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.'" God is saying, basically, the reason I've not consumed and destroyed you as a nation is because I have not changed. I have made a covenant with you, and I keep my word.

I don't break my word. I'm not the one violating covenants, you are. What they saw as God's injustice was actually God being incredibly patient with them. God then says, even though they have rebelled, he calls them lovingly to repent. Notice verse seven. He said, "'Even from the days of your fathers "'ye are gone away from mine ordinances, "'and have not kept them. "'Return unto me, and I will return unto you, "'safe the Lord of hosts.'"

So he's calling them to this. Now, the Bible declares that God does not change. He is immutable, eternally unchanging.

I love what Charles Spurgeon writes about this. He says, "'It is well for us "'that amidst all the variableness of life "'there is one whom change cannot affect, "'one whose heart can never alter, "'and on whose brow mutability cannot make furrows, "'all things else have changed, all things are changing, "'the sun itself grows dim with age, "'the world is waxing old, "'the folding up of the worn-out vesture has commenced.'" He's talking about the expansion rate of the universe. The universe is expanding and wearing down, as the Bible says. "'The heavens and earth must soon pass away, "'they shall perish, they shall wax old as doth a garment, "'but there is one who only hath immortality, "'of years there is no end, "'and whose person there is no change, "'the delight which the mariner feels, "'when having been tossed about for many a day, "'he steps again upon the solid shore, "'is the satisfaction of a Christian, "'when amidst all the changes of this troublesome life, "'he rests his foot upon the faith and trust "'that God is the Lord, and he does not change.'" And so we find here there is such a great comfort in a God who does not change. We see so many changes in our nation, and I think about every one of them have gone from bad to worse.

It's like, can they not get something right? James 1.17, the Bible says of God, "'Every good and every perfect gift cometh down "'from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, "'neither the shadow of turning.'" Hebrews 13.8, let's read this verse together, church. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Is that important? The Jesus you read about in the Bible, do you want to meet that Jesus and him be the same as he was in what you've seen in the scriptures, right? And speaking of creation, the psalmist says in Psalms 102.26, "'They shall perish, but thou shalt endure, "'yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment, "'as a vesture shalt thou change them, "'and they shall be changed, but thou are the same, "'and thy years shall have no end.'" This is literally talking about the second law of thermodynamics. The Bible lays out the second law of thermodynamics that entropy affects everything, that everything wears down.

It's like a massive engine that's burning the fuel up and it's slowing down. That's what's happening to creation. Numbers 23.19 says, "'God is not a man that he should lie, "'neither the son of man that he should repent. "'Hath he said, and he shall not do it, "'or hath he spoken, and it shall not make it good?'" And somebody may ask the question that I would like to address is, if God is unchanging, then why does the Bible say that God repents, which means to change your mind, which means to change your mind that it would affect your change in direction.

So why does it say that? Genesis 6, 6, for example, says, "'And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth "'and it grieved him at his heart.'" In Jonah 3, 10, it says, "'And God saw their works that they turned "'from their evil ways, and God repented of the evil "'that he said he would do unto them, and he did it not.'"

So how do you answer that? Well, the answer is God's character, who God is in essential nature, does not change, but his attitude and his action toward men can change. Many times, the word repent in the Bible is speaking about being sorrowful, being grieved over our sin. The godly sorrow work is repentance, the Bible says.

But the repentant attitude in God doesn't involve any actual change in his character or purpose. He always hates sin. He always loves righteousness. He's always grieved over evil doing.

He always rejoices in what is right. And so God's repentance is not a change in his character, but in his dealings with man. God's response to man changes, and this is essential to know, God's response to man changes as man changes in his response to God. When man turns from ungodliness to godliness, from disobedience to obedience, as was true of the people in Nineveh, God will change in how he deals with that man. When a man bicycling against the wind turns about and goes with the wind, instead of going against it, it may seem that the wind has changed, but it's actually blowing in the same direction.

He's just lined his life up with what is going on. It can be said of all people that before we were saved, the wrath of God was abiding upon us, according to John 3, 3, 6. But after we receive salvation, God's dealings with us, the Bible says, have changed. We went from being under the wrath of God to being reconciled, from being enemies to being friends, from being sons of the devil to being sons of God, from being under eternal punishment that awaited us to now eternal pleasure in God's presence. And so the immutability of God is a clearly defined truth in the Bible.

Secondly, I wanna look at the uniqueness of this. He says here simply, I am the Lord, I change not. You know, God knows what he is.

He knows about himself. He knows the realities and he declares to us the absolutes of his nature. And so he says he does not change. We live in a world, again, that is constantly changing. People grow old, learn age, so forth, but change is everywhere except with God. One attribute that ties closely to the immutability of God is what's known as the eternality of God.

And it's essential to understand both concepts. The eternality of God means that God exists eternally in both past, present and future. This is probably one of the most hard and difficult things for us to grasp because we are in a time-space continuum and it's hard for us as created beings to consider a non-created being. People often say, you know, well, then who made God? But that doesn't apply to God because no one made God.

God is eternal. And so, like if you ask somebody, like, where did creation come from? And you just keep going back and it's like, well, then nothing created it.

And you say, well, somebody had to make this. There's too much design, you know, the teleological argument, which is the argument that goes from there is design, therefore there must be a designer, or the cosmological argument that there is a creation, therefore there must be a creator. These arguments proclaim that there has to be a genius and power that is fueling that, that it created that. And people say, well, you know, well, the universe is eternal then. Well, they found through the expansion rate of the universe that there has to be a starting point.

And that was proven through the Hubble telescope in the 90s and again, as they studied the expansion rate of the universe. And so people will say, well, then if God is a creator, then somebody had to make God too. But because he's outside of his creation, the creator is not confined to the same laws that we are. We are created, but God is not created. He is eternal, he's always been. And so think back as far as possible before the earth was created, before oceans, before mountains, before the solar system or Milky Way galaxy, before the universe, there was God.

You say, what was he doing? Was he eternally bored? Do you think God made us so he could have fulfillment? Does God really need me and you to be fulfilled? If God needed us to be fulfilled, then something's lacking in God, right? He doesn't make us because he needs something.

He made us for our benefit, our benefit. David Jeremiah says, before there was a clock or a calendar or a watch or a date book, there was God. Before there was history, he existed. Before the creation, he was and is and will always be the eternal I am. Think about Genesis 1.1, just in the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

The word beginning in Genesis 1.1 is a time word, it signifies the start of creation as well as the start of all that is in our created world. Time is attached to creation. The laws of physics have shown us that time is a property and you can literally speed up or slow down time based upon gravitational pull. Doesn't that mess with your mind? You ever try to study that out and it's like, how does that work?

You know, they make movies about people traveling out in space and less gravity and more gravity and then it speeds and slows down time. But it has a physical property to it. That's why they came up with Speed of Light. But God is not material, God is a spirit and exists outside of time. God created our four dimensional world, three spatial in one time, but God, he exists outside of those dimensions.

He's not confined to them, he transcends them, he made them, he literally wrote the laws. And the reason that we have like mathematical laws and we can do science is because God wrote that into creation. Do you know who the first, you know when the scientific revolution, you know who birthed the scientific revolution? It was Christians. I've preached on this a couple years ago, but it wasn't atheists that produced the scientific revolution, like the advancements in physics and cosmetology.

Yeah, that doesn't work, does it? So cosmology and all these things. It was God, it was the influence of God upon the heart of people. They said if God is a designer, then there has to be design in creation.

And they went out looking for it and found it. People like Sir Isaac Newton and so forth. But all these scientific revolutions that broke forth in all these different areas and disciplines of science really were birthed from the Christians. And that's why people say Christianity, they'll say stuff like this, Christianity hinders true science. And I'm like, Christianity is what produced it friends. Because they're the ones who promoted it and sought it and they don't mess it up and tamper with it and stuff it into some kind of ignorant place of evolution that means nothing plus something equals everything.

That's a impossibility. So the Bible tells us in Psalms 90 verse one, Lord, thou has been our dwelling place in all generations before the mountains were brought forth or ever thou has formed the earth and the world even from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God, thou turns man to destruction and say is return ye children of men for 1000 years in thy cider, but as yesterday when it is past. I can't understand it. Can you understand like how 1000 years could be like a day? Can anybody comprehend that?

Like, how can that even be? Well, he's outside of time and we don't know what it looks like in that dimension, but it's like a day, it's like it's nothing. He says man's life is like a breath. Our life is such a vapor. We get so caught up in the vapor that sometimes we miss the eternal reality that God's working with and God's goodness, as I've said, oftentimes is not based upon the vapor, it's based upon eternity. One man said of eternity, it is duration without beginning and end, existence without bounds or dimensions, present without past or future. His eternity is youth without infancy or old age, life without birth or death, today without yesterday or tomorrow.

How do you get that? We can't grasp it. Isn't it glorious? Aren't you glad there's realities of God that you just can't even touch the hem of the garment? It's like, boy, I can't wait to get to heaven and realize how much I have no understanding of and just be blown away. You know, in eternity, you'll be blown away forever. People say, you know, in heaven, what are we gonna do? Will we get bored? If you think things on earth are enjoyable, you have no concept of how much greater it will be.

Well, I mean, it will be so much further than anything in our life. I mean, Paul said it right in Romans eight, when he said the sufferings of this world aren't even worthy to be compared with the glory, which shall be revealed in us. And so one writer says at this very moment, God exists at the same time He exists at the time of Abraham, at the same time He exists in the time of the future kingdom. You understand God is existing right now a million years from now? You understand that? You don't, neither do I, but He does. God is a million years into the future and He's in the present and He's in eternity past.

You say, I can't even comprehend that. We kind of like a parade. You have a beginning of a parade, one mile into it, there's the middle one mile ahead is the very end of the parade. And so if you had this parade set up, you could be inside of that parade at some point, but if you're in a helicopter, you could see the whole thing from the beginning to the middle to the end and God sits. The Bible calls Him in the Hebrew tongue, El Olam. It's the God who literally sits in eternity is what they called Him, the God of eternity. In Genesis 21, 33, Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba and called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God or the God of eternity. Psalms 90 verse two says, before the mountains were brought forth, there ever how thou has formed Him and the world from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. And so God's eternality is the grounds for His uniqueness of being the God. Like the God is the eternal one. The God is the one who's been forever. And Isaiah 57, 15 says, for thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity, like inhabiteth. It's a continual, He dwells in eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the high and holy place with Him who is also as of a contrite and humble spirit and revive the spirit of the humble to revive the heart of the contrite ones. But He is the high and lofty one.

There's no one beside Him. He is unique in His eternality and His immutability. No one is like the Lord.

And that's why the Bible says of Jesus, He's the same yesterday, today and forever. Think about Malachi 5, two, or in the Old Testament, not Malachi. Malachi only has four chapters. You know, I'm gonna be preaching on this book. I better know how many chapters it has. But the prophecy about Jesus's birth, Micah 5, two.

Yes, I knew it started with an M, okay? So Micah 5, two says, His goings forth have been from old from everlasting. Talking about Jesus Christ, His goings forth have been from old from everlasting.

And so what are some of the results of God's immutability? And let's look at this third portion of this sermon. He says in verse six, notice the statement.

For I am the Lord, I change not. And then He says, what's the next word that He says? Therefore, okay, anybody else see that word? So I'll say that together. What's the next word He says? Therefore, okay.

I just wanna make sure everybody's on board. So therefore, and that's a term of conclusion. Whenever you see a therefore, you need to pause in your reading of the Bible and say, why is it therefore?

What's the reason that He put that statement in there? And He says, therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. That phrase consumed is used, it's a Hebrew word, kalah, and it's used about 200 times in the Old Testament. And it conveys such meanings as annihilation, to destroy, to devour, to perish. If God was mutable, if He changed in Israel, would already have been annihilated. I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore, you're not annihilated is what He's saying. The reason that you're not annihilated is because I haven't changed.

In the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Hebrew, it uses the Greek verb in this area as apako, which is one meaning of which is to receive in full that which is due. Basically, Israel was due annihilation. They deserved annihilation. They deserved being totally destroyed, but God's covenant loving kindness, because of that, because He wouldn't break that covenant, He wouldn't change, He allowed them to remain.

And we sit in the same situation. If it wasn't for God's unchanging nature, our sin would provoke God to destroy us, but because He's made covenant with us through the blood of Christ, and we have eternal life. That's wonderful news, amen? And so Walter Kayser says, even when Israel had violated and profaned the covenant of God, God refused to violate His promise. Think about Psalms 89, verse 34. God says, my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.

When God speaks, He speaks. Here, God's covenant name, Jehovah, is used. In Exodus six, verse three, it says, and I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name, Jehovah, or Yahweh, was I not known to them. And that name, Jehovah, which the root of that is Yahweh, it reflects upon God's faithfulness, His unchangingness, unchangeableness, His continuance, and the person that He is refers to Him being faithful.

And what's interesting here, you have in verse six, He says, for I am Jehovah, I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob are not consumed. You think about Jacob, what was Jacob known for? Remember Jacob and Esau? Was Jacob like somebody you would wanna work for you?

Would you wanna work for Jacob? Okay, this guy's name means a supplanter. It means like a trickster, a rat, you know what I mean? It's like this is the guy that's like sleazy, bending the rules. This guy lied in the Bible to his parents. He deceived his family, his dad.

I mean, this is a cunning guy in a bad way. So you have Jehovah who's faithful, Jacob who is unfaithful. You have the trustworthy versus the deceiver. And so he who once loved Jacob did not cease to love his sons, even though they were ones who violated his word. And so the immutability of God gives comfort, gives assurance to the believer that his promises will not fail. Also, God's attitude towards sin never changes. God cannot be coerced or manipulated to compromise and change of any way.

And then also ponder the significance of this truth in light of what we've talked about. What does it mean that God is love? Is it important to know that God does not change in the fact that God is love?

What does the truth of immutability add to the truth that God is love? Below, just some thoughts I would like to share about Spurgeon, it says in the first place, we have known that God's love to us is undeserved. Another thing we can bear testimony to is that this love that God has is unconquerable. We strove against God's love, but it conquered us. We can say concerning his love that it has never been diminished by all the sins we have ever committed since we believed.

We have often revolted, but we have never found him unwilling to forgive because God is loving and he is merciful and he doesn't change in that. Now, also think about God's word and his immutability. If his word is, if the word came from God, then the word also does not change. And that's why Psalm 119, 89 says, forever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven. Psalm 119, 160, thy word is true from the beginning. And every one of thy righteous judgments endureth forever. Jesus said in Matthew 5, 18, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law till all is fulfilled. So God's word doesn't change, it's that important.

I know when I talk to people inside of the construction field, I've shared this before, but they always have new updated rules or things that they gotta deal with, especially in the technical area or electric area. There's different requirements and regulations, but with God's word, if you learn John 3, 16, it'll be true today, it'll be true when you're 70, it'll be true when you're dead and gone. That's why when you give yourself to the Bible, you never waste time studying it. Because what you learn will be true next week and next month and next year and a thousand years from now. Like it never stops. What a great investment of your mind.

What a worthwhile thing to dive into. And then God's truths do not change, His word doesn't change, His truths, sin is still sin no matter what the culture says. Marriage is still between one man and one woman. Boys are boys and girls are girls.

Life starts in the womb. God loves holiness, He hates sin. I mean, these are all same thing. I was reading on our daily bread and a man named Paul Van Gorder says, I'd probably be guilty of this too. He says, I am dubious of the accuracy of our bathroom scale. So he said, I've learned to manipulate it in a self-satisfying manner.

The little adjustment knob serves to vary the register and if that becomes too much bother, I just learn to lean a certain way. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Well, you put that on a cushion, but when it's on a hard surface, it's like, man, that ain't reading right. That ain't reading right.

Gotta get some insulation underneath that thing. Give it some five pound difference there. But we live in an age when many people believe that there's no absolutes, that we wanna be self-serving when it comes to God and to God's truths, that we wanna tilt the scales and say, God's okay with this. God will accept this, but God's scales don't change. He is immutable. With Him, a pound is a pound.

Right is right, wrong is wrong. He is the Lord. He does not change. So for us as believers, this puts steel into our backbones. We can have confidence when we come to God's word. We can hold to it. We do not waver on these things. And I love that. I wanna be certain.

You feel that same way? I wanna be certain about things. I don't wanna be like, I don't know.

Well, I don't know. You ever have politicians, they change every other month, don't they? They're like, vote for me and I'll do this, this and this.

You vote for them. And they're like, now that I got your vote, now I'm gonna modify some of these things. And aren't you thankful that God doesn't do that? I mean, He holds to the truth all the time. The gospel will not change the other. God's plan of salvation doesn't change. It's always by grace. It's always by faith. It's always through repentance.

It's always through trust in Christ as Lord. Jesus said, He is the way, the truth and life. No one comes to the Father, but by Him, that's the truth. People say, well, what about people in other countries who haven't come through Jesus Christ? Won't they go to heaven if they've never heard? If ignorance leads to salvation, let's bring all our missionaries home. If not hearing the gospel will save you, if ignorance equals salvation, then don't tell anyone because their ignorance would bring them salvation.

You see whose lie that is? Ignorance doesn't save us. The Bible says, how shall they hear without a preacher and how they should they preach except they be sent? So we must proclaim the gospel. We must send missionaries out.

We must go to them. It is our responsibility. But God also reserves a remnant. We've been studying through Romans nine, 10 and 11, and God will send the message out. God will accomplish the gospel message. You know, the gospel message is honestly not dependent upon you and me.

I think sometimes that's an Armenian viewpoint. You know, if we don't tell them, you know, it's never gonna get accomplished. Well, God's gonna raise up people to tell them. You know what he's gonna do in Revelation seven?

He's gonna raise up 144,000 Jewish men. Is that gonna happen? Think God's word is gonna be fulfilled? Yep. Think you can alter that?

Nope. It doesn't matter if you told him or not, God's gonna bring the gospel. You know, in Revelation, he's actually gonna preach the gospel from heaven by an angel who will go through the heavens preaching, the Bible says, the everlasting gospel. Praise God that his work will be accomplished.

And I can tell you, the question is, will you be involved in it or will you not? Are you gonna enter into the labor field or sit on the sidelines and be ashamed one day when you stand before God and realize that we were unfaithful? Or are we gonna be faithful and serve God and preach the gospel and proclaim Christ? People say, well, what about those Old Testament saints? Weren't they saved by bringing sacrifices and weren't they saved by keeping the law?

No, no, no, no. What's Romans 4 say? What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, you guys know it, let's just read it together.

You got it all memorized, don't you? What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, is pertaining to the flesh that's found? For if Abraham were justified by works, Abraham hath whereof to glory before God.

He would boast in himself. And then Paul asked the vital question, but what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God and it was imputed or counted to him for righteousness.

Legitimites, it's a term in the Greek they're accounted and it's used many different ways in the book of Romans is reckoned or considered or counted to. But righteousness was placed on the account of Abraham because Abraham had faith and that goes back to Genesis 12. So faith has always been the way of salvation. It's placing your faith in the truth of God as he's revealed it to you and grace is poured out upon such a soul. Genesis 6 says, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

He didn't earn salvation by building an ark because he was saved, he trusted God and he built an ark because works evidence the root of true salvation. Now our salvation also doesn't change. The gospel doesn't change and our salvation doesn't change. You know, I'm thankful that at 1 John 5, 13 remains that these things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you can know you have eternal life. You know, I don't live every day worrying about whether I'm going to heaven or not.

I'm thankful for that. The Lord's return will not change. Revelation 1, 7, behold, he comes with clouds and every eye shall see him. That's going to happen, that won't change. You know, it doesn't matter what happens on this earth. Christ will come back, he will victor. Eternal glories of heaven will not change. Listen to what Revelation 21, this is such a wonderful verse section. It says, and I heard a great voice out of heaven, Revelation 21, 3, saying, behold, the dwelling place where the tabernacle of God is with men, he will dwell with them and they shall be his people. God himself shall be with them and be their God and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Isn't that comforting? There shall be no more death.

Isn't that going to be a great day? You know, I have a dear family in our church in Chillicothe who, when we started the church there 18 or so years ago, they were one of the founding families that jumped on board with us when we moved there and Buzz and Crystal Zeisler, and they have a son named Brad who just went home to be with the Lord. He was, I think, 40 years old or so, but he just recently got saved in, I think, probably the last couple of years, year and a half or so, but he got cancer and just rilled his body. He had a little nine-month-old baby, so you pray for that dear Zeisler family, but praise God, he's in heaven.

I mean, he's with the Lord Jesus Christ. We're sad on earth to see your loved ones pass, but what a blessing, and there'll be no more death, no more, it says, neither sorrow nor crying. You know, in heaven, you'll never feel the pain of insecurity, loss, physical injury, heartache, disappointment, all of that's forever gone.

What a day that will be, right? And it says, neither shall there be any more pain. Anybody have any level of pain today? Who has back pain, like seriously, like you deal with back pain, who has, and that's a, is that one of the worst ones, isn't it? Anybody deal with migraines, like you deal with some migraines here and there, you know, you get a bad migraine, it's like, you know, your day is not gonna be like, this is fantastic. I mean, it's just like, ah, you know, I had a headache a couple of weeks ago, so like, man, I don't get headaches real often, but I was, and it just, you know, just the physical ailments and things we deal with, it says, all that's gonna be gone. I mean, just think about a pain-free existence, eternally pain-free. You imagine when we come back with Jesus and he sets his kingdom up and there'll be a battle against Satan and his cohort, nothing the enemy can do to you can ever hurt you.

They're gonna be pretty awesome, like fearless, you know, no fear, no worry. Verse five, it says, and he that said on the throne said, behold, I make all things new. You ever wanted something new and you always had to buy something used? You're gonna get everything new. He's like, ah, everything's new, all the time. This is brand new.

This is the brand new eternal edition. It's immutable. Will I ever have to replace? Nothing! You'll never have to change tires, elbows, joints, hips.

Corrective lenses will be gone. Some of y'all eat so many pills in the morning, I don't even know how to eat breakfast. It's like, oh, that's gone.

Oh, that's gone, right? You got, I'm not trying to make light of this, but I mean, it's incredible sometimes. I mean, I've been around where I'll be, you know, they got Monday, Tuesday, when they get a whole month laid out and it's like, I mean, they're trying to cram that thing down. I'm like, you might want to get like a lunchbox for that.

I don't know, 30 lunchboxes. I mean, there's a lot there. But that's what awaits us and when you read about that, you can say, you know what, that's coming. That's for sure, that's definite.

I can take that to the bank. Eternal horrors of hell also, not only will heaven not change but the eternal horrors of hell will not change. Revelation 20, 15 says, whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake of fire. You know, people that were in hell in Jesus' day were still in hell today. You know, your neighbors that don't know Christ, they'll be in hell forever. They don't know Christ.

Our children, our parents, our loved ones, there should be a motivation to say, you know what, I want to get the gospel to them. Is there anybody in your life that, because you can't save anybody, that's God's work, but you and I can tell them. So tonight I want you to consider for a moment, is there anyone in your life that you know that's not saved that you've not yet told? I made it a point in my life years ago that family members, close friends, people that are around me, I just, I never wanted to have people in my life that I never told about Jesus.

Now, I would be willing to lose a relationship over that. I would be willing to tell them in love and grace and kindness and if they hate me for it, then I'm willing, I love them enough to lose our relationship for it. I would love them enough to tell them, hey, you need to know, I need to tell you this. So it's an act of love, it's an act of grace, but it needs to be motivated by the reality that they're gonna spend forever away from God in the presence of eternal suffering. And we never want to be guilty of saying, you know, I never told them. When I lay my head on my pillow, when I'm aged and I have not much life left in me, I want to have known that I told everyone in my life that I could have about Jesus Christ. And whether they got saved or not, you know, I will pray for them and long for that, but I at least want to have given them the message. And sometimes it can be a difficult situation.

Maybe somebody lives out of state, maybe a phone call is not always the most comforting situation. I would encourage you to write out your testimony. Do what folks do every Sunday. I mean, John got up here and shared his testimony Sunday.

Wasn't that good? Praise God, Sunday was great. And write out, you learn to write, if you say, I don't know how to write my testimony, I go to our foundations class, they will show you how to write your testimony. You can just do it for that purpose.

You say, say, why are you doing this? Because I want to get my testimony down because I want to be able to mail this to my cousin, brother, loved one out of state. I want to send this to somebody and say, hey, I just wanted you to hear what Jesus has done in my life. And I want to tell you how you can be safe through my testimony.

Wouldn't that be great? Wouldn't it be great if we flooded even the social media with our testimonies? Like write your testimony out and then set it on social media and say, hey, I just want to share a post that's more important than even the media and all the craziness that goes on in the world. I want to share with you, and I can tell you, people will read that. They'll read the whole thing. They may not listen to you talk about Jesus, but when you tell them about your life and what Jesus has done in your life, they'll listen to the whole thing.

They'll read the entire thing. So just consider what are some possible ways you can do that. And so just tonight, if God could change, if self-existence became dependent existence, if eternity became time, then God would no longer be God. It is God's immutability that assures us that his perfections will not change. God's immutability assures us that both God's justice and mercy will be upheld. In a world that's filled with change, God doesn't change. Immutability marks and affects everything outside of God, and it's an incredible comfort for us. We're altered by change.

We're altered by our environments, by entropy, by godless men and our own sins. God, who is faithful to his people, will forever be faithful. The good shepherd will always be the good shepherd. When you read in Luke 15 about the father of the prodigal son, he's still the good father of the prodigal son.

That's still who he is. The Holy Spirit that dwells in us will forever dwell with us. The Bible tells us he is the same yesterday and today and forever. And so in a world where the waves are tossed back and forth with change, and we just live in consuming change right now, we can step back and say, praise God, we serve a God that doesn't change. And I would close with the words of Christ in Psalm 46, verse 10. He says, be still and know that I am God. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the heathen.

I will be exalted in the earth. He goes on in verse number 11. Maybe that's the last verse, yeah, verse number 10. But we have that comfort tonight, don't we? The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge.

I knew there was one more verse. And so tonight, I don't know where your heart's at. I don't know what maybe trials are in your life. Sometimes when you see changes in your kids, your grandkids, you see things going on in the world that can cause us to get unsettled. But I think just like Spurgeon said, we can be those people that see that can come and land our feet upon the solid ground of God's unchanging truth. Maybe tonight, there's something in your heart you just need to resettle back down and say, God, I know everything's gonna be okay because you don't change. You have this, you have this all taken care of. And if death were to come knocking at my door, you still sit on the throne in perfect immutability and perfection. And I can trust every one of your words, amen. It's all staying tonight with heads bowed, knives closed, and the altar's open. Maybe you just wanna come and spend a moment in prayer.

You're welcome to do that tonight. If you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ and you don't know if tonight you would be with Him, we have men and women down front that could talk with you, pull you aside in a room, and share with you from the Word of God how you can know you could have eternal life. But, friend, tonight, I don't know where your heart is and with the trials of life, what you're going through. Maybe everything's going great.

But I would encourage you to evaluate, is there anyone in your life, is there any family member, neighbor, friend? Don't let it be that our neighbors, that people live next to us, and we never walked over and invited them to church or ever told them about Jesus. Don't let that be true. Let that gospel witness go forth. Father, we are so thankful for mercy and grace. We thank you for the death, the burial, and the glorious resurrection of our King and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you for your Word tonight. Pray that we would apply these truths and as when the trials of life come, that we would reflect back that God doesn't change, that when life seems unstable, God is unmoved. We find such peace and glorious comfort in that. And we pray your blessing now in Jesus' name, amen. As we... As we... As we... As we... As we... As we...