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God
Does NOT Change
Let's
concentrate on the sixth verse of our scripture
text for just a moment: For I am the Lord, I
change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not
consumed. We are living in a world where
radical changes are taking place. Some folks
have actually lived the span of time from the
horse-and-buggy days to the space age. The laws
of this great land are undergoing change, too.
Sadly, many many of these laws are fulfilling
prophecy by turning sin and ungodliness loose in
a greater way. Much of this is because of the
impact that false doctrines have had on the
lawmakers! All of the time, many of the things
which God's Word definitely speaks against are
being condoned today. People are WRONGLY being
taught that there is nothing wrong with
sin.
In the midst of this condition, many
are changing their minds. The flood tide of this
change has been so great that far too many try
to make us feel that God has changed His mind
about sin. Hence, our text draws us back to the
fact: FOR I AM THE LORD, I CHANGE
NOT....
We all know that Malachi is
the last of the Old Testament prophets. Israel
had drifted far from God time after time after
time. Because they did not want to hear from
God, God hushed. There were four hundred years
from Malachi to John the Baptist, when man never
heard from God. God could have simply
cast them away or even consumed them, but
because He is the Lord and He changes NOT, He
remembered His covenant with them.
Now
think about this for a moment: 400 years. That
encompasses a number of generations. Just
consider the vast number of folks who were born
and died during that time that may well have
NEVER even heard the scriptures taught. While
the "Dark Ages" describes another time and
period of human existence, this was certainly a
"Dark Age" for the children of God.
You
know, some people do not feel that God would
consume or punish anyone, that He is a God of
love. He is a GOD of LOVE--He loves us so much
He has extended mercy countless times towards
us! Yet, think about it: only a parent who
doesn't love their child would never discipline
or correct that child. Discipline is applied in
many ways, for many reasons. The discipline of
warnings: "Don't touch--it's hot!" or "Don't go
into the street". The discipline of "Do your
homework so you can learn the lessons". The
discipline of "Go to your room and think about
what you did." The correction of, "You don't hit
people", or "You don't call people bad names".
It is NOT love to allow a child to do as they
please--it is neglect. Even moreso, our Heavenly
Father, through His perfect love, disciplines
us. Yet, this 400-year period was a time in
which the people had turned away from God--they
had rejected Him. Even so, because He had
promised that He would make a new covenant with
them, He did not consume them as He could
have.
I want you to understand: Our God
is the same God who drowned millions. He is the
same God who sent fire and brimstone out of
Heaven and destroyed cities with thousands of
people. Yet, here, God was telling Israel, "I am
the Lord and I change not. I promised that I
would make a new covenant with
you."
Through Jeremiah, God told Israel,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I
will make a NEW covenant with the house of
Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not
according to the covenant that I made with their
fathers in the day that I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my
covenant they brake... Jeremiah 31:31,32
(uppercase is mine). Did you read it there:
"which they broke"? God didn't go back on His
Word to Israel: it was the people who went back
on theirs! Still, He did not consume them. And
there are those who say God is not
merciful???
Malachi 3:1 speaks of John
the Baptist coming as a forerunner of Christ and
of Christ suddenly coming into His temple. He
was NOT speaking of the temple laid of stone and
mortar, but he was talking about God's original
temple: do you know where that is? Where is
God's original temple? The heart of man (and
woman). Through this new covenant, the Lord was
going to suddenly knock on the door of this
temple: But who may abide the day of his
coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?
for he is like a refiner's fire, and like
fullers' soap, Verse 2. Fullers' soap was
made of grease and lye--it was a very STRONG
cleansing agent. As Malachi began to talk about
Jesus coming to the heart of man, he said,
"...Who may abide the day of His coming?" Even
today, so many cannot stand to have Jesus come
into their heart and life!
People are
standing today with MANIFEST tokens of sin in
their lives and professing to be Christians. No,
no, no, no, no! When Christ comes, He is like
fullers' soap and He is as a refiners' fire.
When you allow Jesus to come into your heart,
there is going to be a housecleaning as never
before.
There is a "type" of this kind of
cleaning when Jesus went into the old temple in
the city of Jerusalem. There they were
worshipping, but in the midst of the temple,
they had a lot of things which did not belong
there: money changers, dove sellers and other
merchants, etc. The first thing Jesus did was to
clean house. He took a whip, ran them out, and
upset their tables. And I want you to understand
this right now: His disgust and hate for sin is
just the same today. WE may have lowered
the standards, but God hasn't. He is the Lord
and He changes not! Sin is sin is sin. In the
multitude of those who claim to be Jesus lovers,
there are those who cannot stand even the
message of salvation, let alone His REAL
appearance into their hearts.
I want to
reiterate this: the FIRST thing Jesus does when
He enters a heart, is to clean it up. Just as
bitter and sweet cannot come from the same
vessel, Jesus and sin will NOT co-exist in a
life. There will be one OR the other, but not
both. Oh, let me tell you, the enemy of your
soul will come at you with every doubt and
confusion he can, trying to make you think you
are not saved, not cleansed, you've done too
much, why "everybody knows". Let me tell you, he
is a liar and the father of all lies! When Jesus
enters the temple of your heart, it is made
C-L-E-A-N. You have been blood-bought and set
free from the bondages of sin. You are a
cleansed vessel, to be filled with the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ in your
life!
God Keeps His
Promises
The text says, For I am
the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of
Jacob are not consumed. How can we apply
this today? If you are yet living in sin and
rebellion, you need to realize something. First,
you are living on the mercy of God, because God
has spoken some things about you. He is standing
behind those promises and you are still alive.
It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not
consumed, because his compassions fail not. They
are new every morning: great is thy
faithfulness. Lamentations
3:22,23.
Just as a child will try the
bounds of a parent's love, so do we as children
of God. Oh yes, many of us try to see what we
can "get away with". We defend our sins with,
"But God loves me. He is a God of mercy. He
would not let harm come to me." You need to
understand this: God never ordained for people
to live in sin and rebellion against Him! He has
given a covenant and signed it with His precious
Blood whereby you can be delivered from a sinful
condition. The faithfulness of God is great when
He shows forth such mercy as He does. It is NOT
God's will that ANY perish--He has NEVER changed
His mind about that: ...As I live, saith the
Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the
wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way
and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil
ways... Ezekiel 33:11. God does not want
people to die in a sinful, lost condition! Read
this VERY carefully: The Lord is not slack
concerning his promise, as some men count
slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish but that all
should come to repentance. II Peter 3:9. Did
you read it? ...Not willing that ANY should
perish but that ALL should come to
repentance!
Let's consider some of the
attribues of God. When He said, "I am the Lord,
I change not", just what did He mean? First of
all, God's love is unchanging and everlasting.
The scriptures have witnessed to the fact that
God's love is everlasting. Jeremiah 31:3 tells
us, "...I have loved thee with an everlasting
love..." The golden text of the New
Testament, John 3:16 says, For God so loved
the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish, but have everlasting life. Please
note: it does NOT say that whosoever should
believe in Him, but whosoever believeth
(believes), PRESENT tense. There are those who
try to persuade people that if they ever
believed on Christ and born again, that they
would never perish. However, the Bible teaches
that we must KEEP believing--it must be kept in
PRESENT, not PAST, tense.
Read this very
carefully--take special notice of it: too many
are deceived into thinking that God loves them
with an everlasting love. Because of this, there
are countless millions who do NOTHING about
their soul, and others who live carelessly, not
bothering to follow the Lord and allow the
witness of Him to shine through in their lives.
Why? They are trusting the everlasting love of
God. Now the Bible does say that He loves us
with an everlasting love, but we need to
understand how to rightly apply this to
ourselves and the manner in which we live our
daily lives. It is just ONE part that fits into
a greater picture.
There is more which we
need to understand when we think about our God
Who never changes and His everlasting love.
Right while God loves the world with an
everlasting love, it IS possible for you and I
to get beyond the limits of the effect of God's
love. In this condition, God's love will not be
able to have the effect on you which He ordained
for it to have. The Bible tells us, Behold
therefore the goodness and severity of God: on
them which fell, severity; but toward thee,
goodness, IF thou continue in his goodness:
OTHERWISE thou also shalt be cut off.
Romans 11:22 (bold and caps are mine). All of
these together make up God, but if you are not
careful, the devil will run off with just one of
the attributes.
There are those who
believe we should only preach "love". However,
you need to remember this very IMPORTANT fact:
no one is saved by love, but by G-R-A-C-E.
Grace, Grace, God's marvelous Grace! Grace is
NOT love. God loves everybody, but not everybody
has received Grace. For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is
the gift of God. Ephesians 2:8. God has an
everlasting love, but you can put yourself in a
position where His love does not affect you the
way He desires it
to.
God's Love Brings
Blessings or
Condemnation
As an
example, let's look at the prodigal son. The
father still loved his son, just as much as he
ever had, while the son was away from home.
Nevertheless, the son could not feel a bit of
that love. He was in a remorseful condition in
the hog pen. The father loved him, but in order
for the son to feel that love, he had to have a
"right relationship" with his father--he had to
return to the father. God hates sin, but He
LOVES SINNERS. He doesn't love what they are
doing, but He loves them.
There are those
who say the two are inseparable. WRONG! Just as
a loving parent does not quit loving their child
because their child does wrong. The parent may
well hate what the child did, but still love the
child! Yes, God loves sinners, but they will
NEVER know the effects of God's love and
blessings until they obey HIm and come in
sincere, heart-felt repentance to Him.
We
feel the effects of God's love when we are in
the position where God can pour it out on us. He
desires to bless each and every one of us, but
there are those who will not allow Him to do so.
When we insist on staying in sin and rebellion
against God, we are in no position to receive
God's blessings. You may be bound with sin and
feel that no one loves you, that no one cares.
However, if you will meet Christ at an altar of
prayer, you will find the love of God is just as
strong as it ever was in any other period of
time.
It is also possible to feel the
presence of God's love and suffer ill effects by
it. The more that God pours out His love, if you
refuse to submit to Him, the more condemnation
will come upon you. If you want STRONG
reassurance that there is no escape from God,
just read Psalm 139. Even people in hell are not
hid from God. Their knowledge of the love of God
strengthens their
condemnation.
Therefore, do not believe
that you will never be lost if you continue to
live carelessly. It won't be God sending you to
hell; it is strictly your decision to go that
way when you rebel against God's goodness, love
and mercy!
We can depend upon God's Word.
Isaiah 55:11 tells us, So shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not
return unto me void, but it shall accomplish
that which I please, and it shall prosper in the
thing whereto I sent it. God sent His Word
to put us on the highway of holiness, which the
unclean cannot pass over. He sent His Word that
you and I might go out with joy and have victory
over sin, the flesh and the enemy of our souls,
the devil.
God's Word is FOREVER settled
in Heaven. Let's read that one more time: God's
Word is FOREVER settled in Heaven. Men cannot
change it, despite all their efforts to do so.
There is no need of forming a committee to
re-translate and change it. God's Word has not
changed because of anything men or women have
instituted on this earth, either.
We have
been carried to the far edges in this day and
time in which we are living. It is time for us
to realize that God's Word is FOREVER
settled in Heaven. The purposes and promises of
God are not without effect to those who believe.
The Bible PLAINLY teaches us that God is a
BOUNTIFUL rewarder to every one who diligently
(fervently, with your whole heart) seeks Him.
The SAME Bible tells us that He is a revenger:
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but
rather give place unto wrath: for it is written,
Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the
Lord. Romans 12:19.
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