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.

Your Sin Will Find You Out

People do NOT like to hear this today: "Be sure your sins WILL find you out." But it is just as true as it ever was.

Ecclesiastes 8:11 brings forth the condition in which many are caught up today: Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil. Oh yes, because God does not strike people down as soon as they do wrong, the devil takes advantage of that and tries to delude them into thinking that God has changed His mind about sin. Do not be deceived; God does not always speedily execute judgment. But just as surely as you commit sin, your sin will find you out.

God was very merciful with the Jews until they finally rejected Christ and the new covenant. When He turned the Romans loose on them, they were consumed. Never accept the thought that the Lord has changed His mind about sin and evil simply because He does not execute judgment in a day or two after it happens! We need to remember that a thousand years with Him are as yesterday: For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. Psalm 90:4. God remembers it all--including things that happened thousands of years ago, just as easily as you remember what happened five minutes ago.

This is what brings such fear on my heart for people. They are doing wrong today and simply because a lightning bolt does not immediately come forth from Heaven and strike them down, they think they have gotten away with something. God NEVER overlooks sin. Sometimes it takes years for the judgment of God to fall, but you can mark it down, it will fall.

God is just as much an enemy to sin as He ever was. We can slick it over, sweep it under, cast it aside, defend it, deny it, but God hates sin just as much as He ever did. And sin still separates us from God as much as it ever did. We can translate His Word into meaningless jibberish, remove anything that might be offensive to those who are sensitive, but it doesn't take away from the truth of the matter: God hates sin, and sin separates us from God! False doctrines are making people believe that God has given up, and folks are following these false doctrines because they do not want to be convicted of their sins. God has never dwelt where sin is and He never will.

I want you to clearly understand this: God HATES sin, but He loves the sinner. Sin is a destroyer, a hateful thing and made even worse when those who profess to be children of God, even ministers of the Gospel, commit sin. Yes, you can be certain of this: ...be sure your sin will find you out. Numbers 32:23. Just as Moses told the people in that day, it is still true for the people of THIS day: Be sure your sin will find you out. You hear preachers talking about "hidden sins"? They are only hidden from the eyes of men. Nothing, as in NO THING is hidden from God. II Chronicles 16:9 and Zechariah 4:10 tell us For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth...

Then you have those who try to smooth over their wrongdoing by the defense of "Grace". They say, "But we are living under Grace." What did the Apostle Paul say about it? Let's read it: What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? Romans 6:15,16. The NIV says it this way: "What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey--whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?"

Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances [my laws], and have not kept them...Your words have been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, What have we spoken so much against thee? Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered. Malachi 3:7,13-15.

This is a picture of too many who profess to be Christians today. It is the most vain thing in the world to attempt to serve God but not walk in the light of His Word, refusing to keep His ordinances. The scriptures from Malachi are describing those who had turned away from keeping God's ordinances and needless to say, lost the joy of their salvation. If you are not getting any profit out of serving God, shut your eyes to everybody around you. That's where your trouble lays--you're listening to the wrong voices. You cannot have Christian joy and rebel against God's ordinances. Instead of the joy you could have, you will walk mournfully.

Ye have said, It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of hosts? When you begin to walk mournfully in your Christian experience, it is a sure sign that love, gratitude and gladness are gone. There is an absence of the joy which the Lord had given you for your strength. When you lose that joy, you lose your strength. Therefore, serving God becomes a hard task, and the standards of God become too high.

Profit Or Loss

Jesus spoke in Matthew 15:8,9 of a people similar to those in Malachi's day: This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me... In other words, they had lost the heart out of their religion. The enemy of our soul desires to lead us away from the necessity of keeping God's commandments and God's Word.

When your heart is not in serving God, there is no profit in it. When we find our Christian worship or our Christian work bringing little profit to our soul, we had better throw our hearts open and allow God to search us (AND change us). Serving God from the heart brings the greatest pleasure and the greatest profit. When you begin to look at the world and say, "They look happier than I am," you are in a sad condition.

...Return unto me, and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, Wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?... Malachi 3:7,8. God has been robbed of honor. A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear?... Malachi 1:6. Bringing it into New Testament understanding, Jesus asked, And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? Luke 6:46.

Secondly, we rob God of tithes and offerings. The tithe is the Lord's--it is NOT yours. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house... Malachi 3:10. That's not talking about "meat" as in all the suppers we throw to try to persuade our own folks to come to church (we no longer strive to get the sinners there). Where is, what is the "storehouse"? It is where your soul is fed. You don't eat at one restaurant and then go down the street and pay at another, do you? Tithes are to be used for the furtherance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ--to allow the minister to study and search into the deeper things of God (the meat of the Word). God's people cannot mature on a milk diet. We all need to support the work of God.

Many times, God is also robbed of offerings. "You mean I've got to give in addition to my tithes?!?" It is the nature of people to want the maximum in exchange for the minimum. But just look at what the remainder of Verse 10 in that third chapter of Malachi tells us: ...Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. We live on the fringes: we have a fringe relationship with God, we give on the fringe of barely meeting the minimum, we witness when/if there is no way to "get out of it" and then we wonder why we don't receive the bounty of God.

Then verse 11 of that chapter adds, And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. Without God's blessings, there are things today that will devour your whole paycheck. However, with God's blessings, verse 12 then tells us, And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts. That goes for individuals, too, my friends. YOU will be "delightsome" and the blessings of the Lord will be clearly evident in your lives.

His Judgments Never Change

His judgments have never changed, and they never will. Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore remove sorrow from thy heart, and put away evil from thy flesh: for childhood and youth are vanity. Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Ecclesiastes 11:9,10; 12:1.

Sin often looks pleasant to the young. When they are sowing, the flesh is inflated with the vanity and pleasure of it. Nevertheless, after every sowing period, comes a time of reaping. God brings judgment on ALL our works. There will be a day come when that which once gave us pleasure in sin, no longer holds the same attraction. Thus, the reaping begins. No one finds any pleasure in the reaping time. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. Galatians 6:7,8. There you have it, plain and simple.

Jesus lets us understand that He does NOT change. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark. Matthew 24:37,38. What happened in the days of Noah? Destruction. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. Luke 17:28,30. Yes, just like the people of today, those folks thought judgment would never come. Nevertheless, when they least expected it, despite ALL the WARNINGS they had been given, God's judgment came.

But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light... I Thessalonians 5:1-5.

Those who do not understand the Bible preach/teach that Jesus is going to come as a thief in the night and steal them away. That is exactly opposite to what the Bible says. Jesus is not coming as a thief on the church (body of Christ--the blood-bought redeemed of God). They know the Word of God; their hearts are right with God, they are prepared to go in to the marriage supper, their lamps are trimmed and ready. The term "as a thief in the night" applies to those who are not expecting Him--the unsaved.

There is NOTHING more CERTAIN than the second coming of the Lord. There is nothing more UNCERTAIN than WHEN He will come. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night... II Peter 3:10. Oh yes, He will come as a thief in the night to those who are in the darkness of sin. There is a very vivid truth here: the thief gives no notice, but conceals his design because He wants the discovery of that which he has done to be made much later. When you find out you have been robbed, the deed has been done already.

Those who are living in the world, in the darkness of sin, will have no notice whatsoever. There is no need of looking for signs in the moon, stars, or earth. There is NO sign given to a wicked and adulterous generation except the sign of the prophet, Jonah. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matthew 12:39,40. If you do not believe the Gospel, the judgments of God will come on you as a thief in the night, when you least expect them.

Christ IS Coming

Christ is not coming on the church (the body of Christ) as a thief. Why? He could come before you finish reading this page. He could come in the morning, or at noon or tonight. But you see, the church is LOOKING for Him. He has given the church signs to confirm the patient hope of the watchful believer. Jesus said, But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh. Matthew 24:43,44. We are told in I Peter 5:8 to Be sober, be vigilant...

We have already had signs. We have passed through the days of Noah when the world was taken up with an "eat, drink, and be merry" attitude. We have passed into the days of Lot, a modern Sodom. It is a sign to every faithful believer that just beyond this period is the second coming of Christ. I repeat: There is NOTHING more CERTAIN than the second coming of the Lord. There is nothing more UNCERTAIN than WHEN He will come.

Our text tells us, "I am the Lord, I change not." Even though Israel had failed Him, He did not fail Israel. He did not consume them because He had promised them a new covenant. Friend, His judgments are sure; they are certain. Please, do not be deceived. [ The End ]