An Unchanging God
By
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
OPENING: - I like to play golf although I haven’t been able to play lately one thing about golf that is totally true is consistency is the name of the game. The problem is I wasn’t always consistent. If we are honest most people aren’t always consistent in the things the do in life. We are always changing we are always adapting.
It is amazing how God will speak to you, and we must be cognizant to His voice and listen to what He is saying. Understand when He speaks it is seldom in a loud audible voice, but it is in the still small voice and the subtle ways that we must listen and hear what thus saith the Lord.
Heraclitus an ancient philosopher is famous for his statement, “Man cannot step into the same river twice.” Heraclitus was simply pointing out that change is a constant for us.
The road I normally take to go to work has been closed now for two weeks or more and there is a detour which WATCH THIS caused me to take a different way to work. Although the detour is a minor change it changed many different things. It changes my direction as far as how I travel to work it changed the scenery I was used to seeing and showed me something new that I hadn’t seen before, it changed the amount of time it took me to travel only by a couple of minutes, and it changed the route I was used to traveling. This detour caused me to pass two churches and two graveyards that I never knew existed before until the detour was in place. I thank God for the detour because it was through this detour that I heard God speak and give me this message. One of the churches I passed had on its marque Hebrews 13:8 and when I saw it something deep down on the inside was stirred and said that’s what I wanted you to understand. The sign said and I am using it as the title of the sermon “An Unchanging God”.
The depravity of mankind is displayed in every place throughout all of history; however, this time we find ourselves living is truly perilous times. The things that grip the headlines are outrageous and show just how far from the image and likeness of God we have fallen. Murder, killings, road rage, the utter disregard for life, and the utmost heinous crimes being done and not even a second thought is given causes us to say Lord have Mercy. We have surpassed wrong being called right and right being called wrong and are living as Genesis 6:5 says, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”. Romans 3:10 says, “None is righteous, no, not one”.
When we look at Genesis and the creation of man and compare it to the condition of mankind today, we see just how much man has changed. Although mankind has changed, we serve an unchanging God. “An Unchanging God”!
PRAYER: -
Scriptures: Hebrew 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever”. Malachi 3:6 says,“For I am the LORD, I change not”. Psalm 119:89 says, “Forever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven”. Ecclesiastes 3:14 says, “I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him”. Hebrew 6:17 says, “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath”.
QUESTION: - What does it mean that God is immutable? Immutability means God does not change in any way, form or fashion as Hebrew 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever”.
UNDERSTAND: - God Cannot Change. God has no need to change for He is complete and perfect in Himself and has no need of anything. He cannot change for the better because that would mean he wasn’t God before He can’t become less than what He is because then He would cease from being God He is immutable – an unchanging God. The name that He gave to Moses to tell the people of Israel just Who God was is found in Exodus 3:13-15 “ehyeh ’ašer ’ehyeh: I AM that I AM or I AM” meaning the self - existent One. We are finite creatures, dependent upon food, air, water, sun and so on. We have a beginning and regardless of what we try to do will have a physical ending, but God has always existed and there was never a time that He did not exist nor will there will ever be a time when He will not cease from existing. God needs nothing outside of Himself to exist and outside of him is nothing for He is omnipresent. He is fully self-sufficient and self-contained.
Let’s just look at some of the unchanging things of an Unchanging God!
God’s Unchanging Word – Jesus said in Matthew 24:35 “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away”. 1 Peter 1:25 says “But the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you”. The world is passing away, the desires are passing away, we are passing away, but the word of God will never pass away.
Someone may say that’s good but - What does this mean for us – it means we can stand on the promises of God for His promises are His word and they change not or can they pass away. Isiah 40:8 says, “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever”. Psalm 119:89 says, “Forever, O LORD, Thy word is settled in heaven”. That is not true of our word. We often change our minds about things and find that we can no longer honor what we said in the past. Sometimes we say things we do not mean, or we say things which later prove to be wrong and then we find ourselves shuffling around trying to retract what we said in the first place. But when God speaks it is always true. He never speaks in error, He cannot lie; therefore, if He said it first of all it is true and then it has to come to pass - WHY BECAUSE - He never changes. He never said anything He was sorry for or had to take back. His Word is settled and unchanging.
Another thing about God that is unchanging is as Psalm 100:5 says, “For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations”. The mercy of God is “everlasting” is a comforting thing. To know that He doesn’t change His mind about us is reassuring because we often have doubts, but God knows the future, He knows the end from the beginning His mercy is everlasting. God's Mercy is neither compassion nor virtue. Divine Mercy is God's perfection or attribute in which He willingly inclines Himself toward His creatures to ward off impending miseries and to satisfy their daily need. In other words, He gives us not what we deserve but based on His perfect nature gives us what He desires.
WATCH THS: - The Plans of God are Unchanging. I made plans the other week for me and my wife, we were going out of town, and I had made certain plans of things to do while we were there, of the say 7 things I had planned we did maybe 2 of them, my plans changed. Psalm 33:11 says, “But the plans of the LORD stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations”. God’s plans are firm. His purposes will always be carried out. Jerimiah 29:11 NLT Version says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the LORD. They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope”. Our plans and purposes change. Sometimes they are not very realistic, and we must alter them. On other occasions somebody frustrates them. But God’s plans are perfect, and nobody can destroy them or deter them in any way. What God has planned for you cannot be changed.
Another Unchangeable aspect of God is that the Knowledge of God Is Unchanging. Acts 15:18 says, “Known unto God are all His works from the beginning of the world”. If God is unchanging then His knowledge never changes, it never increases or decreases. He knows everything and always has known everything. Anything less would make Him less than God.
This is it right here – God’s love never changes. Isaiah 54:10 says “For the mountains may move and the hills disappear, but even then my faithful love for you will remain. My covenant of blessing will never be broken says the Lord who has mercy on you”. The world around us is becoming a dangerous, unloving, uncaring, sadistic, hateful and very turbulent place, unrest, disorder, fear, and pain have become the new norm. But God’s love for us never changes and the same love that caused Him to die for our sins, is the same love He has for us now and He will keep us safe during these difficult times. God is good.
When we look at the Old Testament we see how the love of God is unchanging when He was leading His people out of slavery in Egypt and into freedom in the Promised Land, they repeatedly turned away from Him. They worshipped false gods and ignored the commandments that had been given to them. But despite their many sins, God never stopped loving them.
The ultimate sign of God’s boundless love can be seen in the sacrifice of His only Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent to die for our sins in order that we might gain salvation.
Today, just as in Biblical times, God continues to love us with a love that is unconditional and unchanging. He loved us into existence, and His love sustains us every day of our lives. If God stopped thinking about and loving us for just a single moment, we would cease to exist. But the Bible tells us that God will never stop loving us in Songs of Solomon 8:7 that even “deep waters cannot quench [His] love, nor floods sweep it away.” No matter what we do to separate ourselves from God, He continues to love us. Even in the deepest darkest pits of our sin God loves us completely. There is nothing we can do to erase God’s immense love for us and that there is the true meaning of Romans 8:38-39 “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come. Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”. Not that I am so good and that you are so good that we are going not to let go, but He loves us so much that none of these things will cause His love for us to change.
CLOSING:- We need to understand that, while God’s character never changes, His methods of dealing with men and administering His program on earth may vary. Whatever He does will be consistent with His eternal nature and will have been known to Him from eternity past. But He does do things differently at different times.
The unchangeableness or immutability of God is that divine attribute which expresses the truth that in His nature, in His character, in His will, in His power, in His knowledge, in His LOVE, He always remains the same. He is infinitely exalted above change, becoming and development, which are the specific characteristics of all finite existence as we are. For us change is one of the most threatening things we face in life yet we encounter it every day. People change constantly, one day we may be in a good mood, the next day in an bad mood that is the just human nature. We can be up one minute and down the next and because of this people really don’t know how to deal with us and we with others because of the inconsistent change that is part of life. However, with God there is no change. Psalm 102:25-27 says “Of old hast thou laid the foundation of the earth: and the heavens are the work of thy hands. 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 art the same, and thy years shall have no end”.
WATCH THIS: - a God who changes would not be worth knowing. We would not be able to trust Him. We would not want to open your heart to him, tell our deepest inner most thoughts to him, share your feelings with him, or tell him your weaknesses, our desires or our needs. If God were sometimes sympathetic and occasionally helpful, we would not depend on him. That is what finite human friends sometimes do - but An Unchanging God we can trust Him, depend upon Him, lean on Him, cast all our cares upon Him and He will never change, He will never stop Loving, He will never gossip, He will never walk away.
Jeremiah 33:3 says, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know”. Because He is an unchanging God it is a pleasure to pray and call upon Him. He never gets tired of our coming to Him. He even invites us to ask Him Matthew 7:7 says, “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you”.
The classical philosophers and many Christian theologians put it like this, all change involves imperfection: If God changes for the better, then he was not fully God before. And if he changes for the worse, then he becomes less than God. So, our God is an unchanging God, a perfect God.
Let me close with this:- In life change is inevitable, and often times much of it can be unpleasant. I am finding out the older I get just how much and how quickly change happens. Not that long ago my wife would say slow down you walk to fast your legs are longer than mine and I can’t keep up with you. Then just a couple of weeks ago we went on a dinner cruise with her sister and her husband and as we were walking back to the car my wife stopped and said are you ok because I was lagging behind. My body is changing it is just a part of life. You are not as fast and agile and strong and vigorous as you once were. I was young but now I am old I am not like I used to be now I find I am slower, tired and have all kinds of aches and pains that I didn’t have before and that is change.
Relationships change sadly people fall in and out of love and marriage. Friends loved ones and family members move away or die. The job you once enjoyed is now boring and miserable and you just want to make it to retirement.
The foods you used to relish no longer appeal. The friends you used to have are no longer even speaking to you.
Change is everywhere. Some people will say the best thing to do is to just embrace change, believing that is all there is. It doesn’t matter whether it is Heraclitus saying that “Everything changes and nothing stands still,” or
“You cannot step into the same river twice” even though everything will change we serve An Unchanging God.
Elevation Worship has a song call “Unchanging God” some of the words are Faithful in the waiting You are Always faithful in the valley You are Faithful in the midst of hurt and pain You are faithful Your promises remain Forever and ever You won't fade away You never, You never change You're unchanging God Mighty in the battle You are Always with me, You're the God who overcomes Mighty You will raise me from the grave.
An Unchanging God.
There’s a song we used to sing years ago that said “I just want to take a little time right now and say Thank You Lord”. On today and down through this week I am encouraging you to take a little time and just think on our Unchanging God. Think about how because He is An Unchanging God we can trust Him, depend upon Him, never have to doubt His holiness, justice, goodness, love, grace, mercy and every other attribute of His being. Think of some ways in which His unchanging ways have been manifested in your life, then just begin to praise Him for being An Unchangeable God.
Bishop Melvin L. Maughmer, Jr.
