GOD’S PROMISES DO NOT CHANGE
October 1, 2006 - PENTECOST 17 - Exodus 32:7-14
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Dearest Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Change, change – everywhere changes. All of us are constantly and consistently facing change. How much our world has changed in the last century. There have been drastic and dramatic changes in every generation and every decade of our lives. At times all these changes seem almost too much to handle. It can be discomforting seeing so many things changing so often, so fast and so much. Thus we gather around God’s word today to find the constant that we need in our lives. God does not change. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In the midst of change our God remains the same in our ever-changing society and lives. This is true because God’s word does not change. Just as God’s word does not change so God’s promises do not change. Listen to the words of God through his prophet Moses. "God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?"(NUMBERS 23:19). Truly God speaks and then acts, promises and fulfills. Today we are going to study our sure foundation. God’s promises stand as unchanging rock of our salvation.
GOD’S PROMISES DO NOT CHANGE.
I. God’s anger burns against sin,
II. God’s love provides forgiveness.
I. GOD’S ANGER BURNS AGAINST SIN.
We want to consider the setting for our text this morning. Moses is on Mount Sinai with the Lord. The Lord is giving Moses the commands he wants his people to follow. Fact is, the Lord even writes his commandments on tablets of stone as a permanent record for God’s people. Moses has been communing on Mt. Sinai with the Lord for 40 (forty) days. This is only a bit more than a month. Of course, a lot can change in 40 days. The Lord is about to enlighten Moses about the changes that have taken place among the Israelites since he come to the mountaintop.
In verse 7: Then the LORD said to Moses, "Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. Notice the subtle word changes the Lord uses to reveal his anger. The Lord calls the nation of Israel your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt as he speaks to Moses. The disobedience and sin of Israel have separated them from the love of God. The Lord wants nothing to do with these idolaters. The Lord calls them Moses’ people, the people Moses’ delivered.
The Lord now explains to Moses the reason for his anger. They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. The Lord in his mercy and love did not change. The people of God had now changed their love for God to a golden calf. Aaron, Moses’ brother, who was left in charge, gathered the gold that the people had brought out of Egypt. It was melted down and then fashioned into a golden calf. The calf – bull idol was a common idol in Egypt. Israel had seen the Egyptians worship these false gods for the 40 generations that they lived in Egypt as slaves.
Things were worse than Moses thought. Listen to the Lord’s description. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, `These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ Not only did they make a golden calf but also these people, God’s chosen people, bowed down to the golden calf to worship it. They brought offerings and sacrifices to this lifeless man-made monstrosity. Even worse the people of God gave credit to this idol for delivering them from the hands of the Egyptians. There is only one conclusion to such disobedience. "I have seen these people," the LORD said to Moses, "and they are a stiff-necked people. Israel no longer wanted to be yoked to the Lord. With stiff necks Israel shook off that yoke which united them with the true God. Idol worship is what Israel wanted.
Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation." God’s anger burns against sin. The Lord would now destroy this nation rather than watch them continually disobey. So be it. The Lord could make another new, great nation out of Moses to replace Israel -- if need be. God’s anger burns against sin that separates.
From the very beginning of time to the time of Moses to our time the sinfulness of mankind has not changed. Already in the second generation of the history of mankind – the children of Adam and Eve – Cain kills Abel. Sin led to murder. Mankind continued in this great wickedness. At the time of Noah God sent a worldwide flood that destroyed millions of people. God’s anger burns against sin. But believers were spared, Noah and his family. Sadly, nothing has changed concerning sin, sinfulness, and it’s grasp on mankind. "The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time"(GENESIS 6:5). In the recesses of our hearts lurk evil and the desire to do evil.
This evil, which is sin, drives a wedge between God and us. No longer do we see nor know God’s will perfectly in our lives. All of our thoughts are tainted by sin. There is nothing that we say, think or do that has not been tarnished by our sinful nature. As long as we live and breathe in this world and this life we are not exempt from the corruption of sin. This is our constant battle, to discover what God wants, what is his will for us, for our families, our church, our Synod, and our nation. Sin makes our battle doubly difficult. "But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear"(ISAIAH 59:2). God’s anger burns against sin.
We know how it is today. Many would try to earn heaven by good works. Many would try to earn heaven by obedience. Many would say we have an unfair and unjust God who sends people to hell. But that is not the truth. Man’s choice concerning eternal things is only one – a choice for evil. The choice of heavenly things has been done already by God’s grace. Consider Adam and Eve. Satan tempted them by saying it was okay to eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There was the lie. Adam and Eve already completely and fully knew what was good because they knew Gods’ will. The choice they were going to make was really, only to add evil to their knowledge of good. That was not a good choice. Make no mistake our God is a just God. In his justice he does not, because he cannot, allow the guilty to go unpunished. God’s anger burns against sin. "Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him"(JOHN 3:36). Faith comes by grace. God’s wrath comes by and because of man’s rejection – a bad, very bad choice. Those who want to disown God here on earth will ultimately and finally be disowned by the heavenly Father before the angels in heaven.
Thankfully, GOD’S PROMISES DO NOT CHANGE. True, God’s anger burns against sin. Also true is the comforting fact that II. God’s love provides forgiveness.
II. GOD’S LOVE PROVIDES FORGIVENESS
We had left Moses and the Lord talking on the mountain. The Lord told Moses to leave so that he could let his anger burn as he destroyed this ungrateful nation. You can well imagine the shock, dismay, and even disgust of Moses as the Lord told him how his very own chosen people had rejected him. Notice also the choices that are given to Moses. Moses could leave and Israel would be destroyed. Moses could leave and Israel would be destroyed and the Lord would make Moses a great nation. Those are bad choices. Moses is also given another choice. Moses could come to the rescue of Israel.
Moses does not waste too much time in his shock, dismay, and disgust concerning Israel’s idolatry. But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. "O LORD," he said, "why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
How refreshing, how reassuring that Moses does the right thing. Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God. Moses intercedes to the Lord on behalf of the Lord’s people. Did you notice the word change that Moses now uses here? Moses reminds the Lord (though he really needs no reminding) that these are your people. These are your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand. Yes, Israel – no matter how disobedient are still God’s people still saved by God’s power.
As if that were not enough, Moses has plenty more to say to the Lord. Why should the Egyptians say, `It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Moses pleads with the Lord to not let the nations laugh at him. The nations would know and accuse the Lord God of being evil. The nations would accuse the Lord God of being unfair, unkind, and unjust. After all, what kind of god would save a nation only to destroy them? Moses was appealing to the mercy of the Lord for his creation.
Moses had more. Moses was now going to appeal to the faithfulness of the Lord God Almighty. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: `I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land I promised them, and it will be their inheritance forever.’ " The Lord had made promises to his people. The Lord promised to bless the descendants of Abraham and make them into a great nation. The Lord repeated this promise for generations – to Isaac and to Israel. If the Lord’s anger would burn against Israel and destroy them, his promise would be a failure. In the Lord’s own words the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were to be as numerous as the stars in the sky. This would only happen if Israel were not destroyed. They could only have an eternal inheritance if they were not destroyed.
These are the facts Moses lays out before the Lord. After these very persuasive words, Moses now makes his request before the Lord for God’s people. Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people (verse 12b). Moses wants the Lord to reconsider. Moses also expects God’s people to repent and thus remain God’s people. The Lord listens and answers. Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened. Does this mean that God changes his mind? Notice the word relent. The Lord had promised disaster but the Lord did not provide disaster to destroy God’s people. God’s righteous wrath and just anger burned against their sins. God’s great mercy and undeserved love provided forgiveness.
It is important to remember that God’s promises do not change. Since God’s promises (and his word) do not change, neither does God change. Instead, man and his promises often change. The world often makes the choices for evil. Our Lord would rather provide forgiveness rather than destruction. It is still very, very true that the Lord’s anger burns against sin. But it is also very, very true that our Lord’s love is even more willing to forgive than mankind is to repent. Many, many times the Lord relents in sending destruction as men repent. The prophet Jeremiah helps us to understand this account of Moses concerning God’s great and gracious love. "Perhaps they will listen and each will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done" (JEREMIAH 26:3). Who knows how many times the Lord has spared us from deserved disaster because of our continual disobedience and sins? By grace our Lord’s love provides forgiveness.
This is truly the awesomeness of our God. We do not deserve forgiveness. We cannot earn God’s forgiveness. We cannot buy forgiveness. Very often, in fact, we live and act as if God does not matter at all in our lives. In spite of all this, our loving Lord provides forgiveness because of his love for his creation. "He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities"(PSALM 103:9,10). This Psalm describes a concept that is almost unfamiliar to our way of thinking. In our sinful, worldly nature and attitude we want to see everyone get what is coming to them. We find a certain perverse pleasure in seeing someone else get what he or she deserves. Our world teaches there is nothing better than getting even and making some one else pay. But our God does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. Very simply, God’s promises do not change. What a great and blessed comfort for each of us in this ever changing world.
It is important for us to remember how the Lord’s love provides forgiveness and what that truly means in each and every one of our lives. We are freely forgiven by the grace of God. Well, not really freely. Our price for forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation cost our heavenly Father a very great and dear price – his only Son. This is the Love that provides forgiveness. Jesus is God’s free forgiving Love for us who are not always so loving or forgiving. Rejoice. Celebrate God’s unchanging promise.
"Jesus Christ gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good"(TITUS 2:14).
Our lives are changed – forever. We who were lost are now saved – forever. Our lives are changed here on earth. Again, we are given another concept strange to our sinful nature = eager to do what is good. This attitude is neither inborn nor natural. Remember, by nature our thoughts are only inclined to evil all the time. But now, by God’s grace and through his Spirit living in us we live to be eager to do what is good. Look around and what do you see? You see all too many who do not care about anyone else but themselves. You see all too many who have made idols out of the things of this world so that they are blinded in seeing, knowing, and believing in God or eternity. Look around and you will see all too many eager to do what is evil. All things have changed for believers. We see those who need our help. We love God because he first loved us. Because we love God we can now also love our neighbor as ourselves. God’s unchanging promises move us to be eager to do what is good.
In the midst of change our God does not change. As the words of men change because of popular opinion or political correctness, God’s word still does not change. Even though many, many promises of men are made and broken, all of God’s promises are made and kept. The Lord our God is our changeless constant in a changing world. The prophet Joshua lived in a changing world. Israel would change leaders – from Moses to Joshua. God’s people would change – from wandering in the wilderness for 40 years to inheriting the Promised Land. These are just a few of the drastic and dramatic changes that Joshua saw. Yet, as he looked back over everything that had happened, there was only one conclusion. "Praise be to the LORD, who has given rest to his people Israel just as he promised. Not one word has failed of all the good promises he gave through his servant Moses"(1 KINGS 8:56). No matter the changes in our lives – big or small, we agree with Joshua "Praise be to the LORD. It is true God’s anger burns against sin. More importantly it is also just as true that God’s love provides forgiveness. Why? GOD’S PROMISES DO NOT CHANGE. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
Sunday radio broadcast @ 9:05am on KQNK 106.7FM or 1530AM + www.kqnk.com
Pentecost 17 readings: ISAIAH 50:4-10; JAMES 2:1-5, 8-10, 14-18; MARK 8:27-35
