The Immutability Of God

Aren’t you glad that God has spoken and that He still speaks through His Word? I’ve been reflecting on a tweet this week: “God didn’t spend 1600 years and use over 40 different authors - most who never met each other - for us to now rely on personal experiences and extra-biblical revelation to determine His will.”

Isaiah 40:9 says: “Go on up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good news; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good news; lift it up, fear not; say to the cities of Judah, ‘Behold your God!’” We’ve been learning in our series on the attributes of God that there is nothing more practical than beholding and believing God – for until we know Him, we haven’t even begun to live. And once we behold and believe, we’ll become and then behave accordingly.

Last week we looked at God’s justice and wrath. I want to follow-up with one of the action steps to show how important it is to not seek vengeance. Perhaps you saw the story about the man named George Pappas who murdered George H.W. Bush’s former cardiologist on July 20 while he was riding his bike. It came out this week that Pappas did this because he was seeking revenge for his mother, who died on the doctor’s operating table 20 years ago! This story becomes even more tragic because on Friday Pappas was armed and wearing body armor when two police officers confronted him. He was killed a short time later.

What an awful example of how vengeance can end up killing others and ourselves! Like someone has said, “Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”

Our emphasis today is on “Our Unchanging God.” We’ll conclude next weekend with, “Our Loving God.”

My sisters and I didn’t know what to get my dad for Father’s Day this year, so we decided to arrange some tours for him. Because he worked in a factory for over 40 years and is a US Army Vet, I arranged for him to have a tour of John Deere Harvester Works and the Arsenal Museum on Monday. Our neighbor Gary Hansen, who gives tours at Deere and is in our Growth Group, gave us VIP treament as he drove us around the factory in a cart. Nick Castillo, who is also in our Growth Group and works at the Arsenal, arranged for a private showing of the museum. It’s great to have friends in high places.

My dad was thrilled with both experiences. It was incredible to see the pinpoint process and innovative systems in place for Deere to make world-class combines. At the Arsenal we saw weapons from the 1800s up to the present. As I reflected on all that we saw, what struck me is how much things have changed over the years.

The very first binders used to cut grain were pulled by horses [show pic] and now combines are guided by GPS steering systems with up to 18 different computers on board [show pic]. I also enjoyed learning how the Deere logo has changed over the years, with the new one showing a muscular yet sleek deer bounding upward replacing the older one that showed the deer landing on the ground. Weapons my dad used in the 50s have been upgraded and expanded in incredible ways.

As humans, we are always changing and technology has only increased the pace. Ever since the fall of Adam, when sin was introduced, change has been part of life. The moment we are born, we begin to age.

Values and morals have certainly changed in our culture. Right is being called wrong and wrong is now called right. Proverbs 2:14 says that those who walk in darkness “rejoice in doing evil and delight in the perverseness of evil.” We’re seeing Romans 1:32 lived out in our society as people even “give approval to those who practice” wicked deeds.

Every value in America is being challenged by some group in some way today. We now live in a society where everything is plausible and nothing seems certain.

Change is everywhere, isn’t it? We’ll be hearing more about changes to our facility this fall. While we’re planning to change how things look and how they function, we will never change what we believe about God and His Word. Our methods may change but the message never will.

There are some changes we love. But when we lose a loved one, or get fired from a job, or experience changes in other areas of our lives, we become very unsettled. We end up resenting, resisting and trying to run from these kinds of changes.

With change as a constant in life, we need someone to hold on to who never changes. I like how Spurgeon says it: “Would you lose your worries and fears this day? Then you must immerse yourself in the immensity of God…He never changes. His being, and nature, and perfections can’t be altered Nothing can be added to the infinite God and nothing can be taken from Him. What God is today He always was. What God is today He shall always be…He is all-wise; He need not change. He is perfect; He cannot change.”