Can God Change?

There is another question that needs answering? But this topic is not milk, but meat and needs a skilled preacher to expound its truth. Spurgeon has helped me understand the Immutability of God.

Can God change? The scripture we will look at is Malachi 3:6 I the Lord do not change; therefore you sons of Jacob; are not consumed. lets face it, how often do we can Our minds on any given day?

Most, if not all penned, is either a direct quote or reference made from his sermon on January 7^th 1855. I will mention my thoughts

Firstly there needs to be a proper study of the great true God, before we can truly bask in His love. Many other topics may make us feel good about ourselves and even leave us feeling as if our ego’s have been tickled, which is not a good thing - if and when we receive even a glimmer of the glory due to our input or application to a certain topic, this is not a good thing, as it set us up for a fall if not checked. (my thought) 

The subject of the divinity is so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity. It is so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity. There is no subject that will humble the mind like thoughts of God. How infinite are you great God? What worthless worms are we! Although all these thoughts of God humble the mind, it will also expand it, it must! A man may study geology or even extinct animals and profess himself to be wiser than his neighbour. I dare say it will leave him wiser. But, there is no study greater than the science of Christ crucified and knowledge of the Godhead in the divine Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect as the investigation of the deity. I love the way Spurgeon uses words... In the study of Christ there is a balm for every wound. In the influence of God the Holy Spirit there is a balsam for every sore.

If one wants to drown his sorrows, it is not to be found in a bottle or a similar lie. Rather plunge yourself in the Godheads deepest sea. You will come forth with rest, the soul will find comfort, you will calm the billowing grief of sorrow and you will mute the voice of trail.

Spurgeon felt this text should read... I am Jehovah or so it should have been translated, I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.

Three points to address;

1.  An unchanging God.

2.  The persons that derive benefit, the sons of Jacob.

3.  The benefit, they are not consumed.

Spurgeon’s hermeneutic (the interpretation and explanation of something) of proving scripture would be to expound the doctrine and then expand on the thought and then he would look at a few arguments to prove its truth.

He admits that he does not know what substance the Godhead is. It is a being; He changes not in His essence. God is Jehovah and does not change. So that essence never changes. All creatures change, man changes his atomic state on a daily basis. Nature is always changing; God on the other hand is Spirit and is not composed of any material that changes. Therefore He is immutable, He remains everlasting the same. He sees ages pass but with Him it is ever now! He is the great I am. Now Christ when he took on flesh, the essence of His divinity did not change. Flesh did not become God nor did God become flesh by real actual change of nature. The two were united in hypostatical union but the Godhead was still the same. Even when Christ was a babe in a manger, He has not ever changed in His essence not even in his carnation did His essence change. He remains the everlasting, eternally never changing God. There is not even a shadow of change. His attributes are the same in the beginning as they are now. He knows as neither much now as He always new, neither more nor less. He is unchanged, blessed be His name in His justice. He is unchanged in his promise and He brings it to pass. This thought is very encouraging to me... for he who has begun a good work will complete it on the day of salvation. Once we have the spirit God the Holy Ghost indwelling us. He will forever be with us. There are many other scriptures proving eternal security to all those elected by God. The crux behind this truth is who is it that has been elected, obviously the sons of Jacob. However we also know that many will say on that day, "Lord Lord" and they will be turned away.(my thought). He does not vary in His love, He cannot, He will not, for He is love. His essence is full of compassion, love and long suffering is who He is. A quote from Spurgeon, “His strong love stands like a granite rock, unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity.” He is unchanged in His love, when He first wrote the covenant how much affection His heart had for his people. Yet He knew that Christ would have to die for sin. Yet he signed the covenant willingly and full of affection. (my thought) It is hard to comprehend these thoughts without a tear of joy showing itself. One attribute of God you may think about He will forever be the same. “I am Jehovah and I change not.”

In the content of God and His unchangeable attribute, how can we not trust Him? He is our God, He is our Father, and He is for us and not against us. What a beautiful thought.

Spurgeon now looks at some potential objections; a question he puts out there; some may say that God does not have a plan. Do you think God is more foolish than you o man, every man has his own plan and so God has a plan too. God in His Gigantic intellect arranged everything with His mastermind before He did it. But, once having settled it, He never alters it. That is so encouraging the iron hand of destiny marks it down and it is brought to pass. Neither Earth nor hell can alter it. If we consider God as almighty why should He alter His plan? He is all wise and therefore cannot have planned wrongly, even if we hold a different opinion to the tragedies in life (my thought).What are we but worthless Adam’s of existence, we change our plans often. But God’s plan is to save me, how safe am I. Praise God I know in whom I trust! I want immutable things and with God I find immutable things. For by two immutable things I see that it is impossible for God to lie, and He has signed and sealed every promise of His. So when I look to God’s word and its promises and it no longer seem sweet to me does that mean that the promise has changed? Absolutely not, I have changed. Let me look out for the stubble wooden hut I may have built. It is that which has been shaken not God’s promises. For His promises cannot change. Spurgeon then uses this example to illustrate his point. A man says to a Negro (a poor man- my thought) I can’t imagine why you are always so happy in the Lord and I am often downcast. “Why master” he says “I have often thrown myself down on the Lord and there I lie on his promises. You stand on the promise, you have little to do with it and then when the wind comes down you go. I go down flat on the promise at once. Therefore I fear no fall. Remember every promise is a rock and unchangeable thing. Every threatening as well as every promise will be fulfilled by God.

Lets now talk of decree’s, he that believeth not shall be damned. That will never change. Be as upright as you will, be as honest as you will but there stands a threatening - He that believeth not shall be damned. It does not say he who does not live a holy life, that may be true but it does not say so... It says he who does not believe will be damned. So then we must believe or be damned. After 1000 years of torment you will look up and see words burning with fire, “he that believes not shall be damned.” So if you do not believe you will be damned but nevertheless it says you shall be damned still. “How dare I speak like this, but I must” says Spurgeon, “ye must be warned sir; lest you come into this torment you must be told rough things. Woe to the watchman who does not warn the ungodly. Beware o sinner it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But before we leave this thought we must see that God is unchanging in the objects of His love. Not only in His love does God not change, but in the objects of it. If one dear sheep of God should perish, then might all perish? If I could believe that ever a saint of God could fall finally, then what love is this? If I believe that God could have loved me once and then stopped loving me, what love is this? Spurgeon then concludes if that be the case then the bible is a lie. If God has loved me once then He will forever love me. Did Jesus once upon me shine, and then Jesus is forever mine. Those whom God has called he will justify, those whom He has justified He will sanctify and those whom He has sanctified He will glorify.

All that has been discussed up until now is just the thought of God and His immutability.

Spurgeon then moves on to prove that God is unchangeable. He goes as far as to say that it is even unconceivable to conceive a God that changes. (My thought) I agree otherwise God would be manlike and not Godlike, for man is always changing. I often change with the simplest of decisions. Yet when I use the word, God, my mind must conclude unchanging- an unchanging God. If God is a perfect being, which He is, then He cannot change. How can something that is perfect change? Only that which is imperfect can be altered and changed. If something is perfect it requires no change. But more than that, it cannot change as it is perfect. If God is perfect He cannot be altered without becoming imperfect. It is an easy thought to process (my thought) perfect means unchangeable; yesterday, today and forever the same! If we look to the passed (history) can we not see whatever God has said has come to pass? Where are the nations that God said He would destroy? Where is Babel or Nivenah, has He not uprooted them and cast them from remembrance. Has He ever broken His covenant or promise? Never! You cannot point to History and show in one instance that God has changed. God has been immutable in His purposes.

Spurgeon then turns his attention to his congregation; He thinks he hears someone say, I can think of one scripture where God has changed and so did He think the same once. The account of Hezekiah; Isaiah came in and said to Hezekiah you must die as your disease is incurable, so set your house in order. Hezekiah began to pray and before Isaiah got to the outer court he was told to go back and tell Him he would live for another 15 years. You may say that this account proves that God changes, but there is not the slightest proof in the world that this proves that God changes. How can you say God did not know this, of course He knew it. For if He knew that then He did not change because He knew that... Did you Know in this story that Hezekiah’s son Manasseh was not yet born and if Hezekiah had died there would of been no Manasseh and no Josiah and no Christ, because Christ came from that very line. Manasseh was twelve years old when his father died, so then he must have been born three years after this encounter with Isaiah. So God spoke to Hezekiah to stir him up for prayer. (My thought) this opens a chapter to look into the power of prayer. The prayer of a righteous man avails much. God leaves us cryptic clues throughout scripture that only those those who have eyes to see can see, if only we would spend the time investigating. The brilliance of God intertwined throughout the pages of the BIBLE! 

2. Let’s look at the benefit and who will benefit from this unchanging God. The text, I am God and I change not, therefore you son’s of Jacob are not consumed. Who are the sons of Jacob and who will rejoice in God? They are the sons of election, for it is written Jacob have I loved an Esau have I hated. The children having yet not been born; neither has either done neither good nor evil. It is written the older shall serve the younger. The sons of Jacob are the sons of God by election of a sovereign God; by eternal destination they receive grace and glory. The second point of benefit is those that enjoy peculiar rights and titles. Jacob had no rights at birth but he changed them when he gave his brother a pot of stew and then gained his brothers birthright. Spurgeon make a point not to condone the manner in which he obtained his birthright. Yet Jacob also obtained the blessing and so acquired peculiar rights. (my thought) And yet the point is this that whatever it takes to please my heavenly Father must be my objective, period! So this text means to tell us that the sons of Jacob are those who have the rights and titles. Unto them that believe gave Him the right to those who believe to become sons of the living God. They have an interest in the blood of Christ. They have a right to enter through the gate and into the city. They have a title to eternal honours. They have a promise to everlasting glory. They have a right to call themselves sons of God. There are peculiar rights and privileges belonging to the sons of Jacob. Jacob also had peculiar manifestations from God and was therefore highly honoured. So too are the sons of Jacob highly honoured. Jacob laid down one night and slept with the hedges as his curtains, the sky as his canopy, a stone for a pillow and the earth for a bed. It was then that he had a peculiar manifestation. He saw a ladder which reaches from earth to heaven with angels ascending and descending to bring us mercies. Christ representing the ladder, a bridge between man and God. Another encounter He had when he wrestled with God at Peniel. These were account of peculiar manifestations. This passage refers to those like Jacob who has had peculiar manifestations. Now then Spurgeon asks, “How many of you have had personal manifestations? O you say that is enthusiasm, that is fanaticism, well it is a blessed enthusiasm.” For the sons of Jacob have had peculiar manifestations, they have talked to God as a man talks to a friend. God the Holy Ghost has so shone into their lives that they would not be able to doubt about their special manifestations. The sons of Jacob are the men who enjoy these manifestations. But then again they are men of peculiar trials. Spurgeon says he will not choose Jacobs lot if he did not have the prospect of Jacobs blessing. (My thought) does our hope in our resurrections burn right, if not we must understand our predicament for without hope the people perish! Faith feeds our hope as hope feeds our faith. For a hard lot it was! He had to run away from his father’s house to Laban’s house. Laban treated him roughly, he cheated him all the years he was there. He cheated him of his wife, of his wages and of his herds. He had to bye and bye run away from Laban, who eventually pursued him and overtook him. Next Esau came with 400 men to cut him up. Then there was a season of prayer and he wrestled with and angel and the angel put his thigh out of joint and so it stayed for the rest of his life. (my thought) I see the tenacity of Jacob pleasing to our heavenly Father, at all cost I must be blessed by the One true God. A little further on his beloved wife Rachel died and then his daughter Dinah is lead astray and his sons murder the Sechemites. Then Joseph is sold into Egypt and a famine comes. Ruben commits incest with his Daughter-in-law. All his sons become a plague o him. At last Benjamin is taken away. The old man almost broken of heart has this to say, “Joseph is not and Simeon is not and you will take Benjamin away.” Never was a man more tried than Jacob. (my thought) Not sure that Job was not as tried . Although his sin was to cheat his brother, all through his life God chastised him. Spurgeon reckons that many would be able to sympathise with Jacob. Many have had to suffer for the wrong they have done, and rightly so! Yet we are not consumed due to the unchanging nature of our God. But remember no one was ever afflicted like Jesus. We do not understand what trouble means. We have hardly sipped the cup of troubles, maybe a drop or two. But, Jesus drank the whole cup, even the dregs. Fear not says the Lord I change not. Therefore you sons of Jacob, men of peculiar trails are not consumed. One more thought to consider, who are the sons of Jacob? Spurgeon then puts it out there and wants to get you to consider if you are a son of Jacob. There are some things in Jacobs’s character that we cannot commend (Spurgeon’s thought). There are one or two things that God commends.

Jacob’s faith is highly commendable and he is mentioned amongst those of faith in Hebrews 11 the great faith chapter. Are you a man of faith beloved, do you know what it is to walk by faith? Do you get your temporal food to sustain the body, by faith? Do you live on spiritual manner from heaven? Is faith a rule of your life? If so then are you the sons of Jacob. (my thought) Without understanding this point; that the just will live by faith and not be cushioned by the luxuries of life, if so, it will always leave us with this challenge - do I truly believe. Then Jacob was a man of prayer, a man who wrestled and groaned with prayer. Spurgeon then again put it to his audience; there was a man this morning that came to the house of God without prayer. “You poor heathen don’t you pray”, he asks. No says the man I never even thought of such a thing. For years I have not prayed. Spurgeon then put it to him like this; I hope you pray before you die. Live and die without payer and you will pray long and well in hell. He uses another example; there was a woman this morning to busy sending her kids to Sunday school, that she had no time to pray. No time to pray! Did you have time to dress? There is time given for every purpose under heaven. If you had a purpose to pray you would pray. Sons of God cannot live without prayer, they are wrestling Jacob’s, and they are sons of God in whom the God the Holy Ghost works. They cannot live without prayer as much as I cannot live without breathing. They must pray sir mark you, if you are living without prayer, then you are living without Christ. To die like that will be your portion, and that portion will burn in the Lake of Fire, may God have mercy on you and redeem you from such a lot.

But you who are the sons of Jacob take comfort, for God is immutable.

Thirdly, the benefit for the sons of Jacob; you sons of Jacob are not consumed. What? How can man be consumed? Well according to Spurgeon there are two ways, if God had been a changing God then the sons of God of old may have ended up in hell. There is such a thing as being alive but dead. (my thought) Imagine if God left us to our own devises, I know where I would be in some gutter somewhere and yet there is a responsibility attached to our actions, another gem of scripture! I have personally gone to a place of terror, a place where sin held both my arms as I stood on the precipice of hell looking in. What a frightful sight it was. I quivered on the brink of ruin. But my unchanging God did not change in His love for me. How thankful I am and forever indebted, not that I could ever even begin to pay back the debt, the Lord Jesus has accomplished that. How thankful I am as a strong arm did save me. I wonder how I could have gone so far and yet come back again. Yes I am here unconsumed because the Lord changes not. We should all be consumed by ourselves, after all Mr. Self is the worst enemy of a Christian. We call God our father, but there is not a father in the world that would not have killed us all by now, so provoked would he have been with us. God has the most troublesome family in the world. They are unbelieving, ungrateful, disobedient, forgetful, murmurs’ and stiff-necked. Just as well God is long suffering. Not only would he have taken the rod but the sword to some of us long ago. There was nothing in us to love at first (we need to digest this point - my thought) so there cannot be less now. John Newton uses a story to prove election... A woman said, “God must have loved me before I was born, for there is nothing to love in me after I was born.” If God did not choose his elect before they were born, He would have found no reason to love them after they were born. (My thought) - a very interesting thought and it make perfect sense when reason out correctly. For since He loved them, without works, He loves them still without works. Since their good works did not win his affection, then there bad works cannot sever His affection. Since their righteousness did not bind there love to Him, so there wickedness cannot snap the golden links! He loved them out of a pure sovereign grace and He will love them still. We should have been consumed by the devil, our enemies and a hundred other ways if God ever changed. Spurgeon concluded as only having touched on the subject, but now hands it to me and I now hand it to you. You sons of Jacob may this portion of meat be digested well. Remember God remains the same whatever is removed.

Signing off

Tyrone