God is Unchangeable
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
We are continuing our series on God is...
Last week we looked at how God is Sovereign
Literally “God is in supreme control of everything”
We traced that out by looking at the story of Joseph
Thrown in a pit by his brothers, slave in Egypt, thrown in jail in Egypt, then become the 2nd in command and saved them from a famine
This week we are looking at the fact that God is Immutable
That is a big fancy word that literally means God is unchangeable!
He does not change
“For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
These verses clearly point out the fact that God does not change!
He is God and he always will be
The things He does will always be the same
God’s unchangeable nature is so foreign to us though because we are constantly people that change
We change our mind, we change our actions, our favorite food changes
There’s three things I want you to understand about God’s unchangeable nature
God’s promises don’t change
God’s promises don’t change
The first thing I want you to see about God’s unchanging nature is this
GOD’S PROMISES ARE UNCHANGING
I will put enmity between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring;
he shall bruise your head,
and you shall bruise his heel.”
He promised that Satan would be crushed - ultimately by Jesus
I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
He promised that the earth would never be flooded again and fully destroyed
But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
He promised that if you search for God you will find
These are just a few promises God made with His people
He also made 100’s of promises about Jesus and how he would come
From the fact that He would be born to a virgin, what lineage He would be from, where he would be born
He made promises about the future - about how there will be a new heaven and new earth, about how God will destroy the world
If God could change these promises wouldn’t matter.
If God changed his promises would be broken promises that can’t come true
But God doesn’t change - His promises don’t change
But since God is immutable/doesn’t change these promises are all true
God is all knowing
God is all knowing
Not only does His unchangeable nature affect His promises
GOD’S OMNISCIENCE MEANS HE CAN’T CHANGE
The reason almost every person changes their mind, or opinion is because new information comes to light
You think someone is guilty of a crime, until you find out there was video evidence of someone else doing it
You think Michael Jordan is the GOAT until you Lebron comes into the league and dominates
You change things because you don’t have all the information
God doesn’t do that
God knows everything - therefore God can’t change His mind because there is no new information
for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.
God knows everything!
He knows the good, the bad, the ugly, the great
He knows all things - therefore he cannot change His mind because there is nothing that would cause Him to change His mind
Sin doesn’t change God
Sin doesn’t change God
Not only does God not change because of His promises, and God doesn’t change because He knows everything, but
OUR SIN DOESN’T CHANGE GOD
We see this perfectly in the story of Jonah
Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it the message that I tell you.” So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey in breadth. Jonah began to go into the city, going a day’s journey. And he called out, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
Jonah was told to go to Nineveh and tell them to repent or they would be destroyed
Jonah went and told them - kinda - and we see that the people do repent
The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh, “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
The people repented and turned to God
Which is where verse 10 comes in
When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he had said he would do to them, and he did not do it.
It says God “relented” from destroying them
Or changed what he was going to do
On the surface this seems to say God changed his mind
However, that is not the case
We know that Sin = death
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The people of Nineveh were in sin, and deserved to be destroyed
Yet they repented - so they no longer deserved death/destruction
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
We confess sin - he will forgive and cleanse
If we go to God, He will forgive
God didn’t change His mind, the people changed their mind
They repented, changed their view and belief about God, therefore God forgave them
God didn’t change His rules stayed the same
The same thing is true for us today
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
If God could change - this amazing verse would mean NOTHING!
Your sin doesn’t change God’s mind about you
He knows your sin, and yet He still loves you and sent Jesus
Conclusion
Conclusion
God cannot change!
He will never change!
That is a good thing!