Charles Spurgeon Sermons
Sermon #1 - The Immutability of God
Given on 7 January 1855, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark.
"I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."—Malachi 3:6
It has been said by some one that "the proper study of mankind is man." I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God's elect is God; the proper study of a Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God whom he calls his Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, "Behold I am wise." But when we come to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought, that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild ass's colt; and with the solemn exclamation, "I am but of yesterday, and know nothing." No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God. We shall be obliged to feel—
What worthless worms are we!"
But while the subject humbles
the mind it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will
have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow
globe. He may be a naturalist, boasting of his ability to dissect a
beetle, anatomize a fly, or arrange insects and animals in classes
with well nigh unutterable names; he may be a geologist, able to
discourse of the megatherium and the plesiosaurus, and all kinds of
extinct animals; he may imagine that his science, whatever it is,
ennobles and enlarges his mind. I dare say it does, but after all,
the most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of
Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the
glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so
magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued
investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst
humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatary.
Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in
musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the
influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would
you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge
yourself in the Godhead's deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and
you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and
invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm
the swelling billows of grief and sorrow; so speak peace to the
winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.
It is to that subject that I invite you this morning. We shall
present you with one view of it,—that is the immutability of the
glorious Jehovah. "I am," says my text, "Jehovah," (for so it
should be translated) "I am Jehovah, I change not: therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed."There are three things this
morning. First of all, an unchanging God; secondly, the
persons who derive benefit from this glorious attribute, "the
sons of Jacob;" and thirdly, the benefit they so derive, they
"are not consumed.' We address ourselves to these points.I. First of all, we have set
before us the doctrine of THE IMMUTABILITY OF GOD. "I am God, I
change not." Here I shall attempt to expound, or rather to enlarge
the thought, and then afterwards to bring a few arguments to prove
its truth.1. I shall offer some exposition
of my text, by first saying, that God is Jehovah, and he changes not
in his essence. We cannot tell you what Godhead is. We do not
know what substance that is which we call God. It is an existence,
it is a being; but what that is, we know not. However, whatever it
is, we call it his essence, and that essence never changes. The
substance of mortal things is ever changing. The mountains with
their snow-white crowns, doff their old diadems in summer, in rivers
trickling down their sides, while the storm cloud gives them another
coronation; the ocean, with its mighty floods, loses its water when
the sunbeams kiss the waves, and snatch them in mists to heaven;
even the sun himself requires fresh fuel from the hand of the
Infinite Almighty, to replenish his ever burning furnace. All
creatures change. Man, especially as to his body, is always
undergoing revolution. Very probably there is not a single particle
in my body which was in it a few years ago. This frame has been worn
away by activity, its atoms have been removed by friction, fresh
particles of matter have in the mean time constantly accrued to my
body, and so it has been replenished; but its substance is altered.
The fabric of which this world is made is ever passing away; like a
stream of water, drops are running away and others are following
after, keeping the river still full, but always changing in its
elements. But God is perpetually the same. He is not composed of any
substance or material, but is spirit—pure, essential, and ethereal
spirit—and therefore he is immutable. He remains everlastingly the
same. There are no furrows on his eternal brow. No age hath palsied
him; no years have marked him with the mementoes of their flight; he
sees ages pass, but with him it is ever now. He is the great
I AM—the Great Unchangeable. Mark you, his essence did not undergo a
change when it became united with the manhood. When Christ in past
years did gird himself with mortal clay, the essence of his divinity
was not changed; flesh did not become God, nor did God become flesh
by a real actual change of nature; the two were united in
hypostatical union, but the Godhead was still the same. It was the
same when he was a babe in the manger, as it was when he stretched
the curtains of heaven; it was the same God that hung upon the
cross, and whose blood flowed down in a purple river, the self-same
God that holds the world upon his everlasting shoulders, and bears
in his hands the keys of death and hell. He never has been changed
in his essence, not even by his incarnation; he remains
everlastingly, eternally, the one unchanging God, the Father of
lights, with whom there is no variableness, neither the shadow of a
change.2. He changes not in his
attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were of old, that
they are now; and of each of them we may sing "As it was in the
beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, Amen." Was
he powerful? Was he the mighty God when he spake the world
out of the womb of nonexistence? Was he the Omnipotent when he piled
the mountains and scooped out the hollow places for the rolling
deep? Yes, he was powerful then, and his arm is unpalsied now, he is
the same giant in his might; the sap of his nourishment is undried,
and the strength of his soul stands the same for ever. Was he wise
when he constituted this mighty globe, when he laid the foundations
of the universe? Had he wisdom when he planned the way of our
salvation, and when from all eternity he marked out his awful plans?
Yes, and he is wise now; he is not less skillful, he has not less
knowledge; his eye which seeth all things is undimmed; his ear which
heareth all the cries, sighs, sobs, and groans of his people, is not
rendered heavy by the years which he hath heard their prayers. He is
unchanged in his wisdom, he knows as much now as ever, neither more
nor less; he has the same consummate skill, and the same infinite
forecastings. He is unchanged, blessed be his name, in his
justice. just and holy was he in the past; just and holy is he
now. He is unchanged in his truth; he has promised, and he
brings it to pass; he hath saith it, and it shall be done. He varies
not in the goodness, and generosity, and benevolence of his
nature. He is not become an Almighty tyrant, whereas he was once an
Almighty Father; but his strong love stands like a granite rock,
unmoved by the hurricanes of our iniquity. And blessed be his dear
name, he is unchanged in his love. When he first wrote the
covenant, how full his heart was with affection to his people. He
knew that his Son must die to ratify the articles of that agreement.
He knew right well that he must rend his best beloved from his
bowels, and send him down to earth to bleed and die. He did not
hesitate to sign that mighty covenant; nor did he shun its
fulfillment. He loves as much now as he did then, and when suns
shall cease to shine, and moons to show their feeble light, he still
shall love on for ever and for ever. Take any one attribute of God,
and I will write semper idem on it (always the same). Take
any one thing you can say of God now, and it may be said not only in
the dark past, but in the bright future it shall always remain the
same: "I am Jehovah, I change not."3. Then again, God changes not in
his plans. That man began to build, but was not able to
finish, and therefore he changed his plan, as every wise man would
do in such a case; he built upon a smaller foundation and commenced
again. But has it ever been said that God began to build but was not
able to finish? Nay. When he hath boundless stores at his command,
and when his own right hand would create worlds as numerous as drops
of morning dew, shall he ever stay because he has not power? and
reverse, or alter, or disarrange his plan, because he cannot carry
it out? "But," say some, "perhaps God never had a plan." Do you
think God is more foolish than yourself then, sir? Do you go to work
without a plan? "No," say you, "I have always a scheme." So has God.
Every man has his plan, and God has a plan too. God is a
master-mind; he arranged everything in his gigantic intellect long
before he did it; and once having settled it, mark you, he never
alters it. "This shall be done," saith he, and the iron hand of
destiny marks it down, and it is brought to pass. "This is my
purpose," and it stands, nor can earth or hell alter it. "This is my
decree," saith he, promulgate it angels; rend it down from the gate
of heaven ye devils; but ye cannot alter the decree; it shall be
done. God altereth not his plans; why should he? He is Almighty, and
therefore can perform his pleasure. Why should he? He is the
All-wise, and therefore cannot have planned wrongly. Why should he?
He is the everlasting God, and therefore cannot die before his plan
is accomplished. Why should he change? Ye worthless atoms of
existence, ephemera of the day! Ye creeping insects upon this
bayleaf of existence! ye may change your plans, but he shall
never, never change his. Then has he told me that his plan is
to save me? If so, I am safe.
Eternity will not erase;
Impress'd on his heart it remains,
In marks of indelible grace."
4. Yet again, God is unchanging
in his promises. Ah! we love to speak about the sweet
promises of God; but if we could ever suppose that one of them could
be changed, we would not talk anything more about them. If I thought
that the notes of the bank of England could not be cashed next week,
I should decline to take them; and if I thought that God's promises
would never be fulfilled—if I thought that God would see it right to
alter some word in his promises—farewell Scriptures! I want
immutable things: and I find that I have immutable promises when I
turn to the Bible: for, "by two immutable things in which it is
impossible for God to lie," he hath signed, confirmed, and sealed
every promise of his. The gospel is not "yea and nay," it is not
promising today, and denying tomorrow; but the gospel is "yea, yea,"
to the glory of God. Believer! there was a delightful promise which
you had yesterday; and this morning when you turned to the Bible the
promise was not sweet. Do you know why? Do you think the promise had
changed? Ah, no! You changed; that is where the matter lies.
You had been eating some of the grapes of Sodom, and your mouth was
thereby put out of taste, and you could not detect the sweetness.
But there was the same honey there, depend upon it, the same
preciousness. "Oh!" says one child of God, "I had built my house
firmly once upon some stable promises; there came a wind, and I
said, O Lord, I am cast down and I shall be lost." Oh! the promises
were not cast down; the foundations were not removed; it was your
little "wood, hay, stubble" hut, that you had been building. It was
that which fell down. You have been shaken on the
rock, not the rock under you. But let me tell you what is the
best way of living in the world. I have heard that a gentleman said
to a Negro, "I can't think how it is you are always so happy in the
Lord and I am often downcast." "Why Massa," said he, "I throw myself
flat down on the promise—there I lie; you stand on the promise—you
have a little to do with it, and down you go when the wind comes,
and then you cry, 'Oh! I am down;' whereas I go flat on the promise
at once, and that is why I fear no fall." Then let us always say,
"Lord there is the promise; it is thy business to fulfill it." Down
I go on the promise flat! no standing up for me. That is where you
should go—prostrate on the promise; and remember, every promise is a
rock, an unchanging thing. Therefore, at his feet cast yourself, and
rest there forever.5. But now comes one jarring note
to spoil the theme. To some of you God is unchanging in his
threatenings. If every promise stands fast, and every oath of
the covenant is fulfilled, hark thee, sinner!—mark the word—hear the
death-knell of thy carnal hopes; see the funeral of thy fleshly
trustings. Every threatening of God, as well as every promise shall
be fulfilled. Talk of decrees! I will tell you of a decree: "He that
believeth not shall be damned." That is a decree, and a statute that
can never change. Be as good as you please, be as moral as you can,
be as honest as you will, walk as uprightly as you may,—there stands
the unchangeable threatening: "He that believeth not shall be
damned." What sayest thou to that, moralist? Oh, thou wishest thou
couldst alter it, and say, "He that does not live a holy life shall
be damned." That will be true; but it does not say so. It says, "He
that believeth not." Here is the stone of stumbling, and the rock of
offence; but you cannot alter it. You must believe or be damned,
saith the Bible; and mark, that threat of God is an unchangeable as
God himself. And when a thousand years of hell's torments shall have
passed away, you shall look on high, and see written in burning
letters of fire, "He that believeth not shall be damned."
"But, Lord, I am damned." Nevertheless it says "shall be"
still. And when a million ages have rolled away, and you are
exhausted by your pains and agonies, you shall turn up your eye and
still read "SHALL BE DAMNED," unchanged, unaltered. And when you
shall have thought that eternity must have spun out its last
thread—that every particle of that which we call eternity, must have
run out, you shall still see it written up there, "SHALL BE DAMNED."
O terrific thought! How dare I utter it? But I must. Ye must be
warned, sirs, "lest ye also come into this place of torment." Ye
must be told rough things; for if God's gospel is not a rough thing
& the law is a rough thing; Mount Sinai is a rough thing. Woe unto
the watchman that warns not the ungodly! God is unchanging in his
threatenings. Beware, O sinner, for "it is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God."6. We must just hint at one
thought before we pass away and that is—God is unchanging in the
objects of his love—not only in his love, but in the objects
of it.
That sheep of Christ might fall away.
My fickle, feeble soul, alas,
Would fall a thousand times a day."
If one dear saint of God had perished, so might all; if one of the covenant ones be lost, so may all be, and then there is no gospel promise true; but the Bible is a lie, and there is nothing in it worth my acceptance. I will be an infidel at once, when I can believe that a saint of God can ever fall finally. If God hath loved me once, then he will love me for ever.
Then Jesus is for ever mine."
The objects of everlasting love never change. Those whom God hath called, he will justify; whom he has justified, he will sanctify; and whom he sanctifies, he will glorify.
1. Thus having taken a great deal
too much time, perhaps, in simply expanding the thought of an
unchanging God, I will now try to prove that He is
unchangeable. I am not much of an argumentative preacher, but one
argument that I will mention is this: the very existence, and
being of a God, seem to me to imply immutability. Let me think a
moment. There is a God; this God rules and governs all things; this
God fashioned the world: he upholds and maintains it. What kind of
being must he be? It does strike me that you cannot think of a
changeable God. I conceive that the thought is so repugnant to
common sense, that if you for one moment think of a changing God,
the words seem to clash, and you are obliged to say, "Then he must
be a kind of man," and get a Mormonite idea of God. I imagine it is
impossible to conceive of a changing God; it is so to me. Others may
be capable of such an idea, but I could not entertain it. I could no
more think of a changing God, than I could of a round square, or any
other absurdity. The thing seems so contrary, that I am obliged,
when once I say God, to include the idea of an unchanging being.2. Well, I think that one
argument will be enough, but another good argument may be found in
the fact of God's perfection. I believe God to be a perfect
being. Now, if he is a perfect being, he cannot change. Do you not
see this? Suppose I am perfect today, if it were possible for me to
change, should I be perfect tomorrow after the alteration? If I
changed, I must either change from a good state to a better—and then
if I could get better, I could not be perfect now—or else
from a better state to a worse—and if I were worse, I should not be
perfect then. If I am perfect, I cannot be altered without
being imperfect. If I am perfect today, I must keep the same
tomorrow if I am to be perfect then. So, if God is perfect, he must
be the same; for change would imply imperfection now, or
imperfection then.3. Again, there is the fact of
God's infinity, which puts change out of the question. God is an
infinite being. What do you mean by that? There is no man who can
tell you what he means by an infinite being. But there cannot be two
infinities. If one thing is infinite, there is no room for anything
else; for infinite means all. It means not bounded, not finite,
having no end. Well, there cannot be two infinities. If God is
infinite today, and then should change and be infinite tomorrow,
there would be two infinities. But that cannot be. Suppose he is
infinite and then changes, he must become finite, and could not be
God; either he is finite today and finite tomorrow, or infinite
today and finite tomorrow, or finite today and infinite tomorrow—all
of which suppositions are equally absurd. The fact of his being an
infinite being at once quashes the thought of his being a changeable
being. Infinity has written on its very brow the word
"immutability."4. But then, dear friends, let us
look at the past: and there we shall gather some proofs of
God's immutable nature. "Hath he spoken, and hath he not done it?
Hath he sworn, and hath it not come to pass?" Can it not be said of
Jehovah, "He hath done all his will, and he hath accomplished all
his purpose?" Turn ye to Philistia; ask where she is. God said,
"Howl Ashdod, and ye gates of Gaza, for ye shall fall;" and where
are they? Where is Edom? Ask Petra and its ruined walls. Will they
not echo back the truth that God hath said, "Edom shall be a prey,
and shall be destroyed?" Where is Babel, and where Nineveh? Where
Moab and where Ammon? Where are the nations God hath said he would
destroy? Hath he not uprooted them and cast out the remembrance of
them from the earth? And hath God cast off his people? Hath he once
been unmindful of his promise? Hath he once broken his oath and
covenant, or once departed from his plan? Ah! no. Point to one
instance in history where God has changed! Ye cannot, sirs; for
throughout all history there stands the fact that God has been
immutable in his purposes. Methinks I hear some one say, "I can
remember one passage in Scripture where God changed!" And so did I
think once. The case I mean, is that of the death of Hezekiah.
Isaiah came in and said, 'Hezekiah, you must die, your disease is
incurable, set your house in order.' He turned his face to the wall
and began to pray; and before Isaiah was in the outer court, he was
told to go back and say, "Thou shalt live fifteen years more." You
may think that proves that God changes; but really I cannot see in
it the slightest proof in the world. How do you know that God did
not know that? Oh! but God did know it; he knew that Hezekiah would
live. Then he did not change, for if he knew that, how could he
change? That is what I want to know. But do you know one little
thing?—that Hezekiah's son Manasseh, was not born at that time, and
that had Hezekiah died, there would have been no Manasseh, and no
Josiah and no Christ, because Christ came from that very line. You
will find that Manasseh was twelve years old when his father died;
so that he must have been born three years after this. And do you
not believe that God decreed the birth of Manasseh, and foreknew it?
Certainly. Then he decreed that Isaiah should go and tell Hezekiah
that his disease was incurable, and then say also in the same
breath, "But I will cure it, and thou shalt live." He said that to
stir up Hezekiah to prayer. He spoke, in the first place as a man.
"According to all human probability your disease is incurable, and
you must die." Then he waited till Hezekiah prayed; then came a
little "but" at the end of the sentence. Isaiah had not finished the
sentence. He said, "You must put your house in order for there is no
human cure; but" (and then he walked out. Hezekiah prayed a little,
and then he came in again, and said) "But I will heal thee."
Where is there any contradiction there, except in the brain of those
who fight against the Lord, and wish to make him a changeable being.II. Now secondly, let me say a
word on THE PERSONS TO WHOM THIS UNCHANGEABLE GOD IS A BENEFIT. "I
am God, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed."
Now, who are "the sons of Jacob," who can rejoice in an immutable
God?1. First, they are the sons of
God's election; for it is written, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau
have I hated, the children being not yet born neither having done
good nor evil." It was written, "The elder shall serve the younger."
"The sons of Jacob"—
Who through sovereign grace believe;
Be eternal destination
Grace and glory they receive."
God's elect are here meant by "the sons of Jacob,"—those whom he foreknew and fore-ordained to everlasting salvation.
2. By "the sons of Jacob" are
meant, in the second place, persons who enjoy peculiar rights and
titles. Jacob, you know, had no rights by birth; but he soon
acquired them. He changed a mess of pottage with his brother Esau,
and thus gained the birthright. I do not justify the means; but he
did also obtain the blessing, and so acquired peculiar rights. By
"the sons of Jacob" here, are meant persons who have peculiar rights
and titles. Unto them that believe, he hath given the right and
power to become sons of God. They have an interest in the blood of
Christ; they have a right to "enter in through the gates into the
city;" they have a title to eternal honors; they have a promise to
everlasting glory; they have a right to call themselves sons of God.
Oh! there are peculiar rights and privileges belonging to the "sons
of Jacob."3. But, then next, these "sons of
Jacob" were men of peculiar manifestations. Jacob had
peculiar manifestations from his God, and thus he was highly
honored. Once at night-time he lay down and slept; he had the hedges
for his curtains, the sky for his canopy, a stone for his pillow,
and the earth for his bed. Oh! then he had a peculiar manifestation.
There was a ladder, and he saw the angels of God ascending and
descending. He thus had a manifestation of Christ Jesus, as the
ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, up and down which angels
came to bring us mercies. Then what a manifestation there was at
Mahanaim, when the angels of God met him; and again at Peniel, when
he wrestled with God, and saw him face to face. Those were peculiar
manifestations; and this passage refers to those who, like Jacob,
have had peculiar manifestations.Now then, how many of you have
had personal manifestations? "Oh!" you say "that is enthusiasm; that
is fanaticism." Well, it is a blessed enthusiasm, too, for the sons
of Jacob have had peculiar manifestations. They have talked with God
as a man talketh with his friend; they have whispered in the ear of
Jehovah; Christ hath been with them to sup with them, and they with
Christ; and the Holy Spirit hath shone into their souls with such a
mighty radiance, that they could not doubt about special
manifestations. The "sons of Jacob" are the men, who enjoy these
manifestations.4. Then again, they are men of
peculiar trials. Ah! poor Jacob! I should not choose Jacob's lot
if I had not the prospect of Jacob's blessing; for a hard lot his
was. He had to run away from his father's house to Laban's; and then
that surly old Laban cheated him all the years he was there—cheated
him of his wife, cheated him in his wages, cheated him in his
flocks, and cheated him all through the story. By-and-bye he had to
run away from Laban, who pursued him and overtook him. Next came
Esau with four hundred men to cut him up root and branch. Then there
was a season of prayer, and afterwards he wrestled, and had to go
all his life with his thigh out of joint. But a little further on,
Rachael, his dear beloved, died. Then his daughter Dinah is led
astray, and the sons murder the Shechemites. Anon there is dear
Joseph sold into Egypt, and a famine comes. Then Reuben goes up to
his couch and pollutes it; Judah commits incest with his own
daughter-in-law; and all his sons become a plague to him. At last
Benjamin is taken away; and the old man, almost broken-hearted,
cries, "Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin
away." Never was man more tried than Jacob, all through the one sin
of cheating his brother. All through his life God chastised him. But
I believe there are many who can sympathize with dear old Jacob.
They have had to pass through trials very much like his. Well,
cross-bearers! God says, "I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed." Poor tried souls! ye are not consumed because of
the unchanging nature of your God. Now do not get fretting, and say,
with the self-conceit of misery, "I am the man who hath seen
affliction." Why "the Man of Sorrows" was afflicted more than you;
Jesus was indeed a mourner. You only see the skirts of the garments
of affliction. You never have trials like his. You do not understand
what troubles means; you have hardly sipped the cup of trouble; you
have only had a drop or two, but Jesus drunk the dregs. Fear not
saith God, "I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of
Jacob," men of peculiar trials, "are not consumed."5. Then one more thought about
who are the "sons of Jacob," for I should like you to find out
whether you are "sons of Jacob," yourselves. They are men of
peculiar character; for though there were some things about
Jacob's character which we cannot commend, there are one or two
things which God commends. There was Jacob's faith, by which Jacob
had his name written amongst the mighty worthies who obtained not
the promises on earth, but shall obtain them in heaven. Are you men
of faith, beloved? Do you know what it is to walk by faith, to live
by faith, to get your temporary food by faith, to live on spiritual
manna—all by faith? Is faith the rule of your life? if so, you are
the "sons of Jacob."Then Jacob was a man of prayer—a
man who wrestled, and groaned, and prayed. There is a man up yonder
who never prayed this morning, before coming up to the house of God.
Ah! you poor heathen, don't you pray? No! he says, "I never thought
of such a thing; for years I have not prayed." Well, I hope you may
before you die. Live and die without prayer, and you will pray long
enough when you get to hell. There is a woman: she did not pray this
morning; she was so busy sending her children to the Sunday School,
she had no time to pray. No time to pray? Had you time to dress?
There is a time for every purpose under heaven, and if you had
purposed to pray, you would have prayed. Sons of God cannot live
without prayer. They are wrestling Jacobs. They are men in whom the
Holy Ghost so works, they they can no more live without prayer than
I can live without breathing. They must pray. Sirs, mark you, if you
are living without prayer, you are living without Christ; and dying
like that, your portion will be in the lake which burneth with fire.
God redeem you, God rescue you from such a lot! But you who are "the
sons of Jacob," take comfort, for God is immutable.III. Thirdly, I can say only a
word about the other point—THE BENEFIT WHICH THESE "SONS OF JACOB"
RECEIVE FROM AN UNCHANGING GOD. "Therefore ye sons Jacob are not
consumed." "Consumed?" How? how can man be consumed? Why, there are
two ways. We might have been consumed in hell. If God had
been a changing God, the "sons of Jacob" here this morning, might
have been consumed in hell; but for God's unchanging love I should
have been a faggot in the fire. But there is a way of being consumed
in this world; there is such a things as being condemned
before you die—"condemned already;" there is such a thing as being
alive, and yet being absolutely dead. We might have been left to our
own devices, and then where should we have been now? Revelling with
the drunkard, blaspheming Almighty God. Oh? had he left you, dearly
beloved, had he been a changing God, ye had been amongst the
filthiest of the filthy, and the vilest of the vile. Cannot you
remember in your life, seasons similar to those I have felt? I have
gone right to the edge of sin; some strong temptation has taken hold
of both my arms, so that I could not wrestle with it. I have been
pushed alone, dragged as by an awful satanic power to the very edge
of some horrid precipice. I have looked down, down, down, and seen
my portion; I quivered on the brink of ruin. I have been horrified,
as, with my hair upright, I have thought of the sin I was about to
commit, the horrible pit into which I was about to fall. A strong
arm hath saved me. I have started back and cried, O God! could I
have gone so near sin, and yet come back again? Could I have walked
right up to the furnace and not fallen down, like Nebuchadnezzar's
strong men, devoured by the very heat? Oh! is it possible I should
be here this morning, when I think of the sins I have committed, and
the crimes which have crossed my wicked imagination? Yes, I am here,
unconsumed, because the Lord changes not. Oh! if he had changed, we
should have been consumed in a dozen ways; if the Lord had changed,
you and I should have been consumed by ourselves; for after all, Mr.
Self is the worst enemy a Christian has. We should have proved
suicides to our own souls; we should have mixed the cup of poison
for our own spirits, if the Lord had not been an unchanging God, and
dashed the cup out of our hands when we were about to drink it. Then
we should have been consumed by God himself if he had not been a
changeless God. We call God a Father; but there is not a father in
this world who would not have killed all his children long ago, so
provoked would he have been with them, if he had been half as much
troubled as God has been with his family. He has the most
troublesome family in the whole world—unbelieving, ungrateful,
disobedient, forgetful, rebellious, wandering, murmuring, and
stiffnecked. Well it is that he is longsuffering, or else he would
have taken not only the rod, but the sword to some of us long ago.
But there was nothing in us to love at first, so, there cannot be
less now. John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, and laugh at
it too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of
Election, "Ah! sir, the Lord must have loved me before I was born,
or else he would not have seen anything in me to love afterwards." I
am sure it is true in my case, and true in respect most of God's
people; for there is little to love in them after they are born,
that if he had not loved them before then, he would have seen no
reason to choose them after; but since he loved them without works,
he loves them without works still; since their good works did not
win his affection, bad works cannot sever that affection; since
their righteousness did not bind his love to them, so their
wickedness cannot snap the golden links. He loved them out of pure
sovereign grace, and he will love them still. But we should have
been consumed by the devil, and by our enemies—consumed by the
world, consumed by our sins, by our trials, and in a hundred other
ways, if God had ever changed.Well, now, time fails us, and I
can say but little. I have only just cursorily touched on the text.
I now hand it to you. May the Lord help you "sons of Jacob" to take
home this portion of meat; digest it well, and feed upon it. May the
Holy Ghost sweetly apply the glorious things that are written! And
may you have "a feast of fat things, of wines on the lees well
refined!" Remember God is the same, whatever is removed. Your
friends may be disaffected, your ministers may be taken away, every
thing may change, but God does not. Your brethren may change and
cast out your name as vile: but God will love you still. Let your
station in life change, and your property be gone; let your whole
life be shaken, and you become weak and sickly; let everything flee
away—there is one place where change cannot put his finger; there is
one name on which mutability can never be written; there is one
heart which never can alter; that heart is God's—that name Love.
Though you hardly of him deem;
He will never, never leave you,
Nor will let you quite leave him."
If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.
Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.
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Spurgeon and the Age of the Earth
Notable Christians Open to an Old Earth
Old Earth Creationist Testimonies
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about old earth creationism, see
Old Earth Belief,
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Can You Be A
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