The Immutability Of God

“I am the Lord, I charge 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 thoughts 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

“Great God, how infinite art thou,
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 plesiosauras, 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 beneath 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
everburning 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 mementos 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 non-existence? 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 said 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.”

Impress’d on his heart it remains. Then again, God chances 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 bay-leaf 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.

“My name from the palms of his hands
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 it 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 to-day, and denying to-morrow, 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! 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 the fleshy
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 offense; but you cannot alter it. You believe or be damned, saith the
Bible; and mark, that threat of God is as 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 acres 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.

“If ever it should come to pass
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.

“Did Jesus once upon me shine,
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.

I. 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 to-day. 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 to-day, I must keep the
same to-morrow 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 to-day, 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 to-day and finite to-morrow,
or infinite to day and finite to-morrow, or finite today and infinite to-morrow- 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”

“Are the sons of God’s election,
Who through sovereign grace believe;
By 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 a sons of Jacob.”

3. But, then next, these “sons of Jacob” were men of peculiar
manifestations. Jacob had 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, threatened 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, Raphael, his dear beloved,
died. Then his daughter Dinah is fed 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 mean; 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 prays 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 prays 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, that 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 thing 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 along, 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 chance 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.

“Trust him, he will ne’er deceive you.
Though you hardly of him deem;
He will never, never leave you,
Nor will let you quite leave him.”