A Sermon (No. 1)
Delivered on Sabbath Morning,
January 7th, 1855,
by the REV. C.H. SPURGEON
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, theloftiest 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, thatall our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compassand grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when wecome to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height,weturn 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 ofGod. 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 bea naturalist, boasting of his ability to dissect a beetle, anatomize a fly, or arrange insects and animals in classes withwell nigh unutterable names; he may be a geologist, able to discourse of the megatherium and the plesiosaurus, and all kindsof extinct animals; he may imaginethat his science, whatever it is, ennobles and enlarges his mind. I dare say it does, but after all, the most excellentstudy for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the gloriousTrinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continuedinvestigation 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 yourcares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from acouch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of griefand sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subjectthat 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 Jacobare 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 attemptto 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 abeing; but what that is, we know not. However, whatever it is, we call it his essence, and that essence never changes. Thesubstance of mortal things is ever changing. The mountains with their snow-white crowns, doff their olddiadems 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 sunhimself 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 whichwas in it a few years ago. This frame has been worn away by activity, its atoms have been removed by friction, fresh particlesof 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 arefollowing after, keeping the river still full, but always changing in its elements. But God is perpetually the same. He isnot 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 markedhim 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 themanhood. When Christ inpast years did gird himself with mortal clay, the essence of his divinity was not changed; flesh did not become God, nordid God become flesh by a real actual change of nature; the two were united in hypostatical union, but the Godhead was stillthe same. It was the same when he was a babe in the manager, as it was when he stretched the curtains of heaven; it was thesame God that hung upon the cross, and whose blood flowed down in a purple river, the self-same God that holds the world uponhiseverlasting shoulders, and bears in his hands the keys of death and hell. He never has been changed in his essence, noteven by his incarnation; he remains everlastingly, eternally, the one unchanging God, the Father of lights, with whom thereis 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 mountainsand scooped out the hollow places for the rolling deep? Yes, he was powerful then, and his arm isunpalsied now, he is the same giant in his might; the sap of his nourishment is undried, and the strength of his soulstands 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 whichheareth all the cries, sighs, sobs, and groans of his people, is not rendered heavy by the years which he hath heard theirprayers. 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 saithit, 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, heis 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 toratify the articles of thatagreement. He knew right well that he must rend his best beloved from his bowels, and send him down to earth to bleedand die. He did not hesitate to sign that mighty covenant; nor did he shun its fulfillment. He loves as much now as he didthen, 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 Godnow, 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 sucha case; he built upon a smaller foundation and commenced again. But has it ever been said that God began to build but wasnot able to finish? Nay. When he hath boundless stores at his command, and when his own right hand would create worlds asnumerous as drops of morning dew, shall he ever staybecause 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 altersit.“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 thegate of heaven ye devils; but ye cannot alter the decree; it shall be done. God altereth not his plans; why should he? Heis Almighty, and therefore can perform his pleasure. Why should he? He is the All-wise, and therefore cannot have plannedwrongly.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
“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, wewould 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 seeit right to alter some word in hispromises—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 promiseof his. The gospel is not “yea and nay,” it is not promising today, and denying tomorrow; but the gospel is “yea, yea,” tothe glory of God. Believer! there was a delightful promise which you had yesterday; and this morning when you turned to theBible 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 outof 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, OLord, I am cast downand 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’tthink how it is you are always so happy in the Lord and I am often downcast.” “Why Massa,” said he, “Ithrow myself flat down on the promise—there I lie; you stand on the promise—you have a little to do with it, and downyou 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 Ifear no fall.” Then let us always say, “Lord there is the promise; it is thy business to fulfill it.” Down I go on the promiseflat! no standing up for me. That is where you should go—prostrate on the promise; and remember, every promise is a rock,anunchanging 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-knellof thy carnal hopes; see the funeral of thy fleshly trustings. Every threatening of God, as well as every promise shall befulfilled. Talk of decrees! I will tell you of a decree: “He that believeth not shall be damned.” That isa 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 sayestthou 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 rockof 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 andagonies, you shall turn up your eye and still read “SHALL BE DAMNED,” unchanged, unaltered. And when you shall have thoughtthat eternity must have spun out its last thread—that every particle of that which we call eternity, must have run out, youshall 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 roughthing & the law is a rough thing; Mount Sinai is a rough thing. Woe unto the watchman that warns not the ungodly! Godis 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 isno 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 willsanctify; 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 nowtry 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 andmaintains it.What kind of being must he be? It does strike me that you cannot think of a changeable God. I conceive that the thoughtis so repugnant to common sense, that if you for one moment think of a changing God, the words seem to clash, and you areobliged to say, “Then he must be a kind of man,” and get a Mormonite idea of God. I imagine it is impossible to conceive ofa 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 thinkof achanging 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 amperfect today, if it were possible for me to change, should I be perfect tomorrow after the alteration? If I changed, I musteither change from a good state to a better—and then if I could get better, I could not be perfectnow—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 Iam to be perfect then. So, if God is perfect, he must be the same; for change would imply imperfection now, or imperfectionthen.
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 tellyou what he means by an infinite being. But there cannot be two infinities. If one thing is infinite, there is no room foranything 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 andbe infinite tomorrow, there would be two infinities. But that cannot be. Suppose he is infinite and then changes, he mustbecome 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 beingat 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 hispurpose?” Turn ye to Philistia; ask where she is. God said, “Howl Ashdod, and ye gates of Gaza, for ye shall fall;” and whereare they? Where is Edom? Ask Petra and itsruined walls. Will they not echo back the truth that God hath said, “Edom shall be a prey, and shall be destroyed?” Whereis Babel, and where Nineveh? Where Moab and where Ammon? Where are the nations God hath said he would destroy? Hath he notuprooted them and cast out the remembrance of them from the earth? And hath God cast off his people? Hath he once been unmindfulof his promise? Hath he once broken his oath and covenant, or once departed from his plan? Ah! no. Point to one instance inhistory where God has changed! Ye cannot, sirs; for throughout all history there stands the fact that God has been immutablein his purposes. Methinks I hear some one say, “I can remember one passage in Scripture where God changed!” And so did I thinkonce. The case I mean, is that of the death of Hezekiah. Isaiah came in and said, ‘Hezekiah, you must die, your disease isincurable, set your house in order.’ He turned his face to the wall and began to pray; and before Isaiah was in the outercourt, 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 didknow it; he knew that Hezekiah would live. Then he did not change, for if he knew that, how could he change? That is whatI want to know. But do you know one little thing?—that Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, was not born at that time, and that had Hezekiahdied, there would have been no Manasseh, and no Josiah and no Christ, because Christ came from that very line. You willfind that Manasseh was twelve years old when his father died; so that he must have been born three years after this. And doyou not believe that God decreed the birth of Manasseh, and foreknew it? Certainly. Then he decreed that Isaiah should goand tell Hezekiah that his disease was incurable, and then say also in the same breath, “But I will cure it, and thou shaltlive.” Hesaid that to stir up Hezekiah to prayer. He spoke, in the first place as a man. “According to all human probability yourdisease 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 thenhe walked out. Hezekiah prayed a little, and then he came in again, and said) ”But I will heal thee.” Where is thereany 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; thereforeye 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 goodnor 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;
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, andthus gained the birthright. I do not justify the means; but he did also obtain the blessing, and so acquired peculiar rightsBy “the sons of Jacob” here, are meant persons who have peculiar rights and titles. Unto them that believe, he hathgiven the right and power to become sons of God. They have an interest in the blood of Christ; they have a right to “enterin through the gates into the city;” they have a title to eternal honors; they have a promise to everlasting glory; they havea 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 hehad a peculiar manifestation. There was a ladder, and he saw the angels of God ascending and descending. He thus had a manifestationof ChristJesus, as the ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, up and down which angels came to bring us mercies. Then whata manifestation there was at Mahanaim, when the angels of God met him; and again at Peniel, when he wrestled with God, andsaw 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 mantalketh with his friend; they have whispered in the ear of Jehovah; Christ hath been with them to sup with them, and theywith Christ; and the Holy Spirit hath shone into their souls with such a mighty radiance, that they could notdoubt 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. Hehad 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—cheatedhim of his wife, cheated him in his wages, cheated him in his flocks, and cheated him all through the story. By-and-bye hehad to run away from Laban, who pursued himand 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, hisdear beloved, died. Then his daughter Dinah is led astray, and the sons murder the Shechemites. Anon there is dear Josephsold into Egypt, and a famine comes. Then Reuben goes up to his couch and pollutes it; Judah commits incest with his owndaughter-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 throughthe one sin of cheating his brother. All through his life God chastised him. But I believe there are many who can sympathizewith dear old Jacob. They have had to pass through trials very much like his. Well, cross-bearers! God says, “I changenot; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Poor tried souls! ye are not consumed because of the unchanging natureof 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; thereforeye 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 Godcommends. There was Jacob’s faith, by which Jacob had his name written amongst the mighty worthies who obtained not the promiseson 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 byfaith, 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 tothe 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 notprayed.” 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 busysending her children to the Sunday School, she had no time to pray. No time to pray? Had you time to dress? There is atime for every purpose under heaven, and if you had purposed to pray, you would have prayed. Sons of God cannot live withoutprayer. They are wrestling Jacobs. They are men in whom the Holy Ghost so works, they they can no more live without prayerthan I can live without breathing. They must pray. Sirs, mark you, if you are living without prayer, you are living withoutChrist;and dying like that, your portion will be in the lake which burneth with fire. God redeem you, God rescue you from sucha 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 UNCHANGINGGOD. “Therefore ye sons Jacob are not consumed.” “Consumed?” How? how can man be consumed? Why, there are two ways. We mighthave 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 unchanginglove I should have been a faggot in the fire. But there is away 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 yetbeing absolutely dead. We might have been left to our own devices, and then where should we have been now? Revelling withthe drunkard, blaspheming Almighty God. Oh? had he left you, dearly beloved, had he been a changing God, ye had been amongstthe filthiest of the filthy, and the vilest of the vile. Cannot you remember inyour life, seasons similar to those I have felt? I have gone right to the edge of sin; some strong temptation has takenhold of both my arms, so that I could not wrestle with it. I have been pushed alone, dragged as by an awful satanic powerto the very edge of some horrid precipice. I have looked down, down, down, and seen my portion; I quivered on the brink ofruin. I have been horrified, as, with my hair upright, I have thought of the sin I was about to commit, the horrible pit intowhich Iwas about to fall. A strong arm hath saved me. I have started back and cried, O God! could I have gone so near sin, andyet come back again? Could I have walked right up to the furnace and not fallen down, like Nebuchadnezzar’s strong men, devouredby the very heat? Oh! is it possible I should be here this morning, when I think of the sins I have committed, and the crimeswhich 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 havemixed the cup of poison for our own spirits, if the Lord had not been an unchanging God, and dashed the cup out of our handswhen we were about to drink it. Then we should have been consumed by God himself if he had not been a changeless God. We callGoda Father; but there is not a father in this world who would not have killed all his children long ago, so provoked wouldhe have been with them, if he had been half as much troubled as God has been with his family. He has the most troublesomefamily 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. Butthere was nothing in us to love at first, so, there cannot be less now. John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, andlaugh at it too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of Election, “Ah! sir, the Lord must have lovedme 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 lovedthem beforethen, he would have seen no reason to choose them after; but since he loved them without works, he loves them withoutworks still; since their good works did not win his affection, bad works cannot sever that affection; since their righteousnessdid 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 youMay the Lord help you “sons of Jacob” to take home this portion of meat; digest it well, and feed upon it. May the Holy Ghostsweetly 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 maybe taken away, every thing may change, but God does not. Your brethren may change and cast out your name as vile: butGod will love you still. Let your station in life change, and your property be gone; let your whole life be shaken, and youbecome weak and sickly; let everything flee away—there is one place where change cannot put his finger; there is one nameon which mutability can never be written; there is one heart which never can alter; that heart is God’s—that name Love.
Delivered on Sabbath Morning,
January 7th, 1855,
by the REV. C.H. SPURGEON
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, theloftiest 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, thatall our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compassand grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold I am wise.” But when wecome to this master-science, finding that our plumb-line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height,weturn 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 ofGod. 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 bea naturalist, boasting of his ability to dissect a beetle, anatomize a fly, or arrange insects and animals in classes withwell nigh unutterable names; he may be a geologist, able to discourse of the megatherium and the plesiosaurus, and all kindsof extinct animals; he may imaginethat his science, whatever it is, ennobles and enlarges his mind. I dare say it does, but after all, the most excellentstudy for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the gloriousTrinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continuedinvestigation 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 yourcares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from acouch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of griefand sorrow; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subjectthat 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 Jacobare 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 attemptto 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 abeing; but what that is, we know not. However, whatever it is, we call it his essence, and that essence never changes. Thesubstance of mortal things is ever changing. The mountains with their snow-white crowns, doff their olddiadems 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 sunhimself 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 whichwas in it a few years ago. This frame has been worn away by activity, its atoms have been removed by friction, fresh particlesof 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 arefollowing after, keeping the river still full, but always changing in its elements. But God is perpetually the same. He isnot 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 markedhim 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 themanhood. When Christ inpast years did gird himself with mortal clay, the essence of his divinity was not changed; flesh did not become God, nordid God become flesh by a real actual change of nature; the two were united in hypostatical union, but the Godhead was stillthe same. It was the same when he was a babe in the manager, as it was when he stretched the curtains of heaven; it was thesame God that hung upon the cross, and whose blood flowed down in a purple river, the self-same God that holds the world uponhiseverlasting shoulders, and bears in his hands the keys of death and hell. He never has been changed in his essence, noteven by his incarnation; he remains everlastingly, eternally, the one unchanging God, the Father of lights, with whom thereis 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 mountainsand scooped out the hollow places for the rolling deep? Yes, he was powerful then, and his arm isunpalsied now, he is the same giant in his might; the sap of his nourishment is undried, and the strength of his soulstands 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 whichheareth all the cries, sighs, sobs, and groans of his people, is not rendered heavy by the years which he hath heard theirprayers. 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 saithit, 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, heis 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 toratify the articles of thatagreement. He knew right well that he must rend his best beloved from his bowels, and send him down to earth to bleedand die. He did not hesitate to sign that mighty covenant; nor did he shun its fulfillment. He loves as much now as he didthen, 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 Godnow, 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 sucha case; he built upon a smaller foundation and commenced again. But has it ever been said that God began to build but wasnot able to finish? Nay. When he hath boundless stores at his command, and when his own right hand would create worlds asnumerous as drops of morning dew, shall he ever staybecause 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 altersit.“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 thegate of heaven ye devils; but ye cannot alter the decree; it shall be done. God altereth not his plans; why should he? Heis Almighty, and therefore can perform his pleasure. Why should he? He is the All-wise, and therefore cannot have plannedwrongly.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
“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, wewould 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 seeit right to alter some word in hispromises—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 promiseof his. The gospel is not “yea and nay,” it is not promising today, and denying tomorrow; but the gospel is “yea, yea,” tothe glory of God. Believer! there was a delightful promise which you had yesterday; and this morning when you turned to theBible 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 outof 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, OLord, I am cast downand 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’tthink how it is you are always so happy in the Lord and I am often downcast.” “Why Massa,” said he, “Ithrow myself flat down on the promise—there I lie; you stand on the promise—you have a little to do with it, and downyou 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 Ifear no fall.” Then let us always say, “Lord there is the promise; it is thy business to fulfill it.” Down I go on the promiseflat! no standing up for me. That is where you should go—prostrate on the promise; and remember, every promise is a rock,anunchanging 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-knellof thy carnal hopes; see the funeral of thy fleshly trustings. Every threatening of God, as well as every promise shall befulfilled. Talk of decrees! I will tell you of a decree: “He that believeth not shall be damned.” That isa 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 sayestthou 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 rockof 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 andagonies, you shall turn up your eye and still read “SHALL BE DAMNED,” unchanged, unaltered. And when you shall have thoughtthat eternity must have spun out its last thread—that every particle of that which we call eternity, must have run out, youshall 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 roughthing & the law is a rough thing; Mount Sinai is a rough thing. Woe unto the watchman that warns not the ungodly! Godis 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 isno 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 willsanctify; 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 nowtry 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 andmaintains it.What kind of being must he be? It does strike me that you cannot think of a changeable God. I conceive that the thoughtis so repugnant to common sense, that if you for one moment think of a changing God, the words seem to clash, and you areobliged to say, “Then he must be a kind of man,” and get a Mormonite idea of God. I imagine it is impossible to conceive ofa 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 thinkof achanging 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 amperfect today, if it were possible for me to change, should I be perfect tomorrow after the alteration? If I changed, I musteither change from a good state to a better—and then if I could get better, I could not be perfectnow—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 Iam to be perfect then. So, if God is perfect, he must be the same; for change would imply imperfection now, or imperfectionthen.
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 tellyou what he means by an infinite being. But there cannot be two infinities. If one thing is infinite, there is no room foranything 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 andbe infinite tomorrow, there would be two infinities. But that cannot be. Suppose he is infinite and then changes, he mustbecome 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 beingat 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 hispurpose?” Turn ye to Philistia; ask where she is. God said, “Howl Ashdod, and ye gates of Gaza, for ye shall fall;” and whereare they? Where is Edom? Ask Petra and itsruined walls. Will they not echo back the truth that God hath said, “Edom shall be a prey, and shall be destroyed?” Whereis Babel, and where Nineveh? Where Moab and where Ammon? Where are the nations God hath said he would destroy? Hath he notuprooted them and cast out the remembrance of them from the earth? And hath God cast off his people? Hath he once been unmindfulof his promise? Hath he once broken his oath and covenant, or once departed from his plan? Ah! no. Point to one instance inhistory where God has changed! Ye cannot, sirs; for throughout all history there stands the fact that God has been immutablein his purposes. Methinks I hear some one say, “I can remember one passage in Scripture where God changed!” And so did I thinkonce. The case I mean, is that of the death of Hezekiah. Isaiah came in and said, ‘Hezekiah, you must die, your disease isincurable, set your house in order.’ He turned his face to the wall and began to pray; and before Isaiah was in the outercourt, 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 didknow it; he knew that Hezekiah would live. Then he did not change, for if he knew that, how could he change? That is whatI want to know. But do you know one little thing?—that Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, was not born at that time, and that had Hezekiahdied, there would have been no Manasseh, and no Josiah and no Christ, because Christ came from that very line. You willfind that Manasseh was twelve years old when his father died; so that he must have been born three years after this. And doyou not believe that God decreed the birth of Manasseh, and foreknew it? Certainly. Then he decreed that Isaiah should goand tell Hezekiah that his disease was incurable, and then say also in the same breath, “But I will cure it, and thou shaltlive.” Hesaid that to stir up Hezekiah to prayer. He spoke, in the first place as a man. “According to all human probability yourdisease 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 thenhe walked out. Hezekiah prayed a little, and then he came in again, and said) ”But I will heal thee.” Where is thereany 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; thereforeye 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 goodnor 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;
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, andthus gained the birthright. I do not justify the means; but he did also obtain the blessing, and so acquired peculiar rightsBy “the sons of Jacob” here, are meant persons who have peculiar rights and titles. Unto them that believe, he hathgiven the right and power to become sons of God. They have an interest in the blood of Christ; they have a right to “enterin through the gates into the city;” they have a title to eternal honors; they have a promise to everlasting glory; they havea 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 hehad a peculiar manifestation. There was a ladder, and he saw the angels of God ascending and descending. He thus had a manifestationof ChristJesus, as the ladder which reaches from earth to heaven, up and down which angels came to bring us mercies. Then whata manifestation there was at Mahanaim, when the angels of God met him; and again at Peniel, when he wrestled with God, andsaw 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 mantalketh with his friend; they have whispered in the ear of Jehovah; Christ hath been with them to sup with them, and theywith Christ; and the Holy Spirit hath shone into their souls with such a mighty radiance, that they could notdoubt 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. Hehad 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—cheatedhim of his wife, cheated him in his wages, cheated him in his flocks, and cheated him all through the story. By-and-bye hehad to run away from Laban, who pursued himand 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, hisdear beloved, died. Then his daughter Dinah is led astray, and the sons murder the Shechemites. Anon there is dear Josephsold into Egypt, and a famine comes. Then Reuben goes up to his couch and pollutes it; Judah commits incest with his owndaughter-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 throughthe one sin of cheating his brother. All through his life God chastised him. But I believe there are many who can sympathizewith dear old Jacob. They have had to pass through trials very much like his. Well, cross-bearers! God says, “I changenot; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Poor tried souls! ye are not consumed because of the unchanging natureof 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; thereforeye 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 Godcommends. There was Jacob’s faith, by which Jacob had his name written amongst the mighty worthies who obtained not the promiseson 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 byfaith, 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 tothe 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 notprayed.” 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 busysending her children to the Sunday School, she had no time to pray. No time to pray? Had you time to dress? There is atime for every purpose under heaven, and if you had purposed to pray, you would have prayed. Sons of God cannot live withoutprayer. They are wrestling Jacobs. They are men in whom the Holy Ghost so works, they they can no more live without prayerthan I can live without breathing. They must pray. Sirs, mark you, if you are living without prayer, you are living withoutChrist;and dying like that, your portion will be in the lake which burneth with fire. God redeem you, God rescue you from sucha 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 UNCHANGINGGOD. “Therefore ye sons Jacob are not consumed.” “Consumed?” How? how can man be consumed? Why, there are two ways. We mighthave 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 unchanginglove I should have been a faggot in the fire. But there is away 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 yetbeing absolutely dead. We might have been left to our own devices, and then where should we have been now? Revelling withthe drunkard, blaspheming Almighty God. Oh? had he left you, dearly beloved, had he been a changing God, ye had been amongstthe filthiest of the filthy, and the vilest of the vile. Cannot you remember inyour life, seasons similar to those I have felt? I have gone right to the edge of sin; some strong temptation has takenhold of both my arms, so that I could not wrestle with it. I have been pushed alone, dragged as by an awful satanic powerto the very edge of some horrid precipice. I have looked down, down, down, and seen my portion; I quivered on the brink ofruin. I have been horrified, as, with my hair upright, I have thought of the sin I was about to commit, the horrible pit intowhich Iwas about to fall. A strong arm hath saved me. I have started back and cried, O God! could I have gone so near sin, andyet come back again? Could I have walked right up to the furnace and not fallen down, like Nebuchadnezzar’s strong men, devouredby the very heat? Oh! is it possible I should be here this morning, when I think of the sins I have committed, and the crimeswhich 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 havemixed the cup of poison for our own spirits, if the Lord had not been an unchanging God, and dashed the cup out of our handswhen we were about to drink it. Then we should have been consumed by God himself if he had not been a changeless God. We callGoda Father; but there is not a father in this world who would not have killed all his children long ago, so provoked wouldhe have been with them, if he had been half as much troubled as God has been with his family. He has the most troublesomefamily 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. Butthere was nothing in us to love at first, so, there cannot be less now. John Newton used to tell a whimsical story, andlaugh at it too, of a good woman who said, in order to prove the doctrine of Election, “Ah! sir, the Lord must have lovedme 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 lovedthem beforethen, he would have seen no reason to choose them after; but since he loved them without works, he loves them withoutworks still; since their good works did not win his affection, bad works cannot sever that affection; since their righteousnessdid 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 youMay the Lord help you “sons of Jacob” to take home this portion of meat; digest it well, and feed upon it. May the Holy Ghostsweetly 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 maybe taken away, every thing may change, but God does not. Your brethren may change and cast out your name as vile: butGod will love you still. Let your station in life change, and your property be gone; let your whole life be shaken, and youbecome weak and sickly; let everything flee away—there is one place where change cannot put his finger; there is one nameon which mutability can never be written; there is one heart which never can alter; that heart is God’s—that name Love.
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