Malachi 3:6-7

Malachi chapter 3, verses 6 and 7 for our text tonight. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, said the Lord of hosts. but ye said, where in shall we return? May God bless to us His sacred and holy word this evening. All too often in our world we come across people whose marriages run in the trouble and you find that they’re divorced. Divorce is quite common in our society. Sometimes there has been selfishness and neglect, of one partner by the other. Perhaps the husband has put his career, or perhaps his personal interest, maybe a hobby before his wife, and she feels unwanted. Sometimes there is adultery, perhaps the wife engages in an extramarital affair with a friend. But in either case, realizing the dreadful mistake or wrong that he or she has come. committed. The wayward partner perhaps returns repentantly asking, will you take me back? In many cases, the answer is no. Some people feel so badly hurt, they don’t want to face the other partner again. Sadly, divorce soon has the man and woman going their separate ways, and there is no reconciliation. Now in scripture, the Bible tells us that God is married to his people. We find in the Old Testament, God says to true Israel, I am married to you, Jeremiah 314. In the New Testament, God calls the church the bride of Christ in Revelation 21-2. But there are times when God’s people, when believer, have broken their marriage vials. As James talks about ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God in James 4.4. You can be guilty of not reciprocating God’s love, of neglecting your obligations to Christ, putting your career, maybe your own personal interest before Christ, you can commit spiritual adultery by allowing your love to be attached to other objects or interests in the place of Christ. And suppose you are brought to realize the terrible state that you’re in, the sin that you’ve committed, and you desire to return to the Savior, will Christ take you back? We’ll accept a repentant person? Will we forgive that person? Where our text indicates that God is ready to take you back and heal your marriage to him. He’s already told us he hates divorce, and so we see that as the case. Now, you’ll notice your God does not change. I am the law. Lord, I change not. Verse 6. God is unchanging in what we will call his nature or essence. I can’t tell you what God had is made out of. I don’t know how to explain that. We’re not told about this. But whatever it is, we call it God’s essence or his nature. Now, God is not composed of. of any type of physical or material substance. Yes, we read about the eyes and the hands of the Lord and so forth, but that is spoken to us just for our understanding. It’s put in human terms for our benefit. What we do know, according to Scripture, is God is a pure spirit and therefore unchangeable. You look at the material world around you, and it’s changing all the time. We have earthquakes. We have volcanic eruptions. We have shooting stars. We get all kinds of things happening. The weather changes constantly. Your physical body changes. You age. Your hair turns white or gray. Your skin and your organs also are affected by your age. There is constant cell replacement within your body. So there’s all constant change. going on. But God is perpetually the same. He is the great I am. The great unchangeable one. Even God the Son, though he has taken upon himself a human body, the essence of his divine nature remains unchanged. His flesh does not become God, nor does God turn into flesh. By an actual change of nature, that doesn’t happen. There’s not a commingling, if you would, of his divine and human natures. While God and man were united, the Godhead remains the same. And by that I mean, as Christ once said, He that has seen me, I have seen the fault. Father, God is altogether uninfluenced by the passage of time. He’s as glorious as he ever was. His glory never fades. There are no wrinkles that crease his eternal brow. There is no age that saps his strength or his ability. There’s no passage of time that dolls. His eternal mind so that it doesn’t work as well as it once did. In order to change, a human being must change in one or two ways. Either you must change for the better and improve, or you must change for the worse. And then you’ll be inferior to what you once were. God can’t change for the better because that means he isn’t perfect. He can’t change for the worse. Where else he would become imperfect. So God is unchanging in his nature or essence. God is unchanging in his attributes. Whatever the attributes of God were before this universe in which we live was called into existence, they are precisely the same now. And they’re always going to remain the same. We talk about God’s attributes. We are talking about the essential qualities of his being. His attributes, if they were to change, would mean he would change. He was almighty when he spoke the world and the universe into existence. When he piled up the mountains and when he scooped out the ocean depths, when he decreed that the waters could only go so far and set the boundaries for them. When he dispelled the darkness and created light, when he created the innumerable creatures of the earth, when he made the sun, moon, and the stars, he was almighty. He’s still that same almighty God. His omnipotence hasn’t been weakened. His strength is still at its peak. He could do it all over again today, if he needs. to you see the wisdom of God in the construction of the universe in which you and I live. We think about the rotation of the planets around the sun, the constant spinning of the earth so that we have day and night. The atmosphere kept perfect for life and the whole world is sustained by God. He has hung the world on nothing, and yet he sustains it. in its orbit and so forth. We think of the marvelous construction of the human body. As David says in Psalm 139, that he’s fearfully and wonderfully made. When he contemplates, we sang it this morning. When he contemplates how God wove him together, so to speak, in the womb, and all his days already being predetermined when as yet there were none of them. All those things speak about God’s wisdom. We could talk about God being unchanged in his justice. He demands the same justice and holiness now as he always did. What God has told us in his word will be exactly what happens on the day of judgment. His judgment will be exactly as he has said in his word, nothing is going to change. He doesn’t become more lenient, less holy in his demands, and so forth. He’s unchanged in his truth. God’s word never changes. It’s forever settled in heaven. It cannot change. His promises, whether they be threats or blessings, he will fulfill, you can count on it. He’s unchangeable in his love. Does the Bible speak of the everlasting love that God has for his people? If it’s everlasting, it cannot change. By the way, it’s one of the reasons we argue that God cannot love everyone. Because those in hell, if he loved them while they’re here on Earth, he would have to love them while they’re in hell, and God would be eternally miserable if that were the case. You know, the U.S. Marines have a motto. Semperified Fides. Actually, they shorten it sometimes and say, just semperfi. And that means always faithful. Well, God’s motto is Semper item. Always the same. God is unchanging in his attributes. God is unchanging in his plans. I read in Psalm 3311, the counsel of Lord stands forever, the thoughts of his heart, his decision, as well as his desires, to all generations. You’ll recall this story in the Bible about the man who attempted to build a tower. And he wasn’t able to finish it because he didn’t count the cost properly. He ran out of money. It was poor planning. God never fails to carry out his eternal plans. He never has to deviate from the original blueprint. He never has to alter his purpose or make a correction to it. Three things cause a man to change his mind or reverse his plans. An unforeseen event. A one. One time there was a World Series. I think one of them was in California. It was an earthquake. They had to cancel it. They had to move the everything, and they couldn’t have the game there and so forth. These things happen. Things happen. They cancel things out. We plan sometimes of having worship service and we, you know, we get 24 inches of snow or something. And we have to cancel our plans out. But God knows all his work. from the beginning and therefore that can’t happen. The second thing is you make a mistake or error. But God is perfect in all his ways. He doesn’t make mistakes. He doesn’t make errors. He never has an eraser on his pencil or his pen. You know, you’re down in Pittsburgh and maybe you get lost, you know, construction and everything else. You get turned around and maybe even with your GPS, you know, you hear recalculating, you know, you made a mistake. You turned wrong or you couldn’t turn down where they wanted you to turn or something, and you have to find your way back to where you need. God never makes a wrong turn. Never has that problem. The third thing is, you lack the power to complete what you have purpose to do. You may say, you know, we have people that have tried to swim the English channel and they didn’t make it. They purpose to do it. They trained to do it. They just couldn’t make it. But God is omnipotent, so therefore that is not a problem for. Thus, God never, ever reverses himself. Or revises his decrees. Now, think about this. If he’s the all-wise God, certainly, he will anticipate all that could happen. But even better than that, God doesn’t have to anticipate anticipate what’s going to happen because he has decreed all that’s going to happen. He knows what’s going to happen because he has purpose that to happen. Nothing is outside of his purpose, therefore, nothing is going to catch him off guard. I like what Isaiah 46. 10 says, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying, my counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure. Declaring the end from the beginning. nothing is going to go awry with God’s counsel. God knows what will be because he’s determined that it shall be. The thoughts of the Lord are such. Isaiah 1427 says the Lord of hosts have purposed, who shall disannaw it? His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back? Is there anybody who can stop him from carrying out his plans? No. Thus the scripture speaks about the immutability of his counsel in Hebrew 617. Now we have an interesting case of that false prophet, Balaam, in scripture. He tried to get God to change his mind. Balak was paying him to curse Israel. He wanted to curse Israel. And God wouldn’t let him. And what does God tell the prophet? God is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? Numbers 2319. No, Balaam, I am not going to change my… You can go to every mountain top you want to and you can sacrifice all the sacrifices you want to. You can look at Israel from every angle you want to. It’s not going to change my purpose. So your God does not change. He doesn’t change in his nature. He’s not changed in his attributes. He’s not going to change in his purpose or plans. Consistent all the way through. With that question. Now, you’re benefited by an unchanging God. Because he says, I change not. Then he adds, therefore, you sons of Jacob, are not consumed. Now, you’re guilty of many sins. It’s interesting he uses the phrase here, you’re sons of Jacob. Remember that Jacob was the grandson of Abraham. It was the father of the sons who headed up the 12 tribes of Israel. It’s interesting that God calls Israel the sons of Jacob because the implication here is they have the character of Jacob, the character of Jacob. Certainly before his name was changed to Israel, the prince with God. We often use the phrase phrase, your son is a chip off the old block. I mean, he’s just like like his dad, maybe in character or in looks. Sometimes we say, you know, the acorn doesn’t fall far from the tree. if you look at Jacob’s life, Jacob was a devious, sly, cunning man. You’ll recall that when he was born, he had the hold on his brother’s eel because remember there were twins he saw on Jacob. He was the subplanter from the very beginning. The deceitful one. And from birth, he was not. known as one was ready to trip up his brother. You remember how he cheated Esau out of his birthright. Esau came in from hunting all day in the forest and he was famished. and he said he was going to die. If he didn’t eat, he was utterly exhausted. Jacob was a home body, we’re told. And that’s why his mother loved him so much, I guess. So he’s cooking stew. He’s making lintel soup, so to speak. So Esau asked him for some. That crafty, Jacob, he seizes the moment. I’ll tell you what. Sell me your birthright. And I’ll give you the stew. He was the original Monty Hall. Let’s make a deal. And he wrestled away from Esau the birthright blessing. Years later, when his father, Isaac, decided that maybe his days are about numbered, his eyesight had gone, and I guess he felt like it was time to pass the blessing on to the firstborn. And so he sends Esau out to hunt some game to bring it back, and then he’s going to bless Esau and give him the birthright. Now, Jacob, crafty as he is. With the help of his mother, by the way, who makes a, you know, get some meat, I think it’s goat meat that she gets, some young kids, and sort of makes it taste like it’s deer meat, evidently. And so she makes the tasty stew while he puts on his brother’s clothes so that he will smell that outdoor smell. And even take some of the hair off the goat skin, I guess, and he puts it on his arms and around his neck in case his father would feel him, he would seem to be like his brother. So when he goes in before his father, disguised as he saw, and he kneels before him to get the blessing. His father, you know, he’s checking him out, he’s smelling him, he’s feeling his arms, and he feels all that hair because he saw as a hairy man. He says, I don’t know, you know, that voice, the clothing and the smell is right, but that voice seems, you know, that doesn’t seem right. Are you truly my son, Esau? Oh, yes, I am. And Jacob gets the blessing that was reserved for Esau. he wrestled it away, and he got it. Isaac could not tell by his eyesight because his eyesight was so poor. He stole it away. well, that didn’t do him very good around Esau because Esau was ready to kill him. So Rebecca thinks it’s best to send him off to her brother’s house, Laban. Now, Laban was a man of the same character as Esau. When you think about it, Laban was not a fair man. He cheated Jacob out of his wife. He gave him the wrong woman first. Then he cheated him out of his wages, kept changing the wages on him. But Jacob got his avenge. He looked out for himself. Jacob was to receive a portion of Laban’s flock for his payment and get the wages that way. But he made sure that he got the strong sheep and Laban got the weak sheep and he tried to manipulate the mating of the flock so that he would end up with the stronger. sheep. Now Jacob was a conniving man. You look at him. He’s ever plotting. He’s cunning. To the benefit himself. And yet, he’s a saved man. He’s a child of God. God has to work a long time with Jacob to cure him of his ways. He had a lot to learn and a lot to go through. He had a hard life in many ways. I think he had to learn from the providence of God. God taught him to be a different person as he went along. Now God is saying here that the people of God in Malachi’s day are descendants of Jacob. Not just physically. You’re pretty much like him in your behavior. You have cheating and skisking. scheming ways. You guys are just little Jacobs. Now you and I may not literally be sons of Jacob today, even as believers, we still though, seem to be some of the cold ease of having a chip off the old block in this case. There’s some Jacob in all of us in some way. Who is there can claim innocent? There is an unrighteous. And all we like sheep have gone astray. And every Christian has had his crafty moments, his scheming plans, his revengeful displays, so there’s a way in which we can see ourselves, maybe in that kind of category. You’re guilty of many sins. Sons of Jacob. You deserve God’s judgment, but you’ve been spared. You’re not consumed. Now, you might have been justly destroyed by God and cast into the pit of hell and isn’t that what every sinner deserves? I mean, wouldn’t that be just what was fair and right? If God had been a changing God, the Israelites might have been destroyed and utterly cast off by God. Paul tells us, though, that Paul indicates to us that God has not cast off his people, which he for new in Romans 11, which he forloved. When we think about the covenant that God has made with his people, even though when we fail, and many times we don’t live up to the responsibilities of the covenant, yet God always does. God always does. God’s unchanging love for you as a believer is what keeps you from being a stick in the fires of hell and consumed by God’s wrath. If you were left of your own sinful ways, if you continued with your Jacob-like character, we look back perhaps on some of the things we’ve done and what shameful things we’ve done in the eyes of the Lord at times, and we failed him utterly and miserably. Had God been a changing God, he could have tossed him us aside. Sometimes a strong temptation overwhelms you. Maybe you didn’t successfully wrestle against it. Perhaps you have a besetting sin. and you can look at that and sometimes it seems like you’re on the brink of ruin. the brink of catastrophe. It’s horrifying to think of the sins you’ve committed and even worse the horrible pit which you could have fallen. and God in his strong arm spares you. God pulls you back. Maybe you flirted with sure disaster, but God’s grace retrieved you. You think of all the dark sins you may have committed the horrible crimes, maybe they crossed your mind in your imagination, and yet God put a hedge in your way, a hedge of thorns to keep you from sinning and going off the cliff, so to speak. You’re unconsumed because God doesn’t change. because if he had changed his purpose for you, you would have been consumed a dozen times already. What a family God has. At times unbelieving. At times ungrateful. At times disobedient. At times forgetful. At times rebellious. At times wondering. At times murmuring. At times proud. There are the Jacobs. There are the Samson’s. There are the errands. there are the Davids. There are the Solomons. There are the Peters. There are the Thomas’s. All of them, all their flaws, are pointed out in scripture for us. Whether it be adultery, taking in heathen wise and getting caught up in idolatry. Whether it be Aaron who failed and made the golden calf. Samson, we won’t even get in all the sexual sins that he engaged in, marrying outside of Israel and so forth. Peter’s denial of the Lord Thomas in his unbelief and so forth. If God changed his purpose for your life, you would never have the certainty of eternal life. What do you think? Eternal life depends upon? It certainly doesn’t depend upon us. It burns upon God not changing. Scripture indicates to us if God ever changed his mind about saving you, you would never be saved. You’d be consumed. But I like what the scripture says. Whom God did predestinate to eternal salvation. Them he also called. And whom he called, then he also justified. And whom he justified, then he also glorified. Is there any link in that chain that gets broken? No. That’s why he gave eternal life. I changed not. not. Did I predestinate you to eternal salvation? You shall have it. I will bring you to salvation. I will call you out of the world. I will change you. I will sanctify you. And eventually I’ll glorify you. So you’re benefited by an unchanging God and you, we should always recognize that. Thirdly, the unchanging God demands that you change. You’ll notice here in verse 7. Even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, Seth, the Lord of Hosby. He said, where should we return? You must return to the Lord. Return on to me, God says. Now, God is constant in his commands. God is not of God. It keeps changing what he requires of you, so you never know what he’s of you. He’s not like Laban who changes your wages, you know, 10 times. So that he demands this one day and demands something else another. His standards are always the same. He requires that his people exercise faith and be holy as he is holy, that to pursue holiness in their lives. To keep his ordinances, to keep his word. Is God’s people that have gone astray and have not kept what God has committed. Those ten commandments are written in stone for a reason. That tells us that God’s saying this is not going to change. Now, the return means to turn back to the Lord. It means to repent. It means to turn around 180 degrees. It’s a reverse direction. Instead of heading off towards sin and self and idols, Israel is urged to turn back and look in faith to God. And yet Israel here seems to not want to acknowledge the problem. What do you mean we’ve got to return? they’re talking as if they’re ignorant of any need to return to the Lord. what do you mean? What are you talking about? To us? We need to repent? Why do we have to come back? My friend, the first step in true repentance is to recognize you’ve gone astray. The see that you’re guilty. God calls them out on this. And since it is you, that has changed. It is you to have to come back. To come humbly and confess your sin to the Lord. Repent. God calls you to take inventory. Where do you stand with him? Because I can tell you this. If you find yourself as strange from God, it’s not God that’s moved. You’re the one that’s moved. You must return to the Lord. God welcomes you when you return to Him. I will return to you. He says, return to me. I will return to you. God is not heartless. He’s not a severe potentate who coldly or grudgingly pardoned you when you repent. You remember King David and Absalom, he sort of gave it a half-hearted acceptance of Absalom when he came back after he had killed Amnon and sort of a half-hearted forgiveness. And I don’t want to see you in my court. you know, stay out of the area. Don’t get near me. God here tells us if his people move toward him in repentance, he welcomes them. Does he not? Now, if we’re the wandering sheep, we have to realize, of course, it’s always the shepherd who comes out and really brings us back. It’s always God who searches us out and brings us back to him. But Israel’s return would be met with a warm welcome. Now that’s important for us to know too, isn’t it? You know, when you get there, if you come back to God, he doesn’t pick up the welcome mat and put a sign on the door that says, don’t come back, keep out. That’s not what he does. He’s willing to return to his people and bless them. Draw nigh unto God, and he will draw nigh unto thee. You remember the story of the prodigal son? Prodical son goes off with the inheritance. He begged his father to give him, and then he blows all the money on wine, women, and song. It ends up hungry in his tattered clothes, feeding pigs thinking about, well, I’m going to have to eat the slop that I give the pigs because I don’t have anything else to eat. And he’s thinking, well, what if I could go back home? And then he thinks, well, I wonder how my father would receive me if I go back home. After all, he had wasted his father’s goods. He had blown his inheritance. And he had blown it in ways that were contrary to his father’s wishes by his behavior. He, I think, expected to be disinherited by a son, but he had one thought. Maybe Dad will take me back as a hard servant. I could just serve in his house. and that would be enough because they have plenty to eat. That would be good if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, if I, he would just take me back as a servant. And we read that while his son is a long way off, his father saw him returning. And you can imagine the scene. He spots him at a distance on the road and the father is filled with compassion for a son he runs to meet him throws his arm around him and kisses him. Calls for a ring to be put on his finger. Calls for the fat and calf. Calls for the fat and half and singing and dancing and celebration because my son which was dead is not alive. He’s back. He rejoices in the father’s return. My friends, that story that Jesus told reveals to us something about God. Because it tells us about heaven rejoicing over one sinner who repents. That’s the premise that leads to that story. He’s generous in his part. hardening of sins, he delights, and you return to him. Robinson Crusoe was written by Daniel Defoe. And in the book you find this perceptive remark, I have often observed how incongruous and irrational the common tempter temper of mankind is, that they are not ashamed to sin, and yet are ashamed to repent, not ashamed of the action. Not ashamed of the action. for which they ought to justly be esteemed fools, but are ashamed of returning, which can only make them be esteemed wise men. Return unto me. I will return unto you. What a tremendous and gracious promise that is for God’s people, for the backslider. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, for thou hast fallen by thine own iniquity. I will heal their backslider. sliding, I will love them freely. Both of those come from Josea. You have followed many times in your Christian walk. There may even be periods in which there seems to be some great distance between you and God. I read about David when he committed adultery for nine months. There was no repentance. Think about that. That’s a long time. Nine months. So Nathan comes to him. and exposes him for any sin. So no matter how many times you fall, when you come seeking God again sincerely, God is more than ready and willing to receive you back. Now, we should never presume on God’s love. Take advantage. But it should cause you to marvel at the loving kindness of God toward us. as his people. Has your faith grown cold? Have you become a friend of the world? Have you set your heart upon its uncertain riches as your God? Perhaps like the people of Malachi’s Day, you are a religious backslide. Or it’s not that you didn’t keep going to church and keep going through the emotions of your religion. It kept out the outward form. But in all honesty, your heart is really far. where it ought to be with the Lord. Return unto me, Christ says. I’ll return unto you. Are you a wanderer? Are you weary of it? Return to God. Will you receive you? Will your spiritual husband take you back? He hates putting away. Yes, he will. He seeks reconciliation. Let me close tonight with one final thought. An unchanging God is an encouragement to us in our prayer life. The permanence of God’s character guarantees the fulfillment of his promises and what is prayer really but pleading the promises of God before him? What good would a divine promise be if God changed his mind about it? If I thought my $20 bill in my pocket was worthless and I couldn’t buy any goods goods with it, what would I do? if I was throw it away? If I thought God’s promises would never be fulfilled, if God would somehow alter his scripture, that would be a hopeless situation. I want things that don’t change. I’m thankful that it’s impossible for God to lie. I’m thankful that God is a rock in the Bible. He’s immovable. Believer, when you lift up a biblical promise before the Lord’s throne, it can’t be denied. Because God said he would do it. And if we would do it. ask anything in his name according to his will, he will fulfill it. What a glorious benefit it is then to have an unchanging God. This ought to encourage you. It ought to encourage you when you fall, but it ought to encourage you every day in your devotion to the Lord and your prayer life before him. Well, let us close with the word of prayer tonight.