God is Immutable
Transcription
And happy Father's Day. Welcome, welcome. If you are new or you've been here the last month or so, welcome. My name is Mark. I'm I've been here before, but it's been a while. So I'm one of the pastors here. we had this incredible privilege and opportunity in the month of May to go to Italy and to work with churches across the whole boot there. so on the weekends we were doing conferences
my wife spoke about eight times. I think I spoke eight times and preached a couple times in Slovenia even and it was an incredible experience. And during the week we were driving from place to place and being tourists and got no down days at all, but it was awesome. And and eventually the last week we we needed to be in Salerno, Italy, that which is a few hours south of Rome and and on the way th it it crosses this place that my daughters had been asked, my daughter
Abby had been asking, hey, can we please, please, please go to Pompeii? I'm like, why are you so interested in Pompeii? Because of the song? How's it go? I don't know. Ayo, Ayo. but no, we want to go to K Pompeii. I'm like, okay, I all I knew about Pompeii was like, isn't that the place for Mount Vesuvius and the you know the earth the the lava, all is that what happened? And actually no, like that that was an amazing, amazing experience. We we got there, so
Pompeii sits at the foot of Mount Vesuvius. And by the way, it's still an active volcano. And we were listening to podcasts on the way down to learn about what was going on there. And the geologists that study it, like they have an active go bag in their car to get out of there in case this thing goes off again. So that didn't make my wife feel too comfortable. but i in the first century and and even now that there there's earthquakes and tremors and and all all these things going on. And so
The archaeologists have found that the the citizens of Pompeii they would make their offerings to the god Vulcan and and they would have these household gods and and they would make offerings and sacrifices to their household gods for protection and prosperity and health and and safety, like all the things that we we want in our lives, right? But th that they were looking to these household idols for that. And so a as as
As the year seventy-nine AD approached, more and more earthquakes were were happening, but of course they didn't have knowledge of what was going on. They just thought Vulcan was mad and eventually in October of seventy-nine the thing went off. It shot rock and pumice and ash thirty miles in the air. This massive mushroom cloud blots out the the sun for twenty-four hours.
And a few hours after the eruption, as the citizens of Pompeii are staring up at it, the the wind brings it over and it begins to rain down like an apocalyptic snowstorm. Ash and pumice. Begins to fill the streets and and and people are are are saying, What should we do? Some go inside and and hide out there, others put pillows on their head and and try to make it down to the port to escape. But the ash starts
piling up the the little lava stones start piling up, they cover the streets, they cover the doors. people go inside and and it's on the roofs. Many of the roofs collapse and that's how a lot of the people died for twenty-four hours. This is falling on the city. It was the next day that a pyroclastic blast, that is h superheated gas from the volcano, comes down the side of the volcano and and like hurricane force winds at five hundred degrees
blows through Pompeii, that's what takes out the most of the citizens. It was horrific. The ash continues to fall and it falls to ten to twenty feet deep so that the entire city gets covered and preserved in this ash and dust and and and all the things. For seventeen hundred years it it doesn't get uncovered. Now, even today only about two-thirds of it is. So they had to dig down
fifteen feet and take it out. But but unlike anywhere else in the ancient world, na you you get this picture now of of what life could be like was like in the first century Roman Empire. They they take it down all the way down to the streets and you can see the the Roman carts their their tracks in the streets and and you walk you literally walk the streets of this city full of houses and bakeries and taverns and places of worship and
temples and theaters a and you are walking around and y you're like, this is unbelievable. It's massive, by the way. Like it's far bigger than Parker. You're just walking around and there's this y you're walking the streets of this place. And and you begin to think about what life was like then.
And as we left there, I began to think, hmm, was there were there any believers here? And so we just did some research. And there there is actually good evidence that there were believers in Pompeii in 79 A.D. Because in the year 59 or 60 A.D., we we read in Acts chapter 28 that the Apostle Paul lands on the on Italy. And where he lands is is right outside of modern-day Naples, about 15 miles away from Pompeii. And when he lands there,
Believers from that area come and greet him. This is amazing. So this is twenty, twenty-five years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, that fifteen hundred miles away that there are churches being established. That says a couple things. One, it it shows that early Christians really believed and obeyed the Great Commission. Like, no, we are supposed to make disciples. We are supposed to go. This is our life. What else would we do? We're not to live for ourselves.
And so it goes fifteen hundred miles away and and churches are established and and even in Pompeii there's some evidence. There's there there's early Christian graffiti, there's there's evidence that the church would would meet in the bakeries there. And and so I began to think, well, what was that like? What was that like in seventy nine AD when when they saw the volcanoes erupt and they saw their neighbors freak out? What what what were they doing?
What would you do? I mean, there had to be some temptation, even as their their neighbors went into their homes and started bowing down to their household gods, be like, please give us safety and security and comfort. There had to be some temptation, like maybe maybe we should do that just to cover all the basis, right? Like what what do you do in that moment when the earth literally is shaking under you and all is falling down on your
world, I I don't know what they did. I I know that I would have been afraid. I know that my wife would have been terrified 'cause she hates earthquakes because we lived in Asia for ten years and within two hours of us landing there we were in a six point nine earthquake on a seventh floor of a hotel that was made for earthquakes. So it swayed about ten, fifteen feet. And she hated it every single time. I kinda liked it.
But it's understandable. Even if you're a follower of Jesus. Yes, you've given up your household gods, but in the moment when life shakes the most, what do you do? What do you look for? Where do you run? I mean, some of the citizens try to go down to the port and escape, but by then the the ash, the the the lava rocks were floating on the water and the the port was blocked. They were just all blocked in. But it it's it's this reality that.
On this side of eternity, there are moments in life. In fact, all of creation is in flux. All of creation is instable. All of creation is going from order to disorder. And that's true physically, that's true scientifically. It's called the second law of thermodynamics, but that's true in our own lives. Like the th there are things that we
look to and hope for and we think are secure that that in the end reveal themselves that's not secure. And good things, right? Like if you're looking to anything in creation, eventually you will be disappointed by it. If you're looking to the people around your dinner table on Thanksgiving, no matter how good your family is, a day will come where someone will be the last and all else will have gone, either from conflict or death.
Like that's just the way it is. If you're looking towards a number on your computer screen that says, I have this much money and therefore I'm safe and secure, you're not nearly as safe and secure as you think. No matter what you're looking at, if you're looking to success or or your your kids, like on any level, these are good things, but when they become God things, eventually you will be disappointed, right? Because if you're looking to your health, no matter how much
You work out and do all that, you might it prolong some days, but eventually it will break down and your life will be shaken. If you're looking to your spouse, no matter, even if you have the best marriage and it goes to the end, one of you will bury the other one. If you're looking to your success and you get prestige and you serve a company for 50 years, at the end they're gonna have a party and give you a watch and forget about you in about a month.
Like eventually you're they're gonna paint you up like a clown and put you in a box and in the ground. Happy Father's Day. Did I say? They're like, Well, welcome back, Mark. Wow. That's this is awesome. No, you're you're making me feel bad about myself. My my aim is not to make you feel bad. This is a reality that all of you know. Some of you know it acutely right now in your life that the the world is unstable, that your life is unstable, that
Your your your faith is unstable like some of you know that but all of us will know it. I'm just telling you the truth. And so my aim is not to make you feel bad this morning. My aim is actually for your joy to to find an enduring joy, to turn our eyes to that which we can hope in. And so if you have your Bible, we're in Psalm one two this morning. We're in this series, this week and next week we'll we'll close it out.
but this series w it's called God Is and and it's from a theological perspective it's called Theology Proper. It's this idea of we as finite humans trying as best we could from what God has revealed about Himself through creation and through His Word and through His Spirit about who He is. But this is not this is not an academic pursuit. Like this isn't so that you can win some weird Bible Jeopardy thing and and know the things about God.
Right, like to behold the attributes of God is to give yourself a an anchor for the the future, not just for your worship today, but for what the Bible calls in the day of trouble you will have a foundation. And my hope this morning, even as as we've talked about, the day of trouble is coming, has come, maybe is in your life right now, where can we look to find a a a solid ground?
put our feet on. So that's where we're at in in in Psalm one two. We're gonna look at it. And now I I love this Psalm because it there's there's this just some progressive realization by the psalmist of where to look in the day of trouble. So Psalm one two listen carefully this is God's word. Now in verse one it says hear my prayer but you might notice above that there's there's kind of a
a subtitle to the psalm. That's actually in the original Hebrew. that God wants us to know the sub not just the verses, but the subtitle. But look at what the psalmist writes. It says a prayer of an afflicted person who has grown weak and pours out a lament before the Lord. The Lord, L-O-R-D, all caps, before the personal God of the universe, before Yahweh.
It's a prayer of an afflicted person. Again, this is a very human experience. We we've all been there, we all will be there. and and this person has grown weak. And they pour out a lament. What I love about the Psalms is it it it gives us language and permission to bring our everything to God. See, God knows that that we are finite.
And that he's infinite. God knows that we can't possibly understand all that he is doing, and and he can't even answer all that he is doing to us. And yet we feel the brokenness of the world. We feel the brokenness of our our own souls and our families and our nation. We feel all that. And so God in the Psalms gives us language to come and complain to God, to cry out to God, to to question God.
Like we don't have to be super pious all the time. We we can be honest. This is what the Psalms do. And so this is the the frame by which the psalmist comes to God and he says to God, Hear my prayer, Lord, hear my prayer, Yahweh. Let my cry for help come to you. Do not hide your face from me when I am in distress. Turn your ear to me when I call, answer me quickly. Man, that isn't that what we want all of our prayers, right?
Like we all want like to say amen and then see the the results, right? Like he's just honest. Like, okay, I'm praying, and now let's go, God. And then you pray again and you pray again and you pray for years and years, and you're like, Answer me quickly. I don't feel like you're answering me at all. This is what what he's feeling. Now now in the next verse, we we kind of see what's the reason for this distress? Verse three.
For my days vanish like smoke. It's this transitory nature of life. It's the temporariness of his life. It's the disintegrating of his life that is causing him all sorts of anguish and angst and anxiety. He says, My burnt bones burn like glowing embers. He's probably sick. He's probably got just a severe fever. He's feeling the the the joints and the bones like are on fire. My heart is blighted and withered like grass.
Down in verse 11, my days are like the evening shadow. How long does that last? Not long. I wither away like grass. The Bible uses grass as this picture of the very temporariness of this life. And he's feeling that. He's feeling the unsubtleness that this world can sometimes present to us. He says, I forget to eat my food. I am distressed. I groan aloud.
I am reduced to skin and bones. I'm like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins. I lie awake, I have become like a bird alone on a roof. All day long my enemies taunt me. Those who rail against me use my name as a curse, for I eat ashes as my food, and mingle my drink with tears. He is describing what we would now diagnose as clinical depression.
He is distraught. He's not eating, he's he's sick, he's he he's collapsed in on himself, he can only see the brokenness of his life. And so in verse ten he says, Because of your great wrath, for you have taken me up and thrown me aside. Now is that true?
I mean, I think w when we feel the brokenness of this world, we can say things to God and about God that are not true, even though we feel them deeply. He he says to God, you where was it? Because of your great wrath, you have taken me up and thrown me aside. That that's why my life is the way it is. God, I I blame you, God, essentially, is what what the psalmist is saying. He's he's forgetting who God is.
He's forgetting what for example Malachi 3 1 says that where God says to his people, Though you are faithless, I will always be faithful. He's forgetting that. He he's interpreting the circumstances of his life as God somehow punishing him, but we we tend to do that when things are not going our way. Verse 11, My days are like the evening shadow, I wither away like grass, and he's sitting in that, but
But something happens in verse twelve. A turn happens. Now I don't know if this just happens in a few moments or minutes as he's writing this, or if there's a like years between verse eleven and verse twelve. But but a turn begins to happen, which begins to change the way he looks. He says, But you, Lord, sit enthrone forever. Your renown endures through all generations. You will rise.
And have compassion on Zion. Do you see what he's doing? He's doing some theology. He's like, I don't feel this. I I I feel like discarded. I th there's nothing in me that feels this, but but I am starting to remember who you are, or at least who I learned about who you are when I was a little boy, or in the temple. That that you Lord are are enthroned forever. You you you reign and rule over all things.
Your renown endures in this transitory life that is like smoke, you alone endure. You will arise and have compassion. He's remembering what God said to Moses, that I am compassionate, God, even if he's not feeling it yet. For it is time to show favor on her, the appointed time has come. Verse 17. He will respond to the prayer of the destitute, which is good news for him, because that's where he's at.
He remembers, for example, in Exodus, when the the prayers of the people of God in slavery in Egypt rise up and in the bi and in chapter one it says God heard their prayers and remembered them. He's rehearsing the truth. He's rehearsing the good news. He he's he's believing the truth before he feels the truth. And so he's remembering you will hear, you respond to the prayers of the destitute. He will not despise their plea. Verse eighteen.
Let this be written for a future generation, that a people not yet created may praise the Lord. The Lord looked down from his sanctuary on high. From heaven he viewed the earth. He hears the groans of the prisoners and releases those condemned to death. So the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion. He's remembering the promises of God. This is a consistent promise of God that the name of the Lord will be declared in Zion.
Zion and his praises in Jerusalem, when the peoples and the kingdoms assemble to worship the Lord. In the course of my life, he broke my strength, he cut short my days. So I said, Do not take away take me away, my God, in the midst of my days. Your years go through all generations. He's remembering the eternal nature of who God is. And he's rehearsing the truth. But now he's starting to connect.
The dots to his own life. Verse twenty-five. In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. You are the creator. This is the creation. You stand above and beyond your creation. You are above and beyond time. You reign over it all. He says this they will perish. All of creation will perish. It's what we already talked about.
But you remain. They will all wear out like a garment, like clothing, you will change them, and they will be discarded. This is the disintegration of creation. But you remain the same. There it is. And your years will never end. He comes to this theological truth, this theological truth that theologians call the immutability of
God. I'll put the definition up on the screen here. The immutability of God. God does not change in his being, character, attributes, purposes, promises, or perfections. This is the attribute we're looking at this morning. Now here's the thing: when you first hear about the immutability of God, you might say, hmm, so what? Let's talk about the other attributes, the more exciting ones. But let me show you.
Why this attribute in particular is a glorious attribute worthy of praise and worthy of confidence for us. The glory of God's immutability means that all of the other attributes that we've celebrated in this series, all of the other attributes and we've marveled at together in this series, are eternally secure, eternally perfect, eternally unchanging. Think about that.
This means that God is holy forever. Has always been, is, and will always be forever. It will never change. God is love forever, has always been, is now, and will always be. God is good forever. God is sovereign and in control of all things forever. God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent forever. God is patient, faithful, and just forever.
Forever God does not change. This is incredibly good news in a world that is always changing. This means God's life doesn't change. He's the creator. We are the creation. We have a beginning and an end. He does not and never will. God's character does not change. God cannot change in his love for you. He won't love you more or less. His love is perfect.
He will not change in his mercy, he will not change in his majesty, he will not change in his compassion. God's truth does not change. This is important in a world that is always redefining truth and what we should value and all that. See, God is eternal. That means God stands behind all of his promises and demands and statements of purposes and words of warning. These are eternal.
You say, well, that that was written a long time ago, in a different place, 2,000. You know, we've we've grown and matured as a culture. No, because God isn't changing. What he says is sin at 2,000 years ago is still sin today. What he says is good is still good today. This is our connection. God's truth doesn't change. God's ways do not change. The way he pursues
Sinners, the way that He is faithful when we are faithless, the way that that He responds to His people do not change. God's purposes do not change ever. Psalm thirty three, verse eleven the plans of the Lord stand forever, the purpose of his heart through all generations.
So again, now the psalmist has come to this realization that though his life is on shifting sand, God stands above and is the foundation of all things. But so far he's realized yes, I I have believed the truth about you that you you will be praised in Zion, you will be praised in Jerusalem, but but but we have to make it personal. It's not just about God in general how he responds to his people. We have to make it personal, and this is what he does.
Verse twenty eight, the children of your servants will live in your presence. Their descendants will be established before you. He he knows that he's going to live in the presence of the eternal one forever. How does he know that? Well, I'm not sure how he came to that conclusion, but I know how we can come to that conclusion. We actually have more than the psalmist had for this.
See, in in the book of Hebrews in the New Testament, in chapter one, it's difficult to understand because you you're trying you're saying what what is the author doing? What the author does in Hebrews chapter one, he goes to seven passages in the Old Testament and he points to those passages and he shows in all those passages that that those are are fulfilled in Jesus. That that these passages, for example, Psalm 102, so if you can look it up, Hebrews.
1 verse 10. He's quoting Psalm 102. And what the what the author of Hebrews is saying is: hey, when you read Psalm 102, you should know that it's ultimate fulfillment, that it is pointing to Jesus. You'll say, okay, how is that? This is the whole point of the book of Hebrews, but but but think about it. If God is immutable in all his ways, that means, let's just give an example. That means that he is immutable.
Forever always God is love. We celebrate that. That also means that he is forever always God is just. Now do you feel some tension there?
How does God, who will never change in his love and and never change in his perfect righteousness and justice, how do we reconcile the two for people that are in rebellion and worthy we saw it in our catechism? Worthy of God's just wrath against sin. How does God remain loving at all times without changing and justice at all times without changing? The answer, of course, is Jesus.
The second person of the Trinity. He who stands above and beyond all, he who is immortal takes on mortality in this as he takes on a second nature. He who is imperishable becomes perishable as he goes on a rescue mission of love. He enters into our world because God is love.
And he lives among us a perfect life that you and I could never live. He he show us shows us the way, the truth, and the life which is him. And he goes to the cross in love, Hebrews says, for the joy set before him to rescue and redeem. He is always love. But on the cross, on the cross, he receives the justified wrath of God against the sin of the world, against your sin and mine. God's love is
And justice come and they are unchanging, they are immutable, and they meet in the person of Jesus. This is how God can be always loving and always just in Christ, and He conquers sin, death, and the grave, and so we make it personal. When we think of it this way, we can we can now think of what Paul writes in for example in Romans chapter eight.
Romans chapter eight, he starts it off, therefore there is now no condemnation for those in who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Well, some might say, Well, you know, I I used to believe that, but then I did this thing, or or you don't know my past, you don't know how how bad things got. There's no way God could possibly love me or continue to love me. I've messed up too bad.
Remember, God is immutable. God stands outside of time. Let me ask you this. When Jesus died for you on the cross, were your sins all in the future at that point? Yes. That means he saw all of you. He saw all of your rebellion. He saw all of your failure. And Romans 5 says, While we were still enemies, Christ died for us. You cannot.
Changed the love of God for you. If He set His love on you, it's immutable. It's unshakable. He's not gonna love you anymore or less. Ephesians 1, 4 and 5. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to adoption, to sonship. God knows all of our days, and he still set his affection and love on you, and it is
Unchangeable. This is why Paul will go on in Romans chapter eight, and he'll say these glorious truths. What then shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? Down in verse thirty seven he says, No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced
That neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all of creation. Think about that. Everything that is apart from God is creation. And then you have God outside of creation. So he's saying anything in this world, including yourself, anything in all of creation will be able to separate us from the love of God.
That is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the hope for God's people. And it has always been in his immutable nature. Where will we find eternal safety and security? In Christ alone. Everything else will falter and fail us. Everything else is shifting sand. Christ alone is the solid rock upon which we stand. Amen. So when when you have Christ alone.
You you can make it through the storms. In fact, when you have Christ alone, even when life is good, you can enjoy it properly. You don't have to look to your spouse as your rock. You can enjoy the time that you have. You don't have to look to your kids as gods for you. You don't have to look to your bank account or your success or or your prestige with people. You can enjoy all those things, but not not rely on them to be your God. Christ alone, the solid rock on which we stand. See, hope for God's
People has always been in the immutability of Christ of Christ alone. Friends, Jesus alone offers an unshakable hope. Turn to him. For the first time, for the thousandth time, every day, turn to him. Turn to him forever. Rehearse the truth. Remind yourself when when life hits hardest, remind yourself of what is ultimately true. We will live with the Lord forever, as the psalmist says.
So I don't know what the Christians in Pompeii did in the moments before they died.
Maybe their faith faltered. But Jesus didn't. And we can talk we we can ask him about it in heaven. Amen? Let me pray for us to that end.
