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