In the sermon titled 'God's Immutability' by Mike Davenport, the concept of God's immutability is explored, emphasizing that God, by His nature, essence, perfections, and attributes, cannot change. This sermon outlines six key areas where God is unchangeable: His nature and essence, perfections and attributes, purposes and decrees, love and affections for His people, covenant of grace, and plans for the wicked. The sermon underscores that God's immutability is foundational to understanding His other attributes, such as holiness, truthfulness, omniscience, and omnipotence. Scripture references like Malachi 3:6, Psalm 102:26-27, and Hebrews 13:8 support the understanding of God's unchangeable nature. The sermon also highlights the assurance and confidence that believers can have in God's promises, as His words and decrees are eternal and unalterable. God's immutability assures believers of His unwavering love and covenant of grace, while also affirming His consistent judgment on the wicked. The sermon concludes by encouraging listeners to trust in the unchanging nature of God, which provides stability and hope in an ever-changing world.

So here's a question that I would like for you to consider. Is there anything that God cannot do? Is there anything that God cannot do? Well, a quick response to that question may race to God's attribute of omnipotence and declare the words of the children's song, my God is so great, so strong, and so mighty, there's nothing my God cannot do. And yet such a response falls short of a consideration of other attributes which reside in their fullness and in their perfection in our God.

For instance, because God is holy, He cannot sin. Because He is truthful, as we heard last week, God cannot lie. And this afternoon, we want to look at God's immutability, his immutability. Because God is immutable, he cannot change. He cannot change.

Webster's 1828 version of the dictionary defines immutability like this, unchangeableness, the quality that renders change or alteration impossible in variableness. Immutability is not a word that we use often, though we sing the reality of God's immutability in our songs often. Before the hills and water stood or earth received her frame. From everlasting thou art God, to endless years the same. Change and decay in all around I see.

O thou who changest not, abide with me." What we just sang, there is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not. Thy compassions, they fail not. As thou hast been, thou forever wilt be. Oh, the deep, deep love of Jesus spread his praise from shore to shore.

How he loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, never more." Well, studying the attributes of God with any depth and any seriousness is very humbling. It's very humbling. The more you understand, the more you realize you don't understand. Every question answered leads to many more questions that need answers. Jeremy Walker states this reality in the following way.

He said, I preach truths that I can tell the depths of which I cannot begin to understand. The realities of such depths should stir us up to know more about our God and to actually live out the realities of what he has allowed us to grasp of himself. And so I would like for us to consider the immutability of God under the following outline. Now, these headings, at least the first five of them, have actually been taken from the work of John Gill. It was just such a perfect outline.

I've only added one thing to it at the very end, but this is the outline. First, God is unchangeable in His nature and essence. Second, God is unchangeable in his perfections and attributes. Third, God is unchangeable in his purpose and decrees. Then God is unchangeable in his love and affections for his people.

Then God is unchangeable in his covenant of grace. And then last, God is unchangeable in his plans for the wicked. So first, God is unchangeable in his nature and essence. Malachi 3.6 says, "'For I am the Lord, I do not change. Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.'" How interesting that the mere mention of his name establishes the fact that he does not change.

I am the Lord. In other words, I do not change. That's who I am. I'm the Lord. When we began this series, I sent before us a comment found in James Dolezal's book, All That Is in God, and it was this.

There is nothing in God that is not identical with his divinity, nothing that is not just God himself. You see, he is in his very nature and essence unchangeable. That's just who he is. I'm the Lord. I do not change.

But not only is it an attribute that's applicable to God the Father and God the Holy Spirit only, In other words, Jesus Christ did not relinquish this attribute in his taking on flesh. That's what I'm trying to get at. When Jesus became flesh, he didn't lay aside immutability. No, he took upon himself something he never was, and he is immutable. The writer to Hebrews in chapter 13 verse 8 tells us that the God-man Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So even in the midst of taking upon himself flesh, thus becoming what he had never been, even in the midst of his humanity, his divine nature never changed. It could not change. It did not become something other than it had always been. There was no subtraction. His coming in the flesh was simply addition.

Psalm 102, 26 and 27 says, They will perish, but you, O God, will endure. Yes, they will grow old like a garment, like a cloak, you will change them and they will be changed, but you are the same and your years will have no end." God, by virtue of who He is, is the agent of all change. God brings about the changes that we experience in this life, but he himself is not subject to the very thing that he implements in this world here below. He is the same and the passing of years will have no bearing on that changelessness. John Gill made the following observation, God is the most perfect being.

Being and therefore can admit of no change in his nature, neither of increase nor decrease, of addition nor diminution. If he changes, it must be either for the better or for the worse. If for the better, then he was imperfect before and so he was not God. And if he changes for the worse, then he becomes imperfect. But God is not only unchangeable in his nature and essence, but closely associated with this, Gill points out that God is unchangeable in his perfections and his attributes.

His perfections and his attributes. Job 23, 13. But he is unique, and who can make him change and whatever his soul desires that he does? There is nothing from outside of God Himself, no being, no devil, no angel, no man, not one thing that can make God change. He is who He is.

He changes not. His holiness, His truthfulness, His justice will not change and cannot be changed. His omnipresence, His omnipotence, His omniscience will not change and cannot be changed. His mercy, His grace, and His goodness will not change and cannot be changed. His sovereignty, his wisdom, his foreknowledge will not change and cannot be changed.

Of his perfections and his attributes, there will never be increase or decrease, no adding or subtracting. James 1-17, if you recall that passage, says every good gift and every perfect gift comes from above and comes down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." You see, there's not even a shadow. That is to say, not even a hint of his possible turning. All that is in God is God, and because he cannot change, then all that is in him cannot change. When the second London Baptist Confession of 1689 declares who God is in chapter 2 and paragraph 1, the writers knew there would be no need for changes or updates to that declaration as they declared who God is.

All of the attributes listed there, all of those things cannot change because He's the Immutable One. Let us fall down and adore him. Listen carefully to this quote by Stephen Charnock. If God could be changed by anything within himself, all in God would not be God. His essence would depend upon some parts, whereof some would be superior to others.

If one part were able to change another part, that which does the changing would be God, and that which is changed would not be God. So God would be made up then of deity and non-deity, and part of God would be dependent, and part of God would be independent, part would be mutable, part would be immutable. So, unchangeableness in his nature and essence, unchangeable in his perfections and attributes. Now thirdly, God is unchangeable in his purposes and decrees. In his purposes and decrees.

Isaiah 40 verse 8, the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. The purposes of God are shown forth in his marvelous word. And this word says Isaiah the prophet stands forever. It is established. Christ said that it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one tittle of the law to fail.

Luke 16-17. The psalmist says in Psalm 119, 89, forever, O Lord, your word is settled in heaven. It's settled and it's forever. No change but a permanence that remains. You hold in your hands the unchanging Word of the unchanging God.

Isaiah 46, 9-10. God." Isaiah 46, 9 through 10. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient time things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure." Yes, the counsel of God will stand. All that he pleases to bring about will be brought about.

Nothing will interrupt him. Nothing will thwart his plan. Nothing will interfere with his purposes. Man may seek to make changes in what God has said will be. But Psalm 2 tells us that, "...he who sits in the heavens shall laugh, he the Lord shall hold them in derision, because he's decreed, and his decrees will not fail." Numbers 23, 19.

God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should repent, that he should turn around, that he should change. Has he said and he will not do? Or has he spoken and will he not make it good? To truly grasp the fact that God never changes. We must grasp the fact that He's not a man.

He's not like us. We are reminded again that change and decay in all around I see, yet he is the one who changest not. He's not like us. What he has said he will most certainly do. What he has spoken he will most certainly make good." Now you may be sitting there and saying, okay, so God's immutable.

What does all of that have to do with me? Well, the fact that God is unchangeable in his nature, in his attributes, and in his purposes means that we can have great confidence in these last three points that remain before us, which impact us right here where you're sitting today. It impacts us here. God is unchangeable in his love and affections to his people. God is unchangeable in his covenant of grace, and God is unchangeable in his plans for the wicked.

And so, hereforthly, God is unchangeable in his love and affections for his people, in his love and affections for his people. Jeremiah 31.3 says, the Lord has appeared of old to me saying, yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness, I have drawn you. Listen to this remarkable statement from Gerhardus Voss regarding the love of Christ. The best proof that God will never cease to love us is that He never began.

The best proof that God will never cease to love us is that He never began. He loved us with an everlasting love. It's everlasting. How can that change? It can't.

It is a love that began in eternity past and the day of our salvation, the day when God drew us to Himself, occurred, it only occurred because of the unchanging love for us. Jesus loved us with an everlasting love, an unchanging love without beginning and most certainly without end. How about Isaiah 54, 9-10? You who were with us back when we dealt with Isaiah in our exposition, maybe you'll remember this. For This is like the waters of Noah to me.

For as I have sworn that the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth, so have I sworn that I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you. For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, But my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed, says the Lord, who has mercy on you." Children, do you remember the sign that God gave as a declaration that He would never again destroy the entire earth? Do you remember what He gave as a sign that he would not do that again? It's a rainbow, right? It's a rainbow.

Do you recall all the promises that were even tied to that rainbow? There were more than one. There were quite a few promises. God said, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, Nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." These things have not ceased, have they?

There is still spring and fall. There are seasons of cold and of heat here in recent days just like every other day, But there are seasons of cold and heat. There is still winter as we are experiencing today, and there will be summer, and there is still day followed by night. These are unchanging things that derive their own immutability from the unchanging one who is an of himself immutable. These things that we experience are unchanging, and they're not unchanging in and of themselves.

They find their unchangeableness in the one who never changes. Just as sure and unchanging is that promise to Noah, God has also promised to his people that his kindness would not depart from them, nor his covenant of peace removed from them. Fifth, God is unchangeable in His covenant of grace. God is unchangeable in His covenant of grace. 2 Corinthians 1, 20-22.

For all the promises of God in Jesus Christ are yes, and in Him amen to the glory of God through us. Now, he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God, who also has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. Here we see the three persons of the Godhead unchangingly involved in the covenant of grace. We have the unchangeable promise of the Father, the unchangeableness of our eternal establishment in Christ who anoints us as His own. And we have the unchangeableness of the sealing of the Spirit He's given to us as a guarantee, a guarantee, because God's not going to change that covenant of grace.

Hebrews 13, 5, for he himself has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. Children, have you ever been told by your parents, sometimes we need reminders ourselves, that never say never. You ever heard that? Never say never, because we are such agents of change. Things happen to us and we have to change.

We have to take new directions. Well, here, listen to the promise of God. He can say never. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Never.

Never! This is His covenant promise that He is with us to the end of the age. He doesn't send us into the world to take his gospel and not go with us. He's with us. He will never leave us.

He will never forsake us. Our great God can truly say never because he himself never changes and his word never changes and his decree never changes. This should give us confidence and boldness regarding his covenant toward us right here where we sit this afternoon. Listen to the words of the writer to the Hebrews in Hebrews 6 13 and 19. Him because he could swear by no one greater.

He swore by himself. That's enough. I don't change. I'm swearing by myself saying, surely blessing I will bless you and multiplying I will multiply you. And so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two immutable things, two immutable things, his own nature swearing by himself and by an oath, his own word, two things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. This hope in this immutable promise of our God that rests upon his nature in his word This hope we have has an anchor for the soul both sure and steadfast and which enters the presence behind the veil where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. It's our consolation. It's our anchor.

It is our unchanging God. But sixthly, God is unchangeable in his plans for the wicked. He is unchangeable in his plans for the wicked nay whom one two and three God is jealous and the Lord Avenges the Lord avenges and is furious The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries and he reserves wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power and will not at all acquit the wicked. Some would teach a god who in the end will just his large-heartedness would just swing the doors open and welcome everyone into heaven.

Dear unconverted person here in this place today, that is not an accurate picture of our God. Our immutable, our unchanging God has declared that He will by no means acquit the wicked. No means. His plans for the wicked will not change. Eternal destruction awaits all of those who are outside of Jesus Christ.

Now, some would point to instances in the Bible which on the surface seem to indicate that God does change, that it seems he changes his mind concerning something or changes his dealings with a certain group of people. You may be saying, well, if God doesn't change, then there's no hope for me, because I'm wicked. And if he doesn't change, there's no hope. Well, Jeff Thomas has some meaningful thoughts on this. He says, God's immutability is God's utter consistency.

Okay? It's his consistency. You can depend on God. Your trust in Him can be a confident trust because He will not change. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

True. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. True. God consistently changes from your enemy to being your friend when you have obeyed his gospel. And now nothing will separate you from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.

God has made up his mind about that. So it's not inconsistent because of all the attributes that make up our great God. So believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Obey the gospel call, And the grace and mercy of God will put you in a place where nothing will separate you from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the reality that you never change, that you are the same. You're consistent. We know what we will find if we come to you. If we're outside of Christ and we come to you outside of him we can expect justice judgment but Lord you're consistent to us as your people who come to you in repentance and faith believing in Jesus Christ and you have mercy and grace upon you like you said you would to all who will obey your gospel. Lord we thank you that we can rest our hope in such a God.

May those who have never done so before rest their hope today and find you as we have a God who never changes. Christ's name we pray, amen.