5-24-26 - I am the LORD, I do not change

And we're gonna jump around to a number of places by way of introduction and illustration. Okay? We live in a time of great instability. I'm not sure how many wars are going on right now. We only hear of two on the news for the most part.

The one in Iran and the one in, oh my goodness, Ukraine. Thank you. Every so often as I get older, a name will just disappear. And I can see it on the map and I'm going, Ukraine. Okay.

But there are civil wars going on in a variety of places. In our own land, in my lifetime, it is probably the most divided that it's ever been. Now, that's not saying there there are other times. It's been very much similarly divided, but it is. Guys, am I doing something wrong?

Because I'm getting a ringing. Okay. I'm sorry. I don't I don't do well with mics, but my voice is weak today, and there's absolutely no way I could preach to you without a mic today. Okay.

Just say so but it it's getting we're a very divided time. We've had, political assassinations, attempted assassinations. Apparently, someone just decided they were gonna shoot at the White House last night or yesterday. Unfortunately, that person has been killed. Is going on now in our country.

We have experts that talk to us. Some this expert says, the economy has never been better. We're doing wonderfully regrowth. This one over here says, it's going to all crash any minute now. And we don't know what to believe.

We don't know what to do. I don't know what go ahead. This is exactly what I need. I need somebody to hold my hand and do exactly what's necessary. Is that better guys?

Okay. So they we we I don't know Indianapolis well enough. But I imagine there are neighborhoods where you ought to go after dark in Indianapolis. I had a a son that did an internship up in, Chicago. K.

So he was staying in Downtown Chicago. Didn't have a car. He had a bicycle. And, he decided he was going to go visit the South Side Of Chicago during the day on the weekend. Okay.

So my son is riding his bike to go see what the South Side Of Chicago is like. The police pull him over. So what are you doing in here? Oh, I came to see what it was like. You need to leave right now.

And he turned around and left, thankfully. There are just places like that. He didn't belong there. Violence is common place. This I'm not making any apocalyptic thing.

The predictions. The angels don't know. Even Jesus doesn't know when he's coming back. But the father alone is that weird? But that's how closely that that day is guarded.

Used to stand for conformity to God's word and hold to it. Historic teachings of the church are being imposed by Christian leaders. We see institutions that were created to stand against the, against these forces. Starting to embrace the teachings they were created to oppose. You could become the scourge if you have a mind too.

Okay? People who want to hold to the the truth of scripture are cartoonized as as wild fanatics and cultists. But we need to look back at history, because we can find some hope in history. I wanna start with biblical history. Okay?

Let's go back to the time of of Noah, or before the time of Noah. So the man man has been growing. We're they're living exceptionally long lives, but they're not living honorably before God. In chapter six of Genesis it says, when man began to multiply on the face of the earth and the daughters were born to them, and the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive, and they took them as wives as any chose. And the Lord said, my spirit will not abide with man forever, for he is flesh.

His days will be a hundred and twenty years. And the Nephilim were on the earth in those days and also afterwards. And when the sons of God came to the daughters of man, they bore children with him. And these were the men of old, the mighty men of renown. And the Lord saw the wickedness of man was very great on the earth.

And that every intention of his thoughts were only evil continually. And the Lord regretted that he had made man and it grieved him to his heart. Now, if you think I'm going to try to tell you what the Nephilim are and the sons of God coming into the daughters of men, you're not. Okay? There are certain things in scripture I read and I go, I don't know what that means.

I have been reading the bible now. I'm trying to do the math in my head. Let me just say, well over forty years, probably closer to fifty years at this point. Okay. And there are some things I begin to understand and there are some things I go, I don't know what that is.

Okay. Does that mean it's unknowable? No. No. It just means I I can't understand it.

So these are dark days. Okay. These are whatever that neighborhood is, where they're killing each other all the time in Indianapolis. This is like that everywhere. It's not like there's a safe side of town.

It's everywhere. But God finds Noah, and Noah finds grace in the eyes of God. And so there's this horrendous flood. I want you to think about this for a second. Noah builds the ark.

Everyone thinks he's an idiot. Okay? Because there's no water around and it's never rained. Builds the ark. God sends in the animals.

Noah gets on with his family. He's got three sons, and they're married. And he gets on with his wife. It's eight people. Eight.

God sends the flood, and everybody else dies. And all the animals die. And the earth is scrubbed clean. But imagine coming out of the ark, and it's just the eight of you in the whole world. And it was teeming cities when you went in.

But God was faithful to Noah. God blessed him, and, yes, it was a difficult time, but God took care of him. Now I want you to jump about two thousand years in the future. K. There's a city of violence that's being threatened by foreign invaders.

It's full of idolatry. And God looks down and he says, you, you're mine. And the Lord said to Abram, go away from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. I will bless you, and I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you, I will curse. And in you, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abraham went just as God told him. I was talking with my wife the other day, just yesterday or the day before, and I said, can you imagine loading up a U Haul truck with all your possessions and leaving, and you have no idea where you're going? I mean, we would I'm I'm a planner.

Okay? So I I've got the house picked out already. It's bought or rented or whatever. Okay? And I know how far it's gonna be and all this.

No. They get on the way, and they don't know where they're going. They don't know what city they're gonna land in. But God said go, and they went. God believed I'm sorry.

That man believed God, and he became the father of all the faithful. Those of you here that are are believers, when Abraham looked up at the sky at night and saw the stars, he saw a star that was for you. When he looked at the sand on the seashore, he saw the sand, and there was a grain out there somewhere for you. God says, for I have known him, that I have known Abram, that he will command his children and his household after him, that they shall keep the way of the Lord and do justice and judgment, and the Lord will bring upon Abraham that which was spoken for him. And God has, and that's why you're here.

Let's go another couple millennia. You like how I jump two millennia at a time? Okay. Another couple millennia. We're in Israel's golden age.

K? It's the golden age. David is king, and Solomon is king. Solomon made Jerusalem as so rich, silver was considered like stones. It was in such little You wouldn't have silverware if if you were in Jerusalem then.

Your cup would be made of gold. Your utensils would be gold. Why would you use silver? That's just so commonplace. But even in Solomon's later life, they begin this outward slide.

They go from this wonderful time, peace, security. It's everything's good. David whoops up on all the enemies. We've got security people are paying us tribute. It's great.

And Solomon marries many foreign wives and builds temples for them to go worship in. My wife was reading a headline to me recently. My wife likes to read to me things. And it was that the ancient Israelites worshiped all kinds of gods. They didn't just worship Jehovah.

And the the the the subtext was, and Jeremiah is weeping and says yes. They began to worship other gods. The kingdom is divided. The northern 10 tribes, they depart, and they don't well, they they worship Jehovah, but but because they see that calf there? That's Jehovah.

They make an idol, and they call it Jehovah. And they offer sacrifices to that idol. Island. And what happens? Instability, political instability, defeats, military defeats.

People are killed. Some kings are kings for a few days. That's how unstable things are. God sweeps away the Northern Kingdom, sends him off to Assyria. Southern Kingdom holds on for a little while.

They even have a revival under Josiah. But Josiah's grandson, he goes into exile in Babylon for forty years. Alright. Who's 40 years old here? Abraham, you're 40 years old.

Your entire life, They're in exile. Now, that's no land of promise. That's no temple worship. That's no arc of the covenant. That's no Shekinah glory.

Everything they had known that that was enabled them to worship Jehovah was gone. And they were left out there. In Ezekiel, you all you all have heard of, Ezekiel was a prophet in Babylon. You've all heard of of of the Valley of Dry bones and the old spiritual, bones and bones and dry bones. Okay?

He's taken to a valley, and it must have been a battlefield or something. All these human bones are laying around on the ground. Two things there. One, that's pretty creepy. Two, that's unclean.

Okay? You you you watch the Jews today. When there's a when there's a bombing or something, they have special teams that go around and try to find every last little body part and piece of flesh that got blown up. And they gather them up and they bury them. They try to bury them before sundown.

And he's taken there, and God says to him, son of man, can these bones live? And Ezekiel goes, Lord, you know, because I don't. And then God says, prophesy to these bones. Tell them to live. Well, that's a weird story.

What does it have the people in Babylon felt like they were just a bunch of dry bones. Our life is gone. Our farms are gone. Our homes are gone. Our temple is gone.

And it's empty. What have we got? And Jehovah says to them, live. And they did. And then you have Zerubbabel and Ezra and Nehemiah, and they come back.

And the prophet Isaiah the prophet Isaiah, there are three main parts to the prophet Isaiah. This is not bible class, but there are three main parts to the prophet Isaiah. There's there's the first series of prophecies. I don't remember. It's maybe up through around 30, chapter 30.

Okay? And then there are maybe, oh, eight chapters of historical narrative in the middle. And then you get to chapter 40. And 40, God comes out and it's such a different character than those earlier chapters. And he says, comfort.

Comfort my people. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem. Tell her that her warfare has ended, that the Lord has required of her double for all her sins. And God speaks tenderly to restore. Do they have a temple like Solomon's?

No. No. No. It it says when they dedicated the temple that that Ezra was was overseeing and Zerubbabel was overseeing, You couldn't tell the cheering from the crying. The old men like me who who could remember what it was like when they saw Solomon's Temple, they're going, it's not anything like that.

And the young men who haven't had anything going, we've got a temple. And God was with them. And it didn't matter that it wasn't all gold plated. Now I wanna go oh, you know, I looked at your your and I'm just gonna stick this in here because we sang a hymn earlier. We sang It Is Well With My Soul.

Do you know what that you know do you know the story of that? Okay. Horatio, what is his name? Spaffer. Spaffer.

He was a real estate tycoon in Chicago. And I think it was 1871, there was Chicago fire. And it went through and it burned massive parts of Chicago. And he lost his fortune. So he's trying to recoup his family and get things together.

So he takes his wife and his four daughters, and I I see Abraham's got four daughters in the middle right there. K? I know you've got other ones there, but he's got four daughters. Alright. And he takes his wife, Sarah, and puts him on a ship, sends him to Europe on a vacation.

K. There are no planes then. Partway across the ocean, it runs into another ship and sinks very quickly. Four daughters, they all drown. Sarah sends Horatio a a telegram when she arrives in Europe.

Saved alone. What shall I do? Well, he immediately left to go be with his wife. And the captain, as they were traveling across, he came to him and he said, it was right around here that your daughters drowned. And he looked at that.

Tradition says he wrote it then. The manuscript say, well, it was actually probably a few years later, but he wrote that hymn. He lost his fortune. He lost his daughters, and he was left with his wife. But God was the same.

So in Malachi, chapter six, if we're getting to our text, finally, Chapter three verse six. Excuse me. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, oh, children have taken. You are not consumed.

There are three things I want you to notice out of this. First, I want you to notice his name. I want you to see what he says about himself, and I want you to see what difference it makes. His name, what God says about himself, and what difference that makes to us. So first, his name.

Capital l, capital o, capital d, r d. Okay? The name of god has always been it's it's been a challenge for people who translate into new languages. What do you use to communicate? The people in English chose that, but they differentiated from l small o, small r, small d, which actually would be better translated master.

So it comes from the Hebrew, y h w h. Hebrew does not have vowels in it. There are points that some people think, well, it actually this point actually means this one. Nobody knows. Okay?

And so people guess. And so it is it has been translated usually two ways. Or I shouldn't say translated. Alliterated. Either as Jehovah or as Yahweh.

Okay. We're guessing on those pronunciations. But where does that come from? Do you remember Moses? Moses raised as a prince in Egypt, daughter or I'm sorry, son of Pharaoh's daughter.

In the court, luxury. Decides to help Israel, becomes a, a problem in so he takes off and he runs, and he runs to the wilderness. Let's just call it that. The most out of the way place you can find. And he works as a shepherd.

Now we tend to idolize, not idolize, romanticize. That's the word I'm using looking for. Shepherds. You know, you're you're sitting there. You're watching sheep and thinking great thoughts.

No. Actually, it was dirty, boring, nasty work. And Moses is working for his father-in-law out in the heat for years. For forty years, Abraham. Again, your whole life.

He's a shepherd. And then he sees the bush. The bush is on fire. Would that be weird, but not that weird because this is the desert after all. And if if the the bushes, some some of them are very flammable, maybe, except this one didn't burn up.

And he goes, I gotta see this. And so he goes over. He walks over to the bush, and God says to him, take off your shoes. You're standing on holy ground. And this is the call of Moses to call him out of being a shepherd of sheep, to being a shepherd of people and to free his people, which is what he thought and what he wanted to do forty years ago, but he wasn't ready.

He was willing to do it in his own strength, not in God's strength. But God is talking to him, and and he says, look. He's remembering. I I I hope you guys remember. When he tries to say one of one of the Israelites says to him, who made you ruler and judge over us?

And he's saying, I'm supposed to go back to him now? Who are you? What what what's your name that I can tell them? And he says, I am that I am. Tell them I am who sent you.

And that's where we get, Yahweh or YHWH. It is his personal name. If he were to sign a letter, that's what he would sign it. K? God is Elohim, and it is that is more his office and his station.

Okay? So, you know, you you might refer to a king as o king. Alright? But God's name is Yahweh, Jehovah. That's it it it there is a caring and a compassion in that word.

I am not a Hebrew scholar, so I'm telling you what others have told me about Hebrew. But it it talks about them like like he's hugging you. K? I am have have sent you. And then, incidentally, that makes sense when they want to stone Jesus for when he says before Abraham was born, I am.

You go, woah. Wait a minute. Blasphemy. Except he was. Except he was.

God is the eternally present one. He is always there, and he is always the same. That always that eternally present one is without beginning or end. I do not change, he says. God's character is absolute.

Absolute. He doesn't change. It says that there is no shadow of turning with him. So if you take if you take a object and you hold it in the light, okay, and you turn it, if that isn't perfectly the same all the way around, that shadow will shift and move as you do it. God says, I'm that way all the way around.

There is none like me, and I don't change. He says, Jesus in Hebrews, it says, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. In Numbers, it says, God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Has he said it and will he not do it? Or has he spoken and will not fulfill it?

Matthew Henry in commenting on on this says, not a word that God has spoken will fall to the ground. And that's a reference to actually a prophet who is reassured that God is speaking through him, and he says, I won't let your words fall to the ground. But every word and we have God's word. God has determined that all the word we need is right here. Amen.

And we can trust it, and we can rely on it. We change all the time. People like to talk about where the way they're changing. They will say, well, I'm just evolving, whatever that means particularly. It means I'm changing my mind.

I'm like a wave of the sea. I go there and then I go there. Okay? That that's that's most of us, but that's not God. That's not God at all.

God is always the same. When I was when when I was reading back through this, I go, why say 19 or was I 20? I don't remember. I was 19 or 20. Okay?

And I was down in Cozillo, Mexico. None of you know where Cozillo, Mexico is, even if you've been to Mexico. Mexic it's a it's a little village on a highway. Okay? And they had a little church there, and we'd come to help the little church.

And we were going door to door. It was with a group called Operation Mobilization. And, I was going around with a a guy who had been was a missionary kid, been raised in Spain. So he had I was just kinda, I'm just here. I don't speak very much Spanish, but, he was going around and he goes, oh, you know, I'm thirsty.

You you got faith to ask for water? Okay. When you say that in Mexico, you can buy purified water, but that isn't necessarily what people drink. They may have water that came out of the irrigation ditch. K.

Well, this was not purified water because he it's like but but you've already asked, and you can't just say, no, I'm not thirsty, because you are thirsty. And you can't lie, and so I drank some of the water. Well, he didn't get sick, but I did. And we were staying at the church. And the church is is, oh, it's maybe from that wall to those chairs and probably about from, you know, front to back there.

And my bed was up on the stage. I shouldn't say my bed. The place I spread my sleeping bag was up on the stage. So I'm sick, and I don't feel like eating. I don't feel like anything.

Sick to my stomach, got a fever, and I don't feel good at all. And then it's time for the meeting that night. We're gonna have a meeting of the Christians in the church. Well, I can't be in my bed. But I don't feel good enough to do anything else.

So I get up and I go outside, and there are there's this boulevard, and it has a one way street one way, and one way street the other way. And in between, there was this this planting and, you know, grass and benches. And I don't remember anything else than that because all I remember is I went out there and I got on a bench, and I laid on a bench. And I look up at the sky, and it's just full of stars. And I'm thinking, you know, I'd really like to be home now because I don't feel very good.

But as I looked up at the sky, I thought, but god is exactly the same here when I'm sick in another country where I don't speak the language very well as he is back home. And I could trust him because God says, I am the Lord God. I do not change. Now my pages are sticking together. Here we are.

People we love move on. They move away. Families pack up that new job somewhere else, and they leave us. But God doesn't change. Some of you know me and some of you don't.

So I'm gonna tell you something about my life here. One of the defining defining realities of my life. I have a son who has turned his back on God, and he doesn't follow my God. Afters told us that almost everything in my life was up for grabs as far as I was concerned. I'd lie awake at night Lots.

And I think, what did I do wrong? How what have I done? Should I not have done this? Should I have done that? Do you know what didn't have any chance of changing?

I knew that God was God, and that wasn't gonna change. I didn't care about anything else at that point. Peter well, Jesus gives this hard teaching one time. He says, you gotta eat my flesh and drink my blood. No, I'm not going to explain that one to you either.

Because the people around say, that's a hard teaching. Who can hear it? And they leave. And Jesus turns to his disciples. He looks at them and says, so are you gonna leave too?

Peter, ever the one to speak up, in this case, I'm grateful he did because he said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You alone have the words of eternal life. He is that same god. Yes. The hard teachings.

Do I have some ideas what Jesus was talking about in that? A little bit. This isn't the time to try to explain it to you. But I sure get why those people go, this is crazy. We're not gonna eat this guy.

My life changed when my son apostasized, But God didn't change. I am the Lord. I do not change. You guys are going through some difficulties up here now, a clear note. I'm not gonna talk about them much in this sermon.

You know what they are. It's not a fun and easy time. But you know what? I am the lord god. I do not change.

You might be going through some marriage troubles or some job troubles. My wife told me to be careful about going off on tangents that aren't in my notes. But I'm gonna go off on this one anyway because I'm gonna tell you about something that happened with a job one time with me. And this is before we before, Trinity Church started. And I was having trouble at work.

I won't go into it, and I got angry. And I said, I've had it. I quit. I told, told my boss I quit. And he says, just go home.

We'll talk about it on Monday. So when some people heard that that had happened, a group of men got together, and they said, we want you to explain what happened and why you did that. And I got together with them. I was actually at a men's retreat, and I told them. And they looked at each other and says, you gotta go ask for your job back.

And I wanna go. I quit. I don't wanna ask for my job back. Said, no. You need to.

And I did. God doesn't change. He was helpful to me by those men gathered around me. That didn't have anything to do with the sermon, but I just thought I'd bring it in case you're having job troubles because God doesn't change just because you're having job troubles. Deuteronomy chapter 33 verse 27 says, the eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms.

They're always there. God is faithful to his people. He cares for his people. He doesn't change. Says, therefore, oh, sons of Jacob, you are not consumed.

Malachi was written at a time when the people have of God had grown cold. They were back in the land, but it was just like, what's the point of all of this? Why are we going through these ceremonies? And they were hard. And the priests were going, oh, another sacrifice to do.

And God is calling to him and say, you deserve to be consumed. But because I don't change, I am not consuming you. There is not a person in this room who God owes anything but hell. We all have sinned all altogether. You know, I I I don't know if you ever ever feel this way.

I feel a little jealous of Paul. Okay. He says, well, I'm the chief of sinners. I wanna go, oh, no. That'd be me.

But scripture says it was Paul, so I'm not gonna argue, but I'm going, I'm right up there with you, Paul. I'm right up there with you. So many of my thoughts and actions dishonor God. But God has set his affection on people. And yes, I deserve to be consumed.

I deserve to go to hell. But for whatever reason, because he wanted to. Because he just wanted to. God set his affection on me. I don't deserve it.

And do anything that would have ingratiated myself to him. But he goes, there's a real one sinner. I think I'm going to choose him. And he plucks me out of the world, and he gives me his spirit as a deposit. Now, God will discipline his sons.

And I've been disciplined by God many times through his spirit, through his people, through my circumstances. I've been disciplined. But God is always faithful to me because that's who he is. He can't be any other way. So Noah wasn't consumed.

Think about that, guys. Just for a minute. Go back to Noah. Eight people. Some of you have that many in your family.

K. This was his extended family, his sons and his daughters in law, and that's it. And the world is empty, and God is faithful to him and takes care of him. God is faithful to us. Abraham, he was faithful to him in places he didn't know, in places he didn't know where he was going.

And think of when when he was with Lot. They have to they have to separate. He's he's with his nephew, and they've got so many flocks, the land won't support him. So he says to his nephew, okay, you choose. We gotta split up.

We can't have our herdsmen fighting over the grass and water. If you go to the right, I'll go to the left. If you go to the left, I'll go to the right. And Lot picks the best land. Okay?

And Abraham takes the other, and god is with him, and god takes care of him. The people of god have not been consumed. Israel has not been consumed. God is faithful because I am the Lord God, and I do not change. And what more shall I say?

For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, were made strong out of weakness, became mighty in war, putting foreign armies to flight. Women received back their dead by resurrection. That part all sounds good. Just keep reading. Some were tortured, refusing to accept a release that they might rise to a better life.

Others suffered mocking, flogging, even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn in two. They were killed with the sword. They went about in sheepskins, goatskins, destitute, afflicted, mistreated, of whom the world was not worthy, wandering about in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth.

And all these, though commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had prepared provided something better for you guys that apart from us, they should not be made perfect. I am the Lord God. I do not change. Don't know how many of you think much of the history of Europe and the church in Europe. The Roman Empire, while it stood, the church spread to many, many parts of the empire.

Then my ancestors came around. My ancestors were the barbarians, and they destroyed the empire, and they ran rampant over it. And the church was in trouble. But God was gonna take care of his church because God had a bunch of Celtic monks on the island of Ireland, and they began to move out into Northern Europe. And they brought the gospel back to these people.

My wife is looking at her watch and telling me to hurry up. Centuries later centuries later I'm almost done. I promise. Centuries later, you got enough money? If any of you are wealthy enough, you can go buy your way to heaven.

Soon as the coin rings in the coffer, the soul from purgatory springs. Just pay me some money, you go to heaven. There's there's another monk lecturing on the book of Romans, and he comes across this phrase from the prophet. The just shall live by faith. Martin Luther understands the truth of the gospel, and he begins to preach it, and he catches fire.

And we have the reformation. I am the Lord God. I do not change. He does not abandon his people in the most difficult of circumstances. So here we stand, 2026, at our own time in history.

We face times of uncertainty and change, but the Lord is ever present. He is the covenant keeping God. I am the Lord. I do not change. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

When I was getting ready to choose what to preach to you, I almost preached this passage. But I'm gonna close with it instead. Lamentations three, twenty one to 23. Lamentations do you know what a lament is? Do you know what a lament is?

When I'm talking to kids, I what I what I have to say is, do you remember when the elves sang a lament for Gandalf? Okay. That's that's the only place we have laments anymore that I can think of. This this all you know what it's a lament for? It's for Jerusalem.

It's for a city. But in chapter three verse 21, he says, but this I call to mind, therefore I have hope. The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I will hope in him. Let's pray.