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 clash, 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.
12. 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 today, if it were possible for me to change, should I be 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.
13. 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 today and finite tomorrow, or infinite to day and finite tomorrow, or finite today and infinite 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.”
14. 4. But then, dear friends, let us look at the past: and there we shall gather some proofs of God’s immutable nature. “Has he spoken, and has he not done it? Has he sworn, and has it not come to pass?” Can it not be said of Jehovah, “He has done all his will, and he has accomplished all his purpose?” Turn to Philistia; ask where she is. God said, “Howl Ashdod, and you gates of Gaza, for you shall fall”; and where are they? Where is Edom? Ask Petra and its ruined walls. Will they not echo back the truth that God has said, “Edom shall be a prey, and shall be destroyed?” Where is Babel, and where is Nineveh? Where is Moab and where is Ammon? Where are the nations God has said he would destroy? Has he not uprooted them and cast out the remembrance of them from the earth? And has God cast off his people? Has he once been unmindful of his promise? Has 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! You cannot, sirs; for throughout all history there stands the fact, that God has been immutable in his purposes. I think 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, “You shall 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 you shall 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 until 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 you.” 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.
15. II. Now secondly, let me say a word on THE PEOPLE TO WHOM THIS UNCHANGEABLE GOD IS A BENEFIT. “I am God I do not change; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed.” Now, who are “the sons of Jacob,” who can rejoice in an immutable God?
16. 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;
By eternal destination
Grace and glory they receive.
God’s elect are here meant by “the sons of Jacob,” — those whom he foreknew and foreordained to everlasting salvation.
17. 2. By “the sons of Jacob” are meant, in the second place, people 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 particular rights. By “the sons of Jacob” here, are meant people who have particular rights and titles. To those who believe, he has 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 honours; they have a promise to everlasting glory; they have a right to call themselves sons of God. Oh! there are particular rights and privileges belonging to the “sons of Jacob.”
18. 3. But, then next, these “sons of Jacob” were men of peculiar manifestations. Jacob had had peculiar manifestations from his God, and thus he was highly honoured. Once at nighttime 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.
19. 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 talks with his friend; they have whispered in the ear of Jehovah; Christ has been with them to sup with them, and they with Christ; and the Holy Spirit has 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.