As God's unchangeableness calls for much duty, so it ministers much sweet comfort to His poor church and people. The truth is, there is scarcely any such spring and treasury of comfort as this is. "God's immutability (said one) is the best cordial to refresh a fainting soul." The great cordial God sent Israel in their distress was this: "I AM THAT I AM" (Exodus 3:14), or "I am an unchangeable God"; and indeed that was enough for them. But more particularly there are several consolatory conclusions which flow from God's unchangeableness, conclusions which carry strong consolation in them:

1. God being unchangeable, His glory shall live and in due time shine forth conspicuously before all. See this in these words: "I am the Lord, I am Jehovah" (Isaiah 42:8); that is, "I am He who was, and is, and is to come." He is the unchangeable God; and what then? Why, "My glory will I not give to another, nor My praise to graven images." In other words, "My glory shall not die but live, My glory shall not be always veiled and eclipsed; but it shall shine forth in perfect luster and splendor."

One of the great burdens that lie upon the people of God is the sufferings of His name and glory. "The reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon me," said David in Psalm 69:9. God's glory is veiled. His name is blasphemed. His worship is interrupted. His providence is denied, all His attributes are obscured, and His honor is in every way thrown in the dust, which makes holy souls go mourning from day to day. But, my beloved, here is that which may comfort the soul: God is unchangeable, and therefore His glory shall live and shine forth again. The veil shall in due time be taken away, and His glory shall appear; yes, it shall be as eminently illustrated and displayed as ever it has been veiled and eclipsed.

You know how God speaks in reference to the glory of His name in answer to Christ's prayer: "Father, glorify Thy name" (John 12:28). What answer does the Father give Him? "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." That is, "I have hitherto taken care of My glory, and I will take care of it still." O my beloved, God's glory has hitherto been dear to Him, and He has hitherto maintained it in the world, and He is unchangeable, and therefore His glory is as dear to Him as ever it was. He is as jealous for it as ever. He is also every bit as able to vindicate and maintain it as ever He was. Assure yourselves, were it not that He knows how to make it shine forth so much the more illustriously and conspicuously afterwards, He would not suffer it to be so veiled and eclipsed as sometimes He does. Yes, let me say that He is always carrying on-as the interest of His people's happiness, so the concerns of His own glory.

2. God being unchangeable, His church shall be preserved and delivered-preserved under, and in due time delivered out of, all her troubles and afflictions; and what a sweet thing is that! The poor church of God is oftentimes plunged into very deep and sore distress, such as are ready to sink and overwhelm her. She is oftentimes "afflicted, tossed with tempests, and not comforted" (Isaiah 54:11). Such indeed is her condition at this day; and as good old "Eli sat trembling for the ark of God" (1 Samuel 4:13), a type of the church, so it may be that some may now sit trembling for the Church of God, fearing how it will go with her; and indeed he is not one of Zion's children, that is not concerned for Zion's afflictions. But lo! my beloved, in the midst of all such fears and tremblings of heart, there is strong consolation. God is unchangeable, and, being unchangeable, He will certainly support and deliver His Church, and that in the best way and fittest season.

God has never yet failed His Church in her afflictions. Yes, it is admirable to consider how hitherto He has carried it towards her under all her distress; how sweetly He has supported her, and how seasonably He has delivered her. When they were in Egypt in the iron furnace; when they were in the wilderness; when they were in the Red Sea; when they were in Babylon, in Haman's time and in Herod's time; when the neck of the whole Church of God was upon the block at once, as it were, and also all down, through the times of anti-christian tyranny and persecution to this very day, oh, how admirably has God wrought for them in supporting and delivering them! And, certainly, what He has done, that He can and will do for them again as the case shall require. God is unchangeable. "His hand is not shortened, that He cannot save; nor His ear grown heavy, that He cannot hear" (Isaiah 59:1).

God being unchangeable, He is as tender of, and careful for, His Church and people as ever He was. Being unchangeable, He is in every way the same to His people now as He was formerly; the same in His love to them, His jealousy for them, His sympathy with them, and His interest in them. He stands in the same covenant relation to them as ever He did. He is their King, their Head, their Husband, their Friend, their Father, their Shepherd, now as well as heretofore. He is in every way as able to help them, and accordingly will support and, in due time, deliver them; and faith sees and rests assured of this. "Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old; art Thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art Thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?" (Isaiah 51:9-10). So again, "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that He will yet deliver us" (2 Corinthians 1:9-10).

Mark, faith, you see, argues from what God has done to what He will do for His poor Church and people; and what ground has it to do so but His unchangeableness? Let Zion, therefore, the Church and people of God, take heed of that language which they spoke of old: "Zion said, 'The Lord hath forsaken me, and my God hath forgotten me'" (Isaiah 49:14). Or as Jacob elsewhere said, "My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgement is passed over by my God." But God must change, if this were to be. True, God may permit His Church to be sorely afflicted, as at this day, but it is but to illustrate His own glory the more in her support and deliverance.

3. God being unchangeable, His enemies shall be destroyed; they shall all die and perish. I mean His incorrigible, implacable enemies who will not stoop to the scepter of His kingdom. God may, and sometimes does, permit His and His people's enemies to practice and prosper, and for a long time together He lets them alone in their sins and oppositions against both Himself and them; yes, He even "fills their belly with His hid treasure" (as you have it in Psalm 17:14). He lets them enjoy some of the best of outward comforts and contentments, and that in great fullness, which oftentimes proves a great burden and temptation to His poor, afflicted people, such as are ready to sin and bear them down.

So it was with the psalmist in Psalm 73, and it is so many times with us; but remember that God is unchangeable, and, being unchangeable, though He may permit His and His people's enemies to practice and prosper for a time, yet not always. No, they shall be destroyed, and that with a great destruction. Pray observe how things issued at last in that very psalm: "Surely Thou didst set them in slippery places, Thou castest them down into destruction; how are they brought into desolation as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors" (Psalm 73:18-19). Pray observe, he was not more offended at, nor was he more ready to envy their prosperity before, than now he wonders at their ruin and destruction. "I have seen the wicked in great power, and spreading himself like a green bay tree, yet he passed away, and lo! he was not. Yea, I sought him, but he could not be found; the transgressors shall be destroyed together; the end of the wicked shall be cut off" (Psalm 37:35-38). God says, in reference to His and His people's enemies, "To Me belongeth vengeance and recompense; their foot shall slide in due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things which shall come upon them make haste, for the Lord shall judge His people" (Deuteronomy 32:35-36). Still, you see, though God permits His and His people's enemies to prosper for a time, yet at last they are destroyed; and as sure as God is unchangeable, they shall be destroyed.

Pray, compare my text for this book with the verse immediately preceding: "'I will come near to you to judgment (says God), and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against all that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that fear not Me,' saith the Lord" (Malachi 3:5). "I will suddenly and terribly destroy all My enemies, all that go on in their sinning against Me." But how shall we be assured of this? He tells you in the next words, for "I am the Lord, I change not." It is as if He had said, "As sure as I am God and unchangeable, they shall be destroyed."

O sirs, though God permits His and His people's enemies to prosper for a time, yet He always certainly destroys them in the conclusion, and He will do so still, because He is unchangeable. God is in every way the same as ever He was, the same in holiness, jealousy, justice, power, that ever He was. He is as holy now as ever He was, and so hates sin as much as ever He did. He is as just now as ever He was, and so as ready and disposed to take vengeance as ever. He is as jealous now, as jealous for His name, worship, gospel, and people, as ever He was, and so will as little bear with the opposers and abusers of them. He is as wise and powerful now as ever, and so as able to deal with His enemies. It is a great Scripture that says, "He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength; who ever hardened himself against Him and prospered?" (Job 9:4). Oh, never any yet did, and never any shall. No, but "He will wound the head of His enemies, and the hairy scalp of such a one as goeth on still in his trespasses" (Psalm 68:21). Oh, that all the enemies of God and His people, and all rebellious, impenitent ones, would lay this to heart.

4. God being unchangeable, the purposes and promises of His grace to His Church and people shall certainly be accomplished. God's heart, my beloved, has been full of counsels and purposes of love toward His people from all eternity, and He has also made many blessed promises to them, "promises that are exceeding great and precious" (2 Peter 1:4), because they are full of exceedingly great and precious things. Greatness and preciousness do not often meet together; many things are great, but then they are not precious; and many things are precious, but then they are not great. But in the promises of God to His Church and people, greatness and preciousness meet.

Now, whatever purposes God has had in His heart, and whatever promises He has made in this world to His people, they shall all be accomplished because He is an unchangeable God. He is the same now as He was when He took up those purposes and made those promises, and therefore will assuredly make them all good in due season. And so much He tells us: "I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like Me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, 'My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.' I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I also will do it" (Isaiah 46:9-11).

Mark, first He asserts His Godhead and unchangeableness, and then He tells you all His pleasure shall stand and be accomplished. God being unchangeable, first, none can turn Him or make Him alter His mind. "He is in one mind, and who can turn Him? And what His soul desireth, even that He doeth: for He performeth the thing that is appointed for me" (Job 23:13-14). The wisest and most resolved among men may possibly be wrought upon, and brought over from what they purposed; but it is not so with God.

Second, none can hinder Him from or in His making good His purposes and promises. "Before the day was, I am He; and there is none that can deliver out of My hand: I will work, and who shall let it?" (Isaiah 43:13). Poor soul, whoever you are, who are one of the Lord's people, look back to the eternal counsels and purposes of His love towards you, and you will find them a great deep, a fountain of infinite sweetness. In them you will see heaps of love and treasures of grace; and then turn your eye to the promises of His covenant, which you will find inexpressibly sweet and exactly suitable to your condition, to all your wants, and then know assuredly that the whole, both of the one and the other, shall be accomplished to you in due season. It is true indeed, His counsels may seem to us to be frustrated, and His promises may for a time be deferred and delayed, insomuch that our hasty unbelieving hearts may be ready to conclude that they will never be accomplished, saying with the psalmist, "Does His promise fail for evermore?" (Psalm 77:8). But, soul, wait a while, and they shall all be made good to a tittle.

Has He promised to pardon you, to cleanse you, to give you a new heart and a new spirit, and to write His law in your heart? Has He promised to save you and lodge you at last in His own bosom? Then know it shall all be accomplished. Oh, how sweet is this! Oh, to fasten upon a promise and see it surely to be made good, as in God's unchangeableness we may. There we may see all as sure, as if it were already accomplished. Oh, what strong consolation does this afford! What inexpressible sweetness will this give unto a soul!

5. God being unchangeable, the saints are unchangeably happy, and have a blessed asylum to flee unto under all those changes and emergencies that may at any time come upon them. Pray mark, my beloved, God is the saints' God and portion. And in Him their happiness lies. He therefore being unchangeable, they have an unchangeable happiness; they are a happy people, and they will be unchangeably so. "The counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thoughts of His heart to all generations"; and what then? "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord; and the people whom He hath chosen for His own inheritance" (Psalm 33:11-12).

The saints (as one well observed) are in all respects a blessed people. They are blessed in the pardon of their sins: "Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven" (Psalm 32:1). They are blessed in regard to the disposition of their souls: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are the meek, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness" (Matthew 5:3, 5-6). They are blessed in their obedience and walking with God: "Blessed are the undefiled in the way" (Psalm 119:1). They are blessed in their hopes and expectations: "Blessed are they that wait for God" (Isaiah 30:18). Thus they are in every way, and in all respects, a blessed people; but here lies the perfection and crowning glory of their blessedness, and what indeed comprehends all the rest in it, namely, that the unchangeable God is their God and portion. "Happy is the people whose God is the Lord" (Psalm 144:15). Oh, this speaks them to be infinitely and unchangeably happy, and accordingly they should live upon Him, and that under all their strains and difficulties.

Oh, sirs, what is there that this will not support and comfort you under? Do your friends and comforts here change? However, God, your best friend and comfort, changes not, and that is enough. Do times and seasons change, and that for the worse, from sunshine to storms? Well, however, soul, your God changes not, and that is enough to sweeten all. Do you yourself change? Changes and war are upon you, and, which is the worst of it, your spirit changes; it will not keep even with God one hour. Well, still your God changes not, and that is enough. Do new temptations arise and old corruptions break out anew? Does guilt revive and recur upon you? Be it so, yet your God is unchangeable, and so can and will relieve and succor you now as well as formerly, and that is enough.

Yes, do God's dispensations change towards you? He did smile, now He frowns. He did lift up, now He casts down. The light of His countenance did shine brightly upon you, now it is veiled and clouded. However, your God Himself changes not: His heart, His counsel, His covenant, and His love are still the same towards you as ever they were, howbeit the dispensation is changed. Oh, this one word, "God is mine, and He is unchangeable," has infinite sweetness in it, and it speaks to me to be infinitely and unchangeably happy. Oh, you who are the people of God, labor to see and rejoice in this happiness of yours. That you may the better do this, let me add only two short words to this, and I will close the whole discourse:

First, consider that as your God is unchangeable, so you are unchangeably interested in Him. This unchangeable God is unchangeably your God.

However, though God is unchangeable, some poor soul may say, "What will that avail me? My interest in Him, I fear, will change and fail; there will be shortly an end of that."

No, soul, the unchangeable God being indeed yours, He is yours forever. So the church said, "This God is our God forever and ever" (Psalm 48:14). O soul, you, through infinite, free, and rich grace, have a covenant interest in and relation to the unchangeable God, and this interest and relation of yours is a firm, lasting, and unchangeable interest and relation. Nothing that either men, devils, or lusts can do can possibly break or crack it.

I shall here only add a saying or two of Augustine. "The chief good, which is God, is neither given to such as are unwilling to have Him, nor taken away from such as are unwilling to part with Him." And elsewhere, "No man does or can lose Thee, O God, unless he is willing to lose Thee and go without Thee. And he that willingly parts with Thee, whither does he go? Whither does he flee, but from Thee smiling to Thee frowning; from Thee a reconciled Father to Thee an angry judge?"

Oh, soul, as long as you are willing to have God as yours, so long He shall be yours; yes, more, your interest in Him depends not upon your willingness for it, but upon His unchangeable love and covenant; and His love and covenant both must change before your interest in Him can fade and change.

Second, consider, as your God is unchangeable, so after a while you shall unchangeably enjoy Him and be with Him; your vision and fruition of Him shall be unchangeable. "Our happiness (said Augustine) is begun here in election, but it is perfected hereafter in fruition." You who have chosen the unchangeable God, you shall, after a few days, enjoy the God whom you have chosen; your happiness is great in your choosing of Him, but how much more great will it be in your enjoying of Him! "Thou shalt guide me by Thy counsels, and afterwards receive me unto glory. Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee" (Psalm 73:24-25). "I have chosen, and I do again choose Thee for my God and portion. Some enjoyment I have of Thee here, and more I shall have hereafter in heaven. I shall ere long be taken to enjoy Thee in Thy glory, fully, immediately, and forever, for Thou art mine, and I have made a solemn choice of Thee."

O saints! The unchangeable God is yours, and some communion you have with Him here in the ways of His grace, which is sweet and happy, but after you have enjoyed Him in the ways of His grace a while here, you shall be taken to the unchangeable enjoyment of Him in His glory above, which will be infinitely more sweet and happy. Your enjoyment of Him here is low and remote, as well as changeable and inconstant; but your enjoyment of Him above will be full, close, and unchangeable.

Here you have, now and then, a gracious visit from Him. He visits you in this duty and that ordinance, in this mercy and in that affliction; but, oh, how short many times are those visits of His! Alas! He is gone again in a moment. But after a while you shall enjoy Him in His glory, and there you shall not have a short visit now and then only, but His constant presence forever. "So shall we ever be with the Lord" (1 Thess 4: 17).

O blessed souls! There He will unchangeably delight in you, unchangeably shine upon you, unchangeably communicate Himself in His grace and glory to you. Oh, how sweet and blessed will this be!

Well, to close all. Saints, the unchangeable God is unchangeably your God, and howbeit your visions of Him are yet but dark, and your communion with Him but low, yet wait a while and the day will break, and all your shadows shall flee away. You shall exchange your ebbing waters for a full tide, your glimmerings and dawnings for a noonday, your imperfect beginnings for a full and perfect consummation of communion with Him. Howbeit there is now a veil upon His face so that you cannot behold Him, yet wait a while and the veil shall be taken away, and you shall behold His face, His glory forever; and that so as to be fully changed into the image thereof, and eternally solaced and satisfied therein, suitable to that word.

I shall close all with this: "As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness" (Psalm 17:15). Amen. (Editors note: I will too say Amen: Amen! Praise the Lord!)