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Amen, so I'm gonna continue on with the series. I started a while back Concerning God's nature the different concepts of God and we're gonna talk about the immutability of God or basically that God is unchangeable you know, he's immutable and I'm just gonna use that word unchangeable from here on out because It's a lot easier to say So if you would look there in verse 20 It says hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the everlasting God the Lord the creator of the ends of earth fainteth Not neither was really neither as they're searching no searching of his understanding and go ahead and turn over to Hebrews chapter 13 Hebrews chapter 13 So the Bible is telling us that God is the everlasting God, you know, and God has is is the great what I am Right back in Genesis chapter 3. He said I am that I am it's not that God was he's the I was You know where I am for now, he's the I am meaning God is always going to be who he is He's not going to change in his essence He's not going to change in his nature. His attributes will never change. God is always going to be the way he is You know It's important to understand because today we have people who think that there's a difference between the Old Testament God and the New Testament God like it's two different gods or something or somehow God you know changed when we came over into the New Testament that he changed his mind about a bunch of things and you know He's not as harsh now and yet the most the bloodiest book the most, you know Gnarliest book is Revelation the last book of the Bible There's just more wrath and bloodshed and God just his indignation and anger being poured out upon the earth in the New Testament than there is in the old and there's there's a fair amount of It in the Old Testament, too So that's a foolish notion to think that you know, God somehow is just all of a sudden changed Okay, that God has changed his nature his attributes his essence God has not changed, you know, and that is something that should give us assurance That's something we want to know about God because of the fact that you know There's certain things that we need to know that that God is not going to change on, you know When it comes to his word, you know doctrine, I mean think about even when it comes to salvation, right? We like to know that salvation hasn't changed It's always going to be the same that God's not gonna we're going to get to heaven and him say well I know I told you then that it was all by faith But you know since then I've changed my mind and now it's this other way. Sorry. It's too late Right, it's always been the same God hasn't changed it's always been by grace through faith not of works You're there in Hebrews 13, but I'll read 2nd Timothy 3 the Bible says all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine for proof for correction for instruction of righteousness that The man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works You know It's a good thing that we can get up and know that this book is not going to change that what God has said Is going to stay the same through the ages so that why so that we can be thoroughly furnished unto all good works You don't have to sit here and wonder whether or not you know God's gonna change his mind about something and we're gonna have to revise the Bible or wait for further revelation You know, we have the whole counsel of God and it's it's not changing. It's immovable. Okay It's gonna stay the same look at Hebrews chapter 13 verse 7 a very famous verse on this topic It says remember them that hat which had the rule over you who have spoken unto the Word of God whose faith follow Considering the end of their conversation Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever It's not that God has been up the same up until now Yeah, he was the same yesterday and I know he's the same today but you know what the assurance is that God is going to stay the same forever and You know that he's always going to be gracious You know, there's a lot of different attributes that we could talk about when it comes to God that are not going to change Okay And one of them is probably the the more comforting one is the fact that God is always going to be a long-suffer Merciful and gracious God, you know, this is this is a comfort and particularly when it comes to our salvation I'll keep something in Hebrews and turn over to James chapter 1 James chapter number 1 The Bible says in Malachi chapter 3 verse 6. I am the Lord I change not Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed You know We have the assurance that we're going to have our salvation Unto the end that we're going to go to heaven because God's not going to change his mind on that God is always going to be the same gracious loving Merciful God that he has always been and he's not going to just be like well You know, I changed my mind about that whole free gift thing. No, God's not going to change Bible says in James chapter 1 verse 17 every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the father of lights With whom is no variableness, you know variable. This is like change. Okay, you know, sometimes we have variables There's different factors at work, you know, God there is no variables with God He's not going to find himself in another set of circumstances say oh, well, you know, I got a change here I got a backtrack on that doctrine or I got a you know Create some kind of new doctrine to accommodate this. No, God is going to stay the same neither Is there any shadow of turning, you know, we're always God is always going to be who he is And this is important to understand because the fact that when the Bible is not your sole authority When it is not your only authority, you know doctrine is subject to change, you know, if we were in say the Catholic Church You know, this might be something we'd be a little bit more conscious of You know, this might be something we'd be a little bit more concerned with That we don't know what the church is going to teach You know a decade from now two years from now doctrine changes all the time and look doctrine has changed in the Catholic Church They've gone back on things. We're going to read on, you know, read here in a minute some of those things But they're they're very uh pliable, right? They'll change with the times. They'll change with society To go along to get along, right But look that's why is that because the Bible is not their sole authority. They'll pay lip service to the scripture They'll say oh no, we believe in the scriptures and it has authority But you know, it only has authority You know in in the terms of it's on par with You know church doctrine And and and the writings of the fathers. Let me just read to you From the catechism, okay. This is from paragraph 95 in the Catholic Church's pair of catechism He says sacred tradition Sacred scripture and the magisterium of the church. So these are three, you know, these are the great deposits of their faith, right? You have the sacred tradition. That's a big that's an authority in their church the tradition the tradition of the church Fathers the writings of the church fathers. They derive a lot of doctrine from that A lot of times could even be counter to the scripture can be at odds with the scripture teaches something different than the Bible And they're saying look sacred tradition sacred scripture. So there's that lip service to the Bible and the magisterium of the church What they mean by the magisterium is like like a magistrate, you know the authority of the church That they say that the sacred scripture the magisterium and the sacred edition of the church are so connected and associated That one of them cannot stand without the other Do you hear what they're saying there that one of them cannot stand without the other, you know, that's not what we believe here You know the Bible here stands alone right like a rock undaunted among in the raging storms of time. It doesn't change It's always going to be the same. That's why this is our sole authority Right. So that's why when you come to faithful word baptist church or other baptist churches or any church that makes the Bible Their sole authority you don't have to worry about whether or not their doctrine is going to change You know, and if it does it's probably because they're either getting right with what the Bible says or they're trying to do something unscriptural You know, so that's you know That should be an assurance to us that God is is unchangeable and he's given us a written word that is not going to change You know, we're not those in the catholic church that are wondering. Well, what do I believe now? You know and with the catholic church is just going which way is the wind blowing? And say, okay. Well, this is what we believe now Well, that's not what the Bible says. Yeah, but you know, that's the Bible isn't our sole authority in the catholic church It's the it's the magisterium of the church. It's whatever we decree. It's our tradition. It's whatever what others have decreed in the past You know, there's some examples of this in this article and I won't take long with it But these are just a few of them that I've highlighted You know one would be the fact that the the catholic church used to Do all of their masses only in latin now who here speaks latin I thought I sat a hand going up and he was just scratching. I was like dang brother martinez. He speaks latin Got all kinds of secrets I want to talk to you after church because it sounds cool, right? It's a cool sounding language. But look no one speaks it, you know, but a bunch of a bunch of uh, you know Intellectuals and be like it's a dead language. It's not something that's But that's what the catholic church had, you know, and they would turn their back to the congregation as they conducted the mass, you know Come not near unto me for i'm holier than thou kind of an attitude And you know, they they maintain this distance between the the priests and the congregants which you know now that we know some things about the priest is probably a good thing, but You know that was something that that they practice now. Do they do that in latin now? Is there only latin masses in the congregation? No, they do it in the local languages right they'll do this this mass in spanish They'll do it in english, you know, they'll do it in whatever the local language is Okay, so that's something that they've changed on You know, and that's probably for the better because of the fact that now people can actually understand what's being said And if they have any spiritual discernment they can compare, you know Spiritual things with spiritual and see what that lines up with scripture But you can see why they would want to have everything in latin because they wanted to snow people, you know And they would say oh only we can read the scriptures or the scriptures can only be written in the language that we understand What's another one that they've changed on over time how about capital punishment? I mean the bible is pretty clear in capital punishment, you know, there's certain sins There's certain things that you are to be put to death for You know, uh, you know, you know, there's certain things that you are to be put to death for You know, uh, homosexuality Adultery kidnapping You know, i'm sure i'm missing a few but there's you know, the bible's pretty clear on that right? There's not it's it's It's not a gray area You know if a man lie with with with man as you lie with womankind, you know He shall surely be put to death his blood their blood shall be upon them That's pretty clear, right? But and the and the other thing that we're talking about, you know, there's certain things that you are to be put to death for Originally, you know the catholic church went along with this But what happened when the when the you know, society started to change on this issue? The catholic church went right along with them in 1950 time 1955 It says how it changed support for the death penalty had waned in the church over the years But it wasn't until john paul the second Uh, I don't know maybe it's I don't know how to read that but that last john paul in 1995. Uh, That he uh that he was opposed that he stated that the catholic church was explicitly opposed to the death penalty It's not even just that they're like well, you know, some people believe it. It's like no we're opposed to it now Just overnight. They just changed, right? So that's what i'm getting at is that we have a word, you know, we have a faith and a god that does not change God has written these things, you know in proverbial stone for us to have from generation To generation, you know, i'll read this last one that they've changed out just because it's kind of it's kind of one of those weird ones Is this idea of limbo right and i'm not talking about the game, right? That you played in school You might have thought that I didn't say bingo either. Okay. I'm pretty sure they haven't changed on that They're probably still playing a lot of bingo But you know limbo and this was something this is a recent one up until 2000, you know this changed in 2007. Okay Now I know that seems like a long time for some people but it really wasn't Original rule was this in traditional catholic theology limbo is the halfway point between heaven and hell Where the unbaptized including infants go after death, isn't that a comforting thought? That's what they taught until 2007 That an unbaptized infant goes to limbo, which is a halfway place between You know heaven and hell, you know, and I Even though they had committed no sins such people had not been cleansed of the original sin through baptism So how did they change do they just actually go back to what the bible says? Like we read in second samuel the other night chapter 12 where it's where david said, you know I I cannot bring him back and but I shall go to where he is when his child died Understanding that when a when an infant dies and in its innocence it goes straight to heaven Is that that the change they made? Nope, that's not the change that they made It says here limbo was never a particularly popular concept with parishioners, I mean you could kind of understand why right? I mean when people have a miscarriage or they lose a young child And they go to the priest they want to know where the child is and he says well, he's not in hell But he's not quite in heaven either so You know Condolences, you know, that's not a real comforting thought, right? So you can kind of see how they're thinking boy this doctrine of ours doesn't make us very popular With with people when when we when you tell them this It says it was not popular with parishioners and modern priests rarely rarely discussed it Right, you can see how they just be like, it's not that important Oh, it's kind of important because it happens to people happens all the time people have stillbirths people have miscarriages You know, and that's a that's a heart-wrenching thing for a lot of people It's a source of grief, right and they they're looking for comfort and praise god, you know There's comfort to be found in the scripture But when this isn't your sole authority, you know You're on the shifting sands of the doctrine of the catholic church. There's no comfort there Because they don't even want to talk to you about it. They're just like yeah, let's not talk about that I got nothing off you in 2004. John Paul formed a commission to come up with the most coherent and enlightened way of describing What happens to infants who they die? So it's not even really that they changed it necessarily, but it's just a nicer way of saying it in 2007 In 2007 Benedict signed a report recommending the concept to be dropped. He's like, why don't we just not even talk about this? Let's just not even think act like it's a thing anymore And this is the church tradition, right? This is the the the magisterium of the church at work You know that they're just like well, let's not actually teach what the bible teaches And let's not go back on what we taught previously. Let's just let's just pretend we never talked about it Let's just pretend it's not even a thing Because it's that unpopular So now instead of going to limbo unbaptized babies would enjoy internal happiness after death So at least there's some right they're going to enjoy internal happiness after death But there's this, you know, there's always a catch with the catholic church, right? Because you got to remember they didn't get that original sin taken care of So they can't just come, you know backpedal all the way and just say Oh, yeah, they went straight to heaven because then the next question would be well, what about the original sin then why be baptized? You know then people wouldn't want to be getting you know People wouldn't be wanting to get their children into the inf into the catholic church after immediately after birth Right, that would that would Bring down their numbers right and it would raise a lot of questions so now they're just clarifying and saying hey, you know what they enjoy internal happiness, but They're just not going to achieve communion with god For all eternity, that's all okay. That's all right, you know Oh You know, what a relief right? Oh eternal happiness, but no god. I mean, how do you have eternal happiness without god? Like all these infants are in limbo somewhere and you know Every now and then they catch a glimpse of somebody that has communion with god and be like, I wonder what that's like You know, but i'm happy here. Everybody else is up there hanging out with god having communion But i'm just happy to I mean, it's like missing out on a party. You know what I mean? You know you find out there was some big get-together, you know, or you know, and you weren't invited It's kind of like oh, all right You're just you know for whatever reason, you know, they just didn't invite you But it's kind of a downer right all the friends got together and went out and had some fun and they're like, oh, yeah We just forgot about you. Sorry It's like that's what's happening these infants This is how the catholic church is working. They're just like well, it's not that they're Suffering they're eternally happy. It's just they don't have god Look, that's not eternal happiness to sit there and know that you know, you could have god You could have been with the lord that you're never going to be with god. That's That's just like one everlasting Disappointment. It's just one eternal letdown I'm, like no you didn't quite make it. Sorry So you can see how You know when you when you get away from the word of god when you get from the away from the scripture All of a sudden these very important spiritual matters that have you know a role in our lives Suddenly be art. It's just they're just up for grabs You know, they just become You know who's to say what's going to happen to the infant after death who knows anymore? Who's to say whether or not we should? Teach you in a language. You actually understand or preached you a language you understand or maybe we'll just change the entire way Uh, you know you go to heaven. I mean everything's up for grabs at that point But you know what praise the lord god is it is Unchangeable the way he always has been is the way he's always going to be and he's given us an eternal word That we don't have to sit here wonder whether or not this is this is going to change And as long as this is our sole authority Right, not not an authority This is the authority You know, we have a rock that we're standing on That's what the bible says In uh, go over to matthew, uh, did you are you still in hebrews? Did I tell you to bookmark hebrews? We're going to come back but go over to matthew chapter seven The bible says in second peter chapter one knowing this first that no prophecy of the scriptures of any private interpretation Then you can't just take the scripture and say well, this is what I think it means and then you have another person say Well, I think it means this you know, the bible means what it means. There's always a primary Interpretation there's always a primary application of the scriptures Okay, and it's not just up for grabs There is no private interpretation for the prophecy came not all time by the will of man But holy men of god spake as they were moved by the holy ghost It's god's word here. It's not just the writings of men. That's how we know it's unchangeable because god in his nature is unchangeable That's the promise that he gave isaiah he said in isaiah chapter 59 ask for me This is my covenant with them sayeth the lord My spirit that is upon me and my words that I have put in my mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth Nor the mouth of thy seed nor out of the mouth of thy seed seed sayeth the lord from henceforth and forever He's saying look isaiah the words that you're speaking my words that I put in your mouth are going to be In the word in the mouths of your seed seed forever They're unchangeable. They're always going to be there matthew chapter seven. Look at verse 24 matthew 7 verse 24 matthew 7 verse 24 says therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and do it them I will liken them unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock A rock I mean think about something that to represent something unmovable and unchangeable It's a rock and I don't think he's talking about, you know, one of these little River rocks that you can just kick across, you know the yard or whatever. He's talking about a large Boulder just immovable. We've seen them, you know, you go up mount lemon things You'll see these giant boulders that have just been sitting there and forever and nothing's moving them without a lot of effort, right? You know, that's the sayings that we have that's the jesus's sayings of that. That's what the bible is It's just this unmovable rock that it's always going to be there and look people have tried to discredit the bible to destroy the bible To you know to just disprove it and they've never succeeded I mean think about just the thousands and thousands of years that have gone by with people just trying to discredit God's word have not succeeded And it just has remained the most popular the king james bible the most the best-selling most popular most read book of all time The king james bible why? Because it's a rock that we have and look that's the assurance that we have About this the fact that we have something to set our faith upon that is not going to change god's word We can we can have wisdom. We're wise to do that We want to build our house upon a rock. This is something to build your life upon These are the promises that we want to pray. These are the things that are going to build us up Thank god that we have them and then we're not just wondering what you know What the deacon's going to get up and change tomorrow? What some guy wearing a dress with his collar on backward is is going to Say next, you know, thank god that there's things that we can be assured of, you know Like the infant thing like infants going to heaven Now it's true that god is unchangeable. Okay in his nature His essence his attributes are always the same But does that mean that god is just can never be persuaded? No, you know And this is something I want to touch and kind of close on is the fact that You know god can and does change his mind In regards to his will or regard to his decisions So it's not like god is just this robot, you know this machine Well, that's just cold and unfeeling and you know, if you get your fingers stuck in the wrong place, you know You can kiss them. Goodbye kind of a thing You know god is is pliable in the sense that he can be persuaded by man and there's many examples of this in scripture There's more than we have time to go over tonight, but go to exodus chapter 32. We'll look at a famous one exodus chapter 32 You know, for example, you know god, you know when it comes to the subject of repentance Nobody repents in the bible more than god and what does it mean to repent? It means to just turn right in some way shape or form and when you get to that word You have to consider the context every time of what what's taking place, right? So when you see god repenting a lot of the time he's repenting like we read this morning in jeremiah Of the evil that he thought to do unto them, right? He said if that nation against whom I have pronounced turned from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them so you can see how a nation Can change god though god is unchangeable in the sense in the sense of his nature and his essence That does not mean that god cannot be persuaded Because god is great, you know, one of his unchangeable attributes is the fact that he is gracious and is merciful So if god, you know ceased to show mercy then that would be him changing if you see what i'm saying there If if it weren't possible to persuade god, then that would would go against his nature All right. I don't want to get you know pedantic about that. But Here's the thing god is unchangeable in his nature. That does not mean that we can't persuade him To do certain things for us or to change his mind or to show mercy when it's needed You know, there's lots of examples of god changing his mind. Genesis 6 comes is another one where it says That he repented that he had made man on the earth And it grieved him at his heart, right? And another one in jeremiah we read this morning If so be they will harken and turn every man from his evil way that I may repent me of the evil Which I purpose to do them because of the evil of their doings. So repent basically just means turn that's all there is to it It's as simple as that Now what I want to focus on is the fact that god can be persuaded to change his course of action You're going to exodus chapter 32 think about jacob right in genesis chapter 32 He said thine remember when he wrestled with the lord when he was going back He was going back to his homeland bringing his family with with him And he wrestled with a man until the breaking of the day, you know, the angel of the lord It was the lord that he wrestled with And he and then when he let him go and he said thy name shall no more be called jacob but israel For as a prince thou has power with god and with man and has prevailed What does it mean to have when he says he has power with god? It's not because he won the wrestling match because he didn't you know God touched the hollow of his thigh and he had a limp from there on out Right. It was a submission move, you know, I wish I knew that one You know, he'd win every match just be like pow Here's a limp for you shrink the sinews of your of your hip But he's saying here look he has power with god in the sense that he has influence with god I mean he's wrestling and that's the picture that he's giving us there that even we as god's people can wrestle with the lord that we can We can get involved with god. We can get a hold of god and try to persuade him You know, that's it's not that god is unchangeable. So that once he's made up his mind, that's it No, god can and has been persuaded And there's just example after example of this, okay We read about it one in second samuel the other night chapter 12 when remember when the child got sick When god struck the child and it became very ill And then david went in and fasted and he prayed and he said while the child was yet alive. I fasted and wept for I said Who can tell whether god will be gracious unto me and and that the child may live even after god had already just you know Said look the child's gonna die. David knew enough about god to say well, I know god can still be persuaded And he availed himself to god. He wrestled with god He prayed to god in hopes that he would persuade him to to let the child live Because he understood that though god is unchangeable in his nature and his essence. He can still be persuaded. Okay and look this is important for us to understand because and I don't want to get ahead of myself, you know, but Sometimes we get backed into a corner, you know, maybe we've done something and we just start to think well, you know, that's it I'm done put a fork in me You know, but really what we should be doing is praying and asking god to help and show mercy And availing ourselves and trying to persuade god to forgive us and to to and to let us to to move forward in our christian lives Okay Exodus chapter 32 where you are, you know the story where moses he goes up into the mount To get the ten commandments and while he's gone You know the people persuade aaron and he makes the golden calf and they worship it and they commit adultery idolatry and god says, you know Sandicide moses i'm paraphrasing obviously. He said i'm going to take him out and start over with you And then notice so god's you know, he sounds like he's made up his mind Look at verse nine. He says and the lord said unto moses. I have seen this people and behold it is a stiff-necked people Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them that I may consume them and I will make of thee a great nation So what's the lord saying here say look i'll just wipe them out and start over with you moses And look I I think if verse 11 hadn't happened that's exactly what would have happened if moses just been like, okay You know, and it's just a testimony to moses humility been like oh you start over with me i'll be the new patriarch People forget about abraham and it's going to be all about moses now You know It just goes to show that moses had a heart for the lord That he didn't want reproach to be brought upon the name of the lord by the heathen because he goes on and says in verse 11 the moses besought the lord as god And said lord why doth thy Doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people which thou has brought forth out of land of egypt with great power with a mighty hand Wherefore should the egyptians speak and say for mischief he to bring them out to slay them in the mountains to consume them from the face Of the earth. He said if you do this The egyptians the heathen are just going to say you're just some cruel god that you just brought them out here to destroy them Right, he said don't let that happen and notice it starts out that he besought him What is he trying to do by what does it mean by besot? He's trying to persuade him You know moses david these guys knew something about god that god can be persuaded by man That we can intercede for others That we can go to god and beg of him and plead for other people and god will change his mind. God will move god will act Even contrary to his original intent God will say I had one thing in mind. I was going to wipe him out completely and i'm going to do it Wipe him out completely and start over with you But because moses said this and he brought he put out, you know, he made these points You know what? I'm going to go ahead and honor moses's wish And try something else. Isn't that amazing? That we can have An impact we can persuade a god who is in his nature and his essence unchangeable It's an amazing thing. He said there in verse 12 wherefore should the egyptian let me look at verse 13 Remember eyes abraham isaac and israel thy servants to whom thou swear us by their own self and said us them I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all this land that I have spoken of Will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it forever verse 14 and the lord repented him Excuse me. The lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people Why because of one man because moses decided to avail himself of the fact that god can be persuaded Go over to first kings chapter 21, you'll say oh, well, you know, that's moses Of course moses could get could change god's mind But who am I right? Well moses would say the same thing. Who am I? Right. In fact, it's that exact humility that probably is the reason why god honored it We should never just think well, you know, I know some people can persuade god Look, we have this ability to go boldly before the throne and define what mercy Mercy a lot of times we're going to the throne because we just want something Right, but a lot of times we if we're being honest We're going there because we need mercy, you know to get what we don't deserve. That's what mercy is getting what you Not getting what you don't deserve Right. You got a punishment coming and then I then it doesn't get doled out because somebody's being merciful Whereas if someone's being if you get grace or somebody's being gracious, you know, that's getting something you don't deserve If someone just gives you a gift unwarranted or they just bless you and somebody say well you might say that you know Well, that's very gracious of you. What are you saying? I don't deserve this. You didn't have to do that, right? A lot of times, you know, that's what we want. We want something we don't deserve But a lot of times we need to go and persuade god to have mercy so we don't get what we do deserve And you know you might say well moses of course he can persuade god but look at first kings and you'll see that even You know the behaviors of a very wicked man named ahab persuaded god Now if you know about ahab and this guy's wicked right I mean He he's he's a very wicked king. He's got a very wicked wife named jezebel I don't not gonna everyone I sure understands that look at first kings 21 verse 17 the word of lord came into Elijah the tishbite saying arise go down to meet ahab king of israel, which is in samaria Behold, he's in the vineyard of naboth where he's gone down to possess it And now and remember the story of naboth, right how he wanted that vineyard and he couldn't get it and then his wife You know framed naboth and had him killed an innocent man And he took his vineyard for his garden of herbs, right? He misappropriated it And he said that was killed and thou shalt speak unto him verse 19 saying thus saith the lord hast thou killed and also taken possession And thou shalt speak unto him saying thus saith the lord in the place where the dogs lick the blood of naboth Shall the dogs lick thy blood even thine and ahab said to elijah hast thou found me own mine enemy And he said I have found thee because thou has sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the lord So is this is this a moses we're talking about here It's like the complete opposite of a moses a wicked guy, right? Killing innocent people he's working wickedness in the sight of the lord and look at verse 20 and behold I will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy prosperity prosperity And I will cut off from amam him that pisseth against the wall and him that has shut up and left in israel And I will make thy house like the house of jereboan the son of nebat and like the house of bayasha the son of ahijah For the provocation wherewith thou has provoked me to anger and made israel to sin and of jezebel also spake the lord saying the dog Shall eat at jezebel by the wall of jezreel and him that dieth him that dieth of ahab in the city shall the dogs eat and him that dieth in the fields of the Shall the fouls of the air eat But there was none like unto ahab which did sell himself to work weakness in the sight of lord whom jezebel his wife stirred up he did and he did very abominably in following idols at according all that he Did as did the amorites whom the lord cast out before the children of israel So this is a wicked guy and god's got some severe punishment. I mean, it's not just like hey i'm taking you out He's like he's telling how he's going to die And then what's going to happen to his body? He's like look the dogs are going to lick your blood when i'm done with you And then he's and then he's like let me tell you about your wife You know, here's a comforting thought when you go to the grave is that you know, your wife's going to be eaten by dogs, too You know and and that happened and that's a great story. That's one of my favorite stories Right. So this isn't this isn't a moses we're talking about here. Okay It's a wicked guy who's committing all these abominations And he hears this right and what does he do just resign himself to his destiny and just say well I guess I mean if that's what god said, all right You know, I might as well just live it up while I can No, look at verse 27 because even ahab understood something about god that god can be persuaded Okay And it came to pass when ahab heard these words that he rent his clothes And put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted and lay in sackcloth and went softly You know, what does it mean went softly like he was walking around he's being very careful just you know And just being very humble He says he went softly verse 28 and the word of the lord came to elijah the tishbite the same lord He just got just saying, you know, the dogs are going to eat lick his blood. The dogs are going to eat his body He's wicked i'm taking out his whole house. Everyone's going to die right And he and he comes to elijah the tishbite in verse 29 and he says see is thou how thou how ahab humblest himself before me Because he humblest himself before me. I will not bring evil in his days But in his sundays, I will bring the evil upon upon his house So basically the the assurance is that ahab's going first, right that he's not going to see all these things happen But notice how I mean they're still going to happen. I mean ahab was wicked jezebel's wake There's going to be some judgment no doubt, right? But do you see how even a guy like ahab was able to persuade god from his original course of action? You know, maybe his original intent was just to let ahab see all of that happen and then take him out last Let see his wife go down and be eaten by a dog see all his prosperity cut off See his whole, you know, his name just taken off from the face of the earth and then he gets it last That would have been more cruel, right? but this you know him being as wicked as he was he was still that punishment was still coming out but at least You know what? He wasn't going to have to see it all god is saying look I will not bring the evil in his days. But in his son's days will I bring the evil upon us out? So you couldn't stop the evil from coming But did he not change god's mind here? Of course he did Even a wicked guy like ahab. I mean if ahab didn't think that god's mind for persuaded What's the point of rending his clothes and walking, you know putting on the sackcloth and fasting and walking around lightly? You know, what was the point of that? Does he just doing that just because I mean, it's it's like someone who's on death row. Like it's just a sure thing. You're gonna die tomorrow You know, what do they do? They give them a last meal, right? They say enjoy one last meal I mean you got you know, this is it You know your your fate is sealed you might as well and just enjoy it before you go, right? That's what is going on. It doesn't make any sense Like ahab if he's told this and he's just like well my fate is sealed. Why would he do this? Wouldn't he rather be out putting on his best garments eating all the best food because he's like It could happen any day now, so i'm just going to get my fill I'm, just going to make life as good as I can before god takes me out and all this starts to happen because You know because after all god can't my mind can't be changed. That's not right God's mind can be changed even by a wicked guy like ahab Even a guy like that who if he humbles himself You know, I mean obviously you couldn't humble some of himself enough to make up for all the wickedness that he had done Wickedness that he had done But he had some level Of influence on god now. Look I doubt anyone in this room has done anything close to what ahab has done And if you have come see me after the service we need to talk right But I mean, so what i'm saying is this how much influence do you think you could have? You're not as wicked as this guy Even a guy this wicked had some change on god. He could change his mind. How much change do you think you could have? on god's mind God's child loves the lord goes to church reads the bible Wants to live a godly life. Don't you think you could have an influence on god? Influence of god not just for your own life, but what about for other people? You know, you could pray and ask god to work in other people's lives and and to empower other people and to help other people You know, so we should never assume that god is through with us You know, even ahab didn't now if there's anybody in the bible that should just assume that god's through with them. It's ahab But he didn't and it changed god's mind don't sit there and just say well, you know, I messed up I made a mistake You know, I sinned again God's done with me. That's it. It's all over. I just just i'm just gonna sit here Just run my clothes and just wait for the judgment to come right? My life's over, right? Look, we should not sin. I'm not saying to sin presumptuously and just think well, i'll just make up for that later. That's wicked Look, we're all gonna sin. We're all gonna make mistakes But when that happens understand this that you have the power to get mercy and help in time of need to get mercy in time of need And look, we're all going to have a time where we need mercy from god I need god to help us and to say forgive me lord help me to do better in this area You need that and you know what and god's not just this cold calculating person Who's just up there keeping score in every little thing and it's just like well, you know Sorry, you're not going to get it if god sees us humbling ourselves and praying to him and pleading He say you know what? I am going to be merciful unto you. I am going to show mercy I mean, we're the same way with our kids at least we ought to be You know, sometimes they they do something wrong and they feel bad about it before they even got caught And then they and then they finally they might even come and confess and say hey I did this it was wrong I'm, sorry. I just want to let you know I'm not saying there shouldn't be some punishment, but maybe we would lighten up a little bit Or maybe we would show mercy in instance like that You know what? We would do that for them. Why why wouldn't god do that for us? Are we better than him? Of course not, you know if we're evil We know how to get good gifts unto our children how much more so our heavenly father give The holy ghost some of them then ask him You know, we're not going to give to our children if they ask us an egg, you know, give them I don't know the I know i'm paraphrasing give them a stone or a serpent if they ask bread We're going to give them what they want because they need it because we love them Look, god loves every one of us And god can be persuaded The problem is is that a lot of times we don't want to take the time to persuade god We don't want to take the time to pray and ask god to help and ask god to move because that would involve praying That would involve actually being a spiritual person and actually having some faith and putting it to practice But we should never assume that god is through with us even though what god is what immutable Unchangeable, but that only applies to his nature and his attributes And that that is something that actually, you know helps us To change god's mind because god, you know He's always open and to to being persuaded and is open always open to giving mercy and giving grace Never assume god go back to hebrews chapter four. I know I had you there You know what? I've already quoted several times You don't have to go there But look we should never think that god is is through with us You know what? We should never just assume god is through with other people I mean, we'll we'll give ourselves second third fifth six chances all day long Won't we we're pretty gracious and merciful when it comes to ourselves? But a lot one thing I notice a lot of times is people they won't budge a bit for other people They make one little mistake. It's like reprobate God's done with them Oh, that's it. They're just like, oh man. I saw him You know He was I saw him at the gas station and he was buying a pack of cigarettes and like i'm just waiting for I thought the car wasn't gonna explode When he went started up I thought for sure that you know god was gonna You know, I just sat back and i'm just waiting for for him to get run over, you know I'm just waiting for god's judgment to just come into his life You know I heard a brother say a cuss word the other day. I I any day now god's just gonna His his tongue's gonna rot in his mouth and just fall right out right Because we just that's something that people don't i'm not saying everyone's like this, but there's people out there like this It's just somebody does something wrong. Somebody crosses them There's just something they don't like or they see some brother sister sin. It's just like well, they're done It's like well, why don't well, how about this if god can be persuaded and you think judgment is going to come down on this Brother or sister? Why don't you go avail yourself to god on their behalf? That's what a loving person would do if they saw some brother or sister struggling in some area They would go well, you know, I could persuade god. Let me go on their behalf and say lord Please so show mercy to so-and-so Help them, you know You know work in their life and be gracious to them and patient That you know That would be the the loving thing to do to show mercy you know that is the attitude we should have because of the fact that you know, He's merciful unto the merciful Because there's going to come a time where you know, we might need that mercy And we're going to go to god and say god be merciful to me. He's going to go. Well, I remember that one time You know that that brother and sister down there that you had in christ And they messed up and that you didn't have that attitude You're coming to me and asking me to have an attitude towards you that you don't show to other people He might just say well, let's let's take your route. Let's just be cold and And harsh and short and not merciful and see how you like it So look god is unchangeable and praise god for that. We don't have to sit here and wonder what we're going to believe tomorrow And we have we have a word that is set in stone And and one of the things that it tells us one of those things that are just unchangeable Is the fact that god can be persuaded by man Even a wicked man like ahab can get a little mercy Just a little but he can get it right how much more so a child of god Can go to god and find mercy and grace and help in time of need. Let's go ahead and pray