Before our scripture reading and sermon text, please turn with me to the Old Testament in the book of the prophet Malachi, chapter 3, verses 6 and 7. That's Malachi, chapter 3, verses 6 and 7, which can be found on page 802 of the Church Bible. Before we delve right on in, I want to make clear that this is not a second swan song. Apparently the origin of the term swan song comes from the noise a swan makes when it's dying. Supposedly a beautiful sound, I'm not so convinced, it comes off as a bit depressing to me. I'm not even sure if I'm comfortable with calling this morning's preaching a swan song, as it was not meant to be some dirge of death. But the focus this afternoon is a bit different, not on reflecting on a ministerial relationship coming to an end, but on looking ahead and providing the encouragement needed to face the present and future with change coming. To help us, we're jumping into Malachi, whose material, as a lot of it comes in the form of questions and answers, is described as a catechism. for times of doubt and disappointment. When his professing people are so disillusioned, they are tempted to break faith with the Covenant God. So, a series of disputations comes to the fore, with the first over how the people question Yahweh's love for them. The love of the living and true God, after he affirms his electing special love for Jacob. And this is the pattern. There are in all six major disputations and we are in effect lifting out an excerpt from disputation number five. God in a personal manner brings charges and the people make excuses or treat each accusation with cynicism. as if they are without any particularly guilty stain, as if the Lord is the one was explaining to do. If the first disputation already alluded to was over seeing God as he really is, as the sovereign lover of his church, chapter 1, verses 2 through 5, then the second one, chapter 1, verse 6, or chapter 2, verse 9, would have to do with the need to dedicate ourselves to God in worship and bring our very best, like Abel, back in Genesis chapter 4 by faith, instead of defective offerings, leftovers, like Cain back in Genesis chapter 4, who seemingly lacked saving, sanctifying faith in the Lord and His promise, and like Judah at the time of Malachi. The third in chapter 2, verses 10 through 16, would have to do with worshiping God in pretense. with it all exposed by how God's alleged children would act with regard to holy matrimony, covering everything from forbidden marriage to idolaters, to those called daughters of foreign gods, to unauthorized divorce as opposed to gospel-centered lasting marriages which overcome yielding households in which the raising of godly offspring is promoted. The fourth disputation, running from chapter 2, verse 17, through to chapter 3, verse 5, builds on the third, applying the principle more broadly, with false, less than acceptable worship betrayed by how you mistreat your neighbors in general, which is where disputation number five comes in, starting with these words. Let's listen intently then to the word of the Lord as I read it to us once more, Malachi chapter 3, verse 6. and seven. For I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore, you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? Amen. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever. Brothers and sisters in Christ, some change is needed. There is the way in which people naturally develop. from infancy to adulthood, growing physically and mentally and emotionally and gaining greater and greater stature and skill. This is a good thing. But not all change is deemed necessary and not all change is welcome. Some change is hard to deal with, like when humans begin to deteriorate. And the high point of young adulthood is eclipsed by the struggles of middle age and then growing old with its many hardships. The body decays, and this is if you live a long life on earth. Not everyone gets to. Some die, dying prematurely. This sort of change is abrupt and rude. And it shocks the people who are left behind in inducing grief, never minding for the moment what becomes of the one who has died, who has departed from this life. A change in leadership and the toll it takes and all the work that must be done to facilitate a transition poses its challenges. Even when you arrive, getting there, getting from point A to point B, and new leadership is in place, well, he, like if we're talking about a new pastor of a congregation, like this one is now praying and looking for, inevitably is going to introduce further change, even if it's not radical change, requiring everyone to adjust. It could all be for the well-being of the church, but the difficulties involved, nevertheless, are not to be escaped. There is an element to it all that can feel destabilizing. Covenant Presbyterian, maybe you're looking at your future as a church body along these lines with these kinds of concerns, understandably. It does take Men, women, and children like us, way out of our comfort zone. But I have good news for you. Something that even finds its highest expression in the very good news of the gospel itself. And it jumps off the page here as it is read and heard in Malachi's explicit words, which are really the Lord's words. God Himself speaking in the first person, saying, I don't change. You and I can hang our hat on this. It's an anchor for the soul. It is a fixed point, a north star. It grounds us. making us immovably secure in His hands if we know this God, if we have turned to Him by turning to His incarnate Son in repentance and faith, if we follow after Him. And this is the upshot. Because He is absolutely immutable, providing something that will never change, you and I can take heart and put all hope and trust in the God we know, in Jesus Christ, as we move forward, whatever our respective circumstances. All the parties involved here, remember, are facing change, but with the Lord as our common constant. Let me break this message down into three parts. First, a frustrating people who can't be relied upon. A frustrating people who can't be relied upon. Beloved, the Lord in Malachi 3.6 says that apart from this glorious fact, the reality that He is unchanging, His people would be doomed. What are the exact words? Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. They are repeatedly identified by Malachi as Jacob. They are his descendants. Not, of course, Jacob Olthoff, but Jacob, the grandson of Abraham, son of Isaac, and forefather of the nation, whose narrative is told to us in Genesis. whose new name would be Israel, a name which would belong to all the people, but his old original name itself means heel grabber, grasper, supplanter, as in someone who will trip you up, who deceives, who can't be trusted. And Jacob, unrenewed, was a trickster, devious. This was his default setting. Just ask his father, Isaac, or his brother, Esau, who were among his victims. Even when he met his match in Uncle Laban in Mesopotamia, it was Jacob getting a taste of his own medicine. Well, generations later, his offspring were not only physically related to him, But spiritually and morally they were just like their ancestor. So the label Jacob is only appropriate as through Malachi the Lord addresses them accordingly throughout these verses. They are treacherous and it would appear they are in trouble. With Malachi chapter 3 verse 6 being a bit of a bridge. Not only sets the stage for what comes next but it looks back. with the Lord predicting the sending of His messenger earlier in this same chapter, the messenger of the covenant, who will visit God's temple and bring a refiner's fire. At first glance it comes off as ominous. with this next disputation not at all softening this harsh and rough assessment of God's people as we pick things up with verse 7. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me. And I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, how shall we return? They deflect the call to return and repent. They are dismissive of it, these tenders of mercy, as if somehow God is to blame for the way things are. as if he has left them in the dark as to how, how in the world, what steps are to be taken in order to repent and return to him, as if it's completely unclear. Now, God doesn't take this lying down. Going on to zero in on one blatant and specific area of rebellion they need to repent of, that of withholding tithes. and upping the ante while he's at it, asking them to put him to the test. That if they would simply offer their tithes, taking that first minimal, small step towards generosity as a sign of reconciliation with God, expressing that restored relationship, well, he will far outdo them with untold generosity, opening the windows of heaven to pour out. his favor. He is the one from whom we learn about generosity, after all, as we receive it from him. This is what they are stubbornly resisting, however. They push back against the kind of change that is needed. The only change they seem to have an expertise in, spiritually and morally, is in going from bad to worse. So the outlook appears bleak, as it does for helpless sinners in our own time and place, like you and me and our neighbors when left to our own devices. But praise and thanks be to God, then and now, we are not left to ourselves and our inadequate resources. for the unchanging God steps in. First, a frustrating people who can't be relied upon. Second, a refreshingly unchanging God who is in a class by himself. A refreshingly unchanging God who is in a class by himself. Brothers, sisters, when he says, I the Lord do not change, he is making a defining statement about himself. About who and what he is. Theologians call this divine attribute immutability. If you deny it, like processed theologians and similar heretics do, you forfeit the truth of God and all the pastoral benefits which go with it. For it affirms something which is of the essence of God. He not only doesn't change or mutate, He not only won't change, but he can't change. It would violate who he is at his core. It would be to stop being God. An impossibility. It's related to, implied by, his aseity, also known as his independence. It's conveyed by his covenant name, as revealed to Moses in Exodus 3, verse 14, transliterated into English as LORD, L-O-R-D in all capital letters, uppercase, a transliteration based on a transliteration of what is known as the Tetragrammaton, those four Hebrew consonants with vowels later inserted from which we get Jehovah, or Yahweh, the creator God of Israel who saves. A name bound up with the verb to be. Tell them I am has sent you, is what he would tell Moses. He just is, as the self-existent God, uncreated, needing no one else, and certainly not needing anyone else's help. with Jesus identifying with this great I Am, applying this name to Himself, as He does in John chapter 8. As more fully disclosed, we are talking about the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who had and has no need outside of the Godhead, because internally there is the eternal enjoyment of the shared communion between the three persons, each distinct from the others, though they are all equal in power and glory. With his creating and sustaining and redeeming and all his dealings with that which he has made, including his image bearers, people like us, being the overflow of the love he possesses within himself, within this dynamic relationship of the Father with the Son in the bond of the Spirit. And you see, as the perfect being, change is never needed. He will not be diminished. He cannot be. He will not be improved upon. Again, he cannot be. So, what difference does this make for us, who do change, who are needy, that our God is changeless? Well, it's reflected in His very nature. If this God is not only full of holy, righteous love for His people, but is Himself love, as we read in 1 John, He is never going to deviate. He is never going to morph into something else. Louis Burkhoff captures all of this in how he defines immutability in his systematic theology. It is that perfection of God in which he is devoid of all change, not only in his being, but also in his perfections and in his purposes and promises. Berkhoff helpfully adds that this is not to be confused with some notion of God being static or immobile, with God being active and never indifferent to the plight of His creation, with God changing His stance. towards people, yes, as we see in the Bible time and time again, but with his dealings with them always based on their response to his revelation. If they go astray, it is going to evoke a certain attitude on his part, certain actions on his part. This is why this doctrine strikes dread in the hearts of those lost, cut off from Christ, for as much as they might wish for it, God is not going to somehow set aside His standards and make an exception for them. If, on the other hand, they come home to Him when they have opportunity, He will relent. and bestow forgiveness in every spiritual blessing. The variation, though, lies with them, not him. But he is and will be consistent, and therefore, true to his word, even to the oath he has bound himself to in committing himself to his people, swearing to his own hurt, as it turns out. Because the remedy, the solution to his people's unfaithfulness, would demand the satisfaction of his holy justice. Everything his law insists on, everything from perfect righteousness to the condemnation of the sinner, to how the lawbreaker must suffer God's curse, his everlasting wrath, an infinite penalty because of the infinite offense before an infinite God, only aggravated by this God's goodness and patience. How? Through a Christian lens, we see the answer to that question. Someone would have to live the life asked of us and die the death we deserve. Enter Jesus, the God-man. On account of his deity, able to perform the work, making it valuable enough, on account of his humanity, able to represent us, being our substitute and scapegoat. This is how the refiner's fire could fall, and yet not destroy the people of God, because it fell upon Christ. and fulfillment of Malachi. He would not only be the messenger of the covenant suddenly visiting the temple, which he would do, being presented there in Luke chapter 2 by his parents as a little one held in his mother's arms and recognized by Simeon and Anna to be the expected one. He would come back as a boy closer to manhood as Luke chapter 2 also recounts for us. claiming it as his father's house. He would later appear there to clean house, when as an adult he executed his public ministry, chasing out the money changers and bringing God's judgment upon it all, upon what would stand for the old order of things passing away. But on top of this, he himself would, in his own body, be the anticipated temple, the temple in its most ultimate sense. And he would be engulfed upon the cross, dying, being buried, but only to rise again, signaling the rebuilding of the temple, as we read from his own words and their interpretation in John chapter 2, with the Church being incorporated into this new, final, and all-surpassing temple in union with Jesus Christ as the New Testament goes on to champion. So let's pause for a moment and take inventory of things, of the stark and wonderful contrast. Fallen humans like us are not known for keeping our promises, for following through, even if we are rightly hemming and hawing and hesitant to promise too much or qualifying our promises, it can become annoying after a while. Or even if we do make a promise with the best of intentions, we betray that we didn't think it through or we tend to back out at the first hint of it being so costly. If it means a sacrifice, a loss, pain, suffering, hold on, I wasn't bargaining on this, it's not what I thought I was signing up for. We break our promises and vows made before God and others all the time. And we have all kinds of rationalizations for it. When truth be told, we owe God and others when we give our word. especially if it's our solemn word. Meanwhile, the God who owes us no good thing has so undertaken for us the ill-deserving to the extent that He unflinchingly, knowing full well the price that had to be paid, came to our rescue in the person of His Son. This is the investment He has made and there is no turning back, it means he will see it through. He will not and cannot change. He will not and cannot change his mind. This is like being in a desert and being granted a cup of cold water. Why don't you take and drink it by coming to Jesus, or by coming to him anew and afresh? First, a frustrating people who can't be relied upon. Second, a refreshingly unchanging God who isn't a class by himself. Third, a transformed humanity, a people who do change, but for the better. A transformed humanity, a people who do change, but for the better. Family of God, one of the ironies here already touched on really is that God's people do need to change. They aren't faithful, they aren't dependable in and of themselves, and they need to be cleansed and renovated and turned into those you can count on, that God can count on, that others can count on, who won't let you down, who will worship God rightly, who will love and serve Him and reflect it in how they treat people, starting with His people, though not ending there. This is the sure hope of Malachi, as this very section speaks of it, of the refiner's fire coming, with the consequence being a purified people who will bring offerings in righteousness to the Lord, was it fulfilled in Jesus Christ and the outpouring of His Spirit, who unites people like us to the Savior, to go to work on us and within us, to transform us. In other words, to bring about change that is good and necessary. The unchanging God will even use change, new circumstances, like a pastoral vacancy. The process of finding the next man of the Lord's choosing and equipping, yes, with all the uncertainty it brings, to further sanctify you, to further establish it, underlining who really is in charge of his church. That it is the God displayed in Christ who cares for and sustains her. Every expression of his beloved bride. He fills the void standing in the gap. by His Word and Spirit, as in His good time, the answer to prayer comes according to His perfect will. He knows what is best for you, for me, for us all, as He produces relentlessly change in us, greater degrees of conformity to the image of His Son, our elder brother. When I was taking my first steps in ministry, very fresh out of seminary, I complained to a mentor how it didn't seem like the church I was serving wasn't going to change its ways overnight, being very steeped in its traditions. And he reminded me what being a pastor is all about, in terms of how to balance all of your aspirations with realistic expectations. He said, slow change. Just two words, but they pack a lot of substance. Change takes place slowly, often imperceptibly too. It requires long-suffering, taking a long view of things, hanging in there with the saints. But over the years it started dawning on me my biggest problem wasn't slow change in connection with the church. It was slow change in connection with myself and my besetting sins. My molasses-like progress in growth and holiness. My struggles to abide in God's Word more faithfully. The battles I must undergo to carve out more of a significant prayer life. It all unfolds so slowly. I become so impatient with myself. What about you, Lord? Aren't you ready to be done with me? To write me off? There's no audible answer, of course. There doesn't need to be one. The Scripture is unambiguous like it is here. He doesn't change. He won't. He can't. He isn't going to stop. He's determined to chip away and form us to be His Christ-like children. And He'll do whatever it takes. Ministers, ordained men of God, they come and go. Some stay not as long as people would like. Others do stay longer, but not forever. While by God's grace many are faithful, there are some who lose their way and really and profoundly bring about a hurtful letdown. But the Lord is unfailing, and He is with us, our Emmanuel, fully and without end. He will not abandon us, but instead bring to pass His designs concerning us. For we are the work of His hands, as we learn here and as we read in Psalm 138. First, a frustrating people who can't be relied upon. Second, a refreshingly unchanging God who is in a class by Himself. Third, a transformed humanity, a people who do change. for the better. Dear brothers and sisters, it's as consoling as it is, frankly, humbling. In Christ, we know God and what he gives to be something that will not change. And when it comes to Covenant Presbyterian, this congregation, and your welfare here, it means this, that the essential leadership is not changing and never will. Look to Jesus Christ, the one who, according to Hebrews 13 verse 8, is the same yesterday and today and forever. Amen. Let's pray. Father, write your word upon our hearts and lives and the power of your spirit. Make us hearers who not only listen but respond in faith and obedience. Open our eyes to grasp your truth that while creatures like ourselves are subject to change and fluctuation, reflected in things like a leadership transition, And while we, when left to our own unbelieving, wicked devices, go from bad to worse as covenant breakers, being hardly reliable, therefore, not at all credible in the commitments we make to you and your people and your kingdom work, you are, refreshingly, a different story. You are unchanging and unchangeable in your essential nature, your perfections, and thus ever true to your promises to love your church with a redeeming love in the face of so much unworthiness. We see it in the good news of Jesus above all. So may we be moored to you that, united to you, we might then move forward with confidence in you and your provision and in such a way that we ourselves change as we ought to change, growing in Christ-like faithfulness. Do it for your glory. We pray in the name of your Son, our Savior. Amen.