Good evening. Tonight, we continue our study and looking at the attributes of God. Tonight, focusing on two really bedrock attributes. That is that God is perfect. And he doesn't change. God is perfect and unchanging. Last Sunday evening, Pastor Rob shared with us from God's word that God is incomparable, that he's unique. And part of what makes him incomparable and unique is that he's perfect and unchanging. Nothing else really is like that, that we can point to, and certainly no being is like that, that we can point to a being that is perfect and never changes. Before we launch into this, let me just go to the Lord in prayer and ask him to bless our time together. Heavenly Father, thank you for revealing yourself to us, for telling us who you are and how we can be rightly related to you. Thank you for showing us in your word that you are indeed perfect and unchanging. It applies to you, the father, it applies to the son, it applies to the spirit. Perfect and unchanging. Well, we thank you for these attributes, these qualities that are true about you. For they are our life, we may not realize it, but because those things are true about you, you are therefore wholly and utterly dependable. Completely trustworthy. We thank you that you are such a God who, despite the things going on in our lives, the uncertainties, the things we look to that are full of imperfections, Lord, you are not like any of that. We can trust you. We can lean heavily on you and rely on you. So again, teach us tonight, Lord. Confirm those truths to us from your word. We ask it in Jesus name. Amen. Our great God is perfect. He's perfect. What in this life is perfect? We use that word a lot. Perfect. Someone has a baby and You look at the beauty of that child and the finely formed features and and, you know, just the right amount of hair and the little chubby cheeks and you say, oh, she's perfect. And in one sense, that's true, but not in the literal sense, right? Yeah, yeah, this way. Just wait, the baby's going to make a mess, you know? Yeah, diapers. Let that baby grow up a little bit and begin to express some independence and you will see that child is not perfect. We know what a parent means by that, and it's not the time to say, no, no, no, no, no, no, I need to tell you, I need to set the record straight here. We know what's being said and we know that they're not meaning that the child is absolutely sinless or, you know, completely perfect and will be for all time and eternity. But you think what is perfect in this life? Nothing, nothing is perfect. Nothing is free from flaws. Nothing is perfect unless it is God himself. Or unless it is the communication of God himself to us. God is perfect. In Deuteronomy, chapter 32, Deuteronomy 32 verse 3 says, I proclaim the name of the Lord ascribe greatness to our God. And then he says he is the rock. God is described here as the rock. His work is perfect. For all his ways are just. A God of faithfulness and without injustice, righteous and upright as He. Summarize all that rightness and all that uprightness and all that absence of injustice and all of it and you come away with one word, perfect. He's perfect. Without flaw. Psalm 18, verse 30, as for God, His way is blameless or perfect. Matthew 5.48 says it directly. Therefore, you are to be perfect, Jesus says, as your Heavenly Father is perfect. In fact, we have to be perfect because our Heavenly Father is perfect. He demands perfection. That's what His perfection demands. Because God is perfect, we must be perfect. Now, that poses a problem, doesn't it? Fairly significant problem. We're not perfect. We're not close to perfect. How many of you have ever lived a perfect day? No one's raising their hand, I'm not raising mine either. I haven't lived a perfect day, much less a perfect life. But God's entire existence is perfect. God is complete and he lacks absolutely nothing. That's part of what we mean by his perfection. He is not lacking in any way. He's perfect. You cannot do anything that will add to who God is, that will make him better. You know, you can't do a God 2.0. and make improvements and fix the bugs. You know, there are a few bugs in the first version and we've worked those out and we've made some improvements. We've added some additional features to God. And so now he's better than he was before. No. He's lacking in nothing. Deficient in no area. Perfect in every way. No areas of weakness. Nothing that needs to be or can be improved upon. He is absolutely perfect, and therefore, as the perfect being, the perfect one serves as the standard of what perfection is. By God, all others are weighed. Because he is perfect. He is the model. Absolutely perfect, without blemish, without spot, without wrinkle. Not a single part of God's character needs work. Not a single attribute needs improvement. And all of the attributes of God. Are perfectly distributed in the perfect amounts. So that God is. Perfectly loving. In just the right way. Not too loving and not not loving enough, but just perfectly loving, perfect in his love. Likewise, he's perfect in his holiness, he's perfect in his mercy and so forth. God is all that he ought to be, and he falls short in nothing, in any area, at any time. Are you getting the sense here? The God of the Bible is not at all like the gods of Ancient Greek and Roman mythology. You studied those in school perhaps. Maybe you read some of those works. These small g gods of mythology were so much like men, weren't they? Men and women. So prone to the same foibles and same failings as human beings. They were not perfect gods. They were powerful gods. But they were not perfect. But not the God of the Bible. God's perfections apply to his attributes at all times. He is perfect in all that he is. He is perfect in all that he does. As for the Lord, his way is perfect. His work is perfect. His way is blameless. This quote from Thomas Watson, I found interesting, we can no more search out God's infinite perfections than a man upon the top of the highest mountain can take a star in his hand. Oh, have God admiring thoughts. Now, I like this. I like this a lot. Have God admiring thoughts, a door where you cannot fathom. And there is a limit to our being able to to fathom this, to to to plumb the depths of this, to to really Search out and fully understand God's perfections and where there is that end. Let adoration take over. A door where you cannot fathom. So God is perfect in all that he is, in all that he does, so what? So what if God is perfect, what does this mean for us? Well, it means that what God has said is perfect, that what God wants for you is perfect, and that what God wills for you is perfect. Perfect, perfect, perfect. It's exactly what it ought to be. We never need to doubt God's purposes or plans. As though God would make a mistake. When God acts mercifully, he does so perfectly, we might question that when God shows mercy to a great center, we might say that doesn't seem fair. God acts perfectly. When he acts justly, he does so perfectly. But wait, I love my father. I don't want to know that he's in hell. Is hell really for all eternity? How can that be? That doesn't seem fair. That doesn't seem right. When God exercises justice, he does so perfectly. When God acts lovingly, he does so perfectly. When he acts wrathfully, he does so perfectly. So that means we can trust him. You can trust him with what takes place in your life because what he is doing is perfect. It doesn't feel perfect to you. It feels quite out of alignment, actually. Feels like, you know, the perfect train has come off the rails here, but it hasn't. His way is blameless. He is perfect. And you can trust him, trust him in what he says, trust him in what he does. A God like this, a God who is perfect, is worthy of our worship. Is he not? We sing it holy, holy, holy, perfect. I almost have to sing it to be able to get the lyric out, but perfect in power and love and purity. Yeah, we just sing it anyway. It's right. It checks with Scripture. That's true. He is worthy of our worship. Such a perfect God. The only perfect being. That's it. The only perfect being. You're fallen. I'm fallen. The angels aren't perfect in the sense that God is perfect. Certainly the fallen angels aren't perfect. worthy of our worship and service. When faced with God's perfection, we should be humbled. In the light of God's perfection, we see our own what? Imperfections. We should see them very readily. Very easy to pick out those things in our own life that aren't the way they ought to be in the light of God's perfection. We should find ourselves humbled and we should find our hearts grateful for Christ's perfection. When Christ said, you got to be perfect because your heavenly father is perfect. That left us in a bad spot, didn't it? But Jesus Christ provided that perfection for us. He who knew no sin became sin for us that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus Christ is our perfection, and so now you stand before God perfect. Robed, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, declared righteous, declared. Perfect, in a sense, before God. Not that that Perfection is something that's a reality in our lives at this point, but one day. One day. Sin will be done away with, we'll always have the right response to God, we'll always respond with obedience, we'll always worship, we'll always do what pleases him. And it is so only because of the perfection of Jesus Christ and the perfection that Christ provides us through his blood. Christ's provision on the cross makes us presentable before a perfect God. A perfect God we can trust. Well, God is perfect. God is also unchanging. He's perfect and he never changes. The fact that God is unchanging is what theologians call immutability. Immutability. Everybody say immutability. It's great. Feels like a Pentecostal church or something. Immutability. God is unchanging in his being. In his perfections, what we just talked about, in his purposes and in his promises. Now, those four categories are important. God is unchanging in his being, in his perfections, in his purposes and in his promises. In Exodus 3, 14, God reveals himself to Moses. He says, I am who I am. And he said, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, I am has sent me to you. God, furthermore, said to Moses, Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, the Lord of God, the God, your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. He's revealing himself. This is who I am. This is my name. forever. And this is my memorial name to all generations. In other words, I don't change. This is how you can always know me. This is how I've always been known. This is how I'll always be known. As I am. Who I am. Unchanging, Numbers 23, 19, God is not a man that he should lie. nor a son of man that he should repent or change. He has said, will he not do it or he has spoken and will he not make it good? God always follows through. He is unchanging. When God says he's going to do something, he does it. It's part of his being unchanging. It's creates a dependability. Because he doesn't change. You know what tomorrow is going to be like. I was just in Southern California. There's a certain unchangeability in the weather out there. And that creates a level of dependability. They have a lot of their at the Shepherds Conference, they have a lot of their events outside and at Grace Community Church, the foyer area is all outside. And they can do that because you can pretty much bank on it. The weather is going to be nice. You can plan outside events and you don't need a plan B. Weathermen don't do anything out there except look good and act cheesy. Tomorrow we're going to have sun and 70 degrees. And the day after that we think there's going to be some changes on the way. It'll be sunny and 71 degrees. It just doesn't change a lot. It creates a level of dependability. You can count on what's going to happen. Well, God is that, but he is so perfectly. He is unchanging and therefore dependable. Psalm 33, 11, the counsel of the Lord stands forever. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of his heart from generation to generation, he doesn't change. Psalm 102, 25. Of old you founded the earth and the heavens are the work of your hands. Even they will perish, but you endure and all of them will wear out like a garment, like clothing. You will change them and they will be changed. What's he talking about there? He's talking about the heavens and the earth. They change. When compared to God. They wear out. They get old. And he says, like clothing, you're going to change them and they will be changed. But you are the same and your years will not come to an end. God doesn't change. Malachi 3, 6. In case you weren't convinced, this is perhaps the clearest statement in all of scripture that God doesn't change. For I, the Lord, do not change. OK, case closed. I don't change. God doesn't develop. He doesn't grow. He doesn't digress. He doesn't change a bit. This is true of God the Father. Certainly true of God the Son. Jesus Christ is the same. Yesterday, today and forever. Hebrews 13, 8. There is never any change in God's nature, God's character, God's purposes or plans. God never becomes better. or worse. And again, these very closely related to his perfections, right? He never becomes better or worse, bigger or smaller, greater or lesser. He never learns, he never grows, he never develops, he never improves, he never diminishes, he never ages. And again, where our ability to fathom that ends, our adoration should begin. God's character, his truth, his ways, his purposes, his plans remain unchanged and are unchangeable because he is unchanging. Now, what about those places where it says that God changes his mind? What about that? Places like Genesis 6, 6. I believe those passages teach us that God is dealing with people in a new way. And the language of Scripture takes upon itself some human terminology, words like repent, regret, etc. And certainly these passages speak of God's disapproval with mankind. But it does not imply that God changed his mind, that he was thinking one thing and then said, oh, I think better of it now that I've learned what I've learned, I think we're going to go in a different direction. That is not. That is not the picture the scriptures present to us of who God is. In these passages, God is simply dealing with people consistent with his own character. He was dealing with them in one way. Now, because of their sin, he begins to deal with them another way. It's a function of his judgment. Communicated in human terms like repent, regret and so forth. God is unchanging. So what? Who cares? Well, it matters. It really matters. Your salvation is dependent upon God not changing. You ever entered into a contract? And the contract had some Fine print that said the terms of this contract can be changed at any time. What kind of a contract is that? You have entered into a contract with God. Through his son, Jesus Christ. And because God is perfect and unchanging, the terms of that contract will never change. Never. Once you are in, you are in. Not because you keep yourself in, but because God doesn't change. Unlike man, God is steady. He is certain. He is fixed. He is a rock. We talk about the rock of Gibraltar. What are we saying when we say someone is like the rock of Gibraltar? Dependable, unmoved and unmoving. Unchanging, count on it. The seas may swirl all around it, the winds may blow, but the rock stands there undaunted, unmoving, unchanging. Through the centuries. And what is God? He is our Rock. Dependable, strong, unmoving, unchanging. God is a rock and he can be depended upon 100 percent of the time. The great Puritan theologian Charnock Says this of God's immutability, his unchanging nature. He says, what comfort could it be to pray to a God that, like the chameleon, change colors every day, every moment? You never know what God you're getting. Is this the happy God? Is this the mad God? Is this the listening God? Is this the God who stops his ears? What encouragement could there be to lift up our eyes to one that were of one mind this day and another mind tomorrow? Who would put up a petition to an earthly prince that were so mutable as to grant a petition one day and deny it another? God is not like that. He is consistent, unchanging. Again, he is a God who is worthy of worship, worthy of our service. God's standards do not change. And therefore, Christ will always be sufficient. The blood of Jesus Christ given for your sins and mine will always be sufficient. to God will always satisfy his wrath. Will our always usher us into blessing and peace with him. It will not change because God does not change. It means that God's promises will always be fulfilled. When God makes a promise, he always keeps it. Unless he stipulates within it, within that promise, a condition that must be fulfilled. But his unconditional promises will always be fulfilled. Promises for Israel, promises for God's people, for Christians. God is perfect and unchanging. I want you to turn to James 117. where I think we see a melding of these two principles in one verse. James 1.17, every good thing given and every perfect gift. Every perfect gift. What kinds of gifts does God give? Why is it that God gives perfect gifts? Because he's perfect. The only gift he gives. If God gave a less than perfect gift, what would that mean of him? He's less than perfect. Every good and perfect gift. Is from above. And comes down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. With whom there is no change. He is perfect. He's the perfect gift giver. And he's utterly dependable because he's utterly unchanging. From these two attributes, God's perfection and his unchanging nature. You get a sense of the tremendous stability there is in our God. We live in a time of constant change. And many times change is needed because things aren't good. We need change. We need things to be better. We need things to improve because things aren't perfect. In an imperfect world, we are dependent upon change. But none of that applies to God. He is perfect and needs no change and doesn't change. In this swirling sea of an imperfect world that is in desperate need of change, God is that rock. That unchanging, perfect, dependable rock upon whom we can build our lives. God is our rock, our perfect and unchanging rock. Adore Him. Trust Him. Depend upon Him. Let your faith in Him be increased. Because He's perfect. And that will never change. Lord, we thank you for this, these two truths about you. That you're perfect. In all your ways and all that you do and all that you are. And that you don't change, that perfection will never come to an end. There will not be a moment when when you slip or when you somehow have a lax moment and and do something sinful. That will never happen because you're unchanging in your perfection, you do not change. And in the fact that you do not change, you are perfect. And our salvation is dependent upon both those facts, both those truths. You sent the perfect gift of your son so that we might stand perfect before you, faultless before the throne. And having purchased our redemption. Having caused us to enter into the beloved by the blood of Christ's covenant. The new covenant. We can rest assured that our peace with you will go unchanged fundamentally. That we will stand faultless before your throne in the future, even as we do now. blameless with great joy. And it all goes back to the fact that you do not change. And you are perfect. Lord, in this changing and imperfect world, let us increasingly be moored to the rock. To you, our perfect and unchanging God, we give you thanks in Jesus name. Amen. God bless you. You're dismissed. Have a great week. Enjoy some fellowship.