Does God Regret

[00:00:08] Let's pray. [00:00:12] Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word that comes to us, a word that does not perish, a word that does not return to you void, a word that goes out and does all that you intend for it to do. [00:00:27] We ask, O Lord, that you would implant your word in us, that you would give to us faith in Jesus Christ and that you would give it to us in a way that is growing, strengthen our faith in him, grow our faith in him, encourage us in all of the doubts and despairs and trials that we are facing. [00:00:49] Lord, we pray for those in our congregation who are suffering and various ways with illness, disease, with conflict in their families, with lack of resources, finances, time, emotional resources. [00:01:08] Lord, we pray for all of the things which we come into this room today heavy on our hearts, and we give them over to you, asking that as we come in the midst of trials, that you would be at work sanctifying our trials to us, using them to purify us and grow us, to strengthen us and make us holy. Lord, we ask that you would use these things that we might glorify you and receive much good. [00:01:39] Lord, we ask that you would help us to hear your word in light of all the things that you have done, in light of who you are and your great authority and might in speaking, help us to hear and to apply these words to our lives. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:02:03] You may be seated. And let's turn Our attention to First Samuel, Chapter 15. [00:02:38] As I mentioned last time, I wanted to spend a couple sermons on this chapter today, considering the words that we have here regarding God's repentance, as it's sometimes translated, or relenting or changing his mind and what that means, what that doesn't mean, what we're supposed to understand, what Saul and Israel are supposed to understand from what the Lord says here. [00:03:10] We have a really, really important lesson that many of us forget about the unchangeableness of God that he wants us to understand and is key for understanding as citizens of his kingdom. [00:03:28] So let's hear God's word this morning from 1st Samuel 15 and Samuel said to Saul, the Lord sent me to anoint you king over his people Israel. Now therefore listen to the words of the Lord. [00:03:47] Thus says the Lord of I have noted what Amalek did to Israel in opposing them on the way when they came out of Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and devote to destruction all that they have. Do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, child and infant, ox and Sheep, camel and donkey. [00:04:08] So Saul summoned the people and numbered them in Telim, 200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah. And Saul came to the city of Amalek and lay in wait in the valley. Then Salt said to the Kenites, go, depart. Go down from the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them. For you showed kindness to the people of Israel when they came out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from the Amalekites, from among the Amalekites. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction, all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul. And the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fatted calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless, they devoted to destruction. [00:05:04] The word of the Lord came to Samuel. I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments. [00:05:15] And Saul was angry and cried to the Lord all night, I'm sorry. And Samuel was angry and he cried to the Lord all night. And Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning. And it was told Samuel, Saul came to Carmel. And behold, he set up a monument for himself and turned and passed on and went down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul. And Saul said to him, blessed be you to the Lord I have performed the commandment of the Lord. [00:05:44] And Samuel said, what then is the bleating of the sheep in my ears and the lowing of the oxen that I hear? Saul said, they have brought them from the Amalekites. For the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God and the rest we have devoted to destruction. [00:06:04] Then Samuel said to Saul, stop. I will tell you what the Lord said to me this night. And he said to him, speak. And Samuel said, though you are little in your own eyes, are you not the head of the tribes of Israel? The Lord anointed you king over Israel. And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, go devote to destruction the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they are consumed. [00:06:31] Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you pounce on the spoil and do what was evil in the sight of the Lord? And Saul said to Samuel, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on the which the Lord had sent me. I have brought Agag, the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalek Amalekites to destruction. But the people took the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. And Samuel said, has the Lord a great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of the rams. Of rams. [00:07:18] For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. [00:07:32] Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandments of the Lord and your words. Because I feared the people and I obeyed their voice. Now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. As Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of his robe and it tore. And Samuel said to him, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you. And also the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man that he should have regret. Then he said, I have sinned. Yet honor me now before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me that I may bow before the Lord your God. [00:08:30] So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul bowed before the Lord. Then Samuel said, bring here to me Agag, the king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully. Agag said, surely the bitterness of death is past. And Samuel said, as your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal. Then Samuel went to Ramah, and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. And Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death. But Samuel grieved over Saul, and the Lord rejected that he had sorry. And the Lord regretted that he had made Saul king over Israel. [00:09:19] May God bless his word to us. [00:09:25] Throughout this chapter we see something happening. [00:09:29] We see something happening in the life of Saul that we see sometimes in our own lives. [00:09:36] We see distance happening. [00:09:39] We See growing distance between Saul and the Lord and the word of the Lord and the voice of the Lord. Instead of listening, instead of paying attention, instead of hearing, instead of obeying, Saul continues to do things his own way. [00:10:04] Sometimes it means doing something other than what God has commanded. Sometimes it means not trusting God for something God has told him. [00:10:12] And you hear it in his language, you know, when he talks about a Samuel's God instead of his own God, when he seems separated from the Lord, perhaps it is because he is separated from the Lord. [00:10:29] He's not heeded God's word, He's not listened to God's word. And his theology about God as a result has been getting skewed, or at least it is at this point in time. [00:10:46] Something is very wrong about how Saul thinks about God. [00:10:51] And as Saul thinks about God this way, in many ways, we see him as a model, not in a good way, as a kind of miniature form of the kingdom and the people as a whole. Also having distance from God and his Word. Also not heeding the Lord and wanting the things that God wants, loving the things that God loves, hating the things that God hates. [00:11:16] They've kind of gone their own way. And they continue to do this over and over again. [00:11:24] Samuel says in verse 23, rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. [00:11:35] It be worth your time to try to figure out how exactly that is. [00:11:40] How is it that rebellion is like the sin of divination, magic, witchcraft, things like this? [00:11:48] How is it that presumption about God and who he is, deciding that you don't have to obey when he says obey these kind of things, how is that like? How is that as iniquity and idolatry? [00:12:05] Well, it connects because in these things, when we rebel against the Lord, when we commit iniquity, when we reject the word of the Lord, when we presume that our way is really better? [00:12:19] It is a kind of idolatry. [00:12:22] It's a way of seeking God and communion and fellowship with him on our own terms, in our own ways, with our own practices, which you might call in a way, magic. Seeking to have divine things and divine blessing and divine amounts of control over your life or the lives of other people, people by our own way, our own desires, our own feelings, our own plans. [00:12:53] It's to want the divine and things of divinity, to want God and things of God, but not God himself. [00:13:03] It's to reject him for our own ways and our own plans. And Saul does that here, the People do that here. Now, the interaction, right, is between Samuel and Saul. But clearly the people are involved too. Saul tries to pin it off all on the people. He needs to take responsibility for that himself. But they're all involved. [00:13:27] And in this passage, God does something that he does many things. But one of the things that he does that's so important here is he corrects this incorrect theology. [00:13:38] And when I say theology, I don't just mean religious ideas in general, but I mean the thinking and ideas about God himself, about God proper, so to speak. [00:13:54] Here God is teaching his people, his subjects, his king, and also us. That he alone rules supreme, that only him and his righteousness and being in him will lead to true blessing. And we can add to that that only true righteousness, only true obedience leads to blessing and communion with Him. [00:14:19] Our own ideas, our own practices, our own religious coverings, the sacrifices that we might offer instead of obedience, these are not good enough. They don't even come close. [00:14:31] It's not like they get us almost the way there. And if God would just be a little nice, that it would be the rest. No, they are as the sin of divination, as idolatry in many ways. Saul here is acting like Cain. Do you remember the story about Cain and Abel in the beginning of the Bible? [00:14:52] Both are called to offer sacrifices. Abel offers the ones that he has been called to, and they're accepted. Cain also offers sacrifices and they're rejected. [00:15:04] And Cain's mad, really mad. So angry that he ends up killing, murdering his brother whose sacrifices were received. [00:15:17] What was Cain's problem? [00:15:20] He thought he could replace obedience with sacrifice. He thought he could do things in his own way, on his own terms and receive the divines, receive God and the things of God in his own way. Cain had it figured out. He wanted to do it, and he did it. And then he was upset when God was not pleased with him. [00:15:47] God is clear that this is not the way things work. [00:15:53] And one of the theological principles that grounds this, that helps us to understand, if we're able to understand it. [00:16:02] The thing that grounds it is the unchangeableness of God. That's one of the things that he points us to here. God's unchanging nature. [00:16:14] In theological terms, this is called the immutability of God. [00:16:21] Kids, perhaps you have heard of a mutant, right? Like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Why are they called mutants? Because they changed, right? They morphed in. They were turtles, and then they became ninjas, right? [00:16:39] I'm not funny. That's okay. [00:16:43] You know what mutants are, right? Mutations in genes, right? Mutations. Things change in these ways, right? This is what to be mutable means, to be changeable. So can you guess what immutability means? [00:16:58] Means not changeable, right? Not changeable. And we say that we human beings are mutable, but God is immutable. [00:17:12] Now, there are limits on our mutability. There are limits on how humans can change. [00:17:20] A person doesn't become a giraffe, but we do change in lots of ways. [00:17:27] If you look at my two fingers, one of them is not shaped like the other. Because when I was a little boy, I was rocking on the back of my chair and I smashed my finger and took a chunk of it off. And a plastic surgeon had to go in there and fix it. And so now it goes instead of. And it's different because I'm mutable. Perhaps you have scars or missing parts. I'm also missing my appendix. We're getting too personal now. But you have missing things as well, right? You have perhaps added things to your body. Some of you have bolts and other things in your bodies now, perhaps that's not of your body in particular, but you get my point. Our bodies change. Our bodies change from young to old. Accidents, surgeries, all kinds of things. Our bodies change. Our emotions change, too. [00:18:28] This morning, sorry to be again, too personal. I was really frustrated with my tie, and it is ridiculous. And I was upset with myself. And this is important, guys. You know what I'm talking about. You don't wear the same tie, this one tie, very often. You get the other ones, you're used to tying them. But this one, you know, it's just too long and it's too short, and it's too long and it's too short. You retie it. You retie it. You retie it, right? And here's what the disappointing part. [00:18:58] I got a little bit angry about this. Now, nobody saw this. This was just me. But I'll be honest with you, there was a moment where I was like, now how is it that I. [00:19:12] My emotions could go from I'm getting ready for church to angry in a matter of moments over a tie? [00:19:22] That's pretty mutable. [00:19:25] That's pretty changeable. [00:19:27] It's not good in some ways, it shows a certain amount of imperfection in me. And I think you have also experienced these similar things. Cars, not starting, books that can't be found, paperwork that gets lost, all these kinds of things. We. And then our emotions change. [00:19:46] They can change for the better, too, right? We can, you know, not be thinking Very well, of someone. And then a thought comes to our mind, or perhaps they give us our gift and all of a sudden we love them more. [00:20:00] Maybe like we should have been loving them in the first place. [00:20:05] Our emotions, they can change. They go up and down. We get angry, we get sad, we get frustrated, we get happy. All these things. Our bodies can change, our emotions can change, our minds can change. And say, I'm going to do this. No, actually, I'm going to do this. [00:20:22] And we change our minds because we're affected by things, right? We say, I was going to, you know, buy this thing, but I've decided not because I realized that it's not a good value. Let's say, well, what happened in that moment? You gained something, right? You gained knowledge. Let's say you gained wisdom. And now you were able to make a better decision than you could before. [00:20:47] When saying that, what we're saying is there's imperfection in there. There's some sort of lack. I lack wisdom, I lack information. I lack the moral resources or the virtues necessary to make a wise decision. [00:21:03] There's missing things. [00:21:06] And so when we add to that, then we make better decisions and are more virtuous and these kind of things. All of these examples show the mutability of a person, the changeableness of a person. [00:21:20] We're very, very changeable. Even fickle, you could say at times, even unpredictable at times. God, however, is immutable. He is unchangeable. [00:21:36] He doesn't get frustrated over ties. [00:21:39] He doesn't get. He doesn't learn things. He doesn't figure things out. He's not missing information. And then, oh, now I see. That doesn't happen with God. Why not? [00:21:52] Well, one reason is because God, unlike us, is of Himself. [00:21:58] If you are writing down theological words this morning, you could call this his aseity. A S E I T Y His aseity. [00:22:09] He is of himself. [00:22:13] He is of himself. There's nothing behind God that causes God to come into existence. There's nothing around or near God, either physically or spiritually. That sort of pushes or directs him, changing him from this place to another place. [00:22:34] Nothing can be taken away from Him. [00:22:37] Nothing can be added to Him. Not only because he's immutable, unchangeable, but also because he's infinite. [00:22:49] He is infinite in his presence, we say it his omnipresence. And so because he's infinite in his presence, he can't go somewhere that he's not. He can't change in that way, because he is infinite in his power and is omnipowerful, all powerful. It means that God cannot be able to do something that he previously was not able to do. Because he's always able, right? His omnipresence, his omnipotence, his omniscience, his all knowingness is also unchangeable because of its infinite nature. Because of his infinite nature, nothing can be taken away or added from Him. Not only because he's immutable, but also because he's infinite. [00:23:42] There's nothing more powerful than him, nothing more influential or smarter or able or present that is able then to exert its pressure on him in some way, whether it's a physical way, an emotional way, a mental way. Nothing is bigger than him that can exert this force that then changes him and moves him from here to here, or from this to that, or from this state into that state. [00:24:14] That's why some theologians have talked about God is the unmoved mover. [00:24:20] The unmoved mover. He Himself moves things, right? Mountains and skies and can create bodies and stars. But He Himself is unmoved. Nothing is moving him, pushing Him. Nothing changes Him. He is completely and always immutable and infinite in all of his attributes, his love, his happiness, his power, his omnipresence, his omnipotence, and lots, lots more. [00:24:56] God is self sufficient. He does not, and therefore he does not change. He is the Source of all things. He has no source. [00:25:07] He has no source. He is from Himself, to use an analogy drawn from Scripture. And we have James, chapter 1:17. [00:25:16] James 1:17 says, Every good and every perfect gift is from above. So everything good that we have is from above, coming down from the Father of Lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. [00:25:35] So James compares God to the sun in a way and even beyond the sun, because he calls him not just the brightest thing, but the Father of the brightest things, right? And think about how the sun works. [00:25:53] The sun shines and by its action of shining creates a shadow and those shadows change. [00:26:03] So you go out one time of the day and you look at your Shadow and you're 12 inches tall. And then you go out and you look at your shadow. Another time of day and you're 12ft tall, right? And that's changing all throughout the day. What is the source of the change? [00:26:17] That's the sun, right? As the sun moves. As the sun moves, there is shadow and change to us, but not to the sun. [00:26:28] With the sun, there's no variation. The sun is just there. [00:26:34] God is like this. Even the Father of lights. There's no change or shadow with him because he is the source. Variation and change happens with us, but not with him. Now, James. Why does James say that? Especially there? He says it right after a passage about all kinds of difficulties that we'll face and these kind of things. And it's a reminder of who God is in those times. [00:27:04] We could say one of the implications of this is that what God commands, what God promises, what God threatens, all of these things, they're not for him or for his being. [00:27:17] They're for us. [00:27:19] He doesn't need anything. [00:27:23] And to say it a really strong way, you have to understand it properly. But he's not affected by our sin or our righteousness. [00:27:38] Job 35, 6, 7 says this. If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? [00:27:47] And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand? [00:28:00] Let me read that one more time. Job 35, 6, 7. If you have sinned, what do you accomplish against him? And if your transgressions are multiplied, what do you do to him? If you are righteous, what do you give to him? Or what does he receive from your hand? [00:28:17] These are rhetorical questions, but the answer is Nothing. [00:28:22] As Job 4111 says, who has first given to me that I should repay him? What is under the whole heaven is mine. [00:28:34] Think about that. [00:28:36] God says, what is under the whole heaven is mine. [00:28:42] Who has first given to me that I should repay him? When we give a gift to God, when we give something to God, even good works or something like that, God owes us nothing because he already has everything. [00:28:56] God does not, never is in debt to us. He doesn't need to repay us because he has all things in himself. [00:29:06] To put it another way, obedience makes a difference in our lives, not because it adds something to God and thereby makes him happier with us in his being, which then causes him to shower down blessings or something like that. Obedience makes a difference because it makes a difference in us. [00:29:30] It's like giving a seed. [00:29:33] Soil and water and sunshine, right? When the seed comes into contact with those things, a seed thrives. [00:29:43] The sun doesn't change because of its connection with the seed. [00:29:48] The seed changes because of its connection with the sun. [00:29:53] That's what we're like. [00:29:55] We don't give to God our obedience. And he doesn't say, oh, finally, I feel so much better now. Now I'll bless you because I feel great. [00:30:05] No, we are blessed in Obedience because we come into communion with God, because we're in fellowship with Him. [00:30:19] That's why. Saying, I'm going to skip obedience like a seed. Saying, I'm going to just skip sunshine and water and soil. I'm going to skip obedience and instead I'm going to come up with my own plan. [00:30:33] A seed will just remain a seed. It's not going to grow, it's not going to flower, it's not going to produce anything, Right? Because it's not connected, it's not in communion, it's not in fellowship with the only things that can help it to grow. And the same with us. If we say, lord, I'm going to be in rebellion against you, but I'm also going to do this other thing that you didn't want me to do, and I'm going to ask that you, out of my good intentions or good hearts, that you take that as acceptable and then bless me. It's kind of crazy, but we do do this all the time. [00:31:11] Now we're going to come back to this question of, well, how is it that we can be obedient when we're sinful? Because that is a very, very difficult problem. [00:31:24] But think about this and let these things settle in. [00:31:29] God is not changeable. [00:31:33] God doesn't get anything or lose anything in relation to us or anything else in this world. [00:31:42] Now we have to answer a question. And this is what Samuel says, of course, when he. When he. [00:31:51] He is talking to Saul and he condemns him. And he not only says that the Lord desires this obedience, but he says that the Lord does not of have regrets. In verse 29, he says, the glory of Israel will not lie or have regret, for he is not a man. He's not a man that he should have regret. [00:32:16] And this is what Samuel, the prophet of God is getting at here. He's saying that the Lord doesn't sort of do one thing and then, oh, man, I really shouldn't have done that, was really dumb. And then change his mind now that he's learned some things or because he got angry or something like that, do something different. This is what we've been talking about. He's not changeable. And in this particular context right here, it comes in light of the plan that he has for Saul, which is to take away his kingdom. [00:32:48] This is a firm thing. [00:32:51] And remarkably, in a little bit, remember, Saul reaches out and he grabs Samuel's robe and a little bit tears from it. There's going to be a parallel scene later on where David takes a little piece from Saul's robe. He has an opportunity to kill him, remember this. And then he doesn't, because he's the Lord's anointed. [00:33:13] This man that is better, this man that God is raising up is clearly coming into power. Saul's own life is threatened by it. [00:33:22] This thing is going to happen. If you let your eyes scan over your Bible to the next passage, if you have headings, you probably have something like david anointed king as the next chapter. That's what I have here in my Bible. And that indeed is what happens. [00:33:42] Well, if all of that is true, and it very much is, the Lord is unchangeable, eternal, infinite. [00:33:49] How do we make sense then, of phrases like we have at the beginning where he says that he has. In verse 11, he says, I regret that I have made Saul king, for he turned back from following me and has not performed my commandments, Right? So God says, on the one hand, through Samuel, he says he has no regrets. He's not like a man. And then here we have him saying, I have regret. [00:34:21] How do we make sense of this? [00:34:23] Well, the answer is really simple, actually. [00:34:27] The answer is that, yes, God is internal, immutable. He is unchangeable. [00:34:34] And then, among other things, and then to reveal this infinitely divine, incomprehensible nature to us, he speaks to us in metaphors that we can understand. [00:34:50] He is not a man, but he talks about Himself like a man from time to time to help us to understand who he is. [00:35:01] Let me say the same thing again, but from this direction. Ask yourself this. How could an infinite, immutable God reveal Himself to us to know him as he knows Himself? [00:35:15] It's impossible, right? [00:35:18] How could God, in all of his infinite knowledge and his infinite incomprehensible being, reveal Himself to you as he knows Himself? Are you able to know things like God knows things? [00:35:34] No. [00:35:36] So how does he do it? Well, he does it through metaphors. [00:35:41] He does it by using metaphors and analogies to help us understand what he's like and giving us a sense, a true sense of who he is, what he does, what he cares about, all these kinds of things in ways we can understand while allowing us to still understand that there's a difference here, that there's a difference between him and us. And so throughout the Bible, God uses, describes himself in human ways. He talks about his mighty hand and his outstretched arm. He talks about his nostrils flaring hot with anger. He talks about changing his mind. He talks about being angry or other kinds of things in reaction to various events. [00:36:29] And these things reveal things to us about Him. [00:36:35] Many Christians don't have any problem with what I just said when it comes to body parts of God. I think most faithful Christians won't blink an eye if you say, hey, the Bible says that God has a nose. Do you believe that God has a nose? Most Christians will say pretty easily and quickly without lots of qualifications and hesitation. No, God doesn't have a nose. That's a metaphor to describe his just anger. Where God doesn't have a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. That's to show us his power. He's talking about. He's using an analogy for his power. This is very common and both in our faith, all throughout the Scriptures, in our theology, very common. [00:37:24] However, sometimes we have a hard step. We find it difficult to apply the same things when we talk about God using human analogies with relation to the body. We have a hard time doing the same thing when it comes to analogies related to emotions or acts of the mind, like thinking or changing or moving. [00:37:47] But the same thing really applies. [00:37:50] So when the Bible talks about God regretting or relenting, or sometimes it's translated repenting. God is not saying, I sinned and I need to share that with you and confess it. He's not saying, there's some imperfection in me here in our passage. Just to stay focused here, when he says that he regrets or that he relents, what he's saying is he's announcing a change in his plans. He's saying, I did this, but now I'm going to do this. And remember, that's not a change in himself. It's not a change in his being. It's a change in his external works. [00:38:34] Remember, he is the unmoved mover. And here is the unmoved mover on the move in time and in space. He is acting within us. [00:38:44] Just because God is infinite and eternal and unchangeable doesn't mean that he's unable then to create things that are changeable. He. It doesn't mean that he's not able to influence this thing so that this thing happens. [00:39:02] He does. [00:39:04] The shadows move because of the sun. And that's what's happening here. When you hear passages, unlike in Jonah, there's a good example, right? When Jonah goes to Nineveh and he speaks to the king, the king says to his people, let's pray, right? That God might relent from this disaster, right? He speaks in this kind of human language, praying that God would change his course right from this thing to this thing. Do you remember what happens in that story? God does. Instead of destroying Nineveh, Nineveh is saved. And you know what Jonah says? He says, I knew it. [00:39:45] You're compassionate and loving and you pity people. [00:39:54] What is it about the unchanging nature of the unmoved mover that happened there? [00:40:01] Jonah, he's wrongly mad, but his theology is right that God is compassionate and that doesn't change. [00:40:11] God is merciful and that doesn't change. And so we see these actions revealed in time. [00:40:22] It's very important that we understand this and that we don't add that. We don't in our minds think that God is somehow changeable, either in his being, his spiritual being, or even in his virtues or these, I don't know what to call them. Again, this is where we bump up against language. But for humans, we talk about them as emotions, passions. [00:40:53] We have to be careful to protect the unchanging nature of this. As one theologian, James Dolezal, says, if God should be able to will a measure of mutability for himself, if even God were able to do that, if he were able to add just a little bit of changeability in himself with regard to, let's say, his anger or his love, then what would we say of his other attributes? [00:41:27] What other attributes would we be permitted? Or would God be permitted in this understanding to augment or to negate? [00:41:37] If we can add a little bit of changeability here, does that mean we can add a little bit to his eternity, his eternality, or his simplicity? What about his infinity? Is that a little bit changeable? Or is invisibility, Is that a little bit changeable? Or what about God's omnipotence? Is it maybe not quite omnipotent? Or his omnipresence? And we can go on and on and on. [00:42:03] To quote James Dolezal again, God's glory is not actually increased when we glorify Him. Or to put it as another theologian, Matthew Barrett, says, he doesn't get a little bit brighter when we glorify Him. [00:42:17] Its perfect fullness of love is not intensified by our acts of obedience. His intrinsic infinite hatred for sin is not made a little hotter by our transgressions. All these things being glorious, loving these things, God simply is in and of Himself. [00:42:38] Man is not the agent by which these actual realities are produced in God. Human actions are simply the occasions for the unfolding of God's display of these unchanging and acquired virtues. [00:42:55] One of these men, I forget which, uses the example of an artist who over here writes a poem and over here paints a painting. It doesn't mean that the artist has all of a sudden changed themselves, but they are expressing that artistic form in these various ways. And God does the same thing. Here's Psalm 18, verses 25 and following with the merciful, you show yourself merciful. With the blameless man you show yourself blameless. With the purified you show yourself pure. And with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous, for you save a humble people. But the haughty eyes, you bring down Saul's problem. And our problem is that he thinks of God wrongly. He thinks he can move God, change God, add to God. He thinks of God as smaller than God, is more affected or changeable than he is. [00:43:58] And so because his theology about God is wrong, his worship about God is wrong, and his life is wrong because of his wrong view of God, he thinks it's okay to disobey as long as you add some good intentioned religiosity to that disobedience. [00:44:16] We have to ask ourselves, do we ever make the same mistake? [00:44:20] Do you ever think that somehow you can live outside of God's will and yet cover it up or change his heart, or move his heart by giving more money to the poor, or donating more of your time at church, or maybe crying a little harder during worship or reading some good theology books? [00:44:45] I'm not saying that crying or reading or giving are bad things. I'm just saying that if we think we can use them as a way to make God happy, as a cover up for straight up disobedience, then we are very, very wrong. [00:45:01] And it's not just because God can see our tricks as manipulators and he disrespects that. That's true. But it's not just that. [00:45:11] I'm also suggesting another reason. [00:45:16] Because he can't change. [00:45:19] We can't manipulate God. Not just because he sees our tricks, but we can't manipulate God because he's unmanipulatable. [00:45:27] He's unchangeable. [00:45:30] Obedience brings us into fellowship and communion with God. Not because it changes God's heart or somehow adds to his being, but because obedience abides in God in a way that fake religious actions do. Not that our own plans, our own divination, our own rebellion does not. [00:45:54] Saul was supposed to lead his people in obedience and he failed to do that, just like Adam and like all men. [00:46:07] So if obedience is the key, what do we do as those who don't obey? [00:46:12] More obedience? No. [00:46:15] Why no? It's not because obedience is bad. Obedience is very, very good. [00:46:21] But the answer is no. Because we cannot do it. It's impossible. [00:46:27] And that doesn't mean give up on good works. It means you cannot achieve communion and fellowship with God through good works. It will and always fail. [00:46:40] Because of our sinfulness, because of our sinful nature, because we keep playing all these tricks with God. Because we keep thinking about him wrongly. We think about him too small and we don't worship him and we don't love him and we don't serve him and we come up with all these excuses for do all these other things. There's so many imperfections in us. [00:46:59] There's so many ways in which we fall short of the glory of God, that no amount of good intentions and good works could ever get us even close to the kind of obedience that we need. That we need to be in communion with God. [00:47:19] And if all we had was the law of God, that would be the very sad end of the story. [00:47:25] Period. That's it. [00:47:28] Just a sad, hellish ending. [00:47:33] But it's not the ending. And it's not just because we're random optimists. It's because God Himself has pronounced good news. [00:47:44] Good news. That a man would come into this world who would know no sin at all, who would be our representative, who would be our king, who would lead us into a state of righteousness and make us a people, holy and blameless, fit for him. [00:48:03] And that of course, is Jesus. [00:48:06] Out of his non changeable but infinite love, God the Father sent his eternal son, who Hebrews 13 says is the same yesterday and today and forever. The Son of God, the infinite, eternal, unchangeable Son of God, comes into this world and takes on changeable, mutable flesh just like us. Why? [00:48:35] To become our king. To become our representative. To live the life of full obedience that we have failed to live so that we might have life not on our own and through our good works, but through Him. [00:48:50] What God says essentially is you can have fellowship through obedience through Me. [00:48:59] Believe in Me and you will be saved. And Jesus did this. He fulfilled all obedience for us. He never sinned. He was always in perfect fellowship with His Father. He would fulfill all obedience. He would lead us into a new life full of blessing. [00:49:18] Because of our sins, it's impossible for us to receive this through our works. But God then just gives it to us as a gift received through faith. God does the works of obedience for us. God gives them to us as a gift. And then, and he does this in our justification in our sanctification and ultimately in our glorification. [00:49:45] I'll leave you with two passages of Scripture to think about. One is from Hebrews 6 where God says that by two unchangeable things he not only swore an oath to Abraham to give him this grace and all his children, but also he swore on Himself. [00:50:03] Why is that comforting? [00:50:05] Because he cannot change. [00:50:09] It's not that God is this stoic, uncaring immovable thing. God's not a rock in that sense. God is infinitely loving, infinitely compassionate, infinitely just. He's unchanging in that way. [00:50:29] And because of that, because of his infinite truthfulness in which it's impossible for him to lie, because it's impossible for him to change, because he's so great and awesome. [00:50:43] That's why our salvation is so secure, because it's in him and not in us. [00:50:52] So that's Hebrews 6. The other passage I'll leave you with is Malachi 3:6, where the Lord says, for I the Lord do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. [00:51:11] Isn't that amazing? [00:51:13] Because he doesn't change because of who he is and all of his love and compassion and mercy. When we put our faith in him and we step away from our self righteousness and our divination and our false plans and our presumption and all these things, and we say, lord, I'm yours because you have given all these things to me freely. [00:51:40] We are not consumed because of he, because of him and who he is. [00:51:47] I, the Lord, do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. [00:51:56] God is like a rock in that we can build our lives on him, that we can depend on him, hide in him and be protected. He's unmovable in that sense, but he's also immovable and unchangeable in his love for you through Christ. [00:52:15] And that's why nothing can separate you from Him. Not life, nor death, nor things above, nor things below. Angels, rulers, principalities, powers. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ because of God and who he is. [00:52:33] Praise God. [00:52:35] Let's pray. [00:52:38] Our Heavenly Father, as we hear this story of King Saul and his lack of obedience, we see in ourselves our own foolish plans and manipulations and presumptuous behavior. [00:52:51] Lord, teach us to bend the knee, to bow our hearts before you that we might be saved. Not from our own, not as a result of our own good works. Pushing you into something, changing your mind about anything. But Lord, simply by abiding in your love that comes to us freely through Christ, Lord, we ask that you would help us to worship you as we ought, as the one true God. And out of the obedience to the truth, help us to love and to serve as you have called us to do. [00:53:26] Lord, you have changed us, changed us from something that was bad into something that was good, from something that was enslaved into something that is free, from something that was in rebellion against you and children of wrath into children of righteousness. Holy ones. [00:53:48] Lord, we ask that you would continue to do this work in us, open our eyes that we might see and rejoice in the gifts that you have given. Help us to live life in the obedience that we have, in the righteousness that we have that has been imputed to us and the good works that you have prepared for us and in the spirit who is sanctifying us. And one day, Lord, in that great glory in which we will live forever, blessed and perfect in every way, in shining in the light and reflecting the light of the Son of God, help our hearts to receive these things. Grow them today to be bigger than they were when we came in. May our conception and love for you grow as we consider all that you have done through Jesus, the obedient one, our Savior, in whose name we pray. Amen.