Unchanging<\/b><\/p>\n
Repenting means revising one\u2019s judgment and changing one\u2019s plan of action. God never does this; he never needs to, for his plans are made on the basis of a complete knowledge and control which extends to all things past, present, and future, so that there can be no sudden emergencies or unlooked-for developments to take him by surprise. \u201cThe counsel of the Lord stands for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations\u201d (Ps. 33:11). What he does in time, he planned from eternity. And all that he planned in eternity, he carries out in time. And all that he has in his Word committed himself to do, will infallibly be done. Thus we read of the \u201cunchangeable character of his purpose\u201d to bring believers into full enjoyment of their promised inheritance, and of the immutable oath by which he confirmed his counsel to Abraham, the archetypal believer, both for Abraham\u2019s own assurance and also for others (Heb. 6:17\u201319). So it is with all God\u2019s announced intentions. They do not change. No part of his eternal plan changes.<\/p>\n
It is true that there is a group of texts (Gen. 6:6\u20138; 1 Sam. 15:11; 2 Sam. 24:16; Joel 2:13\u201314; Jn. 3:10) which speak of God as repenting. The reference in each case is to a reversal of God\u2019s previous treatment of particular men, consequent upon their reaction to that treatment. But there is no suggestion that this reaction was not foreseen, or that it took God by surprise, and was not provided for in his eternal plan. No change in his eternal purpose is implied when he begins to deal with a person in a new way.<\/p>\n
Your Father Loves You by James Packer, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, page for January 4<\/p>\n
Middle C<\/b><\/p>\n
When Lloyd C. Douglas, author of The Robe and other novels, was a university student, he lived an a boarding house. Downstairs on the first floor was an elderly, retired music teacher, not infirm and unable to leave the apartment. Douglas said that every morning they had a ritual they would go through together. He would come down the steps, open the old man\u2019s door, and ask, \u201cWell, what\u2019s the good news?\u201d The old man would pick up his tuning fork, tap it on the side of his wheelchair and say, That\u2019s middle C! It was middle C yesterday; it will be middle C tomorrow; it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but, my friend, THAT is middle C!\u201d<\/p>\n
The old man had discovered one thing upon which he could depend, one constant reality in his life, one \u201cstill point in a turning world.\u201d For Christians, the one \u201cstill point in a turning world,\u201d the one absolute of which there is no shadow of turning, is Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n
Source unknown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unchanging Repenting means revising one\u2019s judgment and changing one\u2019s plan of action. God never does this; he never needs to, for his plans are made on the basis of a complete knowledge and control which extends to all things past, present, and future, so that there can be no sudden emergencies or unlooked-for developments to … Continue reading “Immutability”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-824","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/824\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/sermons\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}