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If you have your Bible with you, would you take it out, please, and turn to the book of Exodus? The book of Exodus is where we're going to at least look in our Bibles for the first time, here in just a moment. Exodus 34.

We'll begin reading in verse 5, here in just a moment. Exodus 34. In verse 5, O thou who changest not, abide with me. Everywhere we look, there is change and decay, there's so much change, and chaos, and uncertainty. And yet we can find great comfort in the one who does not change. And yet that is one of the big things that people attack about the God of the Bible.

In our high school class on Wednesday night, we're, we're going through a series of questions that the kids are asking. And it's ready to give an answer for the hope that is in you. Questions that they have received from other people, or that they have heard, that they want to have a good answer to.

And we've got dozens and dozens of questions. We're not going to be able to cover all of them in that class. And so So as we've kind of done in times past, we're gonna cover a few of those questions here on Sunday nights with a question and answer sort of format. And so one of the questions that comes up with skeptics of the Bible is this.

Is the God of the Old Testament mean, and the God of the New Testament nice? Now that's, that's really an oversimplification and generalization of that question, but that's the idea, right? You've got the Old Testament God, and He was full of wrath. And he was just looking to strike somebody down. And then you've got the New Testament God, maybe Jesus, and Jesus is full of love and compassion, and he didn't judge anybody.

Obviously those are caricatures, but that's the idea. Well, I want to suggest this morning, and I'm going to entitle the lesson tonight, not this morning, The Unchanging God. The Unchanging God should give us great comfort. And that reality of the Unchanging God, I think, can be pretty easily shown from the text itself.

It is when you get into these generalizations, without looking at the text of the Bible, that really you run into problems with this. So what we're going to do is we're going to look at a number of different passages. We're going to look at them from some different angles. And hopefully this will allow you, if you have this question yourself, to answer this question.

But even more, just like what we're doing with the high school class, that you might be ready to give a good answer if someone asks you a reason for the hope that is in you regarding this question. So to start here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to put two scriptures up on the board, to which God, quote unquote, the God of the Old Testament, God of the New Testament, and I'm going to these verses.

Refer inflaming fire, taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel. Second verse, the Lord A God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.

You're good Bible students. You know that that first verse is from the New Testament. 2 Thessalonians 1:8. And the second verse is from the Old Testament Exodus 34, that we're gonna read more in more detail here in just a moment. Now that doesn't prove anything, but it does show that this characterization of, of God in these two testaments, the God of the Old Testament and the Old and the New Testament, that this characterization that the God of the Old Testament was mean, and the God of the New Testament was just nice.

At the very least, this has exceptions. What I believe the Bible claims for itself. That's the God of justice, right there. And I even have the thunder and lightning that goes with that, right? We think about God on the mountain, all those sorts of things. Again, this doesn't, this doesn't prove anything.

And neither does what I'm going to do next. At least not to a skeptic, right? To a skeptic, just because the Bible claims it, doesn't mean really anything. In fact, I didn't even include this on your handout, but you can write these Scripture references down. God is unchanging in His character. And we see this in the Old Testament and New Testament, that this is what the Bible claims for itself.

In Malachi 3:6, God says, For I am the Lord, I do not change. And that claim is made in the context of what? There in the Old Testament book of Malachi, where people weren't doing what they should, where there was going to be justice from God if they didn't change. It's made in the context of His mercy.

Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob. It is only because of who I am as a God who is merciful, who is full of loving kindness, it is only because of that that you aren't consumed where you stand for the sins that you've committed against me. I am the Lord, I do not change. In the New Testament we see the same thing.

James 1:17. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. If you didn't have a handout and you would like a handout would you raise your hand? These guys can get one of those to you. Alright? We have a few hands that are up. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

James 1:17. There is no variation. There is no shadow of turning with God. The image there is kind of night and day, right? The shadow of turning. But with God, He is consistent. He is the same at all times, at any times. And certainly we see the same thing with Jesus Christ Himself.

Hebrews 13:8. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And certainly, we could look at more verses tonight that describe Jesus in terms of the same Almighty God that we read about in the Old Testament, that it is the same God in that sense. But just for our purposes, it's sufficient to say this is what the Bible claims for itself.

That's the claim. Can we illustrate that claim? I believe we can. And the issue, fundamentally, is not with the New Testament God. Though maybe it should be for those who have a problem with justice and judgment, and we'll talk about that more in a second. Really the issue is with the God of the Old Testament.

And this lesson really could have been called, In Defense of the God of the Old Testament. But perhaps, as I suggested a moment ago, the problem is that people just don't know the God of the Old Testament well enough. In Exodus 33, if you're here in Exodus 34, back there in chapter 33, Moses asks God, please show me your glory.

He's up on the mountain and he wants to see God. He wants to see God's glory. And God's response on this occasion is that no man can see his face And if God were to appear before us in all of His glory, none of us would survive the experience. If God appeared in this auditorium in all of His glory, all of us physically would die.

But maybe we can see a little bit of His glory in the way He describes Himself. God reveals Himself to Moses, and we think about Him seeing his back and those sorts of things, but I think He really reveals Himself to Moses more in what He does in Exodus 34, beginning in verse 5. Read with me. Now the Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name of the Lord.

And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, What does he proclaim? The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, By no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation.

So Moses made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshipped. And so the Lord passes by him, but as he passes by, he describes himself. Not in terms of what he looks like, but in terms of who he is, in terms of his character. in terms of his qualities, in terms of his characteristics. And so God reveals himself to Moses.

Let's, let's think about this description. What does God show us of himself in these verses? Well, there are seven characteristics that God says of himself. Moses says, show me your glory. God passes by, and this is what he says. Here's my glory. God is,

God is gracious. God is slow to anger. God is abounding in or keeping steadfast love, there in verse 7. God is faithful. Faithfulness shows who He is. He is abounding in that faithfulness. And He is forgiving of iniquity and transgression and sin. You want to see God as He reveals Himself in the Old Testament?

These are six of the seven characteristics that He says of Himself. Now do you think this is what most of the world thinks of when they think of the Old Testament God? I think likely not. Of the seven descriptions of God, six of them are all about His grace and long suffering and forgiveness. It is a six to one grace to judgment ratio, if you want to think about it in those terms.

This is who God is, but even more importantly, this is who God has always been.

Exodus 34 is the first full description that God gives of Himself. He says, You want to know who I am? This is who I am. And He is compassionate and gracious, merciful and forgiving. He is slow to anger. He is faithful and steadfast in His love. He forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin. Sin. And of course we see this confirmed throughout the Old Testament.

Turn to Psalm 1 0 3. You know, this is one of my favorite Psalms. If you've heard me preach any length of time, maybe Tim Beaman has it written in his margin, one of Reagan's favorite psalms. If you go to Psalm 1 0 3,

we would do well to read the whole thing. I've got eight through 12 on the PowerPoint. Let's, let's just go back to verse 1. Bless the Lord on my soul. And all that is within me, bless his holy name, bless the Lord. Oh, my soul and forget not all his benefits who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with.

Loving kindness and tender mercies who satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth is renewed Like the eagles the lord executes righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed He made known his ways to moses his acts to the children of israel The lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in mercy He will not always strive with us, nor will He keep His anger forever.

Has He not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities? For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far He has removed our transgressions from He is slow to anger. Not that He doesn't ever get angry, and the text makes that clear.

But He removes our iniquity as far from us as the east is from the west. Micah 7:9 says that He will cast all of our sins into the depths of the sea. In Jeremiah 31:34, as is quoted multiple times in the book of Hebrews, God will remember our sins no more. Isaiah 1:18, though our sins are like scarlet, He makes them white as snow.

This is a God who forgives. This is a God who is merciful. An even more powerful image that comes back from the text there in Exodus 34, if you'd like to turn back there, you can, is that He shows His steadfast love and His mercy and His loving kindness to thousands. Well, that's certainly true.

There are certainly thousands of people to whom God has shown His long suffering and mercy. But the meaning here seems to be a contrast with that idea of his justice visiting the iniquity in the same verse. The New Living Translation and some of the other paraphrases translate it this way. His steadfast love is to a thousand generations, a thousand generations.

So we have his steadfast love to a thousand generations, and as we'll talk about, we see his justice to the third and fourth generation. A thousand generations. Well, let's just think back to Moses. Moses was a long time ago, right? Maybe 3, 500 years, let's say. But if a generation is 25 years, then Moses is less than 150 generations ago.

And God shows his loving kindness to a thousand generations. That's how much love and mercy and grace God has. But we also see the other side of the coin, don't we? And certainly the text emphasizes this. The other side of the coin is that he By no means clears the guilty and that is to the third and fourth generation And maybe that seems a little unfair But that same phrase to the third and fourth generation is used in exodus 20 for those who worship idols that this Affects people to the third and fourth generation.

Why do you think that is why the third and fourth? Generation, so we got a thousand generations and then the third and fourth generation. Well, I Who in here knows or knew their grandparents? So, knew their grandparents in their life, okay? Alright, hands down. Who knows or knew some of their great grandparents within their life?

Okay? So, that's most of our hands are up on that, right? So, we think about generational pictures. So, this is a generational picture on the McClinney side. There's me and my dad and my granddad and my great granddad. How many generations? Four generations. In the room right now, we have my grandmother and my mother.

and my daughters. How many generations? Four generations. Three or four generations generally refers to people who are all alive at the same time. In an ancient society like the Israelites, families lived together. The sons married and settled in the immediate vicinity of the home they grew up in. The previous generations had great influence for good or for evil.

Joshua said in the positive, remember, as for me and my house, what? We will serve the Lord. And that probably included to the third and fourth generations. As long as I have influence over my house, we're going to serve the Lord. But that same concept is true in the negative. This person and the generations in his house who are wicked are probably all going to be influenced toward wickedness.

And they're all going to bear the wrath of God for that. But that's not even really the main point here. Here we find a contrast. That God forgives iniquity and transgression and sin to a thousand generations, but He no my, by no means clears the guilty. He's still just to the third and fourth generations.

So, so if we break that down, what does that mean? It means that God is painting a picture of His mercy as 250 times more prevalent in His character than His righteous punishment of the wicked. This is who God is. And yes, God is just. And yes, God will judge. And no, He's not going to change His character.

But God is merciful and loving. And He always has been. And He always will be. Because He is the unchanging God in terms of His character. There's a, a commentary by a, a gentleman named Ellison who said this of these verses. Before anyone joins the popular criticism of the God of the Old Testament, he ought to read and re read this expression of Yahweh's glory.

And ask himself, what is missing except that which could be revealed only in God incarnate, Jesus Christ. We see a clear picture of God. And Jesus only clarifies that picture in that He was a man in the flesh. Tempted at all points as we are, yet without sin. Let's see if we can show another example of that.

We spent most of our time in this one verse. What about occasions in the Old Testament where God does seem especially harsh? We might even say mean. An example of that might be 2 Kings 2. If you want to turn over there in your Bible, 2 Kings 2. I had a, A request to preach on this and while I'm not going to spend the whole lesson on it Let me just give you this the spark notes version the quick version of this text three verses Second kings chapter 2 beginning in verse 23 and this is admittedly an odd story This is a favorite story of skeptics to show that the god of the old testament was mean and petty And was just quick to judge in every occasion.

I had an email correspondence a number of years ago with someone who Was trying to say this text is a reason to reject God in the Bible. And he said this quote, this describes a situation where some brats are harassing a prophet for being bald. So God allows him to summon a couple of bears to kill them.

This seems odd compared to the morality Jesus preached. So let, let's read the text together, beginning there in verse 23. This is Elisha, the prophet. Then he Elisha, went up from there to Bethel. And as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, Go up, you bald head!

Go up, you bald head! So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty two of the youths. What's going on here? I mean, why is this included in the text? What is the lesson of the text here? Well, I think what this story is telling us is that unrepentant disrespect of God, His law, and His Word will not go unpunished.

But may I also suggest that there are some details to this story that maybe show us that there is more going on Than just God or Elisha being hotheaded and, and sending some bears after some children. Notice a couple of words with me. The first word is Bethel. Bethel, the place where these were, take this, this event took place.

What do we know about Bethel? Well that's where Jacob saw the ladder. He was the one who named it House of God. But at this time, during the time of the divided kingdom, what was in Bethel, what had been in Bethel for decades? The golden calf, set up by Jeroboam. And so this community was known for its idolatrous worship of this golden calf.

And now the prophet of God is going into this city Where these young people are coming and mocking him as he comes there. Now, young people, I say. Youth is the word that is used there in the text. This word, we do not need to think about children, young children. This word is used to refer to people, young people of a mariable age.

There's no word for teenagers in Hebrew. Is that right, Andrew? No word for teenagers in Hebrew. It's not really a concept in antiquity. But that's what we would call these young people. We would call these teenagers, right? So there's this gang of teenagers, at least 42 of them, who are coming up to the prophet of God, and it's not so much who they were, but what they were doing.

They were mocking. They were mocking God's prophet. The mouthpiece of God. This was their attitude toward God, His law, His word, and His messengers. Disrespect and contempt. And this was coming from the very people of God. And God was not going to put up with this kind of disrespect. And if Elisha was the mouthpiece of God, these Jews were the mouthpieces of whom?

Their parents. To the third and fourth generation, this was now a generational problem. where they had disrespect for God and His law and His prophet. And because of that, they were mauled. Now, maybe, as the emailer says, that means they were killed. It could mean that they were mauled in the sense that they were disfigured.

And now there is this visual reminder, this is what happens when you show disrespect to God. Now, that puts a little bit different spin on that account, doesn't it? It shows there's a little something deeper going on here. But I'm a little bit offended. Just a little bit. A little bit offended. to take these three verses Without considering everything else that's going on around them.

So on your handout You've got a list of all of these other accounts that are found In the surrounding verses there in second kings You got 11 accounts from chapter 2 down through chapter 6 or chapter 7. I should say here's what I want you to do What do we see? We've got three verses where god. Yes is showing his justice and mercy For disrespect toward him.

What do we see in all the other verses? I had a difficult time even fitting all of these on the screen. I had to, I had to quit somewhere. So I went with 11 and I'll tell you why here in just a second. For each one of these I want you to put out beside them. Is this an account that is an example of God's mercy?

Mercy or God's justice, God's grace in giving something to people or his justice for what they have done wrong. Okay? He healed the water that was bitter and poisoned. Is that mercy or grace? How about one for mercy and grace, two for justice. Okay? One for mercy and grace, two for justice. Which is it?

Mercy, obviously. All right. Bethel and the youth, which is that? Justice. Very good. So we got one versus one. Okay? The kings of Judah, Israel, and Edom defeat Syria. God miraculously delivers them from the hand of Syria. Well, if you're a Syrian, maybe it's justice, but if you're the people of God, what is it?

Mercy and grace. Elisha and the widow's oil. Where this widow miraculously gets oil and oil and oil and oil. What is that? Mercy, grace. Elisha raises the Shunammite woman's son. Mercy, grace. Elisha purifies this pot of stew. Where there's death in the pot. Mercy, grace. Elisha feeds a hundred men with twenty loaves of bread.

Very similar to Jesus. Mercy, grace. Are you still with me? You still holding up ones and twos? Nahum and the leper is healed when he dips in the Jordan River. Mercy. Grace. The floating axe head. One of my favorites. Mercy. Grace. The blinded Syrian raiders are spared. They come to kill Elisha. He strikes them blind.

He says, follow me. I'll take you to the man you're looking for. They're surrounded by the army of Israel. The king says, shall I kill them? Shall I kill them? And God's like, no. In fact, I want you to hold a big party, a big banquet for them, and then send them on their way. Is that justice or mercy and grace?

Mercy. Grace. Four lepers. This is a great account, too. So they're surrounded by Syrians on another occasion, and there's famine and death inside the city, and God miraculously scares, basically, the Syrian army off, and four lepers come into the siege camp, and they find this bounty of blessings. And so everybody comes and they get all that they can eat plus a bunch more.

Mercy or grace. Or justice. Ten to one! And that's just in terms of accounts. You think about verses, we've got one account, three verses about God's justice. And within this context of the Old Testament, And the divided kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, where there were no good kings and everybody turned their back on God, it is still 10 to 1, grace and mercy to justice.

If we take the time to read the text ourselves,

we can see God for who He really is. There's a whole lot of blue and not much red.

Don't misunderstand me. There are obviously elements of justice in some of these stories. Elisha's servant is struck with Naaman's leprosy for his greed and lying. The king's officer who doubts and scoffs God's ability to provide food for the starving people is killed when they rush to go get that food.

The Syrian army, when it rises up against God's people, well, yeah, they are defeated and that's God's justice. There are elements of justice. But these are still stories of mercy and grace. Accounts of mercy and grace. And deliverance. Because this is who God is and always has been. But people want to take this one three verse story and make that be the picture of all that God is.

It's disingenuous. Well, that's reading hearts. Maybe they're not being disingenuous. But what we need to encourage them to do is to see the full picture. Because the full picture is the real picture of who God is. Now, the other side of the coin, we're running a little low on time, so we may not read these verses.

Does the New Testament God not practice justice? Does God practice justice in the New Testament? Of course He does. And a couple of really great examples of that, 2 Thessalonians 1, 6 through 9, in providing comfort to the brethren in Thessalonica who are going through some persecution. Yeah, God is going to judge in flaming fire.

He's going to be Vindicate you against those who trouble you against those who persecute you. Yes God is going to judge those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ Hebrews 10:26-31, maybe this is some of the most It's judgmental language in all the Bible. If people count the blood of the covenant a common thing, if they kick the blood of Jesus and say, I don't need it, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin.

All there is is a fearful expectation of judgment. This is the New Testament God. And that other side of the coin is there in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Let's be balanced here. To say that there is no tone or Difference in tone or emphasis between the Old and New Testaments would be disingenuous of me.

So my question is why? Why is there a difference in tone and emphasis? Again, God is the same. God is unchanging. But certainly we see a difference in emphasis and tone from the Old Testament and the New Testament. There is more As a general rule, justice in the Old Testament as compared to the mercy that we see in the New Testament.

The difference, in my judgment, real or imagined, between the Old Testament God and the New Testament God is not a change in the nature of God Himself, His character or characteristics or attributes, but it is a change in the nature of the covenants. Notice four changes with me. There are many more changes that we could point out, but I think this helps clarify in our own minds, and hopefully helps us clarify as we try and answer to other people, why there is this difference in tone or emphasis between the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Number one. There's a change from a covenant of birth to a covenant of choice. And that's a big deal for this reason. You were a Jew, you were an Israelite because you were born into that family. Whatever faithfulness there was in your parents or wasn't, whatever faithfulness you had or didn't have, You were just born into this covenant, and then you chose, yes, whether to follow it or not, and many, many, many of them did not follow it.

But we think about the covenant of Jesus Christ. That is not a covenant of physical birth. It's a covenant of spiritual birth. It's a covenant of choice. Only those who choose to come to God to receive His mercy and grace and forgiveness will be a part of this new covenant with Jesus Christ. And that change, obviously, is reflected in the people who are a part of it.

As a general rule, the people in the New Covenant are going to be more faithful than the people in the Old Covenant. Which means there's going to be less judgment necessary, because you have people who are trying to do what's right, versus people who, well, every man does what is right in his own eyes, just like in the days of the judges.

So you see that change in the nature of that covenant? The second change, it's a change from the Law of Moses to the Law of Christ. We think about the Law of Moses, the Law of Moses was a spiritual law, yes, but it was also a civil law as well as a religious law for the Jewish nation. It governed both the nation and the individuals of that nation.

It provided both the civil side and the spiritual side. The law was the law. It was all encompassing. And when the law of Moses punishes someone with death for a particular sin, we should remember that that was also a matter of civil law. Just like we have the death penalty for certain crimes in our, in our time and in our country.

Right? There is, do we have the death penalty in our country today? Yes, we do. That's civil law. And the spiritual law that we have in Jesus Christ doesn't call on us to do anything like that toward anyone in any sort of physical sense. Because it is not a civil law. It's a spiritual law. With spiritual applications.

And so I think we see that with number three. A change from immediate judgment on both civil and spiritual matters to deferred eternal judgment primarily regarding spiritual matters. The law of Christ governs our spiritual lives and provides the perspective that we should have on all things, including civil government to a certain extent.

But Christ's law does not provide the actual laws for our country. Romans 13 and other passages give the actual making of that civil law and the carrying out of the punishment of that civil law to the civil authorities, right? That they don't bear the sword in vain. That yes, up to and including this idea of capital punishment, the government has that power delegated from God.

So, while somebody might be guilty of a crime deserving of harsh punishment that's not dealt with specifically in the New Testament in regard to civil law. Instead, God's judgment is primarily deferred to the end of our lives and the judgment day. And so there's just a lot more things that are regulated in the law of Moses than there are in the law of Christ.

But I think the biggest reason for the change in tone is this fourth thing, before I reveal it.

What was the purpose of the Old Law, the Law of Moses? To bring us to Christ. Yeah, to bring us to Christ. That's right. To teach us about God. To do all these things. But to bring us to Christ how? To show us through this family that Christ was coming. To work out God's plan. All of those things are true. But may I suggest, just, let's cut this as finely and as specifically as we can.

It brought us to Christ showing us that we needed Christ. The old law was there to show us that we could not solve the problem of sin on our own. God says, okay, here's the law. Keep this law perfectly, work perfectly, and you can deserve to have a relationship with me, and you can go to heaven someday. You can have perfect fellowship with me if you keep this law perfectly.

And over the course of 1500 years or so, how many people kept the law perfectly? None.

The purpose of the Old Law was to show us the consequences of sin and to show us the difficulty of living without sin. But that is not something that anybody did until Jesus came and lived perfectly. So why is there a difference in tone and emphasis? Because the Old Law is showing us this is what happens when you sin!

There's judgment! There's separation from God! The There are dire, eternal consequences to sin. And you need a Savior who can solve this problem of sin for you. So we change from a covenant to teach us that we cannot solve the problem of sin ourselves, to a covenant that does solve the problem.

We call, we call all of this the gospel, right? The good news. And Harold discussed that in his Bible class our Bible class, when, when he was talking about the book of Galatians, right? Well, good news implies there's bad news. The bad news is the Old Testament. You're, you're condemned under the law.

You are condemned because of your sin. As, as Paul says at the end of Romans 7, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord, right? That Jesus in the New Covenant solves the problem by His grace and by His mercy. So yes, there is obviously a difference in tone and emphasis because there is a different emphasis.

An emphasis toward the solution to that problem. And thank God we live under the New Covenant. Not because God is nicer now than He used to be, but because His plan has come to fruition. Amen. To bring about salvation in Jesus Christ. And if you're here this evening, I want you to know that we serve an unchanging God, a God who is full of compassion and mercy and grace, who forgives, but also is just and righteous and which side of God's character you ultimately will receive is up to you.

Will you come in humble submission to say, I want to receive God's grace, and I'm willing to do whatever He requires in order to receive forgiveness in Jesus Christ. I'll put off the old man of sin. I'll go down into a watery grave of baptism. I will rise to walk in newness of life to receive God's mercy.

The alternative is to stand before God in judgment, without Jesus beside you, without a relationship with Him. And yes, in that moment, what we would see is God's wrath. But it doesn't have to be that way. We can see God's mercy and grace both now and forevermore. And if we can help you with that, even tonight, come while together we stand and while we sing.