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I. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF GOD IS ESSENTIAL TO HIS NATURE. He has not the reasons for changing that we have.

1. He knows all things. Men decide from partial knowledge, and then fuller information leads them to change their minds. But God knows everything from the first.

2. He is strong. Men are persuaded against their better judgment, or they weakly yield to temptation. But God is perfect in will and character. He cannot be urged to do what he knows is not the absolutely best.

3. He is good. It is well that men can and do change, for much of the past course of the world's history is wrong, and the only hope for man is in his mending his ways. But God has been faultless from the first; there is nothing for him to repent of.

II. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF GOD IS A WARNING AGAINST MAN'S PRESUMPTION. The danger is in judging God by man's changeable standards. Thus people come to think that he will not really perform what he threatens. They trust to the influence of time in melting away the Divine purposes against sin; or they rely on their own urgency in attempting to persuade God not to accomplish his will; or they imagine that in some way they shall be able to elude the grasp of his Law. All these courses show a foolish misapprehension of the firmness and strength of God. They are false because he is true.

III. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF GOD IS AN ENCOURAGEMENT FOR FAITH.

1. In his Law. He has revealed his will, and we may be sure that he will keep to it. He is not like a fickle despot, whose shifting moods baffle the watchfulness of the most subservient courtier. When we once know his will, we may rely upon it that this is permanent.

2. In his promises. God has revealed himself in gracious purposes. These purposes he will never abandon. The ingratitude of man does not destroy the good will of God. A weaker being would be worn out with the constant rebellion and the utter unworthiness of his children. But God is infinitely patient. In spite of the world's folly and sin, he holds inflexibly to his purpose of saving and redeeming it. It cannot be that of all the Divine attributes mercy only is fragile and transitory; that while God's truth and justice remain, this one characteristic may be broken down, and may vanish away. On the contrary, it is explicitly revealed to us over and over again that "the mercy of the Lord endureth for ever."

IV. THE INFLEXIBILITY OF GOD IS NOT INCONSISTENT WITH HIS VARYING TREATMENT OF US. He has no rigid, uniform method of action. He adapts his treatment of us to our conduct and our need. His inflexibility is in his character, not in details of action. The very fact that he is changeless in himself leads to the result that he acts differently under different circumstances. We are governed not by an iron law, but by a faithful God.

1. In answer to prayer. God is not changed or bent by our prayer. But he sees fit to do, in response to our confidence in him, what he would not think well to do without it.

2. In the redemption of the world. This is a new action. The gospel declares a fresh Divine movement. But all of it springs from the eternal purposes of God; and all of it is in accordance with his changeless character of love and righteousness. - W.F.A.

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KJV: But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.

WEB: But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? What his soul desires, even that he does.