God is Not

	Christianity is a wonderfully positive religion.  It offers a life of love, joy, peace and hope.  The Bible is a wonderfully positive book.  It tells what we can do to be saved.
	Sometimes, though, certain concepts are more easily understood when presented in the negative.  God is a wonderfully positive being.  He provides us with the opportunity to have eternal life.  He is many things.  We even have words such as "omnipotent," "omniscient" and "omnipresent" to describe Him.  In plain English, He is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present.  Still, there are some things that God is not.
	For example, God is not wishy-washy or unpredictable.
	"For I, the Lord, do not change," we read in Malachi 3:6.
	"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever," Hebrews 13:8 informs us.
This is almost too obvious, isn't it?  If so, why do so many people in the religious world act as though God were wishy-washy and unpredictable?  Why do they act as if God will accept one thing today and another tomorrow?  Or why do they say that God will accept anything and everything?
	"But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed," Paul notes in Galatians 1:8.   "As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be accursed," the Apostle repeats in the next verse.
	Is God wishy-washy or unpredictable?  Will He accept anything and everything?  Is the Gospel any different from what it was one year ago or one thousand years ago?  Will it change at some time in the future?
	"Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation," Jude writes in verse three of his short epistle, "I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints."
	Is God wishy-washy or unpredictable?  Will He accept anything and everything?  Is what we believe any different from what we had to believe one year ago or one thousand years ago?  Will it change at some time in the future?
	"For this reason I have sent to you Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord," Paul states in 1 Corinthians 4:17, "and he will remind you of my ways which are in Christ, just as I teach everywhere in every church."
	Is God wishy-washy or unpredictable?   Is what the church practices today any different from what the church had to practice one year ago or one thousand years ago, or what it must practice in the future?
	"Therefore, I was not vacillating when I intended to do this, was I?" Paul asks in 2 Corinthians 1:17-20.  "Or that which I purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that with me there should be yes, yes and no, no (at the same time}?  But as God is faithful, our word to you is not yes and no.  For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, who was preached among you by us-- by me and Silvanus and Timothy-- was not yes and no, but is yes in Him. - For as many as may be the promises of God, in Him they are yes; wherefore also by Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us."
Is God wishy-washy or unpredictable?  Will He tell us to do one thing today and another tomorrow?
God is all-powerful, all-knowing and all-present.  He is not wishy-washy or unpredictable.  Neither is He a poor communicator.
This is almost too obvious, isn't it?  Why then do so many in the religious world act as though it were impossible to understand exactly what God expects from us?
"God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in (His) Son," the writer of Hebrews informs us  in the first two verses, "whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world."
"Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;" we read in John 20:30-31, "but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.
God knows exactly what He wants us to do and He knows exactly how He wants to communicate it to us.   He is definitely not a poor communicator.
"So faith (comes) from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ," Paul explains in Romans 10:17-18.   "But I say, surely they have never heard, have they? Indeed they have; 'Their voice has gone out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the  world.'"
"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not (come to) know God," we learn in 1 Corinthians 1.21, "God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe."
"Since you have in obedience to the truth purified your souls for a sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart," 1 Peter 1:22-25 advises, "for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, (that is,) through the living and abiding word of God.  For, 'All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord abides forever.' And this is the word which was preached to you."

God is not wishy-washy or unpredictable.  He is not a poor communicator.  And He is not stupid.  This is almost too obvious, isn't it?   Why then do so many in the religious world act as though God has gone to a lot of trouble for nothing?  When do they act this way?  They do it when they claim that there are many ways to be saved or many ways to worship.  They do it when they feel that, although God says one thing, something else is just as good.  They do it when they place their own wisdom above the wisdom of God.  Listen to what God has to say in 1 Corinthians 1:18-31.
	"For the word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness," we read, "but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.  For it is written, 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.' Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not (come to) know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs, and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.  For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that He might nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God.  But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, that, just as it is written, 'Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.'"
God is not stupid.  But we make Him out to be stupid when we think He is foolish enough to send Jesus to suffer and die on the cross if there are other ways of being saved.  What are we saying when we make statements such as, "I don't kill, I don't steal, so God will send me to heaven," even though He has said in passages such as Romans chapter three that "there is none righteous" and "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God"?
"And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men, by which we must be saved," God says clearly through Peter in Acts 4:12.
We make God out to be stupid when we believe we can be saved without having anything to do with the church, even though He has stated in passages such as Ephesians 1:22-23 that the church Is the body of Christ.
We could go on with this discussion.
"Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap," Galatians 6:7 notes.
God is not mocked.   But this is exactly what we try to do when we act as though we can have any kind of lifestyle and still be acceptable to God.  But the trick is on us.  It is we who are being mocked and not God.
God is not a liar.  When do we say He is?  We say God is a liar when we act as though He doesn't really mean what He tells us in the Bible.
Some suggest that we are wrong when we say that the New Testament must be the authority for what we teach and do.  They ridicule us for saying that, according to the New Testament there is one way to be saved or there is one way to worship God. But when they do this they are really ridiculing God.  For, try as they will, they cannot demonstrate from the Bible that there are many ways to be saved or many ways to worship acceptably.
"Enter by the narrow gate;" Jesus points out In Matthew 7:13-14, "for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.  For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it."
	"But in vain do they worship Me," God claims in Matthew 15:9, "teaching as doctrines the precepts of men."
	God is not wishy-washy or unpredictable.  He is not a poor communicator.  He is not stupid.  He is not mocked.   He is not a liar.  Lets make sure we don' t indicate any differently  through what we believe or teach.   And what if we decide to not accept the truth as taught in the Bible?
	"Dealing out retribution," Paul warns in 2 Thessalonians 1:8, "to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus."
	"He who rejects Me," Jesus promises in John 12:48-50, "and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day.  For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me commandment, what to say, and what to speak.  And I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me."
	We can reject God and be lost, or we can listen to the truth and be set free.

Unless otherwise noted, "Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE(R), (C) Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977. Used by permission."