14 Mar It is What It Is (Discovering the true character of God…because He is not a car-wrecking, cancer causing Creator, but a loving, life giving Lord!) part 29

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Over the last number of months we have shared with you our key verse for this series found in Hebrews 11:6, “For without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

From there we shared three very important takeaways:

  1. Notice the word “cometh”.  The Greek tense for the word “cometh” is in the continual tense, meaning it is discussing those who continually come to God.  It could read “those that cometh and cometh and cometh to God”.  It describes a continual, communicative relationship.
  2. When we continually come to God, we must believe that “He IS”…not He was or He will be.  That describes a vast majority of the Body of Christ.  “God did a miracle in Biblical days” or “One day when we all get to Heaven, He will heal then.”  God is not the Great I was or the Great I will be…He IS the Great I AM!
  3. He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  Now we’ve left behind three quarters of the Body of Christ.  Most don’t believe He is a rewarder…most believe He is a taker!

Then we gave you 4 View Verifications:

  1. How you view Him will determine how much you come to Him.
  2. How you view Him is how you will treat others.  In other words, if you think He’s mad at you, it will be very difficult for you to treat others kindly.
  3. How you view Him will determine your outlook on life.
  4. How you view Him will determine your destiny.

Then we began to discuss 11 Characteristics concerning the Character of God:

  1. You can’t create God in your own image (Rom. 1:25).  
  2. Heaven yes…Hell no!  

 

 

3 Hell Happenings:

1)  Hell was not originally created for man (Matt. 25:41)

2)  God will respect your will all the way to Hell (Matt. 25:34,41)

3)  It’s not sins that send one to Hell, it is a sin that sends one to hell (John 16:7-9)

      3. Sin ruins the view

 

In this section we looked at “Three Sinless Scenarios”:

    1. The Garden of Eden before sin
    2. The life of Jesus – while certainly sin surrounded Him in His earthly ministry, there was no sin in His life (see Heb. 4:15)
    3. Heaven

       4. Will the real God please stand up?  (John 10:10)

 

Then we began to look at Six Nice Nature Necessities:

 

  1. In the Old Covenant, sin had not yet been dealt with
  2. In the Old Covenant, God only acted harshly in judgment.
  3. Remember the causative verse the permissive tense in the Hebrew language.
  4. In the Old Covenant there was very little understanding of the devil.
  5. Jesus the transition (Heb. 1:3)
  6. It is finished (John 19:30, Rom. 6:14)

 

       5. The weather outside is frightful (Rom. 8:19-23, Matt. 24:1-8)

 

       6. Who’s in charge here?  (II Cor. 4:4, Luke 4:6)

Let us review these powerful truths…

 

Here the Bible tells us in II Corinthians 4:4, “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”  Notice the devil is the god (lower case) of this world.  The Greek word translated “world” is kosmos.  “Kosmos” means “world system”.  Therefore this eye-opening verse clearly tells us the devil is in charge of this world’s system.  

The Bible also tells us in Luke 4:6, “And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me: and to whomsoever I will give it.”  This verse tells us how the devil got this kind of authority.  It was relinquished to him by Adam when Adam committed spiritual high treason and sinned.  

In everyday terms, I would describe it this way.   God owns the “apartment complex”.  He then leased it to Adam (see Genesis 1:26-28).  When Adam sinned he then sub-leased it to the devil.  God still owns the apartment complex but the devil has legal claim to some apartment units.  Now God, who respects the law, will not just barge into each unit without being invited.

 

Please allow me to give you three sincere but silly sovereignty statements.  Now let me warn you, some of these statements may be your favorites.  Before you get mad at me, let me reiterate that these statements came from very sincere hearts!  However, sincere and Biblical can be two different things:

  1. “God is in control.”  This is a statement that many Christians utter when their life is spinning out of control.  If we are honest and not looking at life through Sunday school glasses, if God is in control of everything…He is doing a pretty lousy job!  Again, I submit to you that He is not in control of everything that occurs in every apartment complex unit!
  2. “Everything happens for a reason.”  While I certainly agree that “everything happens for a reason”, I also believe that reason must be qualified.  Not everything that happens comes from God.  Yes there is a good God, but there is also a bad devil, a cursed world and stupid people!  Therefore the reason so many bad things happen to good people is because of a bad devil, a cursed world and stupid people.  (I truly believe the devil could retire and leave us to our own decisions…and still do very well!)
  3. “All things work together for good.”  You might be saying, “Now wait just a minute, Pastor Jim, that statement comes directly from the Bible.  I know, I have a plaque from my Christian bookstore over my fireplace that tells me just that!”  Well let’s take a look at that verse in context.  We cannot isolate a verse and make it say whatever we want.  We must always take Scripture in context and in light of the entire Bible.  Here’s what this verse tells us in context:

“Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:26-28).

Here you can plainly see that all things will begin to work for us only as we are praying in the Spirit!  Things will not just automatically get better for us simply because we are Christians.  

Plus, people who espouse that don’t truly believe everything that happens is the will of a sovereign God and that all things work together for good.  If I pressed those people that say they believe that, they always paint themselves into a corner.  If I asked them, “Did God cause that car wreck?”  Most of them would say “Yes.”  However if I continued to press and ask them, “Did God cause that innocent little child to be raped?”  Almost unanimously people would say, “No.”  You see, you can’t have it both ways.  Either He did all those things or did none of those things!  I say none!  Why?  Because your God is not a car-wrecking, cancer-causing Creator…but a loving, life-giving Lord!

Join us next week as we continue our series…