Bible Lesson 194

A remedial study of God

“Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture” Psalms 100:3

Isaiah has come to the end of himself. Like Moses and Median, like Job when he saw God , like Daniel with his comeliness turned to corruption and Habakkuk with rottenness entering his bones; like Peter at Tiberias and Paul with his thorn, he has come to the end of all feeling and trying and praying, the end of all he is and has, to where God begins.

Vance Havner.

The Prophet Amos warns us that God will send a famine on the land and there can be no doubt that it has come upon us in this 21st Century. It is important for us to note that Amos prophesied against Israel in a time National optimism in Israel, which in fact caused them to take their focus off of their Creator God and put it on the things that rust and decay and can be stolen, or lost. They had left the best for the insignificant, and America finds itself today in that same predicament. We have begun to seek the things of the world and we have neglected the things of God.

We have become so engaged with the world that we have moved away from God. We have lost the knowledge of God, and we are normally too arrogant to admit that we have lost that knowledge. Amos, inspired by God, warned Israel and it is very relevant for us in our day: ” Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, That I will send a dearth (famine) on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the Word of the Lord, But shall not find it.” I’m sure that many who read this lesson will want to argue but it’s time we put down our rose-colored glasses and took a good long look at ourselves.

We do not know our God, we may know about Him but we do not understand that rather than being simply a ‘go to’ when we need something, or want something done. That is an abominable way of thinking about our God who is the Creator of everything that we know about and so much that we do not know about. God has told us everything that we need to live the life that He demands of His children, and it is called the Bible. God has not procrastinated or left any dim scriptures that we cannot understand, that is if we are his obedient brothers and sisters.

The reason that we have become dim-witted, perverts and just plain evil is that we do not know who God is and so, even if we wanted to, we could not be saved from an eternity in torment in hell. Why is it that we have lost the knowledge of God’ It is because we have taught people that they do not need to read it for themselves, since their pastors and teachers will tell them all they need to know.

The Prophet Amos warns us that God will send a famine on the land and there can be no doubt that it has come upon us in this 21st Century. It is important for us to note that Amos prophesied against Israel in a time National optimism in Israel, which in fact caused them to take their focus off of their Creator God and put it on the things that rust and decay and can be stolen, or lost. They had left the best for the insignificant, and America finds itself today in that same predicament. We have begun to seek the things of the world and we have neglected the things of God. We have become so engaged with the world that we have moved away from God. We have lost the knowledge of God, and we are normally too arrogant to admit that we have lost that knowledge. Amos, inspired by God, warned Israel and it is very relevant for us in our day: ” Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God, That I will send a dearth (famine) on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east; They shall run to and fro, seeking the Word of the Lord, But shall not find it.” I’m sure that many who read this lesson will want to argue but it’s time we put down our rose-colored glasses and took a good long look at ourselves.

We do not know our God, we may know about Him but we do not understand that rather than being simply a ‘go to’ when we need something, or want something done. That is an abominable way of thinking about our God who is the Creator of everything that we know about and so much that we do not know about. God has told us everything that we need to live the life that He demands of His children, and it is called the Bible. God has not procrastinated or left any dim scriptures that we cannot understand, that is if we are his obedient brothers and sisters. The reason that we have become dim-witted, perverts and just plain evil is that we do not know who God is and so, even if we wanted to, we could not be saved from an eternity in torment in hell. Why is it that we have lost the knowledge of God’ It is because we have taught people that they do not need to read it for themselves, since their pastors and teachers will tell them all they need to know.

So, now, we don’t have to take the time and make the effort to prepare our minds and hearts to approach a Holy and Just God, as we seek His face by reading what He inspired and protected in the Bible. There was a time and still is, that people could trust men who were called and equipped by God to lead you to the knowledge of God and His salvation; but the chances today are much less than they were, back 150 years ago. Certainly, there are some preachers today whom God has called to carry His Word, that men can trust; however if you can read and understand the Bible, you will be held responsible for reading it and knowing it and following it. Think about this, a preacher or any other person could tell you about how good a piece of pie is, yet you would really never know just what it tastes like, unless and until, you tried it yourself. Someone could tell you how beautiful a certain part of a country is but until you view it for yourself, you will never see all of the details of its beauty. It is the same with the Bible, you will never know exactly what God is like, What His Majesty really is, or His great power and love for those who follow His commandments, until you see and hear it for yourself , as you prayerfully and humbly read and study it for yourself.

Christianity is all about God, and the Trinity of God, it is about knowing and desiring all the knowledge of God and we only gain that by reading the Bible for ourselves. I have not found anyone so dull and dim that they really wanted to go to hell for eternity, most everyone wants to have a brighter and more joyful eternal life in heaven. So how do we gain that gift of God that grants us the forgiveness of our sin, and a just standing before our holy God’ Jesus Christ, who is God in the flesh, tells us in John 17:3, just prior to His death on the cross for those who would obey Him, as He prayed to the Father and said, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent.” You may live as clean a lifestyle as can be done in the weakness of the flesh, you may do all the things connected to the general understanding of church life, you may be a good husband/wife, father/mother, etc, and still miss heaven by a mile, because you do not understand what God really requires from you; or what He has done to clear your record and grant you eternal life.

Salvation is not some program that is developed by a denomination, not procured by any formula that is drawn up, or earned by your own goodness. Salvation is a gift from a Sovereign God who only extends His gracious gift to those who meet the standards laid down in God’s love letter to His Creatures (The Bible). Understand now, there are many gods out there in our time, and we have even begun to form relationships and teach some people about these false gods. The truth is that there is but One God and it is the God of the Bible. All other gods are those who have made themselves gods and who worship they know not what. Sadly Americans are so Biblically illiterate that it is not hard to teach them that as long as someone uses the word god, that they are worshiping Jehovah. That is a lie off the mud-sills of hell, and those who read and study the Inspired, Inerrant, and Infallible

Word of God, the Bible, know for certain that God is very exclusive, in the kind of worship He will accept. As a case in point, we see millions in America who have gone after false gods, and set up places where they worship some imaginary god, and they recruit others to come and worship with them. Will God take into consideration that these people were fooled into believing in a false god’ Absolutely not! Those who have ever really read and asked God to reveal the truth unto them know that God will not accept that kind of worship. (1st Timothy 4:1; 2nd Timothy3:1-5; 2nd Timothy 4:1-5; Matthew 7:15; Matthew 24:24; 1st John 4:1).

Those who read the Bible to have it teach them about God, instead of them attempting to teach the Bible what they want it to say, know that the prophet Elijah called a backslidden Israel to Mount Carmel to prove that Baal was a false god and he said to them “How long will you falter between two opinions’ If the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal, follow him.” You can read that account of God proving Himself to His chosen nation in First Kings chapter 18. It is important that we make it clear that having a head full of knowledge about Scripture, is not necessarily evidence, of our knowing God.

Knowing God results when God extends His Grace and Mercy to a person who has come to the end of self. We gain knowledge of God and show some degree of faith whenever we read the Bible and open ourselves to the truth (Romans 10:17); however we are not saved until God begins regeneration after He has, by Grace, extended the gift of Faith to the person to be saved. The very best evidence of a person’s knowledge of God and their salvation is that they begin to follow and obey God’s will and way. Neither God’s will nor God’s way, may be known outside of Biblical knowledge; and you cannot be sure that you know the truth until you have read it for yourself. You may have a great preacher who preaches the truth, but that is all second hand information, and I know that I personally want to know the truth for myself; because it involves my eternal life and where I will spend it.

Everyone of us knows the word ‘God’ and we use it sometimes frequently, but do we know what we are saying when we say God’ Whether we know it or not when we speak the Word God we are referring to The Almighty, The ‘I AM’, The Creator, who spoke all we know into being. That is the only God, any other god is not the God who lives and is the source of all that we know. Our God is sovereign, and infinitely perfect, He exists as One God, who manifests Himself to His creatures in three distinct, co-equal personalities or persons (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Our God is a Holy, Just and jealous God, a God who has not only created us to inhabit the earth but who has left us a definite plan for our lives as we live here on His earth. He shed His Grace, mercy, and love for His creatures by daily provision, and a measure of joy and happiness as we live to glorify and enjoy Him every day. He is our King and we are soldiers in His army, He is the Supreme Commander and we are His loyal servants.

The problem that we have in America and other countries that have so called Christians in them is that it appears that most of God’s soldiers have gone AWOL, absent without leave. We have left the field of battle and taken for ourselves other employment. We have gone so far away that we no longer receive His orders, we are lost and cannot find our way. We have not been taught How Great and Glorious, how Gracious and Powerful He is. We no longer fear His power to not only take our life, but to put us into hell where we will endure in torment and suffering for eternity (Matthew 10:28). Why do we not fear God’ Because, we have been taught by pastors who are not called of God, that we should not fear Him. They tell us that we are to love Him rather than fear Him; however it is the love of God that draws us to Him but the fear of God keeps us in His service. We have men teaching us that it is all about love, and in a sense it is, but what they have failed to tell us is that no man will ever know the love of God, until he deals with God’s wrath against his sin. We have been fooled and misled about what love really is. We have been instructed by Hollywood, the media and in many cases the people who call themselves church members that love is that sickening, slobbering, kind of love that simply covers the evil hearts of those who would lead us astray. Love is active and real and will die for what is right (John 15:13). We have split up and decided to do things our way, so now, although we use the same vocabulary, we do not use the same dictionary. We like that weak and useless kind of love that does not require anything of us except our blind compliance of the status quo.

We have invented a god that would never require us to do anything, to say anything, to even die before we would deny our God. We have been wrong for so long that these days, we believe and teach our children a gospel that has nothing to do with our God. We like to teach children and adults who never grew up, that it is all about God loving us enough to give us a life that is without pain or trouble or sickness, and what we teach is Jesus came to bring peace on earth, when in reality Jesus Christ said ” Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be those of his own household” (Matthew 10:34-36). The Bible portrays a life that is couched in terms like, armies, race, struggle and the like, and we are commanded to put on the Armor of God (Ephesians 6:11; Hebrews 12:1; 2nd Timothy 2:3). The life we live here on the earth is a life that bears fruit for the Kingdom of heaven. This is the life that only the born again children of God can live, because in our new birth, God empowers us to do them (John 15:1-8; Ephesians 2:10; 2nd Corinthians 5:17; Philippians 2:13).

We serve a mighty God and instead we want to act like God works for us. We have had the cart before the horse, to coin a phrase, for so long that we have begun to really act as it that were true. God is God and we are adopted children: He is the Creator and we are simply Creatures, and until we understand our true position with God, we will be of no use to Him. We have to know and believe and act like we believe that God is who He says He is in our Bible. We saw back there in John chapter 15 that Christ compared us to branches that had been grafted in to Him, who was the true vine. God the Father is the vinedresser, the one who maintains the vineyard. We are grafted into the true vine, Jesus Christ, and we are engrafted to produce fruit (obedience to God’s commands). Those who are obedient will always produce fruit, and lots of it, those who are not producers of good fruit are lopped off and cast into the fire (John 15:1-8).

I think those scriptures there in Chapter 15 of John should focus our attempt to see our God correctly. Without Him we are nothing, regardless of what position, or possessions, or power we may come to possess on the earth, we are nothing and have nothing without God. We should understand that our God is the one who owns the vineyard, and Jesus Christ is the true vine, while we are simply an engrafted branch that exists at the pleasure of the vineyards owner. We must never attempt to be what most church members are in our society, and that is a branch that merely sits in the shade of the other branches, taking nourishment from the vine, and contributing nothing. The Bible assures us that the branches that do not produce will be lopped off (taken away), removed from the vine and burned in the fire. There are so very many today who have been engrafted into church congregations, and by that I mean that the church has extended fellowship to those who were not saved. Further than that in some cases the very fountain head, the leadership of the churches are not saved.

If we are not preaching the way the Bible tells us to preach, and if we are not preaching the Word of God, then we are not obeying God and we ourselves are ready to be lopped off the branch to be cast into the flames of hell. I know that so many preachers today have been taught ‘Seminary preaching’, what that does is to sometime read a short portion of scripture and then create our own little scenario, that usually departs from what God has said, and takes up on what the preacher has been taught, or what some other writer has said.

The Bible gives us very specific instructions on how we are to preach and what we are to preach. God inspired the Apostle Paul to write to instruct us’ “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2nd Timothy 4:2-4). You know what’ These, times when people will not endure sound doctrine, has already arrived, and it didn’t get here just yesterday, they have been with us for years and years. All of the problems with American Christianity is that most have lost their way and they have thought they could have a convenient god who would never interfere, when they wanted to sin, a god who required nothing from them and that they could manipulate. Heaven help us!

Until next time,

may God bless and keep you

This is Bro. Bob