REWRITING GOD Romans 1.28-32

Who Is God

• Deut 4.12 • 2 Kings 18.4• Rom 1.28

And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye

heard a voice

when we create something to represent anything we shape and craft it in the way that we see it - the image will reflect our attitudes and ideas about it and even though we might have the intention of showing the greatness of God we miss the point that God cannot be reduced to what we think of him

Who Is God

• Deut 4.12 • 2 Kings 18.4• Rom 1.28

He removed the high places, and brake the images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces the brasen

serpent that Moses had made: for unto those days the children of Israel did burn incense to it

Hezekiah destroyed it because the image became the focus of worship and not God Himself

Who Is God

• Deut 4.12 • 2 Kings 18.4• Rom 1.28

… they did not like to retain God in their knowledge

spiritual history reveals that humans have always wanted to see God in the way that we prefer - when it comes to God’s word there are many who will not hold to what we find in the scriptures and so seek to alter that in some way - there are a

number of ways that this is done …

How is God Rewritten or

Recreated ?

• 2 Tim 3.16 • 2 Pet 1.20-21• Rom 10.17• Jude 3

Doubt The Word ….

We don’t understand the process of inspiration and so since we cannot explain it we want to challenge the idea

•it was not the experience of the prophets or their opinions that were recorded but since we don’t have any way of proving or understanding the process we can challenge the validity of God’s word and what it contains

•faith comes by the word of God - true faith - not just a system of belief that makes us feel good

•earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints

How is God Rewritten or

Recreated ?

• 2 Cor 5.11 • 2 Thess 1.7-8• 2 Tim 4.3

Put A Spin On It …. •while we paint lovely images of God’s word and belief we cannot deny that fact that there are some things that we would really like to avoid

•one of those being the fact that the loving Jesus will return in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that do not know or obey the truth

•If we want to send everyone to heaven regardless of what they are and what they believe we can find a lot of people that will tell us what we want to hear

How is God Rewritten or

Recreated ?

• 2 Pet 2.3 • 1 Cor 11.1

More confidence in humans than in God ….

•We are sometimes more convinced by someone’s personality, speaking abilities and emotional pleas than with what they are actually teaching

•Paul was an example of what the Corinthians needed to be

•It is not uncommon to find folks who leave religious bodies when preacher / pastor or other figure dies or leaves in search of someone to take their place

How is God Rewritten or

Recreated ?

• Matt 15.9 • Gal 4.16• Luke 13.3

Alter The Word …. •we can find a translation of the scriptures that changes the language of the word so it is easier to take

•If we tell some folks what the Bible says and use the language of the scriptures themselves they can’t tolerate those harsh ideas.

•no matter how good we think we are or how loving we want to view God - the Lord expects us to do things his way

How is God Rewritten or

Recreated ? Ignore It Completely ….

•It doesn’t matter that there is so much confusion and differences in every other area of life when we start

thinking about religious things we for some reason just want everything to be consistent and cannot tolerate any variation - if we applied the same reasoning to

other areas of life we would never walk into a grocery, car dealership, electronics store or anything else

because there is so much competition

How is God Rewritten or

Recreated ?

• Gal 5.19-21 • Gal 5.22-23

Evaluate It Negatively ….

•Being a Christian is no fun .. Right .. Do we approach all of our activities and evaluate them in light what they might interfere with rather that what we stand to gain.

•when we really look at the consequences that we are all well aware of how can we continue to think of God’s word as the enemy of life ... Humans are known to pursue things that will destroy us and that is our nature

How is God Rewritten or

Recreated ?

• 1 Cor 10.12 • 2 Cor 5.10• Heb 4.12• Heb 11.6

Trust Our Associations To Save Us ….

•Folks who will sometimes endorse their behavior and way of living not on what they find in God’s word but based on their association with their group “well I’m a .... “ fill in the blanks

•Just because we are a member of the Lord’s body or any other organization will to determine anything at all - we have to drop the club mentality

•We have to let God address us through his word even though there might be some things that cause us discomfort but accepting what God has to say about anything is what need to do to be acceptable to him

•Listening to God will produce the faith that makes us acceptable to the Lord

How is God Rewritten or

Recreated ?

• 2 Pet 1.3 • Deut 29.29

Cultivate Confusion ….

•We can ask “why” forever and not make up our minds about anything but where will be in the long run - we need to stop asking questions and simply make up our minds

•God has given us everything that we need to know and questioning him will only cause more uncertainty

•God has his secrets and we don’t have to have an answer to everything to know what the right thing to do is.

How Do We Fix

This ?

• Rom 10.17• Rom 10.19-20• Acts 2.38• John 12.48• 2 Thess 1.7-10

We Must ….

Accept what God has to say

Stop making excuses and let go of our ideas

Accept the authority of God through Christ

Obey – an unpopular idea with some folks

Realize that this is not a negotiation – God’s terms set

Acknowledge that God’s word will save us, not who we know

Make a decision and stop asking questions

We need to deal with reality before reality deals with us