God Can't Lie Series

5 Things God Can’t Do – 1) God Can’t Lie.

Gladstone Baptist Church – 9/1/05 pm

(Adapted from “Things that are impossible for God, Part 1 – It’s impossible for God to Lie” by Mike Howerton)

What do you think God looks like? What do you think He acts like? Like some grandfather in the sky just smiling down on us – but powerless to stop things like tsumanis and earthquakes? Maybe you think He is like a security guard watching the surveillance tapes of all our lives? Or maybe He is more like a cop waiting to bust us? What do you think God is like?

That’s a good question. No matter where you are on the spiritual journey – whether you’re just checking this God thing out for the first time or you’ve grown up in a church and you’re sold out to Jesus, the reality is, it’s worth us taking the time to explore what God’s characteristics are like.

Over the next 5 weeks, I want to talk about 5 things that God can’t do. When I’ve told people what I plan to preach on, I’ve got some interesting looks. I think that on some occasions, I even heard the cries of “heretic” coming from under their breath.

Maybe some of you are thinking that way right now. You are wondering where you can find enough wood around the property here to make a bon fire to burn me on. You are thinking about verses like. Luke 1:37 says, “For nothing is impossible with God.” If you thought about that verse – great, you know your Bible. Jesus reiterates this a little later in Luke 18:27 when He says “What’s impossible with men is possible with God.”

1. So you say … Isn’t God ALL POWERFUL?

Yes He is! He is an OMNIPOTENT God - All powerful. He has no limit to his strength, no end to the things He can do – his might. The Bible says that God not only created all things but He holds all things together all the time. He holds the sub atomic particles together. He binds the molecules together and strings them together into something orderly that goes to make up you stomach or your lungs or your fingernail. God holds it all together. He’s intimately involved in all areas of creation all the time. There are no limits to the things that God can do.

God is the CREATOR. God created everything from scratch, the universe, the billions of stars. Out of his thought, He created them. Then He placed humanity at the very centre of his love. He is powerful and uses this power to care for us, provide for us and love us. He DIED on the cross to take the sin of humanity on himself then three days later He shows His power when He ROSE AGAIN. I can see the power of God in CHANGED lives the last 2000 years. I know it’s real in my own life. I can see the change He’s made in me. It’s not like I was a Satanist or a gang member or terrorist. But God wasn’t number one in my life. But God has changed me in a huge way over the last 12 years or so.

God is all powerful – powerful enough to create and sustain this world and powerful enough to change me and you. And if that’s true. If there’s nothing that’s impossible with God, what about with this whole series?

2. God can’t go against his OWN NATURE.

While there is nothing that is impossible for God, God cannot be INCONSISTENT. Another way to say this is God can’t not be God. God has to be himself – if He is not himself, He is not God.. The decisions God makes, the way that God acts spring from his own character, from who He is. He doesn’t just do things because He wants to, He does things because that is who He is. For example there are loving acts that God does. Why? Because God is love. That’s his character. That’s who He is. God can’t change that and if He were to change it, He wouldn’t be God any more.

This is true in your own life. You’re wired with certain DNA that make you a human and make you the individual that you are. Your DNA gives you certain characteristics and traits. You can’t change that you cannot change your DNA. You could pretend. You could put little contacts in your eyes, change the color of your eyes. You could dye your hair, your eyebrows... You could pretend that you have blond hair or purple hair. You could even have a sex change operation. But you can never change your DNA. You can’t change who you really are – everything you do would only be pretending. God’s the same way. He cannot change the nature of who He is. He cannot change his basic characteristics. And because of this, there are some things that God is not able to do.