MAN CANNOT BARGAIN WITH GOD

Charles E. Burch

We all enjoy a good bargain. We spend a great deal of time trying to find one, if we are shopping for a large item. For example, to purchase a new car one may contact many dealers before closing the deal. This is simply smart buying, because we can shop for the best deal or until we find the bargain that we want.

But man cannot bargain with God today! There was a time when some of the Patriarch did to some degree. Abraham did concerning the number of righteous people it would take to save Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:20-32). In so doing God did not have to alter any of his laws, in this case.

Today we live under a different law. The New Testament law is unchangeable. God said what He meant, and meant what He said. Some today, instead of obeying, seek to bargain with God. I will do this if you will do so and so. God's law today is etched in stone, so to speak. This simply means, He is not going to change any of His laws to suit man.

Many say, oh I know God said it, but He really wouldn't punish me for that little thing. For example, Jesus said, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but  he that  believeth  not shall be dammed" (Mark 16:16). Then someone says, you don't believe God would punish someone for such a little thing as that! You don't have to be baptized! Who said you didn't? Jesus said,  if one believes and is baptized he shall be saved. If one doesn’t believe, he will not be baptized. To omit either is to be lost.

Picking up sticks on Saturday is a little thing to me. But God said stone the man to death who did it. “And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbath day. And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation...And the LORD said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to death: all the congregation shall stone... And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and stoned him with stones, and he died; as the LORD commanded Moses” (Numbers 15:32-36). God had said, "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy" (Exodus 20:8).

To bring it closer to the church, some feel they have God's special permission to attend worship when they please. And in order to justify this belief, they deny the plain teachings of the New Testament. The Hebrew writer stated, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching" (Hebrews 10:25). Then some say, "Oh I am not forsaking, I just missed once". This passage teaches that being absent just one time, when one could have been present is forsaking God and His worship at that assembly. WHY DO PEOPLE WANT TO WATER DOWN GOD'S WORD, INSTEAD OF SIMPLY OBEYING WHAT HE SAID?

"Man cannot  bargain with God!" IT IS OBEY OR PERISH!