Sermon Central
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God Is Not Mocked. What Does It Really Mean?
Contributed by Bruce Hadley on Jun 22, 2021 (message contributor)
Summary: Most believe God is not mocked is primarily speaking to non-believers, who choose not to listen to God's will. However, there is more to God is not mocked that really speaks to us believers than we realize.
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
All week this scripture has been ringing in my head. Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
To mock someone is to disrespect, dishonor, or ignore them. The most easily recognized form of mockery is disrespect shown by verbal insults, ridicule, contempt and other acts showing disdain. It’s easy for us as believers to point the finger at those who do such things, and speak to their mocking God.
But there is a more-subtle mockery of God, and maybe the most dangerous mockery of God that comes from those of us who are believers, and that is, to ignore God. We are guilty of mockery when we ignore God.
What if, you were to stand up in front of a group of people and have none of them pay you any attention—to talk and have no one listen, to give instructions and have them ignore you. You will feel disrespected and hurt. When you have a conversation with a friend, and your friend is not listening or paying you any attention, you feel ignored, disrespected and hurt. None of us enjoys being ignored.
Imagine, then, how it must grieve God when we ignore Him. Think of how His heart of love must break when, despite the fact that He dwells within us through the Holy Spirit, we act as if He’s not there. Or consider how He must feel when He speaks and gives us guidance through His Word and we ignore Him.
No one likes to be ignored, especially God. When we ignore someone we communicate disrespect.
“The Lord spoke to Manasseh and his people, but they paid no attention.”
No one likes to be ignored, especially God. When we ignore someone who is trying to communicate with us, we are communicating disrespect to that person. And, disrespecting God does and will bring consequences.
(2 Chron. 33:11) So the Lord brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon.
Many of us find ourselves constantly in the same place as Manasseh, in trouble, in the shackles of our problems, because we disrespect the Lord by ignoring Him when He speaks to us, giving us direction, reproof or correction; yet, we ignore Him, and continue to do what we do paying the Lord no attention.
In Jeremiah Chapter 22, Jeremiah, was told by the Lord to deliver a message to God’s people warning them of coming destruction by a foreign force that would come upon them. A destruction they had brought on themselves by ignoring God. Jeremiah 22:21 the Lord said to the people:
I spake unto thee in thy prosperity; but thou saidst, I will not hear. This hath been thy manner from thy youth, that thou obeyedst not my voice.
What if, the CEO of Amazon, the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezzo, came to your home just to give you instructions, a full-proof plan on how to become a millionaire. He even offers to fund your campaign, and tells you that he’s available to you whenever you need any help executing that plan. But, you don’t pay him any attention; you don’t listen to him. You basically ignore him and tell yourself you will figure it out on your own. Then months later, you find yourself facing the worse financial distress in your life. All of which could have been avoided, if you would have just listened and not ignored Jeff Bezzo.
What do you think happens when you ignore God, in exchange for figuring it out on your own?
In Isaiah chapter 30 God tells the Israelites, “One thousand of you shall flee at the rebuke of one…” (Isaiah 30:17) And the Lord gives them the reason for this in Isa. 30 verse 1, He says, “Woe to the rebellious children who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit…”
You see, the nation of Israel was in a jam. The Assyrians were about to invade Israel. So, instead of seeking the Lord, Israel schemed, and plotted, and planned. And they came up with their own solution, they formed an alliance with Egypt. In doing so, they completely ignored God. Although, Israel proclaimed to believe in the Lord God Almighty, they didn’t include Him in the process of their planning, plotting and scheming to somehow overcome the Assyrians. They didn’t include God in their process at all. They took no counsel of the Lord. They ignored and disrespected Him.
See, outwardly they appeared to be godly, but the whole problem was with the hearts, minds, and souls of the Israelites, that’s were God was being ignored. And, it was for this reason within them, they were wracked by guilt and fear, the reason one thousand fled at the rebuke of one, because they didn’t seek God’s counsel, and God is not mocked by our ignoring the One waiting to connect with us in our time of need.
