Covenant Presbyterian Church
Sunday morning Foundations Classes
God's Positioning System (GPS)
Lesson #10
--the most current lesson is always on top
followed by earlier lessons posted below in descending order--
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Under President Trump’s leadership, the
White House announced an “all stops out” effort to develop a COVID-19 vaccine
in months vs. years. Nothing like this has ever been tried before, but
President Trump has ordered “full speed ahead” for a
number of
government agencies, including the military, working with the pharmaceutical
industry to have a vaccine available in months and not years. Man’s efforts are
futile without God, that is why President Trump’s efforts need our prayers for
both wisdom and endurance both in finding a vaccine and economic recovery for
work and freedom of worship.
Don’t neglect the Bible verses.
Christians are destined for heaven, but the final resurrection (Matt. 22:30-32;
1 Cor.15:12-19; Rev. 20) holds something amazingly wonderful for us. Not only a
resurrected glorified body, but perfect in
every way, free of every illness and defect. What lies ahead is a New Heaven
and New Earth (Rev. 21:1) more magnificent that this one. Our study began and
continues with the “Gospel of Grace”. It is the key to everything that lies
ahead. There is no substitute for God’s message of “Saving Grace”—as Pastor
Scott preached last Sunday, any other gospel is no gospel at all.
We are saved by grace alone, through
faith alone, in Christ alone. He did it all, there is nothing we can add to it.
As we
saw and will see in our study, God cares about the world and man, because He
created man for fellowship with Him, but because of the Fall we were separated
from Him. Salvation includes the forgiveness of God as our Father, but this
forgiveness must also take into account that God is a sovereign who cannot set
aside the laws of His Kingdom, and that God is a judge who must render a
verdict and direct a penalty in accordance with His righteous laws and an
affront to His holiness. The salvation which we need must provide not only
forgiveness and acquittal but also provide the
help we need to live as we should. Jesus Christ fulfills all of this on our
behalf before a Holy God. Nothing we do can substitute for,
add to, or
replace what He has done on our behalf.
Jesus taught that God is a forgiving
Father, and He illustrated that love in His self-sacrificing love and prayer on the cross, “Father forgive them for they know not
what they do” (Luke
23:34). In Christ we received this forgiveness, and this acquittal, and a new
power to live a holy life that includes repenting of all wrong-doing and
putting our faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. We are saved because of
God’s mercy and renewing of the Holy Spirit and not by any works we have done,
also evident in Titus 3:4-6.
There are churches that claim to believe
in Jesus Christ but profess a different Jesus. Who then is the biblical Jesus
Christ? The next slide explains…
There are churches that deny
the Triune God (Holy Trinity) and yet profess to be Christian. Photo on the
left is a common and popular attempt to portray the Holy Trinity. As attractive
as the image is, the Father is not in human form in Scripture. Image on the
right gets the same message across of the Triune God—One God, yet three
distinct individual Persons. In Matthew 6:9 Jesus Himself taught us to pray to
the Father. He is alongside of us when we do, just as He was alongside of the
Apostles when He taught them that prayer. The Apostle’s Creed is a statement of
belief that has been with the Church from almost the beginning, that proclaims
Father, Son
and Holy Spirit, a core belief of Christianity.
Strong words in Gal.1:8, that even if
an angel from heaven preached a different gospel, he
warrants eternal condemnation. We looked at angels in our study; wasn’t it
Lucifer, a fallen cherub, who misconstrued God’s Word to Eve and then Adam,
which led to the Fall? So, Paul’s caution regarding an angel preaching was a
possibility and not just a metaphor, even a potential concern. We have one such
example today….
Two current examples of a
different gospel. There are more. Perhaps a future study…. My intent is not to
criticize individual Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses, most of whom are sincere in
their beliefs and most likely they never heard Paul’s arguments in Galatians.
They need our prayers not our contempt, but neither do I want to make excuses
for false doctrine. There is only one Gospel. It is difficult to convince
people that their religion is false or in error. Being raised Roman Catholic, I
never would have left, if it wasn’t for changes in the RC Church itself due to
the Second Vatican Council (a.k.a Vatican II) in 1965, changes
that were contrary
to what I had been taught, seriously undermining my confidence;
and
hearing the true Gospel of
grace alone, from a
co-worker I then understood the biblical Gospel that salvation was by grace
alone and we can’t earn it by religious works no matter how sincere.
Gal 1:6-7a … I am astonished that
you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and
are turning to a different gospel—which is really no gospel at all… NIV
Gal 1:8 But even if we or an angel
from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one
we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! NIV --- Was it a dream, pure imagination, a
fabrication, or a real angel? Even if it was an angel, Paul’s words in v.8 are
clear, also a warning stated in 2 Cor 11:14 “And no wonder, for Satan himself
masquerades as an angel of light.”
Gal 1:9 As we have already said, so
now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you
accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
NIV ---- Have you ever had a Jehovah Witness come to
your door? You have
to give
them credit for zeal, but nevertheless, sadly misguided. Once I had
invited
them in, but it was soon apparent they were on a mission and not receptive to
anything I had to say that wasn’t in sync with their message—consequently it
was a very short visit. Their message is not the path to salvation as well
meaning as they are or sincere their beliefs. Sad.
Many false gospels have emerged over
time. Deism was a popular belief in the 17th and
18th century, that expressed belief in the
existence of a supreme being, but one who does not intervene in the universe. It was an intellectual movement that accepted the existence of a
creator on
the basis of
reason but rejected belief in a supernatural deity who interacts with
humankind.
A brief explanation of Deism.
Like a master clock maker, Deists
believed in a God who designed and created the universe and set it in motion,
the way a clock maker would wind it up and then leave it alone. Deism was a
moral code based on reason and not Scripture. Some of America’s Founders were
Deist, such as Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin two of the most notable.
Thomas Jefferson edited the Bible to fit his beliefs rather than his beliefs to
fit the Bible. His bible became known as the Jefferson Bible, officially titled
“The Life and Morals of
Jesus of Nazareth”. Portraying Jesus Christ as a moral teacher to be emulated,
not as a Savior to be worshiped. But, as Paul stated in Gal. 1:6-7, a different
gospel is really no gospel at all, even one built on reason and enlightenment. 
When you think of creation is this what
comes to mind? We’re familiar with the surface of the earth as seen in this
satellite photograph, and the nearby heavens above, as we glance at the sun,
moon, and stars visible in a clear evening sky. Everything looks quiet and
tranquil. And yet there is so much more to God's creation than meets the eye.
The full range of creation of the
material world is so vast and complex that it is virtually impossible to fully
grasp! We live on planet earth, but Genesis 1:1 extends way beyond it, which
emphasizes the awesome majestic and creative power of God. We will take another
yet brief look at God’s awesome creation, something we don’t readily see except
through a telescope or even a microscope, much of which is outside the range of
our natural senses, that we rarely see or give any thought to except maybe in high
school science class.
There is so much we don’t know or
understand about the
earth alone. Some claim the earth and all on it
happened by chance. Not likely. Few know that the earth is shielded by a
magnetic field protecting it against solar wind radiation—which are a stream of
charged particles released from the sun. All of which was carefully planned,
designed and executed by God.
To anyone who has been on a plane, the
earth looks serene, the clouds like puffs of cotton, the sea appears calm and tranquil,
and often our mind drifts to God and creation. As serene as it may appear, the
earth’s interior is a solid molten magnetic core that provides gravity and a
magnetic field used by bird and sea creatures such as whales, for their annual
migration. Homing pigeons also use it for navigation. When I was a kid, my
father raised homing pigeons and competed them in races. They would be transported
away
with a truckload
of
other pigeons, and we would wait patiently the next morning for their return. I
had wondered at the time, how the heck did they find their way home from
hundreds of miles away. God’s highway!
The Milky Way, shown here, is our galaxy
that contains our entire solar system, including the sun—our very own star. The
Milky Way is estimated to have between 200 to 400 billion stars (estimates
vary). NASA estimated approximately 200 billion galaxies in the observable
universe! NASA also estimated that there is up to 100 billion stars per galaxy,
which puts it at about 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 (1 billion trillion) stars
in the observable universe. These numbers vary depending on where you look. But
the bottom line is the sheer number of galaxies and stars is staggering. Yet,
God placed each galaxy and individual star in its place. Some may be wondering,
“Oh, didn’t it just happen, like the big bang?” How exactly God did it, may be
a mystery, but that He did
it, is just as we are told in Colossians 1:16-17.
Planet Earth is nestled safely within our
solar system, at just the right distance from the sun—not close enough to
suffer intense heat, nor far away enough to suffer
extreme cold—all of which is situated within the Milky Way Galaxy (next
slide). Pluto (not shown) has a minor
planet designation but is an icy dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of
bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune and as such is excluded.
Again, when we look at the night sky, we
get a tiny glimpse of the Milky Way. Bottom line, the physical universe exceeds
anything we can possibly grasp, or even image. This doesn’t readily answer the
question, who are we and where are we going, but as we’ll see later it is
interconnected. Did God create all of
this on a whim, and then intend
to
wipe it out when He creates the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation 21? Hopefully all
of this will unfold during our study.
A different view of the Milky Way.
Nothing magnifies God’s glory and awesome creative power so vividly, except maybe a newborn baby.
Most people put God in a box, either believing in Him or not. Rarely does it go
beyond that, but it needs to.
The
Sun - in fact, our whole solar
system - orbits
around the center of the Milky Way Galaxy.
We are moving at an average velocity of 828,000 km/hr. But even at that high
rate, it still takes about 230
million years to make one complete orbit around the Milky Way! So how big is the God Who created all of
this? Again, none of this is intended as a science lesson; the intent is to
demonstrate the creative power of our God, and Jesus Christ
by
Whom our salvation is assured. For a God this big, what could possible snatch
us away from Him? He gives us the answer in John 10:28 I
give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out
of my hand.
And God said “Let there be light”. We don’t have to
ask, or even wonder, just how essential light is. Imagine if we lived in total
darkness or a world where we needed cat eyes to get around? Every star we see
and everyone NASA sees through its telescopes is because of light radiating
from them. Black holes in space are bodies without light. A
black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing—no
particles or even electromagnetic radiation such as light—can escape from
it. In a spiritual sense, we reflect Jesus,
and
as such we
are a
light to the world: Matt 5:14-16 -- 14 "You
are the light of the world . A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do
people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand,
and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light
shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in
heaven.”
This isn’t intended to be a science
lesson, but it’s the only way we can describe what light is, as just one more
example of the complexity of creation; just one of the things we take for
granted without giving it a second thought. But, in asking these things, we can
better appreciate God’s awesomeness! It
will also provide insight into the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation 21,
which is actually
the
journey we’re on in our study.
God Himself is an eternal light, where as
light from the sun and moon are no longer needed in the New Heaven.
They
are replaced by God’s glory which is light, with the Lamb being an eternal
lamp. Many of the things we see in this world are but a shadow of what is in
the next, even light. This is the God we praise and worship. Who could ask for
anything more?
Most theologians believe, even before He
created the angels, that God knew that pride would overtake them (Rev. 12:7-9).
The cause of their pride was what God so generously bestowed on them and the
beauty He adorned them with. We see this in Ezekiel 28:11-12 regarding Lucifer.
God created
perfect angels and man, neither of which would retain a state of holiness
without God’s grace sustaining them. That is why being born-again is so
essential. We can’t do it alone, there is nothing anyone
can
do that would earn salvation, neither angel nor man. So what about the angels
that didn’t rebel? They were chosen just as we were chosen; their salvation is
also by grace. But the others of their own free will sinned by rejecting God.
So why does He let some sin and not other? That will be another study, something we
looked at in our study of Predestination back in 2015 (Eph. 1:11-12). Anybody
interested in a redo? If
so, let me know via email in the church directory.
Not until Revelation does the Bible
describe the battle itself
that
broke out in heaven. A battle in heaven? Yet heaven is a joyful place free of
want and pain. This alone should boggle our mind. Satan (then Lucifer)
witnessed all of God’s creation, which was created before his rebellion, before
he was cast out of heaven to the earth. How could he, a created being, possibly
think he could overthrow the Creator? Why would he even want to?
It serves as an example that no created
being, no matter how perfect or powerful, can live a sufficiently holy life on
their own merits and sustain by their own efforts, in a state that is in
perfect harmony with God’s holiness. This is why we need to be “born again”, i.e.,
regenerated by the Holy Sprit (John 3:3-7). It is an essential aspect of living
with God. Nothing short of it will do. Nothing short of it could
last
for an eternal union with
the
perfect holiness of God. God knew all this before it happened and was willing
to pay the price required to save us and sustain a perfect and eternal
relationship with us as individuals by name, One-on-one.
Jesus’ words say it all, you must be born
again! Like Paul told us back in Galatians, this is the Gospel, this alone. We
cannot add anything to it
or distract anything from it, it is His doing and His alone.
Peter is noting a transformation, from
the perishable to the imperishable—from this state of creation to the next
state of creation. Everything we see has an expiration date, because of the
Fall, even the stars in the farthest reaches of the universe. But the New
Heaven and New Earth will not be perishable, but imperishable and eternal.
As mentioned earlier, the Age of
Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the
world of ideas in Europe during the 17th to
18th centuries and even here in the American
colonies with some leaders. They believed in God as Creator, but also believed
that after He created everything and set it in motion—like winding a clock—He
stepped back with little to no further involvement. Yet, Jesus tells us He is
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. He is right
here with us now and will be until the very end of time. Which partially
answers the question, why Jesus became man—it was a matter, not just as Savior,
but one of a lasting relationship. We are not worthy of His friendship, but the
Holy Spirit made it possible, not just in this life, but also in the life
to come.
Back to Galatians. Before the Fall, both
angels and man, had to live by their own ability to retain a perfect state of
holiness. And we saw how that worked out. But we are now under the Spirit and
no longer under the Law, because Jesus Christ paid the price of our sin debt in
full and instilled in us the grace necessary to co-exist with God for all
eternity in perfect harmony. There is no possibility of Christians sinning in
heaven as the angels did, because we are regenerated by the Holy Spirit—i.e., born
again!
As mentioned earlier, the Age of
Enlightenment was an intellectual and philosophical movement that dominated the
world of ideas in Europe during the 17th to 18th centuries and even here in the American
colonies with some leaders. They believed in God as Creator, but also believed
that after He created everything and set it in motion—like winding a clock—He
stepped back with little to no further involvement. Yet, Jesus tells us He is
the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end of all things. He is right
here with us now and will be until the very end of time. Which partially
answers the question, why Jesus became man—it was a matter, not just as Savior,
but one of a lasting relationship. We are not worthy of His friendship, but the
Holy Spirit made it possible, not just in this life, but also in the New Heaven
and New Earth.
We started with the largest of God’s
creation, the stars and galaxies, so now to the smallest elements of creation.
All of creation including our bodies, begin with the atom.
From thinking big, now
to thinking small,
or rather tiny. Atoms are the building blocks of creation, from the stars and
planets to our bodies, all are comprised of atoms. The stars are formed of big
clumps of hydrogen and a few helium atoms, the simplest kinds of atoms. Again,
not intended as a science lesson, just further insight into God’s creation.
This will also help in understanding the
transformation of this world order and our physical bodies into a resurrected
glorified body and the New Heaven and New Earth in Revelation 21. Which begs
the question: Does God wipe everything out and start over, or does He transform
everything, similar
to
being born again? We weren’t destroyed and rebuilt in a reborn process. It
wasn’t necessary under the creative power of God. (We’ll discuss that later.
See 1 Peter 1:23-25 for a hint. --- 23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, "All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord stands forever."
And this is the word that was preached to you.
Think of the Flood during Noah’s time. God gave
Noah instructions and time to build the Ark (Gen. 6:14-16). In the same way,
Coronavirus will serve a purpose. He allowed sinful man to propagate and spread
the virus. Communist China put Wuhan in lockdown to block travel to anywhere
else in China,
but
allowed international travel for thousands of people from Wuhan to Europe and
America. God allowed sin to create havoc, but He will use it for good for His
people (Romans 8:28).
We are “called
according to His purpose” Let
those words sink in.
Even during a pandemic, God is in charge.
He hasn’t abandoned His children. Think of the awesome creative power of God
that we have looked at so far. Nothing is going to fall through the cracks
unnoticed by Him. When disasters
happen they
more often than not are the consequences of sin running amuck. It stops people
in their tracks and
many will even pause and ask why? Nevertheless, His people need to pray for our
President, our Nation, our Church and our Pastor. Until next time, God bless!
END OF LESSON #10
