STUDY THEME: ADOPTING A BIBLICAL WORLD VIEW                    7-02-00
UNIT 2: CONTOURS OF A BIBLICAL WORLD VIEW: "WHO IS IN CONTROL."
PS. 33: 8-11; GEN. 1: 16-18; JER. 33:25-27; ROM. 13:1-5.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO PSALM 33.

As we study the various contours of a biblical worldview we find he
central theme that ties together all the passages in our text for today's
lesson is the Control of God: From the beginning, God has been in control
of His world. What you believe about this will determine to a great
extent what you think, say and do. 

Should I make the statement to some groups this morning that God is in
control of His world they would immediately inquire, "Which God?" I have
here an encyclopedia listing over 2,500. deities of the world. These are
listed from A-a as the Sun goddess to Zuvvan, the Persian or Iranian god
of temporal time and fate--a god of destiny. This book was written by a
British  broadcaster and writer named Michael Jordan. 

This book defines the word "God" as a term employed throughout the
English speaking world as a generic term for a deity but also in a
specific sense as the creator god for the orthodox Christian church as
well as that of Judaism and Islam. You know that God is identified in the
N.T. of the Bible as the heavenly Father of Jesus Christ. So in our study
today we will choose to speak of this God as the Creator, Father of Jesus
Christ and sovereign God of the universe. 

Do you really believe that this omnipotent creator God has a purpose for
that which He has created?  Let's see what the Bible has to say about
this. 

1. PLEASE READ PSALM 33:8-11. 

These verses can best be understood in the context of the total psalm.
This 33rd Psalm is a praise psalm. Vs. 4-11 present reasons to praise
God. Vs. 10-11 affirm that He will carry out His purposes regardless of
people who work against them. 

Several truths are clear here. For one thing, God has a purpose for His
creation. The Scriptures strongly affirm that God's purposes govern
creation.  We are not adrift in a purposeless universe; we live in a
universe created by God for a purpose. Second, God is at work in history
to fulfill that purpose. God is in control of time and history and will
bring His purposes to fulfillment in His own time and in His own way. The
clue to human history is to recognize that God is at work in history. In
Vs 10 God frustrates the plans of the nations who seek to carry out an
agenda that disregards His plans and purposes. God advances His designs
and intentions in spite of theirs, thus their plans are broken when they
come against His. It would be interesting to hear God's comments on a
meeting of the United Nations Assembly. He must get a chuckle out of some
of the plans of the Assembly. 

Third, people and nations often  have purposes that are opposed to God's
purpose and seem to thwart it. God gives people freedom to choose Him or
reject Him, and many choose to reject Him. Only recently the nation of
Albania took pride in being known as the world's most atheistic nation.
But now the country of Uruguay claims that title. They would never
believe that when people's thoughts and purposes are opposed to God's,
theirs will be set aside as useless. God subordinates everything to His
will.  
     
Fourth, God will fulfill His purpose either through or in spite of the
choices of human beings. Those who seek to be instruments of His will can
be used by Him to fulfill His will. Those who seek to thwart His purposes
will not achieve anything other than their own destruction. They are like
someone in a wooden rowboat trying to sink the Rock of Gibraltar by
ramming it. They will not dent the rock, but they will wreck their boat. 

Matt. 25:34 points out that God's plans have been in place "since the
creation of the world." They are established and will be carried out.
They never will be changed. The fact that God has plans and purposes that
cannot be altered for the world He created should provide us with a sense
of stability and peace in a world that so often appears unstable. We
cannot know the future, but we can know the One who determines the
future. 

Please turn to Genesis 1. 

By exercising His sovereignty and providence over His creation through
the natural laws that He has established, God controls time. He promised
Noah after the flood that the seasons and day and night would continue as
long as He allowed the earth to stand.
  
2. PLEASE READ GENESIS 1: 16-18. 

When God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was formless,
empty, and dark. God commanded in Gen. 1:3 "Let there be light." This
light was not that of the sun, the moon or the stars, for they had not
been created. Neither did the light destroy the darkness, for darkness
still existed. The alternating darkness and light marked the evenings and
the mornings of at least the first three days of creation. 

On the fourth day, God made a greater light "to govern the day" and a
lesser light " to govern the night." He also made the stars. Apparently
at that point elementary light was gathered into what we call the
heavenly bodies. The lights are "great" compared with other heavenly
bodies viewed from earth. The sun dominates the day and the moon
dominates the  night. These heavenly  bodies separate the day from the
night and in Vs. 14 act as "signs to mark seasons and days and years."
God has established the natural order that keeps the heavenly bodies in
place, fulfilling their functions. Without the sun, life on earth would
vanish. Even with out the moon, life's survival would be questionable.

Throughout history people have marked the passage of time and the coming
of seasons by observing the locations of heavenly bodies. They also have
determined geographical directions by observing the specific stars as
points of reference. Celestial navigation uses this method to move from
point to point.

God referred to the world's established natural order after Noah had
witnessed the destruction of the world as he had known it. In Gen.
8:20-22, God assured Noah that he never need fear another
world-destroying flood. 

In Gen. 8:22 God affirmed that the natural order is fixed: "Seedtime and
harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never
cease." In other words, God's promise ensures that the earth will
continue to be suitable for human life. God's natural order includes both
variety and dependability. We are renewed and refreshed by the change in
seasons as we are refreshed by the coming of a new day. Our daughter
lived in Hawaii when her husband's sub was based in Guam. She was upset
that there was no change in the foliage in the fall. That was the thing
that pleased her when they moved to Conn. to the Groton-New London
sub-base. The seasons varied tremendously. 

PLEASE TURN TO JEREMIAH 33. 

Centuries and centuries went by between God's words to Noah after the
flood and he Lord's words to Jeremiah in the seventh century BC 

3. PLEASE READ JEREMIAH 33: 25-26. 

Jeremiah assured God's people that the Lord's covenant with Israel was as
dependable as the natural order. At the time Jeremiah spoke the
Babylonian army was hammering at the gates of Jerusalem. In Ch. 32
Jeremiah had been arrested because of his warning to the people. The
authorities believed he was disloyal. This reminds us of the time just
prior to WW2 when Charles Linberg visited Germany and viewed their
tremendous preparation for war. When he tried to warn our military and
political leaders he was denounced as a disloyal alarmist. This was at a
time when our draftees were training with broom-sticks rather than
rifles. 

As the siege of Jerusalem continued, hope faded. People felt like God had
forgotten His covenant with David. God assured them, that He had not
forgotten His promise. He compared the certainty of the Davidic covenant
with the fixed laws of nature that operate without fail according to His
promise. 

God asserted that day and night existed in covenant with Him. God made a
binding contract so that time is divided into a period of light and a
period of darkness. He put them in their place and there they remain. The
natural order is so certain that God can point to it and say, "My promise
to you is as sure as the certainty of day and night."     

Samuel B. Morris sent the first telegraph message from Washington to
Baltimore in 1844. It was, "What hath God wrought?"  He obviously
believed that human discoveries are thinking "God's thoughts after Him."
There is much more reality in God's fixed laws than we have yet
discovered. 

Thus we believers hold as part of our worldview the assurance of God's
control of the natural order and that God exercises His sovereignty and
providence partly thru fixed laws He has established for His creation. 

PLEASE TURN TO ROMANS 13. 

In this chapter Paul told the believers in Rome that God's authority
stands in back of government authorities. God's purpose for government is
for the good of people by maintaining law and order. The peoples part is
to submit to government authority because of conscience. 

4. PLEASE READ ROMANS 13: 1-5


This is the classical Biblical passage about civil government. It is
consistent with Mark 12:13-17 where Jesus said "Render unto Caesar the
things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's." Thus
Jesus approved paying taxes to the government of His day. Peter wrote in
1 Peter 2 "Submit yourselves to every ordinance--Honor the king." 

God has delegated civil and military authority to government. Therefore,
Christ's followers are expected to obey governmental authorities. God
established civil authority to punish those who do wrong. Government is
legitimate and should act to protect its citizens. Those who do right
have no reason to fear. Those who rebel against the government, rebel
against God. 

All governments do not function as God intended and for the citizens
good. Therefore, legitimate political protest against oppressive
governments is not addressed in this passage. The point here is that
God's rule in society is expressed thru legitimate governments.
Deliberately setting oneself against authority that God entrusted to
government not only is a violation of human law, it also is rebellion
against God's will. God's people are to obey governing authorities in
order to avoid punishment, to keep their testimony untarnished, and to
keep their consciences clear before God. Those who choose to disobey
legitimate laws will pay the consequences of such actions. Criminals
sometimes escape human justice, but God's justice is sure. 

Individuals who obey the law need not live in fear. The English word
phobia is derived from the Greek noun translated terror. Here the term
means anxiety and fright produced by disobeying the law. If people are
innocent of crimes against the state, they will not be punished by the
state. Neither will God punish them. Therefore, they need not be afraid.
Paul exhorted his readers to obey the law--to do what is right. Doing
right should result in governing authorities commending good citizens.

Being a good citizen is more than a civic achievement. Paul never
considered government as the ultimate authority. It is a servant of a
higher authority. As God's servant, the government is to do good to its
people. Here the concept of "good" refers to actions that benefit the
community. Maintaining order provides the nation's citizens with an
environment in which they can live in peace and security. 

The power of life and death belongs to God, but He has delegated to the
state some of this power. The Sword symbolizes he power to enforce the
law and to punish those who persist in criminal actions. The one who
wields the sword also has the responsibility to protect peaceful,
law-abiding citizens. 

Some threats are external. Aggressor nations attempt to impose their will
on others by force of arms. In such cases the government uses he sword to
defend its citizens. Other threats are internal. For example, a citizen
threatens the life and well-being of other citizens. Then the state can
use the sword to protect the innocent. Properly used, the sword can be an
appropriate instrument for the exercise of divine authority. It can be a
means by which God imposes justice on those who resist His authority. 

The cross is God's ultimate statement concerning His determination to
destroy evil. He also uses government as His agent to combat wickedness. 

Unless the law contradicts the will and purpose of God, Christians should
obey the law. This is necessary to escape punishment for wrong doing.
Christians also should obey the law because it is the right thing to do.
Doing what is right results in a clear conscience. Doing what is wrong
results in conviction. If a person is a Christian, the Holy Spirit
resides within that individual. Part of the Holy Spirit's role in the
life of a Christian is to convict him or her of wrongdoing. Therefore, if
a believer violates the laws of God's agent, that person can expect the
Holy Spirit to condemn the violator 

People need to realize that God established social order for human
societies. Such order is for the purpose or rewarding righteousness and
punishing evil. As  people support and obey established human
authorities, they contribute to social stability and show their
confidence that God is in control. 

Jesus repeatedly came into conflict with the Jewish religious authorities
of His day. 
In John 5 Jesus healed the paralytic man at the pool of Bethesda in
Jerusalem. This man had been lame for 38 years. Rather than rejoice over
the man's healing, he religious leaders condemned Jesus because He had
healed on the Sabbath. 

Most likely, Jesus deliberately practiced such healing on the Sabbath to
provoke a confrontation with the religious leaders hypocrisy that blinded
them to the true worship of God. The ultimate reason Jesus confronted the
Jew's religious hypocrisy was the opportunity to declare who He was. In
this section Jesus makes 5 claims to equality with God. (1.) He is equal
with God in His person; (2.) He is equal with God in His works; (3.) He
is equal with God in His power and sovereignty; (4.) He is equal with God
in His judgment; and (5.) He is equal with God in His honor. 

One might ask, "But now that Jesus has ascended into heaven, is God still
working. The answer must be that God is working even today. Jesus point
in Vs. 17 is that whether He broke the Sabbath or not God was working
continuously and, since Jesus Himself worked continuously, He also must
be God. God does not need a day of rest for according to Isa. 40:28 He
never wearies. Matt. 12:8 says Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath.
Interestingly, even the rabbis admitted that God's work had not ceased
after the Sabbath because He sustains the universe.

The NIV translates Romans 8:28 to read "And we know that in all things
God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called
according to His purpose. " The idea is clear: God is at work in His
world. His work takes all things that happen to each believer and works
them into a pattern for the believer's good, or benefit. God is working
out "everything" in conformity with His will that we may be conformed to
the likeness of His Son. Many unbelievers believe that everything works
out for the best, but only for God's children is that true. God works in
His world for His people's good. 

God qualifies His activity. What God determines to be good and what
people think is good may not always be the same. God will do what He
knows is good. However, that "good' may be good only for those who love
Him. Love of God characterizes the lives of those for whom God does good.
They do not cease loving God because God acts contrary to their desires. 

God's continuing to work in His world should encourage believers to have
hope. When someone we care about suffers a serious illness, when our
dreams come crashing down, when it seems as if God is not there, we can
know that if we love God, good will emerge from the predicament. When we
receive a promotion at work. when we move into our dream house, when the
sense of the Lord's presence overpowers us, we can know that if we have
been called by God, good will emerge from the situation. God is in
control.
 
NEXT SUNDAY'S LIFE QUESTION IS "HOW CAN WE KNOW GOD'S TRUTH." 
A.V. DAUGHERTY  7-19-00.