FACTS ABOUT GOD

“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands” (Acts 17:24 KJV).

This is a great verse about God and comes from the apostle Paul’s sermon on Mars Hill in Athens, Greece. It speaks of the power of God, the authority of God, and the nature of God.

Power of God – “God, who made the world and everything in it.” The Athenians had many gods, but none as powerful as the one true God. In speaking of the true God, the apostle Paul wisely begins as the Bible begins by stating that He is the Creator of the world and everything in it. Yet, in our day society does not want this truth mentioned in our schools. It would much prefer evolution to be taught in the schools. Like the Athenians who needed help in their understanding about God, our society also need help knowing and understanding the facts about God.

Authority of God – “He is Lord of heaven and earth.” It is logical that if God created the universe that He should have authority over it. This authority is what the evolutionists do not wish to accept. They want to be the authority over their own lives and not have to bow down to the commands of God. In fact, they are the main folks who want to rule God out of society and out of the schools. But wisdom will always find that when God is submitted to in life, it becomes a better life than any other life.

Nature of God - “God . . . does not dwell in temples made with hands.” The Athenians had lowered the nature of God to that of depraved man and even wild beasts. They made images and called them gods. But the apostle Paul argues that the true God is not of that nature. “God is Spirit” (John 4:24). He is not a stone-deity or tree-deity. He cannot be placed on a shelf or in some handmade shrine and thus is not confined to fleshy human limitations.

(Adapted from Butler’s Daily Bible Reading 3)

Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone Be The Glory)

Quotation of the Week

“There is nothing so abominable in the eyes of God and of men as idolatry, whereby men render to the creature that honor which is due only to the Creator!”

Blaise Pascal (1623 - 1662)

French Mathematician, Physicist, Inventor, Philosopher, and Author

Word Study

Fellow citizens

In Eph. 2:19 we read, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (NKJV).

“Fellow citizens” is the Greek word sumpolítēs (συμπολίτης = soom-pol-ee'-tace). It is made up of two Greek words: “sun” which means with, association, fellowship, and “polítēs” which means a citizen, a native of the same town. In the Greek culture a polítēs was an inhabitant of a city, who had the right of citizenship and could act as a freeman. In classical Greek, sumpolítēs means fellow citizen. Sumpolítēs is not found in the Septuagint. In the New Testament, sumpolítēs also means fellow citizen. Here in Eph. 2:19, the apostle Paul is telling the Ephesians that they were not only citizens of a heavenly kingdom, but they are also members of a spiritual family. Salvation eliminates the division between Jews and Gentiles where Gentiles were considered strangers and foreigners to spiritual privilege; in salvation Gentiles are also members of the household of God.

Did You Know…

According to Luke 18:1-5, the Lord Jesus told the Parable of the Persistent Widow in order to teach His disciples about persistence in prayer, i.e., to pray and not give up.

Bible Quiz

According to the Book of Hebrews, the Lord Jesus is counted worthy of more glory than what Old Testament figure?

**Answer to last week’s Bible Quiz

What happened when Belshazzar and his guests drank wine from the gold and silver cups taken from the temple of the Jews? A man’s hand appeared and wrote on the wall (Dan. 5:5).

Prophecies Fulfilled by the Lord Jesus Christ

The Serpent on a Pole - Prefigures the Lord Jesus Christ Lifted Up (John 3:14-18; cf. 12:32)

"So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived” (Num. 21:9 NJKV).

In context, Israel had been rebellious again and so the Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, killing many. When the people confessed their sins, Moses prayed for them. He was then told to make a serpent of brass, and set it upon a pole. Anyone who had been bitten by a serpent would live if he looked upon the brass serpent (cf. Num. 21:5- 9). The whole world has been bitten by sin. The serpent on the pole, like Lord Jesus Christ on the cross is the cure for sin. As those who were stung by the fiery serpents were restored by looking up to the brazen serpent, so those who are infected with and dying because of sin are healed and saved, by looking up to and believing in the crucified Lord Jesus Christ.

Did You Know – Christian History

Isaac Backus was born January 9, 1724 in the village of Yantic, now part of the town of Norwich, Connecticut. He was a leading Baptist minister during the era of the American Revolution who campaigned against state-established churches in New England.

During The Great Awakening, evangelists wakened Americans of their need to repent of sin, and Backus was afraid. When his pastor could not answer his question on how to get right with God, he felt powerless and very frightened. For weeks he prayed desperately that God would show him how to be saved. Peace came one morning as he mowed a field. “I was enabled by divine light to see the perfect righteousness of Christ and the freeness and riches of his grace,” he later wrote. As a result, Backus was determined that no one else should suffer as he had by not knowing how to find salvation. He studied Scripture so that he could explain to others that the Lord Jesus took our sin to the cross with Him and that forgiveness is ours if we confess our sins to God, believing He is able to restore us.

At age 24, Backus became the pastor of a little “separate” church in Middleborough, Massachusetts. “Separates” were those who were converted in the Great Awakening and had left the established church. Aware of his great responsibility, young Backus pleaded earnestly with the Lord that “He wouldn’t suffer me to settle down in any snare or evil way.” Backus would have stayed with the Separates, but when he changed his views on baptism, his congregation grew cold toward him. And so, on January 16, 1756, he formed the first Baptist church in Middleborough. It is as a Baptist that Backus is famous. He published a large number of tracts and a 3-volume history of the Baptist denomination. His two major concerns are reflected in these works: unification of the Separate Baptists and the struggle against religious taxation as part of efforts to achieve religious freedom.

Throughout his professional career Backus travelled extensively in New England, helping to organize churches and settle disputes among various Baptist groups. The Warren Baptist Association was established in 1767. As an agent of the Grievance Committee, Backus worked to keep the issue of separation of church and state before the general public; and in 1774 he travelled to Philadelphia with other Baptists to seek assistance from the First Continental Congress. In his later years, Backus continued to be a spokesman for Baptists. He argued for ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1790, convinced that in effect it stood for separation of church and state by prohibiting any religious test for officeholders. Backus also had a hand in founding America’s first Baptist school of higher learning, Rhode Island College, now Brown University. Backus died in Middleborough, November 20, 1806.

A Little Humor

At the church bulletin table, a young couple saw a flyer titled “How to Hear the Word of the Lord.” The husband whispered, “I hear it every week - it says, ‘Turn off your phone.’”

Thought Provoking Church Sign

“Life has many choices. Eternity has two!”