Is God your co-pilot? – Part 3
Several years ago I watched an episode of ESPN’s 30-30, a program that looks at the history of collegiate and professional athletics. This particular episode looked at college football in the 1980s. If you are not a college football fan, then the name Marcus DuPree won’t mean much to you.
In 1982, he was a freshman running back at Oklahoma who shocked the college football world. Even though he didn’t start until the seventh game of the season, he rushed for 1,144 yards and scored 13 touchdowns. He was named Football News “Freshman of the Year,” second team All American and the Big Eight Conference “Newcomer of the Year.” He was, in my opinion, more talented than Bo Jackson and I’m sure “Bo knows” that too.
What made me think about DuPree is something that I hear people say when they see a talented athlete like him – He has God-given talent.”
And over the years, we have also heard people say something similar when they say
? “I am the way I am because God made me this way.”
? Or, “I can’t jump as high as some folks because God made me this way.”
? Or, “I have this body because it’s the body that God gave me.”
? Or, “I’m not as smart as others because that’s just the way God made me.”
Generally, when we look at ourselves and we see shortcomings or things that we don’t like about ourselves, we say “God made me this way.”
Ladies and gentlemen, God is an egalitarian. He treats everyone the same. Those examples are lies we hear again and again because there is a direct connection between what we believe and what the Bible actually says. A direct connection. And if what we believe does not line up with scripture, which is the foundation for all truth, then we will speak things that are not true and we will believe things that are not true.
This message is the third in the series “Is God your co-pilot?” And, this message is going to be a little more personal than the previous messages. Today, we’re going to talk about the belief that God makes us the way we are from the perspective of a person’s skin color.
There was a time in our country when some people believed that a person with darker skin was purposely cursed by God to a life of inferiority or a life of “less than.” There was also a time when some black people with darker skin believed the same thing and didn’t want to have darker skin.
Most didn’t talk about it, but in their hearts they wanted lighter skin because having lighter skin would have provided more personal and economic advantages for them than having darker skin. There has never been a worst kept secret in the black community.
I grew up in a small town in Tennessee, in a predominately black section named College Hill. The blacks who originally populated College Hill were mulattos – families of mixed white and black ancestry. They had light skin and the girls and young women had straight, curly and wavy hair. There were dark skinned families in College Hill too, but not many. Many of the dark skinned blacks lived in Macedonia, a few miles away.
A light skinned black person is referred to as a “Redbone.” This term originated in Louisiana and refers to mixed race blacks, especially women, who were attractive with white features.
My Mom and Dad had light skin. I remember one woman, upon seeing my Dad, smiled broadly and said “He’s a keen looking man.” I still laugh when I think about that and that happened nearly 40 years ago. My Dad was handsome, but my Mom turned some heads too.
Now, if we believe God makes people with dark skin and light skin, then what we are saying is that we believe that God is a respecter of persons.
What we are saying is that we believe God purposefully puts people at a personal and economic disadvantage.
What we are saying is that God made people less than and, dare I say it, inferior to those to whom He gave lighter skin.
In the black community, and this is a sad truth, lighter skin is still preferred to darker skin.
Do you see how devastating such a belief can be? How can you love and trust a God who would purposely make you less than or inferior to another human being? Doesn’t this sound a lot like predestination and the way it’s understood in most churches? There’s a lot of misunderstanding concerning predestination, but that’s a topic for another teaching.
Now here’s the question we must answer today: Does scripture support the belief that God makes some people less than or inferior to others?
Well, let’s find out. What does God, our co-pilot, say about this belief, that He makes us the way we are, in His flight manual, the Bible.
Let’s begin in Genesis 1:26-28.
(26) And God said, Let us make man in our image, after or likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
(27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
(28) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
Let’s look at verse 28 first. God tells Adam and Eve to “be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth.” The word replenish simply means “to fill.” God tells the first husband and wife “I want you to fill the earth with children.” God gave the responsibility to procreate to Adam and Eve. Now, what was God’s role in the procreation process? He simply gave the commandment. That’s all He did. Ladies and gentlemen, God was not a participant in the procreation process! How do you know this Brother Barry? God is a Spirit.
Folks, this is not a head scratcher and Jesus confirms this in John 3:5-6.
(5) Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
(6) That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Now follow me closely: Spirit cannot produce flesh. I’ll say that again: Spirit cannot produce flesh.
We are born into this world as a result of the intimacy our fathers and mothers shared with each other. You did know that, right? Of course you did! Like Adam and Eve, God had nothing to do with our natural births whatsoever. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. And we will see this in a passage from Genesis in just a moment.
But before reading that passage, I want to draw your attention to the word image, which is used three times in Genesis 1:26-27. It refers to the spiritual life (or nature) that God put on the inside of man. It was a nature that was exactly like God’s nature.
What “image” communicates about Adam – and us – is clear and simple. Adam was exactly like His Father, like God, in every way imaginable with one exception. Adam was not deity. And that simply means that Adam had a beginning. And it also means that His Father created the beginning that we now live in and that Genesis 1 details.
Now, in Genesis 2:17, God tells Adam, His son, not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In Genesis 3, the son does exactly what his Father tells him not to do. Can you believe Adam did that? We never disobeyed our parents, did we? Nah! Okay, I’m beginning to feel like Pinocchio. And what were the results of Adam’s disobedience? He lost his connection to His Father. He was no longer like Him. He no longer had his Father’s image. He no longer had His Father’s life and nature living inside of him.
Now look at Genesis 4:1.
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
Notice what Eve says: “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” She truly believed that God had given her a son. But was it true? Let me give me ask you a question. Most of us know that when we hear that someone is “raising Cain” we know that the person is not imitating God, don’t we? Are you following me? But, how do we know that what Eve said was not true?
Before answering that question, I need to point something out about the Bible. Many of us read the Bible and believe that God agrees with everything that’s recorded in it. But is that true? Let me ask the question this way: does everything we read in the Bible reflect who God is?
First Peter 1:15 and 16 say “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation (in how you live); Because it is written, Be ye holy,; for I am holy.” Now with these two verses alone, would everything that we read in the Bible point to God’s holiness?
The answer is a clear and unequivocal NO!
Ladies and gentlemen, there is a difference between recording what happened and agreeing with what happened. The Bible is an unbiased recorder of the people, places and events that we read about. But instead of recording facts, the Bible records truth and sometimes truth is not pretty or pleasant.
Let’s take King David for example. In 1 Samuel 13:14, the prophet Samuel tells King Saul that God is going to replace him with “a man after his own heart.” That’s a flattering truth about David. Years later, after becoming king, David has an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, who was one of His 30 mighty men (2 Samuel 23). When David couldn’t cover up his the sin, he has Uriah killed in battle (2 Samuel 11:1-17). That’s an unflattering truth about David..
Most of us also know the story of Job. In the midst of his terrible tragedy – the death of his sons and daughters – he said “the Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord” (Job 1:21). Was that true? Did God cause the death of his children?
Let me make two quick points:
(1) We have already established from Genesis 4 that God does not give fathers and mothers children. And we’re going to see this again in Genesis 5.
(2) God did not take Job’s children from him. And we know this because we get a peek behind the curtain in verses 6-12 where we learn that Satan was behind the tragedy, not God. But Job didn’t know that. He was simply saying what he believed to be true. In the end, he repents for his lack of knowledge and understanding.
3Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. (Job 42:3)
Even though the Bible records who Job and his wife believed to be responsible for the tragedy, God sets the record straight in chapters 38, 39, 40 and 41 and, in the process, teaches Job a lesson that some Christians need to learn today:
Don’t allow what happens in life to determine what you believe about God. Allow what God says to determine what you believe about Him. (Paused to let that statement sink in)
In Genesis 4, Eve said she had gotten a man from the Lord and, for many, this is the basis for saying that children come from God. So, I’ll ask the question again: is what Eve said true? Did God really give her a son?
Now turn we me to Genesis 5. I remember the first time that I saw these verses. I literally said out loud “what!” And, folks, it has been in the Bible the whole time.
(1) This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;
(2) Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.
Remember we read in Genesis 1:26-28 that God created man in His image and after His likeness and that the phrase “in the image” was used three times? Look at verse 3.
(3) And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, and after his image; and called his name Seth.
Adam begat a son in his own likeness and after his image. Why is the Bible making this distinction Seth did not have the spiritual image that God had originally given to his father, Adam, in Genesis 1:26-28.
Scripture is clear. There are two spiritual images in the world today. One comes from God and the other one comes from Adam.
Before closing, let’s look at one more passage to “seal the deal” that God does not make us the way we are. Luke 3:23-38 presents the genealogy of Jesus but we are only going to look at verses 23 and 38.
(23) And Jesus himself began to be about thirty years of age, being (as was supposed) the son of Joseph, which was the son of Heli.
We see in this verse that people thought Jesus was Joseph’s son. But we know from verses like Matthew 3:17 that He was the Son of God. “And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” So we see at the beginning of the genealogy that Jesus is identified as God’s son.
Now look at verse 38.
(38) Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.
In verse 23 we see that Joseph was the son of Heli, not the son of God. This is repeated in the next 15 verses – so and so was the “son of.” Every son listed between verses 23 and 38 had an earthly father and was not the son of God. But in verse 38 we see that Adam was “the son of God.”
These two verses, 23 and 38, show us that God only had two sons: Adam and Jesus. Do you see this?
So …
Does the co-pilot agree with the pilot who files a “flight plan” that says “God made me this way”?
God, the co-pilot, makes it abundantly clear that He gave the responsibility for procreation – for filling the earth with children – to Adam and Eve and to us, their descendants. His involvement ended with the commandment “be fruitful, multiply and replenish (fill) the earth.”
Ladies and gentlemen, God had nothing to do with our natural birth other than telling the husband and wife, in the beginning, to procreate. Everything about us comes from our earthly fathers and mothers, not God.
This is not the last teaching in the series, but I believe it’s important to say this now.
First Peter 3:15 says “But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear.”
For those of you who have heard the teachings in this series, you really don’t need them to know the truth. You already have a truth barometer inside of you – the born again nature. What this series is designed to do is give you a “starting point” to help you objectively talk about these topics with scripture as your foundation. But, as with each topic, there’s so much more and that’s why these lessons are only “starting points.” I encourage you to dig deeper into the scriptures and add to them.
