LESSON 07:
You are Wonderfully Made
1: We have seen in recent years that man's knowledge has greatly increased in amazing ways. In these inventions, man has found some very clever ways of moving weight by means of levers and hinges. He has made machines which control the speed with which the levers move. But these inventions of man, which God in His providence has made possible, are far less marvelous than the machinery within your body, with its complicated temperature controls, pumping devices, computers, delicate hormones, electronic circuitry, and sensing mechanisms and switches.
2: Now, those of you, who like auto mechanics, will recognize that when given fuel from our food, our bodies will perform some of the same functions that an engine can perform. Turning joints are like wheels. Muscles are like cylinders. Nerve endings are like spark plugs. The nervous system is like the distributor. The arteries are like the fuel line. The lungs are like the carburetor. The heart is like the fuel pump. The digestive organs like the fuel system. The nerve impulses are like the ignition. Waste is like the exhaust. The use of oxygen is like air intake.
3: But your body machinery does what no invention of man can do. It can take fruit and vegetables and turn them into fuel. Food containing fat, provides insulation and storage of energy. Protein helps make and repair body tissues. The minerals can regulate activity of certain glands.
4: For all these functions to be carried on properly, the whole body must be in balanced Health. Let us review some of the essentials for good health. Pure air, sunlight, abstemiousness, rest, exercise, proper diet, the use of water and trust in divine power. Also, we should never forget PEACE OF MIND that comes only through obedience and trust in God. We must never forget that it is the great wish of God that we should have LIFE, and have it MORE ABUNDANTLY.
5: A story is told of a great ruler who called one of his wisest men to him. "I wish my people to feel that I give them the greatest gifts in the world" he said. "Now tell me, what is the most wonderful thing that a man can have?" The wise man looked at the king and shook his head. "The greatest gift in the world is not yours to give," he said. "Every living man already has it, for the most valuable thing in the world is LIFE. And there is nothing else to compare with it."
6: That was surely a true answer. Life is so mysterious and wonderful that with all the wisdom of our age, and the inventions of science, still no one can truly explain what life really is. The most brilliant man can only tell about life. They cannot produce nor fully explain it.
7: As you read this, every part of your body is ALIVE. And nearly every part is working to keep you alive. Each part that is working is made up of cells. And within those cells are the most amazing mysteries known to man. Within those cells is that power from God called LIFE, and that life is operating the most amazing mechanism, which keeps all in control, each cell doing its own work.
8: In the cells of all living things are controls which make them develop in certain ways, forming the proper creatures. Cats become cats and remain cats. Chickens become chickens. Whales become whales. Mangos have seed which grow mango trees. People develop as people. How? WHY? Through the power of a God who is a God of order and not of confusion. How else would sweat gland cells know how to do their work? How do brain cells know how to think and remember? How do bone cells become bones?
9: For example, let us just imagine one tiny cell so small that millions of them could be put in just one small part of an organ. But in the nucleus are tiny threads which determine what that cell is part of, and what that cell can do, and how that cell can reproduce. Within those threads in a human cell is a substance which is known as DNA. This substance controls and directs the cell division in just the right manner. It controls the color of your eyes, the shape of your body, your personality and a million other facts that make you what you are. The storage capacity of DNA is so great that if I had just one teaspoon full of that substance, I could hold the information which would need an electronic computer 100 miles (160 km.) long, 100 miles (160 km.) high and 100 miles (160 km.) wide to hold the same amount!
10: The Bible tells us where life comes from. Paul said "God gives to all, life, and breath, and all things." Acts 17:25. And my dear friends, we have not begun to talk about the amazing, unbelievable, glorious power of God. Beyond the small molecules of the DNA which I have mentioned are the atoms! The food you eat, the air you breathe, is all of atoms. Everything you see, everything in the world, is made up of atoms. Billions and billions of them so tiny that no one can see them, and yet so vast that there is a universe between their parts!
11: The whole world is made of atoms, all in tremendous movement. The seat upon which you are sitting is mostly nothingness, held together by the forces of whirling electrons moving so rapidly that they cannot be crushed. How fast do these electrons orbit around the nucleus of an atom? Well, divide a second into one million parts. In one of those parts of a second the electrons will go around its nucleus scores of times! You say it is too much for the human mind to understand. It is, but there is more.
12: For their size, those electrons are as far from their nucleus as the planets are from the sun. Here our mind must really stop. We can only praise God and say, "How great Thou art!" The Bible says, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain to it." Psalm 139:6.
13: But more wonderful than all these is something contained in this book called the Bible. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and sinned in the garden of Eden, God promised a Saviour, who would some day crush the head of the serpent, the Devil, and take away the sins of those who believed in Him. God would then give them a new home, like the garden of Eden, and after this earth was made new, they would live here in happiness forever.
14: Whenever God's plans for the benefit and salvation of man have been revealed, Satan has tried to introduce counterfeits. Something so nearly like the truth that people would be deceived by it. But still it is not the truth so no one is helped by it.
15: Abrahams grandson, Jacob had twelve sons. Near the end of Jacob's life, the Holy Spirit revealed to Jacob that the Redeemer would come in the family of his son Judah. This is recorded in Genesis 49:10
16: Now the nationality and the tribe through which the Redeemer would come had been revealed. Many years later, to King David, who was of the line of Judah, the promise was given that through one of his descendants the world's Redeemer would come. Psalms 89:35:37. Thus we can see how God progressively gave details by which the true Redeemer of the world could be identified; from the nation of the Jews, from the tribe of Judah, and from the family of David.
17: In later years, through the prophet Micah, as recorded in Micah 5:2, "But thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little amongst the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel: whose goings forth have been of old, from the days of eternity." In these words two great things are revealed. (1) The very town, Bethlehem, in which the Redeemer was to be born was given. (2) The Redeemer would be God incarnate or born in the family of man.
18: The unusual circumstances of his birth were foretold. Since he was God, who existed from eternity, who was to be born into this world as a baby, He could have no earthly man for His father. 742 years before He was born, the prophet Isaiah, moved by the Spirit of God, wrote, "The Lord Himself shall give you a sign: Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel." The word means, "God with us." Isaiah 7:14
19: Now one more point needed to be revealed. The time when the Redeemer would begin His work on earth. This wonderful fact was given to Daniel, the prophet, when he was in the city of Babylon. It is recorded in the book of Daniel, which was written more than 500 years before Christ was born: "Know therefore and understand that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah (the anointed One), the Prince shall be seven weeks and three score and two weeks." Daniel 9:38.
20: The commandment to restore and rebuild Jerusalem was given by King Artexerxes in 457 B.C. as written in the book of Ezra, Chapters 7:12:26. In prophecy one day is given for one year of literal time. So the sixty:nine weeks revealed to Daniel would represent 483 years of actual time. This would mean that 483 years after the year 457 B.C. Christ would begin His public ministry on earth.
21: Notice how carefully God has revealed details over hundreds of years of time, that all point to only one possible person who would be the world's Redeemer. (1) Nationality of Abraham, the Hebrews (2) Tribe of Judah, the Jews (3) Family of David, (4) Town of Bethlehem, (5) His mother a virgin (6) to begin his public work at a certain time (483 years after 457 B.C. brings us up to the year 27 A.D.).
22: Even though many great men should arise, claiming to be the Redeemer of the world, or the Messiah, or the chosen of God, unless they could show that all of these prophecies were fulfilled in them, their claims would be false.
23: But all of these prophecies were fulfilled in the life of Jesus Christ. He was born in the town of Bethlehem. His birth was even announced by angels. Those who lived at the time, recorded that His mother was a virgin, and that His birth was by divine intervention. He was baptized in the Jordan in the year 27 A.D. and anointed by the Holy Spirit; this made Him the 'Messiah', the Anointed One predicted in Daniel. His mother was of the line of David. Jesus Christ is the only man who has ever been born, whose birth and ministry fulfilled exactly all the requirements made by the prophets, concerning His life. In Jesus we have the fulfillment of all the promises of Abraham, to Jacob, to David, concerning the nationality, the family, the time and the place of the Redeemer's birth.
Here is additional information about the Old Testament prophecies of Christ:
[Moses predicted:] "The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto Him ye shall listen." Deuteronomy 18:15 (also see verse 18).
"Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel." Isaiah 7:14 (fulfilled in Matthew 1:22:23).
"He is despised and rejected of men; a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not." Isaiah 53:3 (fulfilled in John 1:10:11).
"He was oppressed, and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so He openeth not His mouth.":Isaiah 53:7 (fullfilled in Matthew 27:13).
"They part My garments among them, and cast lots upon My vesture. :Psalm 22:18 (fulfilled in Matthew 27:35).
Read Isaiah 53 slowly and thoughtfully.
