The Origin Of Humanity Series

THE ORIGIN OF HUMANITY

In The Beginning – 1

Genesis 1:26-28

Pastor Steve Dow

SERIES INTRODUCTION:

As we begin a New Year everyone tends to be making resolutions and looking forward to the New Year. It is a hopeful time. It is a time filled with expectancy. We want this year to be a better year. We are hoping and praying for better health, for closer relationships, for more money and for higher levels of security. But sometimes in order to move forward you have to look backward. If hindsight is twenty-twenty as they say, then there can be no better way to chart the course for the future than by looking to the past. As we look back on the past we gain perspective. We learn from our past failures and mistakes so that we won’t repeat them. They also say that if you don’t learn from the past, you are doomed to repeat it. And so I think the reason that history all too often repeats itself is because we all too often don’t learn from it.

So what are we going to do about all of this? We are going to begin the New Year by looking back to the beginning. What can we learn from our first parents and their children? What lesson can be gleaned from their making, from their marriage, from their miscues and even from their murder? These are the issues that we will be looking at over the next few weeks as we go back and look at what happened “In The Beginning” so that we can all have a good ending.

SERMON INTRODUCTION:

This morning we are going to be looking back to what happened “In The Beginning” so that we can learn about “The Origin of Humanity.” We are going to be looking at the creation of Adam and Eve – our first parents from whom every one of us here today are descended. This is affects every single one of us. This isn’t irrelevant – we’re talking about our family history here! And, yes, it does make a big difference where we come from.

This does make a difference because if we all really believe that we came from monkeys, then we will all act like monkeys. After all, we’re just animals too! I think we can see this reflected in the fact that since evolution has been introduced into the schools and prayer removed our moral values have been going down the toilet as a nation. Things that would have been scandalous a couple of generations ago are now just being winked at or laughed at or even worse accepted and endorsed. The problem is that we have been sold a bill of goods that says that we aren’t special – that we are no different than any other animal.

As an example of this nonsense let me share with you a couple of news items I ran across recently (11/29). A 50-something-year-old man raped a 9-year-old little girl. The man was convicted of the crime and the prosecutor asked the judge to sentence this man to 15 years in jail. The judge let him off with only probation! Meanwhile in England a couple of brothers have been charged with abuse. And what was their abuse? Molesting a young child? Assaulting a minority? No. They let there pet dog get too fat! This is no joke! They are seriously being tried for abuse because their dog is too fat.

This kind of foolishness is the result of evolutionary teaching when it is taken to its logical conclusion. Evolution means that an animal – a dog – has just as many rights as I do. In fact one activist has recently argued that calling them dogs is offensive and so we should start calling them – get this – canine-Americans. I know you think I’m joking, but I’m not. This is real and it is really destroying the family and the faith we hold dear. I guess this just proves that you really can make a monkey out of a man, but you can’t make a man out of a monkey!

Well, let’s move away from this nonsense and gain some common sense as we look back to what happened in the beginning.

Genesis 1:26-28, “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’”

Let’s look at some things that we can learn about ourselves from these verses.

1. EVERY PERSON IS A SPECIAL BEING.

Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings…’ ”

We see here that humanity is special on a number of levels. First, when God created everything else He just did it. He just said, “Let there be...” and there it was. But when it came time to create humans God convened a conference to discuss it. Who did He have this conference with? The angels? The animals? Of course not! He holds conference with the members of the Trinity – the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Note that God said “Let us make human beings…” Now I am well aware of the fact that some have tried to dismiss this as merely being the plural majesty, but there is little if any evidence for this being used by God or by the kings of Israel.