THE NATURE OF MAN
GENESIS 1: 26-27, 2: 7
1. Illus. of teenager
• Went into room and slammed door, saying under breath, “people, people, PEOPLE!”
• Mom went to door and said, “what’s wrong?” Girl replied, “people, that’s what’s wrong!”
• “Let me in, and we’ll talk about it.” “No, you’re a people too!”
2. Have you ever felt that way? “I don’t understand people, I don’t know what’s wrong with people, and I don’t know why people act the way they do sometimes!” Have you ever wished you knew what makes your boss, spouse, or best friend tick?
3. If you are ever going to understand what makes people tick, you will have to understand their basic nature. The best place to learn about man’s basic nature is Genesis, where the creation of man is explained!
4. Text: As he wrote about the creation of man, Moses also wrote about the basic nature of man.
5. Today: although people come in all shapes, sizes, and colors, every human being has the same basic nature.
6. What are these basic elements of human nature?
I. WE ARE ALL MARRED BEINGS
1. See 1: 26-27 God created Adam “imago dei,” in His image.
2. This doesn’t mean that Adam looked like God physically, that God had two hands and feet etc. It does mean that Adam looked like God spiritually and intellectually.
3. If we could have gone to the Garden, we wouldn’t have been around Adam 5 minutes before we would have said, “Adam can think and reason, Adam can create, Adam can make moral decisions, Adam is attracted to that which is just and good. He bears the image of God!”
4. Unfortunately, something happened. (3: 6-7). Because of this first sin, Adam’s nature was marred and corrupted, including the image of God.
5. Illus. of video tape
• Left it accidentally in back window of car in summer.
• Could still recognize it as a video tape, but it was warped and twisted.
• Bible teaches us that Adam’s sin did that to the image of God within him. It marred and corrupted it.
6. That twisting and marring was passed down to each of Adam’s children. We bear the image of God, but it is so hopelessly corrupted by sin that it is sometimes hardly recognizable. That’s why people originally created in the perfect image of God can:
• Kill an innocent child
• Fill body with drugs and booze
• Get addicted to pornography
• Steal a $100 bill
• Live a sexually immoral lifestyle
7. See II Corinthians 3: 18. When we receive Jesus as Savior, He begins the process of recreating that image in its purest form. The job won’t be complete until we see Jesus, but that’s where we are headed spiritually.
II. WE ARE ALL DYING BEINGS
1. See Genesis 2: 7a. Adam’s physical nature was formed from the dust of the ground. If you could read this verse in Hebrew, there is a play on words that emphasizes how close our linkage to the dust really is. “formed man… = adam. “of the ground…” = adamah.
2. So what if we are dust? Genesis 3: 19. From the moment of our conception, we are terminal.
3. Illus. of Thomas Donaldson (Contemporary Illus. #33)
• His name is Thomas Donaldson, and he hopes that he has cheated death.
• For a price tag of $125,000 dollars, retained the services of Alco Life Extension Institute in Scottsdale Arizona.
• At the moment of his death, scientists there will cryogenically freeze his body in liquid nitrogen at a temperature of 320 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. His body will be stored until, as the legal documents say, “a cure for whatever caused his death is found.”
• When asked by newspaper reporters why he would pay so much money for a procedure that most likely will not work, Mr. Donaldson said, “For some strange reason, I don’t want to die. I like being alive… OK guys?”
• While you can postpone death, you cannot escape it. We are from dust, and we will return to dust.
4. Each one of us learns very early to hear the seconds of our life ticking away. When we are young, the sound is very soft. The older we get, the louder it gets.
5. Do you know what a midlife crisis is? It’s when a man or woman can no longer ignore the ticking of their own mortality! It’s the panic that comes from realizing that they are no longer young, and they are not going to live forever, and that the seconds of their life are ticking away!
6. Why are some people mad at the world? Why are some people workaholics? Why are some people irresistibly drawn toward a lifestyle of booze and sex, or run away with their secretary, or a thousand other crazy things? Because we are trying to cope with the knowledge of our own mortality.
III. WE ARE ALL ETERNAL BEINGS
1. See Genesis 2:7b. When God created Adam, God breathed into Adam’s nostrils something of Gods-self, something that like the creator is eternal and everlasting.
2. It is true that we are dust and will pass away. But it is also true that long after our bodies have returned to dust, there is a non-physical portion of us that will still be alive.
3. Some call it our soul, some refer to it as our spirit. Call it what you will, there is a part of us that is going to live forever.
4. Illus. of Dr. Aulen
• An internationally renowned Swedish physician of another time, particularly noted for his studies of terminally ill patients.
• Once put exceedingly sensitive scales underneath the beds of dying patients. In the dozen people he tested in this fashion, he found that at the moment of death there was a loss of weight of exactly 4 grams in all of them.
• He hypothesized that at the moment of death something exited their bodies that could not be seen or sensed, and that everyone had this something, and that apparently it weighted 4 grams.
5. Regardless of what you might think about the validity of Dr. Aulen’s experiment, I have to tell you that his findings are exactly in line with biblical revelation. God’s word tells us that at the moment of death our soul leaves our body, and goes out into eternity!
6. Now here’s the kicker. There are only two possible destinations for that eternal soul: heaven or hell. At the moment of death, every person either goes to eternal bliss, or it does to eternal torment.
7. What determines their destination? I John 5: 11-12. Did you or did you not have a personal relationship with Jesus.
CONCLUSION
1. We are marred beings, we are dying beings, and we are eternal beings.
2. Here’s the deal. Why do we do the wicked, terrible, selfish things we do? Because at our foundation there is something so wrong with us, so flawed, that nothing we can do will fix it.
3. The same God who was in the Garden saw His creation warped and twisted by sin, and did the one thing that could fix us. He became a man, died on cross, rose again the third day.
4. And when we repent and believe, He floods into every fiber of our being! He begins to reclaim His image, and we begin to change the way we live and think. Our limited, terminal lives become joy filled offerings of praise to Him. And all that dying stuff? When we leave this body at the moment of death, He calls to Himself that which belongs to Him, and we are forever in His Presence!
5. It all starts at that moment we turn from and turn to!
