MAN (BFM pt.4)
Text: Genesis 1:27
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
Well so far we’ve looked at the first two points of the BFM, The Scriptures and God, today we’re going to be looking at article #3 – Man. The doctrine (or teaching) of man is called anthropology, and there is a whole secular field that deals with this, but the problem with secular anthropology is that they have removed God’s truth from the field, and if you eliminate the truth of God from something then you have a faulty foundation that you are building on; and if you build on a faulty foundation the whole structure is faulty.
It’s important for us to realize that the Bible is Theocentric not Anthrocentric… that means that it is God centered not man centered (Read Isaiah 43:7, 1st Cor. 10:31).
I’m sure that you all have heard that acronym for the Bible – Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, but if that’s all you think the Bible is then you’ve made a mistake. The Bible is God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. John tells us that “in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, and the Same was in the beginning with God… and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Jesus came to reveal God to man, He is Emmanuel – God with us. Jesus said, “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father… the Father and I are one.” Jesus revealed God to man, and now the Word… the Bible continues to reveal God to man.
People say, “I don’t know God’s will.” Read the Bible. It reveals God’s will to us. We cannot truly understand ourselves until we first understand what God has revealed about Himself in the Bible.
Here’s what the BFM says about man (Read Article III).
Now I want to focus on 3 parts of that statement. I want to look at mans origin, mans fallen state, and the solution to our fallen state. First; lets look at mans origin, how did we get here?
In 1859 Charles Darwin published his book titled The Origin of Species, and in that book he offered a hypothesis as to how man came to exist. Now I’ve actually read that book, and Darwin actually never gives an explanation about the origin of anything, instead he offers a hypothesis – a guess, about how creatures might evolve.
Does anyone know what the scientific method is? The scientific method is a process scientists use to determine cause and effect and thus create theories and proclaim scientific laws. It goes like this:
1st Ask a question
2nd Do background research
3rd Construct a hypothesis (offer a best guess as to what is the cause)
4th Test your hypothesis by doing an experiment with observation
5th Analyze the data and draw a conclusion
6th Communicate your results where the data can be retested and compared
So let’s say that you are Isaac Newton and you saw an apple fall from a tree and you wondered why? You would do background research, you would form an idea (maybe the idea of gravity) and then you would test it over and over again taking note of your results.
Now let’s go back to Charles Darwin. Darwin saw different type of finches on the Galapagos Islands and started the process of the scientific method. He asked a question, “I wonder why there are so many varieties of finches here?” He then created a hypothesis, “They must have evolved.” But the problem with evolution is that it can’t be tested with observation, and so to call the hypothesis of evolution a theory is wrong. We could look at other things like the lack of transitional fossils, we could look at how evolution cannot explain how we developed our minds, our wills, or our emotions.
There are a lot of other problems with evolution, and I don’t have time to get to them today, but the thing is; since evolutionists and creationists both have the same evidence what it comes down to is how we interpret that evidence. And neither evolutionists or creationists are neutral when it comes to interpreting that evidence.
As Christians we believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. John 1:3 says this about Jesus, “All things were made through Him and without Him nothing was made that was made.” In Genesis we are told that God created man, that He created them male and female, that He took from Adam and gave back to Adam in order to complete Adam and make Him one with his wife. And Romans 1:20 tells us that all of creation declares the glory of God. Every time we look at a sunset, a bird flying in the sky, purple mountains majesty or amber waves of grain we can know that there is a God and that He loves us.
I believe that it takes more faith to believe in evolution; that we are just the result of some cosmic accident and that we evolved from some primordial ooze than it does to believe in a all mighty, all powerful, loving Creator.
The Bible also teaches that man is not evolving, if anything we are devolving. We are becoming worse and worse. Which brings us to our second point: Our Fallen State.
Again we find this in Genesis. When man was created, we were created in the image of God and after His likeness. What that means is that we have a mind, we are capable of thought, we have emotions, we have the ability to reason, we have personalities, we can love, hate, have joy or sadness, we can become angry, or happy.
Last Sunday when we looked at the Trinity we saw that each member of the Trinity is capable of the same things, and so in this sense we have been created in the image of God. The Bible says that God is a Spirit, and we also have a spirit. But the Bible also talks about God being able to see, 2nd Chronicles 16:9 says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.” The Lord spoke to Moses and to others, The Lord hears, and so we are like God in these ways as well. WE are not evolved animals, we are humans, uniquely formed by a loving and personal God.
And in the beginning we were created without sin. But Genesis chapter 3 tells us that Satan came into the Garden of Eden and tempted Eve and how Adam and Eve gave into that temptation and disobeyed God. And the result of that was that sin came into creation.
Immorality, sickness, hatred, hostility, and death all came into the world because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience. And all of mankind is now under the condemnation of sin.
Romans 3:23 says, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” We are all sinners, we are born into sin, look at Romans 5:12 (read). And 1st John says that if we say we have no sin we are liars. We are sinners; we are born that way, and we are bound to do it, and no matter how hard a person tries to escape it on their own, they never will be able to cease from sinning in their own strength and will. And this sin is what separates man from a relationship with God. And it is this sin that condemns us to an eternity in hell apart from God. Because of sin, every man, woman, boy and girl that comes into this world is doomed to an eternity in hell. So what can we do? What hope do we have?
Turn with me to 2nd Corinthians 5:20 – 6:2 (read). Our only hope is to be reconciled to God, by the grace of God given to us through faith in Christ Jesus.
The greatest truth we can understand about ourselves, the greatest truth we can understand about man is that we are hopelessly lost sinners desperately in need of God’s grace. Had God not sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, none would be saved. All of mankind would be lost.
Isaiah 43:7 says that God created us for His own glory – Every time that God saves a sinner it is to His glory because salvation is of the Lord. It is by His grace and mercy that we are saved, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
Our purpose in life is not to glorify ourselves.
The Bible tells us that man was created in a perfect state and in fellowship with our Creator. But sin made us selfish and turned our hearts toward our own selfish and sinful desires, and broke that fellowship that we once had with God. But when we are saved by grace we are restored to fellowship with God and we can once again live according to God’s purpose. We can live lives that are pleasing to the Lord. The Bible tells us that as Christians everything we do should bring glory to the Lord. Turn with me to 1st Corinthians 10:31 (read).
If you are not a Christian you can’t do this; it’s impossible. In-fact the Bible says that if you do not have Christ, then you are an enemy of God. It says without Christ you are lost. Jesus put it like this; either God is your Father or Satan is, there is no middle ground, despite what we like to think.
So the question I have for you this morning is this: Have you come to terms with your own sinful nature and recognized your need for Jesus to forgive you?
If you have never come to know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, if you’ve never placed your trust in Him for forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life, you can do it today. Jesus said, “Come you who hunger and thirst for righteousness. You will be filled.” If you are sitting here this morning and you feel that pull upon your heart why would you not surrender to Christ? Why would you not put your faith in the finished work of Jesus? Let me tell you this: you cannot get to heaven by anything you do. You cannot be forgiven of your sins by anything you do… you can’t earn God’s forgiveness. You cannot earn eternal life. You have about as much chance of earning eternal life as you do of walking to the sun. It’s impossible. You can’t earn it, but you can receive it as a gift.
The Bible says that today is the day of salvation. By faith in Jesus Christ and in His finished work, you receive the gift of salvation. His victory becomes yours. You will be restored to fellowship with God.
So if you would like to make a profession of what God has done, if you would like to make a profession of faith this morning, I’m going to stand up here and invite you to come forward and do that. Or… if you are in need of prayer, or anything at all, I invite you to come as MariJo sings and Dianne and Ralinda play.
CLOSING.
