Please stand as we read our newest memory Scripture together …
Isaiah 9:6
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
And our memory refresher verses for today are …
John 15:5-8
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.
“If you do not remain in Me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
“If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.”
Please open your Bibles to Genesis 1
Many of the translations of the Bible use the word “man” for all of humanity.
Some of the newer translations use mankind in order to be more acceptable to the unchurched person who may not understand why the word “man” is used in this way.
One example would be where the NKJV says in Titus 2:11, “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men …” Really? Just to men?
For instance we see in the 1984 translation of the NIV that it says in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
And in the 2011 revision of the NIV it says, “So God created mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”
When we see that “God created man in His own image” we know that He is talking about humanity as a whole. Both men and women are created in the image of God.
This is something that a totally unchurched person might find confusing.
With that in mind, let’s go ahead and read Genesis 1.
Please keep your Bibles open as we look again at certain verses in this chapter …
Genesis 1:1 NIV
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Genesis 1:1 AMPC
“In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth.”
Exactly how this happened we do not know exactly but what we do know is that this is a critically important statement introducing the rest of the creation account.
Do you realize that the entire rest of the Bible hinges on whether this is a true statement or a lie?
Did God really create the heavens and the earth or not? We must know!
If all of this existed on its own and formed without any supernatural intervention then the rest of the Bible would be nonsense. Why? Because the very first sentence in the Bible would be a complete fabrication, a lie.
This is a gigantic claim. This is a foundational claim.
Truth cannot come from a lie. A lie hides the truth.
We must all settle this in our hearts.
Did God create the heavens and the earth in the beginning or did He not?
Which way will you answer that question?
The answer you choose will determine how you treat the rest of the Bible.
(Illustration??)
What else do we see in this chapter?
Genesis 1:3 NIV, “And God said ….”
Did you know that “God said” is repeated 10 times in this chapter and when He said it things sprang into existence at the very command of God.
God said …
Let there be light
Let there by sky
Let there be land and seas
Let there be vegetation
Let there be a sun and moon
Let there be water creatures and flying creatures
Let them reproduce and fill the earth
Let there be wild and domesticated animals
“Let us make mankind in our image”
- There are only two verses in the Bible where the Lord refers to Himself in the plural. Genesis 1: 26 and Genesis 3:22a where He says, “The man has now become like one of us knowing good and evil.”
- This is the first place in the Bible where we see that God is a community of One.
Finally, in the last “God said” statement He gives us some assignments
- We are to procreate and fill the earth with offspring
- We are to, “Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
- He gives us a menu …
- “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.”
- We were all vegans at creation, but, NO TOFU!
Wow! God the Creator is BUSY!!!
Let’s back up again to verse 27
Genesis 1:27 NIV
“So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
Here is something we need to take note of. God the Creator did not speak man into existence; He made man, He created man.
All of the material world was spoken into existence by the Word of God.
All of the plant life was spoken into existence by the Word of God.
All of the animal kingdom was spoken into existence by the Word of God.
But … not mankind! “Let Us make man in Our image” … “male and female He created them”
Do you remember when we were talking about verse 1 where it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”?
Do you remember how pivotal that was in deciding whether the Bible is true or not?
The question, “What is man?”, is pivotal as well. Not WHO man is but WHAT is man?
Many people spend so much of their lives concentrating on their earthly existence that they never take the time to consider who God is or what humanity is.
But for those who DO think about it there are three main schools of thought.
The first of these is the naturalist or the materialist. The god of the naturalist is science.
The naturalist believes that only matter and energy exist.
They do not believe in a supernatural God.
They do not believe that we have a soul.
They do not believe in any type of spirit at all.
What they do believe is that we exist because of a cosmic accident, we are born, we live, we die and we’re gone. That’s it.
Their belief is that all exists is the physical realm as we know it.
It is sometimes called materialism.
They believe that only things that can be proven by science exist.
So, how does the philosophy of naturalists answer the question of, what is man?
Here are a couple of quotes from famous naturalists.
Bill Nye the “Science Guy” said, “We are just a speck, on a speck, orbiting a speck, in the corner of a speck, in the middle of nowhere.”
Carl Sagan said, “We emerged from microbes and muck. We find ourselves in bottomless free fall … lost in a great darkness, and there is no one to send out a search party.”
Bertrand Russell the materialist atheist says that we are left to build our lonely lives on the “unyielding foundation of universal despair.”
In a world without God man is nothing but “the ultimate unplanned pregnancy”.
So, what is man? Just a cosmic accident …
Wow. If you weren’t depressed before maybe you are now!
What other answers to the “What is Man” question are there?
Here’s one, “There is a god and you are it!”
New Age which is really a repackaging of old eastern mystical religions that teach that we are all divine and a part of a divine universe.
According to Rhonda Byrne, “There is a God and he is you. In her book called The Secret she writes: You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You …. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection.”
Another popular version of eastern thought religions in America is that you are not god but god is in everything and in you and you need to be seeking to become one with everything. This can only happen at the end of a seemingly endless cycle of reincarnations. At that point you are one with the god that is the universe.
Ok. So, we’ve jumped from the despair and emptiness of naturalism that believes only soulless mass and energy exists to the other extreme that says we are all either a god or part of an extended god that encompasses all that exists.
What is the third option to the question of, “What is Man?”
This is such an amazing, mind boggling question that even King David asked the same thing in Psalm 8:3-9 when he pens …
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place, what is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that You care for him?
You made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor.
You made him ruler over the works of Your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky, and the fish in the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.
O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!”
Many naturalists believe that we are not superior to other creatures in any way.
Some even consider humanity to be a plague on the earth.
But, the Lord who made us sees us very differently.
You see, the very first chapter of Genesis establishes two extremely important truths; Who God is and who man is.
These truths are the foundation of the entire Biblical narrative.
God the Creator and man the creation, their relationship and God’s pursuit of humanity after sin and rebellion enters into the world.
This is a concept that is initiated here and it is a concept that you must keep forefront in your mind as you read through the Bible, which we should all be doing.
God created. Man rebelled. God pursued.
Some will repent and receive. Others will go into eternity in rebellion.
God is seeking you. The decision is yours.
You see … the concept of the relationship between the Creator, God, and the creation, man is established in this very first chapter of the Bible and runs throughout the grand revelation and it is divinely encapsulated in John 15:5-8.
John 15:5-8
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.
“If you do not remain in Me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
“If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.”
Where do you find yourself in this Scripture?
Final thoughts. Possible invitation. Prayer and dismissal.
