Introduction - The Creation of Man

Well Jim is right. We last week finished up a 38 study series on angels. And really I strung it out so long because I was just trying to find out if Jim could find that many songs on angels and he just kept coming up with him. We had angels all over and then we got to Satan and demons and he was finding the devil and demons all through the Hendo. And I thought we better get away from this. So we finally finished that up and starting a new study night. When I announced last week that we would be starting a new study and I don't what the Bible teaches about man and sin. Someone kind of jokingly said to me, well that'll be just of one session study. Man was created, he's sinned, that's it. That's pretty simple. Well it is, that's the basics and but there's a lot more to it. So let me give you a roadmap first of all tonight. Give you an idea of where we're headed before we jump into kind of the introductory study tonight and lay some groundwork for where we'll be going in the next few weeks. We actually will be talking about 10 different topics in this study on man and sin. First of all we'll begin with the creation and we're not going to deal with creation as a whole. We'll just deal with the creation of man and we're not going to deal with all of the different arguments for creation as opposed to the evolutionary theories and so forth. This is not a philosophy class or a class in apologetics. It's just a Bible study and so we're going to deal basically with the biblical material. We'll bring in a few other ideas but just basically dealing with the biblical material on the creation account. So that's where we'll begin. Topic number one. Second topic we'll deal with is the nature of man and what I mean by that is man is made up of two parts a material part of body and an immaterial part everything else on the inside. Everything that we are we'll look at those different aspects of how we are put together and in that we'll deal somewhat extensively with what it means to be made in the image and likeness of God. So we'll deal with that concept when we deal with the material and the immaterial part of man. Then the third part of our study will be the composition of man kind of taking off from from his nature. We'll talk about our composition body soul and spirit are the three most well-known parts of the composition of mankind but there are a lot more of parts of us than that. So we'll talk about the will, the conscience and many other things that that go together to compose us as human beings. The fourth topic we'll consider is the origin of the soul. Where did we get our soul? How did we get our soul? Some people believe the soul pre-existed. There are some groups that believe that we'll talk about that. Some people believe the soul every soul is individually created by God and placed in us and then others believe the soul is generated from our parents. We'll look at each of those and see which one has the most biblical foundation and backing to it. The fifth topic we'll talk about is freedom of choice and that's a very interesting and difficult topic. I was going to say dangerous topic. You can be dangerous too but a topic of great interest to a lot of people. How much freedom of choice do we have? We'll look at the different views on that and try to again see which one best lines up with the biblical information. So those five topics basically on the doctrine of man or what the Bible teaches about man and then we'll jump from there into the doctrine of sin, what the Bible teaches about sin. And again we'll cover five different areas, the first one being the nature of sin and we'll look at the different words in the Bible that are used for sin. We'll try to define it based on those words and look at the different facets of the ugliness of sin. And then the second topic in sin that we'll talk about is we'll talk about the fall of man. How did that come about? We'll look at the Genesis account of the fall of man into sin. Then we'll spend some time on the results of the fall, both the immediate results dealing with the curse in Genesis and then the far reaching results that reach down even to us today. Then the fourth topic on what the Bible teaches about sin. We'll talk about the transmission of the sin nature. Okay, Adam and Eve's sinned, that affected the human race somehow. How did we get our human nature or how did we get our sinful nature? And we'll talk about the transmission of the sin nature, how that came to us, the different views on that. And then we'll end our study with the implications of what the Bible teaches about man and sin. Implications for psychology, for sociology. We're going to see a lot of what the world teaches in those areas is way off base because it is not rooted in what the Bible teaches about who we are and how sin affects us. And so we'll talk about the implications of a biblical view of man and sin on what we believe about psychology, what we believe about sociology, what we believe about evangelism. And then we'll take a look at a couple of just miscellaneous issues that everybody is interested in when it comes to this topic and that is what is the unpardonable sin and what is the sin unto death that the Bible talks about. We'll finish up our study with those two topics. Okay, any questions about the roadmap? Kind of where we're headed? Didn't have any of that in your notes, but any question about that? Anybody want to repeat it? Give me the 10 topics. I want to take a test. Okay, any questions? All right, we're good to go. Let's start with the creation of man and what I want to do tonight is just kind of lay some groundwork. We're going to begin at the beginning and we're going to lay some groundwork to kind of move us into this topic of what the Bible teaches about man. The Bible does tell us how humanity came into existence. So I want to begin with the credibility of the biblical account. There are other ancient stories about how mankind came into existence, but they are vastly different from the biblical account in several ways. The credibility of the biblical record of creation is based on three things. First of all, the biblical record is free from fantasy. To read some of the ancient accounts of how mankind came into being is like reading a Disney fairy tale. They're just full of fantasy. For instance, the Babylonian myth of creation has the god Marduk killing the dragon, Piamat, and creating heaven and earth from the two halves of the dragon's body. I mean, it's just crazy stuff like that. It kind of makes you wonder if that's where heaven and earth came from. Where did Marduk come from and where did the dragon come from? The fantasy that's found in a lot of those ancient tales of creation really don't measure up to the biblical account. The biblical account is not a fantasy story. By comparison with all the other ancient accounts of creation, the biblical account is absolutely sublime. It is beautiful. It makes sense and it is true, obviously. So it's free from fantasy. Secondly, the credibility of the biblical record of creation is based on the fact that it is free from contradiction to scientific fact. You say, oh, wait a second. Do scientists believe that? Well, no, but our question is who's right? And I think I'd rather trust what God says. Really the issue of science versus the Bible comes down to what you believe about the Bible. Is it really God's word? That settles everything. If you believe the Bible is God's word, then you take what the Bible says. Now, although what the Bible teaches about creation contradicts some theories of science, please note the careful choice of words. Some theories of science, the biblical record does not contradict any established fact of science. There is no established fact of science that contradicts the biblical account. Sure, there are biblical theories that abound. There are different theories and approaches to evolution and progression of mankind and so forth that contradict the Bible. But no established fact of science contradicts the biblical account. In fact, the biblical account really is so beautifully complementary of genuine factual science that many of the things the Bible taught predated discoveries of science. For instance, the fact that Adam was created from the dust of the ground, it wasn't until centuries later, millennial later, that scientists were able to isolate the basic elements of the body and recognize that they were exactly what the Bible said they were composing the body of the elements that we find in the dust of the ground. The Bible speaks of the circulation system as sustaining life in the book of Leviticus, the book of Ecclesiastes, and that was not discovered until 16 1700s, basically at least as established scientific fact. The Bible teaches around earth that the earth is a sphere long before that was ever credibly recognized in science and you could go on and on and on. There is no established fact of science that the Bible contradicts. In fact, the Bible predates many of the scientific discoveries of mankind. So the credibility of the biblical account is established from the fact that it's free from contradiction to scientific fact. And then the third is very simply this, the biblical record accords with common sense. Common sense says that all effects have an adequate cause. If there's something you see that is an effect that has come into being, there's an adequate cause for that. There has to be common sense tells us that. Common sense tells us that complexity and design of mankind and of the universe as a whole calls for an ultimate designer. One who was able to put that complexity together, one who was able to put that design together, all that we see in the world and especially in the human body could not have happened by time and chance. It's more incredible to believe that that than it is to believe in a divine creator who brought it all into existence. So we're not going to get into all of those pseudo-scientific theories. We'll deal with, we'll touch on them just a little bit next time or maybe the time after that. But just just to give you a little bit of of wetting your appetite for the fact that the Bible record makes sense. It accords with common sense of what we would expect to see. All right. That's just a little bit about the credibility of the biblical account. Any comments or questions there? Can we just lay some groundwork for where we're headed with creation? Okay. The next foundational topic you need to deal with if you're going to deal with creation is the historical reality of Adam and Eve. In other words, are they real actual people who lived in real time and space on earth? You say, well, of course they were. Well, not everybody believes that. In fact, that is actually a raging debate today, even among some people who should know better, some some biblical scholars who should know better, it has become a raging debate as to whether or not Adam and Eve were real historical figures or were they just some kind of mythical representations of all of us, not really grounded in history in time and space. Let me give you three views. I'm going to begin with the Orthodox view. The Orthodox view is the right view. Actually, that's what the word means. Orthodox comes from two Greek words, one of which means right, the other of which means opinion or view. So it is the right view. It is the right opinion as opposed to heresy or false teaching. So Orthodox view basically is the view of the early church as it subscribe to the scriptures to what the Bible taught and passed that down through the generations. For those who believe the Bible, they believe in Orthodoxy. That's the right teaching, the right way of looking at the biblical way of looking at things. The Orthodox view of Adam and Eve then takes them, takes the Bible in its literal, normal sense. Thus Adam and Eve are historical people, actual people who lived on planet earth. There's no reason if you believe the Bible and what it says and take it seriously, there's no reason to see Adam and Eve simply as generic names for all of mankind. Now it is true that the word Adam, the name Adam, is also the Hebrew word used for mankind or man in general, but that's appropriate in the beginning because Adam was the whole human race to start with. The whole human race, all of mankind, was found in Adam began with him. He was the whole human race in the beginning and so God named him man, mankind. That's his name, Adam. And so yes, there's some overlap there, but that does not mean that Adam is some kind of mythical, legend figure that just stands for mankind. He was a real human being who lived on planet earth. And the way we know that as it is confirmed in the Bible is because of the new testament teaching. Let me just give you some verses that'll be on the screen and then we'll get to Genesis one and two here in just a few moments. First of all, Jesus treated Adam as a historical character. Look at these verses in Matthew 19. Remember when the Pharisees came to Jesus and tried to trip him up on his view of divorce, tried to get him to take an unpopular stance so that he would become unpopular with the people. That's what Genesis 19's all about. And Jesus rather than entering their view on divorce took them all the way back to Genesis two in the institution of marriage. And this is what he says in Genesis or Matthew 19. Haven't you read? He replied that at the beginning the creator made them male and female and said for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. Jesus treated that account and treated the male and female as actual people. The Pharisees were asking him about actual people who go through divorce. And Jesus said it all started in God's plan with the first man and the first woman. And he didn't indicate at all that they were some kind of mythical figures that represent the human race. No, they were the first man and the first woman. Jesus refers to them. Paul also talks about Adam in Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5 verses 12 and 13. He says, therefore just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, in this way death came to all people because all sinned. So Adam is seen as the one man through whom sin came into the world. If I could read on verse 13, we don't have verse 13 on the screen. Do we Tim? Okay. Verse 13 says to be a verse 14 is the one I really want. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command as did Adam who is a pattern of the one to come. And then he goes on to say Adam is a pattern in the sense that he is typical of the Lord Jesus. He is the first man, Jesus is the last man. The, our Adam was a real man who brought sin into the world. Jesus is a real man who brought salvation into the world. And that's the the likeness and the pattern that he uses there in Romans chapter 5. But he talks about him as being one man, a real man who sinned brought sin into the world. And his name was Adam. He also mentions the first man in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verses 45 to 47, where he says so it is written. The first man Adam couldn't be any more clear than that. First man that ever lived on planet earth whose name was Adam became a living being. The last Adam, there he is referring to Christ. If you read the whole passage, he is making a comparison between Adam and Christ. The last Adam, a life giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural. And after that the spiritual, the first man was of the dust of the earth. That's obviously Adam. The second man is of heaven. So just as Jesus was a real man who came from heaven, Adam was a real man who came from the dust of the earth by the creative hand of God. So the New Testament confirms the fact that Adam was a real person, not some kind of mythical figure. So that's the Orthodox view. That's the biblical view. That's the right view. Any commoner question about those verses? Yes, Steve? All scientifically credible actual facts of science like that do confirm what the Bible teaches and what has been discovered about the tracing of man's blood back to one pair is another evidence of that. Good point. Okay. All right, we've got two other views. I want to flip them. The next one on your notes is the neo-orthodox view. The third one is the classical liberal view. I want to take the third one first, classical liberal view because I want to describe kind of how we got in the mess we're in now with what people believe about the Bible and about the creation account and so forth. Liberalism, religious or theological liberalism came into the Vogue in the late 1800s and it was rooted in Germany in the rationalism of the day that had come out of the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, the economic and political theories of Karl Marx and other people who were comprising all these theories about mankind and about culture and society and so forth that were rooted simply in man himself. Well, that became the church in Germany back in the late 1800s became infected with that kind of thinking and began to think that, well, if we are rational beings then this book is really no different than any other ancient book. It was just composed by men to try to record their experiences about how they came into being and so forth and it really has no root in literal historical fact or anything like that and so religious liberalism began to invade the church in Europe. It crossed the pond and came to the states or the United States somewhere in the teens and 20s is when it really hit the United States. Practically every seminary of that day and practically every denomination of that day was deeply infected with religious liberalism and there were those who still believed the Bible and they fought tooth and nail against that encroaching liberalism that was sweeping into the American church. If you want to do some real interesting reading read about what happened at Princeton Seminary in the 1920s with men like Benjamin Warfield and Jay Gresham, Machen and Robert Dick Wilson, Wilson was their Old Testament prof, Machen their New Testament prof, Warfield was their theology guy and they fought tooth and nail against the liberalism. Jay Gresham Machen wrote a book called Christianity and Liberalism and just tore to shreds the liberal teaching that was invading the church but it was almost a lost cause because liberalism was just sweeping through the American church and a part of that liberalism was again just a rational view of the Bible that this is not really God's word it's just a production of man in trying to explain his religious experiences and so forth. So basically the classical liberal view of creation or of Adam and Eve is that Adam and Eve really are a legend with no basis in history or science at all. There may be a little bit of religious value but not even much of that they don't even believe in the any religious value of the story. They believe religious liberals believe that Genesis is basically man's attempt in his limited understanding way back then to describe and explain God in his own terms and his own origin in the best way that he could. Back in those days they didn't know anything about science they knew the real study of history and so they couldn't have really known very much and liberals believe basically that we must depend on modern science for our knowledge of origins. The Bible is a cute little story but it has nothing to do with fact that's what liberals teach and so obviously they throw out the whole creation account and just overwhelmingly wholesale adopted the evolutionary theories of how man came into being and that's how we got to where we were basically where we are in our culture today. So basically man did not fall from anything there's no such thing as a creation to fall but man is climbing out of his animal ancestry that's that's the idea of liberals even religious liberals they swallow the theory of evolution completely. So that was classic liberalism. Well there were some people who were kind of fascinated with liberalism but began to see that its views were not stacking up against what was happening in Europe after the First World War and so there were some theologians in Germany that decided you know we need to start taking the Bible more seriously again and so they were still kind of enamored with some things about liberalism but they wanted to get back to at least some respect for the Bible and so they they founded what was another movement called neo orthodoxy. Now you see the term orthodoxy means right belief or biblical teaching and these men said we're going to go back to what the Bible teaches we are the new orthodox theologians. Well the problem with neo orthodoxy is it didn't quite go all the way back to the Bible. Basically they had a view that was that that was based on man's feelings and experiences and so they taught neo orthodoxy theologians basically taught that Adam was not an actual person they agreed with the liberals on that Adam was not an actual person but there's great value in the biblical record he was a divinely inspired legend or symbol that stands for each one of us because each one of us experiences temptation we experience fall in our lives and so this mythical couple represents all of us and so we need to take the Bible seriously in what it's teaching but not factually or historically okay so they really just redressed the old liberal arguments and a little nicer clothing and made it more presentable. There are still many major denominations in our country today that are shot full of neo orthodoxy. They do nice little talks on Sunday mornings they'll give lip service to the Bible but they really do not believe in the factual basis of the word of God so that is what we face in our culture today as far as just approach to the Bible or approach to Adam and Eve is concerned what troubles me greatly in this day is that the current raging debate is in what we call evangelical circles people that are supposed to be committed believers in the Bible and the inspiration of scripture that it is God's word and now there are many even and evangelicalism who are beginning to question the historicity of Adam and Eve and that is very troubling indeed so so that's kind of what we kind of the culture that we're in religiously in this topic I just want to nail down this evening before we move any further again we're just laying groundwork tonight. I want to nail down the fact that here at Jocelyn Chapel we believe that the Bible is God's word it is God's word and it's entirety every word and all the parts of it are God's word and so this is God's revelation to us not something manufactured by man God used men to inscribe his word but under the complete control of the Holy Spirit this is this is the production of God so really that is the key issue if this is God's word then God cannot tell any lies so whatever God says is true our our responsibility is not to question it in the light of human rationalism or human logic or human philosophy our responsibility is to accept it and seek to understand it as best we can as God's revealed truth and so if that's what we believe about the Bible and it is then what we want to do is look at the biblical account the biblical record and seek to do our best to understand it and that's what we're going to do okay so we're going to look at the Genesis account the Genesis record of creation but I wanted to give you a little background as to the kind of stuff that is flying around all over the place today Steve well it's exactly where liberalism takes you and that makes perfect sense to us who believe the Bible if you believe in an evolutionary theory that we we have come up from animal ancestry from less complex organisms then none of what you said makes sense yeah really it really is where you start yeah so of course we understand that if the Genesis account is not literal then there is no sin there is no fall from which man must be redeemed there is no need for the cross but the liberal will say well those are nice platitudes but we know that we all came from you know less complex organisms and and it is our responsibility to try to live by the teachings of Jesus and be the best people we can be and so we you know we have a radically different view because we take the Bible literally as God's word yeah but you're right if you don't believe that then the rest of it goes out the window there's no need for the cross for the plan of redemption nothing if you don't take the the beginning literally okay good point let's at least get started we got about 10 minutes let's get started in the biblical creation account let's look at the book of Genesis chapter one and we're going to see man created and we're going to see him in five different lights in Genesis one and two the Genesis account in Genesis one and two presents man in five different lights first of all man is presented as the pinnacle of creation he is the pinnacle of creation Genesis one verses 26 to 31 I just to summarize before we look at those verses the creation account and I'm not going to go into the different things that were created on the different days and what what all is done there I did that somewhat months ago when I preached through the first 11 chapters of Genesis on Sunday morning but you have here the description of creation God creates light God creates the division of water he divides the water from from water vapor lifts the water vapor above the earth there's the emergence of dry ground in Genesis one there's the creation of vegetation of the sun and moon of sea and land animals all that leading up to the crowning point of creation on day six and that is Adam in verse 26 then God said after all of those other things he had brought into existence then God said let us make mankind in our image in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish of the sea 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 so God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them male and female he created them so Adam is the pinnacle of creation everything that God created up till that point on all the days he looks at at the end of each day and says it's good it's good it's good at the end of the sixth day after the crowning achievement of creation he says looking at everything in verse 31 it was very good very good and so man seems to be the pinnacle but the crowning achievement of creation and that's one way that he has seen is the pinnacle of creation the way God responds at the end of the sixth day but the second way that man has seen is the pinnacle of creation is that term image and likeness you see in those two verses God said let's create man this make man in our image in our likeness again in verse 27 so God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them that is only said of man only said of Adam it is not said of animals or plants only said of Adam so that places Adam in a superior position to the rest of creation now we're going to explore what that means later we'll take a whole study on what the image and likeness of God mean or at least a great part of a study it'll probably end up being a whole study so we'll flesh that out later I don't want to take any questions on that tonight we're going to get into that later again just kind of laying some groundwork tonight but the fact that man and man alone is stated as being created in the image and likeness of God puts him at the pinnacle of creation that's not said of any other part of creation the third thing that shows that man is at the pinnacle of creation is that he was given dominion over animal and plant life look at verse 28 God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth and subdue it rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground then God said 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 and to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground everything that has the breath of life in it I give every green plant for food and it was so God gives man dominion over both plant and animal life in the the words subdue in verse 28 is an interesting word God told man to be fruitful increase a number fill the earth and subdue it the words subdue is not a flagrant and destructive treatment of the earth but it indicates a responsibility that man has to utilize the earth and its resources for our good and for God's glory yes we are to treat God's creation carefully where to be good stewards of God's creation but we must recognize that creation was made for man's benefit not the other way around you see part of the evolutionary or part of the the results of evolutionary theory is in the radical environmentalist movement that teaches animal and plant life really is more sacred than man or at least as sacred as man and so nothing should be done by man to jeopardize any animal or plant why now certainly again the word subdue does not mean a reckless flagrant destructive approach to God's creation but the proper biblical order is that we are to utilize the earth and its resources we are to subdue it under the needs of man and so God created all things for our good for his glory and treating that creation as God's creation carefully respectfully as good stewards we are still to recognize that the creation is for man's benefit the resources God placed here are for man's benefit they're not for crawfishes benefit primarily over man we got the order wrong when we get it that way it's to benefit mankind and so we are to subdue the earth to utilize its resources to manage it well is the responsibility we're given which again indicates man is the pinnacle of creation subduing and ruling over all of the rest of creation so man is the pinnacle of God's creation not not on a level playing field or not on a same plane as plant an animal life we are not on the same plane as plants and animals we are to subdue them and to rule over them again respectfully as good stewards of God's creation not recklessly but certainly recognizing that proper position of dominion okay any questions or comments about that that's a very important concept in a biblical view of mankind and a biblical view of the creation as well the created world okay the idea that animals are built basically for self preservation and we'll do whatever it takes to preserve themselves mankind is built with a different inner moral compass that's part of being in the image and likeness of God we'll explore that a little bit more as we get into that but man is the only being that has that likeness to his creator that moral compass that sense of right wrong guilt and ethical values and so forth that distinguish us from animals yes very much so okay other questions or comments okay man is the pinnacle of creation next week we're going to start with this that man as a material masterpiece we're going to look at Genesis 2 7 and how God fashioned man and it's it's a different word and a different concept than anything else God created in chapter 1 the the expansion of the account of creation of man in chapter 2 is a whole different process where God actually beautifully artfully masterfully puts together like a potter with the clay the actual body of the first man it's a beautiful picture of God's care and tenderness as he creates in a way in a special way that he didn't do any of the other part of creation which he just spoke into existence it's a it's a tenderness and a care of an artist as he fashions the body of man's an amazing thing to see and we'll look at that next week okay our time's up let's pray