The Creation of Man (3)

Well, we are exploring at some depth the creation of man what I had expected to take maybe a week maybe two we're into our third week of tonight and that's been great because that means you've had good questions and good discussions. So that's what this this kind of class is all about. In beginning the doctrine of man and sin or what the Bible teaches about man and about sin we have looked at the credibility of the biblical account, the historical reality of Adam and Eve. And then we looked at the biblical creation account. We've looked at the Genesis account and we saw five things from the Genesis account of the creation of mankind that is that man is the pinnacle of creation. Man is a material masterpiece as God formed and shaped his body. Man is an intellectual being man was created mankind was created as male and female and then mankind was created in the image of God. So those five things we saw from the Genesis account. Then last week we began looking at some other biblical accounts that supplement or clarify or add a little bit to the Genesis record of creation. And the first one we looked at last week was man's dignity in Psalm 8. You may remember that it kind of places man in where he fits in creation begins by saying in the whole scheme of the greatness of creation man seems very insignificant. What is man that's your mindful of him? The psalmist says when I look at the stars and the wonders of God's hand. But then it says actually we're created just a little lower than the angels and we have dominion over the world. We have dominion over all of the animals on planet earth. So that kind of places us where God gives us a place of dignity in creation just lower than the angels over all of the other created beings. So that passage highlights man's dignity. Where we're going to begin tonight then pick up where we left off is with the second biblical account. It's in a please he asked these chapter seven so please open your Bibles there to a please he asked to seven rest you're going to look at these passages tonight. In your Bible and look at Ecclesiastes seven. Ecclesiastes seven verses 28 and 29. Solomon is describing wisdom in chapter seven and he says in verse 27. Look says the teacher this is what I have discovered adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things. In other words doing careful observation research investigation into the way things operate. He says this while I was still searching verse 28 but not finding I found one upright man among a thousand but not one upright woman among them all. That's interesting isn't it? I said last week when we left that the first passage we would look at this week would be of great interest to you ladies. You're wondering what does this mean is this show anism is this some kind of a women are lower than mankind of thing. Let's go on to verse 29. This this only have I found God created mankind upright but they have gone in search of many schemes basically the point is this is Hebrew poetry this is poetic language and the point is you look around mankind and you'll not find anybody upright. But God created us that way God made us upright. But so why does he say I found one upright man among a thousand but not one upright woman among them all. Well there are two things going on here both of which have to do with Hebrew poetry. You see this is poetic language have to understand the way Hebrew poetry works to really get this. First of all there is a particular manner of speech it's called an idiom not an idiot but an idiom in language that's a manner of speech or way of presenting things. In Hebrew there is a particular idiom that uses numbers and either ads or subtracts to get across the point. You remember it's often in proverbs that you find Solomon saying something like these three things that I observed. And that's just a way of saying there are lots of things without necessarily enumerating specifically but three even four and the idea is you can go beyond what you can observe and you can always get more. Well that's the idea here. Look among a thousand you'll find one upright man not one upright woman the idea is not that there are no upright women to be found. The idea is this poetic language of either adding or subtracting to make a point. Seeing three things no four I've seen one person no none that's the idea it's not comparing men and women. The other thing is in Hebrew poetry there's a lot of exaggeration that goes on or hyperbole which is a purposeful exaggeration to make a point. And so he's saying you look among all mankind and you'll find one person out of two thousand that may be upright and the real the real point is nobody's upright you can look and look and look you just can't find them. But his real point is God created mankind upright he made us that way but they mankind have gone in search of many schemes in other words we've turned to our own schemes it's kind of like Isaiah 53 we've turned our own way and rather than God's way so that's really the point God originally created us morally upright and pure and man has left that position of uprightness to follow his own schemes to the follow his way of sin the pool of sinful hearts that's the point so the point is for us creation is concerned in this biblical account is that God created us originally morally upright okay morally innocent pure questions or comments there on this passage okay all right so man you can't use that verse in the way you thought you could right okay let's look at another passage that adds something else to the creation story of man it's in Romans chapter 9 and it has to do with the fact that God created us moral and responsible beings we have a moral and responsible nature and I want to choose this passage because it is a passage which is often thought to teach just the opposite that we do not have human responsibility or any choice this passage is a very strong passage on the sovereignty of God and there are lots of passage that we could use to talk about the fact that man has created a morally responsible being that we are responsible for our own choices and this is just one of those passages but it's kind of tucked tucked away in this strong passage on God's sovereignty and because there's this beautiful balance it's a reason I wanted to use this passage in in chapter 9 of Romans Paul has used the analogy of the potter and the clay to make a point that God is sovereign God is the potter mankind is the clay God has mercy on whom he will have mercy and he hardens whom he will harden just as a potter can make one vessel for honor and one vessel for dishonor out of the clay so Paul's point here is that God is sovereign he does as he chooses but he also slips in a little something that helps us to realize that he does not violate our moral responsibility. In fact Paul rebukes such a thought look at how he rebukes this idea that we can challenge God's sovereignty in verse 19 one of you will say to me then why does God still blame us in other words of God has mercy on whom he will harden so many why does he blame us are we responsible for our sin or is God responsible for our sin why would he blame us if he hardens and does not harden people. Well here's here's Paul's answer to that verse 20 of the Spanish verse 19 for who is able to resist his will but who are you a human being to talk back to God show what is formed say to the one who formed it why did you make me like this does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for time. So Paul's first answer is we have no right to question God where the where the clay he's the potter we have no right to question him he has the right to do as he chooses he is sovereign and so I really have no right to question God and say well if this is the way it is then how can you hold us morally responsible. Remember who you're talking to you're talking to the potter and God has the prerogative of doing whatever he chooses to do. But notice he goes on in verses 22 and 23 he very carefully states this in a way that supports our moral responsibility through our choices notice what he says verse 22. What if God although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known in other words God does judge in the way that he chooses to what if God although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known. More with great patience the objects of his wrath prepared for destruction. First of two questions and notice he says here that God bears with great patience the objects of his wrath in verse 22 he's talking about the objects of his wrath in other words those people that will be eventually in the lake of fire will be punished by God in the lake of fire. In verse 23 he's going to talk about the objects of mercy who will be in glory so the objects of God's wrath end up in hell specifically the lake of fire the objects of God's mercy end up in glory in heaven. But I want you to see how he says it God bore or endures with great patience that is a passive act. This is not saying that God chooses people to go to hell it's saying that God bears with great patience. In other words he passively waits with great patience he endures the objects of his wrath with patience which indicates they themselves are responsible for their action and ultimate destiny. God endures that God endures that with great patience and then he says those who are prepared for destruction. He leads out the word let me back up and say something about the word prepared first of all the word prepared here is a word which means a process of preparation. It is a process of preparation that indicates that the people themselves have through a process that God has endured with great patience prepared themselves for destruction. Notice he does not use the word in advance now those who are going to heaven he says they were prepared in advance he does not say that here they were not prepared in advance for destruction they were prepared through a process. Through a process much like Pharaoh Pharaoh is an example of how God hardens people Pharaoh hardened his own heart. Five times it is said that he hardened his own heart then five times it is said that God hardened his heart sometimes it is said that his heart was hardened without saying who did it. But a person by their own choice and moral responsibility chooses to follow their sin nature and thus through a lifetime of that of rejection of Christ prepare themselves for destruction. God endures that with great patience remember second Peter three God is patient not willing that any should should suffer or should die but that all should come to repentance and so God bears that with great patience. So this points to the process of preparation during a person's lifetime for an ultimate destiny in the lake of fire. And basically that comes because the person does not trust Christ as savior and notice the difference in verse 23 what if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy whom he prepared and there's a different word for prepared here same word in English different one in Greek it's the word here for appointed. The first word is prepare oneself through a process this one is appointed whom he appointed in advance for glory not quite clearly the objects of his mercy are prepared and appointed in advance for that glory which is a obvious reference to election. So basically I'm going to summarize what this passage is teaching we are responsible for our own sin and the consequences of our sin which God endures with great patience giving us opportunity to trust Christ God is responsible for our salvation. We're responsible for our own sin God is responsible for our salvation that's basically what he's saying here you really can't go much further than that there's a lot of other things the Bible teaches about election and predestination so forth and if you'll hang with us for a few months we'll get to that when we when we get to what the Bible teaches about salvation will actually spend several studies at least as I'm thinking through it now on the whole subject of election. I don't want to get too deep into that right here but this point or this passage basically is is showing that we do have moral responsibility we cannot blame God for our sin or the ultimate consequences of sin God did not choose people to go to hell people are prepared by their own choice of rejecting Christ and following their sin nature to end up in hell God does choose those in advance to go to heaven now we're going to we're going to leave it there and if you have any questions we'll wait a few months on those that we get to the subject of election but quite clearly what this passage is saying any questions I don't mean to put you off but if we if you have a lot of questions about election we're not going to go there tonight we're not going to get into that any deeper any questions we're really scared you off didn't that okay some folks get just all been out of shape and scared over the word election or predestination those are good Bible words they're both in the Bible and they're both taught in the Bible we have to come to grips with what the scriptures actually say but my point here is the scriptures never say that God elected anyone to go to hell basically the concept of election is this all of us come out of the same lump of humanity which is depraved and fallen and on its way to hell and God and his great mercy and grace chose some to be saved now how and why he did that we'll get to that later but that's what the Bible teaches about election doesn't violate our responsibility or our will in fact all that God has done in his government includes the means by which we could save which is our choice of trusting Christ all that's included in in the work of God okay so my point here is that man is morally responsible and God created us that way with a responsible nature questions bill the Bible uses the word will in two ways of God one is his desire which is the word there in second three to three nine the passage you're mentioning the other word is his decree or his ultimate decision or choice it's a different word it is not God's desire that anybody suffered go to hell is equal thirty three eleven says God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked that was never his desire but Adam fell and drag the whole human race with him and so there are people who will go to hell that does God doesn't want that he doesn't desire that but that will happen against his desire so just because God desires something doesn't mean it's going to happen he doesn't desire that any will perish but some will perish because they're lack of faith in Christ okay so it is not God's desire that anybody end up in hell okay good question all right let's look at one other passage or a couple of others that have to do with the same thing about creation and that is that woman was created for the man's sake that does not mean to be man's slave but for man's sake Paul uses that concept refers to that a couple of times in describing headship and submission topics in the realm of the local church and marriage in first Corinthians eleven verse three he says but I want you to realize that the head of every man is the head of every man's hand is Christ and the head of the woman is man and the head of Christ is God what he's saying is there is such a thing as headship and submission even in the Trinity okay so if there's headship and submission in the Trinity if the head of Christ is God if there's headship and submission in the Trinity in the context that's what this is talking about then that's not a bad thing it's not a subjugation or a lower level of deity Christ is just as much God as God the father is but in the scheme of carrying out the plan of redemption the the sun is in submission to the father any demonstrated that all through his ministry many, many times when he said things like I only do what my father says where I've come to do the will of my father he was always submissive to the will of his father so in that sense there's a headship and submission and there is also in marriage and in the church which is what he's talking about here in first Corinthians eleven in worship and then skip down to verses eight and nine here's the reason for this headship and submission for man did not come from woman but woman from man neither was man created for woman but woman for man and he's just simply using the order and intent of creation to support his point that God stipulated a pattern of headship and submission in the church and also in marriage and the example he uses the reasoning for that is that woman was not taken from man or woman man was not taken from woman but the other way around man was created first then the woman came from the man and the man was not created for the woman but woman for the man we saw that in Genesis 2 God created Adam so it's not good for him to be alone he needs to be completed so woman was created for him now please do not understand that is any kind of license for a man to dominate and dictate over his wife or to be in any kind of abusive relationship in any way that is not what this is talking about simply talking about the functioning of the church and the functioning of the home again for simile chapter 2 Paul mentions the same thing verse 11 a woman should learn in quietness and full submission and he's talking there about in the church services he's he's he's talking about how the services of a church are to be conducted he says I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man she must be quiet that doesn't mean a woman can't teach at all in the context it's the relationship of a man and a woman in the worship services a woman should not be in an authoritative teaching position over men in the church which I believe rules out women pastors now that's not a very popular position today but I can't get around what this scripture says and although it's not very popular today by the way when we finish the life of Moses my intention is to preach through first and second Timothy so we'll get into this in much more depth then but basically Paul is saying a woman is not to hold an authoritative teaching position in the church like a pastor position why what's the reason for that look at verse 13 for Adam was formed first then Eve so he uses the order of Christ to establish this headship of the man in the church and the submission of the woman as far as teaching in the church is concerned so the order of creation means that Eve is a helper to Adam Adam is to be her head or her leader probably meaning a position of authority and leadership over so that's another aspect of creation God created man male and female that's that stresses equality but the order of creation and the intent of creation that woman was created for man indicates some priority or level of headship and submission there okay what kind of can warranted I just open there got any questions about that okay I will in a few weeks if but the midway to say a word about it but women will be saved through child bearing okay we got to go back to verse 14 Adam was not the one deceived it was the woman who was deceived and became a sinner in other words Eve led Adam into the fall she was the one deceived by the serpent and so she bears responsibility in that sense but it's not like women are going to be condemned because they were responsible for Eve is responsible for Adam but women will be saved through child bearing the word saved here simply means delivered or delivered for a particular useful godly noble purpose and that is child bearing if they continue in faith love and holiness with propriety okay so basically is giving saying the woman does not have is not now a useless creature she's not subjugated to having no important role in mankind since she was deceived by Satan she has very important role in mankind and that is continuing the race so she will be delivered through child bearing okay we will get into that in much more detail though and when I get the chance to study a little bit more maybe give a little better explanation when we get through first entity it would include that it would include the birth of the Messiah obviously that came through the the through a woman giving birth yes and that is how salvation spiritual salvation would come to mankind yes Steve well there's several different ways to look at that and I've seen I've seen that done okay we know this for sure he's talking about the authoritative teaching position in a church he's writing a bit Timothy about how to conduct himself in the church he makes that clear in chapter three that's the purpose of the letter so that much we know for sure we would rule that out whether or not a woman can speak in a conference I'm not sure I would go that far she's not taking the authoritative teaching position in the church of a position of authority over a man I was at a moody pastor's conference one time where they would every year have one woman address the pastors one one woman address the pastors it was Joe Briscoe one year and it was Barbara Hughes can't use wife one year and and I remember that especially when Barbara Hughes got up to speak she made it clear that she was not a pastor with any authority over a church she was simply asked to give a perspective of a pastor's wife to those pastors there as to what it's like for you to see your wife's ministry so she wasn't an authoritative teaching position so I don't think she violated scripture but she spoke to 1500 pastors female pastor is where I have the problem what I think Paul is saying here is that a woman cannot be a in the position of authority over a man in the church as a pastor yeah a lot more to be a pastor than speaking to be a pastor who I was afraid somebody was going to ask about the head coverings okay because of the angels basically he's talking about the fact that the angels observe what's happening in the church the whole issue of the head covering is that is a big can of worms but let me just speak to it simply if I can actually debated a midnight in a seminary classroom very seminary when it's taking a class on first Corinthians and we had a debate I think that's the only way to do that is to do that and then I get a debate I took one side of the issue in the midnight who obviously believes in a literal head covering for women took the other position and in my study of first Corinthians 11 what I believe was happening was this the issue that Paul deals with is the headship submission issue that's the real principle he's dealing with because he establishes that in the first part of the chapter in Corinth and if you read some of the background of the church in Corinth there was a real movement for you know you can almost call it a women's live movement of throwing off the distinctions between male and female and so women were cutting their hair short in that day to look like men it has nothing to do with length of hair today but that that was not the issue But in Corinth, the issue was women were trying to blur the gendered distinctives between men and women in the way they dressed and in the way they fixed their hair. And that's why Paul addressed it with a head covering idea. He says, and woman's hair is her glory and her covering. So that's the reason he was really addressing in the context of the culture in Corinth, the issue of women trying to blur the distinctions between male and female. That was the real problem, that was the real point. The issue is not that you're supposed to wear some kind of head covering to church today. That's not the issue. The issue is our women recognizing their position of submission to men in leadership in the church. In Corinth, one of the ways that was being abused in the culture was for women to blur those gendered distinctives. Yes, Alan? It's good point. Good question. Are any place for a woman to bring the word when there is no man to do it? That happens quite often on the mission field, by the way, and has for centuries where there was no one to take the gospel except a female missionary and she would go take the gospel to people. I'm not sure I would have a problem with that. She does not occupy the authoritative position of a pastor in a church. So I think there are some exceptions that way in that regard. I'll just stop there. No, of course not. There's no gender on who can give out the word of God to people. Obviously. Yeah. At this phase in my ministry, I often think about what are the big issues going to be in years to come that I probably won't face and continued, well, let me just say it this way, gender roles in the church is going to be increasingly a huge issue. And that is because a lot of evangelical churches have reinterpreted these passages in different ways. And basically they have said, well, they were just dealing with cultural situations, in Timothy, they were just dealing with a cultural situation in Ephesus. And it really is not binding for the church today. Now there's a difference in that and what I said about 1 Corinthians 11 because the principle is binding across the centuries to every church. It was just the way it was manifested in the culture of Corinth that might change. But the principle of headship and submission is universal. That doesn't change with culture, but there are a lot of evangelical churches today that are reinterpreting those passages to say, well, Paul was just dealing with a local issue. That doesn't apply to all the churches. It doesn't apply to us today. I don't think so. You cannot interpret those passages literally and take them that way. Richard. Wow. Women evangelists taking the position of a preacher, I have an issue with that. To me that leans more toward an authoritative teaching preaching position over a mixed congregation. Even though it may not be the pastor of a church, still functioning in the same way a pastor would over a congregation. I would have some issue with that. I would have some issue with that. What was the other instance you were in the pre-August? Women pre-August in public. Typically in our circles the reason for that is in 1 Timothy 2. I believe it is. Verse 8. Therefore, I want the men everywhere to pray lifting up holy hands with that anger and disputing. Also, I want the women to dress modest because I'm going to dress as them. So a few verses before that. And when he says I want the men to pray, again, there is a sense in which a public prayer in a congregation is leading that whole congregation before the Lord in prayer. So there is an aspect of leading that is often interpreted in our kind of churches as being that in a public service men only should pray. I wouldn't be as concerned about that, however. I'm not sure that's quite in the same category as a FEMA pastor. We have staff meeting every Wednesday and secretaries, maintenance people and all the pastors meet together for 45 minutes to an hour, basically, to pray and go over some calendar issues. The women pray in that meeting. We don't have a problem with that. Is there a difference in a public service like this where a woman is in a sense leading the congregation to the throne of grace? That's the reason why typically churches like ours have had men pray. That's not a heal I'd be willing to die on. Exactly. What I'm saying is that many people see a public prayer in a church service as that person leading the congregation in prayer, leading them before the throne of God. Again, that's not a heal I'd be willing to die on. But that's how many people have come to that conclusion. Okay? All right. We're getting way off the topic, but I'm willing to do it if you want to go a little further. Yes. There were prophetesses in the Old Testament. There were some female prophets in the New Testament. Phillips daughters in the book of Acts. They did raise up females to speak to the nation. In the case of Deborah, it's because Barich was too weak to take leadership. So she swung into action and did it for him. And that's why a lot of people believe that there's no male missionary who wouldn't take the gospel somewhere. God will use a woman to do that. Again, Old Testament theocracy with God choosing prophets is not a model for the church necessarily. So it's, I'll just stop there. It's not a model for the church necessarily. Because Paul makes clear in 1 Corinthians 11 and 1 Timothy 2 what the model for the church is. Okay? Told you this is going to be a big issue. All right. We've got five minutes left and the light's flickered, which means they're going to cut them off at eight o'clock. So we better finish up here. Let me just quickly summarize the evolutionary view of human origin. Again, we're talking about the biblical record of creation. Now over against that what I want to do is just very briefly mention, not going to get into a debate about evolution versus creation. Just want to briefly mention the evolutionary view of human origin. It's a view that dominates the scientific world of the day and that is biological evolution. Simply stated, it is this. There are several varieties of it, but simply stated atheistic evolution. Next week we're going to talk about some forms of evolution on the part of Christians that try to merge evolution with the Bible. But tonight I just want to mention the far left wing atheistic evolution basically teaches that God does not exist and that the Bible is full of myths. Abolations by natural processes alone evolved from lower forms of life to their present state. That's basically what atheistic evolution teaches. So life as we know, according to atheistic evolution, is the result of the right combination of elements and billions of years of random selection choosing the strongest and best of those options to move life to the next level of complexity. That's basically what atheistic evolution teaches. Given enough time, we will reach perfection because we are still evolving. Now there are some believers, there are some Christians who hold to evolution as the process that God used to bring man into existence. We're going to look next week at several views that seek to combine the Bible and science, views like theistic evolution or progressive creation or the day-age theory or the initial days theory or several theories that try to combine evolution with the biblical record. Basically, it's an attempt to accept evolution but somehow merge it with Scripture to seem to remain biblical and it is a very tenuous process at best. But we'll look at some of those next week before we finish up the creation of man. All right, let's pray. Father, we are grateful to you for your word, the teaching of your word. We pray that you will help us to better understand who we are as the direct creation from your hand, fashioned and shaped by you, given a position in this world lower than the angels but in dominion over other created beings and help us to take not only that mandate seriously but the responsibility seriously we have to you. To know you, to love you and to serve you. Thank you for this time in Jesus' name, amen.