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Pastor Scott L. Harris
Grace Bible Church, NY
August 22, 2021
The Purpose of Man
Selected Scriptures
Introduction
Psalm 11:3 warns, “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?” We live in a time when the foundations of our society as a whole have been destroyed as evidence by the absurdities promoted by politicians, educators, societal leaders and what I can only refer to now as the pseudo-science community since the scientific method has been overrun by political correctness. Science by consensus is not science. That is both tragic and dangerous for both the legal and medical communities have also been compromised by such depraved thinking. Physicians that follow protocol instead of examination and history of the patient are technicians trying to avoid trouble and no longer doctors. When governments set and decide law apart from the word of God and truth, it is totalitarianism regardless of who the despots may be – dictators, judges, or bureaucrats. But far worse than even these evils is the influence of lies and doctrines of demons upon those professing to be Christians. Because the vast majority of those claiming to be Christians are also Biblically illiterate, it is easy for them to fall prey to the winds of doctrine that have been sweeping across our land as I have been pointing out in numerous sermons over the last year and a half.
It is for this reason that I am focusing on several foundational issues upon which our understanding of the world and ourselves is formed. While others stumble, you can say with David in Psalm 17:5, “My steps have held fast to Your paths. My feet have not slipped,” if your foundations are well laid and remain firm. And if you do not stumble, you can also help others to keep from being carried away by false teaching even as is supposed to happen within the church as explained in Ephesians 4:11-16.
Last week I covered the purpose of creation. Numerous Scriptures specifically point out that God is the Creator. Paul put it this way in Colossians 1:16, “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.” That last phrase is important. All things have been created by God and for God. We are not autonomous beings. It is in God that we live and move and exist (Acts 17:28). God chooses the purpose of what He created, not the creatures He Created. (See: The Purpose of Creation)
As stated in numerous Scriptures, the purpose of all creation is the glory of God, and all of creation does give glory to God whether man is present or even aware of it or not. I pointed that out last week in mentioning all the galaxies of stars that have been giving God glory since the fourth day of creation when they came into existence even though man did not even know the vast majority of them even existed until after the Hubble space telescope was launched in 1990. Psalm 148:3–4, 3 “Praise Him, sun and moon; Praise Him, all stars of light! 4 Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens!”
All of creation gives God glory, and the proper response we should have in considering any aspect of creation is summarized in Psalm 33:8, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” Whether it is the vastness of the universe or the complexities of bio-chemistry at work within the organelles of a single celled plant, all of creation proclaims the invisible attributes of God, His eternal power and divine nature, so that men are without excuse to properly worship Him (Romans 1:18-20). Man in his rebellion is both blinded to this reality and stubborn in his refusal to acknowledge it, yet, as I will point out today, God is still going to gain His glory from His creation whether His creatures – including man – cooperate or not.
Man – Made by God
The Creation of Adam – Genesis 1:27, 2:7
God created man as proclaimed throughout the Scriptures starting in Genesis 1:27, “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” This truth is affirmed in Psalm 100:3, “Know that the Lord Himself is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.” Isaiah 64:8 proclaims, “But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.” Jesus references Genesis in Matthew 19:4 saying, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female.” I will quickly add here that also covers what Jesus teaches about gender identity. That fact is supported by the science of genetics. Your sex is determined by having either XX or XY chromosomes. Even if your’e diploid with an extra set of chromosomes, if you have the Y chromosome, you are a male. Every cell of your body proclaims your gender identity regardless of how you mutilate it or what psychological disconnect from reality you have. There are no LGBTQZ sex chromosomes.
The current push by those who claim there are more than two genders and that gender is fluid are simply new aspects of man’s rebellion against God and depravity of mind. Those pushing these things are to be rebuked and resisted while those confused and caught up in it are to be pitied and helped as you would anyone caught in sin.
A more detailed account of the creation of man is given in Genesis 2:7, “Then the Lord God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” Those three phrases are significant.
1) God made man from dirt, not from some previous life form. Contrary to the fairy tales of human evolution, you are not descended from any sort of ape. The more you examine the evidence these paleoanthropologists present, the more you know that they are writers of fiction and have artists of great imagination. Despite the ability of artists to draw four very different versions of the Zinjanthropus boisei skull – is it a baboon, a chimp, gorilla or the hairy guy next door? Or the endurance of the Piltdown man hoax that reigned in British circles from 1915-1953 as proof modern man evolved in England – not bad for associating a human skull with the chemically and physically altered jawbone and teeth from an orangutan. Or this famous drawing sequence of 15 transitions from monkey to man that was taught as fact in school when I was a kid – the top of this next slide marks out the drawings that were not actually in the text of the article and the bottom marks out the drawings that were later removed from the supposed evolutionary line of man. My favorite ancient man myth remains Nebraska Man which was still in science text books when I was a kid – there he is with his wife – it took quite an imagination to come up with that from the tooth of an ancient pig. If you are interested in more of these stories of such hoaxes, myths and tall tales as well as the suppression of evidence of modern human skulls and skeletons found in geologic deposits far too old for by evolutionary standards to be allowed – as shown in this next chart, pick up Marvin Lubenow’s book, Bones of Contention, or Rupe & Sanford’s book, Contested Bones.
God takes dust from the ground and forms (Hebrew – yatsar) a physical body for man. The Hebrew word for man here is Adam, so that is also his name. God then breathed the breath of life into him. Please note that a physical body was not enough. Life comes from life and God blew into Adam’s nose the neshama chay, the blast of air that would go into his lungs and establish physical life. The result was the man became a living nephesh – being / soul – a reference to the immaterial aspect of man. There is a physical aspect to man and an immaterial aspect to man which I will expand upon in few minutes when I talk about man being made in the image of God.
The Fashioning of Eve – Genesis 2:18-23
Again, Genesis 1:27 proclaims that God created man as male and female on the sixth day of creation after making the other land creatures. Genesis 2 expands on the events of the sixth day noting that God formed Adam from the dust of the ground. Genesis 2:18-24 then gives details of the need for the creation of the woman, but also how God did that. To summarize, though Adam was in the perfect environment of the garden of Eden, it was not good for Adam to be alone. After naming all the animals that God brought to him, Adam found that there were no animals that corresponded to him – a helper suitable for him. Genesis 2:21–23 records, 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. 22 The Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man.” There are a few things to note here.
First, all of this is instigated and done by God. Second, woman is made in a different way than Adam that was formed out of dust. She is banah – built / fashioned – from one of Adam’s ribs, which in itself is interesting from the fact that your ribs are the only bones that can regenerate – replace itself – if the sheath is left. Third, the Lord is the best surgeon. He put Adam to sleep so he would not be in pain. He then took the rib out and closed the wound and it healed so fast that Adam was able to meet the woman that had been fashioned that same day. Fourth, she is taken from Adam’s side and neither his head or feet. That may not mean a lot, but it does fit her purpose of being a “helper suitable / fit / comparable” for Adam. Fifth, Adam recognized that her origin was from another living being – himself – so that she shared the same physical makeup as him. Sixth, in recognition of that origin and his responsibility in naming all the animals earlier that day, he also names her “woman.” Hebrew is ishshah, the feminine form of ish, a generic term for man. She is female man. Genesis 3:20 notes that Adam later calls her name Eve because she is the mother of all the living. That is another fact backed up by modern science in tracing back lines of mitochondrial DNA which comes only from the mother.
Man – Made in the Image & Likeness of God – Genesis 1:27
Going back to Genesis 1:26-27, the text is specific that God created (Hebrew – bara) man in His own image stating that as His intention in verse 26 and then reinforcing it as fact by repeating it twice in verse 17. “God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” What does that mean? Theologians have contemplated this for centuries and come up with three conclusions.
First, though the word image (Hebrew – tselem) can be used for something made in the physical likeness of something else such as an idol (2 Kings 11:18), and likeness (Hebrew – demuth) refers to something that resembles something else such as a son will resemble his father (Genesis 5:1), man was not made in the physical image or likeness of God. How do we know that? Jesus plainly stated that God is spirit (John 4:24), and a spirit does not have a physical form. That is why Isaiah 40:18 questions “To whom then will you liken God” Or what likeness will you compare to Him?” before denigrating the foolishness of the idolater. That is why the second commandment in Exodus 20 is a prohibition against idols and graven images that would be worshiped because they would be blasphemous representations of God for they would be false.
Second, image and likeness would encompass man possessing both personhood as does God which would separate him from the animals, and man would reflect the communicable attributes of God and in that way glorify Him. I want to expand briefly on both of those.
Personhood refers to having the ability to reason / think, feel psychically (emotion) and make choices (volition). Personhood requires all three of these qualities all of which are immaterial. They are characteristics of God and He has instilled them in man. Animals have brains, so they can learn and be trained, but they do not think as does man who thinks not only in terms of facts and logic, but also in the abstract and with imagination. Animals cannot do that. Animals can be trained to make “choices,” but this is by instinct, not moral volition. It is only to humans that God commands, “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool” (Isaiah 1:18). And while animal lovers often insist their pets have emotions, that may be more of anthropomorphisms – describing animals using human characteristics – than reality, though in truth, we don’t really know what emotions animals may experience. Only humans are given commands that are addressed to rationality, emotion and volition such as “rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15), and “Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger.” Those commands cannot be followed unless you think and make choices that will result in a particular emotion.
Man’s Reflection of the Communicable Attributes of God.
Another way in which man demonstrates being made in the image and likeness of God is in the reflection of His attributes. An attribute is a characteristic or inherent quality. In some theologies these may also be referred to as properties or divine perfections. There are attributes such as being eternal, self-existent, self-sufficient, omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, immutable, the Creator and sovereign that belong only to God and define Him as deity. The fact that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit all have these same attributes is one of the factors that proves each is deity and that the Godhead is triune – one God existing in three distinct yet co-equal persons.
There are other attributes of God that can be or can become characteristics of His creatures and especially man. Even some animals can demonstrate qualities such as kindness, care, benevolence, patience and faithfulness. Those are all character traits that God commands people to develop along with many others such as goodness, love, longsuffering, mercy, grace, forgiveness, and holiness. Man will also demonstrate characteristics such as jealousy, anger and wrath which are often considered negative because they so often arise out of sin, but those same attributes in God are holy because they arise out of truth and justice.
A purpose of God creating man is to glorify Himself by man’s reflection of these communicable attributes. God is also glorified when He reveals His own attributes in His dealings with man. That includes both those man likes such as love, mercy and grace, and those he does not like such as anger, wrath and condemnation. More on this later.
Man – A Responsible Steward of the Earth
Another purpose of God’s creation of man by which He will glorify Himself is in the responsibility He placed on man as a steward of Creation. This is found in Genesis 1:28 and is sometimes referred to as the dominion mandate. In verses 26-27 God creates man in His image, male and female, and then verse 28 continues, 28 “God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you; 30 and to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the sky and to every thing that moves on the earth which has life, I have given every green plant for food”; and it was so.”
God made man His regent over the earth and its creatures. It began with God planting the garden of Eden and putting Adam in it to cultivate and keep it as stated in Genesis 2:15. God then fashioned Eve and placed her alongside Adam for not only that task, but also to be able to produce offspring that would fill the earth and carry out this initial command worldwide. By God’s design it takes both a man and woman to produce children, and when they do, the man is a father and the woman is a mother. Referring to moms as “birthing persons” and “chest feeders” in order to avoid offending people who have serious psychological problems and want to deny reality only confirms such tragic people in their delusions. That makes their problem worse and extends it to others as they join in the lies and psychotic beliefs.
The responsibility is given to the man with the woman given to the man to assist in carrying it out alongside him and by extension as they have children who will carry out the dominion mandate in other places. That is the history of the world as civilization spread from place to place. Where man properly cultivates and cares for the earth, you have good parks and gardens. The environment is better off. Where man either does not fulfill this mandate or mismanages it, you end up with ecological disasters such as denuded or polluted land, widespread disease, extinction of animals, and wasted resources. The land polluted by waste or mismanaged so the soil is lost becomes land that becomes unproductive or even unusable by humans and often many other life forms.
The huge wildfires in the west the last few years are an example. They are not due to “global warming.” Wildfires in western forests have been part of natural history since man has been able to figure it out and record it. They are due to mismanagement of the forests for many decades, and ironically, it has been by those who have thought they were saving the forests. Good intentions by ideological people who are ignorant of God’s designs in nature and who do not think through the consequences of their actions produce disaster in nature as well as among humans. It is also ironic that it is these states that have been so vocal about the supposed dangers of carbon-dioxide emissions that these fires have released multiple times more so called “greenhouse gases” than their most aggressive dreams of limiting their production by man.
God is and will be glorified by man being made in His likeness and image and being given stewardship over the care of the earth. The only question is how God will glorify Himself since man has a severe problem known as sin. In his rebellion against God, man does not properly reflect God according to the design at creation and his stewardship over the earth can be a disaster.
Man – In Rebellion Against God
Adam’s Sin – The story of the fall of mankind into sin is told in Genesis 3. In brief, Satan speaks to Eve through a serpent and through slander and lies deceives Eve to disobey God’s command not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She gave some fruit to Adam and he also ate and both immediately knew they had sinned. Romans 5:12 explains the result this would have for all humanity – “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned.” Sin became part of human nature. Man is born with a will and desire to disobey God. David recognized this in himself stating in his confessions in Psalm 51:5, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.” Proverbs 22:15 succinctly describes it, “foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.”
Sin corrupted man’s nature demonstrated in Adam and Eve’s immediate guilty consciences and effort to hide their shame and hide from God instead of seeking God (Genesis 3:7-10). It was God that sought them out, and it is still that way it is today. God commands men to repent and offers forgiveness for those that will do so and seek Him, but man seeks for God the same way a man who just robbed a bank searches for the police – only to avoid them. It is so bad and universal that both Psalm 14 and Romans 3 state that there are none righteous and there are none that seek after God. It is God that seeks man with the Holy Spirit bringing people to conviction about sin, righteousness and judgment (John 16:8-11). It is God that quickens – makes alive – the soul of a sinner to believe in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph. 2:5). It is by God’s mercy and grace that arise out of His love to redeem man that salvation comes to those that have faith in Him (Eph. 2:10). Sin condemns every human, but God offers forgiveness and salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus said in John 5:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”
Sin has corrupted man’s nature so that his image and likeness to God is very tarnished at best. People are still persons, but their ability to think properly is corrupted and the mind becomes more depraved as they continue to turn away from God has described in Romans 1. Emotions arise from the perception and valuation of information received. A corrupt mind results in corrupted emotions which then influences or even controls volition corrupting decisions to be contrary to God. The advice to trust and follow your heart – emotions – is horrible. No! Trust and follow the truth. God’s communicable attributes can still be found in sinful man, but usually it is improper or a faint shadow of what should be and some can be completely missing among those that are more depraved. Selfishness alone turns anger into personal vengeance, love into lust, and charity into boasting. Does sinful man still have a purpose and can God glorify Himself in such corrupt people? Yes. Absolutely, but man may not like it.
God’s Glorification in Sinners
There are two ways in which God will fulfill His purpose for man despite man’s sin. Paul speaks of both of these in Romans 9 in pointing out particular attributes of God demonstrated in His dealing with vessels of wrath and with vessels of mercy. I will talk more about the riches of His glory being poured out on vessels of mercy in the next sermon in which I will point out how God’s plan of redemption and bringing it to fruition in the life of the elect absolutely glorifies God. Today I want to focus on how He glorifies Himself in what Paul describes as vessels of wrath.
The argument Paul is answering in Romans 9:19-26 is the accusation that it is not right for God to find fault with sinners since He is sovereign. That is blasphemous slander for it assumes that people are sinners because God chose them to be sinners and therefore God is responsible for sin, not the people who sin. That is a shallow view of God’s sovereignty and is the flaw in both this pagan accusation and the idea of double election. I will cover this in depth in a few weeks, but for today, just consider that because God created man with the capacity to make choices including disobedience to God’s declared moral will does not make God responsible for the choices man makes. But starting with Adam, man has always strived to blame other people and God for choices they made. Adam’s defense for his own sin was, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.” A true statement, but it was given to shift the blame to Eve for giving him the forbidden fruit and to God for giving her to him.
Paul gives two answers to the attempt to blame God. The first in verses 20-21 turns the argument about God’s sovereignty against the accuser stating that he would have no right to complain. The Creator can do whatever He wants with what He creates. If God did so, He would still achieve His purposes in the particular things He creates.
Paul’s second answer in verses 22-23 gives insight into how God glorifies Himself in vessels of wrath. 22 “What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? 23 And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory . . .” The verb in verse 22, prepared (kathrtismevna / katārtismena), is a perfect participles which in form could be passive or middle tense. If passive the text does not state the actor which has prepared them and if middle at minimum it means the vessels of wrath have had a hand in preparing themselves as such. I think it is middle in part because God is patiently enduring them and in part because Pharaoh is an example of this. He is also a perfect example of God glorifying Himself in such a vessel of wrath.
Exodus 3 gives the account of God appointing Moses as the deliverer of His people from slavery to the Egyptians. In verse 19-20 God tells Moses beforehand what it will take before that Pharaoh will relent to free the Israelites. 19 “But I know that the king of Egypt will not permit you to go, except under compulsion. 20 “So I will stretch out My hand and strike Egypt with all My miracles which I shall do in the midst of it; and after that he will let you go.” The miracles would compel Pharaoh to let God’s people go. In Exodus 4 God tells Moses that he will perform miracles so “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you” (vs. 5). The miracles will affirm that Moses is God’s spokesman. In verse 21-23 the Lord tells Moses to be sure to do all the wonders in which the Lord had instructed him, and then forewarned that He would “harden [Pharaoh’s] heart so that he will not let the people go” and then added that this would result in the death of Pharaoh’s first-born son.
Exodus 5 records Pharaoh’s first reaction to Moses’ demands is to increase the oppression of the people. The first part of Exodus 6 is God’s message through Moses to the people including that He would redeem them with His outstretched arm and great judgments so that they would know that He is the Lord their God who brought them out from under the burdens of the Egyptians. The miracles begin in Exodus 7 with God again foretelling Moses “but I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt” (vs. 3) for the purpose that the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord” (vs. 5). Pharaoh hardens his heart for the first two miracles – Moses rod turning to a serpent and back to a rod after eating the serpents of the Egyptians and turning the water into blood – because the Egyptian magicians were able to do something similar.
In Exodus 8 Moses has frogs come up from the Nile and swarm the land. The Egyptian magicians do something similar, but they can’t get the frogs to leave, so Pharaoh entreats Moses to remove them, and Moses does so in a way that Pharaoh “may know that there is no one like the Lord our God” vs. 10). As soon as the frogs are gone, Pharaoh “hardened his heart” (vs. 15). Pharaoh’s heart remained hardened with the miracle of the dust of the earth becoming gnats even though the magicians told Pharaoh “this is the finger of God” (vs. 17-19). Pharaoh responded to the plague of swarms insects the same way that he did for the frogs, as soon as they were gone, he hardened his heart (vs. 32). Pharaoh continued to harden his heart in the next plague of the death of the Egyptian livestock that was in the field recorded in Exodus 9:1-7. It is in the next plague, that of the boils (Exodus 9:8-17) that the Lord intervenes and hardens Pharaoh’s heart (vs. 12) with the Lord specifically telling Pharaoh through Moses, “indeed, for this cause I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth” (vs. 16).
Pharaoh responded to the plague of hail (Exodus 9:18-35) the same as he had with the frogs. As soon as the hail and thunder ceased, “he sinned again and hardened his heart.” The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart after the plague of locusts (Exodus 19:1-20) and darkness (Exodus 10:21-29). Pharaoh only relented after the Passover and his son died along with all the first born of those that did not sacrifice a lamb and put its blood on the lintel and door posts. Then, even after the Israelites had departed, the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart again so that he would pursue the Israelites that “the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord, when I am honored through Pharaoh, through his chariots and his horsemen” (Exodus 14:17-18). The destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea not only caused the nation of Israel to fear and believe in the Lord (Exodus 14:31), but the news spread and was one of the reasons that forty years later, Rahab in Jericho, believed that the Lord, the God of Israel, is God in heaven above and on earth beneath and hid the spies (Joshua 2).
God will glorify himself even in sinful man. Pharaoh is an example of that, but it does not have to be on such a grand scale. Going back to Romans 9, Paul specifically points out that God’s attributes of wrath, power and enduring patient longsuffering is demonstrated on vessels of wrath. To that can be added truth, righteousness, holiness and justice in His condemnation of sinners for they reap the consequences of their own choices to sin as shows in Romans 1, and they will be judged according to the very deeds they have done (Revelation 20:12). Paul described it this way in Romans 2:4-5, 4 “Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.”
God will fulfill the purpose for which He created man and will glorify Himself in you. Whether that will be as a vessel of wrath or a vessel of mercy depends on your obedience to heed his commands and offers of forgiveness to those that repent and believe in Him. Consider these invitations and warnings.
Hebrews 11:1 & 6, 1 “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. . . 6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.”
Matthew 11:28–30, 28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29 “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Isaiah 55:6–7, 6 Seek the Lord while He may be found; Call upon Him while He is near. 7 Let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man his thoughts; And let him return to the Lord, And He will have compassion on him, And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon.”
Isaiah 1:18–20, 18 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are as scarlet, They will be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They will be like wool. 19 “If you consent and obey, You will eat the best of the land; 20 “But if you refuse and rebel, You will be devoured by the sword.” Truly, the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
Psalm 145:17–20, 17 “The Lord is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds. 18 The Lord is near to all who call upon Him, To all who call upon Him in truth. 19 He will fulfill the desire of those who fear Him; He will also hear their cry and will save them. 20 The Lord keeps all who love Him, But all the wicked He will destroy.”
Sermon Notes – August 22, 2021
The Purpose of Man – Selected Scriptures
Introduction
Psalm 11:3 warns, “If the foundations are ______________, What can the righteous do?
If you are well grounded in your faith, your feet will not ________(Ps. 17:5) & you can help others (Eph. 4)
All things have been created by God and ______ God (Col. 1:16)
All of creation glorifies God – whether _______is aware of it or not – Psalm 148:3-4
The proper response to consideration of creation is ______ / worship of God – Ps. 33:8
The Creation of Man – Genesis 1:26-27; 2:7; Psalm 100:3; Isaiah 64:8
Jesus cites Genesis declaring that God created mankind from the beginning _______and __________
There are only two genders & they are not fluid – to claim otherwise is rebellion against God & __________
Genesis 2:7 – God made Adam from _______- not any previous life form
Claims of apes evolving to men are ____________ tales of imagination
God _________(yatsar) Adam’s physical from the dust of the ground. God breathed life into him
The Fashioning of Eve – Genesis 2:18-23
Genesis 2 expands the summary of Genesis 1:24-31
God instigates and __________ Eve who is built / fashioned (banah) from Adam’s rib
God’s ______________on Adam to get the rib from his side to form the woman was painless and quick
Adam recognizes her origin naming her woman (ishshah) – ___________ man
Man – Made in the Image & Likeness of God – Genesis 1:27
Does not refer to ____________likeness or resemblance – God is a spirit, no idols can be made of Him
Image includes the qualities of ___________: ability to reason / think; experience emotions; make choices
These qualities are _____________and separate man from the animals
Likeness includes reflection of God’s _________________ attributes
Non-communicable attributes are ____________ qualities of God that make Him God
Communicable attributes include character qualities that exist in God and are to be in ______even if tainted
God is glorified when man reflects His attributes and when God ___________them in dealing with man
Man – A Responsible Steward of the Earth – Genesis 1:28; 2:15
God made man His _________ over the earth and its creatures – Genesis 1:28
Man’s first stewardship was to cultivate and keep the ________of Eden – Genesis 2:15
This stewardship would require _______& by God’s design it takes both a man & a woman to produce kids
Proper stewardship results in _____parks & gardens. Poor stewardship results in wasted resources & disaster
God glorifies _______in man being created in His image & likeness and in man’s stewardship over the earth
Man – In Rebellion Against God
Eve is __________to disobey God and Adam joins her plummeting all mankind into sin – Gen. 3; Rom. 5:12
Sin corrupted man’s nature – he hides from God, yet God ________ him out – Gen. 3:7-10
Sin has corrupted in image & likeness of God in man: depraved thinking, emotional turmoil, ______choices
Sin causes the communicable attributes to become ___________, faint or even missing
God’s Glorification in Sinners
Romans 9:19-26 – it is blasphemous __________to accuse God of being responsible for man’s sin
Rom. 9:20-21: The Creator can do whatever He desires with His creations, so they have no ____to complain
Rom. 9:22-23: God glorifies Himself in vessels of wrath by demonstrating His _______character
The example of Pharaoh. Exodus 3 – The miracles would _________Pharaoh to let God’s people go.
Exodus 4 – The miracles would ___________that Moses is God’s spokesman
Exodus 5 – Pharaoh increases the labor of Israel. Exodus 6 – God would redeem Israel with great _________
Exodus 7 – Pharaoh ________his heart after the miracles of Moses’ staff and turning the water into blood
Exodus 8 – Pharaoh _______his heart when plague of frogs was gone & it stays hardened in plague of gnats
Exodus 9 – Pharaoh ________his heart after plague of livestock death
The _____hardens Pharaoh’s heart in the plague of boils in order to show His power and proclaim His name
After Israel is freed, the Lord hardens Pharaoh’s heart to be __________in their destruction in the Red Sea
Rahab of Jericho believed in the Lord in part because of Pharaoh’s ____________in the Red Sea
God glorifies Himself in vessels of wrath by the __________of His attributes in dealing with them
God glorifies Himself in man as either vessels of wrath or vessels of mercy – which do you want to be?
Hebrews 11:1, 6; Matthew 11:28-30; Isaiah 1:18-20; 55:6-7; Psalm 145:17-20
KIDS KORNER – Parents, you are responsible to apply God’s Word to your children’s lives. Here is some help. Young Children – draw a picture about something you hear during the sermon. Explain your picture(s) to your parents at lunch. Older Children – count how many times something related to Creation is mentioned. Talk to your parents about why God created man and how man can glorify God.
THINK ABOUT IT – Questions to consider in understanding the sermon and its application. How are the foundations of America being destroyed? How is that affecting Christianity in the U.S.? What is the purpose of Creation? How is that purpose to be fulfilled? Describe the creation of Adam? Why is the idea of man evolving from apes nonsense both Biblically and scientifically? Compare the fashioning of Eve to the creation of Adam. Does Genesis 1:26-27 imply that man looks like God? Why or why not? What are the three necessary characteristics of personhood? How are they exhibited in man? What are non-communicable attributes? What is their relationship to deity? What are communicable attributes of God? How are those exhibited in man? How does this and personhood glorify God? What responsibilities did God give to man (Genesis 1:28)? What was Adam’s first job (Gen. 2:15)? Why was it necessary for Adam to have a wife to fulfill God’s mandate to him? What blessings flow from the proper fulfillment of that stewardship? What curses follow if they are not? How was Eve deceived? Why does man’s sin trace to Adam? How has sin corrupted man’s nature including aspects of his personhood and displaying communicable attributes? How does God glorify himself in sinners? What is learned from Pharaoh’s example? What attributes of God are displayed in His dealings with vessels of wrath?
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