Sermon Tone Analysis

TEXT: Genesis 1:27

TOPIC:  Mankind

Baptist Faith and Message Sermon 5, *Written by Calvin Wittman*

May 11, 2009

 

Introduction: Up to this point we have examined the doctrine of scripture and taken an in-depth look at the nature and characteristics of God.

As we continue our study in this doctrinal series this morning, we come to the doctrine of man, appropriately called anthropology.

It is important to realize from the outset that the Bible is Theocentric, not anthropocentric.

That is, it centers around God and not on man.

One of the most common mistakes many well intended people make is to think that the Bible is merely an instruction manual for mankind.

To the contrary, it is God’s revelation of Himself to humanity.

It is only when we understand God for who He is that we can understand ourselves for who we are.

So it is within the context of understanding Who God is, that is our perspective on theology, that we are able to truly comprehend who we are and have a sure word about anthropology.

* *

Our text today is found in Genesis 1:27.

It is a short and simple text and yet it is one which is loaded with inestimable significance.

Not only does it positively declare what man is and where he came from and Who it is that made him, it negatively declares what man is not and how man was not made.

The Baptist Faith and Message, our confessional statement, summarizes and encapsulates the biblical teaching on man when it says,

 

“Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image.

He created them male and female as the crowing work of His creation.

The gift of gender is thus a part of the goodness of God’s creation.

In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice.

By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.

Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of god, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.

Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation.

Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.

The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.”

For the purpose of our study this morning I want to divide our discussion into three parts.

We will begin by looking at how humanity came to be, then move on to understand something about the nature of and state of humanity, and finally understanding these things, we will consider what this knowledge calls us to do.

First, the origin of humanity,

 

*I.

The Origin of Humanity – How did we get here?

*

 

Before we get into the specifics of what the scripture has to say about how we got here, it would probably serve us well to address and seek to dispel the most prevalent modern myth concerning the origin of man, the theory, and let me stress that word theory, of evolution.

As you all know, it was in 1859 that Charles Darwin published his widely acclaimed book entitled, The Origin of Species, in which he set forth his own theory as to how humanity came to be.

Interestingly enough, Darwin offered no real explanation about the origin of anything.

Instead he merely offered a theory as to the evolution of species.

In other words, he could not explain how matter first came into being; instead he hypothesized how one form of matter mutated into another form of matter.

And even that has been impossible to prove.

Dinesh D’Souza, in his book What’s So Great About Christianity, says that despite a long history of experimentation, breeders have never been able to breed across species lines and produce new species.

He goes on to ask, “So how can random mutations achieve what carefully orchestrated cross-breeding has failed to do?” D’Souza says.

While the fossil record shows evidence of microevolution, that is one type of finch evolving into another type of finch, there is no evidence for macroevolution which shows one species evolving into a different species.

In other words, there is no proof that evolution is valid as a theory.

While I do not agree with all of his conclusions, Dinesh D’Souza, in his book, goes on to make a strong case not only for the existence of God, but also for the creationism.

D’Souza correctly states that there are three things the theory of evolution cannot account for.

 

1) First he says that Evolution cannot explain the beginning of life.

Darwin didn’t even try.

He assumed the first living thing and then he tried to show how one living thing could be transformed into another.

2) Second, Evolution cannot explain consciousness, which illuminates the whole world for us.

We know as human beings we are conscious.

How did unconscious life transform itself into conscious life?

Evolution has no answers.

3) Finally, says D’Souza, Evolution cannot explain human rationality or morality.

Rationality is the power to perceive something as true.

We can include in rationality the unique human capacity for language, which is the ability to formulate and articulate ideas that comprehend the world around us.

People in the most primitive cultures developed language as a means of rationality while cats cannot utter a single sentence.

Furthermore, authors like D’Souza and Ken Ham, author of the book, The Lie: Evolution, demonstrate beyond any reasonable doubt how Darwinism is based on an atheistic philosophy and is just as much of a religious dogma as anything taught in the church.

This is based on the fact that no one is neutral.

Since evolutionists and creationists both have the same evidence as to the origin of the universe, the question comes down to how that evidence is interpreted.

While scientists would have us believe they are totally neutral and objective in their interpretation of data, nothing could be further from the truth.

You see both the Darwinists and the Creationists work from certain presuppositions.

The Christian worldview works off of the presupposition that there is a God who created all things and who intervenes in time and space, many times in miraculous ways, as He relates to mankind, His supreme creation.

The Darwinist worldview is agnostic or atheistic.

Agnostics say they cannot know whether or not there is a God, while atheists assert that there is no God.

D’Souza points out that within this worldview there are two philosophical doctrines which rule all thought, the doctrines of naturalism and materialism.

Naturalism is the doctrine that nature is all there is.

According to naturalism, there are neither miracles nor supernatural forces.

Therefore reports of the supernatural can only be interpreted naturalistically.

Materialism is the belief that material reality is the only reality and that there is no separately existing mental or spiritual reality.

So despite any evidence which may point to a Creator or to a Designer of the universe, modern science has predetermined that God cannot exist and therefore is working from a bias or presupposition which will not allow for His existence, even if the facts point to Him.

D’Souza makes his point by asking, If a space shuttle were to produce photographs of never before seen solar bodies that bore the sign, “Yahweh Made This,” would the scientific community still refuse to acknowledge the existence of a supernatural Creator?

Yes it would, he answers, because modern science was designed to exclude a designer.

I mention this to assure you that secular reasoning refuses to recognize the truth that is set before them.

This is precisely what Paul says in Romans 1:20 when he says, /“From the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made.

As a result, people are without excuse.”/

As Christians we do not check our intelligence at the door, to the contrary, we welcome scientific discovery, for the more we learn about our universe, the more we seen the fingerprints of God on everything that is.

While the Darwinists work from a presuppositional position of atheism, as Christians we too have a presupposition.

We work from a worldview where God is and is the Creator of all that is.

Every time we see a sunset, a newborn baby or a bird in flight, it affirms what we know to be true that there is a God and He is the Creator.

Not only do we rely on general revelation, that is nature itself, to reveal the glory and presence of God, as believers we have special revelation, scripture to give us a sure and certain word, not only about who He is, but about who we are and how we came into existence.

You see folks, at the end of the day it takes a lot more faith to believe in the theory of evolution than it does to believe in the Bible.

There is nothing in nature which proves the theory of evolution, but everything in nature points to the existence of God.

Every word of God is true.

While time and time again the proponents of Darwinism have had to eat their words, scripture has never been proven false.

Human history and archeology do nothing but continue to affirm the reliability and veracity of scripture.

The scripture gives us a clear and straightforward affirmation about the origins of humanity.

In Genesis 1:27 the Bible says that /“So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female.”/

So while the theory of evolution says that mankind is nothing more than a highly evolved animal, the biblical record is clearly different.

It says that man is the unique and crowning creation of God, created in His own image, with inherent value and worth.

Man is no mere accident, the product of a blind, naturalistic process over untold millions of years.

Man was created as an adult, and placed on the earth to subdue it and rule it.

Man is made in the image of God and therefore stands light years above all of God’s other creations.

We know we got here.

But what about who we are?

What does God’s word have to say about human nature and our state of being?

*II.

Human Nature and Our Fallen State – *

 

The book of Genesis tells us that in the beginning, in the Garden of Eden, God created Adam and Eve, two individuals; one man and one woman.

It says that He created them in His image.

What does it mean to be created in the image of God? Well it means that while we are not exactly like God, when God created us, He gave us some of His own qualities.

*1.

First of all we are created to be persons;* that is we each have individual personalities we were created for intimate relationship, mankind, like God, can know and be known.

As we have studied the Trinity, we know that God is one God who expresses Himself in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Each can be known and can know others.