This is the manuscript of the fifth sermon in the "Doctrines Of Our Faith Series".
Doctrine is defined as a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group.
The doctrines of our faith serve the same function for our spiritual lives that the skeletal systems do for our physical lives. So the doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
The fifth doctrine is the doctrine of mankind. This doctrine is our belief about mankind from our creation, (generation), to our fall (degeneration), and ends in our regeneration. The question is "what is man that you are mindful of him"? The answer is that man is nothing in themselves; but in Christ they are the “apple of God’s eye” and the crowning glory of his redemption plan.
To hear an audio of the sermon click on the YouTube image at the end of the manuscript.
Doctrine is defined as a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group.
The doctrines of our faith serve the same function for our spiritual lives that the skeletal systems do for our physical lives. So the doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
The fifth doctrine is the doctrine of mankind. This doctrine is our belief about mankind from our creation, (generation), to our fall (degeneration), and ends in our regeneration. The question is "what is man that you are mindful of him"? The answer is that man is nothing in themselves; but in Christ they are the “apple of God’s eye” and the crowning glory of his redemption plan.
To hear an audio of the sermon click on the YouTube image at the end of the manuscript.
Background Scripture:
Psalms 8:1-9 ESV O Lord , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Text:
Psalms 8:3-4 ESV When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Introduction
This is the fifth in our series “The Doctrines Of Our Faith”.
Doctrine is defined as a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group. The doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
Our first doctrine was that the Bible is divine revelation, or the Living Word. The second waa the doctrine that the One we believe in and worship does exist and He is Almighty God. The third doctrine we discussed was that God Almighty who we worship and who we know exists took on human form and came to earth and actually lived among his creation as one of them. Almighty God is also the Incomparable Christ. Last week we talked about the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the third person in the Godhead, or Trinity and that He is equal with God The, Father, and God the Son. He was sent by the Father after the Son Jesus returned to heaven to complete the plan of redemption by seeing to it that every person feels a call toward God's saving grace.
John 16:5-11 CEV But now I am going back to the Father who sent me, and none of you asks me where I am going. You are very sad from hearing all of this. But I tell you I am going to do what is best for you. This is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you. The Spirit will come and show the people of this world the truth about sin and God's justice and the judgment. The Spirit will show them that they are wrong about sin, because they didn't have faith in me. They are wrong about God's justice, because I am going to the Father, and you won't see me again. And they are wrong about the judgment, because God has already judged the ruler of this world.
The Holy Spirit also transforms the lives and hearts of those who receive salvation through Jesus Christ.
Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Today I want to look at the doctrine of mankind. This doctrine looks at mankind from our creation, or generation, to our fall, or degeneration, and ends in our regeneration.
The doctrine causes us to ask the question that David asked in our text.
He asks in amazement “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
After all of the disappointment and sorrow the sinful human race has brought to its Creator, it is the wonder of wonders that God could have any good intentions left toward humanity!
Humans, who are, God’s masterpiece of creation, have brought untold misery into the world, yet God has been unspeakably merciful to them.
We have to search the Scriptures in order to understand something about humans, who are capable of rising to great heights in the worship and adoration of our Creator and then so often sink to great depths of moral perversion and sin.
Psalms 8:1-9 ESV O Lord , our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
Text:
Psalms 8:3-4 ESV When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?
Introduction
This is the fifth in our series “The Doctrines Of Our Faith”.
Doctrine is defined as a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group. The doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
Our first doctrine was that the Bible is divine revelation, or the Living Word. The second waa the doctrine that the One we believe in and worship does exist and He is Almighty God. The third doctrine we discussed was that God Almighty who we worship and who we know exists took on human form and came to earth and actually lived among his creation as one of them. Almighty God is also the Incomparable Christ. Last week we talked about the doctrine that the Holy Spirit is the third person in the Godhead, or Trinity and that He is equal with God The, Father, and God the Son. He was sent by the Father after the Son Jesus returned to heaven to complete the plan of redemption by seeing to it that every person feels a call toward God's saving grace.
John 16:5-11 CEV But now I am going back to the Father who sent me, and none of you asks me where I am going. You are very sad from hearing all of this. But I tell you I am going to do what is best for you. This is why I am going away. The Holy Spirit cannot come to help you until I leave. But after I am gone, I will send the Spirit to you. The Spirit will come and show the people of this world the truth about sin and God's justice and the judgment. The Spirit will show them that they are wrong about sin, because they didn't have faith in me. They are wrong about God's justice, because I am going to the Father, and you won't see me again. And they are wrong about the judgment, because God has already judged the ruler of this world.
The Holy Spirit also transforms the lives and hearts of those who receive salvation through Jesus Christ.
Galatians 5:22-23 NKJV But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
Today I want to look at the doctrine of mankind. This doctrine looks at mankind from our creation, or generation, to our fall, or degeneration, and ends in our regeneration.
The doctrine causes us to ask the question that David asked in our text.
He asks in amazement “What is man, that thou art mindful of him?”
After all of the disappointment and sorrow the sinful human race has brought to its Creator, it is the wonder of wonders that God could have any good intentions left toward humanity!
Humans, who are, God’s masterpiece of creation, have brought untold misery into the world, yet God has been unspeakably merciful to them.
We have to search the Scriptures in order to understand something about humans, who are capable of rising to great heights in the worship and adoration of our Creator and then so often sink to great depths of moral perversion and sin.
I. First, let’s examine the human race in its creation or for purposes of this sermon, generation.
“Generation,” in this setting, means the act or process of coming into existence. Synonyms for generation are creation, making, production, initiation, origination, inception.
Genesis 1:26 ESV Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
The four words "Let us make man" imply something important.
It's important for us to understand that the Hebrew word used in this scripture which is translatiend God is Elohim. The term "Elohim" means “supreme one” or “mighty one”. Elohim is the plural name of God in the Old Testament, and it brings together all of the mighty, majestic, creative powers of God.
Just because Elohim is the plural name for God doesn’t mean that the ancient Hebrews were talking about multiple gods.
When the ancient Hebrews wanted to underscore the greatness of anything, they expressed it in the plural form. So in this instance the Scripture is saying that God focused all of his creative genius on creating man!
For example for the other creation acts, God said, “Let there be.” If yo read the first chapter of Genesis you'll find:
Genesis 1:3, 6-6, 9, 11-11, 14, 20-20, 24 ESV And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so. And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so.
But with mankind, God did more than just say let it be He was personally involved, He was "hands on".
Genesis 1:26 ESV Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Genesis 2:7 ESV then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Therefore mankind bears the fingerprint of God—we were made in God’s image and after his likeness.
But the man has made an effort to deny his Creator's existence,
Romans 1:18-23 ESV For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
To try to deny God’s existence man has concocted several theories concerning how mankind came to be.
There is the “spontaneous generation” theory that says there was no creator of humanity and that people simply came into being without a cause, or “out of nowhere into here.” In other words "out of the blue"
Then there is the popular theory of evolution, which states that humans were originally protoplasm, and passing through a long series of changes, they evolved into apes, and finally into people.
The Bible, however, gives a different account. The Bible says; first, that mankind was created by a divine, direct, and definite act of God. Second, mankind was created in God’s image, after his likeness.
Genesis 1:26-27 ESV Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Third, mankind is spirit—God breathed the breath of life into humans.
Genesis 2:7 ESV then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
But God caused a subtle difference to exist between humans and animals that placed humans in a different order of creation altogether.
God gave animals instinct (an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior), but he gave humans intellect (the faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively, especially with regard to something abstract). Because of this, among God’s creation only humans are capable of declaring praise and worship and adoration toward their Creator.
God is a spirit, and fellowship with him is possible through the Spirit.
John 4:23-24 ESV But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
II. Now let’s consider mankind's degeneration.
Humans were created to live in perfect relationship with their Creator, to be at peace with themselves, and to live in harmony with their environment.
Genesis 1:28-31 ESV And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
But humanity forfeited this holy and blessed position through sin.
Genesis 3:22-24 ESV Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Therefore, as a result of their sin, humans lost their original dignity. Sin has weakened mankind’s power to dominate nature.
Genesis 3:17-19 ESV And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Adam’s sin resulted in every part of human nature became tainted with sin.
Our spirits are darkened.
1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Mankind's souls, or hearts are sinful
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Our bodies are diseased, our wills are weakened, and our consciences are dulled by sin.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 ESV Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,
Because Adam sinned, sin became universal; it was passed to all people and resulted in the loss of communion with God.
Paul said it plainly in his letter to the Romans:
Romans 5:12-14 ESV Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Genesis 3:1-6 lists five steps in the fall of humanity:
Genesis 3:1-6 ESV Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
(1) Adam was guilty of listening to slander against God, (2) doubting God’s Word and his love, (3) looking at what had been forbidden, (4) lusting for what God had prohibited, and (5) disobeying God’s commandment.
God created man to be in perfect harmony with Him, each other, and with the environment or the rest of God's creation. Then because of Adam's sin we degenerated and destroyed our perfect relationship with God, the ability to establish and maintain perfect relationships with each other, and we are struggling with nature or the environment.
Romans 8:20-22 CEV Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children. We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.
“Generation,” in this setting, means the act or process of coming into existence. Synonyms for generation are creation, making, production, initiation, origination, inception.
Genesis 1:26 ESV Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
The four words "Let us make man" imply something important.
It's important for us to understand that the Hebrew word used in this scripture which is translatiend God is Elohim. The term "Elohim" means “supreme one” or “mighty one”. Elohim is the plural name of God in the Old Testament, and it brings together all of the mighty, majestic, creative powers of God.
Just because Elohim is the plural name for God doesn’t mean that the ancient Hebrews were talking about multiple gods.
When the ancient Hebrews wanted to underscore the greatness of anything, they expressed it in the plural form. So in this instance the Scripture is saying that God focused all of his creative genius on creating man!
For example for the other creation acts, God said, “Let there be.” If yo read the first chapter of Genesis you'll find:
Genesis 1:3, 6-6, 9, 11-11, 14, 20-20, 24 ESV And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. And God said, "Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters." And God said, "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear." And it was so. And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind, on the earth." And it was so. And God said, "Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years, And God said, "Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the heavens." And God said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds." And it was so.
But with mankind, God did more than just say let it be He was personally involved, He was "hands on".
Genesis 1:26 ESV Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
Genesis 2:7 ESV then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
Therefore mankind bears the fingerprint of God—we were made in God’s image and after his likeness.
But the man has made an effort to deny his Creator's existence,
Romans 1:18-23 ESV For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
To try to deny God’s existence man has concocted several theories concerning how mankind came to be.
There is the “spontaneous generation” theory that says there was no creator of humanity and that people simply came into being without a cause, or “out of nowhere into here.” In other words "out of the blue"
Then there is the popular theory of evolution, which states that humans were originally protoplasm, and passing through a long series of changes, they evolved into apes, and finally into people.
The Bible, however, gives a different account. The Bible says; first, that mankind was created by a divine, direct, and definite act of God. Second, mankind was created in God’s image, after his likeness.
Genesis 1:26-27 ESV Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Third, mankind is spirit—God breathed the breath of life into humans.
Genesis 2:7 ESV then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.
But God caused a subtle difference to exist between humans and animals that placed humans in a different order of creation altogether.
God gave animals instinct (an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior), but he gave humans intellect (the faculty of reasoning and understanding objectively, especially with regard to something abstract). Because of this, among God’s creation only humans are capable of declaring praise and worship and adoration toward their Creator.
God is a spirit, and fellowship with him is possible through the Spirit.
John 4:23-24 ESV But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."
II. Now let’s consider mankind's degeneration.
Humans were created to live in perfect relationship with their Creator, to be at peace with themselves, and to live in harmony with their environment.
Genesis 1:28-31 ESV And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." And God said, "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food." And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
But humanity forfeited this holy and blessed position through sin.
Genesis 3:22-24 ESV Then the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—" therefore the Lord God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Therefore, as a result of their sin, humans lost their original dignity. Sin has weakened mankind’s power to dominate nature.
Genesis 3:17-19 ESV And to Adam he said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, 'You shall not eat of it,' cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return."
Adam’s sin resulted in every part of human nature became tainted with sin.
Our spirits are darkened.
1 Corinthians 2:14 ESV The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
Mankind's souls, or hearts are sinful
Jeremiah 17:9 ESV The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Our bodies are diseased, our wills are weakened, and our consciences are dulled by sin.
1 Timothy 4:1-2 ESV Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the insincerity of liars whose consciences are seared,
Because Adam sinned, sin became universal; it was passed to all people and resulted in the loss of communion with God.
Paul said it plainly in his letter to the Romans:
Romans 5:12-14 ESV Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but sin is not counted where there is no law. Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.
Genesis 3:1-6 lists five steps in the fall of humanity:
Genesis 3:1-6 ESV Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God actually say, 'You shall not eat of any tree in the garden'?" And the woman said to the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.'" But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.
(1) Adam was guilty of listening to slander against God, (2) doubting God’s Word and his love, (3) looking at what had been forbidden, (4) lusting for what God had prohibited, and (5) disobeying God’s commandment.
God created man to be in perfect harmony with Him, each other, and with the environment or the rest of God's creation. Then because of Adam's sin we degenerated and destroyed our perfect relationship with God, the ability to establish and maintain perfect relationships with each other, and we are struggling with nature or the environment.
Romans 8:20-22 CEV Meanwhile, creation is confused, but not because it wants to be confused. God made it this way in the hope that creation would be set free from decay and would share in the glorious freedom of his children. We know that all creation is still groaning and is in pain, like a woman about to give birth.
III. Finally let's look at mankind's regeneration.
This is the greatest part of the study of the doctrine of mankind. We have seen human “generation” in all of its creative splendor; we have seen the “degeneration” of humans as they turned their backs on their Creator; now we will see the provision whereby humans can be regenerated—restored to fellowship with their Creator.
Through sin, people have lost the image and likeness of God in which they were made. But the Bible teaches that this likeness can be recovered.
Colossians 3:9-10 ESV Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Put off the old self and put on the new self.
If Paradise has been lost, as John Milton said in his epic poem, then according to the Bible and because of God’s love, it can be regained.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
The miracle of regeneration was made possible because Christ, the “true image of the invisible God,” took on himself our human nature and weaknesses (except for sin), and made possible our redemption from the consequences of the fall.
Philippians 2:5-8 ESV Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
In Adam we died; in Christ we are made alive.
1 Corinthians 15:22 ESV For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
How does God bring us to this point of regeneration? He makes us aware of our sins through the Holy Spirit’s convicting ministry. We talked about that last week.
John 16:4-5, 7-11 ESV But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you. "I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
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He makes us capable of experiencing godly sorrow, which is a heartbreaking awareness that we have sinned against God, breaking the heart of the Creator who loved us and, through his Son, gave himself for us.
The result of this is the new birth, the regeneration by which we are made new creatures in Christ Jesus. We can then, once again, believers experience the “divine nature,” because we are sealed by the Holy Spirit unto the day of final redemption.
Ephesians 1:13-14 ESV In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
Conclusion
With our human reasoning, we may wonder why God didn’t turn his back on mankind and start fresh. Because God is love, he continued working with mankind. He devised a plan so that people could be restored, reconciled, and brought back into fellowship with their Him. This plan was executed through God’s Son, Jesus Christ. We started with the question “What is man, that thou are mindful of him?”
The answer is that man is nothing in themselves; but in Christ they are the “apple of God’s eye” and the crowning glory of his redemption plan.
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