All right, Genesis chapter 1.
Genesis chapter 1. We're going to talk about God's,
the creation of man. Continuing our study in Bible
doctrine. And you know, we're trying to
study them in the theological and chronological order. You
know, we started by seeing what the Bible says about the very
being of God, what His nature is. And we know and we understand
clearly from the Scriptures that there's no knowledge apart from
the Bible about God. This is the The Book of God,
this is the Word of God, and the only way you know God is
for Him to make you know Himself from this Scripture. That's why
David said, Lord, You know my thoughts, You know the words
in my mouth. And he says, You know, I was curiously wrought,
fearfully and wonderfully made, and Your thoughts to me are so
great, wherever I go, up, down, in, out, wherever I am, there
You are. Now that's, when you become conscious
of God, the only reason you become conscious of God is He made you
conscious of Him. You're conscious, a lot of people
are conscious of a God, a God of their imagination, a God that
they have whittled out with their own pocket knife. But the God of the Bible, the
God of the Bible is not like any Human being, way, shape,
form. He inhabits eternity. The third heavens is His throne. And we're just living here on
His footstool. And I'm grateful that I know
those things about Him. There was a time I didn't know
anything about Him. Not anything. And so let's remember,
and also we looked at the testimony of the Scriptures. the Scriptures
of themselves and what the Scripture says about themselves. You see,
and here's the thing we have to realize, if the Bible is not
the Word of God, if this book is not God-breathed, verbally
inspired, these men were not, God did not give them His Word,
then there's nothing else to worry about, nothing else to
think about. There's just no reason to believe anything if
this is not the Word of God, if this is not God-breathed,
if God did not inspire this blessed book. And that's why, beloved,
we look no other place than into the scriptures as to what we're
to believe. We have no confessions of faith.
We have no creeds. We have no bylaws and constitutions. We have no church covenants.
All we have is a Bible, and if that's not enough, what are we
going to do? Go hungry. And we looked at what
the Bible says about God, you know, all of His attributes.
And then we looked at what He's done, how He created the world,
and how He created the angels, and how that the angels, some
of them fail, you have the good angels that God uses to His glory.
And then we looked at creation. And then last time I brought
a message here about these things is God's providence. After creation,
God's providence. You know, if God creates, how's
He going to maintain His creation? How's He going to uphold His
creation? Who's going to govern His creation? Who's going to
manage the creation? You know, we're having a hard
time managing our little old worlds. A real hard time managing
our little old worlds and our little old affairs. And the bigger
your family gets, the harder it is to manage the affairs. God manages the whole world,
He created the world, He manages every bit of it, and not only
that, but He manages us! And I want to be managed, don't
you? Lord, You take the reins, and no, listen, You keep me just
right there where I need to be. Take hold of the reins. And so we looked And now we're
going to look at the origin of man and women. We're going to
look at God, the creation of man, man and woman. And over
here in verse 26 of chapter 1 of Genesis, it says this, And God said, Let us make man
in our image after our likeness. And down in verse 27, So God
created man in the image of God, created he him, male and female,
created he them. And I'll tell you, the creation
of man is given four places here in the book of Genesis. I just
read that one to you. Let me show you another one over
here in Genesis 2-7. This is just about man. This
is just about Adam. And the Lord God formed out of
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils.
The Lord God formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
soul. Then look how He made woman.
He created woman over here in Genesis 2.18. And the Lord God said, It is
not good that the man should be alone. Not good that man should
be alone. And that's true. That's true. I will make him a helpmeet for
him. I'll make someone as before him to be with him. And then
look what it says down in verse 21. And the Lord God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon Adam. And he slept. And he took one
of his ribs and closed up the flesh and stead thereof. And
the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman,
and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. You shall be called a woman,
because she was taken out of man. Now Adam, that's all it
means is man. Man of the dirt. Man of the red
earth. And Isha is woman-ish man. It's man. And then look at the
other account of it over here in Genesis 5. Here's another
count. God gives four counts of creation
here in Genesis. And he says in chapter 5, verse
1 and 2, This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the
day that God created man in the likeness of God made he him.
Male and female created he them and blessed them and called their
name Adam in the day when they were created. Four times. And then I tell you, you can
look it up yourself, but he called, Adam called after the fall, he
called Eve, named her Eve. She wasn't just woman anymore.
He called her name Eve, which means she's the mother, the mother
of all living. And so we want to look at this
business of where man came from. Where'd man come from? What's
he like? How did he become into existence? And I, you know, and
as to when it was, chronologically, it's probably about 7,500, 8,000
years ago. But look what it says here in
Genesis 126. And God had been created. God
had been created. And here He comes to His last
creation. And then He comes to this last
creation. He says, you know, He makes all these statements.
He created, He created, He created. But when He comes here, It seems
like there's a stop. And then all of a sudden you
have three, there's a conversation going on besides more than one
person. You know, when everything else is God said let, God said
let, God said let, God made, God made, God made. But here
it says let us. Let us. Why did it change here? What happened here? Well, here
was a council. They got together. before man
was ever made. God the Father, God the Holy
Spirit, and God the blessed Son of God. That's what he said,
let us make man after our image, not my image, after our likeness. And you see what he says? So
if God was just talking here about the triune God, the Trinity,
let's make him in our image, let's make him after our likeness.
And so, you beloved, is the blessed hand of God. And notice, this
is the first time us is mentioned in the Scriptures. And it tells
us here, before everything else was created. And it says, after
God made. After God made. Here. It says,
you're God created. Let us make. Let us make. And
then it tells us here, that let's make man in our image. So in
verse 27, so God created man in His own image. Made in man
was made in the image of God. I'm not going to say much about
that because it's going to be what we're going to talk about
next week. But you look through this blessed book and everything
was after his own kind. Look back up there in verse 25.
God made the beast of the earth after his kind, the cattle after
their kind, and everything that creepeth on the earth after his
kind. Verse 24, let the earth bring forth the living creature
after his kind. Everything was after his kind.
Every seed was after his kind. Everything was after his kind.
But here, here, there's nothing said about after his kind. No such phrase here. Man wasn't
created after any kind. There was no kind like him, nothing
ever like him before. And everything else was created
after its own kind with seed, and God said no phrase here.
Man was created not after any kind, and is not told to produce
after any kind. Let everything produce after
its own kind. Cows produced cows, and he said
nothing else said it here. And he was made in God's image
after his likeness. And then look here in Genesis
2, 7. And the Lord God formed. Everybody
knows what it is to form something. But the Lord God formed man out
of the dust of the ground. The Lord God formed a man out
of the dust of the ground. And until God done something
to form him, he was an inanimate object. He was just like a statue
standing there. He had eyes, but he couldn't
see. He had ears, but he couldn't hear. He had feet, but he couldn't
walk. He had hands, but he could not
do a thing. He even had a heart, but it didn't
beat. He had lungs, but he couldn't breathe. He had lips, but he couldn't
open them. What made the distinction here?
What happened to this man as he stood there as an inanimate
object coming from the hand of his maker? And then look what
God just says here, and he breathed. Now I say who I believe breathed
into his nostrils, I believe the Lord Jesus Christ is the
one that breathed into his nostrils. And it says, and the Lord God,
or the God, God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. This tells us that only God can
give life, only God can create life. And I tell you that the
life now, He says that life now is only in one person, that's
in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Adam was made from the dust
of the earth, and God breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life, and then it says He became a living soul. And I tell you something, beloved,
until There, God made the man. After that, if anybody gets life
and gets the life of God in their heart and get it in their soul,
there's only one place to get it. God ain't going to create
another man. He ain't going to create another man. He's going
to create a new man. You have to be made a new creature.
And that life now is only in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's why the Lord says, come unto Me. He said, I'm the way. I'm the
truth. I'm the life. He said, here is
life. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son hath not life. And oh, God says, this
is my beloved son. Hear him, listen to him. This
is where life's at. If you get the life of God now
in your soul, God's got to give it to you. Apart from that, you
can't see God, you can't hear God, you can't walk to God, you
can't embrace God, you can't understand God, you can't taste
God, you can't feel Him in your heart until He does like Adam,
breathed into your nostrils and Christ gives you life from Himself.
Ain't that right? That's right. I know that's right.
And so God made man out of the dust. He made man a body. But oh, He didn't take hold of
nothing to make him a living soul. All they'd done was just He talked about what he said
about all those dry bones down in the valley, dry bones. Son
of man, can these dry, dead, dry bones live? Oh, Lord, Thou
knowest. He said, prophesy to them. Began
to preach to them. They begun to come together.
They all, bone came to bone, bone came to bone, their nails
all put together, and there they stood just like Adam, just skeletons,
no life. And he said, Son of man, command
the wind, command the breath of God to come, and the breath
of God come. And they all started coming to
life. That's what happened here. Here
stood a man just, even though God made him, only God could
make him a living soul. Oh, beloved. And let me tell
you something else. Not only was he made a living
soul, And that is the distinction between the body and the soul
and the spirit. We'll deal with it here in a
minute. But look how God exalted him, back up here in verse 26
of chapter 1. And God said, Let us make man
in our image after our own likeness, and listen how He exalts him,
and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the
fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
And it says in verse 28, And God blessed them, and God said
unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and
listen, subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl there, and over every living thing that moves
on the face of the earth. And not only was that, but God
brought everything to Adam. Look down here in verse 19 of
chapter 2. Let me show you this just a moment.
And out of the ground, the Lord God formed every beast of the
field, and every fowl there, and brought them unto Adam to
see what he had called them. And whatsoever Adam called every
living creature, there's a name thereof. And Adam gave names
to all the cattle, to the fowl, to the beast, and listen, you
talk, God, everything that you, whatever you call something right
now, Adam gave it its name. Where'd the word hog come from,
Adam gave him? He said, in that pig's sample,
called you a hog. Saw a big old bird going through
there, I'm going to call that one a butt. See another one go
by, I'm going to call that an eagle. See another one go by,
I'm going to call that a sparrow. See another one go by, I'm going
to call that a gull. And just a pelican, and just
all the men on and on, and a raven, and a crow. So a great old man,
great, big, huge animal out in the ocean, he said, I'm going
to call that a whale. Now that's what God done with
him. He gave him that exalted position.
Huh? Gave him that exalted position.
Oh, nobody else ever had that before. Let me tell you something
about creation here. And I know they teach this in
school. And it's wrong, and every time some teacher tells you this,
you tell them they're wrong. Evolution and creation are exact
opposites. You can't believe in evolution
in under any way, shape, form, or fashion and believe in creation. You cannot be a Christian and
believe the Bible and believe in evolution. It's an impossibility. It's an impossibility. If man
had been different and had evolved, Don't you think God would have
been honest enough to tell us that in the Scripture? That I
made this fella, and you know, he wasn't half there, and he
was just a part of a man, and then he started improving himself,
and he gave, you know, and I let him have this thing, and that
thing, and another thing, and he began to improve. God would
have told us that if that's what we wanted us to know. And then
there's these people now that teach this theistic. Theistic,
they call it, you know, God's, God's evolution. That God created
man back there and He created him in a certain way and then
let him start improving himself. He was very primitive and started
improving himself. No, man don't improve himself.
You don't come any better from the hand of God. You think God
didn't make him perfect when He started with him? Huh? And oh, man's different. Let
me tell you, let me show you what I mean by this. If things
evolved, Man, you take man as he comes from the hand of his
Creator. He's different than any animal on the top side of
God's earth. There's such a gulf between the
highest animal and the human being, a man that God created.
There's such a great gulf fixed that it's unimaginable the distance
and difference between a man and the highest beast of earth.
How high above you than a cow, a dog, a chicken, A cat! I mean, can you communicate with
them? Can you talk with them? Can you
reason with them? Can you converse with them? Can you have fellowship with
them? I know some people think they
can with their dogs and talk to them and everything else,
but that's their problem, not mine. Their one is weird. I'm
not going to do it. No, no, but I tell you, I don't
care what you think you're a dog, it's still just a dog. And I'm
not, I'm trying to be a, but I mean, it's still just a dog.
You cannot, I mean, you know, we have responsibility that,
you know, the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel, but
a righteous man cares for his beast. But still, we are so far
above any animal, the highest form of animal. And then you
take us, how far above we are from any animal, and then take
God and see how far God is above us. You look at a worm, you think
nothing about a worm. That's an old nasty thing. Just,
you know, slimy. An old cold snake. And you think
about how far above you are than that. And that's why God said,
O thou worm, Jacob, That's what we are. We're just like worms. We're just like worms. You know,
man has self-consciousness. An animal don't have self-consciousness. An animal doesn't. A dog doesn't
know it's a dog. It really does not know it's
a dog. It just knows it's an animal. Yeah, you ask it. Do you know you're a dog? And
just see if it answers you. A cat. Do you know you're a cat?
You know, we're laughing about that, but you think about it.
They're not self-conscious. Ask the big old bull. You a bull?
No, they don't have no self-conscious. We have self-consciousness. We
are aware of ourselves. We're aware of our thoughts,
we're aware of our person, we're aware of our existence, we're
aware of our wants, we're aware of our needs, we're aware of
ourselves, and we're conscious of ourselves and the things that
make us what makes us human beings. And we have moral freedom, we're capable of abstract thought,
I mean, I thought we could think and go on and on and on, and
we're capable of religion. There's not an animal capable
of religion. They use animals in sacrifices
in religion, but an animal's not capable of having religion.
But only a man's capable of having religion. Only a man is capable
of worship. Only a man is capable of looking
to God, seeing God, and having the consciousness of God. And
evolution says man is on an upward process, that he's progressing
upward, going, going, going, going, going. And that's why
they sing that old song, Lord, take me up to higher ground.
Listen, we'll not sing that here, and I'll tell you why we won't.
You can't be on higher ground than being in Christ Jesus. Ain't that right here? You ain't
gonna get no higher ground than being in Christ. And listen,
that's why, you know, evolution in the Bible takes just the opposite
approach to that. Man started at the top. Let us
make man in our image, in our eyes. God formed a man, formed
him a body out of the dust of the earth, and he became a living
soul when God breathed into his monstrosity. He started at the
top, and then he hit the bottom. And the whole subject of salvation
from Genesis 1 all the way to Revelation 22, the whole subject
of salvation is because man was made perfect and then fell and
became imperfect. And where are you going to get
your perfection at? If God made you perfect and you lost your
imperfection, there's only one place to get perfection back.
That's in another perfect person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Complete
in Him. Perfect in Him. Is that not right?
And the Bible tells us also this about in creation, that the human
race is one. The whole human race is one.
There's a unity in the whole human race. You know, mankind
came from two people. Ever how many people have been
on the top side of this earth? Probably a couple billion drowned
in the flood. Over in China right now, they've
got 5 or 6 billion people. We've got over 300 million here
in America. 310, 15 million people. And let me tell you something.
You know, every one of us, all of us, come from two people. Yeah. Do you keep Genesis? Look over here at Deuteronomy
32 with me just a moment. I'll show you a couple of these
things. Deuteronomy 32. You know, that's why Paul says,
God hath made of one blood. When he stood on Mars Hill and
dealt with all those philosophers, all those people that came there
to hear or see or tell some new thing, Paul stood up and he says,
you know, God hath made of one blood all nations. All nations. And that's why DNA,
you know, you can go back, you can take DNA right now. And you
can find out, you know, where your origins as far as where
you come from in this world here, whether you've got Irish or German
blood in you, whether you've got any black blood in you, or
Indian blood in you, because there's distinct things in this.
But it all comes from the human race, and you can tell. And you
can tell. And so, beloved, why is that?
Because we all come from one blood. Huh? Look here at Deuteronomy
32 and 8. When the Most High divided to
the nations their inheritance, all the nations their inheritance,
what did He mean by that when He gave them their portion on
this earth? When He says, you know, this
is where you're going to go, this is where you're going to
go, it's like He gave all them Saudis all that oil. That's their
inheritance. Gave some people in Africa, they
got lots of gold over there and lots of diamonds. Here in America,
we all have an inheritance. He set all the inheritance for
all the nations. And when He separated the sons
of Adam, oh my, He set the bounds of the
people. And listen, He done it all according
to the numbers of the children of Israel. He said, I want everybody
to live here. And this is where I want Israel to live. He put everybody else where they
want. And let me show you something else over here in Genesis chapter
11. You know, where did all the racists
come from? Well, you know, that's a whole other subject. But look
here in Genesis 11. You know, the Terababble. Every
man, everybody was just alike until. Until. It says here in verse 1, And
the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came
to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain,
and the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. And they said one
to another, let's make us some bricks and burn them thoroughly.
And they had brick for stone and slime they had for mortar.
And said, let's go to and build us a city and a tower whose top
may reach unto heaven. Now watch this, and let us make
us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth. Oh, they're scared of being scattered
abroad. Scared. They wanted to be close. They
wanted to be And the Lord came down to see the city of Tyre,
which the children of men built. And the Lord said, Behold, a
people is one. They have one language, this they begin to
do. And now nothing shall be restrained from them which they
have managed to do. Let's go down and confound their
language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the
Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the
earth, and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name
of it called Babel. That means confusion. Because the Lord did there confound
the language of all the earth, and from this did the Lord scatter
them abroad upon all the face of the earth. Everybody talked
the same, looked pretty much the same until that day. And everybody all of a sudden,
everybody started talking in different languages. It would
be like all of us sitting here, and all of us started talking in
different languages. We wouldn't understand one another. And that's exactly
what happened. Then I started babbling around. That's why we get this here babbling
idiot from us. All right, let me get on with
it. And I'll tell you what, and you know Romans chapter 5 shows
you that there's only one blood on the whole earth, that there's
such a unity of oneness in the whole human race. Wherefore by
as one man sin entered into the world, death passed upon him. Just the blacks? Just the Chinese? Just the Spanish? Just the Mexicans? Just the Whites? Just the Russians? No, death passed upon all men
for all sin. And wherever you find a man,
wherever you find a man, what continent you find him on, what
country you find him in, Whether he's illiterate or whether he's
what they call sophisticated, you'll find that they have the
same wants, the same desires, they want the same things. And
basically, they want the same things, desire the same things,
and are going after the same things. Some may attain it and
some may not. But they're all pretty much the
same. Ain't that right? In fact, you can't turn your
head for the difference for any member of the human race. Ain't
that right? And let me tell you this about
this. The nature of man. Let me tell you about the nature
of man here. Now, there's two beliefs about this. You know
it says here, God made man a body out of the dust and breathed
into his nostrils and he became a living soul. There are those
who believe that man is a two-part being. He's a body and a soul.
And there's another belief that says he's a body, soul, and spirit. He's a tri-part being. I'm going
to tell you what I believe. And you can believe what you
want to believe about it, but I'm going to tell you what I
believe about it. I believe that man is just two. I believe he's
body and soul. That's the way I understand the
scriptures today. And I can give you explanations
of the other things, and I will try to, but I believe that there's
a body and a soul, that this body, this body here, Paul calls
it a tent. It's a frail tenet, that this
body houses a living soul. It houses a living soul. And
that's why it says when the soul or the spirit, soul and spirit
is interchangeable according to Scripture. They're one and
the same. And the way I understand it, and the body houses this
soul. And this soul is that part of
God that gave us this life that comes from God, this eternal,
immortal being that came from God. That's one reason why we've
made the image of God, is we're immortal now. And you know, his
soul is what communicates with God. It's the soul that enjoys. It's the soul that feels. It's
the soul that hurts. It's the soul that groans. It's
the soul—blessed is he who hungers and thirsts after the righteous.
He said, why shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world,
and what does he lose? His soul. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy strength, with all thy soul, with all your heart,
and with all your mind. The whole being. And it's the
soul that worships. It's the soul that worships.
This flesh doesn't worship. This flesh keeps us from worship,
and this body hinders us in our worship. And that's why we don't
want to give it any place in this business of worship. We
don't want to pamper it. We don't want to brag on it.
We don't want to give it any way, any swing. And because it's
the soul that worships. Mary says, my soul doeth magnify
the Lord. My Lord who created me, saved
me, my soul doeth magnify the Lord. You know, and he said over
in Hebrews 6 and 12, he says, the Lord Jesus is the anchor
of what? Our soul. James 121 says, receive with
meekness the incrafted word which is able to save your soul. And you know, he says, and then
you know you've got Scriptures talks about the spirits of just
men made perfect. Let me give you one of them.
Let's look over, first of all, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Let
me just look at this. I think it's only right that
I deal with these things in light of what I've just said. 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5. I believe that's where I want
to go, where it says that God sanctify you. Yeah, down in verse 23. First
Thessalonians 5.23. Now, here's where most people
get from God, man's a tripartite being. He's a trinity. And the
very God of peace sanctify you wholly. And I pray God your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless under the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now why do I think that this,
I think the spirit and soul is the same here, but why does he
use these? And I think the meaning of it
is there in the first beginning, the Lord sanctify you wholly,
completely. Everything about you, your whole
being, your whole existence, everything, God sanctify you
wholly. And let's look in Hebrews chapter
4. Let me show you another one real quick, and I think it's
Hebrews 4. Yeah, Hebrews 4. And I'll show you another, and
I'll tell you what I think it means. Because this is where
people go, and I'll tell you what I think it means. But now,
you know, if you believe in man as a tri-part being, these are
things you cannot be dogmatic about. For my personal belief,
I believe it's body and soul. I believe that, you know, when
you talk about the Spirit goes back to God, the soul goes back
to God, I think it's one and the same. But here in Hebrews
3, I think it's 13. Oh, boy. Oh, here we go. Verse 12. Hebrews 4, verse 12. For the word of God is quick
and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the
joints and marrow, and is the discerner of the thoughts and
intents of the heart. Neither is there any creature
that is not made manifest in his sight, but all things are
naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do."
This is showing us here that God actually sees every, showing
us how close He can examine us, and how close the Word of God
can examine us. That it can go to the inmost
parts of our very being. You know, it can go to the joints
of our mind, into our joints. And that's what I think it means.
I don't think that it means we've got three parts here, but that's
my feeling to that. I think when body and soul, when
you're reading Revelations, It says over there, He says, you
know, there were the souls under the altar, the souls of them
that were beheaded for the gospel. And over in Revelations 20 and
verse 4, there was the souls of them who were slain for the
testimony of Jesus Christ and who never took the mark of the
beast. God calls them souls. God said, I've made man a living
soul. And I think the Spirit and the souls want the same thing.
One and the same thing. And I hope I was a blessing to
you. Next week we'll deal with man made in God's image.