Will you please turn again to Psalm 8?
We will just read one verse: Psalm 8:4.
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?
Now turn to 1 Corinthians 2:14.
Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; and he cannot know them, because they are spiritually judged.
Then turn to 1 Corinthians 15, beginning with verse 45.
So also it is written, The first man Adam became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual.
The first man is of the earth, earthly: the second man is of heaven.
As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
And as we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Let us commit this word of God to Him.
Hear, Lord, we have read Thy Word, and now we look to Thy Holy Spirit to open Thy Word to our hearts. Through Thy Word, Lord, may it really become life and spirit to us.
We just look to Thee, to Thy Holy Spirit, to quicken Thy Word to us. We pray that Thou wilt open our understanding, that it may not be just something stored in our minds, but that it may really touch our very hearts. May Thy name be glorified. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
As we mentioned last night, the subject that we want to share together for this time is this word of David: “What is man?”
In other words, we would like to consider ourselves. For human life, self-knowledge is very important. As a matter of fact, if we do not know ourselves, we will not be able to know God.
But the problem is: how can we know ourselves? The Bible says that our heart is deceitful above all things, and it is incurable. Who can know it?
We ourselves do not know our hearts. Other people do not know our hearts. Because of this, it is absolutely impossible for us to know ourselves by introspection. Introspection never does any good, and yet self-knowledge is essential in the knowledge of God.
But how can we know ourselves? Thank God, we can know ourselves by the Word of God. His Word is the light, and in that light we shall see light.
So, brothers and sisters, it is very important for us to go back to the Word of God and let the light of God’s Word shine upon us, to reveal to us what man is.
As we mentioned last night, if God wills, we will have four sessions. In the first session, we wanted to see, in the light of Scripture, what man is according to God’s creative purpose.
For the time being, last night we forgot ourselves. We forgot our own condition, and we simply wanted to see: when God created man, what was in His heart?
We mentioned that man is God’s masterpiece. When God created the whole universe, He simply spoke the word, and it was done. But in the creation of man, we find that God even held a council within Himself.
In Genesis 1, God said, “Let Us make man.” Therefore, we know that man is not the product of evolution. Man is the result of God’s deliberation.
After God decided to make man, the Bible says that He created man according to His own image and likeness. God never created anything else in this manner—not even the angels. But in the creation of man, God created man in His own image.
That is to say, man was to bear the inner character of God. Man was to have the capacity for God: not only the capacity to commune with God, but even to receive God into himself.
God’s desire was for man to be united with Him in love and in life. God had a purpose for the man He created. He made man a little lower than the angels, and yet He would use man to bring everything back to God.
So He gave man dominion over the things He had created. He commanded man to subdue all things—not only all things, but even the enemy—so that everything might be reconciled back to the fullness of God.
When God created man, man was not only to be a vessel for God; man was also to be an instrument in God’s hand. This was the purpose of God’s creating man.
When David saw this, he could not help but exclaim, “What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?” Compared with the whole universe, man is so tiny, so small, so weak. Yet God created man with such a glorious purpose.
For this reason David said, “How excellent is Thy name in all the earth!” Brothers and sisters, if you really see God’s purpose in creating you, you cannot help but worship God. You have to see how great His love is toward you.
You will be amazed. You will be in wonder and in adoration.
Now, this morning we want to consider man after he fell—in other words, the natural man. The natural man is man as we know him today.
How did it happen? We know that when God created man, He put him in the garden of Eden. He put man in the best environment that could ever be found.
God planted all kinds of fruit trees for man’s food. Man has a body, and the body needs food. You cannot live without food.
Then, in the midst of the garden, God put the tree of life. This signifies that God desired to give even His own uncreated, divine life to man.
Beside it was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was food for the soul. God allowed man to make a choice.
We mentioned last night that man was created in the image of God. God has free will; that is to say, He can do whatever He wills. When He created man in His own image, He also gave man a free will.
But what is free will if there is no choice? Therefore, God put these two trees side by side: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God wanted man to make a choice, to exercise his free will, because God does not want to force anyone into His purpose. Though He designed man to receive His own life and to fulfill His purpose, God would not force man into it.
God wanted man to make his own choice. He wanted man voluntarily to choose Him. If man refused to choose Him, God would not force him, even though it was the very best thing for him.
God said, in effect, “Now you choose between these two trees. Do you want My life? Do you want to be united with Me in life, to do My will, to fulfill My purpose, and to find your fulfillment in Me? Or do you want to choose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?”
“Do you want to develop your own soul? Do you want to make yourself god? Do you want to live an independent life apart from God? Do you want to live for yourself? You can do that, but in doing so, you will surely die.”
God made man head over all things. He was above everything, but below one Person: God. God gave man dominion over the animals, over the birds of the air, and over the fish of the sea. Man was above all these created things, yet man was under God.
Brothers and sisters, let us remember this, because today man has forgotten it. Man thinks that he is above everything and that there is no one above him. He forgets that he is a creature, created by God.
Therefore, by the command of God, man could eat of every tree except one. Why did God give such a command? To show man that although he was above all things, he was still under God.
There was a command of God that man had to keep, so that he might know his place. His place was over all things, but under God.
If man forgot this, it would bring death to him. That is why God said that in the day he ate of the forbidden tree, when he rebelled against God’s command, he would surely die.
Brothers and sisters, this was the love of God. God put man in the garden and told him to cultivate it and guard it—to make things more abundant.
We mentioned last night that this was before sin entered the world. There were no thorns and thistles growing. Grass, herbs, and a mist that watered the earth were sufficient, because there was no rain yet. Everything grew naturally, and there was enough food for all the animals.
Yet God commanded man to cultivate the ground, not because there was insufficient produce, but to make everything more abundant. God created man not for leisure, but for work.
You know, too much leisure is very dangerous. God wants us to be diligent, because God is diligent. He is a working God. He wants us to work, and work is our service—not for ourselves, but for the glory of God and for other people.
Then God commanded man to guard the garden. We mentioned last night that if there were no enemy, there would have been no need to guard it. This suggests that there was an enemy on earth: the adversary of God, the fallen angel. Man was not to allow the enemy to slip in.
God put man and woman in that beautiful garden, and God came to commune with them day by day. But unfortunately, something happened.
If you read Genesis 3, you will find that a number of things began to happen, seemingly one after another.
First of all, man did not fulfill God’s command to guard the garden. There was an enemy there, but man failed to guard the garden. He allowed the enemy to slip in. He did not fulfill the duty that God had placed upon him.
Second, it seems to me that man did not faithfully fulfill even the duty of cultivating the garden. God wanted man to work, but it seems that they had too much leisure time.
Third, you find that the woman wandered away from the man, and she was by herself.
The Word of God says that a woman is to be joined to the man, and they shall be one flesh. In other words, they were supposed to be together. They were to be together to serve God, to cultivate together, and to guard together.
But in Genesis 3, man and woman were separated. The woman wandered away from the man, and she was by herself. This gave the enemy the opportunity to tempt Eve.
If Adam and Eve had been together, there would have been strength there. You remember Ecclesiastes 4: two are better than one, because if one falls, the other will lift him up. But if you are alone when you fall, there is a certain weakness.
Fourth, you find that Eve was by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She was standing before that tree, looking at it. Why was she there? She was not looking at the tree of life.
What made her go to that tree? Curiosity. She was curious. “Why is it that God allows us to eat of every tree except that one?”
Curiosity seems very innocent, but it can develop into great danger. She was curious about it, and she was thinking, “Why is it? Why should God forbid us to eat of such a beautiful tree?”
This gave the tempter the opportunity. The tempter had already slipped into the garden. He was waiting for the opportunity, and when he saw that man and woman were separated, he came to deceive the woman.
He came as an angel of light. The Bible says that the enemy comes as an angel of light. If he came in his own appearance, with horns and a tail, of course you would be on guard. But he came as an angel of light, as a friend of Eve, as though to comfort her.
He came in a subtle way. He asked a question: “Did God forbid you to eat of all the trees?”
Now, this was a very absurd question. God had created all the beautiful fruit trees to be food for man. How could God forbid man to eat of every tree? That would mean that God created man to die, that He did not want man to live.
Immediately, Eve should have seen through it. But there was something in Eve. When she stood before that tree, she was wondering, “Why did God forbid us to eat of that tree?”
She began to think that God was not good enough. “If He loves me, why does He not give me everything? Why should He forbid me to eat of that tree? There must be something God is trying to withhold from me.”
Eve was beginning to think that God was not as loving as He really was. So when Satan put that absurd question to her, on the one hand she saw that it was absurd; yet on the other hand, something was going on within her.
So she responded, “No, God allows us to eat of all the trees except this one. Not only are we not to eat it, but we cannot touch it.”
But God never said that they could not touch it. Eve added to God’s Word.
Brothers and sisters, God’s Word is perfect. You cannot add anything to it, nor can you take anything from it. This is our problem. It began with Eve, and throughout human history man has not been satisfied with God’s Word.
Man is not obedient to God’s Word. Sometimes man takes words away from God’s Word, and sometimes man adds words to it.
God never said, “You cannot touch it.” God said, “You cannot eat it,” and this was for man’s good. But Eve said, “God said, ‘You cannot eat it, nor can you touch it.’”
In other words, she changed the image of God. She made God appear harsh, cruel, and unreasonable. That gave Satan the opportunity to make a suggestion.
He said, in effect, “The reason God does not allow you to eat of that tree is that He does not want you to be like Him. He wants to keep you under Him.”
“If you eat of that tree, you will know good and evil. You will not need to ask God whether something is good or evil. You will grow up into your womanhood and manhood. You can decide everything by yourself. You do not need God anymore. You will become god yourself.”
Now, that is temptation. That is what the tempter himself is. The reason the archangel became Satan was this very thing: he wanted to be equal with God.
Think of that. A created being wanted to be equal with his Creator and wanted to be independent. That was the failure and the sin of the archangel. Now he introduced that same temptation to the woman.
“You can eat that tree. Do not believe God. He is not truthful. Actually, He is selfish. He wants to keep you under His authority forever. He takes away your opportunity to be independent. He does not want you to be equal with Him.”
You know, that is temptation. When Eve heard it, the Bible says that she looked at the tree. It was beautiful. The fruit was good to eat, and it was desirable to make one wise.
She thought that she could be herself and that she would not need God anymore. So she took the fruit and ate it. Then she gave it to her husband, and he ate it.
When God made a family, He put a divine order in the family. Man was to be the head of the family, and woman was to be the body of the family. The head cannot be without the body, nor can the body be without the head. It is the head and the body together that make up the man.
When God commanded man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the command was given directly to Adam, because Eve had not yet been created. No doubt Adam told Eve God’s command, and Eve knew God’s command through Adam.
But Adam received God’s command directly, because God made man the head of the family.
We do not know why Adam allowed the woman to wander away from him. After Eve was tempted and ate the forbidden fruit, she gave it to Adam to eat.
Adam should have known better. He knew that if he ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he would die. But there Adam made a decision.
Instead of being the head of the family, he allowed Eve to be the head. Eve was deceived, but Adam sinned deliberately.
In 1 Timothy 2, we are told that Eve was deceived. But sin came through one man, and that man was Adam. Adam bore the responsibility because he sinned deliberately.
Adam knew that if he obeyed God, he would lose his wife. But he loved his wife more than he loved God. He chose Eve instead of God. He sinned deliberately.
Therefore, in Romans, you find that sin entered into the world through one man, and that man was Adam.
The man God created in His own image was glorious. Man was to be the vessel of God and the instrument of God. Yet here man rebelled against God, and man fell into sin.
What happened when man fell into sin? Immediately, the first thing they noticed was that they were naked.
They did not know that they were naked before. Personally, I believe that they were clothed before. Look at all created living things: a dog or a cat has fur; a bird has feathers. God put these upon them as clothing.
How could God have created man, His masterpiece, without clothing? When it becomes cold, we have to put on an overcoat. But an animal does not need that, because its fur or wool grows. God gave it clothing.
Personally, I believe that when God created man, man had clothing, and that clothing was man’s glory. Glory is like our clothing.
God has His glory, and man has his glory. The glory was the clothing of man because he was created in the image of God. But after man sinned, that glory faded away. Immediately, they noticed that they were naked.
What did they do when they noticed that they were naked? Immediately, they began to sew fig leaves together to make aprons to cover their nakedness.
Instead of repenting of their sins, they tried to do something to cover their nakedness. Do you not know that people are still doing this today? They try to do good works to cover their sins.
But in the cool of the day, fig leaves will not cover you very much. When the wind blows, they do not cover you at all.
So it is with man’s works. As the Bible says, the righteousnesses of man are like filthy rags. They do not cover your nakedness.
Third, God came into the garden to commune with them. When they heard God coming, what did they do? They used to rush to God to fellowship with Him. Now they hid themselves among the trees.
Is that not true even today? People are afraid, and they hide themselves. We try to occupy ourselves with many things in order to forget God altogether.
Then God called man, “Where art thou?” Adam said, “We are naked. We cannot see Thee.”
God said, “Why did you do it? Why did you eat of the forbidden tree?” You know what Adam did. He said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
In other words, he blamed the woman—and not only the woman, but even God. It was as though he said, “God, if You had not given me that woman, I would not have done it. So it is Your fault, not my fault. It is the woman’s fault, not my fault.”
When God asked the woman, what did she say? She said, “The serpent deceived me.” It was not her fault; it was the serpent’s fault.
Brothers and sisters, you see that human nature had changed. Husband and wife should love one another, but now they had become selfish. They thought of themselves first.
Adam put the blame on Eve, and Eve put the blame on the serpent. Self-defense, self-protection, and self-centeredness had entered human nature.
So God proclaimed His judgment. God had said, “In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.” Yet if you read the Bible, you find that Adam lived hundreds of years and had sons and daughters.
In other words, he was very much alive as far as his body was concerned. He continued for hundreds of years. As far as his soul was concerned, he had a large family.
But God’s Word is exact. On the day Adam ate of the forbidden tree, something died in him.
In other words, his communication with God was cut off. Even though the spirit as an organ was still there, its proper function was interrupted.
The scientific definition of death is the cessation of communication with one’s proper environment. When is your body dead? When it is no longer able to communicate with its proper environment.
You cannot see anymore. You cannot hear anything. You cannot taste anything. You cannot smell anything. You cannot touch anything.
What is the death of our spirit? The proper environment of our spirit is God. When your communication with God is cut off, that is spiritual death.
Your spirit is still there, and that is why people can communicate with evil spirits—the improper environment. But people cannot communicate with their proper environment, which is God Himself.
No matter how healthy you are, no matter how wise you are, if you do not know God, you are cut off from God completely. You can talk with intelligent people about anything in this world, but when you talk about God, there is a blank. That spirit is dead.
So, on the day that they ate of the forbidden tree, their spirit died. This is typified by their being driven out of the garden of Eden.
Gradually, this death came to their souls. Their minds, emotions, and wills were all distorted and gradually came to death. Finally, even the mortal body went into death.
God’s Word is pure and certain. This is the result of the fall of man.
Here you find that, instead of being the man created according to God’s purpose, man had fallen to become a natural man. The Bible speaks of the natural man.
Who is the natural man? The natural man is not the man God created in His purpose. The natural man refers to fallen man.
A natural man is a man of soul and body without the spirit. A natural man is a man of the flesh.
In Genesis 6, God said that man had become flesh, and that He would not strive with him forever. What is flesh? Flesh is the combination of soul and body without the spirit.
In other words, the natural man lives by his soul and body, and he lives for his soul and body. The natural man is self-centered. Everything is for himself.
A natural man of a higher class follows the dictates of his soul—what he thinks, what he decides, and what he wants. A man of a lower class is under the influence of his body: its lusts and passions.
The natural man is the fallen man. He is a man without God. He makes himself god. He is independent, selfish, and self-centered.
No matter how moral he may be, he has no God. He makes a god out of himself.
Therefore, the Bible says that a natural man does not understand the things of God, because he considers the things of God to be foolishness. He cannot receive the things of God. He cannot know them, because only the spiritual discern spiritual things.
Brothers and sisters, when you look at the world today, with its billions of people, some may be considered of a lower class and some of a higher class. Some may be considered barbarian, while others are considered civilized. But there is no difference.
You find that all men are natural men. The first man is Adam. He is made of earth; he is earthly. All men in Adam are made of earth, and they are earthly.
God created the first man, Adam. Adam is not only an individual person; Adam is also a federal head.
In the eyes of God, in this whole universe, there are only two men: the first man and the second Man, Christ. In the first man, all who are born of Adam are in Adam.
Therefore, brothers and sisters, we were all born of Adam. We have Adam’s life, and we are manifesting Adam’s character.
Adam is such a great man that it takes billions of people to express him. Some express the better side of Adam, and some express the worst side of Adam. There are many combinations, but no matter who you are, if you do not belong to the Lord Jesus, you belong to Adam.
Everyone born of Adam is in Adam, and in Adam all die. We are all natural men. Our spirit was dead. We live by our soul and by our flesh. We are self-centered, and we are enemies of God.
Do you think we are free? In Ephesians 2, we are told that we are dead in sins and trespasses. We not only follow the fashion of this world, but we are under the dominion of the evil one.
Adam surrendered himself to Satan. Instead of being free, he became a slave of sin.
Brothers and sisters, people in this world feel that they want freedom. They think they are free because they can do anything they want. They are deceived.
You think you are doing what you want to do. Actually, you are doing what Satan wants you to do. You are not free.
That is the reason why the gospel of Jesus Christ is so necessary. In Christ, all shall be made alive.
We praise and thank God that we cannot save ourselves. But God sent another Man—His only begotten Son. He came to become a man.
As the second Man, He defeated the enemy of God. On the cross, He died for you and me. He died for our sins.
In His resurrection, He gave His divine life to us. He delivers us out of Adam and puts us in Himself.
Brothers and sisters, we are no longer in Adam; we are in Christ. Because we are in Christ, by the grace of God, by the work of the Holy Spirit, and with our cooperation, God will restore us to be the man and woman of His creative purpose.
That is the reason why the gospel of Jesus Christ is an absolute necessity. There is no other name given under heaven—only the name of Jesus.
If there is anyone here this morning who has not yet received the Lord Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you may think that you are a good person. Yet if you are in Adam, your destiny is death—eternal death.
There is only one salvation: believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved.
As long as you are in Adam, there is no hope. But if you are in Christ, you have a glorious destiny. May the Lord help us.
Let us pray.