Will you please turn to Psalm 8? We will read the whole psalm.
O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Thy name in all the earth,
Who hast set Thy glory above the heavens!Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou established strength,
Because of Thine adversaries,
That Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers,
The moon and the stars, which Thou hast ordained;
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him?
And the son of man, that Thou visitest him?For Thou hast made him but little lower than God,
And crownest him with glory and honor.
Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands;
Thou hast put all things under his feet:All sheep and oxen,
Yea, and the beasts of the field,
The birds of the heavens, and the fish of the sea,
Whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.O Lord, our Lord,
How excellent is Thy name in all the earth!
Let us have a word of prayer.
Our Father, we want to praise and thank Thee that we may gather together tonight in Thy precious name. Thy Word says that wherever two or three are gathered together into Thy name, there art Thou in the midst of them.
We believe Thy Word, and we do praise and thank Thee for Thy presence with us. We just place this time under Thy feet, and we ask that Thou wouldst take Thy place among us, that Thou wouldst be the Lord of this time.
May Thou open Thy Word to us by Thy Spirit, and open our spirits to Thy Word. May Thou be glorified. We ask in the name of our Lord. Amen.
As our brother has already mentioned, we will have four sessions this time: tonight, tomorrow morning, tomorrow afternoon, and the following weekend.
As I waited upon the Lord, this verse in Psalm 8:4 came to my heart—actually, just the first sentence: “What is man?”
So this time we will consider together what man is: what is man in God’s creative purpose; what is man as the natural man; what is man as one who believes in the Lord Jesus and follows the Lord; and finally, what is the spiritual man who answers to God’s purpose.
I do hope that brothers and sisters will keep this in mind. If possible, I hope that you will be here at every session, because the message is continuous.
This evening, we will consider what man is in God’s creative purpose.
David asked this question full of surprise and gratitude: “What is man?”
It is very strange that we know everything around us, but we do not know ourselves. If we try to examine ourselves by introspection, we will never really be able to know ourselves.
If we try to examine ourselves in our own light, we will either be elated or discouraged. We will never come to a real understanding of ourselves.
It is because, as Scripture says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?” It is only God who examines our hearts. We cannot know ourselves; we will be deceived by ourselves.
If we try to examine ourselves in our own light, then it will fulfill what Isaiah says: if we surround ourselves with the light of the fire that we ourselves kindle, we will lie down in sorrow.
The only way we can really know ourselves is in the light of God. In Psalm 36:9, we are told, “In Thy light shall we see light.”
It is only in the light of the Word of God that we are able to know who we really are.
David considered God’s creation. He looked at the heavens; he saw the moon and the stars and all these things. Then he said, “What is man?”
When you see the creation of God—the majesty of creation and the greatness of the universe—you cannot help but ask this question. In Isaiah, we are told that all the nations are like a drop in a bucket and like the small dust on the scales.
If that is the case, then what is an individual person? David, as he looked at the creation of God and then looked at himself, could not help but cry out, “What is man?”
In comparison with God’s creation, man is so tiny and so insignificant. Yet God created man as His masterpiece. God made man head over all the created things, and God crowned him with glory and honor.
How is all this possible? As David considered these things, he could not help but cry out, “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!” It drew worship from his heart to God.
Brothers and sisters, if we really know what man is in God’s heart, if we really understand what man is in God’s creation according to God’s thought concerning man, I believe we will worship God as David did.
This evening, we will look to the Scriptures and see the man whom God created.
This brings us back to Genesis 1. After God had created the heavens and the earth, we find that at last, on the sixth day, He created man.
But you will notice in Genesis 1 that the creation of man is very different from the way God created everything else.
And 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 cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
—Genesis 1:26
In other words, before God created man, there was a thought, a concept, and a counsel among the Godhead.
We know that God is triune: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Before God created man, there was counsel among the Godhead. They considered together and said, “Let Us make man.”
This never happened with the other creation. With all the other creation, God spoke the word, and it was done.
In Hebrews 11:3, we are told that the worlds were created by the Word of God. God said, “Let there be,” and there was. This is the way God created the whole universe.
But in the creation of man, there was a counsel among the Godhead. The Father spoke to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, and They said together, “Let Us make man.”
Man is not a product of evolution. Man is the concept of God, the project of God’s thought, and the result of God’s deliberation.
When God decided to make man, He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.” God never did this with any other creation—not even with the angels. Only in the creation of man did God say, “Let Us make them in Our image, according to Our likeness.”
When you look at God’s creation, it reminds you of the power of God. It reminds you of the deity of God. We see God’s power and wisdom in creating all these things, and we recognize that He is different—that He is God. Only God can do such a thing.
In all creation, God expresses Himself to a certain degree. He expresses His wisdom, His power, and His divinity.
But in creating man in His image and according to His likeness, God not only manifests something about Himself in the universe. In creating man, God actually reveals Himself, because man was made in the image of God.
Now, the word image and the word likeness have a slight difference. Image refers to inward character, while likeness refers to outward form.
God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” What is the divine nature of God? What is the inward quality of God?
We know that God is Spirit. Therefore, when He created man, He gave man a human spirit. We know that God has supreme free will, so He created man with a free will.
God is a moral, spiritual Being, and so He created man as a moral, spiritual being. Of all creation, man alone has the capacity to receive God into himself and to be united with God in love and in life.
Only man has such potential because God created man in His image and after His likeness.
God is Spirit; therefore, He has no visible likeness, form, or appearance. But the triune God—the second Person—has a likeness. That is the reason why today we may know God in the Person of the Son.
God created man in such a way that man became the masterpiece of God. Then God gave man dominion over all the other created things upon this earth. God established man as His representative on this earth.
This is the man that God created. What a glorious creation it is: created in the image of God, after His likeness, and given dominion over all the earth to be God’s representative on this earth.
Now, this is the thought of God in creating man. When we go to Genesis 2, we see how man was created.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
—Genesis 2:7
In the actual creation of man, God took the red earth and formed the body of a man. Then God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
The breath of life is something that came directly from God into man. God did not merely speak a word; He actually breathed the breath of life into man. The Bible says that man became a living soul.
If you read carefully, you will find that in the original language, the phrase “breath of life” is plural. What does this mean?
It means that when God breathed into man, there was the human spirit. When that spirit touched the body, another life came forth, and that is the soul of man. Thus man became a living soul.
Man is tripartite, just as God is triune. Man has a spirit, a soul, and a body.
Man’s body is made of earth. If you analyze the body of man, you will find the same elements that are in the earth.
Because we have this human body, which is made of earth, it gives us communication with our surroundings. It gives us world-consciousness. We know the world around us; we can taste it, see it, hear it, and touch it.
With our five senses, we are able to be in touch with the world around us.
Then there is the living soul. There is a human life that enables man to live. It is an animated life.
Because of this soul life, we are conscious of ourselves. We have our will, our mind, and our emotions. The soul gives us self-consciousness.
But thank God, within our soul there is the spirit, and that spirit comes from the breath of God. Therefore, we are able to communicate with God. We have the capacity to receive God into us.
Our spirit gives us God-consciousness.
According to God’s order, man’s spirit is to be the master, because man’s spirit is in communication with God the Spirit. In man’s spirit, he receives God’s will.
Then that will is communicated to the soul. The soul understands it, agrees with it, and endorses it. Then the soul gives command to the body to work it out.
That is the divine order in the creation of man.
After God created man, He put him in a garden. It is called the Garden of Eden.
Eden simply means pleasure. God put man in a pleasant garden. I believe that even today we enjoy gardens because they give us a certain pleasure.
God’s thought for man is noble and good.
In that garden, God caused all kinds of fruit trees to grow. In the midst of the garden was the tree of life, and by its side was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
God said that man could eat of all the trees, but there was one tree of which he could not eat: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. “In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”
At the same time, God told the man whom He had created, “Thou shalt dress it and keep it.”
God put man in the garden and gave him a command: of all the trees he could eat, except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God also gave him a commission: he was to dress the garden and guard it.
Why did God give man such a command? Of all the trees, man could eat—and that included the tree of life.
When you put something in the middle of an environment, naturally it attracts attention. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, suggesting to man, “Take this. This is the best fruit.”
We know that the tree of life represents the divine life of God. God put His own divine and created life in that tree, and He offered Himself to man through the tree of life.
Man could not only live as a human being; he could also receive God’s divine life into himself. He could be united with God in life and fulfill God’s purpose in creating him.
God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil by the side of the tree of life because God wanted man to make a choice.
If God created us with a free will but did not give us an opportunity to choose, what would be the meaning of having a free will?
God created us with a free will, and He respects us. He gives us an opportunity to choose our destiny. He does not make us robots. He wants us to be living and free.
He gave man an opportunity to choose between the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But He warned man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because in the day he ate of it, he would die.
God wants us to live; He does not want us to die. He wants us to live with His life. Then we will fulfill our very being.
If we do not choose His life but choose something else, the result will be death.
Brothers and sisters, all the trees in the garden were good for food. We have physical bodies, and each physical body needs food to sustain it. God prepared all the good fruit trees as His provision for our physical needs.
In the beginning, man ate only fruit. I think if we could eat fruit and nothing else, how good it would be!
These fruit trees are God’s provision for our physical needs. But the tree of life is food for our spirit. Our spirit needs nourishment, and the tree of life is food for our spirit.
The tree of life strengthens our spirit and brings our spirit into union with God the Spirit.
Now, what is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Sometimes people say that it was a bad tree. But I wonder why God would plant a bad tree in the Garden of Eden.
Personally, I feel that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not a bad tree. Actually, it was a better tree, but it was not the best tree.
All the fruit trees were good food for the body. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was also food, but it was food for the soul.
It is the tree of knowledge. Knowledge is not bad. Of all the knowledge in the world, there is no knowledge higher than the knowledge of good and evil. There may be scientific knowledge, technological knowledge, philosophical knowledge, and moral knowledge. Knowing good and evil is the highest knowledge man can attain.
Man is a rational being, and we pride ourselves on this because we have that kind of knowledge. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is food for the soul.
It is not a bad tree. Actually, it is a better tree than all the other fruit trees, but it is not the best tree. The best tree is the tree of life.
God always wants us to have the best. He offers Himself as the best for us. But the better becomes the enemy of the best.
Apart from God, we want to attain knowledge for ourselves. We want to develop our soul life and become independent of God. We want to make gods out of ourselves. We say, “We do not need God anymore.”
Brothers and sisters, knowledge apart from the life of God is death. If knowledge is under the life of God and controlled by the life of God, it can be very useful. But when it is independent of the life of God, the result is death.
The knowledge that human beings are seeking today is largely ethical knowledge. We know the good, but we cannot do it. We know the evil, but we do it.
God said to man, “Choose for yourself. You are created in My image. I have made you and given you the capacity to receive Me, the tree of life.”
“Do you want to live by My life, that I may express Myself through you, transform you, conform you, and bring you to the purpose for which I created you? Or do you want to declare independence, that you yourself may be god?”
“If you do that, the result is death.” God warned man about this.
God also said that man was to dress the garden and guard it. God did not create man to do nothing. God wants man to work.
The ground had not yet been cursed. Herbs were produced from the ground, and there were no thorns and thistles yet, because those came with the curse.
Why did God want man to dress the ground when the ground could produce naturally? Man already had fruit for his own food. Perhaps man was to make food more abundant for the animals.
That is the meaning of work. You do not work merely for yourself; you work for others.
God wanted man to dress the ground so that it would produce more abundantly for the enjoyment of all living creatures. That service is dominion.
Dominion in Scripture is very different from the dominion we know in this world. When we think of dominion, we may think that we sit on a high chair, give orders, and have everyone obey us and do our will.
Even among the twelve disciples, this was their thought. They wanted to sit at the right hand and the left hand of the Lord Jesus so that they could command the other ten.
But the Lord Jesus said, “This is not the way.” This is the corrupted thought of dominion.
God’s idea of dominion is service.
The Lord said that if anyone wanted to be great, he should be the servant of all. If anyone wanted to be first, he should be the bondservant of all.
Even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many.
—Matthew 20:28
This is the idea of dominion. Dominion and service are one. It is by serving that you have dominion.
This is the scriptural idea. God commissioned man, saying, “Now you dress the ground.”
God also said, “Guard the garden.” Why did God want man to guard the garden? It gives us a hint that there must be an enemy somewhere. If there were no enemy, there would be no need to guard.
Even before the creation of man, something had happened in the former world. An archangel rebelled against his Creator.
God gave that archangel wisdom, skill, talents, and position. He was a cherub who covered the throne of God.
Yet one day, instead of seeing God, that archangel began to see himself. He began to see his own beauty, his own talents, and the power God had given him.
Pride began to rise in his heart. He said, “I want to be equal with God.” The created being wanted to be equal with his Creator.
Unrighteousness was found in him, and he was cast out of heaven. He made himself Satan, the adversary of God.
God never created Satan. He created a very beautiful and very talented archangel, but that archangel turned himself into the enemy, the adversary of God.
Somewhere, the enemy was lurking. Therefore, man was to guard the garden and not allow the enemy to creep in.
And God blessed them: and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it.
—Genesis 1:28
In the original language, the word is not merely “replenish”; it is “subdue.” What does it mean to subdue? It means to bring it back to the feet of God.
When the archangel rebelled against God, evidently the earth was his dominion. When he was cast out, that over which he had authority went into vanity and corruption.
They lost the meaning of their being created. They lost the purpose of God.
God created man to deal with His enemy and to subdue—to bring everything back to God’s feet.
That is why God created man.
Man was made a little lower than the angels. According to order, angels are higher than man. They are more intelligent than man because they are spirits; they do not have bodies. They are freer and more powerful than man.
Man was made a little lower than the angels, yet man was made in the image of God. God even offered Himself to be life to man.
Why did God do all these things? Here we see the wisdom of God.
When Satan rebelled against God, God could have spoken a word and Satan would have been destroyed. But God did not choose to do that.
God said, in effect, “I will create a being lower than the angel, and yet that being will be willing to cooperate with Me. By that man, I will bring everything back to My feet. Then Satan will be destroyed by man.”
That is the wisdom of God. Suppose you are fighting with a little boy. You weigh two hundred pounds, and the little boy weighs only forty pounds. If you beat him, is that shame or glory?
For God to defeat the enemy is easy. His glory is that He makes someone lower than an angel voluntarily willing to submit himself to God and then uses that person to defeat Satan.
Do you see the glory there? Do you see the importance of man there?
Brothers and sisters, if we can see man in God’s creative purpose, what will we think about ourselves?
People today are talking about self-esteem. I am not speaking about that. I am speaking about the need to know what we are in God’s creative purpose.
If we know that, we will not lift up ourselves. We will give glory to God.
David, being a prophet, wrote Psalm 8. He saw the universe and the majesty of God. Then he saw how God created man: a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honor, and given dominion over all things.
When David saw God’s thought concerning man, he began and ended the psalm with this proclamation: “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!” He gave glory to God.
Unfortunately, as we all know, our forefather Adam and Eve made the wrong choice. They were tempted by the enemy.
They did not dress the garden as they should have, and they did not guard it as they should have. They allowed the enemy to creep in and tempt them.
They ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Brothers and sisters, this is the tragedy of the universe, and it continues until today.
But in Adam all die. God raised up the second Man, Christ Jesus.
The Word became flesh and tabernacled among men. In this Man, God’s purpose concerning man is fully realized.
And not only in Him, but all who are in Christ shall be made alive.
Brothers and sisters, we thank God that today we are in Christ Jesus. By the grace of God and through the working of His Holy Spirit, we will be brought back to be the man of God’s creative purpose.
In union with Christ, we will be able to be used by God to subdue all things, so that God’s purpose concerning man may be fully realized.
This evening, we have shared concerning man according to God’s creative purpose. We thank God for that. Shall we pray?
Heavenly Father, as we consider Thy Word, our hearts are full of gratitude and adoration.
What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Yet Thou hast created him in Thine own image and offered Thyself even to him.
Thou hast purposed to use man as Thy instrument to subdue all things, to destroy Thy enemy, and to reconcile all things to Thyself. Oh, we do praise and worship Thee.
Lord, we do not want to be angels. We thank Thee for making us men, that we may be used by Thee.
We commit ourselves to Thee, that we may be the man whom Thou hast created for Thyself. Give us new meaning to our lives. Draw us into worship.
We want to give all the glory to Thee. In the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.