15. What is Man?

SERMON 15

What Is Man?

Perhaps no subject ever entered into the mind of man of more importance than the one Just stated.

As man wanders along this life of disappointment and trouble, and thinks of the home where the pure shall dwell it oft-times causes the seeker after the truth to ask, will. I be there? And what will be my reward or punishment when I am called to die? In order to get a thorough understanding of this subject, it will be well to divide It into three parts.

Man—

1. As he was.

2. As he is.

3. As he will be.

In the first place we lay down the proposition from general principles that when God created man he was Just as good as God wanted him to be. No one would take the position that God could have created man any better, and would not do so, without calling In question the goodness of God, for we read that when God created man He pronounced him good and very food. When man is re-created—regenerated—or born again, he can be no better than Adam was when he came from the hand of God.

I! it is true that the man God created in his primitive state, notwithstanding his purity and goodness, had power within himself to transgress the law of God., and wander away from the path of rectitude, and fall into condemnation, no reasonable man can take the position that a regenerated man cannot transgress the law of God and fall, without claiming that the re-generated man has more power than God. Certainly we are not willing to do that.

But we now call attention to our diagram and the principal objects associated with the man in his primitive stare. You will notice three objects in the garden of Eden, viz., man, the tree of life, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Here it may be well to state that, so far as man's natural or physical life was concerned, he was created mortal, like all other animal creation. The elements of life, and the power to perpetuate natural life were not in man, but in the tree; and just as long as man could have had access to that tree he would have lived. We ofttimes hear it taught that man was created an immortal being; yet such is not only unauthorized by the word of God, but would place the tree of life among the sectarian non-essentials. If it were true that man was created an immortal being, where is the necessity for a tree to perpetuate man's life? We want to emphasize the thought that “man was created a mortal being,” and could only perpetuate his life by eating fruit from the tree of life growing in the garden of Eden.

The devil, seeing man's enjoyment and association with God, and knowing that man could live forever if he only complied with God's commands, and knowing also that God had taught man that when he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he would die, the devil then presented one of the most popular and dangerous doctrines of our time, and, by it, deceived man and caused him to wander away from the beautiful home of God.

God taught that man by transgression, should die, or fall. The devil put in the little word “not” (sometimes called nonessentials) and taught that man could not die or fall. Thus the world, for the first time, was introduced to the doctrine of the final perseverance of the saints, and by it man was deceived, thinking he could never die or fall. He ate the fruit, transgressed the law of God, and wandered away from home.

As man, by transgression, tell, we conclude that man by obedience returns. In order to find how far back he must return, it is necessary to learn how far he wandered from God; for certainly it is no farther from where man is in his fallen state, back to God, than it is from God down to where man fell.

Now to man's fall I call attention:

1. Man had to hear a falsehood. He did so, 2. Man had to accept or believe the falsehood as true.

3. Man obeyed the falsehood and accepted the result—death.

Then as man reached death by hearing, believing, and obeying a falsehood, certainly he can reach life by hearing, believing and obeying the truth. But before examining the truth to be obeyed, and the life to be gained, perhaps it is well to call attention to God's law transgressed and the death that followed By many it is claimed that man's fall w as so great, and his death so complete, that in consequence of said fall all mankind are now sinners—not by constraint, but by choice—and are therefore under just condemnation to eternal ruin, without defense or excuse, as taught by Missionary Baptists in third article, sixth chapter of Philadelphia Confession of Faith, and also in the seventh article of the Methodist Discipline. This, of course, lays the foundation of total depravity—a doctrine nowhere taught in the Bible. Out of this doctrine of total depravity grows infant damnation, direct operation of the Spirit in conversion, and infant baptism with all its attendant evils.

Is man by nature or practice totally depraved ? Total means all or the whole amount; depraved means corrupt. Then if the child is born totally corrupt, it is born just as mean as the devil is, for he cannot be worse than totally or wholly corrupt. Should a child die in this condition, infant damnation is inevitable, provided the doctrine of total depravity is true.

This is not all. There is much said about man's regeneration, which, of course, must imply first a degeneration. Then. we find a child is born or generated totally depraved or as mean as the devil; he cannot be worse. If the doctrine of total depravity be true, this child degenerates, or gets worse than it was when born or meaner than the devil, and God, by a direct operation of the Spirit, regenerates this degenerated child, and makes it as good as the devil, and then saves it. If this position is not true then language is a failure to express the popular doctrine of our time.

The Bible says man ate the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Then I ask, how was it possible to get all evil and no good—which he must have done if total depravity be true.

If man was totally depraved, he could not think a good thought, nor do a good deed, till God operated on him by the Spirit to give him power. Where was the necessity of placing the sword to guard the tree of life, to keep man from going back and eating fruit, when God at the same time knew man could not go back.

We find that man once stood associated with God in a pure and holy state. If the devil's word had power enough in it, when heard and obeyed, to lead man astray, no one can take the position that God's word has not power enough within itself, when heard and obeyed, to lead man back to God, with-out taking the position that the devil has greater power than God. From this conclusion there can be no escape. Hence no one can claim the doctrine of the direct operation of the Spirit in conversion without claiming that the devil has greater power than God. For, if the devil's word, when heard and obeyed, did lead man from God, and if God's word when heard and obeyed cannot lead man from the devil, we must decide the devil is the greater power.

Now, as we have learned the extent of man's fall by transgression to condemnation, we ask, what must man do in order to justification?

• He must hear the truth as Adam heard the falsehood. But the hearing alone of the truth will save no man.

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• He must believe the truth as Adam believed a falsehood. But believing by itself will save no man.

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• As Adam had to obey a falsehood to be condemned, so must man obey the truth to be justified. As this truth which man must hear, believe and obey is contained in the word of God, how essential it is to teach nothing more nor less!

In apostolic times when this truth was heard and obeyed it made Christians members of the church of Christ. When anything is heard and obeyed that makes men and women anything save Christians, or adds them to any church save the church of Christ, we must conclude that something save God's word has been preached.

This brings us back to the other part of the diagram. On the right, as you notice, we represent the church of Christ with three principal objects in it, viz., man, Christ (the tree of life), and the Bible (the tree of knowledge of good and evil). Man, by transgression learned what was right and what was wrong. So God has given us his word and exhorts us to study, that we may learn how to do the right and avoid the wrong.

Man's natural life in the beginning was perpetuated by eating fruit from the tree of life, so is man's spiritual life in time perpetuated by eating fruit from Christ, the tree of life; hence He says if we eat not his body nor drink his blood we have no life in us.

We have traced man through his fall and justification in this life, and now call attention to his home in the life to come. You notice in the garden of Eden three principal objects—man,, tree of life, tree of knowledge of good and evil. Man perpetuated life by eating fruit from the tree. In the church of Christ we find the corresponding three objects— man, the Bible (tree of knowledge) and Christ (tree of life). As long as man lives in the church of Christ he perpetuates his spiritual life in doing what God commands him to do. In doing these things he has a promise of a glorious resurrection opening up into a life beyond the tomb into that city whose streets are paved with gold, in that home whose builder and maker is God, where he can have access to the fruit which will perpetuate life throughout eternity, where joy and happiness shall ever be his, where with loved ones he can ever dwell.

Dear reader, do you desire this home? If so, why not make the start now? Why not come? All that is grand, all that is lovely, all that is pure, and all that is holy are inviting you to come. Then, will you not come and be saved; that you may finally reach the paradise of God?