In 2022, President Joe Biden nominated a judge by the name of J.K.
or J.B.
rather, J.B.
Jackson to the Supreme Court.
There was a discussion held between this judge and a senator of the United States by the
name of Marsha Blackburn.
And in this discussion, Senator Blackburn asks this judge, what is a woman?
to which the judge says, I can’t say.
I’m not a biologist.
I’m not a doctor.
I can’t tell you.
We have a problem in this country of people not knowing who they are.
We have men who can’t tell you what a man is, women who can’t tell you what a woman is,
and nobody seems to know what a human is.
But God’s word is very clear.
God’s word has told us very bluntly, very clearly what it means to be a man, what it means
to be a woman.
And when we look at Psalm chapter eight, when we look at Psalm eight, we find the beauty
that exists in being created by God.
The glory that exists, the honor that it is to be a human.
And so for a few moments this afternoon, we are going to consider what it means to be a
human, what it means to be man.
Now I know it says what is man on the screen behind me, and that’s how the psalmist
references it, but in this context, the word man is referencing that of mankind, all of us
as humans.
We start, number one, by noticing that man is recognized.
and the clicker appears to not be working.
There it goes.
Man recognized.
Look with me at verses one and two of Psalm chapter eight.
Psalm eight verses one and two.
I will rather, Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth.
Who has set thy glory above the heavens?
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has thou ordained strength because of thine
enemies.
that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
First and foremost, when we consider what man is, when we recognize what the psalmist is
recognizing, he begins by noting God’s place.
And brethren, it is truly a blessing as humans to be able to understand God’s place in
this world, to be able to understand who God is as he has revealed who he is in his Word.
We know that God is personal.
At the beginning of the Psalm, David writes, Lord, our Lord.
That personal relationship, that personal possessive pronoun used there of closeness, of
that connection that exists with God.
Brethren, the Lord is not far from anyone.
Acts 17 27 tells us this very plainly.
The Lord is not far from anyone.
Anyone who is seeking the Lord, he is able to be found.
God is always near at hand if we would but extend our hand to him.
He wants that closeness with us.
He wants that relationship with us.
He wants there to be no separation, there to be no division between man and God.
He wants us to be with Him for all of eternity.
Now, to which animal did He say that?
what other creature exists in this world that God said, love you so much that I am willing
to be called your father.
I love you so much that I want you to be with me for all of eternity.
There is not another.
And so in that sense, mankind is truly blessed by understanding who God is.
Well, we also notice in 1 John 3, look with me there at 1 John 3, the idea that we are the
children.
of God.
1 John 3 verses 1 and 2, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that
we should be called, note this, the sons of God.
Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be.
But we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him.
as he is.
Brethren, in this text, John is looking forward to the day when the Lord will return, when
we as Christians will be called up to heaven to be with him forever.
The world passed away, the physical universe gone, to be with the Lord forever and
eternity.
And he says, there’s not going to be anything separating us from God.
Yes, God is greater and we’ll notice this more as we continue, but there is a mindset
here.
We will be in a similar state being able to look upon the glory of our God.
Up until that point, no one is able to see God in all of His glory.
No man has seen God at any time in His full glory, in His full essence, truly beholding
all that He is, but in heaven, when we are with the Lord forever, we will see Him just as
He is, in all of His majesty, in all of His glory.
Now you show me,
a creature on this earth that is blessed like that.
Truly man is wonderfully blessed by understanding God’s place.
We also notice not only is God so amazing in this regard of having that personal
relationship, but he’s also, we note the fact that he has an excellent name.
In Exodus 20 verse 7, one of the Ten Commandments, Thou shalt not take name of the Lord
thy God in vain.
Now we understand that there is a difference between the laws of the Old Testament, the
laws of Moses, and the laws that we are under as Christians, but the point that he is
driving home in that is still true today.
Jesus would say as he teaches his disciples how to pray, hallowed be thy name.
As he begins his prayer to the Lord, he says, hallowed be thy name.
That word hallowed is somewhat archaic to us today, but it is this idea of to make holy,
to venerate, to glorify.
There is glory in the name of God, and His name is to be held in reverence.
But yet, how many times do we hear in this world, in America specifically, God’s name
taken as some flippant expression.
He deserves more respect.
God’s name is to be held in greater esteem, greater reverence than that of a simple
exclamation point.
We ought to have that kind of love and respect for our God, the one who made us, by the
way.
The one who wants there to be no separation between us.
The one who wants us to be with him for all of eternity.
He deserves respect.
We’ll also note that the Lord is transcendent.
This idea of transcendence is having to do with the fact that God is above this material
universe.
He’s of a different nature than this physical material world.
Jesus would mention in John that he is spirit, and they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth.
But what we understand by this is that God is something, he is someone who is
almost undescribable, if you will.
His nature is something that we can’t experience as humans.
We cannot experience what it truly means to be transcendent like God is.
But what we understand by this is how high and how holy God truly is.
In Acts 17, 24, Paul notes that he is standing with on Mars Hill that God does not dwell
in temples made with hands.
Keep in mind at this point that the Greek culture and the Roman culture as well had an
emphasis on this pantheon of gods.
And if you take a look at the gods, they’re very humanistic.
They’re very materialistic in nature.
And one thing that always has struck me as interesting about them is that their power
depended on who worshiped him, who worshiped them, and how much they worshiped them.
So let’s say for instance with Zeus.
If people stopped worshiping Zeus, well then Zeus loses his power.
But not so with God.
not so with the true God, the one and only God, the God that we read about in the Bible,
and that’s the point that Paul makes.
Paul is making the point that these Athenians are very religious, but he’s going to tell
them about the true God, the one that they should truly be serving.
One final note on this idea of God being above us.
can be found in Romans 11.
Romans chapter 11, look with me there.
Start in verse 33.
O the depth and the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
His judgments and His ways past finding out.
For who have known the mind of the Lord, or who have been His counselor, who have first
given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again, for of Him and through Him and
to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever.
Amen.
Brethren, our God is truly amazing.
He is truly so far above what we can fully comprehend.
But after having noticed God’s place, we next turn to looking at man’s place.
What is the place of man in this universe and society in looking at our relationship with
God?
Well, the psalmist comments on this.
Verses three and four, Psalm eight.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou
hast ordained, notice this question he asks.
What is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him?
Man, it’s just a speck in this universe.
when you truly consider how vast the universe is, when you consider that there are some
100 to 400 billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy alone, that’s not counting other
galaxies, but the Milky Way galaxy alone there are 1 to 400 billion stars.
We have to take a step back and say, why are we so special?
Why is man so special?
Because God said we are.
Because we were created differently.
Man is in the mind of God.
That’s what’s noted as the psalmist says that thou art mindful of him.
Did you ever stop and consider that while we might go about our day and never once think
about God, He does not spend a moment that He doesn’t think about us.
that he doesn’t care about how we’re doing, that he doesn’t care about what’s going on in
our lives.
The Lord cares about us.
He is mindful of us.
In Genesis 2, 18, we know that God was thinking about Adam.
He looks at man and he says, it’s not good that man should be alone.
So I’m going to make him a help me.
I’m going to make him someone who is just what he needs.
The completion, if you will, of man.
and we look at the idea that God had a plan for man to save man’s soul from the very
beginning.
Man has been in the mind of God since before man was on the earth.
Before the beginning, God had a plan for how he was going to save us from our sins.
We learn this in Ephesians 1, 4 and 1 Peter 1, 20 in which we are told that
There was a plan that we, the church was foreordained.
He knew what was needing to be done, what would have to be done to establish salvation, to
establish his church, his kingdom.
He knew this before he even said, let there be light.
Man is in the mind of God.
But man is also cared for by God.
We know this says, the psalmist says that thou have visitist him.
That term visitist has the idea of that close relationship, that I’m reaching out to see
how you’re doing.
I care about you.
And that’s exactly what Jesus expresses, or what God expresses to us.
In Genesis two and verse seven,
We learned that man was formed by God.
That God formed man from the dust of the earth and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life.
and man became a living soul, there’s care that was shown in the creation of man.
With everything else, God merely spoke it into existence, but with man, he said, hold on,
I’m going to take my time on this.
I’m going to form man.
I’m going to breathe into his nostrils the breath of life.
There is care shown, care shown from the very first breath that a man took.
There is no other being, no other part of creation that has that same care of God.
There is no other being that God cares for more than man.
Look with me at Matthew chapter 10.
Matthew chapter 10, starting in verse 29.
Jesus expounds upon this idea very explicitly as we continue reading from verse 29.
Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?
And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your father.
But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Fear not therefore, ye are, what does this say?
More valued.
of more value than many sparrows.
There are those today who try to regulate man or degrade man as being on par with the
apes.
Just a little bit more advanced than the apes.
But we’re still just animals.
And doing research for an assignment for school, I came across some different
environmentalist groups.
And one in particular that was noticing the fact that, the, I shouldn’t say the fact
because it’s not a fact.
But they were holding to the idea that since,
man is just an evolved species, then we should treat animals the same way we would treat
our children.
I’m sorry, but there’s a difference.
There’s a big difference.
Jesus explicitly says you are worth far more than many sparrows, making the point that if
God knows when one sparrow falls, do you not think He cares so much more about you?
About what’s going on in your life, about what struggles you are facing, about what you
need?
as we consider God’s place and man’s place and what God has done for man, are left with
one realization.
Truly, man is honored and that is the next point we will discuss today.
Man is honored.
Looking back at Psalm chapter eight, we know.
Note verse 5.
uh For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels and has crowned him with glory
and honor.
Man is honored by being a little bit lower than the angels, being made a little lower than
the angels.
Now this word angels is very interesting because if you were to look up the word, it’s
actually the word Elohim.
Now for those who have done a little bit of dabbling in Hebrew, you’ll know that Elohim is
a word for the nature of God, for the divine nature.
The psalmist is not saying we’re a little bit lower than the messengers of God.
No, he’s saying that we’re a little bit different in nature, a little bit lower in nature
than God.
And does this not tie in exactly with how man is described as being made in the image of
God?
Now, of course, don’t get me wrong.
There are differences, very key differences between man and God, and that’s why the
psalmist says lower than.
We are not the same as God, nor will we ever be the same as God in terms of His power and
might and authority.
But the point remains that man has an immortal soul.
Man was given free will.
Man is finite, however.
Instead of being finite, God is infinite, infinite.
He is eternal, not having any beginning and not having any end.
Man is limited in power and in knowledge, but God has all power, all knowledge, all
authority.
But nevertheless, man is honored the same.
It is an honor for a man to have even a semblance of the nature of God.
The man is also honored by being crowned with glory and honor.
Did you know that you share a special relationship with Christ?
Despite being divine, despite being deity, Christ chose to humble himself.
Philippians 2 tells us that he became as a man.
He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking
upon himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in
fashion as a man.
Notice this, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross.
We sometimes sing the song, if that isn’t love, the ocean is dry.
There’s no stars in the sky and the sparrow can’t fly.
If that isn’t love, then heaven’s a myth.
There’s no feeling like this if that isn’t.
We share a very special relationship with Christ as he came to earth to live like a man,
unfortunately to die like a dog for our sins, for the guilt, the sins that I deserved
punishment for, that we deserve.
He took our place.
John 316 tells us, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
We noted in Bible class this morning in the new converts class how that the theme of the
Bible is Christ.
Start in Genesis and end in Revelation and what do you see the entire way through Christ?
The Old Testament says Christ is coming.
Salvation is coming, it’s on its way.
The New Testament says, here he is.
Now what are you going to do about it?
Christ not only robed Himself in flesh and died for a man, but He also serves as our
advocate.
1 John 2, 1 tells us this very plainly, that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous.
But it doesn’t stop there.
He also, and this is something that is so powerful, the fact that in Hebrews chapter 2 and
verse 11, Christ says that He is not ashamed.
Call us.
physical, weak, mortal man, his brethren.
That’s powerful.
That is love.
but we also note that we have glory and honor because we have a home prepared for us.
John 14 tells us this very plainly, that Jesus left this earth to go and prepare a place
for us.
Not on this earth, not on some rejuvenated, renovated earth that some people are claiming.
No, he went to heaven to go prepare a place for us in heaven where we will be with God for
all of eternity.
unshackled from this physical world, no longer held to the issues that come with being in
a mortal existence, but to be with God forever and rest.
Truly, man is honored.
But you wanna know the wonderful thing?
The psalmist doesn’t end there.
We note next that man is ordained.
Look with me at verses 6 through 8.
Psalm 8, 6 through 8.
Thou made us him to have dominion over the works of thy hands.
Thou has put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the
field, the fowl of the air and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passes through the
paths of the sea.
Man was given dominion by God over this earth.
And some of them will ask the question, well, what does it mean that man has dominion?
What does dominion mean?
The term that’s used dominion here has the idea of to reign, to be superior in power,
authority, and dominion as a governor.
In other words, God gave us rule over this earth
but with an asterisk, if you will.
While we are to have dominion over this world, we have one to whom we will give an account
the Lord.
The earth is the Lord’s, we are told very plainly in Exodus 9.29.
He created this world.
It belongs to Him just as the fact that man was created by God and belongs to Him.
The world was created by God and it belongs to Him.
But He gave us authority as a king would give a steward.
in times of monarchies and things of that nature, you would have a king who would go away
maybe to war, maybe uh for some other reason, and he would leave the kingdom in the hands
of a steward.
Well, that steward had the authority that the king possessed.
As long as the king was gone, he had that authority, but when the king came back, he had
to give an account for how he had used that authority.
He had to give an account for what he had done, and the same is true for us today.
2 Corinthians 5 10 tells us very plainly that we will be giving an account of the things
done in our body whether they be good or bad whether they be worthless or useful
We have to make sure that what we are doing is honoring God, no matter if we’re dealing
with this physical world or if we’re dealing with our own selves and our spiritual state,
we need to make sure that what we are doing in this body is God honoring, is glorifying to
our Lord.
But we ask the question, I forgot to advance the slide.
We ask the question, was the earth given to man or was man given to the earth?
Now, you might be saying, what on earth are you talking about there, Jacob?
We have many today who try to claim that we need to bow to the whims of nature.
We need to bow to the changing of seasons, to the…
In other words, man is the problem, to put it simply.
While I won’t bore you with the quotes that could be given,
of environmentalist groups and others.
I do want to note one particular quote, and this is from Bill Gates.
He says, first we’ve got population.
Now keep in mind he’s talking about the idea of excess carbon emissions.
But notice what he says.
First we’ve got population.
The world today has 6.8 billion people.
That’s headed up to about 9 billion.
Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, healthcare, reproductive health services,
we could, know what he says next, lower that.
We could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15%.
This was said on national television in 2010, February of 2010.
He was advocating to kill man, to quote, save the planet.
We cannot allow that thought to enter.
and to gain any kind of recognition, especially not within the church.
Yes, we are to be good stewards of what God has given us, absolutely.
But ultimately, the earth was given to man to be used to help man, to benefit man, but
also to point us back to God, to show us as we look around at this wonderful creation that
God has blessed us with and say, truly there must be a God who made this earth.
who made all that we see before us.
When we look at the Bible, we note very plainly that God provided for us in this world of
what we need, and He’ll continue to provide for us.
Matthew 6 verses 25 through 34 tell us this very plainly, that if we trust in God, if we
live for God, if we seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these things,
all the necessities of life will be added unto you.
Note also that man cannot kill the earth.
The humanist will tell you otherwise.
The humanist will say that the earth is being destroyed by man and man is the only one
who’s going to be able to save it.
No deity can save us, we must save ourselves.
Humanist manifesto two.
But Genesis 822 tells us that see time harvest all the seasons they’re going to continue
until God says for them to stop.
Not man.
Man doesn’t have that authority.
And in 2nd Peter 3 verses 10 through 12 we are told that the world will be destroyed when
God says for it to be destroyed.
And despite what some say, it’s not coming back.
we have an awesome responsibility to be good stewards, to live for the Lord as best as we
can, to serve him as faithfully as we can.
But in that responsibility, there is a great and wonderful expression of God’s love and
his care for man.
What is man?
Man is recognized as being lower than God, yet he is honored by God.
He is ordained by God.
Mankind is such an amazing creature.
Despite being so small in comparison to the rest of this world, God cares deeply for us.
And when we examine how much God has blessed us, when we examine what we are to God and
what God and who God truly is, we are left with only one response as the psalmist
concludes in verse 9, Lord, our Lord.
How excellent is thy name in all the earth.
Is His name excellent in your eyes today?
We ask the question as we began, what is a woman?
What is a man?
But you know, there’s a more important question than that.
The most important question that we can ask is what must I do?
What must I do to be saved?
As you see behind me, it’s very simple.
God didn’t make his plan for salvation complicated.
But the choice has to be yours.
No one can force you.
question that comes to each of us, the choice that each of us must make is will we stand
ready to receive our God?
Will we stand ready to be called up to heaven with Him?
To meet the Lord in the air and thus shall we ever be with the Lord.
Are you ready?
meet your God.
If not, then please let us help you.
Let us assist you in becoming ready to meet the Lord and becoming ready to face Judgment
Day.
If we can assist, please come forward.
