Download Genesis 2:7 - Ebenezer Baptist Church

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IN THE BEGINNING
THE POTTER AND THE CLAY
Genesis 2:7
INTRODUCTION: God created all life. Man is different because he is a special creation of God. God
created man in “His likeness.” Like the Psalmist we should say, “I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made.” All living creatures are made from the basic elements God created in Genesis 1:1.
I. BODY OF MAN
The Hebrew word Adam means “earth.” Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:47: “The first man is of the earth,
earthly.”
A. BODY OF CLAY.
(Job 10:9) “Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust
again?”
God used the “dust of the ground” to fashion man. The word “formed” is the same word used to describe a
potter molding clay. The picture of God shaping the first man is personal and intimate. We sense the care God
took in forming man.
Dr. Henry Morris stated in The Biblical Basis for Modern Science: “It is significant that, long before men
realized this universality of material structure, the Bible had indicated that all things, including even human
bodies, were made of the dust of the earth.”
“. . . all material objects are made of the same basic elements, whether those objects are living or nonliving.
That is, both our human bodies and the rocks on a mountain are composed of hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, and
other such elements.”
“This basic doctrine of Scripture was only confirmed by science in the past century.”
99% of the mass of the human body is made up of the six elements oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen,
calcium, and phosphorus.
“The human body is made up of materials and minerals found on the surface of the ground, and not from the
core of the earth. Oxygen, being the most abundant element on the earth’s crust or on the ground, makes up 65
percent of the human body, and carbon, also abundant on the top soil of the ground, is 18 percent, and
hydrogen is 10 percent. The 59 elements found in the human body are all found on the earth’s crust. This is
amazing because what the Bible says perfectly match the scientific composition of a human body.”
Excesses in these materials will cause disorders and diseases. Excess of aluminum, for example, and iron, will
be toxic for the human body. The average human body contains enough sulfur to kill all fleas on an average
dog.
Our bodies are 65% water. If you figure in the amounts of iron, phosphorus, sodium, calcium, potassium,
magnesium, chlorine, and all the rest, at today’s market prices the total worth of our bodies comes to about
$4.50.
B. BODY IS COMPLEXED.
Doctors and scientists are still discovering how complex the human body is.
The Brain
The human brain is the most complex and orderly arrangement of matter known in the universe. It controls
over 100 billion nerve cells and generates more electrical impulses in a single day than all of the world's
telephones put together moving at speeds from 150 to 250 miles per hour.
The Heart
The heart of an adult beats about 70 to 80 beats per minute, 100,000 times every day, 40 million times a year
and in 70 years it will have beaten 2½ billion times.
As a pump, it produces enough pressure to shoot a stream 30 feet, produce enough energy in an hour to lift
2000 lb. 3 feet off the ground, and efficiently circulate 50 million gallons of blood over the average lifetime.
In one year, the average human heart circulates from 770,000 to 1.6 million gallons of blood through the body.
This is enough fluid to fill 200 tank cars, each with a capacity of 8,000 gallons.
The Eyes
As you focus on each word in this sentence, your eyes swing back and forth 100 times a second, and every
second the retina performs 10 billion computer-like calculations. Each time the eye blinks, over 200 muscles
move and you blink 25 times a minute or over 6 million times each year.
Cells
The human body consists of about 60 trillion cells, and each cell has about 10,000 times as many molecules as
the Milky Way has stars.
DNA
All of the DNA in an adult human body could fit inside one ice cube, but if unwound, stretched out and joined
end to end, it would reach from the earth to the sun and back again more than 400 times. Scientists estimate
that they could fill a 1,000-volume encyclopedia with the coded instructions in the DNA of a single human
cell if the instructions could be translated to English.
II. BREATH OF LIFE
A. SOURCE OF LIFE. God breathed “into his nostrils the breath of life.”
God breathed into man the breath of life. God gave man the "spirit of life." Breath is the same word as "wind
or "spirit." God gave all living creatures life, but only man had the breath of God. The Bible states that it is
only man who God made "in His own image." The distinction between man and animals is that God breathed
His Spirit into man.
When God created man in His “likeness,” it does not mean sameness. God is Spirit. He is the eternal God
without beginning. Man is a creature of dust which is humbling. God is man’s Creator. Man received life from
God.
God gave man a spiritual nature that animals do not possess. The spiritual nature of man allows him to have
fellowship with God and to worship God. Spirit is what makes man unique from the rest of the animal world.
The spirit is how you relate to God.
B. SOUL OF MAN. “became a living soul”
The word "soul" can be translated as "being." Man became a living person. He can perform the functions of
the animal life such as eating, drinking, and walking. The soul seems to be the makeup of man. It is man’s
personality and emotions by which he feels and thinks. Your soul is distinct from every other person.
The distinction from animals is that man thinks, reasons, and communicates as a rational creature. Animals
have bodies and souls. They are able to relate to man and other animals. Plants have bodies but not souls.
(Gen. 7:21-22)
“For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so
dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is
vanity. All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man
that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?” Eccles. 3:19-21
III. BREVITY OF LIFE
“Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he
remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For
the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more. But the mercy of the Lord
is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him, and his righteousness unto children's children.”
Psalm 103:13-17
A. DEATH OF THE BODY.
“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.” Hebrews 9:27
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned.” Romans 5:12
As king David approached death, he said to his son Solomon: “I go the way of all the earth.”
B. DEPARTURE OF THE SOUL.
At death, the body returns to dust and the soul and spirit return to God.
“Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Ecclesiastes
3:18-21
LESSON FOR LIFE:
We are made from dust and someday we will return to dust. Life is brief, death is certain, judgment is sure,
and eternity is forever. The soul of man is of great value to God. Jesus said: "What profit is there to a man if
he gain the whole world and loseth his own soul, or what giveth a man in exchange for his soul?" (Mark, 8:3637). God made it possible for a person’s soul to be saved. It requires a person repenting of his sins and placing
his faith in Jesus Christ. Is your soul saved?
O Worship the King
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.