RETURN TO GLORY

          For those of you who have been coming to Bible study, we have talked about Gen. 1:26, where it says that God created mankind in His likeness and after His image.  We have we have talked about the fact that this means man is a three part being, body, soul and spirit.  Today I want to talk about another description given of man in his initial state.

PSALMS 8:3-6

          This scriptures teaches us that God

1)         created man a little lower than the angels.  This means that man is not made of the same substance as angels nor do we have all of the same abilities as angels.  We have a spirit, but we are not totally spirit beings as is angels.  We have more reasoning abilities than the animals, but we can not propel ourselves through space and time by a simple thought.  We were made lacking some abilities that God gave to the angels who are also created beings.

2)         Crowned man with glory and honor.  I will come back to the glory part in just a minute because that is where I want to focus today.  The honor here focuses on the special position given to man by God.  Verse 6 says …. God put mankind is a place of authority, putting everything on earth under the dominion of man.  We were to rule the earth.

But not only did God set mankind as the ruler over earth.  He also crowned him with glory.  The word “glory” speaks literally of brightness, splendor, radiance. It carries a sense of magnificence and splendor. In the verb form it means to “clothe in splendor.”  In other words God endowed man with a glory, a radiance similar to His own.  There was a brightness and a splendor associated with man, that set him apart from all else created on earth.

But then man became involved with sin.

ROMANS 3:23 – Sin drained us of that glory that God endowed us with.  We were the crowning point of God’s creation, but because of sin, with each generation man sinks deeper and deeper into the depravity of sin.  In other words, man in his unregenerated state grows more and more wicked.  [Genesis 6:3, 5 - And the Lord said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.   [5] And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.] [Eccles. 8:11 -  Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.]

Demonstration (100 watt bulb (God), 55 watt bulb man)

 Not only did sin overshadow our glory it disconnected us from God, the source of our life and power.  But John 10:10 teaches us that Jesus came that we might again have life and I John 3:8 let’s us know that Jesus came to undo or reverse the affect of Satan in our lives.  [1 John 3:8 - For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.]

Demonstration (Man without Christ, man with Christ).

The glory of God is in us, but we must let the glory shine through.  How?

First, recognize that we have put on Christ.

 Gal. 3:27 – When we invite Christ to come into our hearts and lives, He does just that.  In fact we invite Him to be Lord over our lives and He want to be just that.  He wants us to take on His character and to walk as He did, in a manner that glorifies God. 

We do not have to figure out how to do this alone.

II Cor. 3:18 – The Holy Spirit helps us to see Christ, and then as if we are looking at Christ in a mirror, the Spirit helps us to take off those things that are not like Christ and put on those attributes that are like Him.  In other words it is the Holy Spirits work in us that matures us into the Christians we should be and walks us back towards the glory God initially intended for man.  You see getting saved is not the end of the work that God intends to do in man.  It is the beginning.  God wants to restore man to His original state and God has set in motion a plan that will accomplish that goal for all who will yield to Him. 

Second, recognize that a change is required.  We must grow up and become spiritually mature.  In the natural, if one is going to grow up, he must do two things, 1) take off childlike behavior and 2) put on adult behavior and responsibility.  The same is so in the spiritual.

Eph. 4:20-32

Col 3:1-17

II Peter 1:3-11

Third, know that you must endure hard times.  [Matthew 16:24 - Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.]  

James 1:2-4

Rom. 8:16-18

I John 3:1-3,