10 Essentials Series: 6. Anthropology, the Doctrine of Humanity

Okay, so we're still going through the 10 essential doctrines. We finally crossed the halfway point.

We've gone through Bibliology, Theology Proper, Christology, Pneumatology, and Angelology. Today we're doing

Anthropology. Next week, Hermardiology, Soteriology, Ecclesiology, and Eschatology.

So who wants to take a guess at what Anthropology is the study of? Yes. Mankind. Excellent.

Anthropology, the study of mankind. The doctrine of mankind. This is going to be me -ology. Wow. Okay. The doctrine of mankind.

This is going to be tough. So I'm going to start off with John MacArthur because he has a really good layout to this topic.

I really liked what he had to say. He says, Anthropology is the study of humankind from the Greek word anthropos, which means man or mankind.

Secular schools offer courses on anthropology, but they do so from a man -centered perspective

To properly understand man, one must do so from a

Bible -based, God -centered perspective. And that's true of every doctrine that we study.

Everything has to be God -centered, not man -centered. So obviously in the colleges, when they're teaching courses on anthropology, they don't have a

God -centered perspective. So their conclusions are going to be off. Way off. And we're going to see that in a minute.

Biblical anthropology is important first. It is a topic that deals with ultimate questions. Who am

I? Why am I here? What is my purpose in life? Where am I headed? The question of origins is of huge importance.

If we're just the products of evolution, blind random chance, from the goo to you via the zoo, that's what it is, then what is our purpose?

What are we? Right? We're just a product of blind random chance. What value do we have?

We're no different than a bug, a bird, a bonsai tree, or a bagel, right? So humanity, in and of itself, is the pinnacle of God's creation.

And when we try to redefine what God's defined already, we end up with disastrous results. Second, created last on the sixth day of creation week, man is unique and is the high point of creation.

He is crowned as king of the lower creation and given dominion over all inferior creatures.

Mankind is given dominion by God to take over, first, the garden, and then, secondly, the earth.

Third, anthropology helps us understand our relationship to God, since man is a creature in God's image.

We learn how he is supposed to act and relate to God. If there is no

God and we're just a product of evolution, who objectively says how we're to act?

Where does morality come from? They like to say, well, it's this pact with humanity.

And I was like, I was never invited to that conference where we all decided what was right and wrong.

It's real important that we understand that there is objective morality. Fourth, a biblical anthropology addresses and instructs us on specific issues like abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, transgenderism, and environmentalism.

Much of the world's confusion and sin in regard to these issues stems from a faulty view of God and man.

A biblical anthropology guides us in applying a Christian worldview to critical matters facing our world.

Right? Those are all things that are happening in society right now. And society is trying to redefine what

God has already defined. Once you go off of God's word and his plan and his purpose for humanity, you're going to end up with all different kinds of stuff.

Today, there are actually people, men who think they're women and women who think they're men. This is a mental illness.

Fifth, a biblical view of man refutes false philosophies and ideologies such as secular humanism, scientific naturalism,

Darwinian evolution, Marxist communism, Freudian psychology, and postmodernism.

It also exposes erroneous notions about man in the false religion of Hinduism and Buddhism, among others.

Watch how it does it in each one of these. This is old John MacArthur, by the way. Some philosophies of the last century emphasize certain aspects of mankind.

Communism stressed that man is primarily an economic being driven by material needs.

There's a small truth to that, but is that the ultimate truth about who mankind is? It alleged that history is the inevitable progression of man from slavery to feudalism to capitalism, and then to the highest ideal of communism, where there will be no private property and where the state will own all.

Sounds nice, until you actually are in a communistic society. Sigmund Freud, he asserted that man is primarily a sexual being, with his behavior stemming from sexual motivation.

That can lead to all kinds of different issues and problems. Postmodernism has taught that people are products of their social settings, basically their environment, and that no transcendent moral realities exist.

Supposedly, truths are mental constructs meaningful only to people with certain cultures, and he uses the term grand stories or metanarratives.

What he's basically talking about is creation stories, religion, the biblical account.

These grand stories or metanarratives that help people understand their place in a bigger story are viewed with scorn.

Eastern religions like Hinduism and Buddhism have claimed that man's destiny is a spiritual or mystical union with an impersonal force, such as Brahman.

Like a drop of water placed in the ocean, man's goal is to lose personhood, feelings, and desires in order to achieve impersonal union with the divine, whatever that may be.

You see how each one of these ideas is going to lead you in a wrong direction. If we don't go back to the word of God, understand who we are, created in his image, and what our purpose is, disaster is going to result, and we're seeing that in society now.

That's why I quoted John MacArthur. I loved his whole first opening with regards to mankind.

Anthropology deals with the nature of mankind both before and after the fall. God created mankind in his image, male and female, upright in character and very good to be his representatives and take dominion over the created realm by being fruitful and multiplying.

And therefore, everything humanity does is to be all to the glory of God. Anybody know what the word glory means?

It's the Hebrew word kabod, it means weightiness, heavy, like significant.

So when we look at history, and we look at human history, the glory of human history belongs to God because he's the one bringing everything about for his glory, for his intended purposes.

Think about how many different people and different nationalities there are who see history in a certain way.

We need to look at history from a biblical point of view, recognizing that this is all for the glory, the weightiness, the significance of God.

Genesis 1, 26 and 27, then 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, birds of heavens, over the livestock, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them.

Just in that, those two little verses, we have a lot of theology packed into that, right?

So we're created in God's image, let us, that's a reference, a veiled reference to the triunity of God, dominion.

What is dominion? Like when we talk about kingdom, like your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, what is a kingdom?

Well it's a king and his domain, that's where we get the word kingdom from. So the kingdom is

God's domain. So we see that God created two sexes, male and female, no more than that.

He created them both, okay. Genesis 5, 1, when God created man he made him in the likeness of God and we're going to get a little bit later on into what the likeness and the image of God actually is.

Genesis 9, 6, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed for God made man in his own image.

That's the first reference to capital punishment for killing another human being in the scriptures.

James 3, 9, talking about the tongue, with it we bless our Lord and Father and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.

Ask yourself how many times you've said something wrong about another human being, maybe without the correct knowledge, slandering them, that's an image bearer of God.

Ecclesiastes 7, 29, God made man upright but they sought out many schemes, I can relate.

Ephesians 4, 24, and put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

Genesis 1, 31, and God saw everything that he was made and behold it was very good and there was evening and there was morning on the sixth day.

So mankind is the pinnacle of God's creation. We're the only things that God created that are in his image and in his likeness.

We have a big responsibility to reflect that image and that likeness to the people around us, especially, most importantly, because he's rescued us.

He put his Holy Spirit within us and is conforming us to the image of Christ. Psalm 8, 6 -8, you have given him, mankind, dominion over the works of your hands.

You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the fish under the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.

Right, now we look at that and say, yeah, of course, that makes sense, but then you get people who think that animals are worth more than mankind and you can't kill animals to eat them.

Like in India, they're starving to death. Meanwhile, cows and pigs are running around on the streets.

They won't kill the cow and pig to eat it, but they'll let humans die. It should be the other way around. Isaiah 43, 7, everyone is called by my name whom

I created for my glory whom I formed and made. Again, our significance and the reason that we're created is for God's glory.

Ephesians 1, 11 and 12, in him we have obtained an inheritance having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.

This is not a study of meology. This is a study in theology. We hold to God -centered theology, which is much different than other religious traditions.

They have a man -centered theology. First Corinthians 10 .31, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.

That's a quick reminder, like everything we do should be for the glory of God, not with us in the center of our thoughts, but with him in the center of our thoughts.

The image of God, there's several different understandings of the image of God and I borrowed this from Dr.

Bruce Ware. He says there's three main positions, one, the structural understanding of the image of God, the relational understanding, and third, the functional understanding.

So let's go through what these mean. Certain things about the structure of humanity, us, rationality, morality, spirituality, things like that can be pointed to.

Another argument that has been made on what constitutes the image of God is the way in which we relate to God and others.

So let me throw that out to you. What do you think the image of God means? What does it mean to be created in the image of God?

It's a tough question. Yes, Maria. Sure, that would call to our obedience and I think part of the image of God would be that we would obey him.

Yes, Ryan? We have a soul, okay, that's probably part of it.

Sarah? Yeah, communicable attributes, right? We have the ability to love, the ability to have mercy, rationalize things.

So let's look at what the scholars say, right? Functional understanding, right?

This is like dominion. Man should have rule over the fish of the sea, subdue the world.

In this sense, the image of God has something fundamentally to do with our being made able to represent

God in carrying out our responsibilities here on earth and acting in God's place or on God's behalf.

You might have heard reformers use the term vice regent, right? We are

God's vice regent here on the earth to do what he wants us to do, to do what he wants through us.

So we take dominion over the earth. Relational understanding.

What it means to be made in the image of God is for us to have a relationship with God and with the rest of humanity.

We are persons like God and can have friendship with him, right? Everything in God's earth praises him, right?

The heavens declare the glory of God. But we're the only ones that have a moral responsibility to love and worship him back with the ability to do otherwise, right?

So there's that relational aspect of the image of God. So we have functional, what we're to do, relational, how we are to relate with God.

And finally, the structural understanding, like you had mentioned. This view emphasizes particular human attributes that reflect

God's nature, such as rationality, the ability to freely act, and moral capacity.

So again, we have a moral understanding. We know right and wrong because right and wrong has been inscribed on our hearts.

Do animals and plants and fish know right from wrong? No, right?

So you might say, Anthony, which is the right view? So we have number one, number two, and number three.

The right view is number six. And that's one plus two plus three. It's all of those.

Every single one of those take part in what the image of God actually is.

I don't think there's one theologian who has a set, concrete, dogmatic definition of what this means comprehensively.

So I would say, yes, we have a functional responsibility, a relational responsibility, and a structural capacity similar to God.

All three of those come into play. Any questions? Good?

Okay. Let's continue. It was not good for man to be alone, so God gave him a helper to him and made woman.

Humanity has bodily form and was made as a living spiritual being. That's Walter Elwell. Genesis 2 .18,

then the Lord God said it is not good for man to be alone. Let me ask you something. Why is it not good for man to be alone?

God has never been alone. It does not reflect the nature of God. So God being tripersonal has never been alone.

His creation is going to reflect his nature. So it was not good. Look, God was the one who created man.

Did God make a mistake? Oh, I mean, man, it's not good. No, because it doesn't reflect

God's nature. So he will make him a helper fit for him, woman. Genesis 2 .7,

then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Then the man became a living creature.

Life comes through God's breath. He breathes our soul into us. That's where we get sentience.

That's where we get who we are as living creatures. Job 31 .15,

did not he who made me in the womb make him and did not one fashion us in the womb?

God is the one. This is why we protect children in the womb. God is the one who formed the child in the womb.

Psalm 119 .73, your hands have made and fashioned me. Psalm 139 .4,

you formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I'm fearfully and wonderfully made.

That is a beautiful verse to point to the value and the worth of mankind.

We were fearfully and wonderfully made and we are to fearfully worship our

God. Yes? Yeah, they're setting themselves up to be their own

God. I can take life. I can give life. It's like, no, God is the only one who can give life and take it away whenever he wants and there's nothing we can say about it.

We owe him our lives, right? Yeah, we owe him our lives.

Anything else? Okay. Proverbs 20 and 12, the hearing eye and the seeing eye, the

Lord has made them both. So God is our creator and there's a big, there's obviously a big gap between the creator and the creatures.

The creator -creature distinction. He is transcendent above us, right? We are his creatures.

We are like God, but God is not like us and that's where the health, wealth, and prosperity guys and the new apostolic reformation guys get it wrong.

They think that whatever God did, we can do. We could speak things into existence and we can make this happen and no, you can't.

You blew on COVID and supposedly blew it away. How's that working out for you?

You know, it's nonsense. Anyway, Ecclesiastes 12 .7,

and the dust returns to the earth as it was and the spirit returns to God who gave it. Again, our animation, right?

How we're animated as human beings is based on God's spirit and our spirit will return to God once our bodies go in the ground.

Isaiah 42 .5, thus says God, the Lord who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it and spirit to those who walk in it.

So we are spiritual beings. Zechariah 12 .1, the Oracle of the word of the

Lord concerning Israel, thus declares the Lord who stretched out the heavens and found in the earth who formed the spirit of man within him.

And again, lastly, Acts 17, now is he served by human hands as though he needed anything?

That means God, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything and he made from one man, every nation and the mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling places that they should seek

God and perhaps feel their way towards him and find him, yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

I wanted to quote that whole verse and ask you, do you think God is not far from each one of us?

Say again? All right, good.

He's omnipresent, right? So it's not that God is distant from us. God created us, he placed us on the world and he inhabits the world, right?

But he's not served by human hands as though he needs anything. He's the one who gave us life and uses us to bring his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, graciously uses us, right?

Gives us the privilege and the honor of working for the king. Man was created in a covenantal relationship with God in the garden of eating, with stipulations for maintaining life through obedience and experiencing death through disobedience.

And this plays a big factor in our theology. We hold to covenant theology. We don't believe that God created man in the age of innocence and then it went to the age of law and all these different ages and how

God deals with mankind differs depending on what age it is. God created man and he created

Adam and Eve and was in covenant with them such that everyone who was born of Adam is in Adam.

That's why he will deal covenantally with us in the new covenant so that everyone born of God's spirit is in Christ.

So there's only really two positions mankind can be in. You're either in Adam or you're in Christ. So let's look at how this plays out.

Genesis 2 .15, then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. That was our function.

God gave Adam life and says, guard the garden. Hosea 6 .7, because sometimes people are like, well, where does it say in Genesis that Adam was in covenant with God?

Well, it doesn't use those words exactly, but in Hosea 6, it lets us know. But Adam, but like Adam, they transgressed the covenant.

There they dealt faithlessly with me. So Adam was in covenant with God. That's how

God deals with people, covenantally. Genesis 2 .16,

the Lord commanded the man saying, you may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.

So do you realize that the consequence for disobeying God, for sin, is capital punishment?

Death. That's how serious sin is. Someone asked me a long time ago, please tell me, why would

God kill somebody for eating an apple? I'm like, you just don't understand.

I wanted to do like R .C. Sproul. What's wrong with these people? You defied God. He gave you everything.

And now you're going to ask, why is he going to punish me with death if I just bite into a piece of fruit, right?

Romans 5 .14, yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come.

So death, because Adam sinned, death came through Adam and extended to the rest of the earth, to the rest of his posterity.

Adam disobeyed by eating the forbidden fruit, and in rebelling against God's command, he exercised autonomy.

Who wants to take a stab at what autonomy means? Yes? Self -governance, self -rule, like I rule over myself, auto, self, nomos, law.

So when you hear that word autonomy, nobody's neutral, everybody wants to rule over themselves.

That's the inherent desire of mankind from the womb. We need to submit ourselves, humble ourselves, and put ourselves under the rule of God, which

God does by His Spirit. So Adam exercised autonomy and independence of God's infallible revelation by trusting in man and thereby bringing on himself and his posterity the curse of death associated with disobedience.

We see this in Genesis 3 .6. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her and he ate as well.

And this really is the essence of all sin. When we look at what David did with Bathsheba, what did he do?

He saw, he used his eyes, he looked at Bathsheba from afar. Then she saw that the tree was good for food,

Adam wanted Bathsheba, so it was a delight to his eyes. It all starts with the eyes and then the heart attitude follows and then you go and you're taken away by the desires in your heart,

James says. Jeremiah 17 .5, thus says the

Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the

Lord. This is the essence of salvation, not trusting in yourself. We trust in ourselves, we're doomed.

We're always going to fail at some point in time, that's why we have to trust in the one who didn't fail.

Genesis 3 .17 -19, and to Adam he said, because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which

I commanded you, you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life, thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the plants of the field, by the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for you are dust and to dust you shall return.

So there's a curse on the earth because of Adam's sin and we see that in Romans 8, it says the earth is groaning, moaning until the sons of God are revealed.

So there's going to come a point in time when the complete restoration of the earth is done and the curse is lifted, there will be no more curse on the earth.

Romans 5 .12, this is an important verse. Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sin.

For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man,

Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men.

For as by the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.

Again, this is why I said at the beginning, you are either in Adam or in Christ. Through Adam, death reigned and sin spread to the whole human race, but through Jesus Christ, who is the last

Adam, who by his one act, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, brings righteousness to all those who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.

So one Adam brings death, the last Adam with the new covenant brings life.

Does that make sense? Everybody tracking with me? Okay, good. As a result of this,

Adam experienced, and I should mention that's what we call federal headship, right? Adam is the federal head of humanity,

Jesus is the federal head of all of God's people. As a result of this, Adam experienced spiritual death, which in Hebrew is separation, death is separation, and eventually physical death, which passed on to all mankind by nature.

This is what is known as original sin, consisting of both guilt and pollution.

Adam's guilt, as our federal head, is imputed to all mankind. Psalm 51, behold,

I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. This is King David saying that.

Ephesians 2, among whom we also once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and we're by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

So when we're born into this world, in fleshly nature, our nature, because we're an

Adam, is one of wrath, we're children of wrath. That's why we need to be born again.

1 Corinthians 15, 1522, for it, as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.

Right? We need to be born from above, born of the Spirit of God, with Jesus as our

Savior. Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our

Lord. Right? So every one of us in this room has earned our wages. We will all die.

We may not all live. If your faith and trust is not in Jesus Christ for your salvation, you are still an

Adam. You need to repent. You need to change your mind. Don't trust in your own flesh. You are not good enough to live a sinless life.

You need to turn from that and trust in the only one who can. That's Jesus. Okay. Since Adam's fall, all the faculties of mankind are stained by sin and considered depraved.

Genesis 6, 5, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Look at that verse. The wickedness of man was great. How many intentions?

Every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil. How often?

Continually. People try to get around this verse. They say, well, yeah, well, God dealt with that at the flood.

That's, you know, a couple of verses before the flood. It's like, yeah, and what happened as soon as Noah was saved after getting off the boat?

They sinned. Right? They sinned again because they're still in Adam. Jeremiah 13, 23, can the

Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard change his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

In other words, can an Ethiopian man, a black man, say that he's a white man and actually be a white man?

No. He can't change his nature. Can a leopard say, I really like stripes, I want to be a zebra?

No. According to most scientists today, they'll probably say yes. Then neither can you, human being, do good.

By nature, evil thoughts, sinful, evil actions, evil actions are going to flow from our nature.

We can't even help it. We're helpless until God comes in and changes us.

Does that make sense? Isaiah 64, we have all become like one who is unclean and all our righteous deeds are like polluted garments.

We all fade like a leaf and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. Romans 7, 18 and 19, for I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good

I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. When somebody says we have free will, take them right here.

For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good

I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. You have free choice, you don't have free will.

You know the difference? The illustration I always use is a lion.

If you put a plate of raw meat in front of a lion and salad, what's he going to pick? Come on.

The raw meat, why? He's going to eat the raw meat, why? He's a carnivore. That's his nature.

So put the things of God, Bible, church, Bible study, singing hymns.

Or for a guy like me, playing golf on Sunday morning. I'm playing golf, that's what I'm doing. I'm going to dishonor

God and that's what I'm going to do until God changes your heart. So you have the choice to do good or evil, but you cannot change your will.

So think of a food that you absolutely abhor, that you hate. Can you will yourself to like it now?

For me it would be like liver and onions. I could taste it and if somebody offered,

I'll give you a hundred bucks if you finish the liver and onions, I'll eat it. But I won't like it. So I can act,

I can take it in, people can act good, but their nature needs to be changed. I cannot will myself to love liver and onions.

Make sense? So we have free choice, but we don't have free will. The Ethiopian cannot change his skin, the leopard can't change his spots.

That's the point of this. Mankind is depraved, in other words, evil has touched every area, mind, soul, body, every area of his constitution.

Galatians 5 .19, now the works of the flesh are evident, sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these.

It's like watching the news yesterday, right? Ephesians 4 .18, they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to their hardness of heart.

We all are born into this world with darkened understandings. We need God's light to change that.

Now I love this, this is Robert Raymond in his systematic theology. He put, the fall is so pervasive that it rendered sinful man powerless, and the scriptures inform us that they are not only finite, but now also sinners who, by nature, cannot bring forth good fruit.

A bad tree cannot bring forth good fruit, and a good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit. By nature cannot hear

Christ's word that they might have life. Jesus, speaking in John 8, told the

Israelites, you cannot bear to hear my word, you can't hear me. By nature cannot subject themselves to the law of God.

If you don't have the spirit of God, man in the flesh will not submit to God's law and cannot please

God. Man in the flesh cannot please God. By nature, you cannot discern the truths of the spirit of God.

The things of the spirit are spiritually discerned. The man in the flesh cannot know them. By nature, man cannot confess from the heart

Jesus is Lord. Only by the Holy Spirit can one confess Jesus as Lord.

By nature cannot control the tongue, right? By nature cannot come to Christ.

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And that word draws literally is drags.

By nature cannot receive the Holy Spirit. Jesus says, the Holy Spirit whom the world cannot receive.

And finally, by nature cannot see or understand the kingdom of God unless you're born again.

Unless one is born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. So man cannot bear, hear, confess, come, please, receive, see, or submit to God because of his sinful nature.

He's blinded in the eyes, spiritually deaf, and spiritually dead. He needs to be brought in union with God in order for that to happen.

So if you're in the flesh, you will not be able to please God. So some people's theology is like, well,

I can freely choose God. And I say, okay, if you can freely choose God, are you in the flesh or are you in the spirit?

They say, well, now they know that I'm trying to trap them because I am. If they say in the flesh, well, then man in the flesh cannot please

God. Is choosing God, you know, repenting and trusting God, is that a good thing?

Yes, you can't do that. You cannot please God if you're in your flesh. So if you're repenting and placing your faith in God, it's because you're in the spirit.

What does that mean? That the spirit of God blows where he wishes. He needs to do that work in your mind and heart first.

Okay? With that, we are kind of done. Are there any questions on mankind?