you, you may be seated. Genesis 1 in your Bibles, I was just really eager to preach so I came up here before they were done singing. Genesis chapter 1 in your Bibles, what a wonderful services we've had today, both this morning, so glad to have you back with us again this evening. I don't do this enough, but I also want to say thank you to all those who pour into making this place look nice and clean. I was just looking at all of the Palm Sunday decor that's up here and garnishing our crosses as well and the others. I know there's a group of ladies that kind of rotate who does those flowers, both here in the auditorium and out in the lobby area and things. It's actually a really good thing. I think it's a good testimony to our Lord when our buildings look nice. And it's actually about, in many ways, removing distractions so people can come in and worship the Lord unencumbered. If you come into a building and you've got stains on the ceiling and carpet stains and things and you've got holes in everywhere, it's not going to be a good testimony to the Lord and all of a sudden you're going to find yourself distracted by all the other things. When things are sharp and nice, it really matters a lot. I also want to say a special thank you to those that came out. and helped make the garden area, the new garden area you can see. It's starting to really come together now in what is the most prime piece of real estate on our property bar none. Has to be the playground and that patio and it's really starting to look nice out there. I'm thankful for those that have made that possible. We're continuing our series that we introduced last week, entitled, What is Man? And even by virtue of that introduction question, what is man, you know that we will be tackling some difficult subjects. And we're not intentionally just doing it because it's a hot topic today, but we are in many ways also doing it because we believe that yes, it is a hot topic today, and yet the Bible has a very real answer to that question, and one we as believers ought to be able to not only be familiar with, but also to be able to defend. Now last week we defined our study that we're gonna be looking at, and we understood that the study that we're looking at, what is man, is really a study of anthropology, and as I said, that's not just a ladies department store, it's the study of man. Anthropos, of course, being the Greek word for man. But as we get into this study now, we ask this question that we may be familiar with as students of God's word. What does it mean to be in the image of God, or be made in the image of God? I've asked you to open with me to your Bibles to Genesis chapter one. Because right at the beginning of scripture, we learn that God created all things. More on that we'll learn in a future message. But we learn that humans were created in the image of the creator. But what does that mean? Man was created in the image of God. All kinds of strange answers have been offered. Shall we look at ourselves and deduce that God has a body? We'll say, well, see, image of God. Or some others will ask, as related to that, how do we make sense of the fact that women are also made in the image of God? Today in our passage, in our message, from our passage, we're continuing our series on anthropology, and in today's sermon, my goal is to help you understand what it means to be created in the image of God. And to do this, we'll be looking at the book of beginnings, which is Genesis. Genesis 1, 26 through 28 is what we'll read here in a moment. And we read, the triune God created man in his image after his likeness. We are the only part of creation that has his stamp on us. Animals, birds, livestock, all the creatures that crawl upon the ground are not made in the image of God, but mankind is. God lovingly created us in his image to display his glory through our enjoyment of him. And there are implications to this truth. I'll go ahead and introduce to you at the beginning of our message, the image of God, so that when we read the passage at hand, and this is one, 26 through 31, you'll be familiar, I trust, with these implications. I'll leave them on the screen so you can familiarize yourself with them as we read them. What are the implications? For the outset, we understand that if we are created in the image of God, we are accountable to him. We also understand that we can trust him if he created us in his image. We also understand that each person, every person, has unique intrinsic value because they were created in the image of God. And as image bearers, you have a God-centered purpose and God intends for us to find our greatest satisfaction in him. I'll leave those implications on the screen as we read Genesis 1 beginning in verse 26. And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created he him, male and female created he them. And God blessed them. And God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, and which is the fruit of the tree, yielding seed to you, it shall be for me. And every beast of the earth, and every fowl of the air, and everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so. And God saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. By the way, there's a lot of truths that are being encompassed right there in those passages. A seminary professor writes about a newspaper article he read called The Irony of Being Human. In the article, there were two stories. First, a young woman who had left her husband and children to be with another man, who then left her alone and abandoned, life falling apart in despair. This lady took her own life. And she left a note at that hotel room before she took her life. And the note said, don't cry for me. I'm not even human anymore. On that same night, in the same hotel, in a different room, in the convention center attached to the hotel, a group of adherents to the New Age religious movement gathered. And after a number of speeches, the crowd was riled up, and the celebrity led them all in a chant. The newspaper article said they were chanting, I am God, I am God. The article concluded, the irony of being human is that people in the same time and place can have such contradictory views of themselves. On the one hand, I am less than human. On the other, I am more. You know, our trouble is we don't know what to think of ourselves in many regards. Some of us feel so worthless that we can hardly stand to live another minute. Others are so full of self-importance that we live life in praise to our own divinity. One says, I am nothing. The other, I am everything. One says, I am below humans. Another says, I am above humans, even divine. But the word of God doesn't leave us wondering, lost, confused about who we are. It tells us point blank, right from the start, what man is. Here it is, verse 26. Let us create man in our image after our likeness. Now this is surprising, since all through the rest of the Bible, God forbids images to be made of him. In fact, the second commandment forbids us from making images of God and using those images in order to worship Him, at least in part. And we cannot do this. God says, do not create images of me, in part at least, because I already have the right to do that. I alone have created an image of myself, and I have bestowed it upon humanity. Truthfully, God lovingly created humanity in His image to display His glory through our enjoyment of Him. Man is the crowning achievement of God's creative act. Everything leads up to that point. Man is the crown jewel of creation. Sadly, we've fallen and failed in our task of representing him. Sin has shattered the image of God in us, and the question that should have been settled in Genesis 1 has now risen to the forefront. What is man? Thankfully, our failure is not the end of the story. Through the work of his son, God is in the process of restoring what was ruined. Now, we'll certainly be the subject of our contemplations today, but as we do so, we'll explore the question, what is man under four headings? And I'll give them all to you. The obligation of the image of God in man, the explanation of the image of God in man, the eventual corruption of the image of God in man, which points to the hope of the restoration of the image of God in man. We begin with the obligation of the image of God in man. The first point then drives home the very central idea that our world needs, and the idea is this, purpose. At our former ministry in Indianapolis, the Wednesday night program was something very similar to Awana, in that it was primarily about scripture memory. The only difference really between Awana and what we were doing was that ours was more of like a children's catechism. The children would memorize a question, and the question would be asked of them, and then the scripture that they were memorizing would be the answer to that question. And so it was kind of a children's catechism. For example, they may be asked, who made you? and then they would have to reply, God made me, that would be the simplest of them, and then as the levels progressed, they would have more verses to answer that question, who made me. One of the most fun things was, and this is true for even our Iwana program, was the Iwana award ceremony, because those ceremonies, you get to see all the kids, and I remember The young kids would have their answers, and at their ceremonies, they would kind of showcase what they'd learned, and the teacher may ask them one of the primary questions, and the question was this, why did God make you? And all of the kids had to reply, and they would say, for his woe, right? And they'd have to pronounce that. And that's exactly right, it was for his glory. That was the answer to that question, for his glory. And while that is simple enough for a child to understand and memorize, it's very important for us to grapple with. That is the question of the ages. Why? Why are you here? Why were you created? You can go further with that question, why? Why a world in the first place? Why did God create a world? Why a people? Why history? Answer, for His glory. And when we use the word for, we are engaging our minds in a very important theory, which is the idea of purpose. When we read the scriptures, we are reading a book that is unfolding on every page a divine purpose that remains true even in the purpose of man. When we get to the story of creation of mankind at the end of Genesis 1, we have a record, a record of history of God moving for a purpose. And just as in the opening line of the Old Testament we see a description of God's action or activity with a purpose, the opening line, in the beginning God did something, he moved with a purpose, he created the heaven and the earth. And now in verse 26, God now did something, let's do something. Verse 26, let us make man in our image. This is such a simple statement in Genesis that we're inclined to skip quickly over it and fail to mark the profound significance. Here's the significance. If there is any crisis in human thought or philosophy today, particularly in the Western world, it is a crisis which focuses on the word purpose. The crisis of purpose is bound together with the eclipse of the idea of a divine creation. implied within the very first line of scripture in the beginning God created is this idea that the world and all that is in it is not accidental. Rather, all that has come to pass has come to pass through the order of an intelligent decision of a supernatural being who has a purpose for everything that he does. But if we adopt the worldview that is common in our land today, that we are the product of some happenstance. We are instantly cut off from this whole idea of purpose. We are told we are the product of the blind forces of chance. As one philosopher says, we are grown up germs who have fortuitously emerged from the slime. And if that is true, if you are just a grown up germ, then who are you really? Better question, why are you? To adopt a worldview, that is to say that we are cosmic accidents with no inherent purpose to our existence, is to deny purpose. That's why Albert Colmus made the observation in the early 20th century that there is only one serious question for philosophers to consider, and that is the question, he surmised, of suicide. Suicide becomes an option when there is no answer to the question why. The minute I believe my life is without purpose, and history is without purpose, and the universe itself is without purpose, I must ask the question Camus raised, why even live anymore? In fact, Hamlet, Shakespeare would put it this way, to be or not to be, that is the question. And in that play, when he surmised that question, to be or not to be, if you read the full context of Shakespeare's writings, he began to postulate on the idea of suicide, actually. Here's what he said. This is, of course, Shakespeare in English. Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing them to die, to sleep no more, and by sleep to say we end the heartache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is here to. "'Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished. "'To die to sleep, to sleep, to perchance to dream. "'Aye, there's the rub.'" In other words, that's the sophisticated Elizabethan way of considering humans' existence as being nothing but chance. If you say your life is a fortuitous event, You may not only ask who am I, which is the scientific answer and question rather, but the real more important pressing philosophical question, if your scientific answer is you are cosmic accidents, then the question must then become, why are you a cosmic accident? But the answer from scripture in Genesis one is, here's why. Let us make man. And the act of origin of human existence is the result of an intelligent decision of an eternal omniscient being who knew and knows what he's doing. That is the issue that separates all worldviews today. If there is no God, there is no purpose. And if there is no purpose, there is no God. Albert Einstein once remarked that God doesn't play dice. What he was saying was the origin of the universe was not a crapshoot, but is the work of a purposed and purposeful deity. What does it mean to be in the image of God? We know ultimately that it did happen, and we know that it had to happen for a reason, and if there is purpose, if there is purpose, there must be a God. So what is his purpose? His purpose is the image of himself in man, which still begs a further question. So what is that image? So what is the explanation of the image of God in man? And let's figuratively and literally put flesh on this idea and walk around in it. The word image here literally comes from a root word which means something that is carved. The idea is like carving a statue. There is a reality, and then there is the creator of that statue who takes the block of material, looks at the original, and carves something to look like that. That is the word that being used here. God himself is the original or standard, and God carves man according to his image. We will certainly only faintly have the image of God in us compared to the infinite reality of who God is, but nevertheless, man stands unique to creation as having a stamp of God on his being. And to underscore this, we see in verse 26, according to our likeness, which is synonymous parallelism, which is to say, he is saying the same thing in a different way. Likeness is the same as image. The word likeness means a pattern, shape, or form. What we learn here is that God has made mankind to be like himself in the image of himself. In just a second, I will lay this out for us, but look at the conclusion of verse 26. Let them have dominion over. The word over is very important. It is mentioned five times in this one verse and three more times in a subsequent verse. God has placed man over all the other creation. Verse 26, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God has placed man over all the earth. God has not made man for the earth. God made the earth for man. Now that's a very important, very important thing. We're reminded of this in the Psalm we looked at last week. Psalm eight verse six, remember this? You have given him, speaking of man, dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet. What an extraordinary purpose and plan God has. But what does it mean to be made in the image of God, the express image of God? And I want to give you four words to help sharpen your focus, and I've alliterated them just to help you learn these. I want you to get these in your mind. What does it mean to be made in the image of God? And perhaps you could jot these down. Well, first of all is the word relationship. God has made you with the capacity for relationship with Him and with others. This really is a mirror or reflection of the Trinity itself. Within the Godhead, the Father, Son, and the Spirit there exist in perfect communion and relationship and love. So we, as made image bearers of God, have been made to know God, to love God, and have a relationship with Him and the rest of creation, that the rest of other creative activities and vestments do not have the capacity to do so. If you fail to understand this and live your life for God, your life will be wasted because God made you, or without God. If you fail to understand this and live your life apart from God, you waste your life because God made you for a relationship with Him. To be made in the image of God means we've been made to have a personal, intimate, loving, close relationship with God. We are made to walk with God, we are made to adore God. You have a relationship. Someone would say, will I see my pet in heaven? I don't know the answer to that. I'll know whatever the answer is, you won't be disappointed when you get to heaven. Probably not, actually, though. Probably won't. Because beasts, animals, do not share this relational vestment that you do. Now don't get me wrong. You won't be disappointed in heaven, no matter what it is. And perhaps I'm wrong and your pet will be in heaven. It's possible. Whatever it is, whether you're right or I'm wrong, you won't be disappointed. I highlight that though to say that no matter the best of friends you had, and I had an awesome dog. His name was Jake growing up. He was a great Swiss mountain dog, which means he was a real dog. He was 120 pounds of real dog. And by the way, this is a true story, not in my notes. The way I got that dog is we had piano lessons that we had to do, starting in second grade. And they would actually grade our piano lessons, because we were in a music academy. Our church had a school, and then separate from the school, there was a music academy. and they would grade your music lessons, and my parents, I wasn't really the most studious in my music lessons, and at a moment of weakness, my dad said that if I get straight A's in piano lessons for a whole semester, he'll buy me a dog. Which, mind you, I had never gotten an A before. But if you put a dog in front of a boy, He'll get straight A's, and I did, and I got a dog out of that deal. And his name was Jake, and he was awesome, all right? But he didn't have the same kind of relationship that we have. We might have been the best of friends, right? But God is still my best friend, because I've been made in the image of God. And there's something else that Jake didn't have, and that, as smart as he may have been, he did not have rationality. God has given us an intellectual capacity. He has not given us data like the rest of creation has he? He has given us the capacity to think critically and logically. God has given us the ability to make analysis, to draw conclusions, to have memory, to create, to speak. God is a God of infinite knowledge and wisdom, and like God, we have been made like him, yet we still fall short of his knowledge and wisdom, but we are still over the rest of creation and the fact that we can think. One person, I've repeated it often, God never bypasses your central processing units, which reside between your ears, your brain, to lead you to himself. You think, and mankind has created with a sense of righteousness. God has made us to be a moral being. He has given us the capacity with a conscience to know right from wrong, good from evil. God has placed that conscience down within us. This is an internal alarm system or moral compass by which we are able to distinguish righteousness from unrighteousness. God is holy and we have been made in his likeness to have a moral characteristic. I don't care how wicked the culture, there is still an understanding of right and wrong. They may seek to mute that compass, but God has still created man with a moral image of himself, righteousness. And finally, we've already highlighted rule. God is obviously the sovereign of heaven and earth. "'Everything exists to obey the eternal decree "'of the Almighty God in the affairs of providence. "'Yet God has made us in his image "'and has delegated us a stewardship "'to be over his creation.'" Don't take that lightly. You say, what? a bunch of tree huggers, and that's true. They've misconstrued the earth being made for man. They don't understand the earth being made for man, but I also will say, and you can go back and read, and maybe I should have put it in my notes, that many of those who claim that the world has been not cared for well actually point their fingers squarely at Christianity as the fault for that. They'll actually say, see, you guys only live for heaven, you care nothing about the world. And actually, I've met people like that. You have too, perhaps not met them, you've read about them. They believe in Christ, but they care little about, let's say, mowing their grass. Does that matter? Actually, yes. Why? Because you have been given a God-ordained responsibility to care for what is before you. If you're the worst lawn in your neighborhood, clean it up. Why? Because you actually have a divine calling that's unlike the other ones down the road. There's actually a purpose. You are doing something. You're saying, Pastor Gilbert, you're telling me to mow the grass. Well, maybe, right? You have been created in the image of God. This underscores how unique and special and privileged it is. And it gives you purpose, does it not? It gives you a purpose for what you live. At the very center of our understanding of why we're here and how we're supposed to live is an understanding that you've been made in the image of God. I have to start here. Now there are ramifications of this. And there's a difficulty here. Because we're not living like this. We know that there's been a corruption of the image of God in man. Because of sin, the image of God has been greatly tarnished and subjected to pollution. Sadly, the beautiful and perfect image of God in us was disfigured as a result of the fall. Genesis three tells the story. Ever since, man has been stumbling in darkness, distance from God, struggling with sin that has contaminated our once holy nature and corrupted the perfect image of God in us. Look at Genesis three, here in Genesis one, verse nine. The Lord asks a question. By the way, whenever God asks a question, he doesn't do it for himself, he's omniscient. When he asks a question, he does it to teach us something. And here's what he asks. The Lord God called to man and he asked, where are you? Humanity was plunged into unthinkable evil, touching every aspect of man's body and spirit. The compounded evil of men meant the corruption of the family, society, culture, the kicking out of the garden. Man's wickedness was so encompassing that unbelievers were given descriptors that should send shutters down our spine. All through the Old Testament, those outside of God are called wicked, wicked, wicked. In the New Testament, those who are unsaved and unbelievers are called sinners, sinners, sinners. And without exception, that is the horrible state of corrupted man. Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Jesus describes man corrupt condition with a laundry list of sins. Listen to this list of sins and tell me if you think this is exactly the wrestling match our culture lies in. Here's our problem, Mark 7, verse 21. For from within, out of the heart of man, out of the heart of corrupt man, come evil thoughts. Ready for them? Sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. What does that sound like? Sound like 2022? Sound like what you're about to turn on the news this evening before you go to bed? Yes, why? We are corrupt. The Old Testament is not easier on man's sinful nature, by the way. The prophet Jeremiah described the heart of man this way. By the way, I put it on the screen. The Old Testament unbelievers are called wicked, wicked, wicked. The New Testament, they're called sinners, sinners, sinners. The Old Testament, the New Testament, they're not that easy on it. Here's what Jeremiah said. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Yet a much older verse and the clearest and most damning description of man's nature in the entire Bible is found yet still in the book of Genesis. In fact, almost this entire series of what is man could be housed just in the first several chapters of the book of Genesis. You're in Genesis three now, go forward to Genesis six. In Genesis six, verse five, this is the description God said of the entire humanity as it was at that time. Less people, but a bigger problem. Here's what it was. Well, a big problem. 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. Although all Christians believe that humans are sinners corrupted by evil, Many people today would not accept this judgment when applied to the entire human race, evidenced by the fact that many would not call culture evil, even though it is understood by cultural anthropology as the all-encompassing sum of what human beings do. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. We're not called to redeem culture. E.B. Taylor, the father of cultural anthropology, defined culture as the complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and many other capabilities and habits acquired by members of society. That's what he called culture. He's the father of cultural anthropology. You say, why are you going down this rabbit trail? Some of you know exactly why. Because there are large swaths of Christian churches who believe it is their mission to fix culture. That is not our mission. You know what our mission is? Our mission is about the salvation of souls. Not us saving them, but us pointing men and women to a savior. We will not fix the dilemmas we find by legislation. Only God. Though the social sciences themselves do not acknowledge the existence of sin, Christians must conclude that human culture at the core is, in fact, evil. If culture is that complex whole of humanity, as is defined by the father of cultural anthropology, then culture could also equate to every description of the world we find in the New Testament. that we flee from. This becomes a foundational presuppositions on which we answer all of our questions. Here's our presupposition when we ask the question, what is man? You ready for it? Man is broken. And answering that question, we are beginning with the presuppositional position that man as he is right now is not man as he was created. But sadly, we have failed in our task of representing him. It should be clear that humanity does not perfectly bear the image of God, as they were initially intended to do so in the garden. However, the image of God still exists in humans, even as we just considered many ways in humans still bear it. The fact that humans still bore God's image after the fall is evidenced yet still in the early chapters of Genesis. I just told you to go to Genesis 6, now move forward to Genesis 9. Genesis 6, we see God's description of man as wicked. This is wicked culture. What was the judgment of God on that culture? What happened? The flood. And the fact that man still bore God's image after the fall is evidenced in Genesis 9, 6 when God said to Noah after the flood, here's what he said. Genesis 9, 6. Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. Why? This is capital punishment, by the way. Why? For God made man in his own image. Do you understand that God implemented capital punishment before he gave the law? God implemented capital punishment based on the fact that when a human is murdered, It is an attack on God's likeness. But you just told me mankind is corrupt. Yes, but they still have something very intrinsically valuable. And that value is in their image-bearing likeness. To kill man is to break the image of God in man. So we need help. How do we restore the image of God? We've looked at the explanation, we've looked even further at the obligation for it, then the explanation, then the corruption of man, but what about the restoration of the image of God? I'm so thankful we can end here. Because salvation and sanctification is really the restoring of the image of God in us. And considering that humans still bear God's image though imperfectly, it must be understood that only Christ, the God-man, perfectly bore God's image. Listen to these verses. Hebrews 1 verse 3. He, Christ, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Colossians 1 verse 15. He, Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. John 14 verse 9. Jesus said unto him, have I been with you so long and you still not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How are you still sane? Show me the Father. Jesus fully manifested the divine image in three connections, with God, with people, and with creation. And in doing so, Jesus shows humanity how to manifest the image properly. Jesus had a perfect relationship with God. Jesus manifested the foundational nature of the triune God by his relationship to the Holy Spirit and his fellowship with the Father. He loved and perfectly obeyed the Father and followed the power of the Spirit. Read his story. Jesus had a perfect love for mankind. Jesus loved people. He loved those who hated him. John 13, one says of Jesus, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. You know what the word to the end means? To the end literally could be translated, he loved them eternally, infinitely. The greatest command for man is to do what? To love God and to love people. Jesus exhibited both perfectly. Jesus had a perfect mastery of creation. We were created, right, to subdue creation. We were created over creation. Jesus displayed mastery over creation. When he walked on water, multiplied bread and fish, calmed the storm, Jesus stowed absolute control over nature, a dominion that will be fully manifested in his coming millennial kingdom on earth. With that said, God's plan for salvation is to remake believers into the perfect image of his son. That's what he wants. Romans 8 verse 9. Jesus fully manifested the divine image in three connections with God, with people, and with creation. Colossians 3 verse 10, put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge of the image of its creator. That's what you're called to do if you're saved. 2 Corinthians 3 verse 18. And we all with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the same image. Whose image are believers being transformed into? Jesus, God. From one degree of glory to another. 1 John 3 verses two through three. Beloved are God's children now. And what we will be, he has not yet appeared, but we know that when he appears, when he comes, we shall be like him. We shall see him as he is. Despite the corruptive bacterium now infecting us, we remain God's personal image bearers. Cracked and distorted, though that image may be. And so God has not left us to ourselves slowly and inevitably rotting away, has he? Instead, he has acted, and acted repeatedly, in order to undo the effects of sin that were first started in Genesis 3, and then promised to be crushed in that same chapter. Even as far back as Genesis 3, God had offered prophetic hints that evil, sin, and death would not speak the last word to human race. Eventually, someone would come to crush Satan's head completely and irrevocably. And that story would be made manifest in the incarnate image of God. Why do we need to be sure that we get the question, what is man right? Actually, in large part, because if you can't get that right, you don't know who Jesus is. Because Jesus is actually God in the flesh. God with us. That's so important. And in many ways, the biblical storyline can be looked at entirely through the lens of God's image. Did you know that? Everything in your Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, and everything in between, can be looked at through the image of God in man. It starts with creation. Man, including both male and female, is created in the image of God. Like his creator, man evidences both unity and diversity in a relationship of love. And at creation, man function in a proper relationship with God over other humans and creation. And that purpose, though tarnished, didn't change. Then it goes to the fall. Man violated the creator. Creation, distinction by acting autonomously and rebelling against God. The image of God became marred but not lost. And all through the Old Testament, then, we have these foreshadowings of God's promise that he is going to bring one who will save mankind from their sins. And there are these laws that are enacted, and Paul will later say, these laws become our schoolmaster to bring us to the incarnation. Jesus, the God-man, is the perfect image of God. He manifests the image of God exactly by perfectly loving God, loving people, exercising authority over nature. Those who belong to Jesus through saving faith become new creatures and by their love display the restored image of God, although imperfectly, they look in the mirror of God's word and they are changed from glory to glory. And what's the end? Restoration. When Jesus returns, Christians will be glorified and made like Jesus. They will exhibit the perfect image of God forever. Boy, I was blessed by the choir this morning. I trust you were as well. I can't wait to get blessed by a heavenly choir. With restored bodies that were actually made exactly how God intended it to be. And that's gonna happen, friend. Why? Because God doesn't do things by accident. When God created, he created with a purpose. And God lovingly created humanity in his image for the express purpose of glorifying himself. And if you get that wrong, you'll get everything else wrong. But if you get that right, you'll get everything else right. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word. Lord, we are told exactly who we are, and not only that, why we are, in the early chapters of your Bible. Lord, so often those chapters have been denied, debated, thrown out. But Lord, if we do so, we lose the truths of your scriptures. We lose, actually, the wonderful plan of restoration and redemption we so desperately need. Lord, as we've refreshed our memories, perhaps anew, or learned something new, may our hearts be stirred with an understanding that if we are alive today, it's because God has a purpose for us. And there may be some in this room who have never accepted Christ as their Savior. May today be the day of their salvation. There may be others who are saved. May they understand anew what Christ has done for them. I pray this in your name.