All right, so tonight, if you remember from last week, we went through Genesis 1, 3 through 2, 3. We looked at the structure. Tonight, we're going to look at specifically the image of God and the Sabbath. And rather than this Wednesday night Bible study, but it's going to be more theological in nature. But when you hear that, I don't want you to check out and say, oh, it's theology. That's up there. That's for those people. The ultimate goal of theology is to study God. And when we study God, we see him for who he is. we worship Him and we bring Him glory. So our knowledge of God should drive us to worship Him. So that is my hope that as we study some of these very heavy theological topics that are brought about in the first chapter of Genesis that are all throughout Scripture that we would worship Jesus, we would worship God for what he's done in creating man in his image, the image of God, that preposition of God, like our image. is Him. So draw us to worship in the Sabbath. He rested and He made it holy. God made a day holy. It's the first time in scripture where He's called something holy and typically there are instruments and there are places and there are things that are holy but this is a day. A day is made holy. And there's something special about that that we'll go into a little more later as we get into the Sabbath. A little recap from the past few weeks. The structure of Genesis 2, 4 through 50, we talked about this Toledote formula. The purpose of that is to draw our attention to the faithfulness of God throughout the generations and specifically through the preservation of the seed or the offspring from Genesis 3, 15. And you carry that out all the way through. Genesis you have at the end the nation in despair, in famine, on the eve of annihilation because of famine and Joseph, God's sovereign work in Joseph's life and in his station brought him to Egypt to save the people of Egypt. God has been gracious and he has preserved his seed and offering. So that's the structure of all of Genesis minus the first chapter and the first three verses of chapter two. Remember from last week, there's this framework of the first three days of creating a space, the second three days of filling those spaces, and then the seventh day where God rests. Our attention is drawn to that day because it stands apart from that structure. But despite that structure, there's also great significance in the creation of man in the image of God. And so we're going to discuss that tonight, and then we're going to discuss the Sabbath. So, first, the image of God. Like we've been saying all throughout this, there's so much in the study of the image of God. There's so much to be said, discussed, gleaned from scripture on exactly what the image of God is. Whole volumes have been written. This topic deserves months of study, so we're not going to possibly get into all the depths here tonight, but I do want to make you aware of some things and understand that the image of God should point us to worship God. Here's one of those books. It's by a man named Anthony Hokema. It's called Created in God's Image. He's got two other works, Saved by Grace and The Bible in the Future. And most of tonight's study comes out of a couple of chapters in here. Great, great book if you're interested in the topic of the image of God. The whole book is devoted to it. Introductory question. What are some of your initial thoughts? What have you been taught? What have you heard? What do you think of when you hear the image of God? Okay? Okay. So you've got some like cultural things tied to the image of God. There are some laws, societal things, things going on in society. All right. So. What are the things? And I asked a question about, what does it mean that we're making an image of God? And the teacher told me, well, God has a big imagination. So it was whatever he imagined you to be. And I just kind of left there shaking my head because I still didn't know. God's big imagination. Anything else you want to throw in? Okay. Good start. Maybe the God's imagination part will... We'll leave that to God's imagination, but there's life tied to being in the image of God. There's value. There's a pricelessness to it. It's almost like a material, physical, and limited expression of God's attitude to the world. Yeah? Yeah. Jimmy, I thought you were writing Hebrew there for a minute in that first sentence, and I saw a noun, and I'm thinking, wow. I can't write Hebrew. That's just bad. That's just bad handwriting. All right, so. Some initial things about the image of God, things we've learned in Sunday school or heard or, you know, our thoughts, our personal thoughts on the image of God. Second question, is the image of God something man is or is it something man does? So is it structural? Is it like our framework? Is it like the things that we've been given by God, our components? not physically, materially part of it, but like our character, the kind of attributes that we have, or is it a function? Something that we do, yes. Both, agreed. We'll go into that more. All right, so if someone would read Genesis, and before I go on, I'm going to try to get through this really fast. I got like a million notes, and I'll try to get to as much as I can just so we can get to the Sabbath. going through this quick is not a measure of the unimportance of this topic, it's just trying to get through it so that we can cover as much as possible. Genesis 1, 26-28. Somebody can read that. God says, let us make man in our image, and in our likeness. Let him have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the livestock. And 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. And man, male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and so do it. And have good meaning over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that dwells on the earth. All right, so the word. The word man, I'm not going to pretend Hebrew, so I'm relying on someone else telling me these things, but the word man, it can be used as a proper noun. Genesis 5.1, where God is generations of Adam. It may also be used in a generic sense, like man is a human being. So this isn't man in distinction from woman. It's man in distinction from non-human creatures. It's both man, it's man both as male and female. So when I say man, don't think of like, obviously it's a physical man, but what we're talking about here, God created man, and then he created male and female, he created them. He's talking about man as both male and female. Furthermore, it can be used as mankind. So according to Anthony Hokema, who wrote this book here, since verse 28 is a blessing that applies to all humankind, verse 26 and 27 could describe the creation of humankind, but that creation of humankind, if that's the word you're going to use, it's qualified that God created man and woman from whom all humankind would descend. can be used as humankind, but when we're talking about it here specifically, it's he created man and woman from whom humankind would come. Next we look at the words image and likeness. In the Hebrew, the Hebrew uses these words kind of interchangeably. From my understanding, the Septuagint and the Vulgate, which is the Latin translation, they insert a conjunction in between the likeness of God and, or the image of God and the likeness of God. The Hebrew doesn't have that conjunction and, so, According to it, there's no real difference in between these two. They can be used interchangeably and there are verses throughout Genesis that kind of use those two words interchangeably. But despite that, there's some nuance to those words, some slight differences that are important. So image is derived from a word that means to carve or to cut. It indicates that man images God or is a representation of God. So this is a big point. We are created in the image of God. So in some way, we are a representation of God. We represent him. Likeness, very easy word to understand, derived from a word that means to be like. The image is a likeness. So both of these words together mean that man is a representation of God. and that is like God in certain aspects. So, what is the image of God? Man is set apart in creation. He's the only creature to be uniquely created in the image of God. In the account in Genesis 1, this is the only creature that God describes in this way. The image of God is the totality of his being. Man is a being whose entire constitution images and reflects God. Here's a quote from Herman Baving. Man does not simply bear or have the image of God. He is the image of God. Note, pre-fall, before the fall, he is the image of God. We are also the image of God, but stained in a way after the fall. From the doctrine that man has been created in the image of God flows the clear implication that That image extends to man in his entirety. Everything about man has the image of God. Nothing in man is excluded from the image of God. And he is that image totally, in soul and body, in all faculties and powers, in all conditions and relationships. Man is the image of God. because and insofar as he is true man, and he is man, true and real man, because and insofar as he is the image of God. So, boil it down, the totality of created man in the garden is the image of God. It's not something that he bears or he holds. He is the image of God. It's important to note. What is the image of God? Or what we're talking about the image of God is the whole of man. Man is the image of God. He doesn't just bear it. So image and likeness mean that man was to mirror and represent God. So there's another facet. We're to mirror God. Not only are we to mirror Him in our image, we are to represent God. So God intends man to reflect God as in a mirror, and there's no higher privilege than that of being in the image of God who made him. So this mirroring God, this is something new that I read this week that further bolstered some thoughts on the second commandment of being prohibited to make a graven image of God. God does not want his creators, his creators, idiot. God does not want his creatures to make graven images of him, since he has already created an image of himself, a living, walking, talking image. If you wish to see what I am like, God is saying, look at my most distinguished creature, man. This means that when man is what he ought to be, others should be able to look at him and see something of God in him, something of God's love, God's kindness, and God's goodness. That was new to me. I've heard arguments for not creating an image. J.I. Packer, if you're in any of the men's or women's studies, we're reading through that. He talks at length about that in one of those first few chapters. But this is a different take on it, a different argument. We are created in the image of God. He's given the image. We don't need to make an image. He's given it to us. And if we are beholding to that image, then we can see God in a way. So man is also to represent God, so we mirror God, we bear his image in that way, we are his image in that way, and then he also represents God. In the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar sets up this statue and kings in all over would do these types of things in their realms. They would set up statues. Nebuchadnezzar had people bow down and worship that statue. These statues represented the ruler. They stood for his authority, reminding subjects that he is king. So preceding this, God set up his image in the creation of man, representing the authority of God and advancing God's agenda in this world. So we, as his image, are ambassadors. We are representatives sent out to represent God. we are to exercise the authority he's given us to have dominion and to subdue the earth. So we've got this mirror God, represent God, the image of God means all of man, and then you've got these structural and functional components, that question that I asked earlier, is it something that that man is or something that he does? So from the structural, So what man is, this is our capacity for intellect, reason, morality, responsibility, the arts. This is the entire endowment of gifts and capacities that enable a man to function as he should in his relationships and calling. So, the structural portion of the image of God is all of those gifts that we've been given, all of these things that we've been endowed. What's up, buddy? You want that marker, huh? All of these things that we've been given. Then you have this functional component. What does man... What does man do? What man does in his worshipping, in his serving, in his loving, in his ruling. And I keep saying man, and I refer to his, but you understand. I'm not being sexist or misogynistic. I just want to get that out there. I didn't think I had to say that, but just wanted to make sure. The Westminster Catechism defines this as consisting in true knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. The image of God in this functional sense means that a man's proper functioning in harmony is man's proper functioning in harmony with God's will for him. When asked that question, is it something man is or is it something that man does, it's both. Of course it's both. We have been given gifts and abilities and that defines who we are in that way. But then there's also this task. There's also this function, something that we should do. We should exercise those gifts in a way that follow with the will of God and to ultimately worship him. The image of God contains both structural and functional aspects. One cannot exist without the other. And this is the whole picture of man. So just like man in his entire being is the image of God, these two make up that image of God. And in these two, we mirror and represent God. what we are and what we do, that's a whole of our being, and that is the image of God. Hocumus says one more time, the image of God in man must therefore be seen as involving both the structure of man, his gifts, capacities, and endowments, and the functioning of man, his actions, his relationships to God and to others, and the way he uses his gifts. To stress either of these at the expense of the other is to be one-sided. We must see both, but we need to see the structure of man, so the structure part, what man is, his endowments, his gifts, as secondary to his functioning. So his functioning is primary. They both exist, but we can't give way of function for structure. I'll go on here. God has created us in his image so that we may carry out a task, to fulfill a mission. Go back to Genesis, to subdue and rule the garden. God has endowed us with many gifts. gifts that reflect something of His greatness and glory. To see a man as the image of God is to see both the task and the gifts. But the task is primary. The gifts are secondary. The gifts are a means for fulfilling the task." So, this goes along perfectly with what we've been going through in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 through 14. Paul makes the exact same point. We get in these discussions about gifts, but the point is not the discussion and the quabble between the gifts. The purpose is that the gifts are to encourage the church. The gifts are to worship and honor God. So the task is unity and worshiping God in those chapters, but they were losing that for the gifts. So Paul makes the very same point here. So we've got this kind of idea of image of God. There's a lot more that there's no way we could get to. But so we get this image of God. Then we move to the New Testament. And how does the New Testament deal with the image of God specifically? we see Christ, Jesus, as the perfect image of God. He's God incarnate. The incarnation itself points to that. Colossians 1.15, He's the image of God. Hebrews 1.3, He's the exact imprint of His nature. Jesus is the true image of God. As Christ is the true image of God, how did he display this in the New Testament? Got a couple ways. He was holy, directed towards God. Everything that he did, was directed to God. You see him in the wilderness. He refutes the devil's temptations with the Word of God. Even the day before his death, he's in the garden, and he's saying, not my will be done, but yours. He is always directed towards the Father. Secondly, he's directed towards his neighbor. We have countless countless places in the Gospels where he is healing. He is ministering to people, ministering to the outcast, ministering to the adulterous, ministering to people that wouldn't be ministered to. So he is directed towards the neighbor, ministering to the tax collector, calling Zacchaeus down and going to his house, those types of things. We have all, a ton of those encounters in the New Testament where Jesus is directed towards God and he's directed towards his neighbor. And then the third, Jesus rules over nature. We see this in in the miracles. We see this in all of His miracles. He shows that He is the Creator God. He upholds everything by the word of His power. So, He has control over nature. He stills the seas. ton of the miracles shows that Jesus rules nature. So if you go back to Genesis and you see that that man is blessed by God. That blessing is to worship Him. So Christ is perfectly directed towards God. Secondly, in that, we'll get to it, He created them male and female. They are to be directed towards one another, not just in their marriage relationship, but as they as they multiply and fill the earth, there will be other people for them to direct care towards one another. Jesus perfectly did that. And then Jesus, man in the garden was supposed to rule and subdue nature. Jesus is God. He rules nature perfectly. So, like we were saying, like I just said, so man, in this way, when he properly imaged God, man should be directed to God. See that in Genesis 1, 26. Secondly, man is directed towards his neighbor in his relationship with his wife and then his procreation. And third, he is to rule over nature. He's to have dominion. This is what we were created to do. We failed. Man failed in Adam, all of sin. So we have failed at being the image of God that we ought to be, Christ perfectly fulfilled the image of God. So when we read about the image of God, our mind should be drawn to what we ought to be, and then furthermore, towards the New Testament, to Christ, who is the true image of God. And then because of his work as the image of God, we can now be the true image of God that we were called to be. So final thought on the image of God. God's intention for man was before the fall and perfectly imaged in Christ through whom we can now properly image God. As God's representatives, we should support and defend what God stands for and promote what God promotes. As representatives, we must not do what we like, but what God desires. Through God, through us, God works out his purposes on the earth. In us, people should be able to encounter God, to hear his word, and experience his love. Man is God's representative. So that's the so what. The so what is Christ is the perfect image. Through Christ, we can image God as we ought. And the purpose of that is for us to be his representative on the earth. That was a lot. I'm sweating. So now we got the Sabbath. Another big masterful topic that deserves months of study. And we got 30 minutes. Let's erase all this. So the Sabbath. I know, I know that you guys have tons of thoughts on the Sabbath. We have lots of good Southern Baptists, former Southern Baptists. So what have you been taught from childhood? What are your thoughts on the Sabbath? What have you learned from Scripture about the Sabbath? It's Saturday. It's Saturday. Yeah. Yeah. She'd wear fancy clothes, wear your best. Sunday best. Yeah. So on Friday night, the father would gather the family around a meal and he would pronounce a liturgy or do a liturgy that was really bathed in scripture. And he would teach his family from the table. And he would always start by blessing his wife, a woman of valor who'd been confined. He'd start by blessing his wife, and then he would do this liturgy over the cup of wine and over bread, and everyone would partake. And then he would teach them, and then they would enter into a kind of rest. Traditional Jewish Sabbath. Obviously Sabbath is tied to rest. We're going to get to that a bunch here in a minute. for a heated water for tea, as long as you pour it in the second cup. I heard about them putting a water bottle underneath their clothes so they can dry, underneath their suits so they can dry a lot longer, not by doing the same thing. Yeah, on the 7th day God rested. So there was a 7th day calendar that God was operating on. The 7th one He rested from His work. Exactly. I like that. So remember that temple theology I talked about last week that you see in the garden, especially in chapter 2? this idea of rest, God resting, making that day holy. He is sitting down, enthroned in his creation. You have the same type of God's presence in the tabernacle, in the Ark of the Covenant, and then in the temple, and then in the New Jerusalem. So those threads go all the way through. So that's definitely a big part of it. I mean, no one's mentioned Sunday yet. Yeah, Sunday. Football? So you got the Raiders losing on Sunday. Yeah, somebody called them the Las Vegas Raiders, but Las was spelled L-O-S-S. So yeah, we got all these kind of traditional things. There's some really good things. Traditional Jewish Sabbath, what they did, the idea of rest, the idea of God being enthroned in his creation, stepping back from his work, blessing it, and ruling over it ultimately. Thank you for participating in my question about your Sabbath. If someone could read Genesis 2, 1-3. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of things. And on the seventh day God finished His work that He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work that He had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all His work that He had done. Okay, so remember from last week, we had talked about those spaces he created. I mentioned it already earlier. Days one through three, he created a space. Days four through six, he filled those spaces to include making man. But on that last day, it stands apart from the structure. So that gives us clue, that clues us in that there's something different about this day. Our attention should be drawn to it. So it's not only those structural clues, but also the fact that God blessed this day. He made it holy. So that's the first kind of big point. He made it holy. From what I said earlier, this is where that comes. Gordon Williams' commentary on the book of Genesis, he talks about this at length. It is unusual for a day to be hallowed that is made or declared holy. Places, people, and religious objects may be hallowed, but apart from the Sabbath, only in Nehemiah chapter 8 is a festival day called holy. God is holy. Holiness is the essence of his character. Anything else that is described as holy in the Old Testament derives its holiness. from being chosen by God and given to him in the correct prescribed manner. The seventh day is the very first thing to be hallowed in Scripture, to acquire that special status that properly belongs to God alone. In this way, Genesis emphasizes the sacredness of the Sabbath. These verses give the clearest of hints of how man, created in the divine image, should conduct himself on the seventh day. first day, first thing in all of scripture to be called holy and just the weight that that word has, that it carries with it. You see the cherubim, the seraphim in Isaiah chapter six around the throne of God covering their eyes and their feet and their mouths. And they're crying, holy, holy, holy, three times with emphasis. That same word God gives to the seventh day, gives to the Sabbath. It is holy. And God is the only one who can ascribe holiness to anything. So what about the rest of the Old Testament, and then going on to the New Testament, what is the Sabbath in those? So in the Ten Commandments, you've got the verses there, a reference adhering to the Sabbath, and it's a reference to God's rest in creation. So, right here. So, in the Bible, we've got Old Testament Ten Commandments mentioned twice in Exodus and Deuteronomy. Just a retelling in Deuteronomy. We've got the Sabbath. And then you've got the regulations for the Sabbath. Also in Exodus, chapters 31 and 35, regulations for what they ought not do, mostly, what you can't do on the Sabbath, but also what they should do. Got Sabbath regulations. Also in Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy, you've got this idea of the sabbatical year. Anybody ever heard of the I know some of you have. Sabbatical year, do you know what that means? I didn't until someone informed me. We've got this idea that... Of course, so it carries the same thing. You take a rest. So in the sabbatical year, God prescribed that every seventh year, the land would get a break. So they wouldn't harvest plant or harvest any crops. They would give the land a break. There were some other things that go along with it. But they were to harvest and to work the ground for six years, but in the seventh they were to let it rest. So there's this idea of Sabbath is not just for for man to adhere to, to honor God on those days, but also there's this idea of Sabbath tied to the land. Then you get into the year of Jubilee in Leviticus, and this is every 50th year, so 49 years, seven times seven, seven significant number. You've got this year of Jubilee, which is further sabbatical, it's like a It's a super sabbatical year. In that year, in the year of Jubilee, not only would you not work the land, but all of the land that had been bought and sold would go back to the original people who owned it. Slaves would be set free. Debts would be forgiven. There's this idea of Sabbath being tied to freedom and liberty. So this idea of year of jubilee from Leviticus chapter 25, the year of jubilee is based on the concept of freedom, understood as a restoration of the whole society to its ideal condition as a community established by the saving act of God into justice and blessing. So God is restoring the land, which was to be the people's rest. they were to enter that rest, right? On the plains of Moab, they were supposed to enter and take the land. That was going to be their rest. So the land, every year of Jubilee, is being returned back to its ideal condition. The community is restored to its ideal condition so that it can properly worship and honor God. Okay, so that's the Old Testament. I mean, there's a lot more, but those are the big ones, I think. Some big ones. New Testament. What did Jesus do on the Sabbath most often? No. No. Heretic. He would often heal on the Sabbath. he would do things on the Sabbath that would be considered by the Pharisees unlawful and then the Word of God corrects them. So one example of this is in Matthew chapter 12, Mark chapter 2, Luke chapter 6, all the same account, the disciples are in a field and they're gleaning grain. And the Pharisees come and say, you know, you guys are, you're breaking the Sabbath. And this is where Jesus says, I'm the Lord of the Sabbath. The Sabbath is not for God, but the Sabbath is made for man. Did I get that right? I got that backwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what I meant to say. So, you've got this idea of Sabbath where Jesus is declaring himself, he's Lord of the Sabbath. Previous to this encounter, Jesus says in Matthew chapter 11, 28, can't quote it. Get there real quick. So this comes on the heels of this encounter that Jesus had. Matthew chapter 11, verse 28 through 30. Jesus says, come to me, all who are labor and heavy laden, and I will give you my rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. And you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Jesus is saying, bring to me your burdens. those who are weary, those who are labored, I will give you rest. Jesus is not only Lord of the Sabbath, but he is the embodiment of rest. In Christ is rest. So Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath. And he is rest. made there, we're not a first century Jewish audience, but if we were, that is an outright claim to deity. And we read it so casually, but when he says he's the Lord of the Sabbath, the first century Jew would understand who created the Sabbath. So the Son of Man here, when you start looking at that phraseology, you start looking at the Incarnate Word, and the bullet, John, ties into that. So you have God taking on humanity. And this man that's in front of us is not only man, but he is deity. It's a big deal. So Jesus is declaring himself to be the Sabbath, the one who ideally and truly gives eternal rest. Not a 24-hour rest once in a seven-day week. The weekly Sabbath had a transiency that it came and went. It did not endure or remain permanently. Jesus idealizes what the Sabbath points to. And then you've got Hebrews 4, 9 through 11. There's more there than I can get into. But we are to strive to enter that rest. There's a lot there in the book of Hebrews. Jesus being our great high priest, he is king. He is prophet better than Moses, and then He is also our rest for those who have faith and belief. So our conclusions on the Sabbath. So from Genesis, the Sabbath is the day God blessed and made holy. Pentateuch describes the Sabbath as a day of rest from physical labor, devotion to God, But the divine Sabbath is the cause of the human Sabbath. So they celebrated Sabbath because God said this day is holy, not them picking a day to worship God. Our attention is brought to the creator and the sustainer of the universe on the Sabbath. The first five books of the Bible, they don't only give laws concerning the Sabbath day, but also the Sabbath year, this year of Jubilee. And they both initiated and look forward to a more permanent rest. The New Testament proclaims Christ as Lord of the Sabbath, but more than that, Christ is our rest. Not a rest for a solitary day of the week, but for eternity. So, what about the Sabbath for Trinity? What should we take away from the idea of the Sabbath? First of all, you should find eternal rest for your soul in Jesus. He is your rest. He is Lord of the Sabbath and our Sabbath rest. Another point, we talked about it, the Biblical Sabbath is on Saturday, but we worship on Sunday, the Lord's Day, because we gather to worship and proclaim and celebrate weekly the resurrection of Christ. Following that same pattern, we need that reminder more than weekly, but at least weekly to worship, proclaim, and celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. We should be reminded that Jesus gathers those who labor, those who are weak, those who are heavy laden, and he will give us rest. And then finally, every Lord's Day we come again to Jesus, weary and heavy laden. We trace the shadow of the Sabbath to its substance. We hear again in the distance the sounds of the future Sabbath festival. We glimpse again by faith the glow of innumerable angels in festal gathering. We look again into the empty tomb and hear Christ say, Peace to you. In other words, we find rest, the kind of rest that remains long after Sunday has passed. So I would urge us to not get caught up in the maybe more legalism things of the Sabbath, but Christ, He is our rest. In Him, we have rest. And that's not on a specific day of the week. That's daily. That's every moment. He sustains us. He is our rest for every moment of every day. So as we've studied the image of God and the Sabbath, very big theological topics, my hope is that You've seen something fresh or something new, and that your mind will be drawn to worship God, because you are created in His image. You are to mirror Him, to represent Him on this earth, and that carries with it weight. And then also, He rested on the seventh day. He is enthroned in His creation. Christ has come. And He is our rest. And now we have the ability by faith and trust in Him to have rest, eternal rest for our souls in Christ. So that's all I have. Thank you for listening. I'm sweating profusely. Because that's a lot. I'm going to pray for us.