And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds, livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 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 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, he created him. male and female, he created them. We arrive this morning at the final day of creation. There'll be yet one more day in the creation week, and we will come to that in due time, but we arrive this morning at day number six. And what we've seen in days one through five has been this great swelling crescendo to arrive here finally at day six. And to this end, remember the simple but beautiful and profound order and structure of the six days of creation. We have three days where God forms, and then three days where God fills. Day number one, God creates the form of light and darkness. And then corresponding to that in day number four, We have the filling of the cosmos with all of the celestial bodies, the sun to rule the day and the moon to rule the night. And then day number two, God separates the waters and creates the forms of the oceans and the atmosphere of the earth. And then corresponding to that in day number five, he fills the form of the oceans with creatures, and he fills the form of the atmosphere with birds. And then in day number three, God brings forth out of the waters dry land. And not just a barren dry land, but a dry land covered with oxygen-producing, life-giving vegetation. And now on day six, he returns to the form of dry land covered with vegetation and fills once more, fills once more for the final and climactic time, and he fills the dry land with animals, each according to its kind, and then proceeds afterward to create man. in his image. And a moment ago when I spoke of creation in the first days, one through five, as this great swelling crescendo to bring us here to day six, it was to remind us what has God been doing over the course of the creation week. He has been preparing earth for the habitation and the dominion of the divine image bearer. That has been the focus of how this week has unfolded. And now we have arrived at day six. The earth is ready and prepared. And in a moment we will we will come to verse 26 and for the introduction of this unique creature at the apex and the climax of God's work. Now you'll notice that two things take place on day number six. First, God makes the animals, our closest biological companions here on the earth. And it is after God makes the animals, each according to its kind, that he then proceeds to make man. And this twofold work of the sixth day is instructive to us in many ways. First, it teaches us that man is not an animal. Now, yes, and very clearly so, we share many biological characteristics with the animal kingdom. But God reveals to us in these verses that for all of the biological similarities that we share with the animal kingdom, there is yet a categorical distinction to be made. God makes all of the animals, each according to its kind. And then afterward, as another act, which we will talk about shortly, he turns his attention to the creation of man. And there's a second thing I want to touch upon that we learn from this two-fold work of the sixth day. And it's something, I'm just going to take a couple brief moments to ever so briefly point toward, but it's something that deserves actually significant meditation in the Christian life. So you can take these thoughts and store them away for your own Christian meditation before the Lord. The animal kingdom is the crowning aspect of a world that God has made for the habitation and the dominion of the image bearer. The animal kingdom exists for the good of the image bearer, for our delight. And throughout the whole of scripture, there is actually tremendous and beautiful and profound meditation on what we can learn from the animal kingdom, not just about the animals themselves and the biological taxonomies of it all, but what God means for us to learn actually about ourselves, and even about Him through the creation of the animal kingdom. You can jot down this passage from the book of Job. I'll read it for us. Job chapter 12, verses seven through 10. This is Job speaking. Ask the beasts and they will teach you. The birds of the heavens, they will tell you. or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you, and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind. Now, Job says that in chapter 12, but it's a lesson that he will have to come back round to, if you'll remember, at the end of the book of Job. Chapters 40 and 41, God comes to Job and speaks to him out of the whirlwind. And remember, part of God's dialogue with Job is to point him to the great behemoth, the great beast of the earth, and then to the great Leviathan, the great beast of the sea. and to ask him, who has made these? According to his own good pleasure and his own delight and his own purpose, who has made these things? Tell me if you know. Who has laid out the stars, Job? Tell me if you were there. And of course, Job, at last, he gets exactly what the Lord is driving at and responds in the only appropriate way. I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. The animal kingdom, you see, glorifies God and teaches us and instructs us simply by being what they were made to be. Creatures made by the Lord for his own glory. And we have beyond the book of Job, chapter 30 of the book of Proverbs. And the words you'll remember of the mighty Agur. Proverbs chapter 13, verses 18 and 19. Three things are too wonderful for me, four I do not understand. The way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin. Every single part of the created order And this is the beauty and the mystery of it all, brothers and sisters. Every part of creation points to a reality beyond itself. Every aspect of the created order we can look at, we can behold, we can meditate upon, and if we listen to what it has to say to us, and if we follow where it wishes to lead us, we will arrive at the Lord, our God, maker of heaven and earth. Every part of creation is meant to lead us to wonder and to worship before the manifold power and wisdom of the one true and living God. And amazingly, not only do we wonder and worship before the Lord at his power in creation, but creation itself gives us reason to praise him and worship him for the work of redemption as well. Do you not know, brothers and sisters, that weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes in the morning? And do you not know, brothers and sisters, that you are redeemed to shine like stars in the kingdom of your Father? Do you not know that those who wait upon the Lord shall mount up with wings like eagles? And do you not know that our blessed Savior, He is the Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb of God. So again, something I can only gesture to this morning, but something for us to meditate upon for the rest of our earthly lives, the way in which the entire created order speaks of Him and brings glory to Him as both Creator and as Redeemer. But here in the midst of the sixth day, something happens, right? Moses is going along and everything is as it has been for the previous five days, but then in verse 26 and following, something happens. There are, if you're paying careful attention to the language, there are these unique and distinct shifts in the language that Moses uses. And as we think about the creation of man, and we're going to spend more than one morning here in day six, so we're thinking particularly about image this morning, and we'll come back next Lord's Day to think more particularly about dominion. But there's a shift here, and it's in noticing how the language shifts that much of the profound depth of what's taking place can be seen. And so this morning, there will be two main shifts of expression that we're going to think about. For five days, God has said, let there be, and it was, right? We can go back and we can trace it through again and again, according to this very strict pattern. Let there be, and it is. At God's command, it is. But now in verse 26, we do not read, let there be, but instead we read, let us make. Let us make. Even earlier on in day number six, Verse 24, let the earth bring forth. And here's where we see yet further the distinction that these verses make between the creation of the animal kingdom and the creation of man. When he makes the animals, he commands the earth, let the earth bring forth. And that's how God makes the animal kingdom. But then in verse 26, there's an amazing change. It's as if God takes it upon himself, not let the earth bring forth man, let us make. Calvin has a beautiful comment here. He says, God, in the creation of man, moves from command to consultation, from command to consultation. What do we have in verse 26? Not a statement of mere command, but God is entering here into a self-conversation, a self-consultation. He's arrived here at the pinnacle of his creative work. And it's as though God stops for a moment to think about what he is about to do. Now that's a way of speaking, of course, it's for our sakes. God doesn't have to stop and think anything through the way we do, but it's a beautiful moment. Then God said, let us make man in our image. after our likeness. And what's the first thing you notice about that verse, or one of the first things I would wager? Who's God talking to? What's going on with the us that we read about here in verse 26? Time fails us for me to outline all of the different ways that people have tried to explain the plurals here in verse 26. I'll mention two briefly. One of them is the royal we. The idea that God is, well, you've heard the British expression, right? It's attributed to Queen Victoria, but I think she denied ever saying it. We are not amused. The way that royalty, modern royalty, sometimes speaks in the plural, even though they're just referring to themselves. That's what's going on here, some have said. The problem with that is that it never occurs. If that was what was going on here, it never occurs anywhere else in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. The monarchs, whether Israelite or otherwise, throughout the Old Testament only ever speak of themselves in the singular. And God himself only ever speaks of himself in the singular. And to add to that, it's a relatively new phenomenon among human royalty as it is. You can only trace it back in Britain's history to about the 12th century and a little further back in other cultures. It doesn't penetrate back to the time when Genesis was written. And so we can do away with that consideration. This is not simply the royal we as a metaphorical expression. Others have said, well, God's talking to the angels. That's what's going on here. The us is God conversing with the angels about the creation of mankind. And to that suggestion, we have but to read one verse. Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 14. With whom did he consult? That's it. God doesn't consult with the angels as to the creation of mankind. And also, if you look at verse 27, three times we have repeated God created, and that brings us back to the same verb we talked about back in verse one, bara. And we can be absolutely sure that the angels do not barah. The angels do not create after the manner that God makes all things out of nothing. And the final consideration here is verse 26 says, let us make man in our image. We are not made in the image of angels. And angels themselves are not made in the image of God. No, God is speaking here in himself and to himself. God is speaking here in himself and to himself. And God is giving to his people right here at the beginning of the Bible, a gesture toward the reality of his triune nature. Now, we should not say that here in Genesis 1, there is a full revelation of God's triunity, but there is a real gesture. And this can be seen all over Genesis 1. We saw in the very opening verses, God creates by his word and his spirit. And then you have three days of forming and three days of filling. In verse 27, when God rejoices in the image bearer, you have a threefold repetition. God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. a threefold repetition of God's creation of the image-bearer, deserving of the image of a three-personed God. Now, the full reality of the majestic plurals here in verse 26 will be reserved for the revelation of the New Testament. But it's a beautiful thing that when we do turn to the New Testament, we read verses like this, the words of our Savior, John chapter 14 and verse 23. If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. That's the fullness of the New Testament revelation concerning the beautiful seeds that are planted all the way back in Genesis chapter one and verse 26. The God that made us in his image, the image of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in redemption comes to us that Father and Son, in and by the Spirit, might make their home with us. And so we've considered this shift from let there be to let us make, and now a second shift for us to think about. In days one through five, God says again and again, in verse 11 and 12, in verse 21, in verse 24 and 25, according to its kind. This becomes a pattern you start to expect when God makes a multitude of things, that they are made according to their kind. And that leads up all the way to the beginning of the sixth day when it's repeated in verse 24 and in verse 25 multiple times with regard to the animal kingdom. The animals are made each according to its kind. But now we read with regard to man, not according to its kind, but in our image and according to our likeness. It's a very distinct shift. Verse 25, God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness. What you have in the plant and the animal kingdoms is, well, you have each part of those kingdoms patterned after itself, as though God creates a template of a daisy, and then they reproduce indefinitely and wonderfully according to that template. Of course, with all the beautiful variation that God has worked into the created order, and so on and so forth. You know, you have the eagle template that brings forth eagles according to its kind and of a whale and of a lion and so forth. But there's a break here when we come to the creation of man. And it's dramatic, there's something else going on. Not less than what's happening in the animal kingdom, but more than. more than let us make man in our image, after our likeness." For the first time and for the only time in the creation week, God creates something as it were according to his kind. Now, that of course does not mean that God multiplies himself, that human beings are little deified things running around. That would run contrary to the very definition and understanding we have of God himself. But nevertheless, something unique and extraordinary is taking place. One of his creatures, According to his wisdom and purpose, one of his creatures will bear his image. And it's not the angels. It's not the stars. Not the eagles of the sky or the whales of the sea. Not the mighty oaks of the forest. But uniquely, it will be man. Mankind. And it's a wondrous thing, if you stop to think about it. We're not the biggest, we're not the mightiest, we're not the most splendorous in outward qualities. If we were to guess, well, which part of creation was made in the image of God, I don't know, we might think a supernova or something, something tremendously wonderful and extravagant to the eye. But no, it is man. And there's a wonder and a mystery here because man is not the image of God because of any outward splendor. Man is not wondrous among all the creatures of earth because of anything that distinguishes us in some remarkable way. It is because of the image. And of course, God made all of creation to testify to his glory. But on earth, you see, he chose to go farther, not simply to make a creature that testifies to his glory, but a creature uniquely endowed with his image, with whom he could then uniquely fellowship. with whom he could uniquely dwell. You see, that's where this is heading. And it will take all of the opening chapters of Genesis to get a full picture of this, but God creates man in his image that he might fellowship with us, that he might dwell with us in a unique way among all the creatures of the earth. And again, this is something I'm just sort of pointing to for future sermons, but that's where the idea of image and covenant are bound together so closely. He gives us the divine image that he might enter into covenant with us and dwell with us. And that brings up a whole variety of questions, questions, again, that we can only begin to think about this morning, and that will take the whole of life to properly think about. How much are you worth? How do you even measure your worth to begin with? I bring these questions up because the world gives you all sorts of answers. to the question of worth, right? Even though they may not approach it that way, from a thousand different angles, every day that you are alive in this world, people are telling you what you are worth and how to determine your worth. And the world has all sorts of different metrics, right? Worth according to power and authority. worth according to material wealth and prosperity, worth according to physical beauty and attractiveness, worth according to intelligence or popularity. And we could go on. The world has dozens of outward metrics to define how we understand human worth. And so the question I want to think about is, is that it? Is that how you think about the question of what you are worth? Is that the way to measure the worth of a human being? And the answer of Genesis 1 is no, it is not. The worth of the human being is the image of God. An endowment of wondrous glory. That to be human is to be the image of God. And in this sense, maybe in an ironic but beautiful way, Christianity is the only true humanism. I don't know if you've ever heard people talk about Christianity as something that's demeaning to the human person, that we have to make man the measure of all things and reorient all of reality around the human being in order to truly understand our worth. That's not it at all. the true glory of humanity, the true worth of the human being is in the image with which we have been given and filled, stamped upon us by our Maker. And in this sense, it is only Christianity, it is only the revelation of the one true and living God that truly restores humanity to its proper worth and greatness. not as a greatness that we define for ourselves, but a greatness that we have in the image of our Maker. And that brings us now to our redemption. Because we look out on the world, and after talking about all the wonderful things we've talked about, you can look out at the world and say, well, pastor, I sure don't see the image of God. But I see violence, I see malice, I see anger, I see wrath, evil desire. Where is the image? Well, we speak about redemption, brothers and sisters, because the image was broken. Because on account of the rebellion of the image bearer, the image was shattered. Not lost, mind you. All human beings on Earth still have the image of God, but if you want to think about it this way, I think it's a helpful way to think about it. Well, what do we use every day to see our own image? You probably used it this morning. You stood in front of a mirror and you looked upon an image of yourself. And human beings, as something of a mirror, were made in order that the glory of the invisible God might be refracted through us and then displayed before the created order, uniquely through humanity. That mirror was shattered. Imagine in your head a great full-length mirror that's been shattered on the ground, It still performs the function of a mirror, right, according to all of the individual shards, but it is far removed from what it was originally meant to do. And this, brothers and sisters, is the heart of redemption, the restoration by the grace and power of God of the shattered image within us. And the New Testament delights in this aspect of redemption. And we'll keep talking about this some next week, but when we think about the question, well, what is the image? Well, I want to, first of all, give you this principle. We learn what the image is, first of all, by looking at what we are being restored to. And to show you what I mean by that, I'll read a couple of verses. Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four, Paul says this. Chapter four and verse 24. Well, to back up one verse to 23, we are being renewed in the spirit of our minds to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. And then if you caught it in the call to worship this morning, Paul addresses this again in Colossians 3, in verse 10. We have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Holiness, righteousness, knowledge, we are being remade, brothers and sisters, to once more, as a new humanity, to fully reflect the image of God as we were made to do. This is why Christ came, to be the image and to restore the image. And this is the wonder of the incarnation. As the eternal word of God, he is the image of the invisible God, Colossians 1. And as the word made flesh, he is also the perfection of the human image. The God-man, brothers and sisters, the one in whom human nature is elevated to the glorified perfection it was meant to have. and united to Him, this is what He is accomplishing in us as well. This is the wonder of what is taking place in your lives as Christian believers. This is your hope in the midst of the dark struggles of this present age, that despite the trials and the sorrows and the sufferings, God is at work in you. Christ is in you by His Spirit, remaking the shattered image. And it is His promise that He will not stop until the work is done. 2 Corinthians 3, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image, from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. This is the work of new creation. We've talked about this a little bit, just as the Spirit of God brooded over the waters in anticipation of the first day, So now, the very same Spirit as a gift from the glorified Christ is poured out into your hearts, and He is at work within you to remake the shattered image as you are united to the Son of God and conformed to His image from one degree of glory to another. And it is the promise of our Savior that he will not leave you unfinished. The work that he started within you, he will bring to its completion. And John tells us, 1 John 3, that beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. That is our great hope, brothers and sisters, that as we cling to the Lord Jesus in this life by faith, we will one day see him. And seeing him, we shall be like him. And being like him, we shall finally and at last live to the glory of God as consummated saints, glorified in the Lord Jesus Christ, to worship before him and delight in him forever. And John continues, everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. I know these are great and tremendous things for us to be thinking about this morning. But brothers and sisters, it is my prayer for you, and I encourage us all to pray to this end throughout the week, that these things would shape and transform our lives. Satan wants us to be so focused in on the particular sorrows and trials of this present age that we forget and we neglect what God is doing in us through Christ. But don't let anything take these truths away from you. meditate on them, cherish them, even more in sorrows and in sufferings. Hold fast to them and cherish them, for though these outer bodies are wasting away, the inner man is growing strong through the power and promise of the living God who has sent his spirit to be within us. Hope in him. and wait for him. Let's pray together. Gracious Heavenly Father, the God of this world has blinded unbelievers to the glory of what you are doing in all the earth, the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Lord, help us to hold fast to Christ and to proclaim him without fear, and to call others into this glorious hope that human beings are not, their worth is not to be measured by the things that are passing away, but by the image that they have been given. and that this shattered image brought into disrepair by our own sin can be healed, can be restored through the Lord Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and men. Fill our hearts with hope day by day and strength day by day as we make pilgrimage through this present evil age. And as your image bearers, Father, may we worship you in spirit and in truth. It is to this end that we were made, that we were endowed with such an inestimable blessing. And so let us with joy in Christ, with joy in the Holy Spirit, worship you with all of our hearts. Do we pray this in Jesus' name? Amen.