with me tonight. Genesis chapter one verse number 26. Genesis chapter number one in verse number 26. God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and 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 to them, be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, subdue it. have dominion over the fish of the sea, 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, in the which is the fruit of a tree, yielding seed. To you it shall be from meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb from meat, and it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. Now note this is careful, note this carefully. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God ended his work which he'd made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he'd made. Father, bless your word now. Bless your holy word in Jesus' name, amen. Now by the time the Lord got around to making a man, he'd made cherubim, he'd made seraphim, he had made angels, he had made archangels, he had created every living thing that breathes, he'd made the earth, he'd made all the plant life, brought into existence worlds that we're not even aware of. And so the final crowning achievement of God's creation was a man. He saved him to last. And on the sixth day, he made the man. So therefore, Adam, and I'm a son of Adam, Adam and his race have been stamped with the number six ever since then. And so therefore, when evil shows up, the personification of evil, he will have an intensification of that number. He'll be a 666. When God made man, as I said before, I repeat myself, He'd already made angels, He'd made the cherubim, He'd made the seraphim, He'd made archangels, He had made things that we're probably not even conscious of. We're talking about watchers and all these other things we find in the Old Testament. He'd made all of that. Then He made the man. Now, angels can look like men. The apostle warns you in the book of Hebrews, he said you can entertain an angel unaware. when these three angels showed up there in the book of Genesis right before Sodom was burned to a crisp they appeared as men. And therefore they walked uprightly. They had two eyes, a mouth, a nose, ears and all that. They had the physical outward appearance of a man. So, what in the world is the Bible talking about when the Bible says God made man in His own image after His likeness? That's quite a remarkable statement. Because some folks limited to the fact that man walks uprightly, you know, and so forth. He doesn't crawl on all fours like an animal, but the fact of the matter is, I think it goes much deeper than that. I think the image of God in man is something that God made and he kept it for last. He kept the best for last. I'm not better than an angel, but what God made is unique. When he made a man, he made something unique. He made something different. When He made a man and fashioned him after His own image and His own likeness, He always has a higher purpose than that. Isaiah 55 said, His ways are not our ways, His mind is not our mind, His thoughts are not our thoughts, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are His ways than ours. So most of the time, all the time, we tag along and we begin to understand as it unfolds before us the divine mind. But the divine mind reaches into eternity already. He already knows exactly what he intends to do. And he worketh all things after the counsel of his own will. So therefore making a man in his own image begins to reveal to us a great purpose, a reason, for mankind. Now think about it. When God got ready to manifest himself to humanity and come into this world and come from the world of eternity into the world of creation, he chose to do it as a man. Think on that. Selah. Think about that. Think about where God made us. He formed his body from the dust of the ground. He has a body. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul. One of the old divines said it this way. He said, the breath of God became the soul of man. That's a beautiful thing. That's poetic. That's beautiful. The breath of God became the soul of man. That connects God with man in a unique way. Doesn't it? That says that your soul issued directly forth from the Almighty. It did. There's no doubt about the fact that your life did. I exist because He created me. And I was in His mind long before I was ever brought into a physical reality. Amen. That's what He said to Jeremiah. He said, before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee. and ordained thee as a prophet to the nations. So let's look at it tonight for a minute. This divine mind, when he makes a man, and he makes him after his own image. The image of God has far more to do than you walking upright. It has far more to do than you looking like a man. I mean, God made the man. Or resembling an angel, what have you. book of Colossians chapter 1 and verse number 15 says that the Lord Jesus Christ, Colossians 1.15 if you would like to turn there with me. Let's look at some references here about the Son of God and about man. And then we are going to go back and look at Genesis again. Colossians 1.15, here's what it says, It says that He, the Lord Jesus, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature. He's the image of the invisible God. I wonder why that was necessary. Romans 8 and verse number 29. In Romans chapter number 8 and verse number 29. For whom he did foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. So therefore the Lord Jesus Christ is not only, and thank God for it, our Savior and our Redeemer, but he bears an image. it's important to understand that that image has a reason. 1 Corinthians chapter 11 and verse number 7. In 1 Corinthians 11, 7 the Scripture says, For a man indeed ought not to cover his head for as much as he, man, is the image and glory of God. But the woman is the glory of the man. For the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman, but the woman for the man. And anytime you try to reverse the order of creation you get in trouble, big time. In 1 Corinthians chapter number 15 and verse number 49 the Scripture makes this statement, 1 Corinthians 15, 49, and as we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now if you'll turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 3 and verse number 18, 2 Corinthians 3.18 you see a couple of profound statements here. Here's one, but we all with open face beholding as in a glass, the glass is a mirror, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Now we're gonna come back there in a moment. Go to Colossians chapter number three and verse number 10. Colossians 3.10. We have put on the new man. So we're talking about a saved man here. And have put on the new man. Now watch this carefully, watch the wording. which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. So we have our knowledge renewed after the image of the one that made us. See, the one who created us. And who is the creator? Exactly. Now, turn to the book of 2 Corinthians 4.4. I know you're doing a lot of jumping around here, but there's a lot to say on the matter. The New Testament has a lot to say about it, so it's bound to be important. 2 Corinthians 4, 4, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. And Colossians chapter number one and verse number 15, what this will do is make you learn your way around the New Testament. Colossians 1.15, the scripture says, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature? And then the capstone of all of this is Hebrews 1.3. And you've heard me comment on it so many times. Hebrews 1.3. Hebrews 1.3. You notice how all these scriptures support each other. You notice how that you have a cross-reference system here. And that's the way the Bible does. The Bible interprets itself. Hebrews 1, 3, Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Now verse number 3, notice carefully it says, Who is the express image of His hypostasis, person. The word translated person is hypostasis. That word means, in this context, his essence. And so how did the King James translators, they had to put the word person in here to give you an idea of what's going on. Of the very person of the invisible God, the Lord Jesus Christ is the express image, the exact image of the invisible one. There was a reason for that. There's a reason for the Lord Jesus Christ coming into the world and being a perfect image of the one who sent him. God is an invisible being. He's an absolute almighty invisible being. He's the creator of all things through the Lord Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Remember that. God the creator through the Son by the Holy Spirit. that's the way the Bible lays it out for you. In plainer words all persons of the Godhead are involved in creation, and salvation, and redemption, and everything. There is perfect unity in the Godhead. There is never any conflict whatsoever, perfect unity. But the image has to do with the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is called the Second Man, the Last Adam, All right. The first Adam, first Adam was of the earth earthy. God made his body and he breathed into his body the breath of life. And man became a living soul. So the soul of man issued forth from the breath of God. When God made man, he had a reason for him. He had a purpose in him. He put something in man that he didn't put obviously in the animal creation. Animals are animals. Their order of life is only so high. They're biological living things and that's about it. They have intelligence, no question about that. But as far as being lifted up to your point, to the place that you are as a human being, if any person tries to bring a chimpanzee, monkey, ape, or anything to the level of a man, you're talking to a fool. listening to a raven maniac. Because a man is as far above an animal as the heavens are above the earth. That's exactly right. You are as far above them as God is above you. There is no comparison whatsoever. But now the angels, they are intelligent beings. God created an angel to serve Him. Gabriel his name means man of God. what his name means. And he said to Mary, I stand before the Lord. Michael is called an archangel in the book of Daniel and his name means who is like God. Now there is Raphael and a few more if you want to get off into Apocryphal books and all this. All kinds of angels. Asmodeus is a demon. You can read all about all this stuff. But I limit it to what the Bible says. be so and it may not be so. But what the Bible says is so. So we've got Michael and we've got Gabriel. And everybody believes that Gabriel is an archangel and I have no reason to believe otherwise. But the bottom line is there is not one word found from Genesis through Revelation that says angels were made in the image of God. You won't find it. Isn't that strange? yet an angel can look just like a man. So, it's obvious that the image of God goes much deeper than your physical appearance. So, when God made a man He put something in that man He didn't put in the angels. He made something about your character, about your essence, about your makeup that you don't find in a cherubim or a seraphim. You don't find them. And these are intelligent creatures. They are all intelligent creatures. They have a mind. They can think. But they're not made in the image of God. God puts something in you that corresponds to him in a way that none of them can. The crowning achievement of God, or the last thing he made that breathes, that has intelligence, that can communicate and correspond to him, is a man, us. did not, and for that man He went to the greatest lengths that He did not for anything else. He came down to this world and went to a cross and died on that tree to redeem a man. Amen. We can't find one thing in the Bible where He did that to redeem angels, or anything else for that matter. But He did for a man. So He has something in you, you've got something in you, something about you that that the Bible calls the image of God. It's something inside you that separates you in a unique way from everything else. Now there's no doubt in my mind that Satan is aware of this, and this is probably why there was so much personal animosity between Satan and the first Adam. He hated him. the first Adam was placed right smack in the middle of Satan's domain. Satan was the god of this world and had power over the kingdoms of this world. And when he offered the kingdom of the world to the Lord Jesus it wasn't an idle brag, he could do it. He said, they've been given to me. So, a confrontation was inevitable and it did, it happened. A confrontation between Satan and the first Adam. And of course he got to the first Adam through his wife. He used an indirect assault. He's a very cunning, wily creature. But Satan does not have within him that corresponding, that image, that part that was put in man. Satan doesn't have it. He doesn't have it. It's not in there. And you can't get it. It only comes from God. amazing thing to think tonight that here I was showed up in September 17, 1946, and you know I didn't think much about it before I showed up, did you? All of a sudden I'm here, and I'm alive. And then as I live I begin to learn and understand where I came from, and that there is a reason for me being here. God has a great reason for us being here. He begins to show us some things in the New Testament and it takes that because it takes the restoration of that image for us to begin to understand and appreciate what's going on in our relationship with the Lord. You see to whom much is given God requires much, that's a principle. So therefore if God does give us all this, this ability to comprehend Him and respond to Him in a way that an angel cannot then He expects more from us than He does. Say from a cherubim or what have you, a seraphim, a ball of fire as far as we know that only does it cries, holy, holy, holy. We'll cry holy, holy, holy, but we'll do far more than that. more than that. For the Bible says the day will come when you will judge angels. That's quite a remarkable thing, you will judge them. So, go back with me to the book of 2 Corinthians and chapter number 3. 2 Corinthians chapter number 3, and I wrote a little something at home. When I was reading this and praying about this tonight I prayed over it and I said, Lord help me with this. And I'm going to give you what I think God gave me in 2 Corinthians chapter number 3 and verse number 18. Now it refers back to an historical account. You know what that was? When Moses came down off the mountain, his face was shining. He'd been in the presence of the Lord. Glory was all over him. And so he covered his face. He covered his face because he did not want them to see the glory fade. That's what they say. And when Moses went before the Lord, he took the veil away. He would not leave his face veiled in the presence of the Lord, you see. Nothing artificial. Never anything artificial. the high priest walked into the Holy of Holies, the Holy of Holies was dirt, it didn't have a floor, and he stood on it with bare feet, nothing artificial. God told him in the Old Testament, He said, when you make an altar don't raise an axe to it, or a hammer to it. He said, you'll pollute it. You take that rock just like I made it, And that's the way you come. And that's a principle, hallelujah to God from Genesis to Revelation. Charlotte Elliot got it right. If you want to have a relationship with the Lord, get rid of the artificial and come with an honest heart, with an honest heart, and he will receive you. So in 2 Corinthians chapter number 3 the Apostle Paul makes reference to that that had happened to Moses. Look at verse 15 he even mentions him, he talks about Moses. But now look at verse number 18, he said, but we all with open face, in other words no covering over our face, with open face, we all with open face beholding as in a mirror, here's the mirror, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord." I said, now what's going on here Lord? Help me with this. Take a mirror, just hold it up in front here, look into it, what do you see? I know I see what I see and I'm sure you all feel the same way. What do you see? You see a reflection of your face, right? That's what you see. So how is it that that has anything to do with the glory of God if all you can do is take a mirror and look into it and all you're going to see is yourself? It goes a little deeper than that. It goes a little deeper than that. By looking into that mirror and looking deeply into that mirror we behold the glory of the Lord. All right. Now, if I look in the mirror and walk outside, there's a mirror out there in the hallway. If I look at my face, I don't see the glory of God. I see a human being. There's glory in my soul. But I need to see something greater than me. There's got to be something deeper than me. It's not about me. If it's all about me, folks, I'm finished now. There's got to be somebody bigger and greater than I am. So when I look into that mirror, Let me just read what I wrote down. A spirit that lets you look into a mirror. You expect to see your face and you do. But something supernatural happens. You also see Christ because you see his glory in a way that only you can see it. Remember, only a man can respond to God because you have the image of God in you. Only a man is capable of seeing the Lord Jesus Christ. Only a man that is born again can see the Lord Jesus Christ the way he wants to be seen. Only you. And you're not seeing a physical representation of him. You're seeing something much deeper and much greater. The spirit lets you look into a mirror. You expect you to see your face and you do. But something supernatural happens. You also see Christ. You see him only as a Christian can see him, I put in quotation marks. And in seeing him, you see yourself. With him superimposed upon your face, how do they match up? This is what the apostle is saying to you. Look into the mirror, look into it real good, And what do you see? You say, oh, I see my face. What do you see on your face? Well, I see the lines that the face has developed over the years. Sin marks the face. Sin puts the crevices on the face. Your face is a representation of your soul. He wants you to see his pure face. his pure face superimposed upon your face, then you begin to understand, I don't want to look like this. I want to look like him. I want to see him for who he is, but I can't do it physically. I have to do it through the power of the spirit of God. James has a take on it by saying, when you look into the perfect law of liberty, it's like a man beholding himself in a mirror. He looks into the perfect law of liberty, looking into the perfect law of liberty, like beholding himself in a mirror, he understands what he is and how he's made. He turns around and goes about his business and straightway, immediately, what? Forgets, forgeteth. He forgets what manner of man he is. So, His face is pure, no guile, no guilt, no sin, your face not so. But the looking into this mirror works a miraculous effect on you. So what does that mean preacher? It means this, it means that we should be able to see ourselves as the Holy Spirit sees us. and then see Jesus as the Holy Spirit makes him real to us and see the difference between the two. He doesn't want you to compare yourself with each other. That's not wise. You sure don't compare yourself with some religion. That's foolishness. You don't compare yourself with your accomplishments, your group, your credentials, or what have you. You want to see Jesus. And you want to see him as he is, as he is being formed in you. Think about this. He said he made man in his own likeness. God wants to look at you and see as much of himself as he possibly can. And the only way he's going to see as much of himself as he can is as he sees the Lord Jesus Christ. you." That's something because He can't do it with an angel. He can't do it with a cherubim. He can't do it with a seraphim. He can only do it as He works grace in your heart. Now when you begin to think about that you need to tell me that God made me so that He could raise me up from where He brought me from and make me into an entirely new creature. Yes. And I am going to bear the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes. The Lord Jesus Christ restored the image that the first Adam lost in the garden. That's why he came to restore that image. And that image goes to the fact that the day will come when God will gather you around his throne in heaven. And he has only begun, he just started, in his communication with humanity, in this back and forth, this reciprocal communication that he puts in you that ability to respond to him and comprehend him and know him in a way that an angel could never do because the angel doesn't have it. That, my dear friends, gives me a reason for being here. That gives me a reason for living. That gives me a reason for forgiveness. That's a reason for redemption. My worth, my self-worth, does not come from some psychobabble that tells me to love myself, some made-up pop theology of 2014. My self-worth comes from the fact that I am a creature of dust that has the Lord Jesus Christ dwelling in Him, and the Lord Jesus Christ is the very image of God. And the more that I can yield to Him by the power of the Holy Spirit of God, seeing Christ for who He is, not physically, who is He? What did He say? How did He think? How did He react? What is He to the Father? As I see that, as it begins to develop inside me, I can say to myself, I'm being conformed to the image of Him who saved me. Look at Romans 8, 29. For whom He didn't foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed, to be, this is a process, to be conformed. to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Hallelujah to God. And the more that happens, the more the conflict. As I told you before, there is a monster living in me. Now, my granddaughter sent me an email and sat down here in Victoria, and sat down here in Jackson, Tennessee, right down below Nashville. A 21-year-old was in the car with his girlfriend. In the news media, he's called a devout Christian. I marvel at how they throw that word around. He took a gun and murdered his girlfriend. And he's supposed to be a devout Christian. the news media makes hay when they can. They'll blow that out of proportion as much, they'll use that, they'll make as much as they possibly can out of a devout Christian taking a handgun and murdering his 21 year old fiance. But this is a reality, he did. He did, that just happened. 21 years old, he murdered his fiance. Now, can you get up at a prayer meeting Can you get away from reading your Bible? Can you understand that your relationship with the Lord is built upon grace and you've been forgiven and you're not what you used to be? Can you stand up from that and just walk over and blow your girlfriend away and murder her? It doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way. There's something bad wrong. And I dare say that if you go back and check into his life, you'll find out that he, and he has a website, he has a Facebook and posts scriptures all the time and talks about the Lord Jesus and all this. You'll find that a lot of people have grown up in the church and it is their culture. They learn all the church lingo. They learn all the Christian cliches. They learn all about, they know all the words to say, when to say them, how to say them. They know what to do, when to do it. They grow up learning all this stuff, and then when the time comes to show what they're really made out of, the murderer rises up. Now, I've got a murderer in me, and so do you. I have a devil in me, and so do you. I have a godless, miserable reprobate that resides right here. Therefore, the more I draw closer to God, and the more I want to serve Him and live for Him and love Him, the more I declare war on that old man. I give him no place. But if you've never been born again, if you don't know Him, You've learned how to spend everything and hide it and cover it up, make excuses for it. And you've got this cavalier laid back attitude. Well, grace is good and grace is gonna keep me and grace is gonna take me home. And you've turned the grace of God into lasciviousness. Be awful careful. Be awful careful. If you're truly born again, there are two of you. And there is a battle and they butt heads and they will never coexist together. One will subject the other. They cannot live equally together. It cannot happen, won't happen. One lust against the other and the other against the other. So tonight, look at yourself and examine yourself. I don't have to ask you if you've got that old man, you do. But I'm gonna ask you this, is there a new man in there? Is there a new man that you can put on? and renew in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and His image. And say, Lord Jesus, I love you. I know you, and I know you've forgiven me, and I know I love you, and I know you've redeemed me, and I'm gonna live for you, and I'm consecrating my life to you, and I got no other reason to be on this earth except to live for you, and that's why I'm here, and by the grace of God, I'm not gonna feed this old man. I declare war on him. I don't accommodate him. I don't make excuses for him. I know what he is. And nowhere in the Bible, in the New Testament does it ever say one good thing about the old man. Not one time. And nowhere in the New Testament does it ever say to accommodate him, make excuses for him, try to live with him. No. You put him down. And the only way you can do it is by the power of the Spirit of God. But when you do put him down, the grace of God brings the image of Christ out of you. And you look back in that mirror, and you say, some of those lines are disappearing. Hallelujah. There's a change taking place. And he's doing it, and not me. And that's the difference. The religious man tries to clean himself up and change himself by his own willpower, and that won't work. That's self-righteousness. And self-righteousness is the worst thing that can happen to anybody. This is why the Apostle Paul said, not having mine own righteousness, but the righteousness which is by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The righteousness that matters to us today, folks, and all of us today, is the righteousness of a sinless, perfect man. Have you ever noticed, now shut up, when I get to talking about the Lord Jesus I don't want to shut up, but I will. The righteousness, the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ is the righteousness of the man that everything we are or ever hope to be, our future, our hopes, our desires, our love, our salvation, our redemption, everything about us is about the Lord Jesus Christ. And without Him we are nothing. We're nothing, folks. Nothing. We're nothing. With Him, we've got everything. Glory to God tonight. Bless His holy name. Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that you use what I've said for the glory of God and help us tonight through your word and through the truth. Father, we pray in thy holy name. Amen.