Let us open our Bibles to Genesis at the very beginning of God's Word. Genesis, chapter nine. And we will begin reading at Verse nine, so this is the portion of God's word in which the Lord has seen the thoughts and intents of the hearts of men were only evil continually and he resolved to destroy all of the earth with a flood and preserve the life of Noah and his family. So this is after the flood, Genesis chapter nine. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea. Into your hand are they delivered. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things. But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat? Surely your blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man, at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. And you be fruitful and multiply, bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply therein. God spake unto Noah and to his sons with him, saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you, and with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you, from all that go out of the ark to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you, neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood, neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you for perpetual generations. I do set my bow in the cloud and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass when I bring a cloud over the earth that the bow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. The waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. The bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, this is the token of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. thus far in the reading of the Word of God. And it's a good reminder to us that the rainbow is not a symbol of wickedness, but it is a symbol of God's covenant. It has been abused in recent years and decades, and we need to not be ashamed of the true meaning of the rainbow. It's meant to be a reminder to us. Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are thy people which are called by thy name. Lord, we seek a blessing of thee. We cannot command a blessing of thee, and yet, Lord, as thy dear children bought by the blood of Christ, we plead a blessing of thee. We beseech Thee for the sake of our souls, that we may be fed and nourished in our hearts. We pray that Christ would be honored and exalted, that Thy word may be set forth faithfully. We pray that it may be proclaimed in the mighty power of Thy Spirit, and that we may be a people set apart in thy providence to show forth thy holiness and thy saving grace. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Beloved congregation, is every life precious to you? Is your desire to follow God Do you understand that murder is sinful? Well, we might say everybody thinks that murder is sinful. People have observed that in almost every law code of society since the beginning of time, murder is singled out as something that is not acceptable. and yet it is very clearly spelled out in God's word, is something that we need to remember, need to be mindful of. So most people would likely agree with the sixth commandment, thou shalt not kill, or we would say in modern language, thou shalt not murder. But do you understand why we should preserve life? One of the reasons that God gives is found in our text in verse six, Genesis 9 verse six. Beloved, murder is evil because it is an assault on God. It's not just an assault on God's image, it's an assault, an attack against God. And it's important for us to understand that that is the case. We want to begin this morning by looking at God's design. Man was created in the image of God. We find that in Genesis 1 verse 27. Beginning at verse 26 it says, 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 and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. So three times in two verses the Lord talks about the image of God. We are created in God's image. And we might say more specifically, we were created in God's image. Adam and Eve were created in God's image. And because it covers both Adam and Eve, It pertains to both of the sexes equally. It's not gender specific to men because Adam was created first. It covers all of mankind. In Genesis 5 verse 1, again, Moses says, this is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him. So God emphasizes this idea that man is created in God's image. Now this is where it gets a little bit interesting because there's been a lot of discussion about what that means. What exactly does it mean that man was created in the image of God? We know that it can't be a physical thing because God is a spirit. They that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So God is not limited by a body the way we are. So it's more than that. We can think of our ability to know God, not just to know about him, but to have a personal relationship with him. We're thinking again of before the fall, Adam and Eve walked with God in the cool of the day. They enjoyed fellowship with him. They would ask him questions. They would just glory in his presence. They loved to be with God. And they delighted in that. This is jumping a little bit ahead, but Paul, as a saved man, prays that I may know him. So lots of people know about God, Christians especially, and Adam and Eve, in a very, very special way, knew God. They knew him intimately. Now, if we look at the scriptures again, jumping a little bit ahead of the fall and redemption, in Colossians 3 verse 10, Paul says that we have put on the new man, that's the man who's converted, has experienced the new birth, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him. So knowledge is one way in which we bear the image of God. Different than animals, animals move by instinct, not by knowledge so much. We are created in the image of God because we have knowledge. And then in Ephesians 4.24, which is a type of parallel verse to Colossians 3.10, Paul exhorts that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. So there are two more aspects, righteousness, holiness. Man was originally created to be holy, different from the rest of creation, but also devoted to God. and to be righteous and holy. Those are obviously connected, but righteousness and true holiness. So that is the way in which our catechism understands that we are made in the image of God, that we are created after him in righteousness and in knowledge righteousness and true holiness. So these are the ways that we understand that image. So we are lower than the angels, Psalm 8 says that, Jesus for a time when he had A body was lower than the angels, but we're higher than the animals. That's where we stand in the creation order. One other way in which we have the image of God is that he has given us dominion over the creatures. Not omnipotence, not absolute power or authority, but he says take dominion. And that's a picture of God and His total authority. We are to take dominion. And Christians understand that in various ways, but the statement is true. We declare that statement to be true, however we may exercise that. So there's God's design. God's design is always perfect. It's always pure. It's always wonderful, but man determined that he was going to ruin that design. So after design then we have destruction. The image of God was lost through the fall. So man was no longer like God. Now clearly that's brought out by Moses in the book of Genesis that Adam and Eve enjoyed fellowship with God. They loved to walk with Him in the cool of the evening. But after they disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, they hid themselves. They didn't want to see God. Their hearts were filled with guilt. And they had no way of dealing with that guilt. There was not another fruit of any other tree that could take that guilt away from them. And they hid themselves. They were filled with fear, an ungodly fear. They were afraid of God because they understood immediately when they ate that fruit that they were under his wrath and judgment. They knew immediately that God was angry with them for what they had done, for simply not believing his word. And so they hid themselves, was no longer able to have fellowship with God. It was destroyed and taken away. and how very, very sorry Adam and Eve must have felt for what they destroyed, what they took away from themselves and from their offspring as well. So it's a terrible thing to think that the image of God was ruined and taken away. They had everything. But though it was taken away, beloved, it was not obliterated. it was not entirely removed. In fact, we read here in Genesis nine verse six that even after the fall and even after the vast majority of mankind has been destroyed by a flood, the Lord gives this reason specifically to Noah. Remember that God is speaking here to the entire population of the world. It's very easy to do a census of this year. Eight. Eight people were alive. That was the population of the whole world. God spoke to all of them through Noah, this is a covenant he made with Noah, speaking to all eight of those people and their descendants. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man. So, to me anyway, it's quite clear that There is something of the image of God that is retained in sinful man. There is something there that God says, if you take away this life, you are still attacking me. And you might say that that man that I killed is wicked and abominable, and I just don't like him. He crosses me every chance he gets, and he does not deserve to live. Even to that man, God says, he is made in my image. Now, all of this has to do also with the punishment of that crime, doesn't it? So the Sixth Commandment is not an absolute rule against killing. That's why we do use the word murder. Thou shalt not murder. Because God himself says that murderers are to be put to death. And they're not just to be put to death by God the way that Cain was. He was set aside. He knew that he should have died, but God preserved his life for his own purposes. Here, God says, if a man kills another man, I'll take care of it. He says, no, by man shall his blood be shed. We call that capital punishment. We haven't had capital punishment in Canada for probably close to 50 years, been a long time. But it is a biblical concept. So it brings us into a remembrance that Christians have an ideal view even of society. The second table of the law has to do with our society, our relationships to one another within the church as well as without the church. And God prescribes capital punishment. If you shed the blood of man, then your blood is to be shed by man. In the Old Testament, that was largely carried out by the family and then eventually by the government. And today, Romans 13, that is to be carried out by the government. It is one of the texts we would use to reason out the establishment of government within society. So we're to protect society by removing murderers. And I won't belabor the point this morning of all the trouble that besets our nation because we have insisted on doing this in a humanistic way rather than in God's way. Does it seem loving to you? I don't think it does. But it is. I mean, I do think it's loving ultimately because God says it is. It's the right thing to do. It's where righteousness prevails in society rather than emotionalism. We just do it. You can think of all the details. You can think of the deep difficulties of an executioner. I wouldn't want that job. And how you go about executing someone, those are hard questions. But we look at the priesthood, not how it's played out, but how God has declared his will to be. A murderer is to be killed by society, to protect society. and we have ended up protecting murderers. We're paying the price for that. It seems very uncivilized. 50 years after it was reasonably accepted, we think it's uncivilized. That's not the mark of a civilized nation where we put people to death. And that's how far we're removed from loving God So far, we're removed from obeying God and desiring his precepts. And still, in the heart of the Christian, though it's been the way that many of us have been raised over 50 or more years, we still say this would be the right thing to do. And again, let me just come back to the fifth commandment about government. This is the prerogative of governments and not individuals. We don't have the right to take up arms against a murderer. God has given that to the government. So it's not an individual thing. It's a principle of society. And we'll... We'll consider that then, right? That we believe that this is what ought to be, even though it is not what is. So, you can call us idealists, but we always look to God's word for how things should be. And the image of God abides not only within Christians, but within unbelievers as well. Paul talks about that in Romans 1 verse 20. For the invisible things of him, of God, from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So the world says, it says, not just ought to say, there's a created order, Somebody put it together. That somebody was God. And Paul says one day, everybody knows they're going to have to give an account to that God of how they conducted their lives in the light of his word, in the light of what they do know. They are going to be held, they're going to be without excuse. They're going to have to give an account, everyone. Now we live in a day when we're just surrounded by atheists. But Paul says they're only professed atheists. They're not atheists in their heart. But so much they've repeated this mantra to one another that they've come to believe that this is the case. It doesn't change how God will hold them accountable. Everyone will be held accountable. because they know that God, the true and the living God, is their judge. In chapter two of Romans, Paul says, for when the Gentiles, he's talking about unbelievers, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law. So he said earlier, this prohibition against murder is found in the law codes of virtually every nation. except maybe cannibals, cannibalistic tribes, but virtually everywhere there's a belief that we ought not to murder. They have not the law, but they do by nature the things contained in the law. These having not the law are a law unto themselves which show the work of the law written in their hearts. So we call that work of the law written in their hearts the conscience. And so that's why faithful preaching of God's word addresses the conscience, addresses the innate knowledge that there is good and evil, that there is right and wrong. And even that is being dispensed with, it's being pushed aside. And as Isaiah says, it's being turned around to where we call good evil and evil good. And we live in hard times. And we live, for God who has allowed that to happen, we live under the judgment of God. If we're going to live in that way, calling good evil and evil good, God is more than just displeased with that. He's angry at subverting His holy law. So people know that. They know that they ought to respect life. So beloved, do you see something of the image of God even in sinful man? Something is there as a created being, not just a body like an animal, but a body with a soul that relates to God. That is how we ought to view even sinful man. They're created in the image of God. And there ought to be, though we see them as being under God's judgment and wrath, we still have compassion on them on that level. They bear something of the image of God, so we don't just cast them off. These are image bearers. And Christ, as we read in Matthew 5, equates hatred with murder. There, very specifically, he's talking about a brother. If you hate your brother, you have killed him. And we don't like to think of it in those terms. It's just my own passionate response to their stupidity or whatever. It's just me. But God says, yes, it's sinful, you. It's sinful to hate other people. It's certainly right to hate their sinfulness. And there's a sense, of course, God hates the evildoer. And we ought to have compassion on those that rebel against God's law. We ought to desire their salvation. Now there are many Psalms also in which we express a hatred for those who rise up against God, who are the open enemies of Christ and of his church. Those are biblical thoughts as well. but we're to understand that individuals particularly are created in the image of God. And often our hatred is a refusal to observe that image. It's a forgetfulness, maybe a sinful relapse into a wicked heart where we just refuse to see them as being created in God's image. Even our enemies are created in the image of God. But especially, especially we ought to consider that within the household of faith, within those who call themselves Christians. We ought to think the very best of them as much as we can. And even that may betray something in your relationship, but when we hear a bad report about a brother in the Lord, we ought to immediately, in our heart at least, spring to his defense. We ought to be honest with the facts. We ought to be aware and interested in the facts. We ought not to downplay them. but our heart ought to be towards those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus Christ first of all. And we can think that we're gonna pick up some of these things in the seventh commandment. We can think of the shame that has been brought upon the Church of Christ by the testimony of Rabbi Zacharias and its public knowledge now and admitted. And immediately when the accusations came forth against him for his infidelity, Christians sprang to his support. That was not a bad response. There's a lot of mistakes that were made along the way, but Christians, especially those that weren't close to him, rose to his defense, that was not a bad response because we know immediately the world is gonna go after him, right? They're all going to attack him. But then also honesty, the Eighth Commandment requires us, or the Ninth Commandment requires us to look at the facts as well. So there's how some of the commandments play together. But here in the sixth commandment, we know that the world hates the Lord's people to begin with. So we begin always with a desire for the honor of fellow Christians. We assume that a lot of the attacks are going to be against him. We're not surprised when attacks are made. We begin with this idea that brother, he's a brother in Christ, not only created in the image of God, but being conformed to that image. So that brings us to our third D. We began with design, we went on to destruction, and now we go to development. There's a development, the image of God created or restored in Christ. So Christ is the second Adam. He restored that, Psalm 69, he restored that which he took not away. Adam took it away, Christ restored it. So now, in Christ, we are being made like to the first Adam, but more than that, we're being made like unto the Lord Jesus Christ. So in 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4, Paul talks about those 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. Christ is the image of God. And that's the one that we ought to look to. Hebrews 1 verse 3 talks about Christ 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. Greatly exalted, this one who is the express image of the person of God. So here is a beautiful thing. What was once found in Adam, but Adam destroyed, is now found in the Lord Jesus Christ. So beloved, as you trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, is this image being restored in you? You see the wickedness. of Adam in having refused to maintain the image of God within him. And that you yourself were complicit, involved in that sin, that you are also guilty of that original sin. And that it bears down upon you, the image of God in me is not what it ought to be. And when you turn to the Lord in salvation, when you turn to the Lord in repentance and receive the Holy Spirit, you have new life in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and you are being conformed to His image. We ought to be somewhat aware of that process. And we come back to those verses again in Colossians 3.10. Well, we'll go to Romans 8 verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son. That's part of your predestination, to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ. in Colossians 3.10, that we have put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge. I'm gonna talk a little more about that this evening as we talk about girding up the loins of your mind. But you're renewed in knowledge and your knowledge becomes refocused. It involves the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not that you ignore all the knowledge of the world. Each of us have different knowledge related to your work. We each know things that other people don't know because it's specific to your work, to your job. But that knowledge, beloved, takes on a new perspective and a new meaning. One of my friends that I went to seminary with was a fine arts student at the University of Manitoba when the Lord saved him. He was an artist. He liked to draw. And he said when he was saved, a tree was different for him. It was a tree. It was a tree created by God. It had significance. It was a beautiful testimony. So your knowledge changes. Whatever knowledge you have, and your work is just one part of your life. You have other things maybe outside of your work that you're interested in in a particular way. A Christian understands those things more deeply, more fully, has an appreciation for them. Some of you, I'm sure, love to watch documentaries. beautiful documentaries that are being filmed even by the ungodly about creation and the cosmos and the universe and the sea and the animals of this world and you have a better, deeper interest in those things because you see God's hand in them even if the commentator won't mention that. You see that. You understand that. You appreciate it. And you love the God that put these things together. It's glorious. It's one of the reasons that we have creation science organizations around the world. Because they love science. People that love science, and they love to show how God's hand is in those aspects of science. So you're being renewed in knowledge. And a lot of that knowledge has to do with God's Word as well. You are, as R.C. Sproul said, every man's a theologian. Everyone's a theologian. ought to have an interest in God's Word. It's not just, well, you know, it's for the academics. And we were talking about that this morning. It's a terrible thing when people have only an academic knowledge of God. And the church has been misled by people who have taken an active interest just in knowledge without the Holy Spirit. But your knowledge ought always to be embraced through a love of the Lord Jesus Christ. All your knowledge is applicable. It reproves you of your sin, not just knowledge for knowledge's sake, but it shows you your sinfulness. It shows you the glories of Christ. It shows you who Christ is and how multifaceted his work is and his love for you and how the members of the Trinity work together, how history has all been It's overseen by the hand of God and His decrees at every step. These are glorious things revealed in the Word of God. So we're renewed in knowledge, being conformed to the image of Christ. And the older I get, the further away that is from my experience. Holiness is so beautiful. You think you're making great progress, and I know that I'm making progress because of the power of the Holy Spirit. The closer you get to God, the further away, in a way that seems, I mean, still precious to you, but you have so much to learn, so much to know about God and his word and his ways that we're gonna spend all of eternity researching it, appreciating it, learning. In Ephesians 4, 24, that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. And again, this evening, we're going to talk about hope and holiness. We are called to be holy. We love the righteousness of God, which is represented in the word of God. We love his holiness. We're not there, but we're on that road. We're on that great desire, beloved. So pursue holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. That is the desire of the Christian. That's how you're being conformed to the image of Christ. It's being restored. That precious thing that Adam threw away is being restored through the Holy Spirit in the lives of his people. So beloved, turn from sin. and especially turn from hatred of, especially of brothers and sisters in the Lord, even of unbelievers. We have a godly love, not approving of their sin. Love will show reproof of their sin as well, but we'll always direct them to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the very image of God. Let us pray. Oh Lord, our God, We pray that thou would forgive us for acts of hatred and expressions of hatred in our own hearts and sometimes from our own tongues. Lord, give us a holy resolve to be holy, to desire to be conformed to the image of Christ as we gather week by week to study what is involved in that image. How glorious our Savior, how wonderful and bright His image is revealed in Thy Word. Lord, deliver us from unbelief. We pray, Lord, that we may have respect for life and behold one another as bearing Thine image. Sanctify us, O Lord. Deliver us from sin and evil, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.