Let us pray. Our Father and our great God in heaven, we rejoice this morning in the name of Jesus Christ, our Savior. We've heard of him already this morning. We've heard of his great love towards us, and we marvel in such contrast to our waywardness and sinfulness, the great love that Christ had for us in giving Himself, the great love that God the Father had in giving His Son, and the great love that God the Spirit has in condescending to dwell with us and in us. We are so thankful today for the gospel of saving grace that lifts us out of our sin that lifts us out of our sinfulness and will one day bring us into glorified tranquility with Jesus Christ for all eternity. Lord, we pray today that as we meet together around your word, that we might know something, a little bit, of the joy of heaven. We might experience and taste of the world to come in your word, in your voice, speaking to each one of us. We thank you for this church. We pray that you would bless this congregation and this church, that you would bless the pastor, the elders, that you would bless all who make this church work and function so efficiently. We ask, Lord, your hand upon it for the glory of our God, for the extension of his kingdom, for the edification of his people, And so as we come to the Word today, we pray, Lord, that you would prepare our hearts, that our hearts might be ploughed up and ready for the seed of the Word, that the seed might germinate by the power of the Spirit of God and watered by His Spirit, and that it might bear forth fruit in our lives. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Genesis chapter 1. Three verses from Genesis 1, and the subject, as has already been stated, is in the image of God. In the image of God. Genesis 1, verse 26, and God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, 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. God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply. and replenish the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Amen. We trust the Lord will bless this brief reading of his word to our hearts. Genesis chapter 1 and chapter 2. record for us the creation of the world that we now live in. The first five verses are recorded in the chapter 1, verses 1 to 25. But in chapter 1 and the verse 26, something changed in the wording of the Holy Spirit as he inspired Moses to write. And verse 26 changes the atmosphere, if you like, of the creation. Something was about to be created that was different from everything else. And that is the little phrase, let us make man. That little phrase introduces the creation of a being that would be different from every other part of creation. Let us make man. And man, male and female, and you see there in the reading, and God created man in his own image, verse 27, in the image of God created he him. And the him there is humanity, man, and then it clarifies it that it's both male and female. male and female created he them man became the greatest part of the week's work and the only part of creation that is said to be made in the image of god the image of god there the word image is mentioned three times in verses 26 and 27 and the word image and likeness are important words when we think of humanity, and it is humanity that I want us to think about today. In fact, it is not only humanity that I want you to think about today, it is you as an individual, as an individual part of the family of humanity. There is one human race. So often we think of this race and that race, but there is one human race. We are of one blood. We're all made in the image of God. And these verses, at the end of the week's work of creation, indicate to us that we, as God's creation, humanity, are a special part of God's creation. The image of God is, of course, no longer perfect in humanity. It has been marred by sin. But still, Human beings are created in the image of God. And life, the life of humanity, is sacred. We read this throughout the Bible. Different passages of the Bible indicate to us that the life of humanity is sacred. Over in chapter 9 of Genesis, and the verse 6. Very significant verse. Who so sheds man's blood? Chapter 9 of Genesis and the verse 6, "...whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. For in the image of God made he man." Humanity is sacred. Whether you're an unborn baby or an old, decrepit, aged individual, life is sacred and we must remember that. We must remember that. There are two things about humanity that I want us to notice today that indicates to us what the Bible means that we are made in the image of God. No other part of creation is made in the image of God. Not even the angels, right? Not even the angels. Humanity is made in the image of God. What does that mean? The first thing I would point you to is that we represent God on earth. That's the first thing, and that is highlighted in this passage that we've read. As representatives of God, we are to rule in the world in which God has placed us. You see this in verse 26, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and then the Lord indicates what that means. And let them, humanity, 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 man has dominion over the earth. When I eat fish, when I eat goat in Africa, or chicken, I remember that we are made in the image of God, we have dominion over the animals that God has placed on this earth. And I have the divine imprimatur to kill an animal and eat it for my good, for my good. So I don't need to be a vegetarian, praise God. Because God has given us the dominion over the animals. We are, verse 28 says, part of our dominion is to be fruitful and multiply. You see that in verse 28? And God blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruitful and multiply. That's part of the dominion of the earth. We're to spread over the earth. And as you travel across the world today, we see that man has done that. Very few places in the world, except for those uninhabitable places, are populated, some heavily populated, with humanity. So we're to be fruitful and multiply. Another aspect of our dominion over the earth is found in chapter 2 and the verse 15. And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden, chapter 2 verse 15, of Eden to dress it and to keep it. He was to be a steward of God's earth. He was to be a steward of God's earth. In chapter 1, verse 26, we have already seen that he was to have dominion over that earth, right? He is to rule the earth. God is the king. The king of kings. But God has placed us here to be kings, to have dominion over his creation. And part of that kingship of humanity is proper stewardship. And that's important. Chapter 2, verse 15, where Adam was given the task of keeping the garden, of dressing the garden. Now, I'm not advocating that we're going to save the earth. We are living on a disposable planet. Praise God. Right? This planet is disposable. We cannot save it. But while we live on it, we must be good stewards of it. And as we take of the planet on which God has placed us, we are to as much as possible replenish so that it can provide for us and sustain us on this earth. And so there is a part of our use of this planet which has the divine command to be good stewards of it. Good stewards. Another part of our obligation as having dominion on this earth is our obligation to our fellow man. We've already seen it. Whoso sheds man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed. We have an obligation to our fellow man. But in Matthew chapter 22 and the verse 38 and 39, Matthew chapter 22, This is the Lord Jesus speaking, verse 37. He said, This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. The Ten Commandments, the Decalogue, is divided into two. Our love for God and our love and respect and our obligation to our fellow man. And as Christians, and as those who bear the image of God, we have an obligation to our fellow man to love our neighbor as ourselves. The commandment said, thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit murder. And the opposite of that is true. That is given in the negative, thou shalt not kill. But the opposite of that is true, which means that we are to promote and to enhance and to develop the health and happiness of those around us. And no better way is that seen than in the medical profession. As I live in Africa, and with my family and the health issues that we have, I admire more and more the medical profession. And in that profession of preserving and saving life, We see the image of God on humanity. And God has given us wisdom, and the accumulated wisdom of many, many centuries and millennia enables us to preserve life like we couldn't do before, and to maintain life, and to make life comfortable. That's part of our obligation. as we are made in the image of God. And so in those things, we represent God. We are taking dominion over the world. We take dominion. We go to the herbs of the field. We extract out of the herbs that which we can use for medicine. We're taking dominion of the plants. All of these things, we're taking dominion of for the good of humanity. That's the image of God. But not only do we represent God, the second part of the image of God is that we share personality, we share intelligence with God. We are made to think. We are made to think. And man is endowed with an extraordinary ability to think and to innovate. And the capacity of knowledge that humanity has is phenomenal. I was speaking to a brother last week about his love for dogs. And a dog is called man's best friend. And a dog is an intelligent little creature. And it becomes so friendly, and we become so attracted and attached to our pet dog. And they become so helpful to us. And all of that help and reciprocated love between a man and his dog is amplified and magnified and brought to another level in humanity. Because a dog can't speak to you. It can communicate, but it can't speak. And it can't argue with you. But humanity, we as human beings are made to think, are made to reason. And this is what makes us different from the animals. We can reason. We can argue. We can make choices. And let me say this. This is not something that we can do. It is not merely something that we can do. We can think. We can reason. We can argue. We can formulate arguments. It's something we are obligated to do. I want you to see the difference. Humanity is not just a being that can think. Humanity is a being that is obligated to think. And we're going to see that today. You're obligated to think. If you're here today in this meeting, you've come to worship, you're obligated to think and to reason. And I'm going to make you think today from God's word, because that's what we do. That's what we are obligated to do. Remember, as God deals with us, as you hear this morning under the sound of the Word of God, God is dealing with you. With every individual, God is here. He has promised to be here among his people and he is dealing with you. And we're not mystics. He deals with us through his Word. He causes us to think of his Word. He causes us to process his Word and to reason his Word, right? This is how God deals with you. He knows how he created you, right? He created you. And he knows how he created you. He knows what we are capable of as humanity. And he knows that we can think, and he demands that we use that ability. And conversion, you see, is an act of the mind. and heart, right? Being born again is an intellectual exercise. In Ephesians chapter 1 and the verse 13, we read of those in the church at Ephesus who believed after that they heard the Word of God. They heard the Word of God. The Lord gives us information. This is it here in His Word. He provides us with the information. We are to process that information. We are to think of that information. We are to reason. We are to argue with that information. And maybe you're here today and you've gotten saved later in life or perhaps you're here today and you're arguing right now in your mind with God. And you're formulating arguments in your mind why you should not or cannot or don't want to believe or you don't want to trust. Or you don't want God. You're reasoning. You're arguing with God. Because God has given you information about yourself. He has given you information about him. And he demands that you respond to that information. I want you to understand that. He demands that you respond to that information. Now, you will respond, right? You will respond one way or the other. There's no neutral. You can't just walk away and say, I'm not responding. Because by walking away, you have responded, right? You've rejected. And that's what we read in the last part of John chapter 3. In the Gospel of John on the chapter 3, we read this of those who believe not. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not, right, that's not just a passive passing over. That is an active thing. You have rejected, you have believed not, you have refused to believe. And so they have responded. You either respond by accepting or you respond by rejecting the Word of God. You have made a choice. And that brings me to the first point that I want to make with regard to how God reasons with us, how God interacts with humanity. The first thing I want you to notice, God sets choices before us. He sets choices before us. This is true of the unbeliever, it is true of the believer. Throughout scripture we see it. Two destinies, only two. Very simple. Only two destinies. There is service to Satan or service to God. That's what he said to Pharaoh and the Israelites in Egypt. Let my people go that they may serve me. Those who stay serve Pharaoh. There's service to God or service to Satan. There's the blessing and the curse. Behold, I lay before you a blessing and a curse." Deuteronomy 11 and the verse 26. And so as Joshua said, choose you this day whom you will serve, whether you're going to serve the gods whom we've left, or you're going to serve the Lord, the God of heaven, In Deuteronomy chapter 11 verse 26, Moses says, I lay before you a blessing and a curse. Serving God is the blessing. Serving Satan or the gods that Satan has brought about is the curse. There is the choice between life and death, Deuteronomy chapter 30 and the verse 19. I put before you life and death. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse, therefore choose life. See, the Lord has put a choice and he gives us all a choice today. Every one of us, a choice between life and death, between blessing and curse. We'll come into the New Testament, Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14. And in the language of the New Testament, we have the broad road and the narrow road. Enter in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in thereat. You see the choice? It's clear. The choice is very clear. Just two ways. Two ways. Blessing and curse, life or death, narrow gate or broad gate. And so God has created us today to think and to reason in his image as he does. And he has set a choice before you. He set a choice before Adam also in the garden, remember. There's all of these trees, Adam. All of these trees, this entire garden is given for your benefit, but there's a tree in the midst of the garden that you cannot eat of. If you eat of that tree, you will die. Adam was given a choice. Now, the odds were stacked in his favor because Adam had all the trees of the garden to choose from, all of the trees. But Satan came and said, oh, God's holding out on you. God doesn't want to give you all of his blessing. He's holding this tree back from you. And Adam had a choice to make. Adam had a choice to make. You see, the difference between the righteousness of God and the righteousness of Adam is God's righteousness, God's holiness, is immutable. It cannot change. He cannot change. Adam was made righteous. But Adam's righteousness was mutable, it could change. And God gave Adam the power to choose, the power of contrary choice. He was made in righteousness, but he could choose to the contrary, and Adam chose to sin. He chose to sin, and the Bible tells us that Adam sinned. He was not deceived like his wife. Paul tells us that Adam went into sin knowing exactly what he was doing. He went in with his eyes wide open in outright rebellion against God. That's what makes Adam's sin heinous. It was absolute and outright rebellion against God. Adam chose to sin. He chose to sin. In being made in the image of God, God not only sets choices before us, but God stimulates a response, right? He gives us a choice and he will stimulate a response. The very first sinner, as we have already seen, was Adam. And God stimulated a response from Adam. What did Adam do when he sinned? Reverend McCrae told us last week, I believe it was, that Adam should have come to God and said, I've sinned against God. I've rebelled against God. That would have been the obvious thing to do. But what did Adam do? Adam ran, and Adam hid behind the trees of the garden. And what did God do? Did God just leave the garden and say, that's humanity, I'm finished? No, no, God pursued, God pursued Adam. Why? Because Adam was made in the image of God, and Adam could think. And because Adam can think, Adam was in turmoil and torture of his mind. He was in turmoil and torture. He knew he had sinned. He knew something had gone wrong. And so he began to self-help, to make aprons of fig leaves. And then he heard the sound of God in the garden. And what happened? He began to fear. He began to fear. Turmoil. Why? Because he was made to think. He could think. He reasoned it out. He has sinned against God, and God hates sin, and God is wrathful against sin, and God will judge sin, and God has promised that if he eat of the tree, he would die. And Adam knew something had died that day. And he feared God because he could think. But even then, even then, he ran from God. When he should have ran to God and asked for forgiveness, he ran from God. And God pursued Adam. And when God pursued Adam, God entered into a dialogue with Adam. Or not. He didn't. He had to. bring out, bring Adam out of himself. And he did that by a series of questions. You see in chapter three of Genesis, and the Lord, verse nine, and the Lord called unto Adam and said unto him, where art thou? Where are you? Did God lose Adam? Could God not know, did God not know where Adam was? God knew exactly where Adam was. God did not lose Adam. Adam lost God. And God pursued Adam, and God drew out. He stimulated a response from him, because Adam, in his sinfulness, was running from God. And God wanted to draw him in. And he said, where art thou? And Adam said, verse 10, I heard thy voice in the garden, or the sound of God in the garden, and I was afraid. And God responded with another question. Who told you you were naked? Who told you you were naked? Verse 11. Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee thou shouldst not eat? You see this series of questions? Because God is making Adam think. That's why God asked him a question. That's why God asked, where art thou? Because he wanted Adam to think, where am I? Where am I? Did God not do the same with Jacob? Remember back in Genesis chapter 32 verse 27, when Jacob was wrestling with God, what did God ask him? What is your name? Had God forgotten his name? No. God knew what he was called. But he wanted Jacob to recognize his name, because his name meant supplanter and deceiver. And he wanted Jacob to recognize, yes, I'm a deceiver. I have deceived my brother. I have deceived those before me. That's who I am. I'm Jacob. And God stimulated this response, stimulating this reasoning, this processing of who he was before God. The same thing with Paul. As God knocked Paul off his horse, it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. Why do you persecute me? But he wasn't persecuting Christ personally. Christ was already in heaven. Jesus had already ascended up into heaven. But Paul was persecuting the church of Christ, the body of Christ. And God was gonna make Paul think, think, think, think. And God is reasoning, bringing out, and he enables us to process. He stimulates us to process. So that when we come to him, we have processed it. Because, as I said before, salvation, or the new birth, is an intellectual experience. It's an intellectual experience. Not only does God set choices before us, and the choice is simple, it's to one place or the other. He stimulates a response to get us thinking. The third thing I would draw your attention to is that God calls us to engage with him. Isaiah chapter one and the verse 18. God calls us to engage with him. Have you a problem with God? Go to God. Go to God and reason with Him. Come now, God said. Come now. Let us reason together, saith the Lord. The word there is an interesting word. It is to argue your point. God wants you to argue with Him. If you have a problem with God, you believe that there should be more than one way. You think you can make it yourself, you can make your own way to heaven, and you say to God, well, I'm doing this, and I'm doing this, and this, and this, and at the end, I'm going to make it to heaven. And you reason with God, and God says, no. One way, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. And Jesus said, I am the way, no other way. And so God says, if you have a problem, whatever problem you have, you come and bring it to me. If you have a human reasoning why you should be led into heaven or why God should accept you, you come and reason and argue with God. That's what God invites us to do. Come now, let us reason together. And God has an answer. You see, God can invite you to argue with Him. He's not afraid. He's not afraid of your argumentation. Right? Because He has an answer for you. He will answer you. He will respond. And He responds to us in His Word. Whatever your problem, whatever difficulty you have with God, He responds to you in His Word. But you must come. You must reason with Him. You must argue with Him. And God invites you to do it. to take your arguments to him. Tell him, tell God that his way is too particular, too narrow, too rigid. Tell God how great you think you are. Tell God that you can make it your own way to heaven. Tell God that you have discovered a way to heaven yourself. And you come to him in his word, and you must, if you're going to talk to him, you must wait till he responds to you. Right? And you hear him in his word, and he will respond. He speaks to us in his word. And he will shut down every argument. He will close out every objection. And he will bring you to the one way of salvation that he himself has provided, which is in Jesus Christ. And he's given us 66 books 66 books of history, of poetry, of prophecy, of biography, whatever genre you like to read. God has provided it. And He'll respond to you. But you must think, and you must reason. and you must understand. Now the same is true with the believer, because so many believers are stuck in a world where they don't think. They don't think, and they don't process and reason through the scripture, or they don't process and reason through the Christian life. And if you're a believer here this morning, the Lord will not allow you to drift mindlessly through this life. He will not allow you to drift mindlessly through this life. He will stimulate your life. He will inject things into your life that will cause you to think, that will cause you to sit up, that will cause you to sit on the edge of your seat sometimes. He will put things in your life that will cause you to reason where you're at, who you are, who God is. So it's not what he did with Job. For 30 odd chapters in Job, Job was reasoning, wrestling, wrestling with God. Why? How can this be? Why can this be? And whatever difficulty the Lord has placed in your life, it's placed there by the divine purpose of God, Christian. It is by the divine purpose of God, decreed from eternity past. Because the God whom we serve is a sovereign God. And He knows. He knows you. He knows you. He knows you can think. And He will cause you to come back to Him and think of Him and place Him at the forefront of your mind. Because so often, God is not in all our thoughts. And if we're going to live an efficient effective Christian life, then we must have God in all our thoughts. And the Lord so often chastises us and brings us to think. He puts a choice. He stimulates. He invites us to argue and to reason with Him. That's what He's doing with Israel. In Isaiah 1, verse 18, And the life of Job, the Lord injected into the life of Job difficulty, horrendous, horrendous difficulty. He lost everything. And by the way, it wasn't Satan. It wasn't Satan. Satan is God's devil. God controls. And God lets him go so far. And it was God who suggested Job to Satan, okay? It was God who suggested, have you considered Job, my servant Job? Have you considered him? And Satan went and did his worst on Job, but only so far as God will allow him. And why? What was the purpose of that? It was so Job would reason and wrestle with God. And so he would come to the end of that experience And he would say, I had heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but now I have seen Him. I have seen Him. Job was a righteous man. And he had heard of God by the hearing of the ear, but at the end of that trial, he could say, I have seen God in a way that I had never seen Him before. And beloved, That's what God does, stimulating, engaging us to reason, and to see him, and to love him more, to love him more. Now we are made in the image of God in order to do this, but the mind of humanity has been so polluted by sin, according to Romans chapter one, in the verse 28, In Romans 8, in verse 7, the mind has been affected. We can't think. This is the problem with humanity. We can't think like we ought to think. Our mind is corrupted by sin. Romans 8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. The carnal mind, the mind of the flesh. And that's where we are in sin. And so how are we going to bring our minds, which are corrupted by sin, we have fallen from our original image of God to a corrupted image, a blurred image. We need to come to God and ask Him to renew the mind. That's what Romans chapter 12 speaks of. A renewing of the mind. And this is what conversion is. Conversion and sanctification is a renewing of the mind. bringing the mind into conformity to the will and word of God, into an image of God which is more righteous, more like Him, as he says in other places in the epistles. More like God. And a Christ-like life is a mind that has been conformed or that is being conformed to the mind of Christ, as Paul says in Philippians. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Okay? And so as Christians, as Christians made in the image of God, brought before God and renewed in His image after the likeness of Him who created us, we are to conform our minds, conform our minds, Romans 12 to not to be conformed to this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Beloved, we are made in the image of God. We are made to think. We are made to think of Him. We are made to think like Him, right? And so as Christians, we need to pray that we would think more and more like Christ. that our minds would be conformed to his likeness, to humility, servitude to God, that we, like the Israelites coming out of Egypt, might leave the world, might extract ourselves from the distractions and sin and captivity of this world, that we might serve God. And we may have to serve him in the wilderness before we get to the promised land, but we're coming out of the world to serve him. and to love Him and to worship Him. And so let us pray. Let us pray that the Lord would renew our minds, that the Lord would corral our minds. And if you're unconverted today, pray that the Lord would take your mind, that the Lord would change your mind, that the Lord would regenerate, breathe life into a deadened heart and a dull and dead mind. that there might be a life of God in order that you would think of Him and think like Him. Let's pray. Our Father, and our God, we come this morning in our Savior's name. We're so much in need of the help of the Spirit of God. Our minds are so perverted by sin. and damaged and depraved. We ask today that for the help of the Spirit of God to renew, to regenerate, and to renew the mind. Bless, we ask, the Word of God and the hearing of your Word, in our Savior's name. Amen.