So we're going to be continuing our summer series of Summer Through the Psalms. We are teaching through 10 psalms, Lord willing, every summer until we complete the entire book of psalms, which consists of 150 psalms. We'll let you do the math this time on how long that should take us. But this morning we'll be in Psalm chapter eight. So if you would open up to Psalm chapter eight in your Bibles or even your electronic Bibles on your phone. If you don't have either of those, we do have Bibles at the back that you could use. We highly encourage you to have Psalm eight open in front of you throughout the entirety of the message so that you can reference it. If you don't have a Bible of your own at home, feel free to take one of ours as a gift from us to you. And so as you are opening up to Psalm chapter 8, maybe some of you have had this practice in the past or seen this show, but it's funny, the television these days is hard. In fact, a lot of times when I talk with people, one of the conversations, are you watching anything good? Because it just seems so hard to find stuff. I took for granted growing up what it was like to have cable, to just know that there were certain programs that you watch on certain days and times of the week. And one program that was very popular, and I think is even still popular today, was a show called American Idol. Any American Idol fans in the room? Some of you, don't want to admit it? Proud, okay, very good. And so the American Idol was kind of the first, but these singing competition shows with professional judges and contestants coming out and people competing. And my favorite episodes, I never actually usually made it all the way through a season, I always enjoyed watching the auditions the most. Number one, we always enjoy watching those people who think they can sing but actually can't. But they were more suspenseful of like, is this person going to be good or not? And I do remember watching a few episodes, enough episodes to know that that song choice for your first audition is very important. You want to not only sing a song that you sing really well, but you also want to sing a song that's good. But there was always the danger of picking a song that happened to be one of the judge's favorite songs, right? Because then you'll be held to a higher standard that, hey, you better do a good job on this song because this is my favorite song. And one of the reasons why it's my favorite is because this person wrote it, this person does it, and I don't even like hearing covers on it. And so I know enough about American Idol to know that when Simon Cowell was a judge on the show famous for some of his very harsh criticism, he never liked it when someone auditioned with the song Desperado, because that was his favorite song. And so you were looking to get some critical comments from someone like him. Now, I'm not going to be singing for you this morning, so don't worry. But in some ways this is true and was bound to happen with regards to our study through the Psalms, that the Psalms are songs meant to be sung. And some of us have maybe spent a lot of time in the book of Psalms, but whether we have or not, we know that there are some Psalms that are more well-loved, maybe even favorites, that are near and dear to our heart. And Psalm 8 just happens to be one of those Psalms that probably makes that list of top 10, top 20 Psalms that resonate with people. Psalm 23 very famously is a well-loved Psalm, Psalm 51, but as we read Psalm 8, many of you may hear some familiar words and be like, oh yes, I know that one, that's a good one. And so in some ways I feel like that contestant who's trying out with maybe someone's favorite Psalm in here and praying that I preach it well for you this morning. And so Psalm 8, deservedly so, is a lovely psalm, one that has been beloved by God's people for many generations. And I hope that whether you're familiar with it or not, prior to this morning, that it would continue to be henceforth a favorite psalm of yours. And so let us now stand for the reading of this psalm. We're gonna read Psalm chapter eight all the way through. It'll be nine verses this morning. So if you would please stand for the reading of God's word, if you're willing and able, and that the conclusion of God's word, let us do our call and response. And so Psalm eight, to the choir master, according to the Gethsemane, a psalm of David. O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes to still the enemy and the avenger. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. Oh Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. This is God's word for us this morning, and let us say together, may God apply its truth to our lives. Thank you. You may be seated. And so looking at this well-loved and possibly even familiar psalm, I want to kind of break it down for us this morning in three points. I see in this psalm that it is a psalm of praise, which is nice, coming from Psalms 6 and 7, psalms that are a bit more somber, that are of confession-minded. But this is a psalm of praise, an exaltation, and we see specifically three people or three main persons being exalted here in this text. The first, as we're going to see, is the exaltation of God and his name. But the bulk of this psalm we'll see is actually an exaltation of man and his unique place in God's creation. And then lastly, we'll see the exaltation of one called the Son of Man, whom we will see refers most clearly to the promised Savior of Jesus Christ. And so let us turn first to this first point, the exaltation of God, specifically God the Father here in this psalm as first and of first importance. That even though the content of this psalm will appear to be bulkly about the unique place of man and God's created order, it is important to note that God is the one to be exalted above all else first and foremost. We see this psalm bookended with words of praise. Let us look specifically at verse one. David begins this psalm by saying, O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. And so that phrase, oh Lord, my Lord, I want us to study a little bit here in this passage. You'll notice that there are two words repeated here, Lord, Lord, but if you look closely at your text, you'll see that that first Lord should be, if you have a good Bible translation in front of you, in all caps, oh Lord, all caps, our Lord. And so what is the significance of this? Here is where it is appropriate. I don't often dive into the original language too often because I do believe we have very good translations for us today. But one of the things that's being conveyed here with just that simple capitalization is something that we see in the Hebrew text, that all caps of the word LORD is a particular name for God. In fact, it is God's most special and sacred and holy name. A name that some of you may be familiar with, that comes from, or were first introduced to this name of God in the story of Moses. It is the name Yahweh. This name is of particular importance here in the scripture, because as you know, there may be many names for the God of the Bible, but there is one name that is uniquely thought to be God's personal covenant name, and that is this name, Yahweh. And there's an interesting tradition behind this name. You see, the Hebrew scribes and really the tradition within Judaism was not even to pronounce this name out loud. You may know that one of the commandments is to not take the Lord's name in vain. And so to take that commandment as seriously as they possibly could, they would not even utter or speak this name of God. Now, I don't think that is necessary, that if you are one of God's people that you are allowed to call God by his most proper covenant name. But nevertheless, that shows you what the great sacredness that is found in God's name. So what is the tradition here? The tradition is that if you were a Jewish scribe or Pharisee and you were even writing this name, you wouldn't even spell it all the way through. You would take the consonants only and drop out the vowels, leaving what would essentially be Y-H-W-H. And that's how you would write it, so not as to even write God's name in vain. And those vowels would be dropped off and replaced with vowels from another word. And that word would be the vowels from the word as we know it, Lord. And so if you were reading the scriptures as a Jewish person, you would replace this word, Yahweh, his name with the word Lord. And so that's where the tradition comes from. But it is important for us to know that this behind this name is God's personal covenant name. That name Yahweh, God reveals himself through this name to Moses, and it means I am. That God is the self-existing one, the all-powerful one, the one who is outside of his creation. He is uniquely unto himself different from all things, that he is the creator God, and yes, he is the covenant-making God, that as God makes a covenant, he uses this personal name. And so God is spirit, he has no physical form. And so when we offer praise, when we focus on who God is, it is right for us to attach our praise and our focus to how he has revealed himself, which is through this personal name. And that's how David cries out to him. He says, oh Yahweh, covenant-making God, all-sustaining, all-powerful God, you are my Lord. And you are worthy to be praised. Oh Lord, my God, in you do I take refuge. Sorry, I'm reading the wrong way. Oh Lord, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens. This is the God of the Exodus. This is the God of all creation. And much of this psalm is going to point us to particularly this self-existing, all-creating God. Much of what we read in this psalm is meant to draw our attention back to the first chapter of the Bible when God creates all things. There was no one greater than this God who spoke everything into existence, that he is the most powerful and most worthy of all praise. And so it's appropriate that as the bulk of this, we'll focus on man within God's creation, that we first set our attention upon God, so that we don't get ahead of ourselves, so that we remain humble, knowing that God is the first in the order of creation and worthy of all praise, even though there may be some praise with regards to how man has made. And so I believe that's the intention here, that we must humble ourselves before God, before we ourselves can be exalted. We see Jesus say something very similar in Matthew 23, verse 12. He says this, a wisdom that reigns true not just in the past, but even today, And so let us first exalt God before we consider the exalted unique position of man within creation. Because this God, Yahweh, has made everything and that there is the glory of God is on display in creation. That's the purpose of creation in many ways as we're to understand it that God is a creating God who rightly deserves glory and praise and he receives that naturally through what has been made. If we go on to read verses three through four, We see that David, after acknowledging who God is, that he is the self-existing one, the all-powerful God, deserving of praise, he then looks at the creation from this very God and he says, You see, David is struck with just the natural revelation that he is taking in before him. He looks at God's creation and the inward parts of him are provoked to praise. There's a natural reverence, I think, invoked in every person in the deepest part of them when we stand and revel at God's creation. I hope that you've had this experience as you've witnessed some of the most beautiful sights that can be seen amongst God's creation. Maybe it was this summer as you stood under a night sky as you were camping without any of that ambient light from electricity and you saw just how bright the stars can be. Maybe you've seen crystal clear waters that show you the beauty of the depth of maybe a cove or an ocean. Or maybe you've simply stood and acknowledged or been taken back by the vastness of a horizon on a mountain landscape. God's creation is indeed beautiful and it's meant to do something in you. You are to be prompted to look at God's creation and give glory and praise to him, that this is the natural response. And this is what scripture says is the natural response. We will get there next year, Lord willing, but Psalm 19 says this in verses one through two, something very similar, that the heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech and night to night reveals knowledge. that God's creation reveals how great and wonderful and powerful and big he is, and we would be right to recognize these things. In the New Testament, we read in Romans, when we fail to do this, But Paul says it is clear, Romans 1 20, for God's invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. One of the reasons why every person stands condemned before God for lack of faith is that they have a myriad of witnesses of that there is a great and good and powerful God just by looking outside at his creation. And we as Christians ought to value this and ought to respond with the same sort of praise that David does here. And one of the things that we're gonna see in this psalm is that even though God has made wonderful things, he's made the stars, he's made the ocean, he's made the mountains, he's made beautiful landscapes, but chief in all of his creation, if you were to ask God what is most special, what is most unique, what is most beautiful, it is man. David and the rest of us ought to be humbled that God would take such special interest, special attention for such a rebellious people as us. So the experience of Psalm 8 hopefully has been experienced by you as you survey God's creation, particularly as you live here. Spokane is a beautiful place. Many of you know I haven't always lived here. In fact, I grew up in Southern California, which again, arguably is a beautiful place as well, but having lived here in Spokane, I would say Spokane is better. I hope you guys would agree. And one of the things I love about Spokane is I get to experience things that I never experienced prior to living here. Southern California is great because it's always sunny, but that means there's only two seasons. There's hot and hotter, right? But here, Spokane, we have all four seasons. And I can remember the first year I was here just being amazed at what it was like to see things change and yet every season having such beauty. I think Spokane has the best summers of anywhere I've visited or anywhere I've lived, that the sun is warm, but it is not too warm, and that things are beautiful. The extra daylight, I absolutely love that for outdoor activities. Yet even as we head into fall, I am maybe not looking forward to some aspects of fall, but watching the leaves change when you're driving around, particularly in certain areas, is absolutely stunning. And then in the winter, when you wake up and everywhere you look is blanketed with perfectly white, untouched snow. And then we come to spring and we have these trees that blossom for a couple weeks. It's absolutely stunning. And I've learned more and more living here than I ever did in California to have this response of David and praising God for the world that he has created. When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him? Or the son of man that you would care for him? Who am I, God, that you would take such special interest in me when there are far more, in my opinion, beautiful, wonderful things in this world that you have created? I have grown in my appreciation of God through living in this place and appreciating his creation, and I hope that you have done the same. But even if you haven't, it's not too late to be intentional in this regard. I can remember my mom growing up in Southern California telling me, why don't you go outside? It's such a beautiful day. And looking at her like her crazy because I'm like, every day is like this. But yet I find myself more and more saying, let's go outside. It's such a beautiful day. What a wonderful, gracious thing the Lord has given to us. And so even though things are changing, fall is coming, school year is fast approaching, let me just remind you, summer is not gone. It's not too late to do this, to marvel at God's creation. Go outside sometime today or this week and experience God's creation and marvel, not at the creation, but at the creator who made it. And maybe that's something that we need to do better here in Spokane. I think a lot of us, we love our summer because it's shorter and we try to pack in as much as we can. That maybe we walk that line a little too closely of loving the creation a little bit more than the Creator. Letting this season become the season that we're most inconsistent with going to the Lord in prayer or gathering in fellowship. God has not only created this world, but he has created the Lord's day that we gather as well. That that too is part of his beautiful creation, that we get to be here in this building, praising together with one another. And as moving as a mountain view can be, I think we're intended to be more moved by the praise that God's people give to him because he is worthy of glory. So let us do both, and let us praise God for his creation, but let us praise God for all of his creation, for the people, the new people that he's making here, and let us spend time in worship wherever we are, whether it's during the week, enjoying what's left of summer as we head into fall, or whether it's even this day, this Lord's day, as we sing praises to the Lord together. And so we see the psalm both begin and end with these sort of praises. The psalm ends, O Lord, O Yahweh, our God, how majestic is your name in all the earth. So let us remain humble even as we contemplate the unique position that man has in creation. Let us praise God along with the rest of creation. So now we can get into kind of the meat of much of what this psalm is, this unique exalted position of man within God's created order. And we still ought to remain humble in this. But this psalm's main focus is this unique place that man has within God's creation. And as we read this, readers who are familiar with the scriptures ought to think back, be drawn back to the story of creation as we read this psalm, particularly Genesis 1, 2, and 3. And really to guide us through this second point, I want us to ask two questions, or I want us to ask one question with two answers. What makes mankind so unique? The first answer is that man is made in God's image. Man is made in God's image. Psalm 8 verse 5 says this, yet you have made him a little lower than heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. This is actually kind of a debated translation as I studied this text that people aren't really sure whether this passage should read, you have made him a little lower than heavenly beings or you have made him a little lower than God himself. The heavenly beings, the term there is Elohim, which is sometimes a word used to refer to God, but also can refer to God's lowercase plural. And so whether you go with one translation or the other, whether it refers to heavenly beings or angels, or whether it refers to being a little lower than God himself, the one meaning portrayed by both that is clear is that mankind stands uniquely in God's creation. that we stand below God himself, maybe in some ways heavenly beings, but we are not just mere animals. We are not the same as other mammals or other creatures here on this earth, that we have a unique position. A theologian from times past named Thomas Aquinas put it this way, that angels were only spiritual beings and animals are only physical beings. But one of the unique things about mankind is that we are both spiritual and physical beings. And this will be true for all eternity. We do not lose our bodies when we die, we're actually promised resurrection bodies once again, and so mankind stands unique, that we are indeed physical creatures created by God, but we have souls and spirits as well. And so in Genesis, if we were to go back and read in Genesis 1, we would see this unique feature of man pointed out in a number of ways. If you go back and you read Genesis 1, which I would encourage you to do at some point today or later this week, you would see that God speaks everything into existence. Days three through six, he begins to create life, animals, birds, fish. And after each creation of animal life in particular, it says that they were each made according to their kinds. The creeping things on the earth according to their kinds, the beasts of the field according to the kind, the swarming fish of the sea according to their kind. But with regards to the creation of man, it doesn't say God created man according to their kind. No, it says something very different. God created man according to his likeness and his kind. Let me read just a small section of Genesis. Genesis chapter one, verses 26 through 27. It says, 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 heaven 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 and the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And so the uniqueness of mankind is pointed out here in Psalm 8, but it originates in the actual creation account of Genesis. That mankind is the only thing created in God's image, in God's likeness. So what does that mean to be made in God's image? Well, some have talked about different elements of what this may mean, that we, more so than any other creature, we are rational beings, we are moral beings, we are relational beings, we've been giving dominion over the earth. But I've really come to like the analogy of John Calvin, a theologian, long dead. But in describing what does it mean to be made in God's image, he has this illustration of saying that we are mirrors meant to reflect who God is to the world. And this is not necessarily just unique of mankind, that this is really true of all creation, that all creation is meant to speak and reflect who God is. Then when we looked at the vastness of space and stars and galaxies, we have an incomprehensible, large, powerful God that speaks those things to us. When we see a sunset and the colors that fill the sky of many different varieties, we see that God is a beautiful, creative God, that it speaks that, it reflects that. But what makes mankind unique is we have the greatest capacity to reflect an accurate picture of who God is. You cannot look at a mountain, you cannot look at a sunset and know God's forgiveness. You cannot look at these things and see God's justice. In some ways, you can see more creativity, more love, more of the characteristics of God being able to be reflected in mankind, that we are the mirrors above any other thing that can have the potential to reflect more of who God is. But herein then lies the problem. Sin comes into the world, and our ability to reflect God and his goodness is hindered. It is not lost. Every human being is able to reflect some aspect of who God is, but much of that capacity is lost. We are broken mirrors, fractured mirrors, mirrors that don't give a clear reflection, and even sometimes give a distorted reflection, and thus saying that God is something that he is not. Much of salvation, putting your faith and trust in Christ in this process of growing and sanctification is really a restoration project of the Holy Spirit that he is fixing your ability to reflect God accurately. And the promise of a new resurrection body where sin no longer plagues us is that now we can reflect God as we were always meant to without sin hindering or distorting that reflection. This is something that is unique only to mankind. It's even maybe demonstrated more uniquely than what we see in the heavenly beings of angels as well, that they cannot know what it is to be forgiven by God, but we can. So mankind has the capacity to reflect a broader range of who God is. I think this gives us the best understanding of what it is to be made in God's image. One of the other things that we see that gives mankind a unique place in his creation, it's highlighted here in Psalm 8, but it's still also highlighted in the Genesis account, is man is made to rule over God's creation. That his creation is given to us. He's given us delegated authority. We see this in verses six through eight of our psalm. It says, you have given him dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, also the beasts of the field, the birds of the heaven, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the sea. This, I think, is a reflection of what was already previously written in Genesis. Look at Genesis 28, verse 30. When God finished creation, he says, God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the heavens and over every living creature that moves on the earth. And God says, behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth and every tree with its seed and its fruit and you shall have them for food. into every beast of the earth, into every bird of the heavens, into everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has breath of life, I have given you every green plant for food." And it was so. So mankind uniquely reflects God in its capacity to show who he is, but God has also delegated rulership, dominion, authority over all of creation, that there is a delegated dominion and authority that mankind has, that we are his stewards. We are in many ways vice regents or princes ruling over God's creation, that he has delegated that authority to us. And we are not to rule selfishly because it is not ours, it is his. We are to rule with the understanding that these things ultimately belong to him and should care for them as if it was him caring for them himself. So in this way we can see all of creation is a gift given to us by God to enjoy but also to keep and steward and protect. We're to do this rightly. to illustrate this point of doing this rightly and how inappropriate it would be to abuse these things, let me remind you of yet another movie, one kid-friendly movie here in the audience, Beauty and the Beast. Maybe you can recall the scene that Belle is very much a lover of books. And one of the things that surprises her most, that the beast does so lovingly towards her, is that he shows her his library, which is vast. That these are more books that Belle has ever seen in her entire life. And she looks at this, she cannot believe it. And what does the beast do? He lovingly gives her all that is his. He says, it's yours. Enjoy it. Read it. But what do you think would happen in that movie if things were different and Belle simply decided that she didn't want these books and maybe it was cold one day and she decided to throw a few of those into a fire to keep her warm? That would probably displease the owner of those books, the Beast, and that love story would probably end very differently. The idea would be, well, can't she do whatever she wants with it because it was given to her? Well, just because it was given to her as a gift doesn't mean that she has ultimate ownership of it. He delegated ownership to her, but ultimately the ownership was his. And I would say in the same way God gives us his creation to rule and care for as he would, And our failure results oftentimes in stripping away that responsibility. It would be inappropriate for us to not have God in mind and how he would want us to look at his creation and how it is to be steward and treated. So as we think of some application points here, as we consider the uniqueness of man, if man is made in God's image, and that chiefly means to reflect who God is, then we bear that responsibility today. That you were created to reflect God and his goodness and his grace and all of his characteristics, but there is that awful truth that you cannot do that on your own. that your sin has distorted your ability to bear God's image to the world and that you need Christ. You need to be united to him by faith so that his spirit could transform you from the inside out and make you more and more in the image and likeness of Christ who is the perfect image of God. And so let us think of our sanctification in many ways of living out that original creation order to be God's image here on this earth. What about this idea of delegated authority or dominion? Does that have any relevance today? Am I gonna now go on and give you applications for a view of strong Christian environmentalism? No, I think that may be getting into the weeds of things. That we should care for God's earth, we should be responsible with the resources that he has given us. But I do think there's a little bit of a transformation to this command. that the dominion that God gave to Adam and Eve was to build his kingdom, to have dominion over all the earth, but also to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth with other image bearers, that his kingdom would grow and that it would be run and built and preserved by his image bearers, by his stewards, by his princes on the earth. And in that sense, we are called to have dominion as well, even in this New Testament age. That Christ, who is imbued with all authority, is sending us out to make more image bearers. And the way we do that is by winning them to Christ, to build his kingdom on this earth. I think this command for dominion and stewardship, it has relevance in passages such as Matthew 28, 18 through 20, that this is the new covenant transformation of such a command. If you're not familiar with the passage, let me read it for you. Matthew 28, 18 through 20, the directions that Jesus gives to his disciples as he ascends to heaven. It says, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. He created it. And he's also won that authority through his life of obedience. And now he says, go therefore and make disciples of all nations, similar to the go and be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. If you want to be a good image bearer and you want to exercise the dominion that God has attended for his people to exercise here on this earth, it's not just by planting trees, it's by saving souls, by bringing the good news of the gospel to the ends of the earth, that others may be saved, that other image bearers may be restored and won to God's kingdom. This is the stewardship that he has given us on this earth. which naturally leads us to the last point from this psalm. We've looked at the exaltation of God first and foremost, the exaltation of man because his unique position within the created order, but let us now look at the exaltation of someone known as the son of man. I'm convinced and hopefully have convinced you already as you've been with us that every scripture, every psalm, every passage that we read in the Bible ought to lead us in some way to Jesus as the fulfillment of it. And this is true here in this text that we can see that there are messianic illusions even in this psalm, psalm eight. Look at verse four. What is man that you are mindful of him and the son of man that you care for him? As the psalm goes on in the rest of the verses, it speaks of him. It speaks in the singular, that there is one person in particular that this psalm is talking about. And again, if we go into the Hebrew, this term son of man in Hebrew would have been Ben Adam, which is Ben Adam, literally son of Adam. That there would be one who would be a son of Adam who would perfectly image God and who would perfectly rule over God's creation. And that this was the promise even back in Genesis. Look at Genesis 3.15. God, after Adam and Eve had sinned, promised a son of man, a son of Adam, who would make all things new and better once again. God said, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. Once you come across that verse in Genesis 3.15, the question that you ought to be asking as you continue to read the rest of the Old Testament is who will this seed of the woman be? Who will be the son of Adam who will deliver us from Satan and from sin? And this is the ultimate son of Adam or son of man that we see being focused on here in Psalm chapter eight. That after verse four, there's an allusion to just one man and not mankind in general. That there will be one man who will be given ultimate authority and dominion over all the earth and rule it rightly. That there is only one man who has truly been able to be thought of as just lower than God or the angels themselves. I want you to listen carefully to how this is fleshed out in its fulfillment in the New Testament through Paul in Philippians. Have in mind this idea of the son of Adam, the son of man with all authority and dominion and who is just lower than the angels in the created order as we read Philippians 2, verses five through 11. Paul writes to the Philippian church, have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, making himself just lower than God. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, giving him all authority, all dominion, so that the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. This is the promised son of man. Jesus is the only man to image God perfectly. We learn that from other scriptures such as Hebrews 1 verse 3. It says, he is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. Colossians 1 5, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. And so it's true in scripture, there may be many references to this idea of the son of man in the Bible. And sometimes they refer to people other than Jesus. There are times when this can refer to humanity and there is that element here a little bit. There are times in which that term son of man can refer to the Israelite people. We see most often in the Old Testament, as it's taken in its original context, that the Son of Man is often referred to one of the kings of Israel. But I think we're always meant to read it with the expectation of the Son of Man, in all caps, if I may say that. Therefore, we should always be looking for the one who is the Son of Man, the true Son of Man that is coming. I relate it to this way. Many of us have grown up watching movies such as James Bond. What makes James Bond movies interesting is there's been a number of actors who have played James Bond, right? So depending on how old you are or what time you saw James Bond, if I were to ask you, who is James Bond? Who's the actor that you think of when you think of James Bond? In fact, let's take a little poll. Why not? One of the actors is Timothy Dalton. Anybody like Timothy Dalton as my James Bond? I didn't think so. What about Roger Moore? We have at least two, three, okay. Sean Connery? That is James Bond to you. Pierce Brosnan? Yeah, that's who I grew up with. Any Daniel Craigs? One, I knew it. Two, okay. So the idea is that there is, we would all acknowledge that there is many James Bonds, but for many of us, we would say there really is only one. And you guys just all revealed what your answer is. And in the same way, this is what the scriptures do when talking of the son of man, that there may indeed be many sons of man talked about in scripture, but truthfully, there is only one, and that is Jesus Christ. Just as we have our favorite actor playing James Bond, Jesus is always the reference for the son of man. And so we learn about the Son of Man here in this text, but I do wanna jump as far as our application goes for this last point to look at where is the most important place for us to understand who this Son of Man is and why it's important for us to know what He's like. Well, we know it's Jesus, and the best place to look to understand who the promised Son of Man is and what He would do is in the Gospels. And so let me read a few verses from the Gospels where Jesus speaks of Himself as the Son of Man and what He will do. Mark 1462, Jesus said, I am and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. That Jesus as the Son of Man has all authority, all power on earth. Luke 5, 24, but that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth. He said to the man who was paralyzed, I say to you, rise, pick up your bed and go home. Jesus has demonstrated that as the Son of Man, he has the authority to forgive sins. Luke 19, 10, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. This was his mission. Mark 10, 45, for even the son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. That the son of man, even though he has all authority, all power, he came to serve and to give his life that we may be saved. And lastly, Mark 8, 31. And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. Not only would he die, but he would rise again to new life, promising new life to all those who would believe in him. This is the Son of Man. And so if Jesus is this ultimate Son of Man who is worthy of the greatest exaltation as we see here in Psalm 8 and in other scriptures, what implications are there for us today? Well, first and foremost, put your faith and trust in Him and marvel at Him as the perfect Savior that He is. He became a man so that he could take your place. He lowered himself below the heavenly beings, below his heavenly father, so that he could stand in your place and bear God's wrath on your behalf. He has promised you a new and better life with God through faith and repentance in him, that we could be united to this son of man so that you can experience all the goodness of God through salvation. I think there is no special sign, no greater evidence of the uniqueness and importance and the favor that mankind has in all of creation than the example of God lowering himself through Christ Jesus to become one of us. did not make himself into a sunset or a mountain or a flower or any of these other things. He became a man and he humbled himself to the point of death on a cross so that we could be exalted and lifted up and have fellowship with God. And so as we come to a conclusion of this text, I want you to marvel at God. I want you to feel a sense of love and importance because you are made in God's image. But I want you to come before Jesus as the Son of Man, as the means for your salvation. I'll give an invitation to anybody in this room who's yet to put their faith and trust in Jesus as we pray. But if you make a decision to put your faith in Jesus this morning, would you please be sure to see me after church before you go home? Let us turn to the Lord in prayer. Oh Lord, oh Yahweh our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth. You have set your glory above the heavens, but you have set your particular favor upon us as mankind, making us in your image, bestowing us with far more grace and forgiveness than we deserve. You are patient with us even when we are stubborn in our sin. and you have loved us with such a great love, that Jesus, you have come to become one of us, that you have died on the cross to take the punishment for our sin, but you did not stay dead. You rose again, you ascended, and you are coming again soon. We look to you, Jesus, as the promised son of man, that promised seed of Eve, who would come and deliver us from all of our enemies, from sin, Satan, and the world. You have all authority. You have authority to forgive sins. You came to seek and save the lost. You gave your life as a ransom, and new life can only be found in you. God, I pray that if there's anyone here in this room who's yet to look at you as the promised savior of their life, that you through your spirit would do that saving work in their heart, even now, that they may know you as the good and gracious God that you are. And so, Lord, the rest of us who have already trusted in you, would you help us to marvel all the more at you, the wonderful creator God that you are. May we love you faithfully as you have called us to live, that we would rightfully reflect you to the world through our actions and through how we live, as we are your image bearers being renewed and restored, and that we would exercise proper dominion and authority, particularly as we share your good news throughout the world. It's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.