It's a pleasure to be before you this morning. While I'm up here, let me extend to you an invitation. Stephen Robeson has invited all who would like to to come to his house for some food and fellowship after the Sabbath school, not the service anymore, but Sabbath school. So that is open to anybody who wants to go see Stephen if he doesn't run you down first. All right. This morning text will come from Genesis chapter one. verses 26 through 28. Genesis chapter 1 beginning in verse 26 and reading through verse 28 this morning. People of God, once again, this is the word of the Lord. So hear then the word of the Lord. 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 earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it. and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word this morning may be pleased at his power and his blessing, to his word as it is read and as it is preached. I think most of us here are familiar with the concept of a child being the spitting image of their mother or their father. There are two things that we tend to mean by that. We mean their physical resemblance, right? When you have a child that just looks ridiculously like their parents. We all bear a little bit of our parents' visage within us, but some children look a lot more like their mother or their father than others, right? And we refer to them as being the spitting image. They look just like their parent. But we also talk about someone being just like their mother or father in a broader sense than that as well. Not just the way that they look, but the way that they are, the way that they act, the way that they behave, their personalities, their mannerisms. That's what we mean when we say that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, right? The idea that children tend to imitate, they tend to take on the characteristics and the behaviors and the dispositions of their parents. We understand what it means when we say that our children are, in a sense, bearers of our image, right? Well, in a similar fashion, man was created to be God's image bearer. It says that right in the first sentence of our text when it says that God said, let us make man in our image and in our likeness. And what that means, of course, then is that we are to represent, to look like, Our father. When it comes to our children, our children aren't called to live in such a way that they look like their parents when they grow older. In their years, we actually expect them to take on their own personality traits, their own characteristics, to make their own way through life, as it were, independent of their parents. But when it comes to bearing God's image, that simply isn't the case. Rather, for mankind, he was made to bear God's image into the world in which he was created, and he was made to live like an image-bearer and to look like the one who created him, not in terms of his physical appearance or her physical appearance, but in terms of imitating the character and the nature of God insofar as we were created to do just that. And so then that will be, unsurprisingly, the thrust of the sermon this morning that our text calls us to live as image bearers. And this morning we'll break that down into two parts. First, we'll look at what it means to be made in his image. It's hard to do what you don't know. And second, we'll look at what it means then to bear his image. So then turning to that first thing this morning, made in his image. What do we mean when we say that we are made in the image of God or that God created man in his image? It means a number of things. Those of you who perhaps have studied this out or heard sermons on it are familiar with the concepts that we're talking about, have heard a number of things of what it means to be made in God's image. Oftentimes we think in terms of rationality, the fact that we can reason, the fact that we have the ability, that mankind was created with the ability to think God's thoughts after him in a way in which the rest of creation cannot. And perhaps to all of us, others of us, when we think of being made in God's image, we think about the components of spirituality. We were made spiritual beings to be able to have spiritual communion with God and to have an eternal end and eternal purpose. And that's true. But concerning our focus this morning, we are more concerned with the direct consequences, or rather the direct concern of Scripture and its most explicit explanation of what it means to bear God's image. And we're going to do that through a reverse engineering of sorts, and that is we're going to learn what it means to be made in God's image by looking at what it means to be recreated in God's image through Jesus Christ. And when we do that, we find that that principally and primarily the concern and focus of Scripture is that we were made to reflect God's image in terms of knowledge. Righteousness and holiness. The first one we find in Colossians 3 and verse 10. In Colossians 3 verse 10, we are told that we are being recreated or we are being renewed in the knowledge or in knowledge after the image of its creator. The verse says this, and have put on the new self, talking about those of us who've put off the old self in Christ, and the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. That is to say that knowledge, properly speaking, is the image of God in mankind. But what does it mean to have knowledge? And certainly the rationality of mankind comes through in that idea of knowledge because in one sense and in one component of it, knowledge is rationality. It's the ability to learn and to absorb information and likewise then to take that information and to do something with it, to actually work it out according to some practical purpose. We understand that idea of knowledge, college students, high school students, school-age children here, you know this idea of knowledge because you're being forced to go to school in order to acquire it, right? You are gaining knowledge about whatever particular subjects you have to study and are studying. In the case of you college students, hopefully that you enjoy studying. But the idea is, is you are acquiring information, and that information then is intended to be used in a particular fashion, in a particular purpose. But all too often, that is where we end our definition of knowledge, and we forget what is ultimately the ultimate purpose of knowledge. And that is that knowledge is intended to be relational. In particular, when it comes to bearing God's image, our knowledge is intended to provide us with the opportunity and the ability to then engage in relationship with God, to have union and communion and fellowship with our creator, with our creator. In other words, it's not about the bare acquisition of information. It's about the use of information to put us in the position then to know who our God is and thus to know our God. That concept of knowledge is all over the face of the Scriptures from Genesis knowing that Adam has that relationship with God all the way through to Revelation. Knowledge is relational. Knowledge is about relationship. Mankind was created primarily to know after God's knowledge, and through that knowledge then to have relationship with his creator, with her creator, and with other human beings as well. And we get that idea, the concept that I'm talking about. We know the idea versus I know who someone is versus I know this person, right? Oftentimes, the reason that we use that phraseology is when someone throws out a name, and we recognize the name, and we have an idea of who we are, we have a bare knowledge of the facts of their existence, we say, well, yeah, I know the name, or I've heard of that person. That's the idea. It's just a bare information. But when we're talking about someone that we have relationship with, we say, I know this person, I know my parents, I know my children, I know my friends, I know my spouse. I don't just know about them, I know them. That's the idea here. Created with the ability to know in order then that we might love and serve God, but also love and serve the others that are created in that very same image. the image of God is wrapped up in knowledge. Indeed, Paul, the one who tells us that is in the very same book of the Bible in Colossians and also in Ephesians constantly talking about how he prays that they might know these things about God, that they might know the abundance of his riches and his grace and his love in all of these things in order that they might know God and thus serve and love God and also serve and love one another. We were created in knowledge. To lead us to praise, to worship, to love and to service. Not only were created in God's image in the ability to know and to have relation, so also were recreated in God's image in terms of righteousness, And that comes from Paul again in the book of Ephesians. Ephesians once it's the same context of putting off that old man in that and then putting on that new man and we've been here in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 24 when he tells us that we are to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So then to be after the likeness of God to be created in the image of God is to be created in Righteousness. And what is righteousness? Well, righteousness concerns standards. Namely, it concerns conformity to a standard, to a moral standard in particular. We also understand this concept, hopefully, and I trust that everybody here is righteous in the eyes of human law. And that means that you are not currently in violation of the laws of whatever your locality is, or of the state of New York, or of the federal government, right? You are righteous in that you are conforming to the standard of the law of where you live, locally, statewide, nationally, internationally, right? It's the idea that you're conforming to a standard. Thus, you are righteous." And that's exactly the idea that lies behind man's being created in this righteousness to imitate the righteousness of God. Of course, with God, righteousness is not that He conforms to His standard, but that He is the standard. God is perfect. God is morally pure. He is right. He's the definition of right, and he does what is right, and he created mankind to imitate that righteousness by conforming to his moral perfection and purity. to stand before him in conformance to his law, to his will, to his purpose. And not only that, but positively inclined. It's not the idea that mankind was sort of created on this neutral ground where he had not yet done good and evil, though certainly that was the case, but rather that he was positively inclined to do that which was right. Because neutrality to the law isn't conformity to it, brothers and sisters. The desire to do it is the heart of conformity to it. Abba Neve were created with that with that that positive disposition towards the law of God to be about the business of doing it. They were created in righteousness so that in them in the life that they would leave in their pursuit of God's purpose that will examine in just a moment. They would always be reflecting that righteousness of God in their moral character. in their essence and in who they were. Mankind was created in the image of God to be righteous. And thirdly this morning, mankind was created in the image of God after his image and after his likeness in that he was created holy. Now, knowledge and righteousness are easy to understand. It doesn't take a whole lot to illustrate the point. But holiness is a different ballgame. And not so much that we don't understand it, is that oftentimes we misunderstand it, or rather we incompletely understand what holiness is. But it's absolutely essential for us to know and understand what holiness is in order to know what it means to bear the image of God, because it is, in a sense, the absolute heart. the absolute substance of what it means to bear the image of God. And what I say that we misunderstand, or perhaps incompletely understand, is that our primary thought about holiness is related to righteousness, and perhaps sometimes we almost view those terms as synonymous. Well, righteousness means we don't sin, and holiness means we don't sin, right? Or the idea that holiness is separation from sin. And that's often the definition that we're given, isn't it? That holiness means to be separate from or to be set apart from sin. And that's true insofar as it goes. But before we get there, we need to understand holiness in its primary terms. Because that's its secondary nuance, its secondary meaning and understanding. And we know that for this simple reason. God is holy whether or not sin and evil exist. God is holy whether or not sin and evil exist. His holiness isn't dependent upon people who sin and evil that occurs. He is always holy. He always has been holy. He always will be holy. So its primary meaning simply can't just be relegated to his relationship to sin. Because He exists for all eternity before creation. And there was no sin. There was no evil. There's a higher idea and a higher meaning behind that. And we can think of it in two ways. Negatively and positively. In the negative sense, it refers to the fact that God is transcendent. That God is majestically holy. That he is set apart from everything and from anything else. There is nothing like him. There never has been and there never will be. He is set apart. He is God and there is no other. And that's why he is that thrice holy God. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty, as he says, or as the angels sing to Isaiah before he casts himself in the dust. Before that transcendent, majestic, holy other being that is God. And that's the negative understanding of it, but it also has a positive understanding. So he is separated from everything else because he is wholly other, but he is also positively separated to something, and that is, principally, he's separated to himself. And that's the idea that he is devoted to himself. There is the perpetual, perfect, intra-trinitarian love that defines and drives God as being. He's wholly devoted to His own will. He's wholly devoted to His own purpose. Speaking of Isaiah again, in chapter 42, that's exactly the idea behind God saying that I am God. I will not give my glory to another because it is mine and I am devoted to it. I am devoted to myself. to my own will, to my own purpose, to demonstrating my own glory. He is holy in that regard. And those negative and positive dimensions of the holiness of God carry then into that original holiness of humanity. Because negatively speaking, Mankind is created set apart from the rest of creation, isn't he? And that's evidence on the face of the text itself. Because he introduces, God introduces in his word, the creation of mankind in a way that is wholly other than the way he's introduced the rest of everything else he's created. There is no other being, there is nothing else that God says, let us make this in our own image. No, God, in the furtherance of his purpose, says only about mankind, let us make man in our own image. There is no other creature that has been created for this purpose. We are set apart, as it were, to the distinct purpose of God in terms of dominion. Positively speaking, we are set apart from creation and set apart to devotion to God. Right? God created man to know Him in a way that the rest of creation doesn't. To know Him. To love Him. To serve Him. To find His or Her purpose in looking like Her Father. or His Father. That's what holiness means, brothers and sisters. It means you have been created separate from the rest of this created order for the express purpose of looking like your Father. To know Him, to love Him, to serve Him. And everything else falls underneath that central rubric. We know Him in order that we might be holy. We are righteous in the furtherance of that holy purpose is the idea behind bearing His image in that original state. So when we say that mankind is created in God's image, we mean that mankind is created holy and righteous. the ability to know God on that relational level and thus carry His purpose and His image into the world that He's created. That's what it is to be made in the image of God. But what does it then mean to bear that image? So we need to understand something, that mankind is made in God's image to bear God's image. This isn't a passive thing that he is doing as he's creating Adam and Eve, male and female, in this particular sense. He is creating them like this, and then he will give them purpose in order that they might actively carry forward this image into the creation that he's just made. We find then in verse 26 exactly what that means. He says, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion. Expressed again in verse 28 and God blessed them and God said to them be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have Dominion Mankind bears the image of God as he prosecutes the divine purpose to go into this earth that he is created and to subdue it and to take Dominion of it Basically, what he is telling them is take my image and fill the earth with it. Primary purpose of reproduction is to fill the earth with image bearers. The blessing of be fruitful and multiply is the means by which humanity will carry out this dominion mandate. But what does it mean to subdue the earth and take dominion? It means to act as God's ambassadors. to act as God's regents, ruling in his stead. Adam and Eve were created to exercise an authority over the earth as a derivative authority from God. That's what subdue and take dominion means. This is the language of kings and queens. Mankind was intended to be kings and queens in God's creation and to take the authority that we've seen expressed in his words and to carry it out in the actual life of the world as it unfurled in terms of history. to be kings and queens and to rule and reign and through that ruling and reigning demonstrate the authority of God, but do so in a way that encapsulates his very essence and nature in so far as the creation can do so. They were to take the garden of Eden and make the whole earth into it. In other words, Mankind was created to use the knowledge of God To demonstrate the righteousness of God and that is a moral and ethical purity Demonstrated in a wise good governance of his created order as the Holy Ones set apart to do just that and Fill the earth with his image That's what it means to bear the image of God to rule over his creation in a way that reflects his essence and his nature. That's what God means when he said, let us make man in our image. But what do we do with that? Because after all, we live after the fall, don't we? We're no longer in that original state. In the fall, as we'll see in just a few weeks, that knowledge of God is corrupted. And that righteousness is corrupted. And that holiness is corrupted. And that image of God becomes broken and marred. And that's why we need the Gospel of Jesus Christ. And if you are here this morning and your faith and your belief and your trust is not in Christ, you cannot bear the image of God the way mankind was created to bear the image of God. Your sin marks you out as unholy. Your sin marks you out as unrighteousness. And your stubborn refusal to accord or to make your knowledge reconcile with God's knowledge as he's revealed in his word is a demonstration of the corruption of that very knowledge. If you are to bear the image of God, you must be recreated in it. And the only way to do that is to come to Him through His Son. We already read that in Hebrews chapter 2. That He was made like us, for us, in order that in His sacrificial life and death, we might be restored to knowledge and to righteousness and to holiness and once again fill that purpose that marked out the whole reason we were created and exist to begin with. Come to Christ that you might be restored. That once again you might pursue bearing His image in knowledge and righteousness and holiness. For those of you who have professed faith in His name, who are indeed in Christ and thus have been renewed according to the image of God, your life needs to reflect that very thing, and in a number of ways. The first thing being is that we need to recognize the impact and the import of what it means that mankind was created in God's image. It means that every human being that exists now and ever has existed and ever will exist has, by virtue of their humanity and inherent dignity and worth, that we cannot ignore and cannot fail to acknowledge in the way that we live and carry forth our life. Broken and marred as it may be, every human on earth bears the image of God and thus is worth dignity and respect and love like we ought to give. regardless of what their class or station in life, regardless of the color of their skin, of their ethnicity, of their gender, it doesn't matter. They are created in the image of God and their worth and their value rests not in them, in and of themselves, but in the one who created them. And so then we treat every human being with kindness and respect and dignity and love. Secondly, it's carried out in the bearing of a godly seed. And that does mean a physical seed. It's hard to get around that when he says, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. It's the idea that Adam and Eve were supposed to have covenant children, right? Sort of the two means by which the kingdom of God advances in the world. And that's exactly what Adam and Eve were supposed to be doing, isn't it? Advancing God's kingdom in the world by covenant children, by the proclamation of the gospel to those outside the covenant. That is to say, then, to you married couples, that if you have the ability, it might be a good idea to have children. Right? That you might have those covenant children that are one of those two primary means to expand and to grow the kingdom of God through that physical means. It doesn't mean to say that we ignore our circumstances of life and our own abilities. Certainly we need to be wise even as we bring children into this world to be sure that we can care for them, that we can provide for them. But nonetheless, if we have ability and we have capacity, we certainly should be doing that. And that actually has direct bearing on you singles when it comes to choosing your spouse, who it is you'll marry. If your purpose is to carry forward the kingdom of God in this earth, then you ought to marry someone who can actually join you in that task. It's one of those principal reasons why, once again, we are called to marry those who love our God just as much as we do. And to love our Christ as much as we do so that they, joined with us together, can drive the purpose of God in recreation Into the world in which we live for the advancement of his kingdom, which is our primary calling and task Another way that in which we grow the family of God In which we are fruitful and multiply especially in this new covenant era is in gospel proclamation and that's a beautiful truth brothers and sisters and Because that means the married childless couple is not without purpose, are they? The married childless couple who, through no fault of their own, can't have children, still can have children. And it means that all of you out there who are single and your prospects for marriage may fairly be non-existent and maybe in God's providence will never be existent. It doesn't mean you are without purpose because likewise as you proclaim that gospel of the kingdom so you can bear spiritual children It's not just about physical propagation. It's not even primarily about physical propagation. It's about spiritual propagation. about people coming to a knowledge of Christ, whether they be covenant children raised in a gospel-proclaiming covenant household or those who come from the outside the faith because dedicated citizens of the kingdom proclaim that same gospel to them as well. So let's not get into our heads that not being married or not having children due to necessity somehow deprives us of purpose or makes us lesser. This simply isn't the case. Thirdly. What this tells us is that we are to exercise the dominion that we have been given in a way that properly demonstrates the knowledge, righteousness, and holiness in which we have been created. Exercise proper dominion. It means the resources that we have been given to us isn't meant for us to use those things in an abusive fashion, as though we were tyrants who had the right to do with God as created, anything that serves our selfish needs. but rather God has given us dominion for the good of the world in which we've been created, that it might flourish, that it might be fruitful, that it might multiply as well. And that means we need to use our resources well with knowledge and with wisdom and with goodness and all of those things that characterize the God who created it and the way in which he created it. We're not unwise with our resources. We don't abuse the world that God has given us and the other creatures that He has put in that. But rather, as we use all of these good things, we're sure that as we use them, we have that knowledge, holiness, and righteousness of God informing and seeping through every pore of our body in the usage of them. And finally, this morning should cause us to self-examination because this is the fundamental daily question of the Christian life. Who do you look like? Who do we look like? We shouldn't look like this world. We should look like our God. Think about that in terms of the old covenant people of God when God tells them to be holy because I am holy. And that same directive carries over into the new covenant people of God, both each and every single one of you professing the name of Christ where you sit and in this church at large and in the universal church as well. God says to us, be holy for I am holy. Who and what do you love? Who and what do you serve? Do you love your God? Do you seek to know Him in order that you might grow in relationship with Him? Are you concerned with righteousness? conforming to his standard as he has laid it out in the Word of God, driving what we say, what we think, and what we do. Are we concerned with holiness? And think of it, yes, in terms of separation from sin, because that's one way in which holiness is manifested, but it's so much more than that. It means are you devoted to your God above everything, anything, and anyone else? Who are you devoted to? because you were created to be devoted to Him and to live out that devotion in the day-to-day of your recreated life. Saints, people of God, in Jesus Christ, you have been recreated after His image. in knowledge, in true righteousness and holiness. So then, saints, and that's what saints means, holy ones, live as those who bear the image of God. Let's pray together this morning. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful and humbled again as we come to your word. And we learn of what you have done in your creation of us. Father, you've created us holy. Father, you created mankind holy to be set apart to your purpose, to know you, to work out your will, to reflect your image in this world that you've created. And what an honor that is. Father, we didn't deserve that. There was nothing in who we were and even who we are now that somehow made us worthy of such a noble and high calling. But your grace and your love created us that way. And so we are thankful for it. And Father, we then pray for the strength to live as what we have been recreated to be. Of what we have been restored to be. those who take this earth that You have given and take dominion of it in Your name for Your kingdom's sake, in knowledge and righteousness and holiness, we ask in Jesus' name, Amen.