 And the title of our sermon this morning is the image of God in man, the image of God in man. Again, our primary text, the text read in your hearing, Genesis chapter one, verses 26 through 31, the image of God in man. We've been working through our theological study of the essentials. One sermon, one hour, one theological subject essential to the growth and maturity of a Christian. We began our study of the essentials with the doctrine of revelation. We then continued our study with the doctrine of God. And now we move on in our study this morning to the doctrine of man. And our consideration now of the doctrine of man begins with an introduction to the Amago day or the image of God in man. And one of the most fundamental questions you can ask about our existence is who am I, right? Transcendent question, fundamental question, who am I? Who am I? Maybe more importantly is why am I? Why am I? Who am I? Why am I here? Why am I? What am I doing here? Why do I exist? David, the psalmist, meditates on the answer to those transcendent questions in Psalm chapter eight. When he says this, when I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have ordained, you can imagine David sprawled out on the Judean countryside one evening looking up at the heavens and seeing the wonder of God's creation. And then he says, he asked this question, what is man that you are mindful of him? What is man that you are mindful of him? And the Son of man that you visit him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels. You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is your name in all the earth. The world would rise up now and object at what they would see as total absurdity there in the words of David. Foolishness the world would say. Craziness. We're nothing more than a cosmic accident. We're all just products of evolutionary processes. I remember us saying, from the goo to you by way of the zoo, right? The world would say that we're no different than the animals. Nothing more than a cosmic accident. An insignificant, a meaningless result of evolutionary processes propelled by forces of chance or forces of fate. That truth, the truth, is far from that poisoned product of man's fallen and natural mind. And the truth is found alone in God's revealed Word. What we find in God's revealed Word is that the act of the creation of human existence and being is the decided and determined work of an omnisapient, omniscient and omnipotent being who knows exactly what he's doing and why he's doing it. And he has created us in his image. Now, one of the key texts in which we find that taught is Genesis chapter one. And if you got your Bibles open to Genesis chapter one, I want you to look there with me beginning in verse 26. Now think with me for a moment. In unfathomable power, in immeasurable, mind-blowing, mind-boggling power, God in creation brings forth the cosmos ex nihilo out of nothing. Out of nothing God creates. It's amazing. He creates the light. He divides it from the darkness. He creates the heavens and the earth, the seas and all that is within them. God then brings forth life on the earth and it teams the earth, teams with plants and animals, each one after their own kind, their seed within them. Then God stands back as it were, looks at all that he has done, all that he's created and he declares it to be good. It is good. Awesome creative power. Awesome creative beauty. Awesome creative order. But notice with me in Genesis chapter one that all other creatures were created according to their kind. Verse 21, see creatures according to their kind. Every winged bird according to its kind. Verse 24, the living creature according to its kind. Verse 25, the beast of the earth according to its kind. Cattle according to its kind. Everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. So God then would stand back from his canvas, so to speak, this glorious theater that he's created to behold all that he's done and God would see nothing that bears his own image, nothing that bears his likeness, nothing in this glorious theater of the heavens and the earth that would bear the image or reflect the glory of the one who is the most glorious, right? God himself. God's purpose would be to reveal his glory in the pinnacle of his creation. In the apex of his creation, God would reveal his glory in man. And we're made, you and I are made to glorify God. So the first catechism question, right? We are to glorify God and enjoy him forever. Why are we here? Why does man exist? Why were we made? Why were we created? We were created to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Verse 26 then. God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. That's a reference in verse 26 to the triune God. The triune God says, let us make one creature, one creature of all that I've created. Let us make one creature that bears the image and likeness of the creator. As much as a created being may reflect or image the uncreated one, let us make man with the capacity to bear the image of God. Let us make him according to our likeness that he may reflect our glory, God says. Now as distinguished from all other created beings made according to their kind, man will have his identity and nature according to the image of God. You notice the distinction, notice the comparison, the contrast. Distinguished from all other beings created according to their kind, man will have his identity, his nature according to the image of God. The words there in verse 26, image and likeness are virtually synonymous, they're synonyms. According to our image then in verse 26, further explains what is meant by make man in our image. God says we're gonna make man in our image and what does that mean? Expositing that statement, the Lord says according to our likeness, it explains the first statement, do you see? The words image and likeness there are synonyms. When you get to verse 27, you'll notice only the word image is used. The explanation's been given. Now we see the same concept given to us in Genesis chapter five, flip the page, Genesis chapter five beginning in verse one. Notice what the Bible says, Genesis chapter five verse one. This is the book of the genealogy of Adam in the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Verse two, he created them male and female, he blessed them, called them mankind in the day that they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his image and he named him Seth. Now this time, no other created thing can claim this privilege being created, being made in the image and likeness of God. It is the distinguishing characteristic of man to be created in the image of God. Now back in Genesis chapter one, look at verse 26 again, further, created in the image of God and the likeness of God, man then is said in verse 26, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. Now all the rest of creation, everything else that is created will be subject to or under the dominion of this one who is my image bearer, God says. God creates man, his image, according to his likeness and then he puts all of the created order under the dominion of his image bearer. So then verse 27, God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. Now notice here in verse 27, we're not created gender neutral. There's nothing neutral about the gender there, he created them male and female. We're not gender fluid. We're not gender undecided or gender TBD. We're created male and female, right? Each are made in the image of God and each, listen, created male and female, each are given the unique capacity to mirror or to reflect the glory of God as made in the image of God. Created male and female, each are given the unique capacity to be image bearers of God. Now that unique capacity, we think about that for a moment, is in part defined by unique roles given to men and women. We see those unique roles in the scriptures, don't we? The Bible's clear about that. In other words, image, the image of God, the likeness of God isn't only related to being, what we would call ontology, but it's also related to doing what we do as a result of who we are, right? And incidentally, men and women uniquely represent or reflect the glory of God by embracing and pursuing faithfulness to their respective roles and by pursuing those roles in faith. We think about many texts in the Bible that teach that truth, right? And listen, to the degree that we do not reflect God's created order in the roles that we've been given, is to the degree that we don't glorify God who we've been made to be, right? We don't uphold or reflect his image as image bearers of God. When we don't fulfill the roles that we've been given. You know, Paul talks about this in Ephesians chapter five, one particular example that men, husbands, you are to love your wives how? As Christ loved the church and gave himself for her, you're to love them sacrificially. Men, you're to love your wives sacrificially, ladies. You are to submit to your husband how? As to the Lord, you're to submit to him in everything. See too, it Paul says, that she respects her husband. You think about those two roles together. It's interesting, very interesting that God in giving those roles to men and women, voice those roles or describe those roles in terms of our particular weakness. Right, in other words, it's foolish not to think that men should love their wives and that wives should love their husbands but it's not a particular command to the wife to love her husband in that particular place. It's her responsibility commanded her to submit to her husband and to respect her husband. In other words, the very thing that we have difficulty doing is the very thing we're commanded to do. Right, men have difficulty loving sacrificially. So what are you commanded to do, men? Love your wife sacrificially. Ladies have a particular difficulty submitting to their husbands. What are you commanded to do, ladies? You're commanded to submit to your husband, to respect your husbands, right? We do this to fulfill the purpose for which he created us, male and female, thereby glorifying the one in whose image we've been made. Do you see? It's a particular way in which we each have capacity to embrace our own specific role as image-bearers of the one who created us. All that was for free. We're gonna get back to our text. Genesis chapter two, Genesis chapter two, verse seven. This is another way that the Lord has said this. Genesis chapter two, now for the page verse seven. So then, creating man after his own image. The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living nefesh, a living being, right? A living being. The far from being the accidental evolutionary process over millions and millions of years, billions of years. In Genesis chapter two, God is seen as forming man from the dust of the earth, like the potter with his clay, right? Forming, fashioning his masterpiece. Matthew Henry says this insightfully, he was not made of gold dust, right? Not powder of pearl, not diamond dust, but what? Common, everyday dust. Dust of the ground we are on this side of eternity linked to this earth, it seems, it would appear. He made the world out of nothing. He made man his masterpiece out of next to nothing. Dust, dirt. In other words, we're given an earthly body. We have an earthly body. But what is even more extraordinary is what comes next in verse seven. In contrast with the animals who are also given a nefesh, a living, a life, right? The breath of life. God in verse seven, breathes himself. He breathes into man's nostrils his own communication of life and man becomes a living soul. In other words, the spiritual nature of man created by God and described by the act of God as breathing, as breathing, his very breath into the nostrils of man, his creation, one created in his image. We are fearfully and wonderfully made, amen? Fearfully and wonderfully made and made in the image or likeness of God. Well, as we consider the creation record in Genesis chapter one, Genesis chapter two, we know the continuing account, don't we? In chapter two, verse nine, God plants a garden eastward in Eden and he places man in the garden. God places Adam in the garden to tend it and to keep it. Right, he establishes a covenant with Adam wherein Adam is to obey God with respect to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That is a representative of obedience. Adam is to obey God in everything. It's the delight of his heart to obey God in everything because God has been given that as a part of his nature. He's created upright, created just, but particularly God enters or establishes a covenant with Adam with respect to the tree in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God then causes the deep sleep to fall on Adam and from one of his ribs, God makes the woman, makes Eve. Now from there, we all remember the tragic circumstances of Genesis chapter three. Adam and Eve created in the moral image of God, created in the image of their creator, fall into sin. It's a great moral tragedy, a moral travesty. Paul describes it in this way in Romans chapter five, verse 12, through one man, that's Adam, through one man, sin entered the world and death through sin. And thus death spread to all men because all sinned. Through one man's offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation. Now all people then, all people born in Adam, that's everyone, that's all people, right? All people born in Adam are born under judgment and born under condemnation. You sin because you are a born sinner, do you see? You sin because you were born a sinner, corrupt, guilty, depraved and condemned, do you see? Calvin defines man's depravity like this, a hereditary depravity in that it comes from Adam, it comes from your father. Hereditary depravity and corruption of our nature, it is diffused into all parts of the soul. That's what is meant by total depravity. That depravity, that corruption is diffused into the very soul of man, all parts of him. Diffused into all parts of the soul, which first makes us liable to God's wrath, then also brings forth in us those works which Scripture calls works of the flesh. And from the point of our birth, we live for ourselves. We live for ourselves. We live in rebellion against God. We live in rebellion against his law, in rebellion against him in opposition to the reason for which we were created. We live in opposition to the very image of God that we bear. Now this depravity, this corruption, according to the Bible, renders man dead in trespasses and sins. Not sick, not swooning, not just feeling a tickle in their throat, but dead, dead in trespasses and sins. And that which distinguishes man as made in the image of God is now corrupted by sin. We have to ask the question now and considering the fall in Genesis chapter three, is that image of God in man though lost? Is it lost? Turn with me to Genesis chapter five again. Look with me again at Genesis chapter five verse one. Is the image in which God has created man, is the image of God in man lost through sin? Genesis chapter five verse one. This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and he blessed them and he called them mankind in the day that they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and begot a son, look at this, in his own likeness. After his image and he named him Seth. Now notice the difference in the language, right? Verse one, in the day that God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. Then verse three, Adam lived 130 years and begot a son in his own likeness after his own image. Now there's one train of thought that says, well, the image of God then is lost when Adam gave birth to Cain, gave birth to Abel, Adam didn't do that, Eve did that. Adam had a small, very important part, but a small part Eve gave birth to those sons. When Seth was born, he was born in the image of Adam, not in the image of God, right? But notice, let's go on with what the Bible says. One might think that the image of God in Adam was lost. However, Genesis chapter five, verse one looks back to Genesis chapter one, verse 26. And chapter five, verse three is explaining that the image of God in Adam is maintained in Adam's offspring. In other words, when Eve gives birth to Seth, Seth has the image that Adam was born with or made with, right? His posterity have the image that Adam was given. They're all born with the image of God. Nowhere else in scripture is the image referred to as the image of man. And nowhere else in scripture does it say that Seth was made in the image of Adam, Seth bears the image of God as creator. All men, even lost men, bear the image of God their creator. Wherever the image is referred to, it's referred to as the image of God, referred to as the image of God. Now, in a different context, Paul refers to, one might object, refers to 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 49. 1 Corinthians 15, 49 refers to each of us as being made of dust and bearing the image of the man of dust. What Paul is referring to there in 1 Corinthians 15 is our physical bodies. It's referring to our physical bodies. When we are glorified, we're given glorified bodies and we will no longer resemble the man of dust. We will resemble the heavenly man. Who's that? The Lord Jesus Christ resurrected and with his glorified body in heaven. Paul is speaking about here glorification or a contrast here between our earthly bodies and our heavenly bodies. He is not speaking of the contrast between the image of God and the image of man. In other places, lost man is referred to as being made in the image of God. We see another example, just a few pages later in Genesis. Turn to Genesis chapter nine and look there, Genesis chapter nine at verse six. Here we are after the fall. And the Lord says in Genesis chapter nine, verse six, whoever sheds man's blood by man his blood shall be shed for in the image of God he made man. I think with me about this text. Genesis nine, six is a principle given to Noah after the fall, right? And only after the fall would you have one man shedding the blood of another man, right? That's a post-fall experience there. And so Genesis chapter nine, verse six refers to the image of God residing in fallen man, the image of God in fallen man. Something else to note concerning this text. We're talking about the murder of another human being and the just penalty for the murder of another human being is the death of the murderer. The death of the murderer. The reason given for that ultimate penalty of the death of the murderer is that that one is made in the image of God. The one whom he has killed, whom he has murdered is made in the image of God. That's why he gets the ultimate penalty, the death penalty, do you see? Now there are those who would assert that all sin is the same in the eyes of God, right? This sin or that sin, all sin is the same to God. No, it's not. No, it's not. The Bible specifically says that it's not here. Murder is particularly severe, a particularly horrific, a particularly grievous offense. It is a heinous sin. Not because life is precious, of course life is precious, right? Not only because it robs someone of their future life, of course it robs them of their future life, but murder is particularly heinous, particularly grievous in the eyes of God because it is an assault on the image of God in man. Do you see? In 1 Corinthians chapter 11, verse seven, Paul refers to man as the image and glory of God, man in general, without exception. The image and glory of God. In addition to murder, James, in James chapter three, verse nine, prohibits cursing men in the amoyosis, the amoyosis, the likeness or similitude of God. Why? Because they bear the likeness or the image of God who created them. No matter how much the image of God may have been defaced, corrupted, if faced at the fall, and it certainly was, the image of God in man has not been entirely lost. It's not been entirely lost. Every person born, every person born bears the image of his Creator. You hear sitting this morning, whether you're a Christian, this morning if you're not a Christian, whether you've turned from your sin to trust Christ or you haven't, you bear the image of the one who made you. And you, the fool, has said in his heart, there is no God. It is absurdly foolish to think that you take a moment and think for a moment, right? Take a moment and think that you are the product of accident, the product of evolutionary forces, the product of this mysterious, unicorn-like thing called chance. No, no, you were created, you were designed. You were designed and created with a purpose and you bear the image of the one who made you. In reality, in this creation of man, there is glory and there is tragedy. Isn't there? Glory and tragedy. In general, the natural man, the fallen man, has no idea what he has given up for his sin. It is an immeasurable, infinite, indescribable treasure for man to be created in the image of God. We would benefit ourselves by pondering what have we lost? What have we lost? What has been lost do our sin? To consider that question, the answer to that question, we must endeavor to do three things. One, we need to define the image of God in man. We need to define it. Two, we need to define the purpose of that image. What is its purpose? And thirdly, now defaced by sin, we must consider how the image is to be restored. Define the image of God in man, define the purpose of that image, and then consider how the image is to be restored. So what is it exactly? What is meant by the image of God in man? Again, Genesis chapter five, verses one through three, very helpful is a good illustration of this. Look at Genesis chapter five again, beginning in verse one. This is the book of the genealogy of Adam. In the day that God created man, he made him, Adam, man, in the likeness of God. He created them male and female. He blessed them and called them mankind in the day that they were created. And Adam lived 130 years and he got a son in his own likeness and after his image and named him Seth. I think with me for a moment. Genesis chapter five, verses one through three, compares the image of God in Adam to the image of Adam in Seth. Want you to see the comparison here? It's brought to light. Genesis chapter five, verses one through three. We see a comparison or a connection between the image of God in Adam and the image of Adam in Seth. Now this goes well beyond the idea introduced in Genesis one of things reproducing after their kind. Everything else reproduces after its kind. We reproduce according to the image of our Creator. Here there is a, in the context of the image of God, we're looking at a continuation of that image or the passing of that image from one man to another man through birth, right? When a baby's born. A baby may bear some resemblance to his parents physically, right? Now I don't see it. All babies look the same, right? I don't see it, but someone will come to the baby and say, oh, she looks just like her dad. I'm like, I do not see it, right? Everybody says that Lauren looks like me. I, and Abby looks like her mom. I don't see it, right? However, that's what people say. They may bear some resemblance physically, but as that baby grows, as the baby matures, their inherent likeness to their mother or father also grows. Not just physically, but their likeness grows primarily in their character, in their personality. You might see likeness in their mannerisms and the way that they do and say things and the way that they think or act. You might see likeness in their personalities, right? Not just physically, but the way that they mirror or reflect their parents traits, their personality, their attitudes, their expressions. In other words, we were created to mirror or reflect and even grow in our capacity to mirror and to reflect divine character, divine attributes, divine expressions, divine personality, you could say, divine thoughts, divine wisdom. We are to mirror or reflect the one in whose image we've been made. Now, rather than merely defining image than the image of God and man as, for example, reason, or our ability to imagine, or our ability to discern, or our ability to understand, rather than merely defining the image of God and man as our ability to relate to one another, or to love, or to emote, all of those, you think about this with me, are functional tools by which we may express the image of God rather than those being the things that define the image itself. You see, in other words, there is a sense in which man, the image of God in man, is distinguishing man from all of the other animals that have been created, right? We're different from animals in those respects, but that's not the only way in which we bear the image. Those things, the ability to reason, our wills, the ability to be responsible, our sense of accountability, our consciences, our sense of morality, our ability to think, our ability to relate, all of those things are tools by which we may further express the image of God that we bear. You see, they're means. In other words, the image of God in man is not strictly utilitarian, just that we can reason where an animal can't reason, but the tools that God gives are given to us to give us the capacity to be moral, to be faithful, to be just, to be wise, to be loving, to be good, to be compassionate in some way that God is loving, good, compassionate, wise, just, righteous, holy, et cetera. Do you see? In other words, the image of God in man isn't merely seen in what differentiates man from animals. It's also seen in what man is to be and what man is to do. In that sense, the image of God in man is both ontological, it relates to our being, and functional, it relates to our doing. Calling us not only to be something, but to do something. As image bears of God, we are called, not only to be something, but to do something. And being made in the image of God, we have the capacity to be and do. God has given it to us. Now, in terms of being, in addition to our ability to reason or relate or imagine and so on, the image of God is seen in the communicable attributes of God. We studied the doctrine of God and we looked at who God is, the excellence of his person. We talked about his attributes being divided or categorized in a multitude of categories, but primarily communicable attributes and in communicable or non-communicable attributes. Well, how are we like God? The image of God in man is seen in his communicable attributes. Some of God's very character or nature is communicated to us or seen in us. That's what makes them communicable, okay? We, you and I, we have a sense of morality. We have a sense of accountability. We have a sense of responsibility. We have an inherent sense of dignity, don't we? As created beings in God's image. We have a conscience. We have a will. We have a mind. We have the capacity for love, the capacity for wisdom and compassion and goodness and justice and righteousness and holiness in the way that Adam was created. That being said, this does not mean that these attributes exist in man the way that they exist in God. We can't say that because we are created in the image of God that we are exactly like him. That is absolutely not true. In God, those attributes are perfections. They are infinite and perfect. In man, they are analogies. They are reflections, if you will. And even reflections carries too much weight. They're more illustrations of or analogous to those perfections that are found in God alone. They're a way that we can understand some of his perfections as they are communicated to us, but in no way are they like his perfections in that way. They're just analogies. They're illustrations or they are reflections of. Now those, those analogies are grossly, grossly disfigured by the fall. There is then an unbreakable distinction which exists between the creator and his creation. There's just a chasm between us. In our Sermon on Creation, we liken that distinction to be between a real, living, live, breathing person and their wax figure. Do you remember that illustration? And we have more in common with the wax figure than we do with the eternal, immutable, unchangeable, infinite and incomprehensible God. In terms of being, the image in terms of being, we are like him as we exhibit his communicable attributes. In terms of function now, we see the image reflected in what we are given to do. In terms of function, we see the image of God in man reflected in what we are given to do. Man was created to be like God in these ways and then to represent God as one made in this image. The image refers to both being and doing. You can see this back in Genesis chapter one. Turn back to Genesis chapter one, verse 26. God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. And then immediately in verse 26, the image is further seen in what man then is charged to do. Further seen in man's dominion. God made man vice-regent over all creation. He says, let them have dominion. You see the image of God in man through dominion. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So then, verse 27, God created man in his own image in the image of God. He created a male and female. He created them. Then God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply. A particular command given to man with a purpose that expresses intentionality. We'll talk about that in a moment. He tells man then, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Man is to do two things. Man is to subdue and rule. Later out of that, be fruitful and multiply. To bring the created order under control. The same charge, man is called, at the same charge, man is called to be fruitful and to multiply. In other words, God's image and God's dominion is to be spread across God's globe through man created in God's image. Do you see? God's image and his dominion is to be spread over all the earth. As man is created in the image of God and reflects the glory of God, then what happens? The glory of God fills the earth as the waters cover the sea. That's the purpose for which we are created to be, to reflect, to image the glory of God and to fill his creation with his own glory. That is the purpose of the Amago Day. Verse 26. Then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Now again, that conveys a sense of purpose and intention within the Godhead concerning our creation. Well, not so says the world. That's a bunch of hogwash, baloney. But according to a naturalistic worldview in which you take God out of everything or a humanistic worldview in which man is the center and focus of everything, we are the mere result of accidental forces that work over eons of time. As such, we're nothing more than a highly developed animal. We're no different in that sense than the animals. We've just developed a little bit farther. We're the stunning result of evolutionary processes besides we're 90% water. Some of us more water than others. We're full of oxygen, hydrogen. You have organs that have developed and synapses that fire. Mark Twain famously referred to man as nothing more than a complex machine. Man is just a machine. This machine has evolved over eons and eons of time controlled by your subconscious. You have no control of your own. Controlled by forces at work upon you either nature or nurture. Just another part of the whole. In other words, insignificant and meaningless. That's what's meant, right? That's where it all ends up. You are, if you're just a mere part of the whole and you have no purpose, you have no meaning, you have no significance. One philosopher said this, listen. Mankind is a doomed race in a dying universe. Because the human race will eventually cease to exist, it makes no ultimate difference whether it ever did exist. Mankind is thus no more significant than a swarm of mosquitoes or a barnyard of pigs for their end is all the same. The same blind cosmic process that coughed them up in the first place will eventually swallow them all again. And the same is true of each individual person. Listen up, older man, older lady, younger man, younger woman, kids, listen. The same is true of you. The contributions of the scientists to the events of human knowledge, the researches of the doctor to alleviate pain and suffering, the efforts of the diplomat to secure peace in the world, the sacrifices of good people everywhere to better the lot of the human race, all of these come to nothing, nothing. In the end, they don't make one bit of difference, not one bit. Each person's life is therefore without ultimate significance. And because our lives are ultimately meaningless, the activities that we fill our lives with are also meaningless. The long hours spent in study of the university, our jobs, our interests, our friendships, all these are in the final analysis, utterly meaningless. And you are without hope in the world. Evolutionary biologists and atheists, Richard Dawkins said this, there is at the bottom no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pointless indifference. We are machines for propagating DNA. Well, thank you, Atheist Richard Dawkins, for coming to the logical conclusion of your worldview. There's no good, there's no evil. There's no meaning, there's no significance. You're without purpose. And all that you do is meaningless. Solomon conveys the same thing, doesn't he? In Ecclesiastes, apart from God, life is a meaningless vanity. Now these same atheist evolutionists will then refer to man as basically good. I know you've forfeited your right to say anything about morality when it comes to man, when you hold that absurd position. But what does Dawkins say? There's no evil and there's no good. So how can we talk about morality if you hold that worldview? The fact that people refer to man as basically good is an absurd and meaningless statement, not to mention entirely unbiblical. It takes just a moment to consider the fact that that's absurd. Once you resort to a naturalistic view, you've forfeited all right to talk about morality. They would say, well, we just need more self-esteem. More self-esteem, right? What's the purpose? What's the purpose of more self-esteem? There's no purpose to that. You're going to die and go back into the dust from which you came into a meaningless nothingness. So what purpose? Why do you need more self-esteem? All of this is to suppress the truth that we are morally responsible to God who created us. All of this is to suppress the truth of God in our unrighteousness, do you see? So the world resorts then to telling all of the rest of us that there is no God. There is no God. There is no image. There is no purpose to our existence, no significance, no meaning, no hope. In summary, we see then the image of God in terms of these things. One, we see the image of God certainly as that which distinguishes man from the animals. That which distinguishes, and we see that clearly in Genesis chapter one and in Genesis chapter two, where unlike the animals, God breathes into the nostrils of man and he becomes a living soul. There is that which distinguishes us from the animals, the ability to reason, right? Certainly we see the image of God in our being as reflecting the communicable attributes of God. As man reflects or images or illustrates the communicable attributes of God, we see more clearly the image of God in man. Third, we see the image of God in man reflected in our capacity then to rule and to subdue, to do that which God created us to do. Not just our being, but also our function. We see the image of God in man, in our rule, in our dominion. But lastly, and very importantly, we can also see the image of God reflected in that which is restored in the new creation. We see the image of God in that which is restored through the new creation. This restoration communicates both the image that has been defaced by sin and it communicates more about the ultimate purpose for the image of God in man. Image and purpose is seen most fully in the redemptive work of God and that through Jesus Christ, our Lord. So is there a purpose to who you are? Absolutely, there is a purpose to who you are. And we see that most beautifully illustrated, most beautifully depicted in God's redemptive works through history in saving His own through the person in work of Jesus Christ. Is there a purpose to why you are? Yes, gloriously yes, absolutely yes. And that's seen most clearly, most evidently in the redemptive work of God in history to redeem His people for His Son. Turn with me to Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three. Consider with me now how the new creation further reveals the image of God in man that has been defaced or disfigured in the fall. Colossians chapter three and look there beginning at verse five where Paul says, listen, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire and covetousness, which is idolatry. Listen, if you claim to be a Christian, if you say I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are to turn from your sin. You are to put to death your members which are on the earth. And if you think that's something you can do in one moment, you're fooling yourself and you don't know what it means to battle. If you've been a Christian for five minutes, you know that that is going to be a battle to the death, right? Put to death your members. It means you are entering into holy warfare against your sin. You are striving with everything that is within you. According to the means that God has appointed, according to the means of grace, you are striving to put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication. This is a representative list. Put to death fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, covetousness, which is idolatry. Put it to death. Because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience. Listen, if you claim to be a Christian and you're still wrapped up in these things, characterizing your life, there's no broken pattern of that sin in your life. You've not turned from that sin. You are a son of disobedience. Do you see? In which you yourselves once walked when you formerly lived in them. Do you see? But now, verse 8, you yourselves are to put off all these because you are walking in Christ by faith. Because you are trusting in Him, you're to put off all these. Anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds. And what? Put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created Him. We are being renewed after the image of Him who created us. Where there is neither Greek nor Jews circumcised nor uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave, nor free. In other words, stop playing identity politics. Christ is all and in all. Flip back a couple of pages. Ephesians chapter 4. Where Ephesians chapter 4 says essentially the same thing. Ephesians chapter 4. Look beginning at verse 17, conveying the same sense here. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17. We can look at this, right? We can see what has been lost of the image of God in man through the fall. In other words, fornication and cleanest passion, evil desire, covenants, which is idolatry, those things aren't a part of the image of God in man. They're opposed to the image of God in man. And those things characterize lost and natural a man apart from this new creation in Christ. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17, this I say therefore and testify in the Lord that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk in the futility of their mind. Notice how often the mind is mentioned. Knowledge is mentioned, right? Having their understanding darkened. There it is again, being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance there it is again that is in them because of the blindness of their heart who being past feeling have given themselves over to lewdness to work all uncleanness with greediness. What's been lost? Holiness has been lost. Righteousness has been lost. True goodness has been lost. True faithfulness has been lost. A love for God has been lost replaced with a love for ourselves, a love for this world, and a love for indulging our sinful lusts. Look at verse 20, but you listen, if you're in Christ, if you're a Christian, you have not so learned Christ. If indeed you've heard of Him and have been taught by Him as the truth is in Jesus, that verse 22, you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. And verse 23, be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. In other words, what is the image of God in man? True righteousness and holiness. What was lost at the fall must be renewed in Jesus Christ. What was lost of the image of God in man at the fall must be a part of the new creation put on with strength, help from the Holy Spirit, put on in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now notice here, Paul specifically refers to a renewal of knowledge, a renewal in the spirit of your mind, do you see? And then refers to a renewal of true righteousness and true holiness. In other words, what we know our worldview, what we understand to be true and right. And then how we live, holiness and righteousness and love and goodness and faithfulness, what we know and how we live. And we can think of that, can't we? Like you remember, as you've been walking with the Lord for any length of time and you've sat under the preaching and teaching of God's word, you've studied his word, right? You've labored to know him through his word and you've seen your worldview change over time. Amen? God's people would like, that's a cause for rejoicing, right? My worldview is nothing like it was, praise be to God because I was an ignorant utter fool. I'm just a little less foolish now, but you know, we're still working. That's what's been lost, defaced, disfigured by the fall. The image of God here is that renewed mind fashioned after God's own mind. We have the mind of Christ, Paul says. We become partakers of the divine nature when we are made anew, made alive in Christ by God. And then the result of that, the fruit of that renewed mind is holiness and righteousness and goodness and faithfulness. It's impossible to have one without the other, right? You say to yourself, well, I want to live a holy life. I want to overcome this sin. I want to be faithful, right? And you have this great desire in your heart to do that, but you're not willing to avail yourself of the means by which God through his Holy Spirit will produce that in you. And what is that? A renewed mind filled with the word of God, filled with the revelation of his will and all spiritual understanding and wisdom, right? Those go together. One will not come without the other. And some, they put their Bible on the shelf. It sits there and collects dust. You could write their name on the cover in dust. And they think that they're following the Lord Jesus Christ and they're gonna be renewed and made holy and faithful. Does not work that way, folks. What was lost at the fall must be renewed in the spirit of our mind and then we must put on the new man which was created according to God. In other words, created according to the image of God. We must put that on in true righteousness and holiness. All that by conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. We were predestined to be conformed into the image of his Son. In other words, in the New Testament, redemption, sanctification, and glorification all continue to renew and refine the image of God in redeemed man. We're still growing up like that baby. We're still growing up into his image. The question is, have you been born again? Have you been born again? Are you still born in Adam? Bearing that sinful nature that you inherited from Adam or have you been born again made alive in Christ? Second Corinthians, Paul describes in chapter three, verse 18, the Christian as this. But we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. You could say the image of God, right? Beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord beholding that image in a mirror. How do we do that? Through God's word, right? By his spirit applying God's word as we understand God's word, as we understand good theology, sound doctrine as we grow in our knowledge of him. We are beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into that same image from glory to glory just as by the spirit of the Lord. All of that's impossible, impossible apart from the gospel. Can't do it in your own strength, in your own energy according to your own works, not going to happen. It is futile, futile to trust in your own works, to trust that you are somehow good or that God apart from renewing you in Christ is going to somehow forgive you of all your many offenses against him. It's simply not true, not biblical, impossible apart from the gospel. Apart from the Lord Jesus Christ, you will only serve to glorify God in his justice. Not only that, brothers and sisters, but we're called to be renewed after his image in order to be a witness to this world. Think about that. One of the glorious testimony of the grace and mercy of God is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, the life of his spirit in the heart of a sinner and what God produces in keeping with the new creation and renewing us after his image, in making us holy and more and more righteous with each passing day, more and more into the image of his Son. It's a glorious, irrefutable, inarguable testimony of the power of God to save, that God could take a former homosexual filled with those desires, those perverse and wicked desires and transform the heart of that one and give them new desires after the image of the one who created them, such that they don't desire that wickedness anymore, but desire the Lord Jesus Christ and desire righteousness and desire holiness. That God could take someone formerly consumed with the lusts of their flesh in heterosexual fornication or lusts and could transform the heart and mind of that one so that they're not consumed with those lusts any longer but consumed with the Lord Jesus Christ himself, consumed with the glory of God in Christ, that someone could take your anger, that God could take your covetousness for the Lord saved me. I was angry all the time, just filled with anger, angry, angry, angry all the time. God just in the gospel, through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, just changes your heart, changes your mind, changes your desire, changes the fabric of who you are and it's impossible, impossible for you to do that yourself. And if you're sitting here and you're still living in those lusts, you're fooling yourself, turn from your sin, put faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. All right, when you trust Him, you do what He says. You be renewed in the spirit of your mind. You pursue Him in true holiness, in true righteousness. He'll make you a trophy of His grace. All of this, the image of God in man, the image of God in man is why, for example, abortion is such a grotesquely, abhorrent and wicked and perverse evil. It's why it is so disgusting for someone to shout their abortion or to murder. That's what it is, folks. Don't hesitate to call it what it is. To murder another human being for the sake of your sinful lusts or for the sake of your convenience is an abhorrent and wicked and perverse and disgusting sin against God. It's an affront to the image of God in man. That's why racism is such a wicked, deplorable, disgusting, filthy, vile offense against God. Because it is a perversion of the image of God in man to consider someone less than you. Because of the amount of melatonin in your skin? Melanin in your skin. I'll be sleeping the more melanin we have. But think about it with me. Any of those affronts against the image of God in man, right? That's why exploitation is so wicked and perverse. You hear these stories of children being trafficked, women being trafficked, why abuse. We can think of numerous examples of vile, deplorable sin against God in this very area. They are evil, evil. And think about this with me, brother and sister. Genesis chapter 1 ends in verse 31 with this statement. Then God saw everything that He had made, including man at this time, the pinnacle of His creation. God saw everything that He had made. Indeed, it was very good. And so the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Well, then what happens? Genesis chapter 2 then, the very next verse. Remember, the chapter divisions weren't there in the original language. It just flows from one thought to the next. Genesis chapter 2 then, verse 1, thus the heavens and the earth, all the hosts of them were finished, and on the seventh day, God ended His work which He had done. And He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made. In other words, all of His creation, particularly man made in the image of God, points to a seventh day. We have a seventh day rest. There's a portion of that rest that we enjoy and experience in our redemption. We rest from working our way, by our works to be made right with God. We can rest from our works in Jesus Christ by faith. But ultimately, this is pointing forward to our ultimate rest, an ultimate seventh day in which we made anew in His image. After true holiness, after true righteousness, because we have been made anew after the image of His Son, we'll worship and praise Him in an eternal Sabbath. We will live praising, worshiping His name forever. It's a glorious blessing of those made in His image. Animals don't enjoy that. I know some of you really, really love your cat, but listen. I can't imagine heaven with cats. It's just not. The animals don't enjoy that. Those made in the image of God enjoy that blessing. And only those made in the image of God who by faith put their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for their salvation. Amen. All praise, honor, and glory to the one who has made us in His image and now renews us in that image day by day as we follow Him by faith in Jesus Christ. Let's pray together. Take a few moments. Pray silently to the Lord. We'll pray together then and you'll be dismissed. Let's pray. Father in heaven, there's anyone here who's never been born again. Lord, I pray that you would by your spirit cause them to be born again, make them alive in Christ, renew them after your image. From my brothers and sisters here, Lord, renew us according to your image, according to your likeness. Renew our minds, help us Lord to walk in true righteousness and holiness. Help us to be witnesses of your power, witnesses of your grace, witnesses of your mercy, testimonies of your power in the gospel to save sinners. Help us to be faithful image bearers or help us to be devoted to you. Help us Lord to pursue our sanctification which you are working daily toward our glorification with the hope of being with you in heaven. Glorified, praising you for all eternity, the one in whose image we were created. We love you, we thank you for this blessed doctrine, this inexpressible joy of being made in that way, fashioned in that way. We give you praise and glory and honor for such a glorious privilege and glorious blessing. I pray Lord that by your spirit you would help us to more faithfully reflect that image as we live for you on this side of eternity. We love you, we thank you for your word. Thank you for this time together in Jesus' name. Amen.