Good morning, everyone. Here's I spent in vanity and pride carrying not. My Lord was crucified. What does that mean?
I love the mouth of babes. I guess the thing is the reason that we're here today, the reason that we're in our vanity and pride, I think about those words. All the time that you've spent, if you don't know the Lord now, it's a joy to come to know the Lord and know that those years, God will use even those. They're not wasted, but when you come to know the Lord, it's a glorious thing.
So thank you for worshiping for those songs. It's wonderful. So this message, before I start, it's called the image of God. And I want to look at some of the things that observations about through the Word of God that cause us to be mindful of who God is and who we are and who Christ is and why he came.
So let's just begin in prayer. Father in heaven, thank you, Lord, for this day. Thank you, Lord, that we can look into your word, that we can buy your grace, see your image, see the exact expression of your image through Christ. Help us, Father, in heaven to marvel.
And as a brother in the Lord has said, if we cease to wonder, we will cease to worship. And so Father in heaven, your name is glorified in Jesus' name. OK, so I'd like to begin with this. Colossians 1, 15 to 20 says, he is the image of the invisible God, the first born overall creation, for by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through him and for him.
And he is before all things, and in him all things consist. Colossians 1, 17, and ASB states that this way, he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Hebrews 1, 3 says, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Wow.
So I just want to, at this point, just, we're going to go to a couple of videos that I think you'll find very, very amazing. I'm going to be in a clear background with some elements. OK, so this is what I have right now. The next step is to start narrowing down, because obviously we've done a whole lot of things.
And there's a lot of ideas here, not all the colors, and some places you can see we've got dark images with light text on top of it, other images are very bright. So now is the time to move from collection to curation to make the decisions on what I call the use. Now I'm running through this. Now I'm going to start over.
You've got to start it over. It works. It's a very, very dark. I'll try to do it.
We're good at rehearsal. Life is not a rehearsal. All the majesty of the mountains. I feel like David at full and praises wedding.
Here we go. OK, so this is a molecular view of what's going on inside each and every one of your 10 trillion cells, possibly. Well, it's not pretty, but it works. DNA, OK, there's a little molecular machine from amino acids, and it's organizing the DNA right now.
And it makes it into those, well, more familiar shapes that we know in a minute. So it sells about to split. Hang in there. It's not done.
This is just a more close build of replication of DNA. There's a reason why I want you to just see this. So these little machines are slipping off the DNA, one on the right there. It's making an exact copy of your DNA.
This one is the RNA up here. I like the sound effect. It's exactly what it looks like. Lots of pans banging it.
This is the start of the gene for bone strength protein. It's a little bit of a deep. It hits that thing, changes that. So it has a different function for it.
It's a specific function. And this is very fascinating, duplicated. The other one's quite short, but it's worth it. Did you guys take notes on all that?
It's going to be a quiz after. This is it. One of your cells. Discrabs that get pulled on, that take one cell and pull it into two.
That's it. OK. That's occurring billions of times throughout your 10 trillion cells. And each of the 8 billion humans on the planet have that happening around the clock.
Oh, it's just 2019. But actually, this is 2020. I use this slide previously. OK.
Not to mention the millions of billions of other creatures got created. He's holding everything, everything together. The cosmos, most gravity, trillions of galaxies, more stars and planets. And on and on and on.
And he cares about us. I mean, if we cease to wonder, if we cease to be in awe of God, we'll have a distorted image of him. He is worthy to be praised. You're worthy of the Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created.
I don't say this lightly or blithely. If you just focus on the fact that he holds all things together, that will alleviate a lot of stress in our lives. And it'll give you confidence in the Lord. He is so amazing.
Nothing escapes his gaze. And he has set his affections on us as believers. As a human kind, he sent a son into the world. I know we know this.
Maybe some of you, you're hearing it again. Please listen up. For God's soul of the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. What a Savior.
What a God. OK. What is the world's image of God? Man wants to make God in his image.
Subservient to him. And man wants to assert the authority of God. The world's image of God. It's way off.
It's way off. The world has a distorted view of Jesus. Godhead, the scripture says, and this is our authority, the Word of God, the Word of God. This is how we know what God is like.
When you look at Jesus and his life, it gives us an understanding that we didn't have before. And that causes us to be in a state of uncertainty. There's nothing uncertainty about what God did 2,000 years ago. There's nothing uncertain about what he's going to do in your life to change you, to transform you.
For in him, this is Jesus dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. To the last God is maybe a kind little grandpa that chuckles its sin. The Bible says, God is a just judge, and he's angry with the wicked every day. A lot of times I'm on the street.
I mean, talk to people about a lie. They go, it's just a lie. It's not a big deal. It's a big deal.
If we look at the cross, and we look at how big and how bad sin is in God's sight and how repulsive and how wicked it is, look what he did to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he did to him to deal with our sin. And if you want to see how good God is, look at that same cross. Look how good he is that he would do that for us.
We don't deserve it, and that's what grace is all about. Unmerited favor. The world wants to take an attribute of God and run with it. God is love, but they twisted it.
Love is love, but that's like saying blue is blue. Sinisen and hell is hell. It really translates into a warped image. We can counter that on the streets a lot of times, and you and your lives, I'm sure that you know people who because of their faulty image of God, sin to their hearts content, they don't realize what's coming.
The world is indifferent to the horrible abuse that mankind visits upon others and ourselves. And the minds of some think that God doesn't exist. They suppress the truth and unrighteousness. Satan has blinded their minds.
He liked it even. He continues to distort man's view of God. Isn't that what he did? Isn't that what he did?
You shall not surely die. He doesn't want you to know that. So we have to be unguarded Christians all the time, that we don't fall for the enemy's ruse, because he goes about like a roaring lion looking for whom he can devour. And you know what?
Saints, you get caught off from the herd. That's why it's so important to be in fellowship with other believers. It's so important to be in the word of God. It's so important to be about our father's business, whatever that looks like in your life.
And I want to get to the great commission in just a bit, because that is a command for all of us. And there's good reason for it. And it all revolves around the image of God. So the Spirit especially says that in latter times, some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons.
Satan uses religion. He's a deceiver, a doctrine of demons to sow the many schemes, to mar the image of Christ through false religion. Jehovah's Witnesses think Jesus is a created being. They think that the archangel is Jesus.
And I must really tick Michael off, I would think. More than Satan's the brother of Jesus Christ. That is so blasphemous. Other religions believe Jesus is just a metaphor, you know, Christian science.
Just a nice idea. You see the wrong image of who Jesus is. People will take that to hell with them. Because as Jesus said, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.
That is why the laws need to hear the truth. We are the ones that have been entrusted by God and commanded by Him to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And we see things like the tiny window into the majesty and the genius of God. And that one little tiny, and that's just such a minute fraction of what's going on inside each and every cell.
And we've got what is it? 10 trillion in each of us. Other religions believe Jesus is a metaphor. You know, when Peter looked at Jesus Christ after the miracle that he performed, when he said, OK, I'll let him.
That's one more time. And he did. And he pulled it. And then he looked at Jesus.
And Jesus looked at him. And he said, Lord, look away from me. For I am a sinful man. And Jesus said, don't be afraid.
For now you'll be a fisher of men. And that's a wonderful thing. And that's what we all are. I hope you guys like fishing.
Because the streams on Spring Garden Road are brimming with people, with fish, lost souls. And you know what? We have a Savior who gave everything for us. And we should be in all of that.
And many of you, I know you are. Many of you may be going through some difficulties in your life. Remember those cells? Remember that little vitamin D that that little tiny?
That's just one little fragment of his creation. He knows we're each and every one of your 10 trillion cells are saints. He knows you. And you know what?
You're just not some machine that he built. We're made an image of God. He knew that his image of man, his image was sinful. Peter knew that.
He saw himself in truth. You know there's a song called, Why Me Lord? And one of the lines is, who knows that song? Why Me Lord?
Basic, he's saying, Lord help me, Jesus. Oh, I can't think very now. Forgive me saints to deserve one pleasure. Even one.
Yeah, what have I ever done? Yeah, no. That's what the liner wanted though. We're going to have a small break here while I look up the lyrics.
Many people want to believe that they're a product of evolution. And as such, human beings, they're just accidental animals. No different than any other creature. And it's because people believe this doctrine of demons, human life in their mind is unremarkable and disposable.
Atheism has taken the low road, so to speak, to justify the atrocities of abortion and the Holocaust. We have legal systems in the world that trivialize the value of human life and seemingly reward murderers with time-off or good behavior. Yet to see what God thinks of men and women created in his image, all one has to do is look at what God says. It's the just punishment for murder.
Genesis 9.6 says, whoever sheds man's blood by man, his blood shall be shed for in the image of God, he made man. That should help us when we look at people that we work with or we see living on the street or we see at the gas station, families, friends, all made in the image of God. It doesn't look like it sometimes, and people do a lot of evil, wicked things. And there's a reason for that.
It's not an excuse. But when the fall occurred, just as for one man, it entered the world and death through sin. And thus death spread to all men because all have sinned. And you know, we're all in the same club.
We should get jackets. But the thing is, we're all sinners. And you're either saved or you're lost. You're either on the broad road leading to destruction or you've been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb.
You're either headed to hell or you're seated in the heavenlies. So when we have a right standing at the image of God, it drives everything else. Like makes sense. People are image bearers of God and he has sinned as only be gotten son to die in their place and out of place.
First John Chutusus and he himself is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. All the people in the world, eight billion souls. You are unique in a sense that you, God has placed you somewhere where you're going to be, you have a circle of influence, so to speak. You have people that you connect with that, I mean, never meet up with.
If I see them in sobies, I don't know if I'm going to bump into them and say something. I don't know. But if they're your neighbor, since what are we doing? Reach out to the lost.
I know it sounds like a broken record sometimes, but this is the Lord Jesus. This is the great commission that he gave us. God in the flesh came down. He's the express image of the invisible God.
He's not created. He's the creator. He is God. And people don't know that.
And that's why they think lightly of it. That's why they take his name in vain, like it's nothing else, slandering that noble name. The name of Jesus that we hold in such high regard, the world does not know. But we are to warn them.
We are supposed to be going out into the world and preaching the gospel to every creature. Now, I know I said this many, many times before, and maybe this is your first time here, and that's a good thing. But we've all been made in the image of God. We're fallen creatures.
God sent to Sun to redeem us. You have a responsibility, we as saints, to tell them the truth. And they have a responsibility. You, if you don't know the Lord Jesus, if you've not been born again, you have a responsibility to respond to the truth.
As Jesus said, repent and believe in the gospel. We're speaking with a man, John and I, a Muslim fellow. And we've talked with a lot of people over the years. And in some ways, it's very similar.
But he was adamant. He refused to believe that Jesus was God. He refused to believe in the Triune God. He refused.
It wasn't that he was like, well, I don't know. He was blatantly and blasphemously refusing to bow the knee, mentally speaking, to the truth. And so what did we do? We told him the truth.
That scripture, I think it was John, where Jesus said, unless you believe that I am, he will die in your sins. And we warned him in love. I mean, it was a great conversation. And we shook hands with him at the end.
And hopefully the Lord will break his hard heart. He realized he was a sinner, but he scoffed at the idea. What did the Bible say? Mark rose will come in the last days.
It's so true. He scoffed at the idea that God would do that. Because it's inconceivable to him, that God would lower himself to our level, so to speak. And yet that's exactly what he did.
And when we read that Jesus Christ, he's expressed image of the invisible God, the first born over all creation. He's first in everything. The image of God, Jesus Christ, supreme. The Bible talks about him being the high potentate.
These are words that we're trying to use to try to describe, just like John was trying to describe in the book of Revelation, what he was seeing. But you know what we have seen transformed lives. We have seen people, not just on the streets of that, but we as believers, we've seen people come to know the Lord. It's staggering the change.
God is restoring people back to the, we're making the image of God, us as believers. We're not God in the flesh. We are created beings, but we were meant to be a reflection of God's glory. And yeah, when you look at it, if you have a bird and like a hummingbird, which is one of my favorites, you should know, if you think of anyone.
If you look at a hummingbird, it's an majestic creature. It's mind blowing. All the creatures are like that. You know, God has given us creation.
Saints, we should glory in the fact that we can look around and praise God for all of that. And I know many of you do, and I know I'm speaking sometimes to the choir, I don't know all you're in the choir. You know what I mean? I guess what I really wanna say though, is that we have a God who creates things, people that aren't saved, since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, like hummingbirds, so they're without excuse, without excuse.
And saints, we're without excuse. I say this gently and in love. We're without excuse. If we don't reach out to our neighbors, our friends, who is my neighbor?
Well, who can you be a neighbor to, right? That's what Jesus was getting to. Who can you be a neighbor to? And I know it's a scary thing.
I remember going to one of my neighbors, something like, oh boy, you know, this might be severing the relationship. Well, I gave him a tract. He didn't get saved, but his wife did. And now when we go back to Alberta, we go to Wycliffe Bible Chapel.
She's there all the time and then he comes. I don't know if he's saved yet, but it's just a glorious thing to see him in church and her as a believer and a change. And what's the restoration of that image? And if we all think about the fact that we're image bearers of God and where we've come from, it's a humbling thing, but it's also a joyous thing, right?
That's how come we can look at years I spent in vanity and pride. No way not my Lord was crucified. No way not that he died for me. That's how it goes.
Where was I? Okay, what does it mean to be made in the image of God? Well, it can't be a physical resemblance, right? Cause when Jesus was creating things, he was in his pre-incarnate state.
So it's more than just a physical, it's not just a physical sort of representation in that regard. We have a conscience, actually, when we come into this world, right? We have a conscience. God has given us to that right off the bat.
And if you saw, I only saw the opening of the Olympics. There's a lot of seared consciences out there. I won't watch the rest of it sadly, but it was not a good thing to see. God has a sense, given us a sense of reason, a sense of justice.
How about empathy and compassion? Did the angels have that? I don't know. It isn't physical likeness, since God is spirit.
God is just so we have that as a possible way to bear his image. Since God is a creator, we're like him in a limited degree. He's the creator, but yeah, isn't it an interesting thing? If you see little children and they start drawing, maybe on your walls or your fridge or whatever else.
We have this need to express ourselves creatively. Paintings, I mean, there's some great paintings out there. Some bad paintings out there, but there's some good paintings out there. Lots of good ones.
Art, some people are wonderful artists. That's a gift from God, all those things, to be able to do that. I'm not talking just about Michelangelo. Our daughter, when she would name her little stuffed animals, and it's cute, he has names them.
They're all called fluffy, but that's besides the point. The point is that even then, she's naming things. Adam, God brought Adam to the animals, and he said, and you would let him name them. How wonderful is he that we get to have that sort of a picture of God?
He can't really bring us, he brought Adam to him, and he asked them what he would name them. And so he said, astralopithecus, no, I kid. Okay, so Romans 120 to 32, I know that John is spoken on this many times. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind.
They did not like to retain God in their knowledge. They didn't like to retain the image of God that they could derive from conscience and creation. That general revelation that he's given to each and every one of us, he's not gonna give you here, if you don't know him, if you're not gonna respond to the light that he's given you, he's not gonna give you more light. He's not gonna give you special revelation, which is the word of God, and the truth contained within.
So respond to the truth if you don't know the Lord. Respond to the fact that creation didn't create itself, and that you have a conscience. We have a knowledge of right and wrong. We know it's right and wrong because God has given that to us.
God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness. Actually, this is almost like an, this is the opposite of what God is like. Unrighteousness, well, God is righteous. Wickedness, well, God is righteous.
Coveredness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness. They are whispers, back by it was haters of God. Yeah, it's not passive thing a lot of the times. Yes, Jesus did say, if you're not forming, you're against me.
But we're talking people to take an active participation. A lot of times it's not just a simple passive indifference, right? And we see that more and more as we draw nearer and nearer to that point where God is going to set the stage which he's doing right now. If you look at Israel, just saying, you're like the canary in a coal mine in a way, right?
You know, you'd have the canary in the coal mine and you'd go down to the mine and you kept looking at that little canary and if the canary checked out, you know that you gotta get out of there, right? And so when we see Israel and what's happening in Israel, we know that God is ramping things up and so we need to be aware of that. And of course, pray for Israel, saints, pray for Israel. God loves Israel.
He loves us. He's going to fulfill his prophecies and his promises. I spoke about that last time. Haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things.
You know, people make wonderful inventions. Did you know a lot of the inventions that we have came from Israel? I'm just saying, like, isn't that something? Maybe next time I'll bring that up and like, it's an amazing thing.
How God has blessed Israel in so many different ways. And a lot of them don't even know they have a wrong image of God. They have a wrong image of Jesus as well. They need the gospel too, a lot of them.
Sorry. I hit the wrong thing here. Okay, so violent problem. Knowing the righteous judgment of God that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice things.
Part of the line in that song, why me, Lord, what Christ Christ's office in? He says, Lord, help me, Jesus. I know what I am. When you come to the point in your life, where you look at God and you look at his standard, the moral law, the 10 commandments, when you look at that and you go, oh, that's what God is like.
This is what he wants. Boy, we strike out so fast. None of us have even kept the first one. We should love the Lord of God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength.
It says, you shall love the Lord, your God, you shall have no other gods before me. We don't even get to that. Not even to first base, right? So you're guilty and nothing that we can do can change that.
A lot of people, the image of man, it's flipped. They tried to defy man and they tried to lower the exalt man and they lower God. God is less than them, so to speak. Tragic, but that's the ultimate in pride, isn't it?
Even the devil said, I will be like the most high. Beganain his image finds his meaning and holds some things a lot of the time, photographs, beautiful paintings. Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, there's any virtue and if there is anything that phrase where they meditate on these things, see when we do these things, when we have a right image of God and we look at the Bible and we look at Jesus and his life and we consume his word, not just out of a rope, okay, I put my 10 minutes in, saints, the more and more and more you take in the word of God, the more and more and more you will have the image of God. You'll have an understanding.
You'll have reasoning that only comes through, I wish it came through seminars or in a lot of ways, but you gotta do the hard work, you gotta crack it open, you gotta spend time in the word because there's no substitute for that. My dad used to say, one, there's no shortcuts, I don't think I'm ahead much further as I take whenever you date a school. What he was trying to say is, you gotta do the work, you gotta do the work, we have to be involved in our spiritual growth, so to speak, it is true, it is like water, the word is life, it's like food, it really is, and the more you spend the time in the word, the more you get to know God, the more you have confidence in him and it's thrilling, when those truths all of a sudden they come alive, like maybe you saw the thing with the DNA and it was, didn't think it was gonna be like a test or anything, saints, the more you get to know God, and I say this myself too, because it's very easy to not spend time in the word of God or in prayer, or meeting with believers, being together here for the Lord's Supper, these things are so integral because when we're sitting here and we're looking at the elements, we're looking at the emblems and we're saying, this is incredible, we get to worship the one who did this for us, and it draws you into that deeper and deeper and deeper understanding, your image of God becomes what it should be elevated, high in regard, almost done, okay, so within the Godhead, or the Trinity, there's a relationship, right? So we're creating the image of God, we're relational beings, we're not meant to spend all our time down in the basement playing video games, I hate those things, except that, you know, Mario Kart, that one, okay, fellowship, there's fellowship within the Godhead, what do we do, what do we just do here for a little bit, we greet each other, and then they said, okay, say hi to him, we all get together, we mingle and we mix, and relationships are wonderful, they're meant to be enjoyed, God sent his son to reconcile us to him so that we could enjoy relationship with him, and that comes through the word of God, that comes, that's how, you know, someone people say, well, is it God speak to you, I say, oh yeah, every day, if you let him, if you read his word, if you meditate on it, love, God is love, we love ourselves, we love a lot of things that we shouldn't love, we love sin, and then God moves in our lives and changes us, and we detest it, we detest it, because we know that the ruin that it causes to ourselves, we see, it's easy to see it on some people, we see the homeless all the time, many of you driven around and you see them at the intersections and they're panhandling, and that is just the tip of the iceberg, right, these are the ones that maybe have their own drugs, whatever it is, their destitute, whatever it is, but some of us hide it pretty good, some of us, we realize what we're like, and we try to hide it pretty good, people that aren't saved, you know, good deeds, God will look at me and see a better image of man, myself, it won't work, it's not by works of righteousness which we've done, it's according to His mercy, He saved us, through the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Spirit, so mercy, that's another attribute of God, attribute of God, we have mercy, we have empathy for people, if you don't have mercy and empathy, cry out to God for it, if you don't have a love for the lost and you're not compelled, ask God to give you that, because that is the driver that we need, it's serious business, I know it's a bit of a downer, you guys, in some ways, but you know what, it's just keeping us in check, time is running out, Diana has a friend, her sister worked with a woman who died last night, I don't know where she is, I know that we gave her a gospel track years ago, maybe that will make the difference, maybe she read it, maybe she came to know the Lord, I pray that's what happened, but when you have people that you can take the opportunity to do it, just make it a part of your life, folks, you know, take a gospel track, meet that thousands of them, just simply place it somewhere if you're a little bit, you know, timid, or you can say, hey, this is good news, do you want it, that's all it takes sometimes, sometimes I'm handing out trackers, here you go, here you go, welcome to Digby, you know, so whatever, oh Digby's coming up, you guys can come along with us if you want, we're gonna go down there and it's gonna be wonderful.
And you ever whittle, anybody here ever whittle, you know, whittling? Okay, I used to watch my dad, he'd have a, he'd take one of those carpenter's pencils, the flat kind of, and he would whittle it, put a point on it, of course he'd be using some beat up, old kitchen knife that found his way into his toolbox. Anyways, he would, and then all of a sudden, he'd do it too much, and the whole leg would, and he'd have to start over, and it's getting smaller and smaller, God knows exactly how much to whittle away from us, to get us to the point where we go, look away from you, Lord, I'm a sinful man, if you're not a believer in your here, I pray to God that he's whittling you, that he's causing you some concern for your soul, that's a good thing, and maybe you'll come to the point where you see that Godly soar produces repentance, leading to salvation, and you'll never regret it. That sanctification, by the way, when God prunes us as believers, it's not for nothing, I don't know if you've ever heard the message by Elizabeth Elliot, she has suffering is not for nothing, I think that's exactly how she spoke it, but what a wonderful, wonderful, testimony and message that that was, God's gonna use it all, do you think there's any, in that one cell, do you think that there's any non-service, serviceable parts, they're all there for a reason, it's not just some sort of hodgepodge, and your life, although it may seem like it's a hodgepodge, or mine at the time, when we focus on just how we control God is, and that 10 trillion cells in your body, and the little DNA strands, and all the rest of it going on, that's just one thing, by the way, there's lots of stuff going on in your body, and now, this is not one of those birds and the bees things.
Therefore, when he came into the world, he said, sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me, and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins you had no pleasure, then I said, behold, I have come, and the volume of the book it has written of me to do your will, oh God, Jesus Christ's desire was to do the will of the Father, and he did it marvelously, perfectly, not my will Father, but yours be done. Lord, if it's possible, take this cup away from me, he pleaded in the garden. Oh, I'm so glad that that turned out in our favor, because it's, there's only one way, and if you're here and you don't know the Lord Jesus, he's the way, the truth and the life, there is another way. So Jesus, the image of the invisible God, in likeness of man, and through his redemptive work, causes us to be born again, when we men and women are created, and new in the image of God, and ultimately we will be glorified and see him as he is, for we will be like him.
It's not even over yet, it just gets better and better and better for us. It is, no matter how bad it gets here, it's gonna be behind us one day, it's gonna be, not even an afterthought. Now we are the children of God, we will see him as he is. You know, that's why he's the son of God and the son of man, when he uses those terms, it's wonderful, the perfect human being.
If you had a dictionary, a divine dictionary, and you're looking there and you're looking up the word God, there'd be a little picture of Jesus there, but it would be okay because it's a divine dictionary. And underneath it, it would say, for more information, see Jesus, I mean, right? And if you want more information of how you can see Jesus and how you can see what you are, and how it is to be redeemed, and how it is to have everlasting life, it's found in the word of God. This is our confidence.
Then God said, let us make man in our image. According to our likeness, let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birth of the air, and over the cattle, and over the 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.
That alone sums up a lot of issues, don't you think? Sadly in the Olympics, there's two men that are boxing for the woman's title. They didn't read that. They didn't read the part about, he made them male and female, and you don't go and mess with that.
Okay, Cop and his love, we have the capacity to love, was lost in the fall, that was our ability to love God and wait at it. We should. The Bible tells our God and his love went about his plan to restore us to him by making his son, the Lord Jesus, who is the very image of God, the exact representation, and supreme example of himself, and he was marred more than any man. You know, he was so scourged and so beat up, that you couldn't even tell that he was human practically, that's what the Bible says.
But it's just as many were appalled at you, his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being. I wanna finish, we're getting close to the bottom here, with Isaiah 53, John spoke a little bit about this this morning, and that was great. I thought, oh, he's gonna take away all my notes, but he didn't. Who has believed our report, this is Isaiah 53, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed, for he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root of the out of drag round, he has no form or calmness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
He is despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrow is unacquainted with grief, and we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised, and we did not esteem him. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed, and this is what John spoke on all. We like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. That's the image of God, Christ on the cross.
The sins of the world heaped upon him, dying. Didn't open his mouth, even though he was oppressed and afflicted. He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before it shear as a silent. So he opened not his mouth, he was taken from prison and from judgment, and who would declare his generation for he was cut off from the land of the living, and from judgment.
For the transgressions of my people, he was stricken, and they made him his grave with the wicked, but with the rich at his death, because he had done no violence, nor has he deceived in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief. When you make his soul and often for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
He shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. God was perfectly satisfied with Jesus Christ's offering of himself for the sins of the world. Perfectly satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servants shall justify many.
As many as come to him, he won't cast out. As many as that would come. And if you haven't come to him yet, what in the world are you waiting for? Is it the world?
Is it sin? Whatever it is. Is it you think that God won't forgive your sins? That's just pride.
That's arrogance. He offers you forgiveness, and when you have a proper image of God, you'll go to him, and you'll humble yourself. A broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, peace will God, you will not despise. So come to the Savior while you still have time if you don't know him.
You shall bear their iniquities. I would divide him, apportion with the great, and you shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul into death, and he was numbered with the transgressions, and he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. You know, God has laid out his word so beautifully. It captures exactly what we need to know.
So we started out being beings, meaning image of God, that image was almost completely erased after the fall, but God has taken steps to restore that image by means of his only begotten son. People who have been born again, are indeed new creations in Christ. And one day, we'll become glorious trophies of God's grace. We're gonna be like him and be with him forever.
God has spared no expense to rescue us. May we be spent in service for our great God and Savior. Read the word, reach the lost, and time we will reap a great reward. And let us not be weary.
This is what Galatians 6-9 says, while doing good for and do season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart. First John 3-2 says, beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Let's pray. Lord, how amazing to see you in truth.
May our image of you, our view of you, not be skewed, so we would represent to the world a faulty image, Lord. Help us to study your word and to be so involved within it, and obeying what we read, that we can tell people what you're really like and what he's done for us. May we be ambassadors that reflect your glory, and by your gospel, may others be restored back to you. We're ultimately those who are born again from above, will be made in your image.
In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.