All right, Genesis chapter 1. I'd like to deal with verses
27 to 31, but just as a very quick rehearsal, going back over, whatever
the right word is, of what we had considered last time, Almighty
God in the triunity of His persons. created man, the scripture says,
in his image and in his likeness. Now what that means is that man
was created to be a picture. a shadow. He was to set forth
the praise of the Lord God of heaven as he is revealed in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He gloriously set forth the truth
when He created man on the sixth day. God created for six days,
the scripture says. And then on the seventh, Lord
willing, we'll look at that next week, when the Lord rested. But on the sixth day, the last
day of creation, God created man. Now, in that blessed truth,
we realize that man, like in creation, had no part, and in
regeneration, he has no part. Man was created last. The Lord
told Job, teaching this very thing, Job 38.4, he said, where
was thou? when I laid the foundations of
the earth declare if thou hast understanding so in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth and made man in his image
and likeness now again how was man made in the image a shadow
a type of the Lord of Glory. Well, number one, God is a spirit. That is, one with Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, sovereign in creation and providence and salvation,
but God Almighty in the very essence of His being cannot be
seen. He's a spirit. And likewise,
man had the breath of life, breathed
into him, and man became a living soul. As God is eternal, spirit
eternal, man has a spirit that will never die. God is holy. And man in the image and likeness
of God was made, the scripture declares, upright. That is, man
was created with a nature that was not corrupted. He was made
to be without imperfection. He was made upright in the likeness
of Almighty God. Thirdly, God is one God. in unity with himself, Father,
Son, and Spirit, and man was created to be in fellowship with
the Lord God in harmony with him, again in his likeness, a
picture, a type, God Almighty forthly rules in heaven and earth. The Scripture declares, He hath
done whatsoever He hath pleased. That's what Scripture says in
Psalm 115 verse 3. And man likewise was given the
dominion to rule over the fish of the sea, the fowl of the air,
and everything that liveth and moveth upon the earth. That's
what verse 26 says. Now, we're going to start tonight
in verse 27. And the scripture says, so God created man in his
own image. He created man in those likenesses
that we had just considered, spirit and unity, God holy, man's
upright. God Almighty made man to be with
that eternal spirit and a living spirit just like all animals.
He had two spirits in him. All animal life has got a life
that is temporal. Well, man does too. When this
life is over, this body will fall away and it'll go back to
the dust, but man has got a spiritual life also. And that spiritual
life is going to live forever. So God created man in his image,
flesh and spirit, allied to heaven and earth, and made man in the
bodily form that the Lord Jesus Christ in time would take. The way we behold man to be right
now, the way we see each other right now, the way we're made,
we stand upright, everybody's got a head and two ears and nose
and hands and feet. That is the way that Almighty
God everlastingly purposed that the Lord Jesus Christ would appear
to men. So we were created in his image
in that likeness. So here we are, we're gonna behold
God has made man, made him in his image. Now look at the wording
here, verse 27. So God created man in his own
image. in the image of God Christ the
express image of God God created man in his own image the image
of God created him and look at this male and female created
he them." Now, the details of the woman being taken out of
the man will be set forth in the next chapter, in chapter
2, but the fact of the matter is this, when God created man,
the scripture reveals that God created them male and female
being jointly created by God and receiving God's blessing
and God's commission to have dominion over the creation as
was declared. Now, what we're seeing right
here and now Eve has not been brought out. She's not been taken
out of the man yet. That's next chapter. But the
fact of the matter is, when God created man, here's how he created
him, male and female. So we observe the beautiful picture
of the place of the church. Now here is Eve, and Eve is a
type of the church. Now where was she? She was in
Adam. Adam is a picture of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So Eve, being a type of the bride,
the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, received all of her dignity and
blessing as being found Adam. And so we see the place of the
church, the elect of God, being found in the person of the Lord
Jesus Christ, just as everything that Eve would ever possess. Her existence, her life, her
honor, her safety, her guidance, her welfare, all of that would
come from Adam. She was taken out of Adam. Now
what a picture. You could see it. It's just so
beautifully displayed here of the life of the church is found
in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the life of the bride. So Paul penned this, he said,
when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also
appear with Him in glory. So the life of the bride is in
the Son, is in the Lord Jesus Himself. The Lord Jesus Christ
being the life of the body, Paul the Apostle said, I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I. What he's saying is I'm living,
but it's not from me. but Christ liveth in me and the
life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith the
faithfulness of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself
for me." So the honor of the church is not found or established
in herself. Whenever Adam rebelled against
God, disobeyed God. We, all mankind, but included
in all mankind was God's elect. And so we also, we separated
ourselves. The church separated herself
from the Lord Jesus by disobedience. When Adam sinned, we sinned.
When Adam rebelled, we rebelled. But the Lord, according to his
everlasting covenant of grace, was pleased not to allow the
bride to perish. The scripture says in Hosea 2.19
that the Lord Jesus betrothed the bride to himself in righteousness
in judgment, loving kindness, and mercies." Now, what a word
of comfort. Here, from the mouth, from the
heart of the tenderness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
faithful and true witness of God, when we found ourselves
to be unfaithful, and in Adam, The only thing we can say. His
faithfulness to his own never wavered. He joined the bride
to himself and covenanted to never allow us to perish. His betrothal to the bride was
actually the marriage covenant, and that marriage covenant was
forever. A union that would never be dissolved,
not merely based upon the bride's ability to keep the promise because
she couldn't, we couldn't. But he could, and he did. And
it's a marriage that is not established according to the bride's works
of righteousness, because everything that we would ever do concerning
righteousness is summed up in this statement, filthy rags,
but upon the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. The church
is holy and without blame in him. So her righteousness judged
in him. He bore the guilt, the debt of
our unrighteousness and gave us his. So here is Eve. She's created. When Adam was
created, Eve was too. She was there. She'll be brought
out later, but she's there. But the Lord, he betrothed us
to himself in righteousness, in judgment. What does that mean? Everything that was demanded
for justice before God Almighty and holiness has been completely
satisfied and answered by the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the
husband. Everything, again, that Eve needed
was in Adam. She would look to him. The man is the head of the bride,
of the wife. The husband is the head of the
wife. Adam is head of Eve. Christ is head of the church.
So everything that she needed, everything was demanded, Almighty
God set forth in picture and type. He looked to Christ for
it. So when Christ bore our griefs,
carried our burdens, the scripture says it pleased the Lord. to
bruise him, put him to grief. His soul made an offering for
sin for us that the bride might go free. And the safety of the
bride, the safety of Eve again in Adam. The safety of the church
to never be cast out is according to the Lord's ability, power
to keep her unto himself, kept. by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. And the guidance
of the bride, the guidance of Eve in Adam, Adam's guidance,
again, not according to the bride's wisdom. I mean, we looked at
that when we looked in chapter three and we saw the fall, what
happened when Eve acted independently of her husband, and man, you
know, from that fell, but what the bride needs is a shepherd. We're just wandering sheep. And
so here, the husband set forth by Adam as a picture and type
of the Lord Jesus Christ is our hope, our guidance, our stability,
our life. So truly, God said, God created
man, verse 27, in his own image, in the image of God created him,
male and female, created he them. And as we behold Eve, knowing,
we know that we're going to find her brought forth, God's gonna
cause Adam to fall into a deep sleep, and he's gonna remove
from Adam a rib, and from that rib he's gonna make a woman.
He's gonna present him to it, but And before, knowing right
here, she was always there. The bride has always been in
him. Even before the foundation of the world, she's being brought
out now, being revealed now. But she's always been in Christ. But listen to the words of David. What a beautiful picture of the
bride being in Christ. David is speaking as a type,
King David speaking as a type of the Lord Jesus in Psalm 139.16
says, did see my substance, yet being
imperfect. What he said was, your eyes saw
my unformed substance, the sheep. Now the words of David are just
a picture of Christ. He said, your eyes did see my
substance, being imperfect. Before the sheep were ever brought
forth, they were in the Lord. And in thy book, in the Lamb's
book of life, all my members were written. which in continuance
were fashioned, what does that mean? Which should be formed
in time, is what he's saying. When as yet there was none of
them, you beheld them before they ever took shape, that's
what he's saying. So again, the beautiful picture, that thought
that all of God's sheep have always been in the Lord, we've
always been there, always secure, always watched, always loved,
and in time brought forth. So the scripture declares that
God created man, male and female, verse 28, and God blessed them
and God said unto them, be fruitful and and multiply, and replenish
the earth, and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of
the sea, over the fowl of the air, over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth." Now, here we behold God's blessing
upon The marriage, that blessing of being fruitful and multiplying
and filling the earth. Now let me just say this, I want
to bring this out. See the word right there where
it says replenish? Now that word we would think
it means to plenish back that which used to be there. That's
not what the word means. It just means fill. That's what
it means, fill. So here we see God creating man,
and he's gonna give man before, here again, before Eve is ever
brought out of him, you know, God has set forth. This is what
God's blessing is, to be fruitful and multiply and bring forth
people. And God's got a people. And they're
gonna be born. God created man, man, male, female. And from that couple, one couple,
Almighty God said, I want you to fill the earth. And that's,
boy, you talking about going back and check out your heritage?
You know, we can all trace our heritage back wherever we're
going. We're going right back to Adam, you know? And all of the,
you know, the turns and this, that, and the other, they're
all gonna come back to one man. So God has a people that must
be born, into this world. They're going to have to be brought
forth and it was by the good pleasure of God, purpose of God,
to bring them out through male and female. He blessed them,
said you be fruitful. And this was the everlasting
purpose of Almighty God. We started off looking when man
fell. And that was pictured back in
the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, that's
verse 1.1, Genesis 1.1. Verse two said, and the earth
was or it became without form and void. Something happened.
The wording bears that out first of all, let me tell you that. And it became something that
it was not before. Something happened. Doesn't say
what it was. I've got a thought on what it
was, and I think it was probably the fall of Satan and the rebellion
from God in heaven. But whenever God made the heavens
and the earth, I'm speculating now. I don't have scriptural. I'm speculating. When God made
the heavens and the earth, the angels were created and the heavenly
host. But That may have been what happened,
but something happened and the earth became void, dark, wild. But that was not the way the
world was created to be. the world was created in Isaiah
45 18 it says he hath established it he created it not in vain
he formed it the earth to be inhabited but but the Lord back
in verse 28 he blessed his creation of man male and female and he
said be fruitful multiply, replenish the earth, and subdue it. Now, when the Lord said subdue
the earth, that is, have dominion over the fish of the sea, of
the fowl of the air, over every living thing that moveth upon
the earth, it's not that man was told to conquer, that when
it says subdue it, you know, you kind of think of you know,
master over it and conquer it. But the word subdue means to
make use of. Make use of God's creation for
God's glory and for man's good. That was the blessing of Almighty
God. Man, having been blessed of God
to have dominion over God's creation, fell in the garden. And in that
fall, he died spiritually, helpless. to obey God, helpless to subdue
the earth or to make use of the earth. Yeah, I mean, just naturally
speaking, man today does everything in the world against the earth.
Everything that we do is wasteful. Everything that we do is not
for the earth's good. It's not, man is a, because of
sin, has tainted everything that's ever been touched. But the blessing
of God for man to be fruitful and multiply and replenish or
fill the earth, that remained. But the fullness of having dominion
or to reign over and to rule and prevail over for God's glory
and the good of mankind Only the Lord Jesus Christ Did that
I want you to hold your place and turn to Psalm 8 Psalm chapter
8 And I want to read verses 3 to 9 Psalm 8 Psalm chapter 8 verse 3 to 9
David writing, he said, When I consider thy heavens, the work
of thy fingers, the moon, the stars which thou hast ordained,
what is man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that
thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little
lower than the angels, and has crowned him with glory and honor.
Now this is talking about when the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world and humbled himself. That's who he's talking about
right here. Thou has made him a little lower than the angels,
crowned him with glory and honor, Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things under
his feet, all sheep and oxen, yea, the beasts of the field,
the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever
passeth through the paths of the seas. O Lord, our Lord, How
excellent is thy name in all the earth. Only the Lord Jesus
Christ subdued or made use of. all of God's creation for God's
honor and for the good of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the scripture declares, said, Matthew 20, 18, all power is
given unto me in heaven and earth. Oh, that God in his mercy would
send his blessed son as our representative, as our federal head. And everything
that he did, we did. God commanded man in the beginning,
blessed him, said, I want you to multiply, be fruitful, and
subdue the earth. That was man's responsibility,
and man failed. But the second item, he did it. So only the Lord himself, the
Son of God, could truthfully say that he that has sent me
is with me. The Father, if not, let me alone.
I do always those things that pleased him. God gave man in
Adam, male, female, the responsibility to glorify him in God's creation. Gave man that duty and man didn't
do it, but Christ did. Now look at verses 29 to 31.
And God said, Behold, I've given you every
herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and
every tree in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed,
to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth,
to every fowl of the air, to everything that creepeth upon
the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb
for meat, and it was so. And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and
the morning were the sixth day. As we come to these closing verses
of this first chapter, the Lord reveals that man will be sustained
this way. This is how man was created to
be sustained. Every herb bearing seed which
is upon the face of the earth Every tree in which is the fruit
of the tree, that would be man's food. Man was created to eat
herbs and plants. Every fowl of the air, everything
that creeps upon the earth wherein is life. The scripture says,
I have given every green herb for meat and it was so. Now, That would be the food of
man, the food of animals, in the creation. Meat was not allowed
until after the flood. Hold your place, turn over to
Genesis 8, verse 20. Genesis 8, verse 20, and I'll
read through verse 4 of chapter 9. In Genesis 8 and verse 20, here's
what it says, and Noah built an altar unto the Lord. Now this
is after the flood, the ark has come back. And took of every
clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings
upon the altar. And the Lord smelled a sweet
savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground anymore for man's sake. For the imagination of
man's heart is evil from his youth, neither will I again smite
any more everything living as I have done, while the earth
remaineth seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter,
day and night shall not cease. And God blessed Noah and his
sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish
the earth. And the fear of you and the dread
of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, upon every fowl
of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, upon all the
fishes of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every
moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, even as the
green herb have I given you all things, but flesh with the life
thereof which is in the blood thereof shall ye not eat. Now, I'd like to make a couple
of observations. You know, There's no scripture
that is written just for information. Every scripture glorifies the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now you know that. That passage
of scripture that I quote all the time, it's one of them that
I keep reminding all of us. We need to hear that. The two
on the road to Emmaus. The Lord said, in beginning with
Moses, and all the scriptures he expounded unto them, those
things concerning himself. So I can tell you this, even
in these closing verses of scripture, whenever God told man, male and
female, this is what you're going to live on. This is gonna be
your meat. This is how man was created to
be, to eat. The scripture says that God directed
man to eat only herbs and plants that bore seed. Now that plants
bearing seed, now no matter how small or how large, trees, plants,
little, they all possess the structure of a vine and branches. You just look at a little bitty,
you know, little twig, little cuckoo burrs. I don't know if
they have cuckoo burrs here. When I was in Louisiana, we had
little, a cuckoo burr could get to be a pretty good sized plant
and it had little cuckoo burrs on it, you know, stickers, things.
But when you see a little cuckoo burr, when it comes out of the
ground, little bitty, bitty thing, it's got a stem And it's got
the leaves of the branches. It's a straight up stem like
this. And the branches is just two little things. It looks like
a little helicopter on there. Little old bitty thing, about
like that. But the structure of all of these things that have
within them seeds and the ability to reproduce. They all have that
little vine. and little bitty branches, whether
it's that or it's a huge oak tree. And therein we behold,
even in the creation, God set forth that the sustenance of
His creation would be in the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord told
His disciples, He said, I'm divine. You're the branches. He said,
without me, you can do nothing. There's no life apart. So even when man was created,
male and female, before the woman was ever brought forth, this
is how man would live. This is what he was gonna live
on. That which pictured and glorified the Lord Jesus Christ, being
grafted into him and being separated from him, you take that little
bitty kookabur, I could take that little cuckoo bird right
there and I could pull off those two little branches right there,
that stem would still live. But you pull off those two little
branches right there and drop them down, I guarantee you I
could come back in just a little while and they're starting to
shrivel up. There's no life outside of the stem. The roots, it comes
up, all the food, it's in the vine. So in the beginning, man
was set forth that the life of God's creation of man, male and
female, was in the Lord Jesus Christ. But also, after the flood,
when God gave man permission to eat the flesh of animals,
it had just one stipulation. Genesis 9-4, but flesh with the
life thereof which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat? Men were forbidden to eat raw
flesh. That's what he's saying. He was
forbidden to eat raw flesh. It must be cooked. It had to
be cooked. That was the stipulation. You
can eat meat, but you can't eat it raw. Why? Whenever the flesh is prepared
and cooked, when it's roasted, and the fire is put to it, and
the blood is not, you don't eat it raw, the blood is not raw,
blood, it's cooked, therein we behold the Lord Jesus Christ,
who laid down His life and endured the consuming fire of God's wrath
and justice for his people. Even after the flood, after the
flood, after God had destroyed man, I'm going to destroy man,
but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and Lord willing
we'll get to that if we go through the book of Genesis. God was
pleased to save one man, his wife, three sons, their wives,
and some animals. God allowed them to eat meat,
but still, whatever they ate, we're gonna have to picture the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whether it be herbs before the
flood, or herbs and meat after the flood, you don't eat the
blood. It's gotta be cooked. And God saw, verse 31, everything
that he had made, and behold, It was very good. It pictured
the Lord Jesus Christ and the evening and the morning were
the third day. I pray that the Lord be pleased
to bless these verses to our hearts, to the glory of God Almighty,
and to our good. Amen.