All right, let's turn to Psalm
73. Now, we live in a world where
image is everything. And it may be a surprise to you
to hear me say this, but image is everything. Image is everything. Not the sense that this wicked
world gives in that they constantly promote self-image. Not that
image. But in order to be eternally
accepted of holy God, image is everything. That's what I've
titled this. Image is everything. Now our
text here in Psalm 73 describes what it will be like for some
who will be awakened from the dead by God and brought into
His presence in the day of judgment. And this is how God will view
them when they come into His presence. Psalm 73 20 says, As
a dream when one awaketh, so, O Lord, when thou awakest. That is, when he awakes that
child and brings them into His presence. Thou shalt despise
their image. Thou shalt despise their image. I want to show you three things
this morning. I want to show you Adam's image. I want to show
you Christ's image. And I want to show you the believer's
image. Adam's image, Christ's image, and the believer's image.
Look over at Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. Now Adam was created by God in
the image of God, in purity and holiness and righteousness. Genesis
chapter 1. It says there in verse 26, it
says, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in
his own image. In the image of God created he
him, male and female, created he them. Now in the likeness
of God, when he had this image that he was created in, Adam
was given dominion, power, authority over the creatures. It says there
in verse 28, God blessed them and said, Be fruitful and multiply
and replenish the earth, subdue it, have dominion over the fish
of the sea, over the fowl of the air, over every living thing
that moveth upon the earth. But the image of God in which
Adam was originally created was defiled, and he lost that image
when he died. Look at Genesis 3.9. And this
was after the fall, after spiritual death entered in. The Lord God
called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden. I was afraid because I was naked,
and I hid myself. Here's this one who was once
holy and righteous, so he could walk with God and talk with God.
And here he is now, this one who was made in the image of
God. Here he is hiding from God and afraid to approach unto God.
Why did Christ say men hide from Him? Why did Christ say men will
not come to the light? What is it that makes sinners
hide themselves from the light? What makes sinners uncomfortable
to hear the gospel of the free and sovereign grace of God and
Christ? The Lord said, this is the condemnation, that light
has come into the world. And men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Why is it men won't
come to the light? Why is it men won't come into
light in the good news of the gospel? Why is it sinners do
not do that? Why all the excuses? Why all
the accusations? Why do some sinners have no fellowship
with God's saints? For everyone that doeth evil
hates the light, he neither comes to the light lest his deeds should
be reproved." Adam didn't come to the light because he knew
if he came to God, what he had done, the sin he had committed
was going to be reproved and that he was going to be stripped
and have to let go of all the works of his hands whereby he
tried to cover himself. and he wouldn't come. And no
man will come until God draws him. But every sinner that comes
to Christ, drawn by God, and is made to confess what he is,
to confess his sin, and to confess you have no righteousness in
yourself, that's the hardest thing. It's an impossible thing
for a sinner to do, to confess your sin against God and say,
Father, I have no righteousness at all. Would you have mercy
on me? But when you do that, by God's grace, He gives mercy. He delights to show mercy. But
everybody that comes to Him some other way, comes in that fallen,
depraved image of Adam. And He says, He shall despise
their image. He shall despise their image.
Before the fall, He told Adam that he could be fruitful, multiply,
replenish the earth, subdue, subdue it, have dominion over
every living thing. Look at Genesis 3.17. Look at
how that image and that likeness was polluted. Genesis 3.17. He
said unto Adam, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice
of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded
thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground
for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns also, and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee. Thou shalt eat the herb of the
field, and the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread. till thou
return unto the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust
thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return." That's a lot different
from that image in which he was originally created, isn't it?
And then Adam, because he's the federal head and representative
of his people, that sin that Adam, whereby he transgressed,
it was imputed to all mankind. He represented all mankind. And
what he did was that sin was imputed to us. And not only that,
but he represented all mankind in birth. And we're all born
by natural generation from Adam, from that corrupted image of
Adam. Look at Genesis 5 verse 3. Genesis
5 verse 3. And Adam lived 130 years and
begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his
name Seth. That's the image we're born in
with. It's, behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. That was a sinful seed by which
I was born. And so I'm born corrupt. So I
have sin on me and I have sin in me because of what I am in
Adam. The Scripture says, Wherefore
as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Now that's the
every moment right now. Sinners are awaking in the presence
of God right now. While we've been sitting here,
somebody has died and come into God's presence. And right now,
they've come into God's presence unholy and unrighteous in the
image of Adam. They might have washed their
hands in snow water. They may have done many wonderful
works in religion. But it was all just so much trying
to come to God in that fallen, depraved image that man is by
nature. And when you awake in God's presence
like that, not knowing that the wicked are snared in the works
of their own hands, coming ignorant of that and trying to commend
yourself by some works you've done. Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in your name? When I enter into God's presence,
it don't matter how long I will have preached the gospel to you.
It may have preached it in truth. That won't make me righteous
with God. That won't make me accepted with God. Didn't we
cast out devils? You may separate yourself from
everybody you think is unholy and unrighteous and make them
stand over there and you stand apart from them and never go
around them. That won't make you righteous
with God. That won't make us holy with God. That won't change
the image we are by nature. Didn't we do many wonderful works
in your name? No amount of works we do is going
to change this nature. It's not going to change what
we are. We have to be completely changed. He said, how are they
brought into desolation as in a moment? They're utterly consumed
with terrors as a dream when one awaketh. Right now, you're
asleep. Some of you right here right
now are asleep. You're slumbering in sin and death and thinking,
I'm going to be all right. But when you come into God's
presence, you're going to be awakened, just like you pop out of a dream
and you thought everything you had was real and lasting and
would sustain you in the day of judgment. And just like you
wake out of a dream and nothing you dreamed was real, you began
to discover that was all just a dream. It won't benefit me
at all. He says, so when thou awakest,
when the Lord awakes you into His presence, He says, thou shalt
despise their image. I don't want to come to God that
way. I don't want to come to God in my image. Whose image
do we need to come to God in? Let's talk about Christ's image.
Turn with me to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Now we just saw that this death
passed upon all men. We just saw that everybody that's
born into this world is born with that lost, depraved, vile
image of Adam. Not in this likeness and image
that God will receive, but in the image of Adam. So then salvation's
got to come from somebody other than us. It's got to come from
somebody who's not like us. Wouldn't you agree with that?
It's got to come from somebody who's not like us. Job said,
who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. He said, what is man that he
should be clean? And he was born of a woman that
he should be righteous. Behold, he putteth no trust in
his saints. The heavens are not clean in his sight. How much
more abominable and filthy is man that drinks iniquity like
water? How can he be justified with God? How can he be clean
that's born of a woman? That's the question. How are
we going to be able to come into God's presence if that's the
case? Salvation's got to be by one who's not born of natural
generation of that corruptible seed. It's got to be one born
of God in the image of God. It's got to be one who is eternal
so that what he does as a man will have eternal effects. It will be eternally effectual. All right, look at Luke 1.30.
The angel said unto Mary, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found
favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name
Jesus. He shall be great, and shall
be called the Son of the Highest. The Lord God shall give unto
him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over
the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be
no end. Now listen to what Mary said. Then said Mary unto the
angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? She's a virgin. How am I gonna have a child? She said, I've never known a
man. And the angel answered and said
unto her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God. Do you see why it was a necessity
that Christ be born not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible? Now
Christ Jesus, let's look at Hebrews chapter 1. Who is this One that
came that's called the Son of the Highest, that's called this
Holy One? Who is He? Turn over here to
Hebrews chapter 1 and look at verse 3. He's the brightness of God's
glory and the express image of His person. That's who He is. He's the brightness of God's
glory and the express image of His person. Now hold your place
here in Hebrews 1. The express image means more
than just a mere likeness like Adam was created in. It means
that Christ is the brightness of God's glory. It means that
the Son of God, this One who came forth from the womb of the
Virgin, He's the essential, eternal image of His Father. He's distinct from God the Father,
but He's not inferior to the Father in any way. He thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. He's equal with God. That
One who took our nature upon Him, that's who He is. He's the
eternal One. He's perfect and He's complete.
He's holy. He's different from us. He's
everything we are not. He's the express image of holiness,
the express image of righteousness. He's the express image of wisdom.
He's the express image of power. He's the express image of truth.
He's the express image of faithfulness, the express image of love, the
express image of grace. That's who he is. He's the brightness
of God's glory, the express image of God. He is God the Son, in
whom God the Father takes infinite delight and who He's thoroughly
pleased with. That's who came forth. Adam was
not the express image of God. He was made in the likeness of
God. He was made in the image of God, but he was not the express
image of God. But that first man, Adam, was
made in the likeness of the last Adam. Christ's body hadn't been
made yet, but he was made in the likeness of Christ, by Christ,
and for Christ, as a foreshadowing of the last Adam, who is the
express image of God. That's what Colossians 1.15 tells
us. It says, he's the image of the
invisible God, he's the firstborn of every creature. That includes
Adam. It says, for by him were all things created. That includes
Adam. It says all things were created by him and for him. That
includes Adam. And he's before all things. That
means he's before Adam. And by him all things consist.
That's how Adam was made. See, Adam was made as a picture,
a foreshadowing of the last Adam. He was a federal head and representative
of all whom he was made to represent. Christ is the federal head and
representative of all he was made to represent. By Adam, all
the children that will be born will be born of Him. By Christ
Jesus, all those that will be born will be born of Him. But
there are some differences about Him. Look at verse 3. Adam was
given dominion. He was given dominion over all
things, to subdue all things. But look how much greater Christ
is. He has expressed the image of God, verse 3, and upholds
all things by the word of His power. He upholds all things
by the Word of His power. Everything in this earth, everything
in this universe, our King is ruling and governing everything
just exactly as He would have it come to pass in this earth
right now by the Word of His power. And particularly that
Word of His power is the Word of His everlasting covenant whereby
He promised the Father that of all which the Father had given
Him, He would lose none. He would lose none. This whole
world was created by Christ and for Christ, because before anything
that's been made was made, God gave it all into His Son's hands.
to do. And so his son did it. His son
came forth and created the world and all things in it. And he's
been moving all things in this world to save each and every
one of those that God gave to him before the world began. To
call them out by his gospel because he won't lose one. That's what
we're going to see in 2 Peter 3.3 here soon where he says,
by that same word, that the heavens and the earth were created by
that same Word by which the whole world was destroyed with a flood.
By that same Word right now, everything's held in place. And
the reason it's all held in place is because He promised the Father
He wouldn't lose one. And because of his word, his
covenant word, it ensures us that not one for whom he dies
shall perish. It ensures us that he will see
to it that all shall come to repentance and this world will
not be destroyed until he's called each and every one of them. You
see, our Savior, the one who I'm telling you about every week,
this man is God. He's the God-man. He's the express
image of God. He's altogether holy and righteous
and fit to be the high priest and the offering that cleanses
his people. For such a high priest became
us, who's holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens. Now we think about Adam. He disobeyed
God. He completely disobeyed God in
what he did. And when he disobeyed God as
the federal head and representative of his people, he plunged the
whole race into sin and death. But when Christ came, he obeyed
God. And obeying God, he saved everyone
that he was the federal head and representative of from death.
Look at verse 3. When he had by himself purged
our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on
high. He did it. He by himself did it. He by himself
purged our sins. That means, you know what happens
when you purge something? You ladies purge something. If
your husband eats spaghetti, he always gets it on him, you
know, and he has it all over him. And you take that shirt
that he had where he ate spaghetti, and you take a rag, or you take
some dishwasher detergent or whatever, and you sit there,
and you scrub, and you scrub, and you scrub on that stain.
till that stain's gone. It's not there anymore. And you
know what you've done when you've finished that work? You've purged
the stain. It's not there anymore. It's
gone. That's what Christ did. He didn't attempt to do it. That's
what He did when He had by Himself purged our sins so that the sins
are gone. There's no more stain. They're
all together gone. That's what He did. Daniel said,
said, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city. That's God's elect, his people
who make up his holy city. And he said to finish the transgression. That's what Christ did by himself. He finished the transgression.
He said to make an end of sins. That's what it is to purge them.
That's what Christ did. He purged the sins of God's people,
the sins of God's holy city. He says, to make reconciliation
for iniquity. That's what Christ accomplished.
He made reconciliation through His blood, reconciled all of
God's people, all of God's holy city to God. It says to bring
in everlasting righteousness. That's what he did. He wrought
by himself a righteousness that's everlasting that all of his children
will be clothed in by his grace so that they can enter into God's
presence. And it says, and to seal up the vision and prophecy
That's what he did. He completely finished everything
that was written of him in the Law and the Prophets. Read your
bulletin this morning. I put that article in there that
just tells all about Christ in every book of the Bible. This
is who he is. And he says, and to anoint the
most holy. That's what our text tells us.
Verse three, I'm sorry, verse three in Hebrews one, when he
had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on high. You know why? God the Father
didn't despise His image. God the Father was well pleased
with His image. It's written in Acts 13, it says,
He raised up Jesus again as it's also written in the 2nd Psalm,
Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. He didn't despise
His image, He was well pleased with His image. Now that's the
image we have to come in and accept the sinner, come to God
in the image of Christ. Our text tells us, as a dream
when one awaketh, So, O Lord, when Thou awakest, Thou shalt
despise their image. Now, here's the third thing.
How is it that a believer is going to have this image? How
are we going to have this image? We've got to have this image.
How are we going to have Christ's image? Look at Romans chapter
8. Romans chapter 8. We must be recreated after Christ's
image. And all those that God elected
unto salvation shall be. And here's why. Romans 8, 29.
For whom he did foreknow. Let's read Romans 8, 28. We know
that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose. That just told
us God is working everything together for good to them that
love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.
He worked them together for good before we even knew God. Why
did He do that? For whom He did foreknow, He
also did predestinate. to be conformed to the image
of His Son. Do you see that? To be conformed
to the image of His Son, that His Son might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Now look over at 2 Corinthians
2 and look at verse 4. 2 Corinthians 2 and verse 4. Now let me talk to you while
you're turning there. Every elect child of God must
and shall be brought to hear the gospel of what Christ has
accomplished for them. How do I know that's going to
happen? Because the King of glory who has all power, who's holding
this little globe and this little bitty tiny universe in place
right now by the word of His power and orchestrating everything
that's going on in it, He is the King who is working all things
together for the good of those that love God and are called.
He worked those things together to bring you to love God and
bring you to be called of God. And He does that. He has the
power to do that. He predestinated them to be conformed
to His image and He predestinated the means by which they will
be. And He sends the good news of this accomplishment to each
one. And when He does each of His purchased possessions, are
born of God and given faith to believe on Him in spirit and
in truth because Christ upholds all things by the word of His
power and He has the power to do so. When He walked this earth,
how many times do you read He must needs go through Samaria
or He had to go to this place or He said we need to go to this
place. Why did He go to those places? He's the Word. He is
the Gospel and He's going there to declare the Gospel because
he had somebody at that place. Maybe it was a woman by the well
in Samaria who didn't have a clue what she worshipped, who didn't
have one clue whatsoever. Maybe it was a leper that he
came to. Maybe it was somebody he went
to their place and it was somebody that was going to be let down
through a roof who couldn't walk, who was impotent. Everywhere
He went, He knew right where they were. And He went right
to them and He called them by His grace. In truth and in spirit,
He called them. He's doing the same thing right
now on this earth. I'll give you an example. Remember
when He had ascended? He was gone. He wasn't here in
the earth bodily anymore. But remember Paul? Paul wanted
to go to Asia and preach the gospel. And Acts 16.6 says, We
were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia. He
forbid them to go to Asia. And he says, and then we got
to Masia and we thought we would go into Bithynia, but the Spirit
suffered us not. He didn't let us go. And then
in verse 10 he says, but after we saw a vision, immediately
we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the
Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them. Why? That's
where Lydia was. That's who he was sending him
there for. He was sending him there to call
her out. So he wasn't on earth when he did that in bodily form,
but he did the same thing that he did when he walked this earth
with Paul. You see, it's a must that we
hear the Gospel. It's a must because Paul said
this, those who are blinded by the God of this world will remain
so until this happens. Look at 2 Corinthians 4.4. 2
Corinthians 4.4. Look at the second half there. He said, lest the light of the
glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine
unto them. They're going to remain in that
state until the gospel of Christ shines unto them. This image
of this Christ is formed in them, this one who is the image of
God, that incorruptible seed. But when that light comes through
the gospel, you'll be sitting here listening to the word of
God, and you won't know what's happened. And it may take some
time. It may take quite a bit of time. But you'll begin to hear, and
the light will begin to shine, and you'll begin to see the glory
of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And when that has happened,
there's a miracle that's taken place. A miracle has happened.
Look back at 2 Corinthians 3.18. We all, with open face, beholding
as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed. into the same
image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."
Do you see that? We're changed into His image.
He predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son. He sent
forth the gospel that the light of the glorious gospel of Christ,
who is the image of God, might shine in unto us. And when He
shines, this is what happens. We're changed into His image.
Inwardly, inwardly. You won't see anything that's
happened outwardly. It's all inwardly. Look over at Colossians
3. Colossians 3. Now the preacher doesn't have
any power to do this. Paul didn't even know where Lydia
was. He was wanting to go somewhere
else. He had his mindset to go somewhere else. Does that mean
that God's going to show me a vision and tell me where to go? No,
it means he's just going to prevent me from going where I would go
and he's going to make me go where he'd have me to go. That's
what he's going to do. That's what he's going to do
for his Lydias. That's what he's going to do
for his Ethiopian eunuchs. He sent them way out there on
a road that nobody's even going down anymore, because it's not
even the new road anymore. It's the old road. And he sends
one of his philips down there to him to meet him, and he preaches
the gospel to him. And he makes him to seek the
glory of God in the face of Christ, and he's changed inwardly into
the same image by the Spirit of the Lord. The preacher can't
do it, though. Paul said we have this treasure
in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God, not
of us. You mean the apostle Paul said that? The one who wrote
three-fourths of the New Testament? Yeah. He said, I don't have any
power to do any of this. Those that are born are born
not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, nor the will of
man. They're born of God. For in Christ Jesus, circumcision
doesn't avail anything nor uncircumcision. It's not what we do. It's being
made a new creature, a new creation, being created anew. It's the
spirit that quickeneth the flesh profits absolutely nothing. The
Lord said, the words that I speak unto you, their spirit and their
life, that's how you're going to be called. For he's not a
Jew which is one outwardly. Circumcision is not that which
is in the flesh. He's a Jew which is one inwardly. Circumcision
is that of the heart and spirit, not in the letter, whose praise
is of God, not of men. But by the Spirit of God, this
is what happens. A new creation is made of God the Holy Spirit
wherein believers are completely made new in the image of Christ.
Look at Colossians 3.10. Colossians 3.10. It says, we've
put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image
of Him that created Him. That's how we get this image.
We're renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created
this image, this new image. Who created that image when Adam
was laying there and all he was was a lifeless lump of dirt?
Who created that? God did. What did Adam do to
create it? Nothing. He was passive, completely
passive in it. You know what you and I are going
to do to create this image? Nothing. Absolutely as passive as Adam
was in it. But when it's done inwardly,
there is an image of Him that's created within. Where there's
neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all and in all. Do you see that? Turn over to
1 Corinthians 15 now. 1 Corinthians 15. Scripture tells
us if any man's in Christ, he's a new creature. Totally new creation. Old things are passed away and
all things are become new. And all things are of God who
has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and given us
the ministry of reconciliation. Our old way of saying some part
of salvation was of us, that passes away when this new man's
made. You know how you can tell a man hasn't been made new? He's
still trying to say he has to do something to save himself.
But when a man's made new, those things pass away. And we say
all things are of God. Christ is all. Christ is all. That old course of living passes
away. And there's a new course of living
by faith, of loving that which is holy. No more being able to
run into sin and love it and relish it and enjoy it anymore.
Now you don't like it. You don't have anything to do
with it. You want to be separated from it forever. Our old way
of serving God in the flesh is passed away. All the things in
religion that once appealed to us and once made us think that
we had to have and was a necessity and that it's the only way the
church of God's going to be built and held together and continue
and all those things, we realize it's God who's building his church.
It's God who's keeping his church. It's God who's growing his church.
It's God who shall get all the glory for what He's done in His
church and not man. And all those old things pass
away and we don't even enjoy them anymore. We don't need them
anymore. We don't even desire them anymore. We worship God
in spirit and in truth now. That old way of trying to come
to Him in the letter, I'm trying to look in here and see if we
can find some life in this Word. I'm looking in here and saying,
now what will God tell me I need to do here? And I'm going to
do that and that way God will receive me. Because I've done
that. That old way is going to become old. You'll see things
God says to do. You'll see things that God tells
us how to walk and what to avoid, but it won't be that old letter
of trying, that legal way of trying to come to Him anymore.
It'll be a constraint of love. It'll be because you have the
law of God, the Word of God, the covenant of God written on
your heart, and you're constrained by Him, and you want to follow
Him. Whereas before, it just was uncomfortable to you to actually
get with the saints and be around saints. You'd go. when you didn't
have anything better to do, to hear the gospel preached, but
you didn't really want to, and you didn't really like to go
all the time. And you'd go and hang out with saints of God every
now and then, when you didn't have anything better to do. But
if truth be told, you'd rather be hanging out with your hellish
companions, because they walked in the way you liked, and you
liked walking with them, and you liked the company, and you
liked the conversation, and you liked their dress, and you liked
everything about them. And they didn't make you uncomfortable.
But now that old ways passed away. And you really and truly
enjoy hearing the gospel of salvation accomplished by Christ. And you
really enjoy being with the saints of God and in their company.
And you really no more can stomach hearing some false gospel preached.
And you don't like being around self-righteous religious folks
or worldly folks anymore. All things have become new. You
don't anymore go around watching and criticizing people like a
Pharisee and making everybody uncomfortable to be around you.
Now you want to see that those that have been made righteous
of God They're righteous in Christ by what He's done. They fulfilled
the law through faith in Christ who fulfilled it for them. And
so now you're not going around trying to make them do things
by the law and constraining them by the law. You're not going
around blaming them now. The law was made for a righteous
man. And that's what all God's saints are in Christ. They're
righteous. Who is he that shall lay anything to the charge of
God's name? It's God that justifies. Now then, you go about trying
to be a helper of their joy. You go about now trying to overlook
the little things and all those things that you used to criticize,
and you go about trying to be a helper of their joy. Because
the law didn't make anything perfect, but the bringing in
of a better hope did, and that's the one in whom we draw near
to God. Perfect. Perfect. We had all that emphasis
on riches and honor and on former religion. We live for ourselves.
Now all those things are passed away. Our riches are Christ.
The honor and glory of His great name is what motivates us. We
love those who are begotten of Him. It's because the inward
man's been created eternally new after Christ's image, and
it's never again going to be corrupted. We've been born of
the incorruptible seed where His workmanship. Now, there's
coming a day when we're going to stand before God in that judgment
day. And we've seen here that those
that come to God in their own image, they come to God and He
says, I'll despise their image. Why? As much as they might have
been religious and said they were conformed to Christ is nothing
like God, nothing like Christ whatsoever. But those that are
going to come to him in that day being conformed to his image,
perfectly conformed to his image by by the Lord, by what He's
done. John said, now we are the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. We shall be
like Him, for we will see Him as He is. Just imagine, if we're
looking through this glass darkly right now, and by the Spirit
of God, we're born anew and created anew into His image inwardly.
Imagine what it'll be when He, in all His glory, makes us to
see Him as He is. Oh, we won't have this old body
of death. We'll see Him as He is. We'll
be like Him. We'll be like Him. Now look at
2 Corinthians 15, 47. The first man is of the earth,
earthy. That's Adam. The second man is
the Lord from heaven. Verse 48, And as is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. You see here, there's been a
difference made. And as we have borne the image of the earthy,
we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. That's how we're
going to come in that full, complete, perfect image of His dear Son.
As we've borne the image of Adam, we're going to bear the image
of Christ. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we
shall all be changed. in a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, in the last trump." Remember how that text in Psalm
over there, 73, it says, as in a moment, they're going to be
brought into terror who come in their own image. Well, in
a moment, a twinkling of an eye, we're going to be changed. For
the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible.
And we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law,
but thanks be to God. who giveth us the victory. He
took away sin. He put it away. He fulfilled
the law. Thanks be unto God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. The psalmist said,
as for me, I will behold thy face in righteousness. I shall
be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness. So what do we do? You that have been called. You
want your children to know this gospel? I want mine to know it.
You want your friends to know this gospel? I want mine to know
it. You want your family to know it? I want mine to know it. You
want people in this community to know it? I want them to know
it. So what do we do then, who've been called and been conformed
to his image now in the inward man? What do we do? Look at verse
58. Therefore, my beloved brethren,
be ye steadfast, unmovable. Steadfast in whom? In Christ. Unmovable from where? From Christ. always abounding in the work
of who? Of Christ, of the Lord? For as
much as you know, that your labor is not in vain. In the Lord. Amen.