In Genesis chapter 1, we're going
to look at day 6 this evening. Verses 24-31, but we remember
that on day 1, we saw God elected a people. He divided the darkness
from the light. He sanctified. He set apart.
He said, this is mine. On day 2, the Lord provided Christ
as our firmament, our covering, our atonement. for His people. Our covering was provided. On
day three, God gathered all those waters that He covered. He'd
chosen together. And He elevated that dry ground,
and He planted herbs on it, grasses, and made them grow. Just as He
plants His seed in our heart, makes it bring forth fruit. And
we're gathered here tonight. He's gathered us together here
under Christ. with the fruit of believing the
Lord, the fruit of loving the Lord. We love Him. We believe
Him. We love His truth. We love His
Christ. That's who we love. On day four, we see these greater
lights to rule the day, and that lesser light at night, and the
stars. The Lord made a moon. He hung the sun in the solar
system. The mysteries of heaven were
revealed to us. We go out and look up in the daytime or the
nighttime. Mysterious, vast, unsearchable. We see the sun, S-U-N, declares
the sun, S-O-N. He's the light of all men in
the world, and he's the light of life in the heart of every
believer. Day five, the whole purpose. of making this earth
and the things in it, we see. The Lord made all the fishes,
He made all the birds, but He made the whale. The purpose of
all this was so the Son of God, God Himself, could come to this
earth and die, go into the grave for those people He separated,
those people He sanctified, those people He covered, that He chose,
Christ could come and die for. Our Master said, for as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall
the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart
of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this
generation and shall condemn it, because they repented at
the preaching of Jonah. And behold, a greater than Jonah
is here. You see Christ in Jonah, don't
you? There's a greater one than that
prophet Jonah that's here. That's come. The more we see
the rest that we have in Christ, that He truly put our sins away
in His body on the tree, the more we see that our new man
is His workmanship created unto good works. Not refabricated
and polished up a little bit. No, it's created. It's His workmanship
created unto good works. The more we see that that whole
purpose of creation, In this world, the fall of Adam, everything,
it's for the glory of God and for the good of His people and
that we're going to be conformed into the image of His Son the
more we walk by faith. The more we see those things,
the more we walk by faith. It says in verse 24, and God
said, Genesis 1, 24, and God said, let the earth bring forth
the living creature after His kind, cattle. the creeping thing,
and the beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so. God
made the beast of the earth after his kind, and the cattle after
their kind, and everything that creepeth upon the earth after
his kind. And God saw that it was good." That was everything
that walked. We saw things before the Lord created that flew, that
hung in the heavens, that swam. Now it's everything that walks.
God's people begin to walk by faith. We see each day here. Day one through six. And maybe
we've memorized these things when we were a child and we knew
what order they were in. But we begin to see this is God's
eternal decrees represented in this creation. We begin to walk by faith. Some
things are hard to see sometimes. Some things are hard to learn,
ain't they? But the Spirit of God in us makes us believe and
trust and obey and rest in Him. The Hebrew writer said, by faith,
Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which should
have to receive for an inheritance, obeyed. And he went out not knowing
whether he went. Abraham, can you explain to me
exactly what you're feeling and what you're experiencing whenever
you up and went? He said, no, but I believe God.
Where are you going? I don't know. He told me to get
to walking. I walked. I believed him. I loved him because
he first loved me. Turn over to Romans chapter 8.
It's good for us to read these things often. Each time as we
grow some, we see more, don't we? Romans chapter 8, verse 28. Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things,
everything, work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are thee called according to His purpose, for whom He did
foreknow, those He separated out before time, those He loved
in Christ, He also, He also. He didn't just love them. I love
ya. Best of luck. I love ya. It's on you now. You gotta learn.
You gotta figure it out. You gotta do He loved us. He foreknew us. And He also did
predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that
He might be the firstborn of many brethren. He predestinated
us. So many people I grew up with
had such a problem with predestination. That's because they didn't know
what it meant or they had their own definition to things. It
means ordained, to determine before. What was determined? What did it please God to do?
What did He choose to do? What did He determine beforehand?
To be conformed to the image of His Son. To be made like Christ. I hate predestination. Don't
you want to be made like Christ? That's how it's going to have
to happen. God's got to love you first. And He's going to conform you
to the image of His Son. He's going to do all the work. All the workmanship. That's what we're going to see
here on day six. What the Lord determines takes place. What He wills comes to pass. That's what He wants to do. It's
done. There in Genesis 1 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. God said, Let
us That's important. God said, let
us. Who's the us? God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Us. Let us. It says in verse 1 there in Genesis
1-1, in the beginning, God. That's Elohim. That's plural. Plural, let us create man after
our image. I tried to think of a, I got
a thesaurus out of responsibilities or roles or something that would
take place. I couldn't find a better word,
but Lord forgive me. Each one of those have a role,
don't they? God the Father purposed to make a people just like his
son. He looked on his darling son and said, I'm gonna make
a whole people just like him. How's that going to happen? The Son.
He purchased us with His blood. That was the cost. He had to
come to this earth, be born for us, live for us, die for us,
shed His blood for us, and be risen for us. And then God the
Holy Spirit comes to us. and forms us, reveals Christ
in us. Baptizes us into Christ. Seals
us forever, Paul said. Sealed in. And awakens that new
creation. Stirs up our pure minds. Wakes
us up. He said, this is salvation. Salvation is of the Lord. It
belongs to Him. It is. He came to you. He loved you.
It says in verse 27, so, the Lord said, let us Let us make
man. So, verse 27, God created man
in his own image. In the image of God created he
him, male and female created he them. Man was made in the
image of God. Adam and Eve, before the fall,
they were morally innocent. They were made in the image of
God, but they didn't have all God's attributes. They had never
sinned. They didn't know what sin was.
They didn't know what evil was. They didn't know what nakedness
was. They had nothing to be ashamed of. But they didn't have all
the attributes of God. They were made in His image.
They had no sin, but they weren't sovereign. They were made in
His image, but they weren't omniscient. They were made in His image,
but they weren't omnipresent. They were in a body. They weren't
impotent. They weren't able to do anything
they wanted to. They weren't all powerful. Those are God's
attributes. But mankind was created in the image of the triune God.
That's something, isn't it? What a thought! Unlike those
beasts of the field, unlike the birds, unlike the fishes, all
those things, we have a conscience. Man has emotions. We have the
law of God written on our hearts. I don't have to get up here and
I don't have to tell men and women not to lie, cheat, steal,
nor tolerate those that do. I don't have to do that. We know
that's wrong. God put that in our hearts. Somebody
has to tell you that. You know it ain't right. I just tell them
the same thing no matter what. If you're sad, I tell you about
the person and the work of Christ. If you're rejoicing, I tell you
about the person and the work of Christ. If you're mad at me,
if you're happy with me, it doesn't matter. I just preach Christ
and Him crucified." That can be difficult. Do you know that?
But it's simple. That's the simplicity of Christ,
isn't it? They chided Moses. They were
going to kill him. Moses went and prayed to the
Lord and said, they're mad. They are heckling me to death. This is getting brutal. They're
grappling with me. And he said, you go spot the
rock. Go show them one more time. Cross the rock. That's what you
do. My Sunday school teacher growing up, I don't think he
ever preached here, but his son has. He said, Adam was the most
handsome man that ever walked the face of the earth. And Eve
was the most beautiful woman ever to live. Sin hadn't touched
them. They didn't have a wrinkle. They
didn't have a worry. They didn't have a frown. They
didn't have no reason to. Created in the image of God without
sin. What a thought. This happened
physically. Physically, God made Adam and
Eve. You children, you listen to me.
I'm going to talk to you all for a minute. You're going to
grow up, you're going to go to school, and they're going to
teach evolution. I'm going to tell you the same
thing my pastor told me. You don't take this as an excuse
to, I ain't going to learn that. That ain't true. You hush and
learn it. You go take the test. That's what was put over you.
It ain't gonna hurt you. You'll be alright. The Lord will
keep you. He'll show you those things. And when you get a little
older, you start looking underneath the microscope at the Lord's
creation. Take some science classes. Look at a human cell. There's
a rough endoplasmic reticulum. Did you know that? Who knew that? There's a mitochondria. The power
plant of the cell. And inside of there is mitochondrial
DNA that's only carried by a woman. And they say it went all the
way back to one woman. They asked me in biology classes, why do
y'all think that's so? I said, that way God can be fully man
and fully God. And I got kicked out of class.
I said, look at that, look at that cell. God made that cell.
His salvation is declared in every cell in your body. Isn't
that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Physically, God made man. Where'd
we come from? God made us. That's a whole lot
simpler. That takes a lot less faith than
to believe all this nonsense. People say, I can't believe you
have faith. I believe them. And this 50 million years and
this thing come out of the ocean. That takes more faith than what
it takes to say God made it. Spiritually, what happened? John
told us in 1 John 3, Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and
it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when
he shall appear, The Lord comes to us, we shall be like Him,
for we shall see Him as He is. God physically made Adam and
Eve. God physically births. We're born again in spirit, in
our hearts, and when that final day comes, whether we go to Him
or He comes here to this earth, we're going to see Him as He
is and be like Him. Be like Him. As soon as we see
our Lord, either the moment of death that followed, as soon
as we see Him, we're going to be like Him, we're going to conform to
His image immediately. Turn over to 1 Corinthians 15.
What's that going to be like? I don't know. The Apostle John
didn't either. He just said so, didn't he? But
I know I'm going to be like Christ. I'm going to be as He is. I like
to dwell on these things. I was watching the news a little
bit this morning. I had some friends get a hold of me about everything
that's going on overseas. I thought I could sit and worry
about that or I could sit and dwell on what's that going to
be like in glory. That's coming. I don't know what will happen
tomorrow over there. My day will come. I'll get to
see my Lord. I'll get to see Him face to face. I'm going to
be like Him. That's a better thing to dwell on, isn't it?
First Corinthians 15, look in verse 49. Paul writes, and as, that's after
the same manner. After the same manner we have
born the image of the earthly. That's what we are now. We're
born Adam's image. We shall also bear the image
of the heavenly. Now I say this, 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, at the last trump. For the trump
shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and
we all shall be changed. Scriptures say it's appointed
once, appointed unto man once to die, and then the judgment.
Everybody always says that when somebody physically dies, don't
they? It was appointed unto man once to die, as Adam, as every
one of us. Elijah didn't die. He took up
the whirlwind, wouldn't he? Chariot to fire. Enoch was taken
up. He was translated. Paul says
that all these saints that ain't slept yet, if they're alive when
the Lord comes, we're going to be changed right then. We ain't
going to sleep. But we all died in Adam, didn't we? That's where
we died. Spiritual death. We're all fallen. We're all corrupt. We're all
void and without form, just like we saw on that first day. But
when it pleases the Lord to come again, His elect, His sheep,
His bride, Those that sleep and those that are on this earth
are going to be changed to be conformed to His image, be made
like Him. What's it going to be to be made
like Christ? We're going to have His mind. We're going to have
His heart. We're going to have His righteousness,
His holy nature, His perfection right then. There are not 10,000
years of you filling it out and getting things. Right then, be
made like Him. Now back in our text here in
Genesis 1 verse 27, It says, so God created man in
his own image, and in the image of God created he, him, male
and female created he then. The Father is a spirit. No man
hath seen the Father at any time save the Son. And that Son is
the expressed image of the Father. And we who've seen the Son, we've
seen the Father. They're one, aren't they? In
the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. Christ is the Godhead in a body when He came to this
earth. And God's male. It's a shame. That needs to be
said in our day. That needs said though. He's
a male. He's God. Then why then did God make humans
both male and female? Why didn't He make every one
of us like Him? To show us how God saves sinners and to show
us what eternity is going to be like. That's why he did it.
Turn over to Genesis 2, page over there, verse 21. Moses gives us these days of
creation, then he goes back a little bit and explains what happened.
Genesis 2, 21, and the Lord God caused deep sleep to fall upon
Adam, and he slept. First surgeries performed. I
always think of Matthew 27, 45, darkness was upon the earth for
three hours. I don't know how long Adam was
asleep, it doesn't say. Maybe three hours, fine. And
he took one of his ribs from his wounded side. Just his cross
on that cross when they pierced him. Took one of his ribs and
closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the Lord God
had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. He didn't take it from his head
to rule over his bride. Didn't take it from his foot
for him to Walk on top of her, let aside, close to the heart,
underneath the arm for protection, next to Him. That's where He
took that. And then He brought the bride to the man. We're called,
we're drawn near to God, aren't we? Verse 23 says, And Adam said,
Now this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. He didn't
say it's bone like my bone. This ain't flesh like my flesh. Bone of my bone, flesh of my
flesh. That's the same DNA. It ain't a copy, it's a part
of. It's the same. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they
shall be one flesh." And they were both naked, the man and
his wife, and were not ashamed. They were not ashamed because
there was no sin. There was nothing to be ashamed
about, nothing to hide. There was no envy, no jealousy. Paul told us, for the Scripture
saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. What will I be like in glory?
I'll be like Christ and I won't be ashamed of it. What if I don't
look like I do now? It don't matter, I ain't gonna
be ashamed of it. Made like Him. Perfect. Turn
over to Matthew chapter 19. Matthew 19. There in verse 3, Matthew 19,
3. The Pharisees also came unto
him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a
man to put away his wife for every cause? And he answered
and said unto them, Have you not read that he which made them
in the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this
cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave
to his wife? And they twain shall be one flesh, the two shall be
one. Wherefore they are no more twain,
they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath
joined together, let no man put asunder." Our Lord is speaking
of God joining His people with Christ our Head, Christ the Firstborn. and no man's gonna put it asunder.
I always heard that saying, once saved, always saved. That phrase
doesn't put it in perspective, does it? I know what they're
getting at, but that doesn't do it justice. You who believe,
you who are made one with Christ, God did it, man didn't, he did
it, you didn't, and no man can ever put it asunder. What God's
joined together, nobody's gonna split and do. It can't be undone. What a promise. A hard heart
will look at that from a physical, marital problem, worldly decree. They're trying to entangle him
in his words, ain't they? It's a hard heart. Look here
in verse 7. And they say unto him, Why did Moses then command
to give a writing of divorcement and put her away? And he saith
unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts suffered
you to put away with your wives. But from the beginning it was
not so. With man this is so. with a hard
heart, with that void and without form and just, ugh, everything
that I am. I hate by this nature. That's
why I did it. Man can ruin an anvil. You know
that? We can break anything. But the spiritual picture here
is the eternal oneness of our Redeemer. From the beginning
it was not so. In the beginning God, who changes
not, put His people in Christ, wed them to Him. Turn over to
Revelation 21. Revelation 21, verse 1. And I saw a new heaven and a new
earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away.
And there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.
And he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them and be their God. And God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be
no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain. For the former things are passed
away." Look down at verse 9. And there came unto me one of
the seven angels, which had the seven bowels full of the seven
last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will
show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife." What are the vials and
the seven plagues? I don't know, but that ain't
what the angel talked about, was it? That's a stumbling stone for
everybody. That's easy for me to dive down
a rabbit hole. I don't need to see what those were. I need to
see what that Jasper stone was, the Lamb's wife. Look in verse
10. And He carried me away in the Spirit to a great high mountain,
and showed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. And her light
was likened to a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear
as crystal." She was made like a jasper stone, made clear as
crystal, like a diamond. All the saints in glory, the
spiritual Israel, we will be the Lamb's bride. prepared for
her husband, her being made one with Him, bone of His bone, flesh
of His flesh, given His name, the Lord Our Righteousness. That's
the name whereby He shall be called. You read on in Isaiah,
that's the name whereby she shall be called, the Lord Our Righteousness.
We're given His last name. Put that clear stone on her hand.
We're bright. That's the Lamb's bright. And
we're going to look like Him too. In Revelation 4 it says,
they saw the Spirit on the throne. And that one that sat on the
throne looked just like a jasper stone. We're going to look just
like him, smell like him, think like him. It's unbelievable.
We saw in Ephesians 5, Christ the husband of his bride, he
left his father for one purpose, to cleave to his wife. that the
two shall become one flesh, together, the same. He's always been that
one that's altogether lovely. That's what He's always been.
He's never changed. God chose us when we were without form
and void, when we were vile, when we were enemies against
Him, dead in sin, harlots. And even when we were dead in
sin, God quickened us together with Christ, made us alive, took
that bone out of His side, made us, created us. betrothed us
to His Son and made us in Him." And back in our text, verse 28,
Genesis 1-28. And God blessed them. And God said unto them, Be fruitful
and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it. And have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth." Have
dominion over it. Rule over it. Reign over it. Who's going to do that? Them.
He told them. Adam and Eve. He said, you both
go rule and reign over that. Paul wrote Timothy. It's a faithful
saying, for if we be dead with Him, we shall also live with
Him. If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him. That just boggles
my mind. Revelation 5 says, "...they sung
a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and
to open the seals thereof. For Thou wast slain, and hast
redeemed us to God by Thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue,
and people, and nation." You're worthy. Worthy as a lamb. "...and
hast made us unto our God kings and priests, that we shall reign
on the earth." God took His people, and He made
them without sin. Oh, the thought. Oh, what a thought. No sin, it's gone. He made us
not be able to sin. Gave us His holy nature. That
nature that produces righteousness. Gave us His righteousness. Sin's
gone, forever put away. The pain, the agony, the regret,
everything gone. And not the ability to sin. Forever. It ain't gonna change.
Now we're able to worship Him. Now we can truly worship Him.
We can truly speak to Him. Praise Him. Without sin. And... Ain't that good though? Wouldn't that make you happy?
And we're made kings and priests by God. I can't imagine that.
We'll reign with Him. Child of God screams out, not
worthy. Not worthy. You can't make me do that. If
I'm conformed to Him, I will be. He'll be right with me. Paul,
we reign over the earth, union with our husband, the one who
we were made from and like, because of Him. That's why. Verse 29
there says, Genesis 1, 29, And God said, Behold, I have given
you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all
the earth, and every tree, and the witch is the fruit of the
tree yielding seed, and you shall be for meat, and to you it shall
be for meat. The Lord says, I've given you
everything. Everything. You hungry? It's yours. Why do
you give us everything? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? You hungry? You want a fig? It's yours. Rolling right over. You'll make
one with the firstborn. Your kinsman redeemer. You go
eat whatever you want to eat. We've been chosen to have our
sins forgiven. We've been chosen to be Christ's
bride. We've been chosen to reign with Him. Verse 30 says, "...and
to every beast of the earth..." He spoke to us. That speaks to
every beast. "...to every beast of the earth
and 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. In glory. Every saint, every
creeping thing, every bird, every fish, every lion, every wolf,
whatever is there, and it has life in it, will be vegetarian. People have a problem with that.
People have gotten mad at me over that. Death has been swallowed
up in victory. When Adam and Eve were made here
before Adam fell, nothing died. In the presence of Christ, nothing
dies. He sustains, He's life. We'll feed on Him, won't we?
Our tears will be forever wiped away, pain's gonna be extinguished,
sin's abolished, and death no more. At all. Ain't nothing gonna
die. An ant ain't gonna be killed.
Only total peace. Only total peace. Isaiah, wrote
in Isaiah 65, the wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the
lion shall eat straw like a bullock. You'll get a bale of hay for
that big old line you cut out back. And the dust shall be the
serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy.
In all my holy mountain saith the Lord. He said so. I believe him. What's that gonna
look like? I don't know. I believe him.
Everything in Christ, it'll never perish. For over a year on that
ark with Moses, all those animals, He had wolves and chickens and
I don't know what. Everything he had in there. Two of every
kind, right? Not one of them perished. They only had two each. Eight people was on that boat
to babysit all them animals. You lose one, you're in trouble.
How did the wolf not eat the chicken? God made peace. How is man ever going to be in
the presence of peace? God has to make it. He has to
give it. Verse 31, and God saw everything
that he made, and behold, it was very good. Everywhere else
in this creation, God saw it and it was good. God saw it and
it was good. God saw it and it was good. He
gave his husbandman and his bride, gave us this picture, and he
said, it's very good. Very good. Looked over all creation.
Very good. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth.
Chapter 2, verse 1. Thus the heavens and the earth
were finished and all the host of them. What did He say after
He created everything? It's finished. Every day I'm going to give you
a picture of how God saves sinners. How a worthless wretch can be
just before a holy God. And He said it's finished. It's
done. And it was very good. He was
pleased with his workmanship. What a thought, isn't it? We
sing that song that says, My Father's World. What a picture
we have of mercy and grace all around us in this creation. But
to see Christ our Kinsman Redeemer. I love hummingbirds. I watch
them out on the front porch. It's magnificent. The Lord made
that. But to see Christ our Kinsman Redeemer, our Husband, That's
lovely. That's lovely. And He gets all
the glory. To God be the glory for great
things He hath done. What a thought. Let's pray together.