So God created man in his own
image, and the image of God created him, male and female, created
he them. There in Genesis 1. Now, you
know, man is a mystery. What a mystery man is. Look at
his being. His being. His existence. The
very fact, the type of person he is. What makes him like he
is. You know, spiritual and material
at the same time. Bound in a body. Paul called
it a tent. Bound in a body. Living in a
body. Animated in a body. And yet living souls at the same
time. Made by God come from the hand
of God Himself. Not only made by God, but we
was made for God. And I don't know how to say this,
but man, being the created being that he is, God's highest creation,
man has never yet reached his potential as a man. I mean, there
are some that's genius level, and yet the man who's reached
his greatest potential has fell so far short of what God created
him to be. And that's why we so urgently
preach the gospel. and so urgently implore men to
come to Christ, to trust Christ, to know Christ, is because he
come from the hand of his Maker, the image of God stamped on his
soul. And because he's a created being,
he's the only being that can enjoy God, the only being that
can know God, the only being that God died to redeem was man,
a living soul. So what does it mean here when
it says God created man in his image, in his likeness? Now,
I tell you right now, this is a difficult subject. As I began
to look at it, I thought, boy, what in the world have I gotten
myself into? It's a difficult subject. And why would we deal
with it? Well, we deal with it because
it's scriptural. Because it's scriptural. That's
the first reason. There's lots of difficult things
in the Bible that we deal with, but yet we deal with them because
they're scriptural, just because they're difficult. If we resist
them, we'd never learn anything from God's Word. We'd never be
dependent upon the Holy Ghost. But it's Scripture. Look over
here in Genesis 5. I'll show you what I'm talking
about. You know, it's so Scripture. This is the book of the generations
of Adam. In the day that God created man
in the likeness of God made he him. Male and female created
thee them. And Adam lived, verse 3, lived 130 years and begat
a son in his own likeness and after his image. So you see,
he was created in the image and likeness of God, male and female
alike. Look in Genesis 9, 6. Genesis
9, 6. It says this. Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by
man shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God made
he man. And you remember what James said
in James 3.9, he says, with the same tongue, do we take the same
tongue and bless God, and praise God, and with the same tongue
curse man who is made as a similitude of God? And over in Ephesians
4, and I want you to look at this with me, in Ephesians 4
and Colossians 3, I want you to look at these two places with
me, Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3. I want you to look at these with
me just a moment here about the image of God, created in the
image of God. This is a very meaningful thing
to look at here. It says here in verse 24 of Ephesians
4, he says that you put on the new
man, which after God is created, created in righteousness and
true holiness. God creates a man, and when He
created him, He created him in righteousness and true holiness.
In Colossians 3.10, it says, "...have put on the new man,
which is renewed in knowledge..." You notice it says, "...renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him." So
we're dealing with this subject tonight because, first of all,
it's Scripture. And when we, and I read there
in Ephesians and Psalm 8, it says, what is man that thou art
mindful of him? When we look at man and begin
to question man and see that he was here and read that he's
created in the image of God, we have to lead us to, you know,
we consider man to study this blessed truth. What is man? That's
what David asked. What is man that you're even
mindful of him? Or the Son of Man that you visited,
you made Him more than the angels. So when we talk about man, we
automatically have to go, where was God, how was He created,
what image was He created in? What's wrong with Him now? What
happened to Him? How do we explain the life that
we have right now? Apart from starting with God
created us in His image. And it leads us also when we
consider the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only perfect
man who ever was created and made on this earth. Man truly in the image of God. Truly, Christ was truly a man. Perfect manhood. Not subject
to fall. And the new birth. The new birth,
if we're created in this image of God, what happens in the new
birth? Is that image put back in us? How much of the image
is put back in us? How much of the image is lost
and how much of the image is stay with us? So we got all these
questions. But let me tell you this about
this meaning of likeness or image. When it says God created, let
us make man, create us, make him in our own image, in our
own likeness. There's no difference between
the meaning of likeness An image, no difference whatsoever. They're
interchangeable. You know, whenever you think
about an image or a likeness, you think about looking in a
mirror or looking at a photo. When you look in a mirror, you
see an image, you see a likeness. You see your own image, you see
a likeness of yourself or a likeness of someone else. And that's what
the Scriptures tell us over 2 Corinthians 3.18, where Paul says that God
took the veil off our face, took the veil off our hearts. And
as that veil's been taken off, and that image of God in us,
and that image of Christ in us, beholds the image of Christ.
As we behold that image of Christ because of Christ in us, as we
look at that image like looking in a mirror, as we look at that
image, we're converted and changed into that same image. And so
as we see God and see what was created in God, we see how God
created us in the image of Him. And I'll tell you, this term
likeness or image was used before the fall, before God ever made
a man. He said, we're going to make
you in our image. And when He did, He created in His image
and His likeness. And secondly, after the fall,
he was still born the image and likeness of God. Ain't that what
he said? Whosoever sheddeth man's blood
by him, blood shall be shed because he is in the image of God? And
Adam, after he fell in Genesis 5, he says, male and female created
to him in the image of God. And that was after the fall. And I say, beloved, the image
of God wasn't lost entirely. That's why James says this, you
know, you're going to bless God with one side of your mouth and
curse man the other side who's made after the image of God.
So you know God, when you're cursing a man, you're cursing
somebody that God made in His image. In His image. Now there's a great, great difference
between man as he was made in the beginning by God and the
man who of our Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, even as man came from
his Maker in the image and likeness of God, there's an incredible
difference and distance between what Christ was as a man and
what we was when God created us in the garden. Great difference. Well, how do you mean by that?
Well, the Scriptures tell us in Hebrews 3 that Christ was
the express image of His person, the brightness of His glory.
Whatever God is like, Christ is that. Whatever God's glory
is, Christ has that glory. Now, man, when he was created
in the garden, he's just a copy. He's just a created copy. Christ is the very image of God.
We're just a created copy of the image of God and the likeness
of God. Christ was the express image. I mean, when you looked at Him,
you'd say, Perfect God. Infinitely God. Completely God. Perfectly God. And when you looked
at man, even as he was in the garden before the fall, he was
just a copy. Just a copy. Christ is the image. We don't have the image of God
like Christ did when He was created into man. Even when Adam was
made, he did not have the image that Christ did of God. And let me say this, you know,
God created man in His image, and when He did, He created him
with two elements, or two parts. The natural part, the material
part, and the spiritual part. The natural part is this old
body. The natural part is the mind, the understanding. And
as the natural man is the natural part of us, God made man higher.
than any of his other creations when he made them in the garden,
any more of his, any other of his creations. And he is naturally
different than any animal that's on the topside of God's earth,
naturally different than that. He can commune, we can commune
one with another. We can't commune with animals. We're moral beings and animals
aren't moral beings. That's why the blood of bulls
and calves couldn't put away sin. They're not moral beings.
And the reason man's blood couldn't put away sin is because he's
tainted by sin. He's a moral being, but his sin
is tainted. But he's a moral being. It's
something God's animals aren't moral beings. Animals don't have
souls. Animals don't know what morality
is. Animals don't know what integrity is. Animals don't know what scruples
are. Animals don't know what intelligence
is. And man was made a perfect moral being. Morally perfect.
When God made him, we were morally perfect. There was no bent left,
right, up, down, nothing. We were standing there morally
perfect with nothing but right in us. And then the spiritual
image of God in us. And oh, I hope I can explain
this right. This spiritual image, this soul
that God put in us, this is the man. This is who we really are.
This is it. We're living souls inhabiting
dying bodies. And this man that's in us, this
man is the one who is invisible. It's invisible. I'm looking at
you and you look at me. We see one another. And yet,
even though we're looking at one another, yet we don't really
see one another. There is a you that I can't see.
And there is a me that you can't see. The soul, the spirit, the
self. And that's the part of us, beloved,
that, you know, this body, this soul, this spirit in us animates
and it works through this body and expresses itself through
this body. But, beloved, that soul, that spirit, that soul
that God put in us, that is the self that hurts, the self that
cries, the self that expresses, the self that aches, the self
that fears, the self that has to do with God. His body don't. And I'll tell you something. You know, I'm going to say this.
We have never really seen ourself. Picture yourself as you are inside. How much about yourself that
you don't know? How much about yourself you can't
express? How much about yourself that
nobody's ever seen, that's never known about, and you don't even
know the whole thing about yourself? And I tell you one thing, beloved,
after the fall, I don't want to know myself no more than I
know about me now. And how many times has somebody
said, can't you see yourself? No, I can't. If I could see myself, I would
correct the flaws in myself. I can't see you, your thoughts,
your emotions, your feelings, your person that's sitting there
tonight. Listen, I can't see you and you
can't see me. That's the man, that's us, that's our person.
And secondly, this spiritual image of God, we are rational
beings. And this makes us different than
anything else on the top side of God's earth. We're rational
beings. Beings with minds, with intellect,
with morality, with integrity. We think. That philosopher says,
I think, therefore I am. Now you think about that. That
is really a profound thing. I think. I think. Does that dog think? Does that
cat think? Does that cow think? Does that
bull think? Does that horse think? Does that
lion think? Does that lioness think? Does
that giraffe think? Does that whale in the middle
of the ocean think? They don't have the ability to
think. They go by the instincts that God put in them. We think. We have a will. A will
that that's motivated by something, by an understanding. We can desire. Animals can't desire. We can
desire. We have desires. And they're
good desires. And I pray that God give us a
desire to know Him better than anything else. We can reason. We can reason things out. We can sit down and reason things
out. We can start with this problem, and go through and reason that
problem out and reason out a situation? Nothing else can. We can analyze
a situation. We can meditate. We can reflect.
We can plan. We can do problems and analyze
situations. Animals can't do that. We can
meditate on ourselves. We can meditate and reflect on
our lives. We can meditate and consider where we've been and
where we're going. We can plan tomorrow as far as
God's will, but there's not an animal that'll get up tomorrow
and plan his day. We can sit down and deal with
problems and issues, but they change. That's because the image
of God's in us. And we're conscious of ourselves,
of self-awareness. And I tell you, this is something.
And here's the thing about it. We're conscious of ourselves.
We have this awareness of ourselves, of our thoughts, our feelings,
our desires, our ability to reason, to think, to analyze, to meditate,
to be afraid of what we think, what we do, what we're going
to do, make plans, reason things out, consider things, worry. We're conscious of ourselves.
And I'll tell you something, we don't have the ability to
get rid of self. If you could leave self, would
you leave him? I sure would like to get rid
of the self is my problem. And that's what this is talking
about. Self. We're aware of self. When you have a problem with
another person, it's killing off another person's pulse. It's
a self problem. And you can't get rid of self. That's because
we're self-aware. We're self-conscious. No other being on the topside
of God's earth like that. And these all are the parts of
divine image that God put in us. No, listen, man can contemplate
himself. He can sit and contemplate himself.
I don't know about you. Did any of you, when you hit
a certain age, you start thinking, what in the world have I amounted
to? What am I going to do? Have I left any kind of a footprint? Do I have any kind of influence
over anybody? Do I amount to anything? What have I been doing with my
whole life? When it's all said and done,
when my life is over, when I look back, is there anything at all
that had any evidence that I had any mark upon anybody at any
time under any circumstance? Is this what I wanted to do?
And oh my, we can contemplate ourselves. We can examine ourselves. We can analyze ourselves. Now,
the fall greatly affected all of these things, but I have admitted
this is evidence of God's image in us. No other animal can do
this. No other thing can do this. And
God's evidence, I want you to look back over with me in Ephesians
4 now. God's image is evident in us
by our moral and intellectual integrity. What do I mean by
that? I mean, beloved, When God created us, He created us, and
in the new birth, He restores His image. It doesn't say that
He makes a new image. He restores it. He restores it,
the image of God's in us, and it's there, and it's greatly
marred. But in the new birth, what God
does is He restores that. He says here in Ephesians 4,
24, that you put on the new man, this new man, this man that's
created, this man, this person that the Spirit of God has regenerated,
which after God is created in righteousness and through holiness.
Now, when God created Adam, was he a righteous man? No. Well,
he had his own righteousness, but he was a righteous man only
in his righteousness. And he was a holy man coming
from his Creator. But he was a man, and he was
a mutable man. And so what happened was, this image of righteousness
and true holiness, God puts that back in us with the new birth.
He restores that image of righteousness. We did not know what righteousness
was, and we had an idea of what it was. We hoped we knew what
it was, and we tried our best to come up with our own righteousness,
but when God regenerated us, he created in us a true righteousness
where we understand what true righteousness is because we have
it now. And not only that, but true holiness. We don't have a sham holiness.
We don't have a made-up holiness. We don't have a holiness of our
own making. Our hearts are not holy. Our
spirits are not holy because we made it ourselves, or we had
our concept of it and attained to it. God put that in us. That
was created in us in creation, and He restores it. And look over here in Colossians
3.10. I want you to see this. Oh, when God made us, when God
made us, there was no falseness about us. And when you love,
and that's, you know, and now since we created in the righteousness
that God made us and restored that righteousness and wholeness
in us, we don't want no falseness in us now. But when God made
us, there was no falseness in us. When Adam was in the garden,
there was no falseness in him. Nothing was imperfect. Nothing
was wrong. He was upright. He was a balanced
person. Now we're out of balance. But
when God made us, we were made in balance. And that's where
now we find our joy and peace in God. It's God's righteousness
and holiness in us. But he wasn't too far this way. I mean, his holiness and his
righteousness and his knowledge and his obedience and the image
of God in him was perfect. I mean, he stood level. No falseness
in him because he was in the presence of God as God took him
from his hands. And look here in Colossians 3.10,
and he says, you have put on the new man, watch this, which
is renewed in the knowledge of him. Renewed in knowledge after
the image of him that created him. The image of the knowledge
of God's there, and it's greatly marred, and God restored that
image of the knowledge of God in us. We know God. We have the knowledge of God.
He renewed that knowledge in us. And I'll tell you all you've
got to do to understand how far off men are from the knowledge
of God, and if God don't restore that image and do something for
a man, you just listen to him talk about God and talk about
himself. Let him talk about righteousness, holiness, and knowledge about
what he knows about God, and it'll be a million miles off.
But the reason he does it is because that image is in there.
And he don't know how to get back to where that image is.
And we didn't either. God came and done the work in us. And
the image of God shows itself in man's dominion over the earth.
Isn't that what he says? Let us make man in our own image.
And he says, and let us give him dominion over the sea, over
the land, over everything in the sea, over every beast, every
fowl, everything on the topside of God's earth. And that's what
I read to you in Psalm 3. And he says, you know, thou hast
given him dominion over all the works of your hands. Wherever
your work is, God gave us dominion over it. Man goes out in the
ocean, he has dominion over the fish. Goes out hunting, he has
dominion over the animals. And another way man has made
an image of God, once God made him, he became immortal. He's a mortal being. And that's why it says this mortal
shall put on immortality. We are mortal beings, but we
are put on immortality one of these days, just like God is.
We're created in that image with immortality. Well, let me ask
you this question. What was man's original state
when God made him there? What was his original state as
he stood before his Maker? Well, as he was originally made,
he was connected, first of all, to the earth. God took him out
of the earth, and he made him from it, and he said, now you
subdue the earth, and you dress the guard, and you labor here
in this earth. You take care of this earth. This earth is
yours, and you take care of it. He's connected to the earth.
And secondly, he was also connected to God. As he came from God,
God created him, and he was connected to God as his lifeline, as his
soul, as his Creator is his sustainer as the one that he could know
and fellowship with and obey. I'll tell you something else
about him when God made him in his original state. He was made
as God's representative in the whole world. You know, had not
Adam failed, I mean, he was a representative. Adam did not stand just alone.
He was going to represent every one of his children after him.
He was a representative. Had he not failed, And had he
not taken that fruit, Adam would have continued to live, and his
people would have continued to live, his children would have
continued to live. And maybe after so long a length of time,
I don't know, it's just speculation on my part, maybe man would have
got past the place where he had ever been able to fall from then.
I don't know. But I know God made him His representative.
This is the one who's going to represent me to the world, to
creation, to the earth, to the animals, everything on this earth,
to His own children, and all those that come after Him, He's
going to be my representative. Well, He blew that. He blew that,
which we'll deal with that next time, next week. And I'll tell
you, He was intelligent because He came and He was able to understand.
Do you know how intelligent he was and how able he was to understand
God and God's Word and what God told him to do? The Scripture
says that God brought him to animals. God brought them to
him. Brought them to him and said, Name this one. Name that
one. Took him out to the ocean. Name this. Name that. Name that
tree. Name it. Start naming. And I don't know
how long it took him to name them, but he named them. How
intelligent must you be to be able to name everything that's
on this earth the way it's named right this moment. No names have changed of anything
that I know of since God made man. And He gave Adam. How intelligent
was that? What was the relationship to
God? I'll tell you what it was. He is utterly and absolutely
dependent upon God. Dependent upon Him. For His life?
He was the dependence of a child to a father, a son to a father. I mean, he was dependent on him.
God made him. And if we are to obey God, and
God put parents in the position of God, and says, now you are
the head of the house, then how much more is our children responsible
to obey us? But he was obedient. He was dependent.
He had the dependency of a child. I mean, beloved, he depended
on God for everything. And I tell you what else, he
was also obedient. He was an obedient man. I mean,
God said, dress the garden. He dressed the garden. God said,
name the animals. He named the animals. He said,
subdue the earth. He subdued the earth. And he
did it. How long he was in the garden
before he fell? I don't know. Nobody else does either. But
the most important thing about him, as God made him and as he
stood before his Maker, was the glorious way that he could
commune with God. His fellowship with God. He could
walk and come into the very presence of God. I mean God. Not an image of God. God. who made him and breathed into
his nostrils for the rest of his life. He could come into
his presence and commune with him and talk with him and fellowship
with him and do it without fear. We come with some fear. We come
with some trepidation. We come with trying to humble
ourselves. We come hard-hearted. We come
cold. But he came without any fear
in the presence of God and walked with him and talked with him
and communed with him. Well, what was his spiritual
condition? Look back over in Genesis real
quick and I'll be done. Genesis 1.31. What was his spiritual condition
in his original state? As God originally made him. What
was his spiritual condition? It says here in Genesis 1.31,
And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was
very good. And the evening and the morning
were the sixth day. So here he seen, he seen everything
that he made was good and very good. So when he looked at Adam,
he said, this is good, very good. Good, very good. And Ecclesiastes
7.29 says that God made man upright. Made him upright. Now that don't
mean that he was just physically upright. But it means he was
morally upright. He was spiritually upright. And
that's the way we look at folks, you know. We look at folks, you
know, their uprightness, their character. And his character
was perfect. Upright. Morally, spiritually,
intellectually. And let me tell you this in closing.
There was a perfect harmony, as God originally made him in
his image. There was a perfect harmony between his body and
his spirit. The body did not hinder his relationship
with God, and his spirit never hindered his relationship with
his body or one another. Now, we're not like that. Our
body hinders us bad. But there was a harmony between
them. And let me show you what I know about this, because the
conscience proves this. I mean, his body had nothing
to do with his relationship with God or his spiritual part. Now, they have a great effect
upon us. But the conscience proves this.
When our conscience accuses us when we sin, when we sin, and you can only
sin in the body. I don't know how to say that
other than that. You know, we have these imaginations, but
we sin with the body. We sin with the body. And this
conscience proves this. And when our conscience accuses
us when we sin, it's proof of man's original sinlessness. The
very fact that our conscience accuses us when we sin, we know
that it's wrong to sin. Why do we know it's wrong to
sin? Because God originally made us without sin. And we know it's
wrong to sin. And bless His holy name, we'll
one of these days, real soon, be without it again. You know, as far as God's concerned,
we're without it now. But one of these days, we'll
see Christ as He is, and bless His holy name, we'll be as He
is. And this body right now that
so affects our spiritual condition, and so affects our relationship
with God, and so affects our relationship with one another,
and so affects our spirituality, when God gives us a new body,
that body of Christ, it will never affect us again. We're
going to go back. And I tell you what, we're going
to be better. Right now, our standing before God is better
than Adam's was before he fell. Adam stood righteous in his own
righteousness. We stand in the righteousness
of Christ. Adam stood in his own obedience. We stand in the
obedience of Christ. Adam disobeyed God. Christ obeyed him. And we're
going to be made and we're going to be restored to that image
It's such a better, better, higher plane than Adam ever had because
we'll be made in the image of Christ and enjoy Him forever. Amen? Lord Jesus, our blessed Savior,
thank You for the privilege of allowing us to meet here tonight.
Lord, I thank You for Your Word. I thank You for Your truth. I
pray that you, in your wondrous, sovereign mercy, and by the power
of the Holy Ghost, would open our understanding to these things
of the Scriptures, the things of God. Lord, we find it hard
to understand how we were created in the image of God when we are
like we are now, but yet you said we were, and you restored
that image, and that's why we commune with you now. That's
why we speak with you. That's why we fellowship with
you. That's why we call on you. That's why we're dependent upon
you. Because you restored that image. Not perfectly, but you
restored it and we thank you for it. In Christ our Lord's
name, Amen.