-Transcript-
00:36 Amen, glory to God. Welcome to the program. Welcome to the cafe.
00:40 Thank you for joining me. I hope you’re having a wonderful day, a wonderful week. I hope you have your Bible with you if you’re not on the road or traveling or whatever it may be.
00:51 But if you’re seated, maybe you got your Bible with you. We’re gonna dive in here and look at some great scripture on how we are made in the image of God. You know, God has a preference for man.
01:04 Did you know that? That God prefers man and woman over really much of his creation. And the reason why I can say that is because we’ve been made in his image. The Bible doesn’t point to anyone else being made in his image.
01:18 It doesn’t say the lion was made in his image or the tiger was made in his image, though we can get references to the Lord being the lion of Judah and so forth, referencing his power. But it doesn’t say that any of these were made in the image of God. The Bible says that man was made in the image of God.
01:38 Genesis 1:26-28. 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 creepingthing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image.
02:00 In the image of God created he him. Male and female created he them. And God blessed them and 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 upon the earth.
02:18 Amen. Now that’s our God. Our God is in the details so much that when he created us he gave us everything from being image bearers of him to responsibilities of things to do here on earth.
02:35 And it’s easy, I think, to get caught up in modern society and to think about what the world says or what culture says we should do, but how about what God says we should do? Amen. It’s still important. It’s still relevant today.
02:50 It’s more relevant today than it’s ever been. That’s why the Bible is called the living Word of God. Amen.
02:55 And you know it’s a big responsibility to have dominion over all of God’s creation. Amen. It’s incredible to think about that.
03:03 You know I was trying to think of animals that are unlikely to be tamed. Amen. That are wild and unlikely to be tamed.
03:11 And a whale shark came to mind because our little church, we took a fellowship trip. I can’t believe it. I guess it was over a year ago.
03:21 It seems like yesterday, but it was over a year ago. We went to the Atlanta Aquarium called, I think the real name of it is the Georgia Aquarium, but I highly recommend that if you haven’t been, take a trip. It’s a wonderful experience to enjoy God’s creation.
03:37 And that’s what it is. That’s institutes or places of discovery of what God has made. And God’s unbelievable engineering and His incredible hand and artistic touch.
03:56 That’s what I look at it as. I know some people say, oh they’ll say nature or science, but to me this is just all about God. And that’s what our church did.
04:04 We made it all about God to see what God had done while we were there. I guess you could preach a lot of messages on different things that we saw there. But while we were there, we saw the whale shark.
04:12 That thing was huge. The biggest whale shark ever, as I understand it, measured is 61 feet long on the average 30 feet. I don’t know how long the one is at the aquarium, but that thing is massive.
04:24 I mean, it literally looks like a skyscraper swimming. It’s that big. It’s incredible to see.
04:32 In matter of fact, there’s a tank big enough to hold it and for it to swim in, which is also remarkable. Biggest aquarium I think I’ve ever seen, or at least biggest tank I’ve ever seen. Now think about this.
04:43 God gave man dominion over that whale shark. That is incredible. You know, that is incredible.
04:51 Literally it has been tamed. It’s been put there in that tank. Amen.
04:56 Man feeds it. Man does to it what man seems, what seems right to man. And this is God’s design.
05:03 Not for us to just box up all the animals and tanks and cages, but rather to have dominion over them. Right? So we don’t go and say, well, let’s ask permission from the chicken to see if we can kill the chicken and eat chicken tonight. We go ahead and have dominion.
05:12 We have power over that chicken. Amen. Or over that cow.
05:23 Amen. Or over whatever else. And this is God’s creation and God cares about his creation.
05:29 Do you know that in the Bible God clearly shows that he cares about animals? He cares about the birds. He takes care of even the raven, even the little birds. Amen.
05:42 He takes care, he cares about the lilies. When Jonah was going to Nineveh and didn’t want to preach there, and so these people are backslid God, I don’t want anything to do with it. The Lord reminded him of how many tens of thousands of people needed to be saved before they’d be wiped out by God’s judgment.
06:01 And the Lord also reminded him all the cattle that was there. Now, if God didn’t care about the cattle, why would he have reminded Jonah of that? He wouldn’t have. And so he cares.
06:13 He loves his creation. And the point I’m making is God loves his creation so much he put us in charge of it. Well, that’s pretty awesome.
06:21 He made us in his image, which is, again, really remarkable. And one thing I want to look at from our text verse, Genesis 1. By the way, if you have a King James Bible, this is literally the first page of your Bible. And I believe in everything about the Bible, even where things are placed.
06:42 And so the fact that it’s on the first page, I believe, means that it’s very important. Amen. And here in the first page of the Bible, verse 26 says, And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
06:56 What does that mean? Our. O-U-R. It’s God.
07:04 He’s one God, is he not? The Bible says he’s one God. What is our image, our likeness? This refers to the Holy Trinity. So it is God in plural form, but it’s still one God.
07:12 It’s the three-in-one God. And so we see reference here, in the very first page of the Bible, to Jesus Christ. Because what is the Holy Trinity? Is it not? Or I should say, who is the Holy Trinity? Is it not God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit? Here we have it.
07:29 And we have Jesus Christ mentioned on the first page of the Bible. People say, can’t find Jesus in the Old Testament. There he is.
07:34 He’s throughout the Old Testament, and there he is on page number one. Amen. And that’s why it is our.
07:41 That’s why it’s discussing, let’s make man in our image. Because what the Bible hears communicating is that there was a council between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost at the time of creation. Amen.
07:52 To what was going to happen. And it was decided to make man in their image. The three-in-one Godhead.
08:03 Amen. And we see the Trinity within us here today. God the Father sent God the Son to die on the cross for our sin debt that we could not pay.
08:11 Him being perfect and sinless and spotless. When we accept the fact that he did die on that cross, was buried three days, and rose again from the ground miraculously by the hand of God. When we accept that free gift of salvation.
08:20 When we understand our need as sinners for a Savior. Like Romans 3:23 tells us, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. When we understand our need, we accept Christ as Savior.
08:30 What happens? We’re saved. What happens when we’re saved? We get the Holy Spirit living within us. So there we see the Trinity.
08:38 God the Father sends the Son so that we could get the Spirit. Amen. That’s the Holy Trinity.
08:42 So it’s a beautiful picture of salvation, even in the first page of the book. Amen. But what does it mean to be made in the image of God? You know, I think it means a lot.
08:52 And you can go a lot of places with this idea of being made in the image of God. And for whatever reason, you do hear preaching on it. I’ve heard preaching on it, but I don’t hear that much on it.
09:03 Maybe not enough. And until something really bad happens, and someone will remind, hey, they were made in the image of God. Yes, that person in jail wasn’t made in the image of God.
09:13 That person that is begging that has dirty clothes and ripped up garments, whatever it may be, and has no home and no car and nothing. Amen. And they’re over there begging for a nickel, a dime, anything.
09:30 They are made in the image of God. The world may cast them away as nothing and no value. They may not have the education that’s suitable for the world, or the job that’s suitable for the world, or the family that’s suitable for the world.
09:42 That does not mean that they are not made in the image of God, and that God does not love them very, very much. Oh, if I had more time, I could go deeper into this idea that we are all made in the image of God, and that God desires all to come to repentance, all to be saved. Amen.
09:59 We are in the age of grace. I believe it’s the last days, but still, we’re in the age of grace. The Lord is not taking his church home, to my understanding.
10:08 We have not experienced the rapture yet. One day we will. That age of grace will wrap up, and we’ll be in the tribulation period.
10:14 There’ll be a new time where God will turn his attention to the Jews, through the 144,000 male virgin Jews that will preach to them, to those that are left. But right now, we’re in the age of grace. You can just be saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus Christ alone.
10:31 Anyone could be saved, especially those that are, you know, the Bible says God is near the brokenhearted, those of a contrite spirit, those of a broken spirit, those that understand their need.
10:43 God, the Bible tells us, God is near those individuals. So to be made in the image of God is a great compliment, because we are made like the all-powerful, all-knowing, everlasting God himself.
10:54 It is an absolute compliment. It’s a compliment to be made in the image of God. But we can’t be prideful and let pride creep in, or let our heads get big, thinking that we are somehow greater than another.
11:08 As I mentioned, if we’re thumbing our nose up at someone else that’s made in the image of God, whether it be somebody in the pew beside you, whether it be somebody on the street corner begging, whether it be somebody in the office park, whether it be somebody in the household,
11:24 whether it be somebody at school, whether it be somebody wherever, we need to realize God made them, God cares about them, God loves them, and we’re no better than them.
11:34 Now, if we’re saved and they’re not saved, certainly we are better off than them, because we have been born again. But that just should lead us, as one beggar to another, to let them know about the love of Christ, and tell them about Jesus before it’s eternally too late.
11:50 And what a great way to start that conversation, by asking them if they knew that the Bible says that they are made in the image of God. So it’s a compliment to be made in the image of God, it’s also a responsibility. Don’t, you know, put other people down, because they too are made in the image of God.
12:10 I love James 3:9, it touches on this very idea. James 3.9, therewith bless we God, even the Father, and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. So James 3:9 says so eloquently, that here we are praising God, maybe in church or around others, thinking, oh yeah, God is so great, and then we’re talking about someone else.
12:31 We’re gossiping about somebody, we’re saying something negative about somebody, and we’re forgetting in that moment that they too are made in the image of God.
12:38 And so here we are being hypocritical, and here we are not offering God honest praise, because honest, holy praise before God would not bring someone else down in the same moment or time or whatever it may be.
12:51 So we have to be very careful, because how easy is it, let’s say you are at work with somebody that’s really rude, how easy is it to put that person down, you know, to tell someone else, oh they’re so rude.
13:06 How much harder would it be to put them down if you started with this individual, they’re made in the image of God like me, and then pause. Now try to put them down. Now thinking of God, putting God in the mix, realizing that you’re no better than them, amen.
13:20 And so we have a responsibility not to put others down. How about the responsibility to take care of our bodies? Our bodies are the temple of God, 1st Corinthians 6:20, for you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s. We are to glorify God in our body.
13:34 God’s poetic program for us is to live this out each day so that we become more and more like Christ. Romans 8 29, you can look that up, discusses this idea that God allows us to be saved so that we can become more and more like Christ.
13:52 So we are created in the image of God, we’re born again by what Christ has done on the cross, we get the Holy Spirit living within us, and then we are to evolve every day, growing closer and more and more like Christ.
14:02 And it’s his poetic program that we become more and more like his image as we get ready to be with him in heaven for eternity. Tune in next time as we’ll get to the latter part of this verse. Thank you for joining me.
14:14 Take care, God bless, and amen.