A lot of scripture reading for this evening comes from Genesis chapter 1, verse 27. Genesis chapter 1, beginning at the 27th verse, and we'll read through the beginning of chapter 2, verse 3. Genesis 1, 27, through chapter 2, verse 3. Beloved of the Lord, this is God's holy, inspired, and perfect word. Let us give careful attention to what God has to say to us this evening. So God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. And God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the heavens, and to everything that creeps on the earth, Everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food. And it was so. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day, God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation. Let us pray. Our Father, we have heard wonderful things out of your word. We praise you for revealing Christ by promise and shadow in these pages. We ask you that this evening you would send us your spirit so that we might understand and apply this truth to our lives. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen. Our reading from the confessions this evening comes from the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 3. You can find this on page 10 in the back of your psalter. Lord's Day 3, questions 6, 7, and 8. I'll ask you the question and we'll respond by reading the answer together. The Catechism asks in question 6, Did God create man so wicked and perverse? No, God created man good and in his own image. That is, in true righteousness and holiness, that he might truly know God, his creator, love him with all his heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory. Then where does man's corrupt nature come from? From the fall and disobedience of our first parents, Adam and Eve in paradise. This fall has so poisoned our nature that we are born sinners, corrupt from conception on. But are we so corrupt that we are totally unable to do any good and inclined toward all evil? Yes, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God. The catechism begins by asking this question here in question six. A question that so many of us ask. A question that we might be asking this evening. Why do we suffer? Why does life have to hurt so much? Is God himself, is God our creator, responsible for the pain that I feel? Is God the reason why mankind is so evil and so miserable? Well, the question is posed, and the Catechism answers unequivocally this objection. God is in no way the author or the responsible party for man's sin and misery. God is not the one who has brought evil and pain and suffering to this world. In contrast, what we see here in the Catechism, what we see in God's Word, is that God created this creation very good. Good. He created man after his own image. God created this world not evil, not full of pain, not full of heartache, but he created it good. And we see this very clearly. Genesis 1, verse 31. Remember what Moses says. And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. This great Lord, the great King of all creation, stands back and observes His handiwork. Observes that He has just spoken into existence. And His verdict, His final verdict over this creation, What he had made was good. It was good. And to be created good then, as our catechism explains to us, is what we see here also in Genesis. That to be created good is to be created after the image of God himself. That God saw his creation. He saw man, Adam and Eve, the crown jewel of his creation. And it's to them that He made. He created them as His very image, as His very likeness, the ones who would bear His image in this creation. Genesis 26-27 Then 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 birds of the heavens, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So God created man in His own image. In the image of God, he created them. Male and female, he created them. We see here that God created man after his very own image. And what it means to be the image of God, as we see here in verses 26 and 27. To be God's image is to be a ruler, is to be a king, is to be one who has dominion, One who has been given rule by the great king himself, God, the creator. The creator has given to his image. Has given him this calling. This calling to have dominion. To rule as God's vice-regent here on earth. We see Adam doing this very thing. We see him doing this very thing. Remember what he does in Genesis chapter 2. All these animals, all the creation, pass before Him, parade before Him. And what does Adam do? He names them. He is fulfilling this calling. He is having dominion over this creation. And Adam was called to rule. The image of God was called to be a king in order that he might fulfill two goals. Firstly, so that he might be righteous. That he might be righteous before God. his creator and not only was he to be righteous before his creator but the second goal of this rule that Adam was to establish and to fulfill was so that he might know and love God his creator he was to rule he was to be the image of God on earth so that he might know and love God, His Creator. And so we see this, that Adam was created to be righteous before his God. To be righteous before his Creator. Ephesians 2.24 tells us that Paul is explaining to us about the new creation. That we're created after God's image. We're recreated in God's image. And Paul explains this by saying, put on the new self. Created after the likeness, after the image of God. And notice then how Paul explains this to be the image or likeness of God. In true righteousness and holiness. And throughout the history of the church, Reformed believers, Reformed pastors and theologians have understood this passage to not only be relevant to the new creation, to how we're recreated in Christ, But that it also is relevant and speaks to the original creation. That God created Adam originally truly holy and truly righteous. And we see this in our catechism. That we are created in true righteousness and holiness. Adam was created to be righteous before his creator. He was to obey and to fulfill this call. before God. He was to fulfill this command, to rule and have dominion over God's creation. He was created by God with the ability to obey this commandment. He was to stand before His Creator. Adam was to stand before His Creator as perfectly righteous, justified, based on His obedience, based on his keeping of this command that God had given to him. Adam was originally created with this ability. But we have to ask, brothers and sisters, how did Adam do? God gave him this command. God gave him this calling to fulfill. How did Adam do in fulfilling this calling? Well, as we know when we read the rest of Genesis chapter 2, what we read in Genesis chapter 3, that Adam and his wife Eve were disobedient to this call, were disobedient to this law. Instead of listening to the word of the Lord, instead of following the commandments of their Creator, they listened to the words of the serpent. They rebelled against their Creator. And their Lord. As the original image of God, Adam failed in his calling. Adam failed as the image of God. And because of his failure, because of their failure as the image of God, they brought upon God's creation. They brought upon this world, God's creation that had been good. They brought upon it fallenness. They brought upon it not goodness. They brought upon it pain, wretchedness, and misery. This world after the fall of the image, after the fall of Adam and Eve, is no longer good. It is not righteous. It is unrighteous. It is unholy. It is sinful. Adam failed to be righteous before his creator. God gave him a command, and he failed to live up to the standard that God had set before him. But not only was Adam created to be righteous before his God, but as our catechism and as we see here in Genesis, mankind was created as the image of God to be in communion, to be in relationship, to be in fellowship with God. Man was created to be in communion with God. God created man good, not simply so that he might obey, not simply so that he might be righteous, but he created him to be in relationship, to be in communion with him. The Catechism says it this way, that he might truly know God, his creator, love him with all his heart, and live with him in eternal happiness for his praise and glory. What we read here at the end, the beginning here of Genesis 2, these first three verses, as Moses describes for us, this culmination, this climax of creation, God's very Sabbath rest. These verses, these three verses here, imply for us that this is the climax of creation. This is the ultimate goal of God's creation. This is the ultimate goal that Adam and Eve were to strive for. Was this rest of God himself. This is that eternal happiness that Adam and Eve were supposed to work toward. To rest. To come to a final completion of their work and to rest as their creator had rested from his work. To come into this never-ending communion with their creator, with God himself. no longer working, but resting in God's presence. But this goal, this goal of entering God's Sabbath rest was conditional. It was based on the image's obedience to their Creator. It was based on if they continued in their righteousness before their God. But as we've said, man was created to be and called to be in communion with God. But man's rebellion and the fall fractures this communion. The fall breaks this communion that man was to have with his creator. Instead of being obedient, they rebelled, they were disobedient. They forfeited God's eternal rest. They forfeited eternal communion with their Creator. Instead of blessing, instead of entering this Sabbath rest, they were cursed to work. This time to work, as we see in Genesis 3, by the sweat of their brow. They were called, they were cursed by the pain of childbirth. They were cursed to return to dust. To return to the dust from which they were created. They were to return to dust instead of entering the Sabbath rest of God himself, instead of entering the rest of their creator. And Adam and Eve, because of their sin, are exiled, are exiled from paradise, are exiled from the Garden of Eden, are placed east of Eden. And they're barred from entering this paradise by an angel bearing a sword of fire. This is the curse. This is what the fall does. It fractures the communion that man was to have with their creator. But brothers and sisters, if the fall fractures the communion that we are to have with God, If that's what the fall does, then Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ restores that communion that was lost. While our sin, while the sin of our first father, Adam, fractured that communion, the work of the second man, Jesus Christ, restores that communion that we might have with our Lord and our Creator. Adam and Eve being placed east of Eden is not how the story ends. It's not the last word. God has other words to say. God Himself. God Himself provides another image. Another image bearer who would come and do what Adam was originally intended to do. He would come. He would come and rule with an infallible and perfect rule. He would be the true king that God intended him to be. We hear of this promise in this very section of Scripture, Genesis chapter 3, verse 15. As God curses the serpent, the one who tempted his original image bearer, God says to this serpent, I will put enmity, I will put distance, I will put strife between you and the woman And between your offspring and her offspring, he, that is, the seed of the woman, he will bruise your head and he shall bruise and you shall bruise his heel. You see here is God is providing another one, another image bearer who would come and do what Adam was supposed to do. instead of listening to the serpent, instead of letting the serpent run free as Adam did, this one would come and crush and defeat God's enemy. He would exercise the true dominion that Adam was supposed to have. Jesus Christ, brothers and sisters, is the true image of God. Jesus Christ is the true image of God Himself. The Apostle Paul tells us that Christ is the image of God in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4. And then in Colossians chapter 1, Paul tells us one of the most glorious things we could ever hear. Jesus Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Jesus Christ is the image of God. It's through Christ's work, through his life, through his death and his resurrection that he accomplishes what Adam was originally intended to do. He is the second Adam. He perfectly obeys God's law. He never disobeyed his father. He never disobeyed his Lord. He was righteous before his creator, as Adam was supposed to be. He never rebelled. He never disobeyed God and His law. But not only does Jesus Christ, not only does He as the image of God, not only does He obey the law, but He also restores and wins for us that eternal Sabbath rest that was promised to us in Genesis chapter 2. The author of Hebrews, in his letter in chapter 4, he says, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God. There remains a Sabbath rest. There remains a blessing of entering God's rest and ceasing from our works for God's people. And it's done. It's won for us through the work of Jesus Christ. Through the image of God, Jesus Christ, God restores what Adam had lost. He restores for us communion with God, our Creator. Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, explaining this distinction, this contrast between the first man, Adam, and the second man, Christ. 1 Corinthians 15, 49. just as we have borne the image of the man of dust. We know that all too well, don't we, brothers and sisters, that we bear the image of the man of dust, Adam. We are born, we are created as dust, just as Adam was. And to dust we shall return, said the Lord, as he cursed Adam. And that is our lot. That is our lot as sons and daughters of Adam and Eve. We have borne the image of the man of dust. But Paul goes on. We shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. We shall also bear the very image of Jesus Christ, the man of heaven, the man who will not return to dust, the man who was in the dust but was raised again on the third day and ascended into glory at the right hand of God the Father. He is the man of heaven. He reverses the curse that was placed upon us and He wins for us the blessing of the eternal Sabbath. He is the man of heaven and it's His image that you bear, brothers and sisters. While indeed we suffer, while indeed you suffer because we still live in a fallen, sinful, sin-cursed world while we still suffer because of Adam's disobedience. We experience pain. We experience heartache. We lose ones that we love dearly. Our friends and our family die before our face. We still suffer in this world. and yet brothers and sisters you can have hope you can have comfort because the man of heaven has come he has come and reversed that curse he has done his work he has done his work to ensure for us a promised rest a promised heaven a promised eternal sabbath where we will rest from all our work from all our labors a place where there will be no more pain a place where there will be no more suffering, where there will be no more death and tears. That is what the man of heaven, our Lord Jesus Christ, has won for you. And thus, we come to this question that we began with. Did God create man wicked and perverse? No, but He recreates us. He recreates us good. He recreates us again after His own image. through the man Jesus Christ, through the man of heaven. And thus we can once again and finally say we can once again truly know God, our Creator, love Him with all our heart, and live with Him in eternal happiness for His praise and His glory. Hallelujah. Amen. Let's pray. our Lord our God our Creator we know too well we know too well the pain and the suffering of this world that we live in we experience it every day and we experience it especially this evening. It is so real and so close to our minds and to our hearts. And Lord, what a miserable, horrible world this would be if that was the last word. If that was how the story had ended, With Adam and Eve and us with them that have been exiled east of Eden. Unable to enter ever again. Your rest. Your peace. So we thank you, Father. We thank you that the story has continued. We thank you that you sent another. You sent one to come and to be the man that we could never be. To be the man of heaven. To be the man who would win for us an eternal promised land. That's in him at this time that we find comfort for our souls. It's to him that we look. It's to his work. It's to his life, to his death, and to his resurrection that we turn for comfort at this time. we thank you for sending him keep our eyes ever focused on his work by the power of your Holy Spirit comfort our souls this evening by the promise of your gospel in the name of Jesus Christ the man of heaven we offer you our prayers it's in his name that we pray Amen