Let's turn our Bibles to Genesis, chapter one. Genesis, chapter one. We're going to finish this chapter this morning. Day six of creation. Next Lord's Day will be the celebration of God's rest and our salvation resting Christ as we finish The seven days together, then we'll move into, again, the creation of male and female more specifically, and then particularly the institution of marriage and then on to the fall. May God help us as we continue to understand how important origins is to functioning in this world we live in. So vital in this postmodern age, remember when I say postmodern, roughly the times is 1989 to where we are today. And that is a time of where there is an absolute denial of moral absolutes. A denial of objectivity of truth. Truth is relative. In fact, truth becomes important by what it means to you. That becomes truth. So we live in a screwed up age, an age in which men are completely deceived by the evil one. The Judeo-Christian worldview has been completely trashed and the thinking of our culture. What was once wrong is seen as right. And vice versa, and it's a complete confusion because men have rejected their origins, we saw with Charles Darwin, the Charles Darwin himself was a troubled man. But besides the point, all sinners are troubled apart from Jesus Christ. But Charles Darwin was a man who had been trained in the church who was preparing for the ministry, who experienced a very sad thing. He lost a child, his little daughter, Annie, that embittered him. And he began to try to pursue the purpose of life, the meaning of life, understanding the world around him after eliminating God altogether. And so that's the perspective of. Naturalistic. Darwinian teaching that is completely permeated our world. It's even gone into social evolution. So now I read an article this week in Newsweek. It was actually from a couple of years ago and how this man was trying to explain how even our morality is developed through evolution. So now even the immaterial aspects, he just keeps on evolving. Evolution does understand it keeps on evolving and developing. To where now it's gone beyond full materialism to now they're trying to explain immaterial concepts by evolution. So it's gone completely off its initial founding and to the point way beyond Darwin. Darwin's been disproved. Over and over again, many, many outstanding books are out there. I have in my library by well-known scientists who've left his camp and have explained quite clearly scientifically all the errors of Darwin's thinking. has been very unscientific. That's why I mentioned the outset of our series. I was very pleased with my wife. We were in London last January and the British Library were able to see a display that said, what do you think about Darwin's theory of evolution? You'd never see that in America. And we just teach you this fact, at least there's some objectivity, maybe returning to England. And so we reject the fact that there was a Big Bang 15 billion years ago. We reject the thinking that says from the goo to the zoo to you. I've also found a couple other interesting little monomic devices, I found this one this week. We're from the ooze, the ooze, the ooze out of ooze, and then we go back into ooze. Interesting. I read this one that we're nothing but a bunch of lucky mud, dust, a little bit wet. We're lucky mud. And somehow by hook or by crook, we've come out to where we are today. I even read this one, we're nothing but happy bags of protoplasm, how's that one? The sad thing is, is people actually believe all that. Trying to explain their worldview all around us, they actually buy into that, they actually. Try to live as if. There are immaterial concepts like love, morality, right, wrong, good, bad, good, evil. They try to function that way. They're appalled when they hear. About like this murder, I heard about the other day, this model gets murdered by her fiancee and the horrified that even the lady on the news station said, it's so despicable, I can't even try to move on as he was trying to explain and report it. But this guy did to his fiancee. See, what's wrong with that? If you're an evolutionist. Survival of the fittest. Weak people, weak things get destroyed, move them out of the way because they're nothing but a. A problem for our race, move them away, and that fits perfectly in the worldview of evolution, survival of the fittest or natural selection. All these different things all fit very, very well. In. A fully materialistic worldview, but the morality part, the material parts completely have to be borrowed from the Judeo-Christian worldview. And you might say, well, I don't know if that's exactly what they're trying to do. What they're doing is they're they're admitting by their gravitation toward these concepts, they're admitting what we already know, that they're made in the image of God. That's why they feel these things, because they're made in God's image. That's why it doesn't feel right when someone is murdered, raped, decapitated purposefully. That's why they think it's wrong when a drunk driver kills a child. That's not right. The man needs to be paid for that. Wait. We're all human animals. Things happen in the primeval world. And so they're schizophrenic. They're asserting who they are and yet trying to function with concepts that are completely opposite of their worldview to try to make sense of their day to day living. And they can't answer the questions that we can. They can't answer the questions like, who am I? They cannot answer that. All they could say is I'm goo. To the zoo and to you, so they could say they could say, we're not nothing but lucky man. I'm a bag of protoplasm. And see, that's how the devil blinds, watch the mind of the unbelieving heart. Second Corinthians four, three and four, the devil's in the details and he's blinding men. He's the father. Of those who do not believe, John 8, 44, And yet we stand against that. And as Christians, we need to be bold and we need to say that. God made the heavens and the earth in six 24 hour solar days. Nothing else makes more sense linguistically, contextually, grammatically in the whole formation of Genesis one, nothing makes more sense than what is being understood day and night and so on, morning, evening, 24 hour days, all these concepts. Light, sea, sky, dry land, plants, seeds, sun, moon, stars, sea and sky, creatures, animals and humans. Nothing makes more sense. than the natural reading of the Hebrew as chronologically relayed by Moses. Nothing makes more sense than that interpretation. And to inject any other view into the text is to please men for their affirmation at the expense of being unfaithful to God's authoritative word. I read a statistical analysis of the Hebrew grammar this week. Interesting project called RATE. Some of you may have heard of it. R-A-T-E. It has to do with radiometric type of analysis of scientific Age of the Earth, tied in with the grammar of Hebrew in Genesis one. And this guy has an amazing study. And he he said what the conclusion is, is that Genesis is not poetic language like the liberals assert. Which we all knew that anyway, but I mean, he's saying scientifically in his analysis, he had a whole detailed study and he says at the end, he says it's a narrative. It's just a historic narrative. And there's no scientific angle in analyzing the language for us to take it anything other than historical narrative. OK, that fits with the grammar. And the consecutive chronological explanation of verse one versus two to thirty one or an explanation of verse one offense. So now we want to talk about five things about day six. Number one, we'll talk about God's special donation, special gift to us animals without going off into the extremes of pizza and all that. Man's actual origin, I want to talk about that, the imago dei, the image of God. And when I say by that the actual origin, what I'm saying is that Adam was the first human being, which means there was no primeval world that was destroyed by God and judged by God of prior beings that lived in between Genesis one, one and one to. Man's actual origin, the first man was Adam, thirdly, I want to talk about man's global dominion, his his needs for the cultural mandate to as a supreme creation of all of God's creation. To fill the earth and then rule it. Fourthly, I want to talk about man's intentional multiplication tied in with the supremacy, again, the need for us to raise up a posterity. I'll talk about the intimacy, a part of that and the controlling men, therefore, the animal world, the plant world, as the exalted creation of God, and lastly, God's beautiful provision. He's given us food. He's called us to enjoy the world we live in. And I know a lot of this, most all of it you already know, but that's all right. We all need to review and rethink these things. Especially in the world we live in. Especially you young people who are in college. Those in high school, those just out of college, you have got to be on your toes in this day and age. You've got to be able to articulate your faith. You've got to be able to explain the gospel in a postmodern world. You've got to be able to understand their language and explain where the Bible is clear in these issues. To be silent, I think, is to be unfaithful. To be silent, say nothing and go to schools that mock the biblical account is to be unfaithful to God. I think it's tantamount to seeing someone get beat up on the street and do nothing about it. To go to a secular university, junior college and say nothing and yet let them teach you and passively receive it and never say anything, I think is unfaithfulness to God. And if you can't articulate it, you need to study it. We're here to help you. And that's why we want to be faithful to the text. We want to be living in reality to the word of God. Notice in verses 24 and 25, God's special donation. And God said, let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds. Livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth, according to their kinds. And it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth, according to their kinds and the livestock, according to their kinds and everything that creeps on the ground, according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. Notice here, I'm talking about animals and as a special gift of God, I grew up with animals and a lot of you did. All kinds of animals. I remember living next to my grandparents in California, Northern California. We had all kinds of animals running around. Grandfather traded horses a lot. He's a truck driver. And I have my own horse as a kid, my own goat named Bucky with one horn. Believe it or not, I was born country, became a city, and now I'm back to the country. I had tours every day. I had to go out and feed Henny Penny, my chicken. The little kid, five years old, had handy panting. Didn't know the story of handy panting until later on. Nevertheless, gave her her feed, have my rabbits, have my animals, have my chores. My brothers with me, we grew up in underdeveloped Northern California, the country was beautiful, hiking, sliding down hills in the days of the hay time of year. We'd slide down our cardboard boxes and crash down there and we'd see giant spiders and we would go fish and all these little things we did as a boys. and saw God's creation. Never did I ever think, even as an unbeliever, that this was all by a big accident. I remember saying in an astronomy class at the University of Hawaii, 500 kids in a lecture hall. And I just remember, and I was living a pagan, godless life. Never read the Bible. And I remember the man saying some stupid thing, how we came from the big whales. And I just stood up and I said, that's stupid. I don't believe that. I'm from God. I was so confused, but I at least wasn't buying that. Roman Catholicism served me at least a little bit at that point. But I came to see as a kid that animals were a blessing. Animals teach us a lot. I remember, you know, you could, you know, you can mistreat your animal and a moment later, he's licking you and loving you. I'm not going to get too much further theologically into that. But nevertheless, there's something about animals and the companionship and who they are, that often we forget that they are given to us by God. They're formed for man, that people go off into Aberdeen, I remember years ago, my father, who is really into his two pet sheepdogs, Petey and Paul. You know, I often do extremes with his two sheepdogs and my dad wasn't saved then, so this could explain his answer to me. But he was very upset when I told him that all doggies don't go to heaven. I'm serious. I remember I was trying to explain to him, and finally, later on, I found out the passage and it was in Ecclesiastes. Let's go there. Let's get this established from the get go. The animals are a special blessing to us from God, but they have no souls and they won't be in heaven. In Ecclesiastes chapter three, first of all, verse twenty one. Actually, versus 19 to 21, probably better. For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beast is the same as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath. And man has no advantage over the beast, for all is vanity. All go to one place, all are from the dust and to dust all return. Go with me to chapter 12. Verse seven. And the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God. Who gave it? He's referred to human beings in this context. No mention of animals. The conclusion is the beasts have no souls and that would fit with the rest of Scripture. So what's the purpose? Well, the purpose is to comfort us, be either a gift to us, their blessing to us. We should not mistreat them, but they should be seen also as beautiful creations. By God, for us. And notice how God made the variations of the animals. According to their kinds, remember last week we talked about this is very important is five times, five times in these two verses, verse 24, 25, he uses this statement according to their kinds. Now, again, this that very statements against evolution, evolution advocates vertical evolution, the latter of evolution. And what God asserts is horizontal variation within the species, the genius. So that's why you can have varieties of livestock and. Dogs and various animals and all kind of different horses and then horses, you got zebras and donkeys and all kind of things of similar relations and the same type of overall variations. The species, nevertheless. Evolution is against that. Not even close. You see the evidence when you look at this description I've just read to you, do you see in this explanation by Moses, do you see anything here, any evidence of evolutionary struggle? I don't I don't see it there, do you? You see the evolutionary struggle in these two verses here? No. Sorry, Charles Darwin. Again, you've in your bitterness to God and the death of your young daughter, you departed from everything, denied God, trashed God in your thinking, completely deleted God from your thinking and came up with something that is absolutely irrational, especially to the naked eye. All doggies don't go to heaven. But all doggies are from the One who lives in heaven. I'm not saying people involved with animal rescue league or are completely off. God does move people with the abilities to treat animals in certain ways to make us aware of the abuses. But maybe these other organizations are really the big problem. PETA and ones like that. I don't know the exact how all the wording goes on that, but I know that they're completely off or green case where you have people who will tie themselves to two boats to try to protect the animal of the whales and animals and they see people that are completely have no problem with aborting a human baby but will risk their lives for saving the whales. Blinded. by the God of this world, completely twisting the natural order and man's dominion and crown of being crown of the creation of God and diminishing that and exalting the animal world. At least to the level, a horizontal level with mankind, and in most cases even higher than that, and that we're a derivative of them. Which is absolutely a denial of what God said. Clearly, in Romans one, let's go there for a moment, Romans one. Romans one, it says, following verse 18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Watch this. Who, by their unrighteousness, they suppress the truth. I want you to see further, for what can be known about God is plain to them. OK, so it's plain. So it was plain to the little Roman Catholic boy, Jerry Marcelino, skipping through the high, dry grass in northern California, seeing his big spiders, throwing his little reel there to catch the rainbow trout, all these little things. It was plain to me. Yes, it was plain to me. I had no question that it wasn't from God. Do it's plain to them because God has shown it to them. How has God shown it to them in their conscience? Romans 2, 14 to 16, either accuses or else defends them, lets them know that they're not here by accident, that lets them know that they're that murder is wrong and all these other vile sins against humanity and animals are not right. That's why they feel that way, not from a development of evolution. Into the immaterial world. For his invisible attributes, notice that invisible. Namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived. Ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, That which has been made, the material world testifies of the invisible God. So that they are without excuse. Also, you mean a person could be born into this world, live amongst this world, deduce that this is not from God, there's no God and he's accountable for that? Yes. Without excuse. He's without excuse to make that wrong deduction, apart from the grace and mercy of God, he's in big trouble, very big trouble. Verse 21, for although they knew God, how do they know God in their conscience? Written on the tablet of their heart, although they knew God and they did not honor him as God, even though they were supposed to. Or give thanks to him and they should have. But they became futile in their thinking, they believe the irrational. They believe the aberrant confusion and the fool in their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, brilliant, intellectual, they became fools before God. That's why someone could have a Ph.D. from Harvard and be seen even as brilliant in the eyes of our nation. He's a fool, biblically, because he can't see what God has already designed. And they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore, God gave them up to the loss of their hearts, to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves. And because they exchanged the truth about God for a life and worship and serve the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Here's the problem. They worship the creature rather than the creator. They were designed to worship the God who made them. But because of sin, they chose a different path. And I won't go further, but let me just tell you, don't think the modern day embracing and acceptance of homosexuality, lesbianism and all that. Don't think for one minute it doesn't flow from this thinking. And Christians that are silent, and sit and allow people to promote these things and say nothing of the gospel again. We're not in this position as a nation. Because we just couldn't help it, because we never spoke up and pulpits became silent. So it says three times, God, in this text, God said, ex nihilo, out of nothing, let there let the earth, the dust bring forth living creatures. In this design, livestock, creeping things and beasts of the earth, and it was so God said it and it happened, let there be light and there was light. See, that's how God does it, let there be this the expanse in the midst of the waters and the waters go to the top of the heavens and below into the earth. Let there be emerged a dry land in plants and seeds. Let it happen. And it happens out of nothing. Sun, moon, stars. I mean, it's vast, the universe. In a moment, God spoke it into existence. The sea and sky creatures, the fish and the birds. And it was so filling the heavens. And then God says, let this now, this dry land, plants and seeds and trees, let it be filled with animals and humans. Beasts of the earth, lives, everything that creeps on the ground, insects, reptiles, amphibians, mammals, moles, rats, all these other various animals, all made by God. Horses, donkeys, camels, oxen, goats, sheep, etc. Cattle. All from God. Domesticated animals. Large mammals, lions, elephants, dinosaurs before the flood. Remember, this is all during this expanse time, this greenhouse effect, this canopy effect, this world that was destroyed by water. In the flood. And then God says it was good. This is an interesting statement. It was good. Well, I mean, God knew it was good. What does that mean? It basically means is that it was all representing God's thought, all of his very beautiful and joyous thought. It's now manifest. Go with me to James three for a moment. We'll be back to James three in a moment and point number two, but this is the verse is seven and eight, just for a moment. James three. For every kind of beast. And bird of reptile and sea creature can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind to that. Now, they were tame. And those whom God ordained to be domestic were that way before and after the fall. But those who were now carnivorous. Obviously, were tamed before the fall and became wild. But many of them can be tamed by mankind, verse eight, but no human being can tame his tongue. It is a restless evil full of deadly poison. Animals could be controlled and tamed. But now man. Who in creation is above the animals, but has a capacity for moral evil. And the picture is. This is the frightening. Picture of the human tongue. The human tongue needs a bridle to hold it in check. Thomas Watson, the Puritan, said to show you how evil the human tongue is, God's already put two guards against it, the teeth and the lips. That's how dangerous he says our anatomy testifies of the tongue. Powerful. Number two, man's actual origin. I've already hinted at the whole idea that there was a primeval race, people think, prior to Adam being created and the whole world being restarted again. That God made everything perfect and then the world turned bad. God destroyed that then known world. All this took place between Genesis 1, 1 and 1, 2. It's amazing what they could come up with. And people, I mean people, PhDs believe this. And their foolish hearts are darkened. Not to diminish. Just for a moment and say that they don't have their arguments. They have their arguments, but their arguments depart from the authority of Scripture and their arguments, I think, are completely fallacious. Nevertheless, they have their arguments and they believe that there is much substance to it. But so do the Jehovah Witnesses, and they think that Jesus is a God. You can make strong assertions and be dogmatic and use the Bible. And let me tell you right now, people can make the Bible say whatever they want it to say. Maybe an illustration that one godly man showed me a while back in our church. If he starts laughing, you'll know who he is. But for fun, I hope he doesn't. In Ecclesiastes chapter 10, This might be your favorite verse, I hope not, but 10, 19. Bread is made for laughter and wine gladdens life. And money answers everything. Now, if I was a prosperity theology preacher, I want to go right to that text and I want to prove my point, you see. Money answers everything. We all need lots of money. If you don't have money, you're unhappy. You want to be happy, you got to get money, you say you can make the Bible say whatever you want to say. That doesn't change the facts of what God has said. No, I have my interpretation of that, but it's not for today. Man's actual origin, you see, that's what we're talking about. The first human being was Adam. That's what the Bible teaches. If we follow its narrative, Genesis one, even the Hebrew proves that if we follow, then it's a peck to get a close explanatory versus two to thirty one explain The statement of Genesis one, one in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and all that's within them. And it's explainable in those verses there. And it does. If the language morning and evening, one day, two days, three days, if all that means what it means in the Hebrew and it does etymologically, semantically. All that fits. And we're dealing with seven 24 hour days, and we're dealing exactly with what God is talking about here. And that means Adam was the first man. The first man, and let me just say this, too. This is important, and I want you to know that even genetics proves this point. Now, if I'm rusty, there's enough medical people that could explain it to you if I jumbled this thing up. But in my little minimal studies here, I was reminded from years ago in my education that man has both an X and a Y chromosome. So far, I should be OK, right? The Y chromosome helps them engender or create males when there is a reproductive act there taking place and The X chromosome engenders females. So if the female had been created first and the male taken out of her body, only female reproduction would have been possible, not the reproduction of men. But because the woman was taken out of man, then in their conjugal relationship, both male and females can be born. The feminists may not like this, but that's the way it is now genetically. It proves once again that Adam was the first man and Eve came from him. Hold your horses here, I'm not going to I mean, I'm egalitarian to a certain extent, I'll be talking about that in just a moment. So then God says again, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him male and female. He created them. Now, so now we get into this issue of his plural. Plural of majesty again in the Hebrew, let us make man in our image four times Three times images mentioned likeness also intimates image. So really, it's synonymous. So you really have four times this idea of image comes forth and it's the activity of a plural being. Making this statement, God said, let us God singular one, let us make men in our image after our likeness. Immediately, people don't want to believe in the Trinity, so they. That's OK, because there was no need to unveil the specifics of a trinity. Father, son, Holy Spirit, an exact formula under the shadowy Old Testament, remember the Old Testament is shadowy, symbolic. Preparatory, the new covenant is clarity, non shadowy language, specific Again, the culmination of God's revelation. And so so for for there to be a plural without a specific Trinity is OK. It wasn't God's intention to unveil that to the new covenant. But what we see, though, is the activity in Genesis one of the father and the Holy Spirit creating. We have enough language from the New Testament, John one, first Corinthians eight, Colossians one, Hebrews one revelation for you have enough. clear statements that say that Jesus Christ created the world. And so here we see that God's unveiling this truth. Furthermore, you have the language mentioned elsewhere in Genesis. What would mean a Genesis 322? Now, this is helpful, particularly when you're talking to someone who denies the Trinity. It's all over the Bible, the Genesis 322. Again, the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of us, same again. Illusion us in knowing good and evil, so God is now in us a plural go to chapter 11 of Genesis, verse seven. The Tower of Babel, right? In verse seven. Come, let us, God, go down and confuse their language so that they may not understand one other speech that's used three times in Genesis alone. But, of course, you know, that famous portrayal in Isaiah six where God says, you know, who will go for us? Who will go for us? And Isaiah says, here I am, send me. Now you have these illusions and many others under the old covenant that I could use to defend the Trinity. But again, it doesn't use the word Trinity nowhere in the Bible, but it's deduced from scripture, interpreting scripture, the more more than just a plurality, but a specific specificness in the New Testament, particularly reaches its fruition and the need for clarity in the finality of God's revelation. We see this here. Then God said, let us make so we were made by the Trinity, the Triune God created us in his image. And what is what does it mean to be made in the image of God? What does that mean? Well, I think there's many different definitions of people have given through the years, but basically It means all those aspects of human nature. That are foreign to animals and what would they be? Well, I think at least three things come to mind. First of all, when was the last time you talked to an animal? And he gave you feedback and I had a rational conversation with him. I only know Dr. Doolittle. There's an intellectual, rational aspect of us, a nature of our nature that is clearly what makes us unique as creations and God's image, the reflect our God, the reveal that we are from him. Some mistakable in Colossians 310, if we get this idea again, it's quite helpful in this little explanation is actually two great texts. They really help us that I'll show you one in just a moment, but Colossians 310 says. And have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creators, you that put on the new self, which is being renewed in the knowledge after the image of its creator, then go with me over to Ephesians for verse twenty four. And to be renewed, it says, in the spirit of your minds and to put on the new self created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. So the understanding from Scripture then is this, is that we have a rational intellectual aspect to us. There's a moral aspect to us. And what happened is after the fall, we are again, our image is renewed, the image of God in us. It was marred. at the fall and then was renewed in conversion in a proper way of restoration. And then, of course, there is a regal or a a kingly aspect in the sense that we are obviously above every other bit of creation that we've learned about. And that's why that's why I'm an advocate of. of capital punishment, the death penalty, because I believe men are made in the image of God. Go back to James, as I mentioned, James three. Notice, as we continue past the tongue in verse eight of James three, notice in verse nine, one of the best defense you can give for capital punishment. Speaking about the tongue, it says with it, we bless our Lord and father. And with it, we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. See that. And then if you go back to Genesis nine, if someone says, do you believe in the capital punch, I say, yes, why do you believe that that's so it's so barbarian, barbaric. How could you believe that? I say, well, in Genesis nine, six, it says whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall he his blood be shed for God made man in his own image. So what's the basis of capital punishment? When you murder someone, you're killing the image of God in that man, his life force, what makes him distinctly human and unlike the animals you're putting him to death. So, why do I believe in capital punishment? I just read it to you. Genesis 9, 6. I'm amazed at how many professing church-going people have a big problem with the death penalty and capital punishment, and they think it's barbaric, and anybody who believes that has their head in a hole, is completely unreasonable and not with it, and an embarrassment To our nation is trying to gather more points, brownie points with the other nations of the world. So now it's only us and China and Iran, the others that actually carry out the death penalty. How barbaric? Well, that's their opinion. What's the Bible say? What's the Bible say? You see how far people are from what the Bible says. They think they can win the argument by comparing us to China and Iran. On the face of it, it does seem a bit shocking. But then again, we have to get our moorings, look at the Bible, go. Our reason for believing is this, and their reason is totally unlike our reason. But on the face of it doesn't look good to people that don't know the Bible, that say they believe in Jesus and the God of the Bible. So the authority of Scripture is all over. It says male and female God created them. We were created to resemble God. God makes male and female. Therefore, there's spiritual equality before God. But notice, there is temporal subordination of women to men. Notice, temporal. It'll end in heaven. But there are roles to play by virtue of creation by which God has designed. How do I know that? Go again. First Corinthians 11. Let's go back there. First Corinthians eleven. Notice you know why do I believe women should submit to men. I don't believe men should treat their wives like cave. Supposedly cave man's wife. We don't even know if there was such a thing as a cave man. But they wanted us to believe there was cave man Ooga Booga club his wife in the head of the club. OK. But beside that point. I was actually at the Natural History Museum in Washington years ago, and I remember reading something about this one exhibit, and the only basis they had for the exhibit was a tooth, and yet they had a wonderful, loving caveman family all making stew. They were there happy with all their garments on, but the only evidence we have for that particular type of caveman was the tooth, which I think later on was a pig's tooth. They found out years later. Interesting how people inject their own opinions into things. First Corinthians 11, it says this in verse three, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ and the head of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God. Look at verse seven. For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but the woman is the glory of man. Now, is that Paul's chauvinism or is that biblicism? That's the issues of being embarrassed about our capital punishment. You know, being embarrassed about how we think, you know, the word Hebrew word means 24 hours. We're embarrassed about that. Listen, do you believe the Bible is the Bible, the word of God to you? Do you understand it? Very important. Listen, being made in the image of God is a title of Of humility, in one sense, we're from the dust, yet God fashioned us and we go back to the dust, yes, but it's also one of dignity. Uniqueness in the fact that we, again, are an amazing creation, creations of God, number three, therefore, man's global dominion. and let them have dominion over the fish. That's male and female. Notice not just men, male and female should 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 things that creeps on the earth. And God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, 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. John Calvin says right here. Calvin didn't have all the advantages we have, a lot of study things and scientific discoveries and all that. He made this statement. He asked a question. He said, what dominion can this be? What I've just read, unless it is the power to feed upon these animals that have been explained. Oh, no, the NRA now has been driving my interpretation. Well, I am a member of the NRA, but beside the point. What could the Dominion be except that we have the right to hunt them and feed upon them after the fall? What Dominion do you have over fish besides fishing for them? Is it Dominion to go pay $15 and look at them in an aquarium? Is that Dominion? I guess capturing them and putting them in the specific fish, putting them in the aquarium, that's a kind of dominion. Or is it fishing for them, showing your power over them, and then you're eating them? That's dominion. Calvin's right. Shooting that animal, and it is a form of dominion, to pay the taxidermist a little bit of money, make that nice little thing, you can say, I've conquered that giant animal there. Like Dewey Sanderson, I like a couple of the ones he had on his wall. That is dominion, but isn't it domination to eat them after you hunt them and show your power over them? Absolutely. Calvin's right. Man is king over animals. Man is the governor over animals, despite what PETA says. And how does man kind of obtain this by being obedient to God? How does he do it? He does that by doing what Calvin said there. Yes. And then also by dominating the animal world and controlling it. Let me just ask you a question. You know how many animals are in this world? What if our population was only a thousand people in the whole wide world? Do you think we'd be dominating the animal world? No, therefore, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and have dominion over everything that moves every living thing. Now, obviously, population expansion leads to domination, even cultural domination by higher beings, and therefore human proliferation, we win. The last time I made this quote years ago, I was in Vermont and there was a national public radio person there in the audience, so I got in trouble a little bit, but I think I'm still safer here. Gary DeMar said in 25 years from now, if the homosexuals who can't reproduce and if the heterosexuals who can but choose to have less children, if the Christians would be fruitful and multiply, We win by virtue of mathematics in 25 years. It's interesting, one of the concerns about the nation of Israel, where right now the population right now is 1.2, I mean as far as having children, each woman has an average of 1.2 children, like Europe, about 1.1, 1.2 per woman. And the Palestinians average eight children per family. So it's a real concern for Israel that the Arab Israelis who are citizens of Israel who keep having big families and the secular Jews who don't have big families. Now the Orthodox Jews have eight to 10 kids. But they're more wards of the state and perpetual religious social security. And so the big concern Israel is that they'll be overtaken in a democracy by in 30, 30 years or so by Palestinians who keep having bigger families. Interesting. You see. We're just we're to populate, absolutely have all the children we can with, but not without planning and struggle in a fallen world. So God has made us a little lower than angels. So I made. And we have dominion over the earth, over the animal life, As well, number four, he goes on again and God bless them and and point four. And God said, again, be fruitful, multiply the earth and subdue it. So the natural, fruitful progression is that we have a growing population again in America is two point one children per woman. We're a little bit higher, I think you need to have two to a minimum of two children per per woman to sustain a nation at the bottom and repopulate itself. And so. So issues like choosing not to have children when you can physically have children. It's a dishonor to God. Some people can have children, they can adopt children. There are ways you can have children for those with those who are. Having children, if you can't. But the command here in the cultural mandate is fill the earth and rule the earth and fill the earth with as many children as God enables you to have. In other words, difficult procreative stewardship, some people say, well, we can't afford a lot of kids. My answer to that is who can afford them? Let me just share this principle with you. I'll tell you up front, you can't afford children, so therefore, go have all the kids you can. And God will make it evident. When that time is to stop now, this word here for filling the earth is also very interesting in the Hebrew, it actually means I wish you well. Now, think about God speaking here and he says, now be fruitful and fill the earth. Right. Literally, it means use it well. That's been one translation. Use what? Well, the power to reproduce. Use it well, have as many kids as you can, so God is providence stops you. I wish you will use it wisely, use it often, use your ability to have children. People react, especially people who are naturalistic, evolutionary thinking people. The earth can't handle all these people overpopulation, they scream. You know, when you read Genesis nine, one after the flood and God says, go fill the earth, I don't see God concerned about the earth having a problem overpopulation, do you? The myth of overpopulation. God says subdue, that is, conquer, enslave, domesticate, tame, control the earth. God empowers men to reproduce. It's God working through us. You know what else God does to us? He leads people to Christ. Second Corinthians five. In verse 20. I must finish here. Second Corinthians five in verse 20, notice the same idea, God works through us to accomplish his purposes. He empowers us to reproduce. to populate the earth and subdue the animal kingdom and rule the earth. He works through us. We can't create anything. He empowers us to reproduce. He uses us also to bring people into the new birth. Second Corinthians 520. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ. Watch. God is making his appeal through us. We beg you or implore you on behalf of Christ. Be reconciled to God. So Paul says, when we are speaking to an unsaved person and pleading with them to receive him and receive the new birth, it's God begging them through us. God populates the world through us, having empowered us. He says it's a blessing. I wish you well. God bless them. Now go populate the earth. Subdue it. Lastly, God's beautiful provision. Enjoy it. Verses 29 to 31, God said, behold, I've given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, every tree with seed and its fruit. You shall have them for food. So prior to the fall, all animals were eaters of, you know, fed upon all kinds of vegetation and herbs. And even Adam obviously did too. Because he goes on and he says, I have given you them for food and every beast of the earth and every bird of the heavens also that creeps on the earth, everything that is as breath, I have given every green plant for food. And God saw everything that has been made. Behold, it was all very good. It's interesting thing is six other times prior to this statement at the end of verse 31, which says it was very good, it said it was good. God saw that it was good, but now it says it was very good. In other words, it's a totality statement and everything I've created now as God finished the chapter one. It's all beautiful from my thinking and from my being and from my perfect plan. It's all very good. It says in Ecclesiastes 729, God created all things upright, but men sought out many devices. All food from God is to be enjoyed. First Timothy four, three to five, if it's sanctified by prayer. OK, so anything we can eat in the New Covenant, we can eat now after the fall, even meet. We can eat to the glory of God, the Jewish people had certain regulations, particularly unclean foods, look at Leviticus. But Acts 10 tells us that when Peter was appalled that God said for him to eat certain animals and the sheep came down from heaven and he says, I can't eat anything unclean. I've never done that. God says what God says is good. You can eat. So now we're free to eat. Eat whatever we want, as long as we sanctify it by the word of God and prayer. It's OK to hunt, there's a time to kill. Killing an animal isn't murder. If you kill it, you should eat it. Don't just kill it and kill, kill, kill. My brother, Kenny, years ago, he won't mind me sharing this, but he used to just sit and just shoot birds off the telephone wire, just kill them all. He wasn't eating them. My dad, I never forget that spanking he got. He finally got the point. You can't just kill God's creation just to kill it. There's got to be a purpose behind it, and those who have dominion over it know how to handle it by God. So what's our response as believers especially? I think I think only one response. Psalm 95 verses 5 to 7. Come let us bow down and worship our maker. That's it. All this study of Genesis 1 should lead us to worship. Should lead us to bow down to God to look at his creation all around us in a brand new way. The sky should be bluer and the grass should be greener. The intricacies of his creation should be, again, just fodder for us to praise him on the spot and thank him and then use it as instruction opportunities with our children to be amazed at our great creator and what he's done and making us in his image and causing us to rule this earth. And even though we're in a fallen world, He says, I'll empower you and I'll speak through you to bring men to the fullness of the restoration in Christ. I want to say to. Every person here who is not yet. Openly embrace Jesus Christ. I want to tell you that that that you need to reject all hesitations in giving your life to Christ. And you need to reflect upon that God has made you to resemble Him. He's given you a mind to think. He's given you a capacity for doing what's right and wrong. He's called you to see your sin and give your life to Him. He wants you to see that you've been made For His glory. That's why you're here. That's why He made you. To honor Him. To gladly bow down and obey Him. He wants you to see that you're an amazing creature. An amazing being. You're not an evolutionary accident. He wants you to see that your soul will never die. He wants you to understand that eternity awaits you and every one of us. We're a step from it. And He wants you to listen to this verse I'm going to read as I close. Matthew 25, verse 46. Jesus speaking. He's speaking of those who embrace Christ, what their eternity will look like, because they have never dying souls. And those who reject Christ, what their eternity will look like. Jesus Himself speaking. He says in these will go into eternal punishment. That's what happens to people that worship the creature rather than the creator. And they are have stubborn hearts to the very end. That's what happens. Eternal punishment. But the righteous. They go off into eternal life. Into realms of gold in the presence of God. forgiveness of sins and unending joy. May it be so with everyone here today. Let's pray. Well, Father God, we thank you for the wonder of your revelation, the beauty of your creation and for the certainty, Lord, of eternity and the reminder, Lord, that you. Have given this creation to show men. Their need for you. This fallen world. But yet a world that can be restored. Through the gospel. Through the righteousness of Christ. Lord, grab hearts. Strengthen believers. Bring repentance where necessary. Cause us all to rejoice as we leave this place today and to revel in who you are. And for the amazing world that you've made. In which we are the rulers and governors. In Jesus name, Amen.