"IN THE IMAGE OF GOD"
“IN THE IMAGE OF GOD”
Sunday, June 30, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
This Sunday as we approach July 4, 2013, we rejoice and are thankful to God for our liberty and freedom to be able to worship God according to the dictates of our heart; for freedom of speech; and the right to petition our government to re-address grievances.
For that cause today I address the decision this past week by the United States Supreme Court of partially overturning the defense of marriage act that marriage is between a man and a woman. Nobody has the right to redefine marriage.
The union of male and female was ordained by God as a fundamental Law of God of that which is natural.
Genesis 1:27: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them. God blessed them, and God said to 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 moves upon the earth.”
Mankind can only be complete in the image of God. In that place of completeness is the realm of the Glory of God.
Today I bring this charge against Supreme Court Justices, Kennedy, Ginsberg, Breyer, Sotomayer, Kagan and President Barrack Hussein Obama. I bring this charge to the court of Heaven. That these leaders who have been set into public office have become destructive to the health, welfare, and wellbeing of the people of the United States of America by a long train of abuses and usurpations against the Glory of God, His Way, the Glory of His Holy Word; and the Image of God.
Refusal to accept the Divine revelation of the Holy Scripture leads men to folly. We are now living in a world in which the Lord’s divine act of creating man and woman for union in him is demonized.
Rom 1: 21-32: Men and women who have given themselves over to dishonoring their own bodies between themselves, change the truth of God into a lie…For this cause God gave them up to vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind…Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whispers, backbiters, haters of God; despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents. Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful; who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”
In Genesis 1:26-27: “God said, ‘Let us make man in Our image; after Our likeness; and let them have dominion…’
It is my persuasion (though not all agree) that the “Our” here means the Trinity; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The image of God is His Glory.
Even the animals who have not been given the life giving Spirit of God naturally know the existence of the male and the female.
In 1:24: “God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after its kind, and it was so.
“Let the earth bring forth” is an Act of God to which he draws attention. They know by the nature of their God given instincts they are to pro-create. The new element in the creation of man was that he was to be in the image and after the likeness of God which would show itself above all in his dominion over the animal creation. It showed itself in his ability to have communion with God, ultimately, and perhaps most important of all, it made the incarnation of the Word of God possible.
2 Cor. 4:4: “In whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of them which do not believe lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
So the scripture clearly states the “god of this world has blinded the minds of them which do not believe.” The god of this world is Satan.
1 Cor. 11:7 states that man is the image and glory of God and the woman is the glory of man. People of God, homosexuals and lesbians cannot, and will never reflect the image of the Glory of God.
The male and the female are partakers of the image of God in mankind. The resultant partnership, equality and voluntary subordination are a revelation of the Trinity, God’s glory.
God then issued His Divine Judgment: 1:31: “God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” This means the creation of male and female was complete conformity to God’s plan. Then the Lord gave mankind a major task to subdue and rule over His creation. So perfectly had God’s purpose been accomplished that on the seventh day he rested.
Man possessed a moral sense by virtue of his creation in God’s image. Without such knowledge his disobedience could hardly have been regarded as a sin.
In Genesis, Chapter 2, we have creation from man’s standpoint. Chapter one is written from God’s standpoint.
After the naming of the animals had been impressed upon the man, and that in all cases there were two sexes, markedly different, but the animals were not alone. Man being in God’s image---He is a Trinity---is by nature a social being. So solitariness is not good for him; 2:18: "And the Lord God said,' it is not good that the man (kind) should be alone. I will make him a help meet for him'."
Since God’s creative purposes involved from the first both male and female, the first step to cure the aloneness was the creation of the woman to be his partner; the Hebrew implies the fitting into a unity in which each helps the other equally.
Adam and Eve found completion in one another and were essentially one being, which is the goal of every true marriage. This can only be found when a couple comes in union with Christ’s glory and God’s creative purposes. A man and woman rightly related reveal the image of God, for God is love (1 Jn. 4:8).
Then we know the story of “The Fall” which cast them out of the Presence of the Lord. Eden is first and foremost a state of being, (man in the Presence of God). Eden reveals God’s nature and intent toward His creation. He desires to delight us with Himself.
In Eden there is a serpent, and through the cunning of that serpent man was cast out. However, in Christ, we have come to a City, whose maker and builder is God. In the city there is no serpent, for through the dominion of the Christ nature in man the serpent is cast out. In Eden there is the Tree of Life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the City there is only the Tree of Life. Eden is man on trial. The city is mankind the overcomer, purified and perfected.
Paul categorically states in 1 Tim 2:14 that Adam was not deceived by Eve and places the major blame on him, and implies that he acted with his eyes wide open.
Both Adam and Eve sought independence, but individuals can enjoy independence fully, only if they are subordinate to a common centre of authority which can only be God. As Adam and Eve liberated themselves from God, they came into conflict with each other. As a result, their children were children of conflict.
There is not the least suggestion of penitence or sign that they would have liked to return to the complete dependence and Presence of the Glory of their creator, with the incorruptible Life of God available to them.
The offer of Satan is and was repeatedly glory and power for those who follow him, but the result is always ultimately shame, as symbolized by the snake’s walk and food.
Gary Bauer on June 27, 2013 wrote, “Now the defense of marriage begins” Who will be jailed for their faith?
“The court did a lot of damage to the traditional understanding of marriage and efforts to protect it. It struck down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. In California, it effectively punted; finding it has no way to rule because of a technicality. Overall, the rulings hasten the day when same sex marriage will be forced on the American people. For those who believe marriage is between a man and a woman, Wednesday was a clarion call to redouble our efforts.
Why must we continue to fight? Because we know the other side will. A couple of hours after the decisions were announced; President Obama’s Organizing for Action sent an email to supporter’s stating that the rulings were “a call to action. This is a fight we will win.” Mr. Obama’s team announced. “We will go state by state if we have to. OFA is gong to be there every step of the way.”
“Our founding fathers understood that American exceptionalism is rooted in Judeo-Christian values---values that include the biblical definition of marriage. They understood that our freedom is based not on the liberty (independence) to do what we please, but on liberty that comes from God, who teaches that only virtuous people can remain free…
How did we get to the point where homosexual-rights activists would be clamoring to redefine society’s oldest and most reliable institution and people of faith would be worried about being fined or jailed for teaching their faith?
It took the breakdown of traditional marriage. It took churches deciding that they could accommodate the homosexual culture or ignore it altogether. It took businesses placing their bottom lines ahead of morality…
As a society, we have lost the understanding of what marriage is and what the consequences will be if we redefine it. Nobody has the right to redefine marriage. Doing so ignores research that makes clear that children do best when raised by a mother and a father. Nobody has the right to force children to grow up without the unique contributions that a mother and father provide.”
(End of quotes from Gary Bauer, president of American Values and chairman of Campaign for working families.)
I am not afraid to preach the gospel of Christ. When I answered the “Call”, I counted all of my costs those three days I lay in my bed weeping and dying before the Lord.
The Lord will raise up men and women of God who will not be afraid to die for the gospel; afraid of losing financial support; or lose their tax exempt status.
There will come a day when we will decide to support those voices that preach the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God whether they have a tax exempt status or not. I have chosen to walk in His image.
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from KJV; I entered into the labors of F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, H. L. Ellison; Quotations from Gary Bauer, Now the Defense of marriage begins.