Nothing to say, yet
Transcription
The speaker discusses the topic of what it means to be in the image and likeness of God. He emphasizes that man's first state is spiritual and that God reveals himself to man through his spirit. He also talks about love and forgiveness, highlighting the difference between love and approval, as well as trust and forgiveness. Moving forward, he explores the concept of image by referencing a scripture from Matthew about rendering to Caesar what is Caesar's. He then reads from Genesis 2, discussing God forming man from the dust of the ground and placing him in the Garden of Eden. The speaker emphasizes the importance of trust and self-control in the relationship between God and man. He concludes by mentioning the impact of human separation from God on creation and expresses the hope for further exploration in the next session. Hello, this is Philip Flatt, and once again this is Voice to Humanity. And I'd like to continue on the topic that we have covered over the last few sessions. And those sessions have covered the subject of what is man, is man in the image and likeness of God. And I hope it is clear to all of us now that have listened, I hope that we understand that man's first state is spiritual. Man beginning was in the spirit realm, not in the physical. And from that we should be able to understand why it says in scripture that God reveals to man by his spirit who he is. And that it is only the spirit that can reveal to spirit the existence of the living God. So in this session now that we're moving forward, there are a few things that I would like to finish up on the topic of what is man in the image and likeness of God. But before I continue with the scriptures, I would like to share a few thoughts that I have as I have read Genesis 1 and 2. For I guess you would say I've read it anew and really considered some things and look like there are some things that I saw that kind of escaped me before because a lot of times when we read things, sometimes we need to step back and read it again so we can get fresh insight. And one of those things that came anew to my mind as I was reading, I thought, you know, during that time, Adam did not have the privilege of having scripture. The human being that was about to be formed in the flesh did not have a manuscript handed to them. So I would like for us to keep that in mind as we begin once again studying the scriptures. Another observation that came to my mind is the fact that God created this world full of harmony and peace, something that he could have enjoyed just himself, something he did not have to share with anyone, any being. So for me, as I was reading this, I saw this as God's first act of love to his creation, that he is willing to share his creation with humans. I thought this was such a great display of love that it was so selfish because a lot of times, if you really be honest, is that a natural affection of humans to share? That's a good display of God's natural affection and his love for his creation. So since we are on this topic of love, I'd like to share a few things. First of all, love and approval are not the same thing. And I hear a lot of people talk about God's love, even in the face of the fact that they know the things that they are doing, does not reflect the image of God. But they use that term, God loves me. And I don't think they fully understand what they're saying. I know that it is true that he does, but I think they're conflating or confusing the word love with approval. And the reason I'm saying this is because as a young man, most of the time when you go to your parents and you say, can I do this or can I do that, your parents may reply to you and say no. And immediately, because we wanted to do this so badly, we say, mom doesn't love me, dad doesn't love me, they don't care about me. And then we really sat down and think about what was happening. We were asking for their approval, not their love, their approval. And so that is one of the things, the reason why I'm talking about the love of God. That is a lesson that I learned when I reflect on what my mother and my father were saying to me when they would say to me no about certain things. I was seeking their approval. And the other thing too is, since I'm on this subject, in this area, I would like to talk about forgiveness. For a lot of times, people say, I forgive you for a thing that you may have done and hurt them, and you may have been a close friend, someone who was trusted, but something happened and that trust was violated. So a lot of times people would like to say, you know, I forgive you for what you have done. The person who heard that would walk away and say, so and so forgave me. And maybe the next time that they came around and the situation arised where the person who was forgiven felt like, you haven't forgiven me. You will never let me live this down. But the person who have received the forgiveness is truly not understanding that is trust and forgiveness are not the same thing. I may forgive you, but that doesn't mean that I trust you again. That is something that has to be recovered, something that has to be repaired, something that has been damaged. So one of the things that we need to learn, and as I say, I have learned through life, is that those relationships in the area of trust has to be repaired. So that's my five minutes of observation and thoughts. So I would like to say, I hope that helps and benefits someone because it really blessed me to know that some of the things that we say, we interpret to mean something else when really it doesn't. So let's move forward. When we talk about natural affection, the natural affection of the Spirit of God would be, as I would read in Galatians, the fruit of the Spirit. And a lot of times in humanity, those things in the human being, those natural affections are most of the time on display, caring for another human that is in suffering. Those are natural affections that somehow are ignored or intentionally corrupted. That's not what the Spirit of God is about. So moving forward, as we continue to talk about the last few series of what is man and the image and likeness of God, now we're going to move from the spirit realm into the physical. And what I mean by the physical realm, the physical realm is when God begins to form the body of man and puts his stamp on the body. What do you mean by a stamp? I guess the best way to explain that is to begin to read what Jesus said about the man. And this scripture helped me to understand better what it means to be in the image and likeness of God, but to have his stamp upon you to reveal his likeness. And what I would like to do is to read from Matthew. Matthew reads, And he said unto them, Whose is this image to strike? And they say unto him, Caesar's. And he says unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. Now I found that very interesting. I said, Lord, why would you do that? Why would you use this example to talk about the image of God? Because this is specifically about the image that is on this coin. So some have argued that man should fight and rebel against taxation or against government in this many fashions. But that's not what Jesus said. Jesus plainly says, Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's. So let's talk about that. What did Caesar do? Caesar, as a man who had rule and authority over the land, built certain monuments, provided services for the citizens of that nation. So how was he to do this without any revenue? Would anyone expect their home to be furnished, free of charge, without any revenue? I think that right there a lot of us should take notice and think about that. This is why Jesus did not fight taxation. Because he knew it was a service that was provided by the people, provided to the people by the governor of that nation. So revenues are necessary to do those things. Those things are not done freely. This issue is not about whether or not Caesar was overtaxing the nation. All those are true. This is not about a fact that we should not like the government or the rule of injustice. That's not what this is about. This is strictly to get us to understand the image. The image that was embossed upon this coin is a representation of the one who was providing the resources for this nation. So in this fashion we look at the image. So God has now began, when we get to Genesis 2, to form the physical man. And the physical man now will bear the image of God who is the creator of all creation. Who is now beginning to share with this physical man the rule and the reign and the care that he has for what he's made. So this is the first time that I begin to appreciate the scripture that I just read in Matthew. Where the Lord says unto us, whose image is it? And he specifically says, render unto Caesar. What is Caesar's? It is Caesar's image that's on this particular coin. And render to God the image that he has placed upon this physical body. So I think Jesus made that claim. The issue here is image. It is nothing else. All the other things have arguments that can be presented to someone else concerning whether or not we feel something is fair or unjust. But this is something that he emphasized so that the nation could begin to reflect on the things that were needed, that were important. So with that, we're going to read Genesis 2. And I'm going to read that in the Jewish Bible, from the Jewish Bible, excuse me. So we will start with Genesis 2, 7, the complete Jewish Bible. Then Adonai, and Adonai is a word that is translated for Lord. God formed a person. In Hebrew, the word Adon comes from that. The word person comes from the Hebrew Adon. From the dust of the ground, and ground in Hebrew is Adonai, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life so that he became a living being. And God planted a garden in the east in Eden, and there put he the person whom he had formed out of the ground. Adonai, God calls to grow every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, I'm going to go down to read from Genesis 2, 15. God put the person that he had made, put him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to care for it. Adonai, God gave the person this order. You may freely eat from every tree of the garden itself, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and you are not to eat from it because on the day that you eat from it, it will become certain that you will die. Now this term, die, since Adam is speaking with the creator, with God directly, he's not reading a manuscript. This is where we'll begin to see how truly faith, or what we call faith, begins. It begins here in the garden. So we will see a clear illustration of what it really means to have faith in God. So here, the human that is made from the dust of the earth, which is now beginning to receive instructions by voice, not by words, but by the voice of God, of what he, the human, and I say he because now at this point, I guess the best term to say is human, that this human is instructed by the living God of what would happen if he did not trust, and that's really what it is here, if he did not trust what he is being taught. So Adam must trust God here. This is where faith, or the foundation of the word faith, is trust. So he must trust what he is telling him, that if you do this thing, you most certainly will die. So let's think about what's happening here. Death has never been something that the human has ever experienced. So without him experiencing, or seeing an example of death, what would come into the mind of the human unless the Father shows him or gives him some illustration of what death is. So we take it for granted when we read about what is happening between God and Adam in the garden. We look at it as if he was holding the Bible or scrolls that we are privileged to see and read and examine, but this was new for the human. This is the first time the human has become conscious of the natural realm and of this body that he is now a part of, that he now must learn how to control. That's right, he must learn to control his body. This is the reason why one of the fruits of the Spirit is self-control. And whenever we see someone usually that does not have self-control, that person is really not good to lead anything because of the fact we must first learn how to have self-control. So in the next session, we will continue to talk about. Now we have moved from the image of God in the spirit man, now to the image of God being stamped into the physical man. So in the next session, I hope that you all will join us for the next session which will be session 11. This is session 10 and I hope this will continue to help us to enjoy our Bible study and to continue to try to understand the mind of our Creator, the one who made us and fashioned us. Because one of the things that has happened, man or the human, impact on creation will be tremendous because once man and our Creator separate in their fellowship, not only are humans affected, but our creation will be affected. And I would like to give you one scripture to show you this is true. Remember it says in Romans that creation groans and travails for the manifestation of the sons of God. Why is that? Because creation was blessed when God walked upon the earth in fellowship with humans. It felt the shalom, the peace and the harmony of his presence. And whenever the human and God separated, the fellowship was broken not only for the humans but also for creation. And creation groans for that manifestation again. So until the next time, this is Philip Black from the Voice of Humanity. God bless you and continue to give you insight and understanding by his Spirit. And we thank him in the name of Jesus who is Yahshua in Hebrew. And we are signing out, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
