Christina Cooke: For your grace and your mercy and your love.
Christina Cooke: And as we sang these songs, Lord, you are so good.
Christina Cooke: You are so holy.
Christina Cooke: You are mighty, Lord, and you are so worthy to be praised.
Christina Cooke: And so we thank you that we can gather here this evening of like-minded women who just love you and want to hear the word of God.
Christina Cooke: So I just pray that you would bless this evening.
Christina Cooke: You would bless my mouth, Lord, that my uh words would be of you, Lord, that you would just soften our hearts to hear what you have for each one of us.
Christina Cooke: We're each here in different um seasons of life, different stages of life, different struggles and things going on, Lord, that you would just meet each one of us exactly where we are at, God, to your name be the glory.
Christina Cooke: Amen.
Christina Cooke: There are two words that are going to help us understand the creation mandate, and they are imperative and indicative.
Christina Cooke: An imperative is a command, and indicative is the truth or the why behind the command.
Christina Cooke: So when I say the word mandate, I want us to keep in mind that this is a command, an imperative.
Christina Cooke: So the creation mandate is a command that God gave to the human race upon creating them.
Christina Cooke: We will get into the indicative in a bit.
Christina Cooke: But if we don't understand the truth or the why behind a command, we will never be motivated to obey it.
Christina Cooke: So let's look first at what the creation mandate is found in Genesis 1.
Christina Cooke: Genesis 1, 26 through 28 says, 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 every other creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
Christina Cooke: So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him.
Christina Cooke: Male and female he created them, and he 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.
Christina Cooke: So let's first look at the imperative, the command or the mandane.
Christina Cooke: Oops, did that go to the next one?
Christina Cooke: Yes, it did.
Christina Cooke: Okay.
Christina Cooke: So we see that the commands in this verse are, you can see them highlighted, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, and have dominion over every living thing that moves on the earth.
Christina Cooke: And we'll break these commands down as we go, but these are the commands that are given.
Christina Cooke: So why did God give us this mandate?
Christina Cooke: Now we will look at the indicative or the truth or why behind the command.
Christina Cooke: This passage opens up by stating that mankind is made in the image and likeness of God.
Christina Cooke: Because we were made in the image and likeness of God, is the truth or the why behind the command to be fruitful, multiply, subdue, and take dominion over the earth.
Christina Cooke: So let's take a deeper look into why this is so important to grasp.
Christina Cooke: I want us to think about how the Israelites would have understood the words image and likeness.
Christina Cooke: In the ancient Near East, when a king would conquer another land, that king would leave behind a large golden statue that looked just like him, so that when the people saw the statue, they would be reminded that they belonged to him.
Christina Cooke: You might be picturing one in your mind now.
Christina Cooke: The first one that comes to my mind is King Nebuchadnezzar, right?
Christina Cooke: He made that nine-foot statue of himself.
Christina Cooke: In the same way, the Israelites were to be the image, to be the image and likeness of their great king, which was Yahweh.
Christina Cooke: They were to be his statue, so to speak, that would let others know what he was like.
Christina Cooke: God designed man to accurately reflect him as they lived in the land that he ruled over.
Christina Cooke: Unlike oppressive kings of their day who had their own selfish plans, Yahweh wanted to rule his people within the safety of his statues and love.
Christina Cooke: Yahweh was not a God that was distance from his people.
Christina Cooke: He created them for relationship, and he designed them to bear his image that the world around them would know their king and be in right relationship with him.
Christina Cooke: As we are made in the image and likeness of our great king, we are mandated to make more image bearers, to rule the earth and subdue it under God's righteous rule, so that the whole earth would be filled with the glory of God.
Christina Cooke: God's plan for his people who ruled in this way, bearing his image as he designed them to, would enjoy a beautiful, thriving relationship with him.
Christina Cooke: It's obviously important to understand the mandate itself, but it's equally, if not more important, to grasp the why behind it.
Christina Cooke: If we don't have motivation to obey a command, we will lose focus, we'll be frustrated, we will not see our purpose, and ultimately we will give up.
Christina Cooke: My prayer is that a fire will be lit in our soul so we can have the motivation and joy to serve our great God and King out of his great love and desire to be in relationship with us.
Christina Cooke: This is a radical thing.
Christina Cooke: He promises to give us eternal life and peace and joy.
Christina Cooke: Too often we spend our days without purpose, without joy, just trudging along until we do the next exciting thing.
Christina Cooke: God has designed us for so much more.
Christina Cooke: We're going to take a quick journey through the scriptures to see God's big picture purpose for man as he lays out the creation mandate throughout his word.
Christina Cooke: It has been said that you can summarize the big picture of the Bible in eight words.
Christina Cooke: When I first heard that, I was like, no way, you cannot sum up the Bible in eight words until I understood how you can sum up the Bible in eight words.
Christina Cooke: And then it made sense to me.
Christina Cooke: So those eight words are God's people in God's place under God's rule.
Christina Cooke: And we'll break those down as we go.
Christina Cooke: In addition, there are four words that sum up the progressive storyline of the Bible.
Christina Cooke: And you may have heard of these words.
Christina Cooke: They are creation, fall, redemption, and consummation, or restoration.
Christina Cooke: As we go through the four parts of the storyline of the Bible, we will see how those eight words fit into the four words as God reiterates the creation mandate in each part of the storyline.
Christina Cooke: So the first part of the storyline is creation.
Christina Cooke: On the sixth day of creation, God created the pinnacle of his handiwork.
Christina Cooke: Yell it out if you know the pinnacle of his handiwork.
Christina Cooke: Somebody said woman.
Christina Cooke: Man, right?
Christina Cooke: Man was the pinnacle.
Christina Cooke: Woman is included in that.
Christina Cooke: It's man and woman.
Christina Cooke: Yes, agreed.
Christina Cooke: And what did God say about that pinnacle of his handiwork?
Christina Cooke: It was what?
Christina Cooke: Very good.
Christina Cooke: Genesis 2.15 tells us that God created man and put him in the garden to work it.
Christina Cooke: At this time, God had given Adam the instruction.
Christina Cooke: Adam, just keep that in your back of your mind, God gave Adam the instruction of eating from any other tree in the garden, but he must not eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Christina Cooke: After this instruction is when God made Eve.
Christina Cooke: Reading through Genesis 1 and 2, you may not catch this, that the instruction to not eat the fruit was only given to Adam.
Christina Cooke: The creation mandate is given in Genesis 1, 27, and 28, and the mandate was given to both Adam and Eve.
Christina Cooke: But Genesis 2 does not happen directly after Genesis 1.
Christina Cooke: Genesis 2 backtracks and it fills in some details that happen between Genesis 1.26 and 127.
Christina Cooke: This is an important detail to tuck away for later.
Christina Cooke: We'll get back to that.
Christina Cooke: So just wanted you to put that in the back of your mind.
Christina Cooke: So let's talk about these eight words, God's people and God's place under God's rule, and how they fit into the creation story.
Christina Cooke: So God made a people for himself, that was Adam and Eve, to live in a place which was the garden, where he would rule them.
Christina Cooke: Adam was given a command.
Christina Cooke: If Adam obeyed the command, he would live in right relationship with God forever.
Christina Cooke: If Adam disobeyed by eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, God said he would surely what?
Christina Cooke: Die.
Christina Cooke: Just want to see if you guys are awake.
Christina Cooke: You know, it's getting late and we need some coffee.
Christina Cooke: Because Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of their great God and king, they were mandated to make more image bearers to rule the earth and subdue it under God's righteous rule, so that, and we're going to hear this over and over, so that the whole earth would be filled with the glory of God, and they would enjoy a beautiful, thriving relationship with Him.
Christina Cooke: Not only Adam and Eve, but every human being that would ever descend from them.
Christina Cooke: As image bearers, Adam and Eve were to subdue and take dominion.
Christina Cooke: So what does this mean?
Christina Cooke: Subdue means to tread something down, beating it, forcing it into submission.
Christina Cooke: The idea is conquer and make it obey.
Christina Cooke: Adam and Eve were to bring creation under subjection, forcing it to be tamed by God's goodness.
Christina Cooke: They were to bring God's righteous ways into the world with his authority, upholding his righteousness, so that all creation would be subjected to his authority.
Christina Cooke: If we think of subduing through ancient Near East understanding of kingdoms, the lesser king or vice regent was responsible to crush rebellion and disorder and cause the land and people to be orderly subordinates of the king's authority.
Christina Cooke: This would also include using the resources of the earth and land to benefit the king.
Christina Cooke: So subduing has to do with land and people.
Christina Cooke: So I don't know if you're thinking of something in your mind right now, but hopefully you're thinking about what that might mean to subdue the land.
Christina Cooke: And this using the resources of the earth makes me think of work.
Christina Cooke: This is a mandate for work.
Christina Cooke: So a mandate for science, for farming, for fishing, for building, for teaching, for banking, whatever it is that you do, all within God's righteous statutes.
Christina Cooke: This is to cultivate a civilized society that reflects God's order and rule.
Christina Cooke: This applies to whatever it is that you do every single day.
Christina Cooke: When we think of dominion through ancient Near East understanding, the vice regent was responsible for exercising dominion over that conquered land, so what already has been subdued.
Christina Cooke: So we subdue with God's righteous standard and then we take dominion over it.
Christina Cooke: Man is to represent the king's interest to the people and the people's interest to the king.
Christina Cooke: They were to promote the high king's law and order.
Christina Cooke: In God's kingdom, dominion means that humans are to rule on his behalf, upholding God's law and orderliness and prompting and promoting purity and goodness throughout their world.
Christina Cooke: The influence and blessing of the king and his kingdom is to fill the whole earth with his glory.
Christina Cooke: So let's think of this in a very practical way.
Christina Cooke: My brother, his name was Tony, passed away almost a year ago.
Christina Cooke: He was a very talented builder.
Christina Cooke: He ran my dad's business after my dad retired.
Christina Cooke: My brother would use the resources of the earth to build things.
Christina Cooke: In doing so, he blessed people and honored God.
Christina Cooke: He honored God by his good work ethic.
Christina Cooke: He honored God by the way he conducted business, using God's righteous standards, not cheating people or doing things illegally or unethically.
Christina Cooke: He offered them a good product, all in the hope to bring glory to God.
Christina Cooke: Then he took the proceeds from the business to build a ministry to help others in need.
Christina Cooke: He subdued his business and had dominion over it, bringing God's righteous standards into it, bringing order into the business and teaching God's standards to his employees.
Christina Cooke: As a result, others came to know Christ.
Christina Cooke: He held Bible studies at work every morning from 5.30 to 6.15 before the guy started work.
Christina Cooke: Every morning, about 45 employees showed up.
Christina Cooke: Amazing, right?
Christina Cooke: Now for Adam and Eve in a world without sin, this mandate shouldn't have been too complicated.
Christina Cooke: There would be joy in cultivation.
Christina Cooke: The ground was not cursed, and the work and the work was given to man to be productive and to give him pleasure.
Christina Cooke: If only Adam and Eve had passed the test in the garden.
Christina Cooke: But we know how the story goes.
Christina Cooke: So in our first part of the storyline, creation, we saw God's people in God's place under God's rule.
Christina Cooke: Adam and Eve in the garden under God's rule, God as their king.
Christina Cooke: The second part of our storyline is the fall.
Christina Cooke: We're going to spend most of our time here.
Christina Cooke: Satan enters the scene in the form of a serpent and tricks and deceives Eve.
Christina Cooke: He casts doubt on God's intentions by accusing him of keeping something good from Adam and Eve.
Christina Cooke: Satan suggests that they could have their eyes open and become as wise as God, apart from their relationship with him.
Christina Cooke: Romans 1, 18 through 23 says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
Christina Cooke: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them.
Christina Cooke: For his invisible attributes, 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.
Christina Cooke: So they are without excuse.
Christina Cooke: For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Christina Cooke: Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Christina Cooke: I can't tell if that slide went.
Christina Cooke: Okay, there we go.
Christina Cooke: So according to verse 20, we can see that Adam and Eve clearly saw God's divine power.
Christina Cooke: In verse 21, we know that Adam and Eve knew God, but they did not honor him as God.
Christina Cooke: They were futile in their thinking.
Christina Cooke: According to verse 22, we can see that Adam and Eve were thinking that they could be wise like God, but they became foolish.
Christina Cooke: According to verse 23, we see that Adam and Eve exchanged the glory of God for immortal things.
Christina Cooke: So let's go back to the point that I made earlier that I asked you to tuck away for later.
Christina Cooke: I mentioned how Genesis 2 backtracks.
Christina Cooke: It fills in some details that happened between Genesis 126 and 27.
Christina Cooke: We see the story of creation laid out in Genesis chapter 1.
Christina Cooke: Chapter 1 ends with the creation mandate given to Adam and Eve.
Christina Cooke: God blesses them and tells them how he is giving them all his beautiful creation to rule and enjoy, and it was very good.
Christina Cooke: You can read this account in Genesis 2, 15 through 18, but for the sake of time, we won't go there.
Christina Cooke: But the reason this is important to recognize is that God created Adam first and gave Adam the command not to eat the fruit.
Christina Cooke: Adam was the federal head.
Christina Cooke: This is a very important thing to understand.
Christina Cooke: Adam was the federal head.
Christina Cooke: This is such a crucial truth to grasp when it comes to understanding the gospel.
Christina Cooke: Adam was the first representative of humanity.
Christina Cooke: Adam was responsible for being the head.
Christina Cooke: He was to relay the command to Eve and be her protector.
Christina Cooke: But instead, Adam consciously chose to follow her lead rather than following the instruction of his creator.
Christina Cooke: Rather than making sure that the serpent never entered the garden in the first place, Adam let him in and allowed him to deceive Eve.
Christina Cooke: He should have crushed the serpent's head.
Christina Cooke: Adam and Eve failed the assignment God gave them because they thought they knew better than God.
Christina Cooke: And in 1 Corinthians 15, 22 tells us that in Adam all die.
Christina Cooke: Now creation is cursed.
Christina Cooke: Adam and Eve are cursed, and they are cast out of the garden.
Christina Cooke: Genesis 3.15, this is God speaking to Satan says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring.
Christina Cooke: He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.
Christina Cooke: In the same chapter where we find man's failure, we find hope of the gospel.
Christina Cooke: When God delivers the consequences to Adam, he explains that the earth is now cursed.
Christina Cooke: So we see this in Genesis 3, 16 through 17.
Christina Cooke: We see that thorns and thistles will grow, making it difficult to get crops.
Christina Cooke: We see Adam's working life in the fields will be marked by sweat and hardship.
Christina Cooke: We see that instead of work being a joyful source of purpose and meaning in Adam's life, it would be a lifelong source of necessary frustration.
Christina Cooke: It would be hard and sweaty.
Christina Cooke: Eve's consequences now bring pain and childbearing and a desire to rule over her husband.
Christina Cooke: So as we compare the creation mandate to the consequences received, I want us to see an important connection.
Christina Cooke: These consequences that they received directly impact their ability to fulfill this mandate.
Christina Cooke: Pain and childbearing will affect the fruit of the womb.
Christina Cooke: Thorns and thistles and the sweat of the brow now make subduing the earth and taking dominion impossible.
Christina Cooke: I love the timeline of this.
Christina Cooke: Adam and Eve rebel against God.
Christina Cooke: They feel ashamed and they cover themselves.
Christina Cooke: They get caught.
Christina Cooke: But before God faces them in their shame with their consequences, he rebukes Satan.
Christina Cooke: I love that.
Christina Cooke: Then, after rebuking Satan, then he turns to Adam and Eve and delivers their consequences.
Christina Cooke: I just see even his grace in that.
Christina Cooke: Then immediately after that, in Genesis 3.21, God made garments of skin and clothed them.
Christina Cooke: This is our very first picture of the gospel in Scripture.
Christina Cooke: This was the first blood sacrifice to cover sin.
Christina Cooke: God kills the animal himself to cover their shame and tells them hope is coming through the seed of the woman, which is Christ, that will one day crush the head of Satan.
Christina Cooke: In Genesis 6 5, only three chapters later, the earth is filling up, but every intention of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.
Christina Cooke: God is about to bring judgment on the earth.
Christina Cooke: Genesis 7 records the story of the flood where God wipes out the entire world except for eight people, Noah and his family.
Christina Cooke: After Noah gets off the ark, God gives him an instruction.
Christina Cooke: We see that in Genesis 9:1.
Christina Cooke: And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Here it is, be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth.
Christina Cooke: Do you see the mandate?
Christina Cooke: God restarted humanity with Noah and gave the exact same mandate.
Christina Cooke: Verse 20 tells us that Noah became a man of the soil and planted a vineyard.
Christina Cooke: He's cultivating the ground.
Christina Cooke: So you can see that he's subduing, right?
Christina Cooke: He's subduing, he's working.
Christina Cooke: But quickly that turns.
Christina Cooke: Rather than Noah subduing the creation and having dominion over it, we see Noah is being subdued by creation and being dominated by it.
Christina Cooke: We see this in verse 21, where it tells us that Noah drank of the wine and became drunk.
Christina Cooke: After a mandate given by God in both Adam and now Noah, both fall by being subdued by the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.
Christina Cooke: Noah shows us man's inability to fulfill the creation mandate, and he was the best of the best.
Christina Cooke: Sin has marred man's ability to subdue and take dominion over the earth.
Christina Cooke: The earth is cursed, and so is man.
Christina Cooke: But God, in his grace, still intends for man to work and rule over the creation he gave them.
Christina Cooke: So 422 years pass from Noah, and that brings us to Abram.
Christina Cooke: Abram shows up in Genesis chapter 11.
Christina Cooke: So from Genesis 8 to 11, just three short chapters, 422 years pass.
Christina Cooke: In those 422 years, the earth is filling up again.
Christina Cooke: Right before the call of Abram, we see the story of the Tower of Babel.
Christina Cooke: We know how that story goes, and that should tell you of the wickedness of man on the earth again.
Christina Cooke: There is no hope for man on his own to fulfill the creation mandate that God had given them.
Christina Cooke: The humans that God created in his image were not imaging him at all.
Christina Cooke: I find it interesting the way that God shares the mandate with Abram.
Christina Cooke: So let's read that in Genesis 12, one through three.
Christina Cooke: Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land I will show you, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.
Christina Cooke: I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse.
Christina Cooke: And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Christina Cooke: There's an interesting difference between these verses and what we saw in God's instruction to Adam and Noah.
Christina Cooke: What we see here is God says in verse 2, I will make you a great nation.
Christina Cooke: God didn't tell Abram to be fruitful and multiply.
Christina Cooke: God said he would make him fruitful and he would multiply him.
Christina Cooke: This meant much more than simply his own physical offspring.
Christina Cooke: As we read the New Testament, we can see that ultimately Abraham's offspring will include all believers, not just his descendants.
Christina Cooke: So this mandate has just become twofold.
Christina Cooke: One thing to note is that the covenant that God made with Adam was conditional.
Christina Cooke: God told Adam, If you do this, you will live.
Christina Cooke: If you do this, you will die.
Christina Cooke: It was conditional.
Christina Cooke: The covenant was dependent on Adam's obedience.
Christina Cooke: Adam sinned and the covenant was broken.
Christina Cooke: Adam had to now pay the price of separation from God.
Christina Cooke: But remember the grace of God in the garden, that the seed of the woman would bring rescue?
Christina Cooke: This story of Abram is the beginning of that story.
Christina Cooke: It was through Abram's family that the seed of the woman would come.
Christina Cooke: So this covenant was different than the others.
Christina Cooke: This covenant that was made with Abram was unconditional, meaning it was a one-sided covenant.
Christina Cooke: God put Abram into a deep sleep, and then God alone walked through the pieces of flesh, signifying that if the covenant was broken, that God himself would take the consequences of the punishment.
Christina Cooke: This part of the story is so important.
Christina Cooke: God sees the wickedness of man on the earth and knows they cannot fulfill the mandate he has given to them.
Christina Cooke: So God provides a foolproof plan, because Jesus, who is the perfect man, will fulfill every part of that covenant.
Christina Cooke: God calls Abram out and says that he will make a nation out of him.
Christina Cooke: Abraham has Isaac, Isaac has Jacob.
Christina Cooke: Jacob is the father of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Christina Cooke: Israel will be God's chosen people that he will dwell with in the land he will bring them into, and God will rule them with his righteous statutes that were given through Moses.
Christina Cooke: So we see those eight words again here in the second part of our storyline, The Fall.
Christina Cooke: So God's people, now the Israelites, in God's place, which will be the promised land, under God's rule, which is the Mosaic Law.
Christina Cooke: God made a way for man to dwell with him, to subdue and take dominion of the land, and be a testimony to all the surrounding nations of who the one true God is, so that all the world will be filled with the glory of God.
Christina Cooke: Now let's look at the covenant that God made with the Israelites through Moses.
Christina Cooke: Exodus 19, 5 and 6 says, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine, and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.
Christina Cooke: These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.
Christina Cooke: So this covenant with the Israelites is a conditional covenant because it was dependent on Israel's actions.
Christina Cooke: And we know how the story of this covenant goes.
Christina Cooke: This covenant was also broken because they did not obey God's law.
Christina Cooke: Through a careful reading of Scripture, we learn how this creation mandate repeats and develops so that it bears significance for more than just fruitful multiplying through making babies and working.
Christina Cooke: We will see this play out as we see how God carries out this mandate in the New Testament through the unconditional covenants that he made.
Christina Cooke: God's design for fruitful multiplication is not just for rapid population of a fallen humanity, but a fruitful multiplication of a redeemed people.
Christina Cooke: We saw that language begin with Abram, and we will see it with his grandson Jacob.
Christina Cooke: We see this in Genesis 35, 11.
Christina Cooke: And God said to him, I am God Almighty, be fruitful and multiply.
Christina Cooke: A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.
Christina Cooke: The book of Judges shows that the Israelites acted wickedly and needed a king.
Christina Cooke: God later gave Israel a king, which fulfilled the promise that God gave to the patriarchs that we just read, Genesis 35, 11, that kings would come from them.
Christina Cooke: The most important king in Israel was their second king, David, with whom God made another covenant.
Christina Cooke: Psalm 89, 3 and 4.
Christina Cooke: So this is spoken by God through the name the prophet Nathan.
Christina Cooke: You have said, I have made a covenant with my chosen one.
Christina Cooke: I have sworn to David my servant.
Christina Cooke: I will establish your offspring forever and build your throne for all generations.
Christina Cooke: The Davidic covenant was an unconditional covenant.
Christina Cooke: Only one party is upholding this agreement, God Himself.
Christina Cooke: This Davidic covenant was a royal promise that built on the Abrahamic covenant, again promising land.
Christina Cooke: We see that in 2 Samuel 7, 10.
Christina Cooke: And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more, and violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly.
Christina Cooke: But this Davidic covenant was also a royal promise that built on the Abrahamic covenant, promising offspring.
Christina Cooke: We see that in 2 Samuel 2, 7.
Christina Cooke: Sorry, 2nd Samuel 7, 12 and 13.
Christina Cooke: When your days are filled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
Christina Cooke: He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Christina Cooke: I hope you're starting to see the themes.
Christina Cooke: I know this is a lot, and it's kind of fast tracking through that.
Christina Cooke: Like I said, it's being recorded.
Christina Cooke: We might need to go back and listen, but I think this theme is super important for us to understand.
Christina Cooke: The mandates and the covenants always include being fruitful, it includes land, and it includes dominion.
Christina Cooke: God's desire was that man would be fruitful, that he would multiply, that he would subdue the earth and have dominion over it, that he would be their God, that they would be his people, and he would rule over them as their perfect creator and king, to have a people in his place where he would rule them.
Christina Cooke: The plan and the mandate doesn't change.
Christina Cooke: What has changed is man's ability to fulfill it.
Christina Cooke: As we said before, man is cursed by sin and so is the earth.
Christina Cooke: In the immediate context of 2 Samuel 7, 12 and 13, Nathan the prophet is speaking to David about his own kingship and how God plans to have his house built through David's son Solomon.
Christina Cooke: But notice that God also promised to establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Christina Cooke: The ultimate fulfillment of the Davidic covenant would come in a descendant of David who would rule eternally.
Christina Cooke: This progression of revelation concerning this mandate is showing us a new kind of being fruitful, a new way to look at the mandate.
Christina Cooke: The physical aspects still stand, but if we miss the spiritual application, we will not understand what Christ has done and what our purpose is on this earth.
Christina Cooke: Time doesn't allow us to read all the scriptures that point to the creation mandate and show how this is in direct relationship with the covenants that God made with his people, but it is repeated over and over throughout the scripture.
Christina Cooke: I just tried to highlight the most significant references.
Christina Cooke: We know what happens next.
Christina Cooke: Israel failed to worship God and they gave themselves over to false gods and worshiped them.
Christina Cooke: Because of that, they were exiled from the promised land where God's presence and means of keeping right relationship with them were.
Christina Cooke: But there was a remnant that still trusted God even in exile, and the mandate for them was still the same.
Christina Cooke: Some of the people that may come to mind when you think about Israelites in exile might be Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Nehemiah, Esther.
Christina Cooke: Even when the southern kingdom of Judah was exiled into Babylon, when God's people were not in the place they were supposed to be, God still gives them the creation mandate, perhaps not spelled out exactly like it was in Genesis 1, but you can still see it.
Christina Cooke: The prophet Jeremiah tells the Israelites in Babylon to build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat their produce, take wives and have sons and daughters, take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters, multiply there and do not decrease.
Christina Cooke: But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare you will find welfare.
Christina Cooke: God wants his people to bear his image even in exile.
Christina Cooke: As I mentioned, we saw a few remnant of Israel trusting in God and not bowing down to idols.
Christina Cooke: We also saw how they were able to some degree subdue and bring order to those places.
Christina Cooke: Daniel and Esther are two that come to specifically to mind, how they were able to make change in the areas that they were and to bring some order to those spaces they were in.
Christina Cooke: So I realize I spent a lot of time in the second part of our storyline the fall.
Christina Cooke: I felt that was important because if we don't understand the total depravity of man and the covenant that God made and upheld with Abraham and David, we will never appreciate the cross.
Christina Cooke: We take the cross for granted.
Christina Cooke: Understanding the creation mandate radically changed my life because it finally clicked with me not only what I was saved from, but what I was saved to.
Christina Cooke: Sometimes the truth of God's word falls flat and loses its impact on our souls.
Christina Cooke: We may say, as Christians, amazing things like Jesus Christ has come to the world and saved the world, or I'm a sinner and I've been saved by grace, or I have eternal life, or one day I'm going to heaven and I'm going to be with Jesus, or my God is sovereign and he's in control of all things.
Christina Cooke: We say these things, but oftentimes we say them so flippantly.
Christina Cooke: But do we understand how these truths should impact the way that we live?
Christina Cooke: How should they impact the way you live?
Christina Cooke: As image-bearers of God, we are not just saved from the wrath of God, but we are saved to something.
Christina Cooke: He designed us with a purpose.
Christina Cooke: Do we truly grasp what Christ has actually done to bless us or equip us to advance his kingdom?
Christina Cooke: We have been saved to bear his image accurately, to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to subdue it, and to take dominion.
Christina Cooke: I hope these implications are falling fresh on your hearts as we enter the third part of our storyline, which is redemption.
Christina Cooke: Psalm 8, 4 through 8 says, What is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you care for him?
Christina Cooke: Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings, and crowned him with glory and honor.
Christina Cooke: You have given him dominion over the works of your hands, you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen and all beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of the seas.
Christina Cooke: Do you see the language of mandate in there?
Christina Cooke: For those who read this psalm in the time that it was written, did it seem that they had dominion over the earth?
Christina Cooke: Not at all.
Christina Cooke: It says dominion was given to man.
Christina Cooke: I had a little problem on my computer.
Christina Cooke: I am so sorry.
Christina Cooke: It says here in these verses that dominion was given to man, but sin marred man and creation.
Christina Cooke: But ultimately, this psalm is pointing to someone greater.
Christina Cooke: You see that in Hebrews 2, 5 through 9.
Christina Cooke: For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which we are speaking.
Christina Cooke: It has been testified somewhere, and we see this psalm again.
Christina Cooke: What is man that you are mindful of him, or the Son of Man that you care for him?
Christina Cooke: You made him for a little while lower than the angels, you have crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in subjection under his feet.
Christina Cooke: Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control.
Christina Cooke: At present we do not see everything in subjection to him, but we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Christina Cooke: You see, Christ is truly the man of Psalm 8.
Christina Cooke: God the Father, in the greatest act of mercy, sent Jesus to earth to accomplish the mission of redeeming his people.
Christina Cooke: Jesus came into humanity's existence on the created earth to do what God commanded Adam and Eve to do from the beginning, to fulfill the creation mandate.
Christina Cooke: Man was to image God, to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth, to subdue it and take dominion so that the whole earth would be filled with his glory.
Christina Cooke: Man was to image God, but he did not.
Christina Cooke: But one man did.
Christina Cooke: Adam, the federal head, failed for all humanity, but Christ, the second Adam, did not fail.
Christina Cooke: Hebrews 1.3 tells us that Jesus, he, Jesus, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.
Christina Cooke: Jesus was the man who perfectly imaged God.
Christina Cooke: Colossians 1.15 says, He is the image of the invisible God.
Christina Cooke: John 14 9 says, Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
Christina Cooke: Jesus showed the world perfectly who God was and resembled represented him accurately.
Christina Cooke: He perfectly lived out God's righteousness in order to bring God's blessings into the world.
Christina Cooke: He was the image bearer.
Christina Cooke: Do you see how Jesus fulfilled the mandate?
Christina Cooke: Second Corinthians 5, 17 through 21 tells us, therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Christina Cooke: The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
Christina Cooke: All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
Christina Cooke: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
Christina Cooke: Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
Christina Cooke: We implore you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.
Christina Cooke: For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Christina Cooke: Because of Jesus, there is now a possibility of being redeemed back to our original mandate purpose as human beings.
Christina Cooke: Every person who has not repented of their sin and trusted in Christ is still dead in their sin.
Christina Cooke: In Adam, who was the federal head of all humanity, all men died.
Christina Cooke: All are spiritually dead.
Christina Cooke: Outside of repentance and faith in Christ, every person that dies will die in their sinful state and spend eternity apart from God in hell.
Christina Cooke: So again, we read 2 Corinthians 5 17.
Christina Cooke: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.
Christina Cooke: The old has passed away, behold, the new has come.
Christina Cooke: I want us to catch that word.
Christina Cooke: We are a new creation.
Christina Cooke: What was cursed and marred, Jesus has now reversed.
Christina Cooke: We are new.
Christina Cooke: First Corinthians 15, 22 says, For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
Christina Cooke: Christ is the second Adam.
Christina Cooke: He fulfilled what Adam did not.
Christina Cooke: And God has planned a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth.
Christina Cooke: Unlike the first creation, where He made, where He first made the place and then afterwards put the people there to live, in the new creation He's first making the people and then afterwards the place where they will live.
Christina Cooke: The new creation begins in the midst of the old.
Christina Cooke: Luke 17, 20 through 21 tells us, being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, he answered them, The kingdom of God is not coming in ways that can be observed, nor will they say, Look, here it is, or there, for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.
Christina Cooke: When God raised Jesus from the dead, he was the first man in the new creation.
Christina Cooke: And anyone who is joined to Jesus Christ by faith is new creation.
Christina Cooke: This happens first in the inner person and later in the resurrection, in the outer person.
Christina Cooke: Ephesians 4.24 says, And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Christina Cooke: Colossians 3.10 says, and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.
Christina Cooke: These two passages call believers to adapt in daily lifestyle all that is entailed in the new creation life within them.
Christina Cooke: Have you really thought of the implications of this, or are we so familiar with these verses that we just read them and we move on?
Christina Cooke: If you are a born-again Christ follower, the new creation life is already in you.
Christina Cooke: It's not coming one day.
Christina Cooke: It's in us.
Christina Cooke: We have the power to put off the old self.
Christina Cooke: Christ died, so we can.
Christina Cooke: Our new self is created in the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
Christina Cooke: This does not mean that we can now live in sinless perfection.
Christina Cooke: I hope we know that.
Christina Cooke: We're not walking away thinking we can be perfect.
Christina Cooke: Second Corinthians 3 18 says, and we all with unveiled face, beholding the glory of God, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another, for this comes from the Lord who is spirit.
Christina Cooke: If we are in Christ, we are being transformed every day from one degree of glory to another.
Christina Cooke: We are continuing to look like Jesus more and more every day until he takes us home to glory.
Christina Cooke: Right now, in the redemption part of our storyline, God is fulfilling his plan to have a people in his place under his rule.
Christina Cooke: This was always his plan, but man continued to rebel and break the covenants of God that he made with his people.
Christina Cooke: But this new covenant in Christ is the fulfillment of the unconditional covenant that God made with Abraham.
Christina Cooke: Do you remember when we said that God himself walked through the pieces of flesh, signifying that he would pay the price if either party broke the covenant?
Christina Cooke: Well, Abraham broke the covenant.
Christina Cooke: All of Israel broke the covenant.
Christina Cooke: But God's promise still stands.
Christina Cooke: His promise to Adam and Eve that Eve's offspring would crush the head of the serpent.
Christina Cooke: God's promise to Abram that he would multiply his descendants and give him a land.
Christina Cooke: God's promise to David that there was to come a king in his line that will establish his throne forever and rule in a land that is fruitful and subdued, where the king would have dominion.
Christina Cooke: These promises have all been fulfilled in Christ, and we are a part of that new creation.
Christina Cooke: We are God's people in God's place under God's rule.
Christina Cooke: Christ is the head of the church.
Christina Cooke: He is ruling and reigning over us now.
Christina Cooke: We are living in the already but not yet.
Christina Cooke: Christ has already defeated Satan, but we still have sin in the world.
Christina Cooke: We are not yet dwelling on the new earth and reigning with Christ, where all things will be subjected to his authority.
Christina Cooke: But in Christ, a new humanity is forming that one day will in fact reign with him over all things.
Christina Cooke: And that brings us to the last part of our storyline of the Bible, and that is the consummation or restoration.
Christina Cooke: Consummation meaning complete or finalize, and restoration meaning restoring back to its original state or design.
Christina Cooke: Revelation 21, 1 through 4 says, Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
Christina Cooke: And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Christina Cooke: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man.
Christina Cooke: He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
Christina Cooke: He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain any more, for the former things have passed away.
Christina Cooke: Do you see it?
Christina Cooke: Do you see God's people in God's place under God's rule, finally the way it was intended to be, the way that he promised?
Christina Cooke: The words of Jesus in Revelation 3.21 says, The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on His throne.
Christina Cooke: Jesus will rule over all things, and man will regain his dominion.
Christina Cooke: Praise the Lord, what a glorious day that will be.
Christina Cooke: And we should look forward to that day.
Christina Cooke: That is our motivation in the midst of a dark world.
Christina Cooke: But it's the world that is dark, not us.
Christina Cooke: We are the light of the world.
Christina Cooke: In Christ, we are new creation.
Christina Cooke: We have the power to live out this mandate in a way that was not possible before Christ defeated Satan on the cross.
Christina Cooke: God has given us everything we need for life and godliness.
Christina Cooke: As women who are in Christ, made in the image of God, we must daily remind ourselves that we are to subdue and rule to the glory of God.
Christina Cooke: We can only do that by obeying his commands by his standards of righteousness, and doing so with the strength that he provides by the power of his Holy Spirit.
Christina Cooke: Before we end this evening, I want to leave us with some practical questions that you can ask yourselves in light of how we are to live this out, some things you can reflect on as you go home tonight.
Christina Cooke: As a woman, should I allow my home to fall into chaos or labor diligently to maintain an orderly household?
Christina Cooke: Do I honor my husband and commit to be his helper and show him respect?
Christina Cooke: Should I passively watch my children be swallowed up in a godless culture, or valiantly fight the good fight to raise them in the fear of the Lord?
Christina Cooke: As a retired person, do I spend my free days advancing the kingdom and helping others, or do I spend those days predominantly on my own pleasures?
Christina Cooke: Do I solve conflict with anger and manipulation?
Christina Cooke: Or do I solve conflicts using the standards of righteousness God gives me in his word?
Christina Cooke: Do I use the resources that God gives me to bless others and advance his kingdom?
Christina Cooke: Or do I spend my resources on my own pleasures?
Christina Cooke: At my workplace, do I fight to be appreciated, noticed, or treated fairly?
Christina Cooke: Or do I look to the example Christ set for me and humbly be mistreated for the sake of showing what an image-bearer of God looks like?
Christina Cooke: In the spaces I daily walk, do I seek for opportunities to serve others and share Christ?
Christina Cooke: In any situation, do I see obstacles as opportunities to reflect Christ, even if it causes others to dislike me, even family?
Christina Cooke: When I am wronged, do I defend myself?
Christina Cooke: Or do I do as God's word says and know that I am blessed when I overlook an offense?
Christina Cooke: Am I quick to judge others, or do I have a forgiving servant's attitude like Christ?
Christina Cooke: As I have worked my way through this study, I think it finally clicked what being an image bearer meant.
Christina Cooke: Then I am not just trudging through life waiting for heaven, but I am a new creation.
Christina Cooke: I am new.
Christina Cooke: When the old man pops up, that is not who I am.
Christina Cooke: That is not my identity.
Christina Cooke: I don't have to give in to the sinful patterns of my flesh, I am new.
Christina Cooke: I don't have to get angry, I am new.
Christina Cooke: I don't have to be hurt, I am new.
Christina Cooke: I can be taken advantage of and still want to continue serving.
Christina Cooke: I am new.
Christina Cooke: This has radically changed my thought process.
Christina Cooke: My identity in Christ changes everything.
Christina Cooke: Ladies, we are not just saved from something, but saved to something, to image our great God and King.
Christina Cooke: And he has offered his life to enable us to do so.
Christina Cooke: I'd like us to close as we stand and read this exhortation together from Jude 24 and 25.
Christina Cooke: And then I will close us in prayer.
Christina Cooke: We'll stand and read it nice and loud together.
Christina Cooke: Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority before all time, now and forever.
Christina Cooke: Amen.
Christina Cooke: Father God, we thank you so much for this time this evening.
Christina Cooke: I know this was a lot of information, Lord, and I just pray that you would just allow whatever truths need to set in the hearts of the ladies here, Lord, that they would leave here encouraged, knowing what you have designed them for, and that you have sent Christ to die for us, to redeem us, to enable us by the power of your spirit to live out this call that you have given to us to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth so that the whole earth would be filled with your glory.
Christina Cooke: What a blessing it has been to be here with them this evening.
Christina Cooke: I pray that you would bless them as they leave tonight, Lord, and they would come back refreshed tomorrow.
Christina Cooke: And we just thank you, God.
Christina Cooke: We praise you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Christina Cooke: Amen.