Pastor Michael Dirrim

It outshines the sun, that's right. So I grew up, my dad's first pastorate was in, it was a little rural community church called

Washington Baptist Church, it was on Route 3 in northeast Oklahoma, so it was way out there.

The closest town was Foyle, which is really tiny. Anyway, so Joyce was our pianist, and she was my brother's first piano teacher when he was six years old.

And so I remember her playing with vigor and with joy, and that church would sing and sing and sing, and I remember that growing up at Washington Baptist Church.

And then we moved to, my dad took a pastorate at Calvary Hill Baptist Church in Guthrie, and we learned a whole new batch of hymns.

And then we were in Spokane, we learned a whole new batch of hymns. And when I went to Graceway, I learned a whole new batch of hymns.

And the Southwoods, and then at Liberty Baptist, and then here. So it's just the volume of hymns and choruses and songs just grows and grows.

So we just thank God for music. What a great gift that God has given us in music.

Does anybody have any questions from their Bible study or conversations this last week? Anything pressing that we could talk about together?

It would be a blessing to everybody. Yes, by the kin.

Yeah. Well, you would start, I think, with his view of the

Bible. The charge that Jesus gave to Peter to feed my sheep, to tend the flock, the model we have with Paul in presenting himself as a model to the elders of Ephesus in that he preached the whole counsel of the

Word of God. And just the emphasis that God has placed on the

Scriptures playing the central role in our sanctification as the body of Christ.

I think that you have to start with what does this man believe about the Word of God? In all its different aspects,

I think in terms of its, not only in terms of its inspiration and inerrancy and infallibility, but also in terms of its sufficiency.

Does this man believe that the Scriptures are sufficient for all of our faith and practice? Or are they just a jumping off point, and as long as the

Bible doesn't say anything against it, go ahead and do it? So that's a very important interpretive question.

I think the Bible is sufficient for all of our faith and practice, that every bit of our worship that we engage in is prescribed in the

Scriptures. And if it's not prescribed in the Scriptures, then why do it? So, I think that that's kind of, what does he believe about the

Bible and how it's supposed to be used? I think it's the primary question. Because that indicates that that man is under submission to Christ.

Christ is the head of the Church. And He has many under shepherds. But if this is one of many tools that the pastor can use to achieve what he believes is success, then it's the wrong perspective.

This is to be seen as the scepter of Christ's Lordship in our lives.

And so, Christ is Lord, all authority has been given to Him in Heaven and on earth. How does He exercise that authority in our lives?

He does so through the Scriptures. I remember I was talking with a man who was in the true, capital

I, Independent Baptist Movement. He was at seminary with me. And he was talking about the ways that Southern Baptist view pastors, and Independent Baptist view pastors, and Independent Churches have a much higher view of their pastor.

And I said, that might feel right for a little while. And I was experiencing that myself at the church

I was pastoring. I said, but if the tendency is authoritarianism because of the position, you're in a world of hurt.

And if all that man does is stand up and pick out verses here, and a verse there, and a verse there, and tells a bunch of stories, and presses his own personality upon the people, you have a personality led organization.

You have a PLO, you don't have a Church. It's only a Church if Christ is Lord of that, and shepherding that.

And so, if the culture of a church is to have a high view of the pastor, and to support their pastor, that's a good thing, only if that pastor is preaching the

Word. And that's why you need to have an expositional ministry, line by line, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, the

Scripture sets the agenda for what we receive. And so, the pastor is bringing the Word of God, and the

Word of God is setting the agenda. And whatever the message is in the text, and the next text, and the next text, that's what

Jesus is all about doing in His Church, in His body. So, I think that's the most primary thing. If that's right, you know,

I figure everything else is going to fall into place. But I would absolutely begin there. I mean, that, because this will set the agenda for the polity of the

Church, for the ministries of the Church, for resolving conflict in the

Church, for the raising up of new servants in the Church, for the growth of the

Church. So, everything kind of spawns out of that. And I then want to give credit to people who have invested in my life and mentored me.

I know my dad's always just been very emphatic on the Scriptures. And Greg Keenan at Graceway was emphatic on the

Scriptures when I was a college student there. And they invested in my life, licensed me to preach. And at South Woods Baptist Church especially,

Dr. Phil Newton and his training, the pastoral internship, and everything else, everything has just been handed to me.

It's just, it was a very clarifying, simple, and absolutely sufficient model to do

Church. It's just to lean into the Scriptures and find all that you need there. And I think the Church has found that over these last couple of thousand years.

So, that's a good question. Yes, Brother Norm? What is every mission?

In your Sunday school class. Yeah. So, is it...

Yeah, this is, yeah, this is a great question.

Okay. Alright, so, early on, we're talking about the writings of the early

Church in the 200s. Two schools of thought. And we have something called

Historic Pre -Millennialism, and we have something that we call

All -Millennialism. And this is what the Church has held for a couple thousand years. Okay.

So, here's the thing. The reason why we use the term Millennialism and blah, blah, blah, blah, is because of how do we interpret the thousand -year reign of Christ in Revelation chapter 20?

But it's a bigger issue than that. So, in this understanding, what happens is the

Church grows, follows Christ, suffers greatly, and then

Christ comes back. And He reigns for a thousand years, and then sets everything right.

This understanding, the Church grows and follows Christ, and suffers greatly, but Christ is already reigning at the right hand of God for a perfect amount of time.

And then He comes back and sets all things right. So, there's not a whole big difference, really, between the two.

The question is, is there a thousand -year reign after Jesus comes back, before He sets everything right?

Or is the thousand -year reign happening now, and the term thousand in Revelation being symbolic of the perfect amount of time?

That's the historic Church split of understanding. But they were all brothers in Christ, and they didn't toss each other out.

Okay. So, this is a tertiary thing. It's a third level thing. It's not something that you split over, or should not.

So, historical Pre -Millennialism and All -Millennialism. Newer versions have to do with those people who believe in Post -Millennialism, in which the

Church grows, and follows Christ, and suffers a little bit. But then, through the Church, everything gets better, and better, and better, and better, until everything is set right, and then

He comes back. Now, this was really popular around the turn of the century, when there was a lot of, not the time before that, the end of the 1800's, moving into the 1900's there was a lot of utopia visions.

And the World Wars kind of dried all that out. But there are still

Post -Millennials around. And what they are doing today even is they are citing all the numbers of the explosive growth of the

Church in the world, ignoring the fact whether this is Roman Catholicism, or Greek Orthodox, or Charismatic with no

Gospel. And they ignore all of that to say, but look at the growth of the Church. And so, there is a real,

I think there is a real struggle with that, trying to say that everything is going to get better, and better. I don't think

Paul says that. I don't think Jesus says that. Over here, and probably the most popular for certain

British, and for the American South, and you move out beyond that you are not going to find it very many places, is

Dispensational Pre -Millennialism, which is traced to a conference in 1830 in England where certain notables and scholars were present, including

John Darby. And at this conference there was ecstatic tongues, and offered up an interpretation given.

And for the very first time someone proposed through the interpretation of tongues that the

Church would not suffer greatly. But that would be, they would be brought up out before there was any true great

Tribulation for the Church. So, that is 1830, the major New Testament scholars were there, had never heard of the idea prior.

So, you can trace it back to 1830 in England. And this is the key thought of Dispensational thought is the

Pre -Tribulational Rapture of the Church. It's a new idea. It doesn't mean it is necessarily wrong, but if it came about in 1830,

I don't know. I don't know. I believe in Rapture. I believe we are going to join with Christ in the air, and we are going to have a victorious parade over all the enemies.

I believe in that. I just don't think it happens before we suffer. It works in American theology.

It works in British theology because we don't suffer a lot. It doesn't work in Sri Lanka.

It doesn't work in Indonesia. It doesn't work in Iran. It doesn't work.

It has, all the promises are broken. So, now

I appreciate those who are Dispensationalists like John MacArthur, and he is a lot smarter than I am. And I appreciate their effort to push back against Protestant liberalism, and to say every word in the

Bible is absolutely true, and we ought to believe it. And they have fought back against misinterpretations of the

Scripture. And so, I have a great deep appreciation. And my grandfather was a very ardent

Dispensationalist. But it's a derivation of historic pre -millennialism.

So, it's just kind of an extra little bit here. That's about as simple as I can make it. I'm an

Amillennialist because I think Christ is already reigning for a perfect amount of time. I think

He's got Satan on a leash, and He can't do more than what Jesus tells Him to. I think when Christ comes back that's it, because He has all the goats on one side, and all the sheep on the other side.

And He makes the division right then and there, and we're done. I think when He comes back everything is settled. And He casts all the enemies, including death, into the

Lake of Fire, which is the second death. And I think it's all done. Now, Revelation can be unclear sometimes, but Jesus' parables are crystal clear.

If Revelation gives you your head a spin, I'm with you. But read the parables.

Read what Jesus says in His parables. Read what He says in Matthew 24 and 25. Read what

He says in Matthew 18. Read what He says in Matthew 23. Read His parables. Oh, He makes it so clear.

He makes it so simple. And I think that's the way to go. That's why I lean into that. This gets a little complicated for me.

So, I just think when He comes back we're done. And I'm looking forward to that.

I don't think there's going to be a thousand year suppression of unrighteousness while we're in our glorified bodies, but then all of a sudden sin comes back and there's a great battle.

I don't think that works. But it may. I'll be surprised.

But that's fine. But again, this, this, this, and this, as weird as that is, is all within the evangelical, we believe in Jesus Christ.

He rose from the dead. He's coming back. We're all going to see Him in the faith. In the faith.

So, none of this is outside the faith. This is okay. This is good. Now, on the other side, we have the lunatics who say,

I am Jesus, I'm back. And we have the liberals who say, Jesus comes back as we live out His principles.

Okay. So, in the middle of the camp, I mean, there's disagreement. And some of it's the way we were brought up.

You know, some of it's based on how much we can, we can grab and understand. But there can be charity in that.

There's charity in that. No, they're not, not really, they're not really trying to figure out when

He's coming back. They're more concerned about how He's coming back. And, but as long as we're thinking about it,

I think Norm, I think the issue is, I think the issue is what Jesus said is that we stand ready.

That's what we all, that's what, that's what we agree on. So, right.

The Father knows. Right. Well, the

Bible cares. You see, the issue, why we discuss it, why we discuss it is because we have things in the

Bible, gracious truths from God to let us know how

Christ is coming back to exhort us, to encourage us, to evoke worship from our lives to Him for how great

He is and all that He will do. We are meant to have a strong and sturdy hope in what is yet to come.

We are the most hope -filled people that ever walked this earth. And so, we ought to be thinking about how

Christ will come back. And that's why people have been discussing it. And there is some disagreement, but I think ultimately the agreements are stronger.

But that's why we should care, because we ought to be hope -filled and full of worship for what

He will do. So, that's a good question.

The Apostle Paul, his story, we have an ending in Acts. It's not really an ending. He's kind of in prison, in a house arrest awaiting his trial before the

Emperor Nero. And we hear in 2 Timothy, Paul's own sense that he's about to die as he writes to his disciple

Timothy to encourage Timothy. But we're not told in the Bible what happens. Church tradition, the stories handed down from the generations say that Paul, and this is fairly reliable that Paul was finally brought to trial before Nero, that he proclaimed the

Gospel, proclaimed the death and resurrection and return of Jesus Christ. And Nero listened to that, and then he had

Paul executed. And he was beheaded. So, but that's not the end of Paul.

Paul's in heaven. Paul's in glory. And he's going to be resurrected along with us when Christ comes back. So, that's the end of Paul.

It's in heaven with us. So, I want to talk a little bit about Genesis this evening.

Genesis 1 and 2, one of the major themes that we need to come away with after establishing the reliability of the text and the essential nature of the text that we must believe what is written there if we're going to make sense of the

Gospel, is that here we learn who we are by looking at who

God is. So, we think about the image of God being described here. The primary text is verses 26 and 27 in chapter 1 of Genesis.

Then God said, Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, over the cattle, over all the earth, over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

God created man in his own image. In the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them.

God blessed them. So, we think about the image of God. We cannot move out of Genesis 1 and 2 to the rest of the story until we figure this out, until we understand this at some level, who we are.

That matters for how we read Genesis 3 in the fall. It matters how we read the promises God made to Abraham and continuing on.

So, I want to start with this series of images.

One of the things, and you've probably heard me talk about it before, but when we think about the image of God, primarily, or at least firstly, we're talking about an intersection of relationships.

What does it mean to be an image of God? It means that as humans, we are made as a unique intersection of relationships.

No other creature has been made like we are in relationship with God, and one another, and in this world in just that way.

There is only one city in the world where I -40, I -35, and I -44 cross.

That's Oklahoma City. Only one city in the world. There's only one creature in all of God's creation that is in special relationship, elevated relationship with God, in accountable, moral, rational relationship with other creatures of the same kind, humanity, and in lordship over the rest of creation.

So, we have these three relationships, with God, with one another, and lordship over creation. What does it mean to be in the image of God?

It means that we are created to love God supremely, love each other rightly, and steward this creation responsibly.

That's what it means to be made in the image of God. To the degree that we do that, to the degree that we do that, we image forth

God, and we glorify God in all that we do. Adam and Eve glorified God as they loved

Him supremely. They glorified God as they loved each other rightly. They glorified God as they stewarded the creation responsibly.

How do we see these relationships in the text? Well, first of all, as we read the account of how

God made everything and said, let there be and there was, and let there be and there was. When it came time to make man, it is not simply the statement, let there be and there was, but He stops and in the pluralness of the

Godhead He says, let us make man in our image. If you are reading through Genesis 1 you are in the cadence, let there be, and let there be, and let there be.

And all of a sudden the cadence stops and something new has happened, something special and distinct, separate from everything else that God has done.

Let us make man in our image. It really grabs your attention. And when you read the account in Genesis 2, zooming in of just how we are created,

He makes us different than anything else. He makes man, He makes the man out of the dust of the earth.

He makes the man out of the dust of the earth. But it is more than that. He breathes life into the man and he became a living being, a living nephesh, a living soul.

This is different than any other creature that God has made. And from the man He takes a rib and fashions this rib into a woman, which means that she is still dust but refined dust.

She is not straight dust. The dust became a man out of the man that once was dust.

It is processed dust, it is

I forget who it was, I don't remember if it was Herschel York or Greg Keenan used to say, which is stronger the steel plate but which is finer the china?

What is stronger the burlap sack but which is finer the silk? Okay, so just making the point.

Alright, so the Lord makes man, specially creates man, then blesses man, gives him a charge.

He says nothing to any of the other creatures. He makes this man in relationship with himself, blesses the man and calls mankind, male and female, into a proper way of life.

This is unique. So, this relationship is established. But then the male and the female in God's image

He made them. So, when He created man He creates them male and female. He makes the image of God into relationship with one another immediately.

And the first relationship, the first human relationship, the primary human relationship is that of marriage between a man and a woman, between a husband and a wife.

It is the building block of all other human relationships. It is the building block of all of humanity and what it means to be human.

It is this building block of marriage. And of course from marriage comes all the rest of the species.

And we are all supposed to be living in right relationship with one another.

And then of course He gives the charge to humanity that together, working together,

Adam is not good for the man to be alone, he needs a helpmate to be alongside of him. And together they are to exercise dominion, be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, rule it over all the creatures that God has made.

And God gives a very special charge to mankind. He tells man to tend the garden and keep it.

It means cultivate the garden and protect it. And this is what humans have been doing ever since, and because of the

Fall doing it in some bad ways. But we are to tend the garden.

Now out of the tending of a garden, out of the cultivating of a garden we have ended up with the growth of a culture.

Culture starts off in the garden. You tend the garden as Adam is in the garden, tending it and improving it.

This is really, we are supposed to be good stewards of what

God has given to us. Not only in tending it and cultivating it, because after all from it we receive our reward, we are to destroy it.

And this is the two -fold charge of how we are supposed to interact with the created order.

Tend it, improve it, cultivate it, also protect it, defend it, don't let it be destroyed.

And when we are loving God supremely, following His blessed commands, and when we are loving each other rightly in cooperation and in unity in our worship to God, and when we are exercising that lordship over the created order, man everything is right with the world.

Everything is right with the world. That's what it means to live in the image of God, it's this intersection of relationships.

Now it's an intersection because man has been made to be a mediator. And as God blesses us, what

God blesses us with goes out and through us. It's only by the blessings of God that we can do what we do.

In the fall, if this relationship is ruptured between man and God, then everything falls apart, because we were made a mediator.

It's like a broken water pipe. If it's ruptured, the water can't get through.

And if our relationship with God is ruptured, then the goodness of God which was once mediated through us no longer functions.

I want to emphasize that it is as the goodness of God is mediated through us in these relationships, so the glory of God is manifested in us.

How are we the image of God? How are we imaging forth God as the goodness of God is mediated through us, so the glory of God is manifested in us?

What is the goodness of God that He mediates through us? Well, here we need to think about the fact that God called

Adam and Eve to royal, priestly, prophetic, and wise functions, wise offices.

Obviously Adam and Eve are to rule and have dominion over the created order, and so they are like the vice regents upon the earth, like a king and a queen.

And we have an example in Adam naming the animals, which in the ancient

Near East was a signal of authority. When you are in charge you name stuff. You get to name stuff if you're in charge over that.

The priestly duties of course is kind of anachronistic to have a sacrifice being offered which is something that the priest would do later.

But essentially the priestly duties we find in terms of what is being set apart as sacred space, sacred time.

God sets apart the seventh day as holy and sacred. He sets apart the land of Eden and the garden within it as something special, something sacred.

Adam and Eve are to tend the garden, and to keep it, to guard it. And the term keep in the

Hebrew is the exact same term that all the priests were charged with concerning the Temple. They were to keep the

Temple, or keep the tabernacle. It is a very priestly duty. In terms of acting as a prophet

God tells Adam, you may eat of all the trees freely except for that tree, don't eat of this tree, and the day you eat of it you will surely die.

And then after He commands Adam that He creates Eve. Eve wasn't there when

God commanded Adam this truth. So, Adam spoke truth to Eve to tell her what to believe, what to know.

And then she spoke it to the serpent. Didn't stick with it but she spoke it to the serpent. We have this prophetic role.

And the role of wisdom at the crossroads knowing which way to go, and how to apply the goodness of God in all the different kinds of situations.

I would not be as wise as Adam was in his pristine glory being able to name all the animals.

Come on. He named all the animals? I would run out of names. But he was wise in the fashion and reflection of God.

God created everything after its own kind, and made it full, and abundant, and diverse.

And then Adam in reflection of God names all the animals, all that God had made separating and organizing it.

So, what I'm saying is in the image of God in this unique intersection of relationships being the image of God we are to mediate

God's authority, God's holiness, God's truth, and God's wisdom throughout all of our lives.

And as that goodness is mediated through us that brings glory to God. Now, again we'll talk about this more in Genesis 3 at the rupture of what happened in the

Fall. But do we not see the image of the invisible

God in Christ? Who is the perfect human, the perfect image of God who is in perfect relationship with the

Father, perfect loving sacrificial relationship with His fellow human beings, those

He came to save, to bless. And how did Jesus interact with the created order around Him?

Feeding of the 5 ,000 and the 4 ,000, the stilling of the storm, and so on and so forth. My goodness.

The perfect image of God and what was mediated through Him, all the authority of God, all the holiness of God, all the truth of God, and all the wisdom of God is found in Christ.

It's found in Christ. This is why the emphasis in the New Testament is that as we grow in Christ we glorify

God. Why is that? Because the image is being renewed in us as Christ's life becomes more of who we are.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives within me. And as Christ lives more and more in us, the glory of God is revealed more and more in us, because it is the image of God being renewed, being restored.

This relationship being corrected. That relationship being corrected. That relationship being corrected. This being mediated through us.

And as a final note, this is something of how it looks, and how it lives out.

But this is something of who we are. To be the image of God, first of all we have to be body and soul.

We'll talk about this next week. But we have to be body and soul. There is the need for us in this intersection to be, in other words, connected with Heaven and Earth.

So, there is a spiritual, physical side to us that is essential to what it means to be the mediator, this intersection.

We are also lingual, which is vitally important. God doesn't talk to the other creatures and receive back from them verbal communication, and building a verbal relationship.

It is only human beings. It is only human beings. We can teach animals to copy us, but it is not real communication.

It is not real linguistics with God. And built up in the language, everything that we ever think of in terms of morality and rationality is lingual.

The way we think, what is logic, and the way we value what is right and wrong, it is always based in our language.

Which is why it is so vital that we hold on to words, and not let them be wrenched around in our post -modern age.

So, we have to be lingual. This is the case, to be the image of God, to be able to communicate and to relate.

We are also male -female. Absolutely essential for what it means to be in the image of God, male -female.

A male and a female together is the first marriage.

There is no sense in which this is an option. But that we have first of all the man, but it is not good for the man to be alone, so God creates a woman to be his helpmate.

This isn't to say that he is not in the image of God by himself, or that she is not in the image of God by herself, for they are created in God's image.

But the point of it is that we are made to be for one another.

That we are made to be in community with each other, and that we are different, and yet made to be a helper to one another.

The ultimate expression of the male -female union, as Paul says, this mystery is great, but I speak in reference to Christ and the

Church. And the difference of the roles that are there in terms of the service, the leadership through service, and the respect and the helping from the other side.

We are going to talk more about that next week, but that is a very quick run -through of what is entailed in the image of God in Genesis 1 and 2.

We are going to pick up more of that next week, and then move into chapter 3, where we think about what exactly is lost in the fall.

Not everything in the image of God is lost in the fall, but what is lost in the fall, and where does it leave the image of God for us.

Alright, we have a celebration to get started. So, is there anything you all want to say before I pray and bless the food?