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Grants Pass SDA Church

Christian Martin

Satan’s Twofold Attack on the Creator’s Masterpiece

O God of heaven, as we open your holy, holy word, we ask that you would speak to us.

May your voice be the voice that is heard softly and tenderly, yet loud and clear, speaking to us today.

And we thank you for answering this prayer in Jesus' name.

It's arguably 1 of the most admired masterpieces of artwork, Regarded as the most famous and the most mysterious, it's a portrait of a woman, said to be named Elisa del Giocondo, painted by Leonardo da Vinci over 5 centuries ago.

During our honeymoon, Heidi and I, as 2 of the 8.5 million people who saw the famous painting that year, visited the French capital's Louvre Museum.

It was very impressive, But we were frankly disappointed as to how far back the crowd-controlled posts blocked us from approaching the famous painting on the wall, the Mona Lisa.

I had anticipated being able to examine it up close, but no way.

There was a good 10 feet between us and the famous painting.

It was, and still is, protected by bulletproof glass, almost 2 centimeters thick, and also contained in a special sealed box to protect it from vibrations and humidity.

I came across a story about a woman some years ago who was held in Paris after attacking the Mona Lisa with a cup of English tea.

The woman threw the ceramic mug full of steaming brew over the heads of the tourists, scoring a direct hit on the most famous work of art in the world.

As you can imagine, in front of stunned security guards.

Their jaws were just like, oh, I can't believe it.

Well, of course, the mug bounced off the bulletproof glass and shattered on the floor, and the woman was immediately wrestled to the ground by the security guards.

A museum spokesman said, it is 1 of the most well-guarded works of art in the world, and it would take more than a well-aimed teacup to damage it.

But today, I point you to an even grander masterpiece, created millenniums before the Mona Lisa, which has sustained attacks far greater than well-aimed teacups.

And if only, and if only, it were as well-guarded as da Vinci's masterpiece.

The ancient book of Genesis records a literal six-day progression of creative activity, which included the creation of the majestic sun, so massive that you could line up 109 Earths across its face.

It's about 13 billion times brighter than the second brightest star and can reach temperatures of more than 27 million more than 27 million degrees.

But the Creator's masterpiece was created to give even greater glory to God.

The crowning act of which I speak of is the creation of the man and the woman.

The pinnacle of God's creative work at the beginning of time.

Open your Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 1.

The book of beginnings, Genesis chapter 1, verse 27, the Bible says, So God created man in his own image.

Now this particular verse contains a major characteristic of Hebrew poetry.

I think you're going to like this, if you don't know this already.

Called synonymous parallelism, in which the same or similar thoughts are repeated in 2 or 3 parallel lines.

Let me read Genesis 127 once again to see if you can detect the parallelism.

Clearly, Moses, inspired by the Holy Spirit, parallels the image of God with the male and female.

While in 1 aspect, the man alone and the woman alone were created in the image of God with their capacities of reason and intellect and will to understand and respond to the love of God, The unique matrimonial union of the male and female human being reflects the image of God in an even greater sense.

The very next verse, verse 28, Genesis 1, 28, reveals the particular characteristics of God of which an image or likeness is seen in the creation of Adam and Eve.

You can't read verse 28 apart from verse 27.

First, the characteristic of being fruitful and having the ability to multiply, which even angels do not have.

An image of God reflected in the union of the male and female.

For God himself was fruitful and multiplied.

He did that for 6 days by creating all manner of living organisms and filling the sea, the earth, and the sky during the fourth, fifth, and sixth days.

Second characteristic of having is the characteristic of having dominion.

Again, an image of God reflected in their union as male and female.

But the earth is the realm that was given and trusted to the human race.

That they would have dominion over the animals, the creatures, all living things.

Only we, and that's you and I, as human beings, were created in the image of God.

Not animals, not even angels, but the human race.

And we were given the Creator's blessing, after which God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.

So what we have seen so far, that in the creation of the world, the image of God, His likeness, was impressed and given to the creation of the male and female.

But make no mistake about it, The Creator's masterpiece, the only creation reflecting the image of God, would become the very target of all of Satan's demonic anger.

Because let's not forget that in his lust for God's power and position, you know what I'm talking about.

There Isaiah and Ezekiel both tell us how, give us a little inside look into Lucifer's mind and heart.

He was lusting after power to be like God.

By directing his hatred towards none other than the Creator's masterpiece.

If he can't defeat the Creator, maybe he will just go full force against his masterpiece.

Again, the only creation that reflects God's image and likeness.

So what would be his game plan, his master plan?

First, he would deceitfully usurp the rulership of the earth from Adam and Eve.

They were given dominion, he's gonna take that away from them.

Which Genesis 3 records that he successfully did.

And now, that which the Creator had called very good was just like that, under the sway of the evil 1.

And perhaps 1 of the most sorrowful verses in all of Scripture is Genesis 3.24, which records, "...so he drove out the man.

And he placed cherubim at the east, at the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life, which is where the pain really begins beyond the gates of Eden.

After the entrance of sin, marriage remained a gift.

For it was a gift from the Creator to the human race.

It remained a gift, but the recipients of the gift were the ones who changed.

Eve's deliberate choice to believe the lie that God was restricting her freedom.

God doesn't have the best interest in mind for me, evidently.

And Adam's deliberate choice to do what God commanded him not to do would have grave consequences.

Possibly the most painful consequence would be the degradation of our nature, of which we had no choice but to be born with.

It was David the psalmist who wrote, in sin did my mother conceive me.

So while Genesis 127 tells us that God created a man in his own likeness, A woman in the image of God.

After His image, after His own likeness, Genesis 5 verse 3, just a few chapters over, tells us that Adam, after the fall, begot a son in his likeness.

So what would this mean for the human race?

It would mean that the very next generation from Adam, and all future generations for that matter, would have no choice but to be born with propensities of wickedness, natural with propensities of wickedness, natural inclinations to rebellion, a bent towards sin.

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Satan’s Twofold Attack on the Creator’s Masterpiece

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