The River Of Eden

Back to Genesis chapter two. Genesis chapter two. We'll bring this message this morning. And then next week, Lord willing, we'll talk about how God created a help meat for Adam. God created the man and he brought the woman out of the man. And that's a picture of Christ and his church. But today we want to talk about a river.

You see verse 10, Genesis chapter 2 verse 10, and a river, a river went out of Eden to water, to water the garden. And from thence it was parted and became into four. One became four. And the name of the first river is Piston, that which compassed the whole land of Havilah, where there's gold. And the gold of that land is good. Why is it good? God created everything. He said it's good. And we know the Bdellium and the Onyx Stone are also good because God created those different stones.

And the name of the second river is Gihon. And the same it is that compasses the whole land of Ethiopia. And I pointed out in the reading there, you look at its center reference, Ethiopia, there can be rendered Cush. Cush was one of the grandsons of Noah. Cush was the son of Ham. We'll see that in a minute. The name of the third river is Hittical, that which go toward the east of Assyria. And then the fourth river is Euphrates. Now preacher, can you find the gospel in those verses? Absolutely. Absolutely. Everything given in God's word is given of God, inspired of God, and all of it's given to teach us one lesson. And that one lesson is Jesus Christ.

Remember, our Lord said to those Pharisees, had you, they said, those Pharisees bragged, well, Moses, our father. Remember, our Lord said, if Moses were your father, you would have believed him because, you would have believed me because Moses wrote about me. You'd believe Moses, you'd believe me, because he wrote about me. Now, I'm taking for a title and using for a title, The River of Eden. The River of Eden.

There's just one river in that paradise where Adam was placed by the sovereign hand of God. God made him, created him, and then he put him in the paradise that God created. That river of Eden flowed out from the garden and was parted into four different streams or rivers.

The names of each of these streams are given unto us to teach us the gospel. All scripture is given by inspiration of God and it teaches one lesson, one lesson. Now, God named these rivers. These rivers are named by God. and they're named by God for a specific purpose.

And in these rivers, we learn something about the grace of God that flows from the throne of God. There is a river pure as crystal, as we read there in the Revelation. We learn something about the grace of God revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, as I looked and studied at this and thought about this, something unusual about this river of Eden. Normally speaking, when you look at rivers, if you look at the geography of this country, most of the time, like for example, in the Rocky Mountains there is what they call the continental divide. Are you familiar with that?

Everything west, all the streams flow into the Pacific Ocean. In our country, everything on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, all those different streams flow into one river, the Mississippi River. The Missouri River starts way up in Montana. I've been to the headwaters of that river. And then you have the Yellowstone River that comes out of the park there, and then you have the Platte River. And Missouri and the Platte, they all flow into the Mississippi and they all go down to the Gulf. But all these streams flow into one big river, same way out west.

The Colorado River, the Columbia River, same way with the Appalachian Mountains. Now I'm not trying to give you a geography lesson, but I'm trying to make a point here. There is a continental divide in the Appalachian Mountains, too. Everything on the west side, the Allegheny and the others, in Pittsburgh we have the three rivers that flow into the Ohio River, and the Ohio River flows into the Mississippi River, and then it all goes down, doesn't it? The point I'm making is, naturally speaking, we see the streams making one river. But in this river of Eden, there's one river that flows out to these streams. The point I'm making here in the gospel and the spiritual lesson is all spiritual blessings flow from God.

The streams of people, they don't flow and give blessings to God. It's the other way around. God has blessed us. We bless God who has blessed us with all spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in the Lord Jesus Christ according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world. Now, I'm not trying to give you a lesson in geography, and the Lord's not trying to give us a lesson in geography and how rivers flow and different things.

All this is given to us to teach us the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here the river of Eden flows out to make up these four streams, and the spiritual significance of that is so important because all spiritual blessing flow out from the throne of God, the river of God, who is the Lord Jesus Christ. We're blessed as we're blessed in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. They come from the throne of God, His sovereign will and purpose through the Mediator, the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. We often sing that song that Bridget did just a moment ago. Come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace, to sing thy praise, streams of mercy.

And that's what caught my attention. Streams of mercy never ceasing. What does that mean? Never ceasing. That means they're eternal, right? Eternal blessings, eternal salvation, eternal redemption calls for songs of loudest praise, streams of mercy never ceasing. Everything God does for his people is eternal because he is eternal. Streams of electing mercy, streams of justifying mercy, streams of redeeming mercy, streams of mercy never ceasing.

Aren't you glad his mercies are new every morning? I thought about what Jeremiah said in Lamentations chapter 3. Let me read it to you. It is of the Lord's mercies that we're not consumed because his compassions fail not. They're new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. So God's mercies Aren't you thankful that he said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, but he will have mercy. He delights to show mercy unto his people.

Now, as we read earlier from Revelation 22 about the pure river of life, that's a symbol of the eternal love to and for his church through the Lord Jesus Christ. He showed me a pure river of the water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out from the throne of God and of the Lamb. The Lord Jesus Christ is that river. Salvation proceeds from Him, and it freely flows out unto His people. God, who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Now, there are several references given to us about Christ, the river of salvation. You remember the story in Exodus chapter 17. when they were out in the wilderness and there was no water.

And God instructed Moses to smite the rock, remember? And that water came out of that smitten rock. Well, that's a picture of Christ. And it says that that water of life, that water that came out of that rock followed them for 40 years, never ran dry. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10 said this, And they all did drink of that same spiritual drink, for they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Christ is the smitten rock, and out of that rock comes the water of life freely.

But now let's look at a couple different references here. One of my favorites is found in Psalm 46, talking about this river of God, this salvation we have in Christ. Psalm 46, verse one. Psalm 46, verse one, God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea, though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, there is a river. The streams whereof she'll make glad the city of God, the holy place, the tabernacles of the Most High. God is in the midst of her. She shall not be moved. God shall help her, and that right soon.

One other reference that I like to read about, throw over here to Isaiah, the gospel according to Isaiah, and chapter number 32. Isaiah 32, verse one. Isaiah 32 verse 1. And behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment, and a man shall be a hiding place from the wind, as Christ our refuge, a covering from the tempest, rivers of water in a dry place. Isaiah 32 verse 2.

The shadow of a great rock in a weary land. Christ is our shelter. Christ is our water of life. Our Lord said this in John 7, in the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus cried out saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Remember the Lord told that woman at the well, he said, you drink of that natural water and you will thirst again. But if you drink of that water that I will give you, there will be a well of water springing up into everlasting life. I like what she said. You remember what she said?

Lord, give me that water. That's the one I want to drink of. That's the stream I want to drink of. That water. Ho, everyone that's thirsty. Isaiah 55, come ye to the waters. Come by and eat, yea, come by milk and wine without money, without price. I like those economics, don't you?

Now, let's look at these four rivers, Pison, Gihon, Herakle, and Euphrates. This one river parted into four heads, as it says in verse 10, the river went out of Eden, verse 10, to water the garden from thence it parted into into these four streams. Now, again, the Lord is not trying to give us a lesson in geography or history or geology. Rather, he's giving these things to teach us the gospel. When I thought about four rivers, what's the significance of that? Well, there's four gospel writers, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And then when you think about the number four, I thought about this verse, 1 Corinthians 1.30. The Lord has made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Lord, give me that river. I want to be found in that river.

Four blessings we have in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We see four definite blessings, the election of grace. That's a spiritual blessing we have in Christ Jesus. And I could name you many more, but four of them would be eternal election. There's a remnant according to the election of grace.

There is that eternal and particular redemption. He obtained for us eternal redemption with His own blood. There is that everlasting righteousness that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ that Daniel talks about in chapter 9 of Daniel, talking about the coming Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he would accomplish. And Daniel said, to finish transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision, and to anoint the most holy. Brother, that was a message to Daniel that he received. We have everlasting righteousness in Christ.

We have eternal redemption. eternal election, we have everlasting righteousness, and we have eternal life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I said all that to get to this point. So what do these four rivers tell us, and what do they teach us? Well, the first river there in verse 11 is called Pison. Pison. And the name of that river means increase. Increase.

The mercies and grace of God are never diminished. They're always on the increase because they're eternal riches we have in Christ. They're eternal mercies. God's grace is never diminished. It's always on the increase. God's grace never runs dry. His mercy never runs dry. Streams of mercy never ceasing. It always works like this.

He gives us more grace. You remember he said to Paul, when Paul said, Lord, take this thorn in the flesh away from me. And remember what he said? My grace is sufficient for thee. The Lord resisted the proud, but He gives grace unto the humble. He gives, it says, He gives more grace. We studied that in James 4 verse 6. God resisted the proud, He gives more grace.

That's what we need, isn't it? We need more grace. We need more grace. That means, you know what that means? That means I can't mess it up. That means I can't mess it up. That means there's nothing that you and I can do to distinguish or diminish His grace. Isn't that good news?

There's nothing I can do to extinguish His grace or diminish His grace or to impede His grace. You know, the first time the word grace is used, turn a couple pages over to Genesis chapter 6. The first time the word grace is used is found here in Genesis chapter 6 verse 8. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah's sin didn't hinder the grace of God. Was Noah a sinner? Absolutely.

Look back at verse five. Genesis chapter six, verse five. And this is your description. This is what God says of you. The way God sees things, that's the way they really are. This is what God says about Noah too. And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth. and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.

Did that include Noah? Absolutely. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And you see the point I'm trying to make? Even though Noah was a sinner, a great sinner, who had evil thoughts all the time. Did that impede or stop the grace of God in saving Noah by His grace? Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

Paul writes this, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be made rich. I've told you over the years, I quote that scripture, Law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus Christ. And of His fullness, the fullness of His grace and truth, have we all received grace because of grace? Of His fullness, have we all received grace for grace? Grace heaped upon grace. The only reason for grace is grace, isn't it? In Him dwelleth all the fullness of a Godhead bodily. and were complete in him.

This river, Pison, back in chapter 2 verse 11, this river, Pison, that which could passeth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. Now, this river surrounded this whole land of Havilah, and I looked that word up, Havilah, it means to encircle.

When you look at a circle, there's no beginning and there's no end. It's just a circle, a circle. It had no beginning, it had no end. And this is a circle is a emblem of God's eternal, sovereign, electing love. His love toward his people has no beginning, has no end. He's loved his people with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness as he draw us unto himself. The land of Havilah has precious stones, as it says there, there's gold in that land. I bet there's people who tried to find that land of Havilah and they want to dig up that gold.

It's interesting that the whole western part of the United States, all those, you wonder why all them pioneers went out that way? They were looking for gold. You ever heard of the gold rush, the 49ers? going to California to dig up gold. They heard there was gold out there, and that's where they were headed through great hardship. They wanted to get to that gold.

Well, the gold of that land is good gold because God made it. That gold is good. That land is good, and there's bdellium, and there's onyx stone in that land. This land of Avila, the Lord created these precious stone to put them in that land. And it's interesting that these stones, some of them, the gold and the onyx stone, were used in constructing the tabernacle and the temple. And the gold, you remember all the articles in the tabernacle were wood overlaid with gold, overlaid with gold. And the wood speaks of the Lord's humanity, and the gold speaks of his deity, his deity. So the gold there speaks of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he is good. There's none good but God.

And then bdellium, I looked that word up, and if you look at Wikipedia or some of the others, that bdellium is some kind of a pearl that comes from a plant. It's not like a pearl that comes from the oyster. It's like a pearl that comes from a plant. It's only used one of the time in scripture. Numbers 11 verse 7. And it's described the manna that fell from heaven as a color of bdellium. A pearl. A pearl. A pearl that comes from heaven. What does that remind you of?

The Lord Jesus Christ is called the Great Pearl of Price. Where did He come from? Where did the manna come from? The manna that fell every day, that looked like the color of a pearl, fell from heaven. And that's a picture of Christ, he is the bread of life.

You see how all these things, the gold of his grace, the gold of his mercy, the gold of his deity, the medallion, he's the pearl of great price, and then the onyx stone. Now this is interesting. The onyx stone, you can go back and study the tabernacle there in the book of Exodus, and we've looked at this many times, but that onyx stone on the breastplate of the priest When that priest came in on the Day of Atonement, in Exodus 28, 6-9, when that priest came into the Holy of Holies, or into the holy place, he came with a breastplate that had onyx stones on it. Do you remember what was written on those onyx stones? the 12 names of the tribes of the children of Israel. So that priest of old went in before God with the onyx stones, with the names of God's people written thereon, representing the priest, representing the people unto God.

And of course we know that is a picture of Christ, our great high priest. He has our names on his heart. So that's interesting, isn't it? Christ is our great high priest. He is the gold. He is the pearl of great price. He is the onyx stone. He is the great high priest that intercedes for us. Do we need a high priest? Oh yeah. Oh yes we do. The Lord Jesus Christ is that foundation stone on which we build our hope of salvation.

And when Paul writes about it in 1 Corinthians 3, he said, than that which is laid, which is Christ's, the rock, the foundation. And then he says it's made up of gold, silver, and precious stones. He says your wood, hay, and stubble will burn out. The gold, silver, and precious stone will endure because it's the foundation that God had laid in Zion. You see, everything about the Lord Jesus Christ is precious, altogether lovely. His gold, his bdellium, The onyx stones are good because His grace is good. In the heavenly Jerusalem that's described in Revelation 21, the building of that wall in the city was pure gold like on the glass, covered with precious stones. So you see how all that is teaching us the gospel.

Now these next three, it won't be as long. So don't get anxious here. I've got a few minutes left. But I don't want to rush through this. In Genesis chapter 2 verse 13, the name of the second river was Gihon. It's Gihon. It's the same which composite the whole land of Ethiopia, or Cush. Cush. Gihon. And the meaning of that river means bursting forth. Bursting forth. Or abounding. It surrounds the whole land of Ethiopia. And if you look at that marginal reference, it says Cush.

Now if you go and look that up in Genesis chapter 9, we find out that Cush was the son of Ham. Remember after Noah came down out of the ark, he planted a vineyard and Noah got drunk and he lay in his naked, and his son Ham tried to expose his drunkenness, tried to expose his nakedness to his two other brothers. Those two other brothers covered up the nakedness of Noah, but Ham exposed him, and Noah said, you're cursed, you're cursed. This grandson of Noah, Cush, the son of Ham, was cursed.

Cursed of God. Cursed of God for exposing the nakedness, exposing the sin of someone instead of covering it up. Now, this word means, Gihon means bursting forth, abounding. Now, what do you think of when you think of sin abounding? You see, Sin, when you think of sin abounding, and that's what happened in Ham and in Cush, sin was abounding. But you know what we read in Scripture? Where sin abounded, grace does much more abound. Grace does much more abound. Now let me just read this to you. This is very familiar territory to the folks that have been here for a number of years.

In Romans chapter 5 verse 19, For by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace does much more abound. Romans 5 verse 21, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ.

You see, grace reigns through righteousness. It abounds. It's bursting forth. The only place where grace abounds is where sin abounds. Think of it. Would you know yourself to be a sinner? The good news of the gospel is Christ came to save sinners. He came to save sinners just like Cush, just like Ham. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners. Would that describe you? Where sin abounds, grace is much more abound.

The good news of the gospel is that when we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. God committed his love toward us. This is Romans 5 again, verse 10, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet cursed in Adam, as Ham was cursed and Cush was cursed because of their sin against their father. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Aren't you thankful for that? Aren't you glad we have a river of mercy never ceasing?

Gihon. Look at verse 14. The name of the third river is Hittical. Hittical. That which go toward the east of Assyria. Now you know where the land of Assyria is. And then the fourth is Euphrates. We have those two rivers, you can look on a map now, they say that that river Hittical is the Tigris River. The Tigris and the Euphrates River that goes down through Iraq and Iran and those countries. What was the prison for the Babylonian captivity? It's interesting here, if you think about this. Israel was carried away into 70 years of captivity into the land what was the Garden of Eden. It became a prison to them for 70 years because of sin.

But the name of this river is Hittical. And this river is known as the Tigris River. Now, why do they call it the Tigris River? Well, a tiger is swift. A tiger is rapid, and evidently that Tigris River runs swift and it runs strongly. It's a rapid river. It's a swift river. The grace of God is swift and rapid.

It cannot be decreased. It's always on the increase. It always abounds because it's not God's response to anything I do. shows grace to whom he will, not based upon my response. God shows grace unto his unworthy people. God's grace does not wait upon you to do something before he acts. He acts in grace according to his will, his purpose.

And God's grace is rapid. His action is swift. There's nothing that can hinder or slow it down. That's why Paul writes, In Romans 1, 16, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God and the salvation to everyone that believe it. It's rapid.

It acts precisely at the time that God wills for it to take place. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. The grace of God is rapid. It's always on time and according to God's eternal purpose. I'll give you two examples of that. One in the Old Testament. In Genesis chapter 12, this is grace on time, on God's timetable.

Abraham was my age. I never thought of it in his life. Abraham was 75 years old. And God called him out of the land of idolatry, out of the land of Babylon. And He said, you get out and I'm going to make you a blessing to so many people And you follow that bloodline of Abraham, and who came from the bloodline of Abraham? Isaac, Jacob, Judah, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ. So what would you say about Abraham? Whoa, 75 years.

Has God's timetable disrupted? No, just on time. It was on time. God's time. Another prime example of that we have in the New Testament, there was a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus. Saul of Tarsus was one who hated the Lord Jesus Christ. He hated the Lord Jesus Christ so much, that when those Pharisees started to run and gnash on Stephen, you remember when Stephen was preaching the gospel to them, they ran on him and gnashed on him with their teeth and they weren't satisfied by doing that. They said, let's pick up some stones and let's just dash his brains out. You know who was standing over there watching all that? Saul of Tarsus. He said, boys, let me hold your coat. Take your coat off. Let me hold your coat. He held the coat of those that dashed out the brains of Stephen. He said, well, there's no hope for that vile, wretched man who arrested believers and put them in prison and then rejoiced when they were murdered.

Oh, the grace of God was just on time, wasn't it? When it pleased God, here's what Paul the Apostle writes, but when it pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. Could all the vicious wickedness of Saul of Tarsus, could it hinder or impede or stop the grace of God or delay it? Maybe God had to wait till Saul of Tarsus repented long enough and was sorry long enough. Oh no, grace arrived right on time and it broke his heart and God made him a new creature. You see, God works everything on his schedule, not ours, not ours.

You cannot stop the grace of God. You cannot stop a raging river of His grace. You cannot do it. You can't stop a river. I've tried. I've tried over the years that we've been flooded here. We built that flood wall back there. The water went right over it. I built a sand dock out here one time in 2010 flood. Water went right over it. I tried to stop a raging river. The only thing you can do, get out of the way. Get out of the way. I'm so hard-headed. I'm so hard-headed. But you can't stop the river and the power of God to save His people. You can't do it. Now, let me wind this up.

Verse 14, the name of the third river is Hitticle, which goes toward the east. And the fourth river is Euphrates. Now you can look on your map and find the Euphrates River. Everybody's heard of the Euphrates River. But you know what the word means? Guess what it means? Fruitful. And again, see all these rivers describe the grace of God. What's the point? Grace, God's grace is always, bears the fruit of salvation. Always, always, always. Grace is not something God offers to you for your accepting or rejection. Don't flatter yourself. God's grace is not an offer. God's grace saves.

Now I don't know if any of you take the News Express, our local paper, but when the paper comes out on Friday, they always have a religious section there. in the News Express. And there was a preacher who writes an article every week in the paper. I know him personally. He used to work for the radio station we were on years ago. But he wrote this. He talked about spread the good news of salvation.

God sent his son Jesus for the way of achieving salvation. So Christ made a way for us to achieve salvation? You know, that's what's generally accepted today as the truth. Did Christ come to make salvation a possibility for us to achieve it? Or did the Lord Jesus Christ actually come and save His people from their sin by His grace? Now, which is it? You know what it is. We're not achieving salvation, are we? I thought salvation was a gift of God. That preacher made a mistake of putting his email in there. And I'm going to write him a letter tomorrow. And I'm going to sign it too. And I'm going to invite him to listen to our radio program.

Christ achieved salvation for us, didn't he? By grace are you saved. And that in and of yourself, it's the gift of God. You see, the point is, the grace of God always bears the fruit of salvation. There's never a time when it does not save by God's purpose and grace, always in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is not conditioned upon you. Grace is not something you merit or earn.

The other article in that paper, another lady writes, and she's always talking about doing enough to achieve or doing enough to be accepted by God, rather than pointing sinners to the Lord Jesus Christ alone. You see, the grace, the sovereign grace of God, it cannot be diminished, Pyson.

It bursts forth, Gihon. It's super bound, Hitticle. It's always fruitful, Euphrates. You see, the Lord named those rivers to teach us the gospel. Everything in this book, and we're going to see as we go through the book, the book of beginnings, we're going to see everything about about the Lord Jesus Christ.

His grace. His grace. What does it mean? It's justifying grace, redeeming grace. It's saving grace. He gives us grace to believe. It's persevering grace. It's glorifying grace. When you read Ephesians chapter 1, when it talks about the Father choosing, all to the praise of the glory of His grace. We've talked about the Son redeeming. It's all to the praise of the glory of His grace. When we talk about the Holy Spirit quickening and sealing and redeeming, it's all about the praise of the glory of His grace. It says that three times.

The River Of Eden

Sermon Transcript

About Tom Harding

Comments

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

The River Of Eden

Sermon Transcript

About Tom Harding

Comments

More from Tom Harding

Related Sermons

Same Scripture

Articles by Tom Harding

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book