Genesis chapter 2. We're going
to start a new series and we're going to be looking at things
in these two chapters. Chapter 2 is kind of an overlook of what
he states in the last part of chapter 1. And he adds a few
details in there about those things. I read this one time. was thinking about it today as
I prepared the message for this evening, Andrew Bonar. I don't
know if you know who he was. He was one of the old writers,
very good writer. He was called to a meeting in
Glasgow, Scotland, big city, Glasgow. They were shipbuilders,
manufacturers, a huge city, had a lot of colleges and schools.
And if memory serves me correct, that's what he was going to do.
He was going to go down and speak at one of the schools there in
Glasgow, and it was a beautiful day, and Mr. Bonar decided to
walk. He wanted to walk along the piers
and through the city, and so he did. And as he started through
the city, he noticed a crowd gathered in front of this building.
And he walked up there, and as he passed by, he realized it
was an auction house. And there was an unusual crowd
gathered there. They were clear out on the sidewalk
outside the building. And it got his attention, and
he kind of worked his way up through the crowd and looked
in. And when he looked in, he saw what was going on. They were
auctioning off these old Dutch masters, these old paintings,
beautiful, beautiful paintings. My wife and I went to Washington,
D.C. last year, and we went down to
the museum there and was able to see those pictures up close. And I know what he's talking
about when he was talking about the detail of that art on those
pictures. I mean, they had rim branches
and they had all kinds of paintings, but those Dutch masters just
captured my heart right away. I stood, we stood in that room
for hours looking at those paintings. But what caught his eye as he
watched, the auctioneer was talking and telling a story. Paintings
have a story behind them. These pictures have a story behind
them. And as the auctioneer would tell the story behind this particular
painting, there was a man who was standing behind the painting.
And all you could see was his finger. As he pointed out the
details here and there and what they meant, all you could see
was his finger, and occasionally a hand would sweep over a landscape
or something. And he described that picture.
And Mr. Bonar, when he left the auction
house and was on his way to the church, he said, I began to think
to myself and to ask God, when I begin to speak to these people
today, he was preaching from one of the old types, He said,
let me be like that man who stands behind the picture. So as these
things are being declared and described, all you're going to
see is just my fingers. I'm not going to get in the way
of this painting. I want you to see the glory of the painting.
I don't want you to see me. And so as we begin these studies,
and I know not everybody in here has got to attend all these series
of studies as we went through Genesis, but they all They are
recorded if you'd like to catch up with it and see what's been
told. And I'm building as we go through
these things. I'm laying foundations and showing
pictures and using these things of God in creation for what they're
meant to be used for. Everything in this book is a
testimony of Christ. Everything. I'm convinced even
the genealogies in some way testify of his glory. I don't see it,
but they're there somewhere. It's there somewhere. But as
we begin this study, that's my heart's desire. And my subject
tonight is the garden of God, or the Lord's garden. In Genesis,
let me just read you several verses here, beginning with Genesis
chapter 2, verse 8. And the Lord God planted a garden
east of Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed, and
out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is
pleasant to the sight and good for food, the tree of life also
in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. And the river went out of Eden
to water the garden, and from thence it was parted, and become
into four heads. The name of the first is Pison,
that is, it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where
there is gold, and the gold of that land is good. and the onyx stone. Now, evidently,
I don't know if I'm pronouncing that word, delium, correctly.
I believe I am, but that word has to do with spices. That's
what he's talking about here, precious spices. This land of
Havilah, it had gold, pure gold, good gold, and it had precious
spices, and it had jewels. It had the onyx stone. And the
name of the second river is Gihon. is it that compasseth the whole
land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river
is Hittikel, that is, it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man
and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep
it. And the Lord God commanded the
man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die." Now, before we get into our study, I want you to
turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 1. Moses is the writer of Genesis,
but Moses was way down the line from creation. He was way down
the line. When he writes in the book of
Genesis, he's not writing about something that he saw. He wasn't
there. There's all kinds of generations
past before Moses ever began to write. And I don't know what
all was included in his knowledge of this. I don't know if there
was transcripts passed down from generation to generation, but
I doubt that. I doubt it. But this much I do
know that these holy men of God, they spoke as they were moved
of the Holy Ghost, and so he writes these things. But he was
way down the line from Adam. Well, how then can Moses speak
of what took place in the garden? before the flood. This world
had suffered a deluge before Moses came along. This world
had suffered a division in languages before Moses came along. Tower
of Babel, the flood, a lot of things had went down the stream
before Moses came along. But as I see it, holy men of
God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. And in this
genesis of creation, and I'm getting these nuggets from some
of these old writers, and some of these things the Lord gives
me. I got this from Matthew Henry, and I kind of changed his language
a little bit. It's not a direct quote, but
this is what he says. In this genesis of creation,
these writers speak of the church in its infant stage and in its
beginning, and so he gives what the Holy Spirit gives to him,
And he leaves these things to be revealed under the greater
light, under the greater light of the gospel dispensation or
by the clear light of the manifested Christ. He's going to give you
these things as the Holy Ghost gave them to him. And he's going
to leave you. He's going to leave it there.
He's not going to explain it. It never explains these things.
You can go all the way through the Scriptures. It refers to
them as you go along. Next Tuesday, Lord willing, we're
going to get into this thing of these four rivers. This one
river that flowed into this garden and then came out of that garden
into four heads and flowed on out into the world. We're going
to get into these rivers. And he just talks about these
rivers all the way through the Scriptures. The whole Psalm of
Solomon talks about this garden that we're going to talk about
tonight. You can go on and on and on in there how he talks
about this garden. coming into his garden. But over
here in 1 Peter, and think about this, too, what Moses recorded
even in his time and in his day. He recorded those things, and
the Lord told him on the mount. He said, when you go down there,
you see to it that you build these things, talking about the
tabernacle and the priesthood and all those things. He said,
you see to it. that you build it exactly according
to the pattern that I showed thee in the mount, because they're
a pattern. That's what they were. They were
a pattern of things to come. And so even with creation, he
just leaves it as God revealed it to him, and he leaves him
for this clearer dispensation. Now, if you read through the
first part of 1 Peter 1, the apostle speaks of God's eternal
foreknowledge and election. Sanctification of the Spirit,
sprinkling of the blood of Christ, talks about the new birth, that
new birth born to believe, a new birth unto a lively hope, and
this hope in the resurrected Christ. This is what it's all
about. He takes you from eternity past,
Peter does, in a few short verses, and he takes you all the way
into eternity future. Born with a hope, a hope of this
resurrected Christ, this promised one, God's elect, the first begotten
from the dead. An inheritance incorruptible,
he said, undefiled, reserved in heaven for us who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Now listen, ready
to be revealed at the last time. A faith that found its hope and
its promise and its power in the will and purpose of God.
And it founded in a promised Redeemer. That's where it founded.
Are you with me so far? That's what Peter is talking
about. Let's pick it up here in verse
8. Whom having not seen, we've never seen this Christ. I've
never seen Him. Have you? I've never seen Him.
I don't know anybody that's ever seen Him. These men to the right
in here saw Him. Saw Him in the flesh. Some of
them saw him like John on the Isle of Patmos. He revealed himself
to him in his glory. I've never seen him. And that's
what he says, whom having not seen, you love. Though now you
see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. You don't have the promise in
your hands. You've never seen him. And yet we gather in here
and worship him and rejoice in him. That's what Peter is talking
about. Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of
your souls. Now watch. Of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently, who prophesied
of the grace that should come unto you, searching what or what
manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did
signify, did picture, did describe. when it testified beforehand
the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow."
You see where he is going with this? "'Unto whom it was revealed
that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the
things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached
the gospel unto you, with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven,
which things the angels desire to look into.' Wherefore, gird
up the loins of your mind, and be sober, and hope to the end."
To the end of the promise is what he is talking about. To
the end of the prophecies, to the end of the visions, to the
end of the types, to the end of these things that these prophets
diligently sought after and described and knew who they preached them
for. It wasn't for them, but it was for a people that was
going to come and a dispensation that was going to come. and a
clear vision and a manifestation of this promised one. Now, he
said, be diligent and hope to the end of those things. See
the end of those things. Rejoice in the end of those things. Don't sit there and look at these
things. I read some of these old writers.
I'm telling you, they went on and on and on and on, page after
page, chapter after chapter, talking about where exactly Eden
was. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
You do what you want to. If you want to believe that paradise
was in a little place somewhere on this earth, you go ahead.
But then you explain to me these two trees. There's a tree of
life. A tree of life. And there's a
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I've never seen a tree
like that. Have you? It's the only place where those
two trees are found in that garden. It says in chapter 3 of Genesis,
and they all want to go back to chapter 3 and say that's when
God planted this garden. Back here when He raised up that
body, when He gathered that seed together and exposed that land
and created those plants and trees and all those things, they
want to go back to there and say, now that's when God planted
the garden. But I know better. I could see with better eyes
than that. Oh, what a blessing has the Lord
laid aside for believers in our generation. And I hope you give
these verses here in 1 Peter your attention and prayer, and
see them as a key that unlocks these Old Testament types and
mysteries. Give them your attention. Now,
what do I see in this garden of God? Well, I see this garden
as the everlasting covenant of God. That's what I see here in
this garden. And I'll tell you why. I looked at this garden
and I thought about this garden as a picture of his church, but
it's not a picture of his church because he runs Adam out. He
runs him out. And Adam was redeemed. Adam,
he come down and flew that animal, and by faith, Adam received it,
and he clothed him with its skins. And he knew exactly what it meant,
and I know that because his son came according to what he told
him to do. And one of them ignored him.
I know that he was taught before he was sent out. Before he left
that garden, God gave him a promise, and he received the promise.
But I see this garden as the everlasting. of the everlasting
covenant of God. Everything that God intended
to do with man takes place in this garden. You look at it. He takes man and puts him in
this garden, Winston. He subjects him to the false.
He comes to him, exposes his guilt, exposes his sin. He makes
provision. Not to leave man where he's at,
not to leave him in his shame and leave him in his hiding place
and leave all those things, but to come to him and expose those
things and make him to understand that those fig leaf acres couldn't
cover him. Those trees couldn't hide him
from the face of his maker. And then he slew the animal before
him. He did all this in the garden. Have you ever noticed when you
read the account of the garden that the woman wasn't made yet
when he put man in the garden? The bride wasn't given to him
yet. The bride wasn't presented to him yet. So if you want to think about
this as the everlasting covenant of God, who is that covenant
surety? It's Christ. How did he receive
the bride? In that covenant. Ain't that
where he received? in that cooking. And he puts
him in here. He presents him with a bride,
joins him together with this bride, gives him his wife. And then he falls, and God comes
to him and makes provision to come to him and speaks to him
and makes provision for him to know. He makes provision for
him to know what took place and sacrificed that lamb. I believe
it to be a lamb. I believe that to the day I die.
That was a lamb God killed in the garden. Otherwise, why would
Abel bring a lamb? And he took that lamb, and he
slit its throat, and he took the skins from it, and he covered
their nakedness with those skins, and he took that old fig leaf
apron away. And I told you here a while back
the problem with an apron is it just covers one side. And
the side that really tells us what we are is fully exposed.
Now, that's an apron. pig leaf religious aprons do. He takes from his side of this
man a woman. Do you know what woman means?
I've heard a lot of explanations of it, but I read one today that
I'd never thought about, and if you go look it up in the original,
it'll just tell you in the dictionary, in the Hebrew dictionary, it'll
tell you what it means. It means womb man. That's what
it means. Womb man. One who is capable
of giving birth. She and her husband are enabled
in this garden to walk with God. How else could a man walk with
God apart from this covenant? No way, is there? No way. Especially
after the fall. And I want you to see this, that
after the fall, God didn't treat him any different than he did
before as far as coming to him, as far as separating himself
from him. He comes right to the man. What happens, the only thing
that I can see, I've written an article on it today, or working
on an article, and in that article I say this, the only thing I
see ruined in the garden is man. Nothing else left the garden
but man. Everything in that covenant stayed just like God had it.
The only thing that went out was that old covenant head. It
went out the door. And then he guarded the way until
the new covenant head come back in. I've got a lot more to say.
I've got to be careful how I say these things because I've got
several messages that are going to deal with these things individually.
And I want to deal with the man and the woman as God presented
her to him all by itself. So we're going to leave that
for a little bit. And I'll tell you this, secondly, in this garden
I see two trees not found anywhere else on the planet. Two trees,
a tree of life and a tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The fruit of these two trees give us a full revelation of
the person and glory of God in these two trees. You can't have
one and know God. You have to have both. You have
to have both. In 1 John chapter 5, now I just
want you to think about this. We're talking about a tree of
life, alright? Let's find out what he's talking
about when he talks about life. In 1 John 5, where I preached
from Sunday morning, I quoted you toward the end of the message. I quoted verse 20 to you. 1 John
5, verse 20. John said, And we know that the
Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that
we may know him that is true. And we are in him that is true,
even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. That's what life is, is to know
God. And you can't know God apart
from Christ. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. That's what he said. In John
17, verse 3, in the Lord's Prayer, here's what he prayed, and this
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God in
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. This is eternal life. It's
to know God through his appointed Redeemer. That's how God's going
to reveal himself, is through his Son. No other way. No other way. You can't go out
there and look at the sky and get the full revelation of God.
You can't do it. You can't do it. You can't do
it in nature. In your own nature, you can't
do it. And that tree which God favored,
above every other tree, and the Holy Ghost doesn't throw words
in the Bible for no reason. The tree that he most favored
was that tree of life. But how do I know that? Because
he put it in the middle of the garden. He put it right in the
middle. Right in the middle. This is what this whole thing
is all about. This is what redemption is about.
This is what creation is all about. This is the crowning work
of God is to make himself known. And to know him is eternal life. It's eternal life. Oh, and he
put that tree right in the middle to know God is eternal life.
But no man knoweth the Father save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal it. Over in John chapter 1, verse
18, it says, No man hath seen God at any time, the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared
him. If you would know God, you're going to have to know Christ.
You're going to have to study Christ. You're going to have
to come to Christ. You're going to have to embrace Christ. And
then there is in this garden a tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. Matthew Henry said this. He had a lot of good comments. If you have a copy of Matthew
Henry, you might want to go back and read his commentaries on
this, because he's right on top of things. Especially, he even
dropped a hint or two on these rivers. I was really surprised
to see that. The rest of them didn't touch it, but he did. Matthew Henry said this, that
this tree is so called not because it has some virtue to increase
or begat intellect in us or increase the knowledge of Adam. That wasn't
what he was talking about. That's not what this tree is
all about. But to make known the positive revelation of the
will of God concerning good and evil. And then he gives an example. What is good? To not eat that
tree. That's what's good. What's evil? To eat that tree. That's what
this tree was all about. It's a positive revelation of
the will of God. In other words, what he said
to Adam was, this is my garden. And you're here by my grace.
And you can have everything in this garden. I put you in it. And I give it to you, and I'm
putting you here to dress it and to keep it, but don't eat
that tree. Don't eat that tree. It's a positive revelation of
the will of God. And this tree stood in the garden
as a symbol of God's authority and his will, his will preeminent
over the man. That's what this tree was all
about. This was God's garden. Oh, I tell you what, you know,
everything in that garden, it says this too down here in this
verse, and God planted a garden. God planted this garden. Our
Lord, the disciples came to Him and they said, you know, the
Pharisee was offended at what you said. Well, they ought to
have been the way He said it. I would have been if somebody
had said that to me. But they said they were offended. And here's what he told those
disciples who told him that. He said, every plant which my
heavenly Father hath not planted is going to be rooted up. This is God's garden. He does
the planting. He puts man here. Man didn't
work his way there. God put him in this garden. This
is God's garden. It was the garden into which
he put his man, bearing his image, and this bride that he presented
to her. And these two trees stood for the perfections of the living
God and the ability to know evil and good and yet maintain those
perfections. That's what these two trees was
all about. When Eve was tempted of the devil and she told him
the will of God concerning these trees, he told her a different
story, didn't he? He told her a little different
story. He said to her, You shall not
surely die. The Lord said, You're going to die. You're not going
to die. That's just a play on words.
That's just a play on words, what that was. Or what they tell
me. That's just the old Bible. That's
the old English. I was talking to a man one time
about 2 Corinthians 5.21. And he said, it doesn't say in
the Scripture that Christ was made sin. I said, sure it does.
You might argue over what that word means, and that's okay with
me. I'm not going to separate with you over it. But that word
made, the same word he uses over in John 1 when he said the word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, same word. And I showed it
to him. I had a Bible in the truck, and
I turned over and showed it to him. And he said, oh, that's
that old King James Version. He said, that's that old English.
And this man's name was James. And I said, James, I said, the
word M-A-D-E, made, It means the same thing now, it meant
then. I said, I've got an old English dictionary, and I looked
it up. Word means same thing now, it did then. M-A-D-E, made. That's not old English, that's
the old man keeping you from understanding this. This is the
old man. Hath God surely said it? You
shall not surely die. God said she would. Satan said
she wouldn't. Satan said her eyes would be open. You'll be
as God. You'll know good and evil. You'll
be just like God. You'll be just like God. God
said she'd surely die. Satan said her eyes were going
to be opened. She'd be godly. He said, you do this, you're
going to be godly. That's what he was telling her.
Well, what does he do today? Don't he do the same thing? His
advice is always the same. Hath God surely said? Is that
what the Lord really meant? He didn't mean he was going to
die. That's not what he meant. And then she saw in his description
how the tree was good to eat. She saw in his testimony of lies
that it was pleasant to look on. And she reasoned by his arguments
that it was a tree to make one wise. And so she ate it, and
she gave it to her husband, and he ate it. And they died just
like God said they would. And what Satan didn't say is
what deceived the woman. But knowing good, she wouldn't
have the ability to do it, and knowing evil, she wouldn't have
the power to resist it, because this good and evil was according
to these perfections in this tree of life. It's according to these perfections.
He didn't tell her that, and so they ate and they died. And
in the everlasting covenant of grace, there are two things that
must be accomplished. Two things that was disturbed
that have to be accomplished, and this is why somebody said,
well, you just harp on it all the time. Well, I'm going to
keep on harping on it. Angels harp. They harp about the good
news. That's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to harp on the good news. I'm going to stay right on these
two things. But there was two things that has to be accomplished
in this everlasting covenant of grace, and first is the obedience
of one with a full knowledge of good and evil. Full knowledge. Not a man like Adam who couldn't
resist, but a man who had full knowledge of good and evil to
choose the one and resist the other. That has to be done. That has to be done. That's the
term of this covenant. This covenant is going to stand.
Knowing the perfections of goodness and the depth of goodness and
the infinite requirements of goodness. and knowing the depth
of sin, knowing the depth of sin and its nature, the exceeding
sinfulness of sin, to love righteousness and hate iniquity. I hate certain
things, and certain things I don't hate like I ought to. I don't
hate like I ought to. To love righteousness and hate
iniquity, to pay what the one demands. and honor and exalt
the other. In these last days of which this
prophet spoke, as he wrote, and he wrote these blessed things
and prophesied of these blessed things, come the sun and surety
of this everlasting covenant, the appointed heir of all things.
And over in Hebrews chapter 1, you might want Open your Bible
and read with me over there through these things, or at least you
can read through this chapter as I talk to you. I'm going to
be referring here to these first two or three verses. This appointed heir of all things,
Hebrews 1, 2, by whom also he made the world, the same one,
who being in the brightness of his glory, verse 3, and the express
image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his
power, when he by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of majesty on high." Better than the angels, he goes on to
say. Better than the angels. Number one, because by inheritance,
God had given him a better name than them. He called the angels
ministering spirits, but he said to his son, by throne, O God is forever. It's an everlasting kingdom.
And the scepter of your kingdom, he said, is a scepter, listen,
of righteousness. Of righteousness. For, he said,
thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. You see what
he did? He restored what Adam lost in
the garden. He restored what he offended
when he reached by his hand and took that fruit and that tree. I'm not going to redeem man without
those two things. You can just throw it out there.
I don't care if people are walking down aisles and making decisions,
and I could go on and write something as thick as a Sears and Roebuck
catalog on it on all the different ways and things that man has
conjured up over the last several thousand years about how to get
himself back in favor with God. Only one way you're going to
come into favor with God, and that's through the Redeemer who
kept who kept, who knew good and evil, and who knew the perfections
of God and was able to love righteousness and hate iniquity and pay for
those sins, pay for that offended authority of God, that offended
holiness of God, able to pay the bill. Thy throne is forever and ever
a scepter of righteousness, a scepter of thy kingdom. Hebrews 1 verse
9, Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity. Therefore,
God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness
above thy fellows. They shall perish, but thou remainest,
and they all shall wax old at doth of garment. And as a vesture
shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed. But thou
art the same, thy years shall not fail. I had him put forth his hand
and took of the fruit and said, of the will of God, I'll do what
I want, when I want, how I want. That's what he said. That's what
I'm going to do. That's what I'm going to do.
And he died. And his bride died with him.
She died with him. But before God drives out the
man, before God drives out him and his bride, He comes to them
in their nakedness, and comes to them in their sin, and he
finds them in their hiding place. This is interesting to me. I
thought about this this afternoon. They didn't run out the gate
into the world to hide. They hid in the garden. They
didn't run out into the world and peel some bark off a tree
and try to cover themselves. They took the leaves off the
tree of God's planting. and tried to hide themselves.
And to me, that picture is man hiding in religion. He takes
these precious things of Christ and tries to hide in them. But
he doesn't know what they're for. He doesn't know what they
symbolize. He doesn't know what they mean.
And so he takes those things and he uses them wrongly. He
doesn't know how to use them. He doesn't know how to interpret
them. He's ignorant. Here's this wise man in the garden of God. God put him there. He knew a
lot. Then he fell, and he knew nothing. He knew nothing. He's sowing fig leaves together.
He's hiding in the trees. Hiding among the trees, trying
to hide from God. Oh, he comes to us, and God knows
where we hide. And he comes to us right in our
hiding place, and he roots us out. Oh, I don't know how many
times in the Old Testament it talks about these refugees. A
bed shorter, you can't lie on it, your feet hang over the end
and the cover is too short. You can't cover yourself up.
He pictures it like a cistern, a broken cistern that can hold
no water. You all know what a cistern is.
He built it. A man builds it. He builds it
and he catches water that runs off the roof. He catches that
water and he's got water to drink. It's not like a well. It's not
spring-fed. It's old stagnant water that
he gathered together. But his cistern is so poorly
constructed that it won't even hold water. That's man's refuge. You can just go on and on and
on with the different things that he talks about. Oh, he talks
about, and then he talks about the wisdom,
even in the creatures, how he's pictured the proper place to
hide. Even in his little creature,
he talks about the Coney. I don't know even what a coney
is. It's some kind of little fuzzy, furry animal. And he said
the coney is feeble folk, but he makes his house in the rocks.
Hides in the rocks. He knows where to hide. He knows
where to hide. Oh, in the covenant, in this
covenant garden, God makes provision for man to be discovered where
he hides and where he lives in sin. In this covenant of God,
He comes to the sinner with his substitute, sheds his blood on
his behalf, covers his nakedness, shows him his sin. And then this
covenant of grace, the Lord gives him a promise, a promise of a
coming seed. You think about it. He hasn't
left the garden yet. Still in the garden. Gives him
a promise. He said the woman's seed. He's
passing out the judgment. And he told Satan, he said, the
woman's saved. He said, you're going to bruise
his heel, but he's going to crush your head. He's going to crush
your head. And then he drives him out into
the world. Now go back with me here to the
book of Genesis. Let me show you something back
here in Genesis 3, verse 23. Therefore the Lord God sent him
forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which
he was taken. So he drove out the man, and
he placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims and
a flaming sword which turned every way, keeping the way of
the tree of life. By the sin of the first Adam,
man was placed under the curse of God. He fell under the curse
of God. Death comes by sin, passed upon
all men. You can read about it in Romans
chapter 5. It rained in man. You read through
Romans chapter 5, and he uses these two men. He uses Adam and
Christ, and you go back and forth between Adam and Christ. You
read about it again over in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, dealing with these
two men. reigned unto death, condemned
the world to hell, all of them condemned, set in them a nature contrary
to the glory of God. But God did not close the gate. That's what I want you to see.
He didn't close the gate. When man sinned, he didn't destroy
the covenant of grace. He just established it. That doesn't excuse his sin.
It doesn't excuse what he did, it doesn't excuse his rebellion,
nor does it pass the fault on to God for placing him there. He didn't cause Adam to sin,
he didn't tempt Adam to sin. Adam did what he did on his own.
He did what he did on his own. He told Satan, he said, you're
a liar and you're the father of lies. Right here in this garden,
standing there lying, lying. He didn't close the gate, but
he put there cherubims and flaming swords. And they were posted
at the gate to keep the way of the tree of life and to maintain
the way of God's perfections and glory until the King of the
covenant, until the surety of the covenant was to come. And
then he'd enter in through the cherubims. And now I want you
to go through the Old Testament as you read it. And you see that
tabernacle. And you see in beyond that veil,
you see that ark of the covenant. And over top of it is the mercy
seat. And what do you see? You see these two terribles.
These two terribles. The way is open. The way is open. That's what it's telling you.
He's keeping the way. Keeping the way. And all through
that Old Testament, these terribles. When Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter
6, when he said he saw the Lord, he saw Him high and lifted up.
And above Him was what? Covering their eyes. Covering
their eyes. Keeping the way. Keeping the way. Not keeping
it closed. Keeping it from compromise. Keeping the man from just by
his own will and his own ways to just go in there and pluck
from the tree of life. That's what he tries to do in
religion. He tries to go in through that gate and just pluck that
fruit from that tree, but that way is barred. He can't get in.
He can't even find a way. He can't find it. And God pictured
it and pointed it and kept it and guarded it from compromise
for thousands and thousands of years. He posted them there to
keep the way of the tree of life and to maintain the way of God's
perfections and glory. And to keep that covenant from
compromise and corruption from evil men. And to keep that way open. Keep
it open. The only way back in that garden
is through the Redeemer. It's the only way. Christ said, I'm the way, didn't
He? I'm the way. I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. Now, I want you to listen to
something. I'm going to read to you from Revelation 2, verse 7. He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh. Now, I read that to you out of
John. Your faith. Who is he that overcometh?
It is your faith that overcomes. Okay? To him that overcometh
will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst
of the paradise of God. You are going to come through
that gate, and you are going to come through the Redeemer,
or you are not going in. You are not going in. In Romans
chapter 3, it says, God set forth his Son as a propitiation for
our sins to declare his righteousness that he might be just and justifier,
just and justifier of all them that believe. And know this,
Adam cannot be the surety of the covenant. He cannot be him
upon which the glory of this garden was planted. But Christ
is what this garden was all about. That's what this garden was all
about. And the Lord showed it to Adam when he killed that lamb
and shed his blood for him and covered him with its skins. That's
what that covenant is. The covenant is worth nothing
apart from its surety. It's in its surety. And in that
surety and in that covenant is displayed all this glory. Now,
as we go on, I'm going to build on this. I've tried purposely
to stay away from things and not try to get real exhaustive
in these things. I want to build on them. Next
week, we're going to look at the rivers. Lord willing, we'll
look at these rivers. Where do they come from? It says
they come out of Eden. You know what Eden stands for?
I'll just whet your appetite a little bit. It stands for pleasure. Pleasure. Place of pleasure. This river flowed out of that
good pleasure of God. and come down into the garden.