The beginning

… O wondrous Saviour, cheerless Lord, by day and night to Thee adored we worship Thee. The moon is shining, sun of God, the evening coming, evening well. O glory be O glory be in Thee our human presence heaven to my Father in the sand at his hand's breath. Pray unto him, Thou ever kind, so soft rejoicing to his heart, thus sweet and fair, thus sweet and fair. There and on the sand a bed beyond the grave of John, of earth, of heav'n and high, in praise, in praise, shall heaven and earth enthroned in holy faithfulness by me for love, by me for love. And there shall come a world without end, ages long, and nations shine O blessed day. How shall we tell its wonderful and ever praising of the Lord O splendid day, O splendid day. This day shall be a month of safe and glorified We share with him the Father's home and sing in blessed wondrous praise How long we hail in Jesus' name Lord Jesus Christ Lord Jesus Christ Dear brethren, dear friends, if God allows us, and if the Lord has a direct sense, in the next few days, we should be occupied by the meditation of the last chapters of the last book of the Bible, the Revelation. It is a book of judgment, but also it's the book of the end of ages, and yet of the beginning of an everlasting morning, eternal state. We thought it could be of some help if we would consider not the end, but the beginning, and thrust some thoughts as to the various beginnings the scripture speaks to us about, and try to find points of comparison, and link the beginning to the end. Where is the link to be found in Christ, the first and the last, Alpha and Omega? So let's start with the first verse of the first chapter of the first book of the Bible, Genesis 1.1. Recently, in the book I have available for reading, I discovered something I should have known for a long time, the writings from Brother Whittle. And in one of his two books I have at home, he gave us a translation, very literate translation, of the first two chapters of the Bible. And I thought there are very interesting things to discover. So, if your permission, I will read some of this translation. Genesis 1. In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness on face of deep, and spirit of Elohim moving on face of the waters. That's all. Young people, you will be interested to realize that the first verse of the Bible starts with a grammatical exception. Elohim is a pool, triune God. The pool of Elohim. God Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, as well as one God, Elohim. The problem with English created is the same whether it's plural or singular. In French, clair. So the verb is conjugated with the singular, and the subject is plural. I think it's very interesting. It's a very clear and powerful statement. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. It is here the heavens, the cosmos, galaxies, stars, planets and the like. The heavens and the earth. Scripture speaks to us about three heavens. The lower heavens we'll find in the next days. The intermediate heaven, the cosmos is here in verse 1. And the third heaven, which is the paradise of God, and 2 Corinthians 12 is very clear in allowing us to make the two the same. The light that no man can approach unto. The unapproachable light is the everlasting dwelling of God and the Godhead. Also, Scripture speaks to us of the heavenlies, of heavenly places, which is a little different from the light, everlasting light. The everlasting light has not been created. It's the dwelling place of the Godhead, who is forever. God created the heavens and the earth. Verse 2 makes a statement of the condition in which the earth is to be found. It is not spoken of the heavens anymore for the while, only of the earth. The Spirit of God concentrates our thoughts, minds and affections to the earth. The earth is to be made acceptable for man to inhabit in it. Beyond man, God's counsel is to make everything for Christ. As the firstborn from the creation, for all things have been created for him, by him, and all things by his power. The state into the world, the earth is to be found, is void, without form and void. Now, three scriptures, Tui Bui, which use the same expression in Isaiah and Jeremiah, stating very clearly that this was not the condition in which God created the world initially. Because the world was to be made the habitation of man. Three things are considered here. Darkness, without form and void. Darkness, the Spirit of the Lord moving on the face of the waters. Peter tells us in his epistle that the world has been getting out of waters. Darkness, waters, and yet the Spirit of God overwhelming the seed. God remains in overall power by everything. Then we find in successive verses the three days of creation. The six days of creation. If you look in detail, you'll find that they are to be separated in the first three and the last three. One, two, three, four, five, six. And then the seventh day is separate. God separates the first day of darkness from light. That's with the scripture. Elohim says, light is and there is light. And Elohim says, the light that it is good. And Elohim divides between the light and the darkness. And Elohim calls the light day and the darkness He calls night. And evening is and morning is a first day. Elohim says, there shall be a firmament in the midst of the waters. It shall be dividing between waters and waters. And Elohim makes the firmament and He divides between the waters which are under the firmament and the waters which are above the firmament. It is so. And Elohim calls the firmament heavens. Evening is and morning is a second day. Elohim says, the waters under the heavens shall be gathered together to one place. And the dry land shall seem so it is. And Elohim calls the dry land earth and gathering together the waters He calls seas. And Elohim sees that it is good. And Elohim says, the earth brings forth grass herb seeding seed and tree of fruit producing fruit after its kind whose seed is in it on the earth. And so it is. And the earth brings forth grass herb seeding seed after its kind and tree producing fruit whose seed is in it after its kind. And Elohim sees that it is good. And evening is and morning is a third day. Elohim said, there shall be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide between the day and the night. And they shall be no more for signs and for seasons for days and years. They shall have been for lights in the firmament of the heavens the light of the earth and so it shall be. And Elohim makes those two lights the great ones, the light, that great one for the rule of the day and that light, the lesser one for the rule of the night. The stars also. And Elohim sets them in the firmament of the heavens to give light to the earth and to rule over the day and over the night and to divide between the lights and the darkness. And Elohim says that it is good. And evening is and morning is a fourth day. Elohim said, the waters bring forth abundantly the creeping things of living beings and fowls flies over the earth in the face of the firmament of the heavens. And Elohim creates great whales and every living being that is creeping which the waters brought forth abundantly after that time and every winged fowl after its kind. And Elohim sees that it is good. And Elohim blesses them saying be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the sea and the fowls shall multiply on the earth. And evening is and morning is the fifth day. Elohim said, the earth brings forth the living being after its kind cattle and reptiles and every living creature of earth after its kind and so it is. Elohim says, makes the living creatures of the earth after its kind the cattle after its kind and every reptile of the earth after its kind Elohim says that it is good. Now, Elohim says, we will make man, Adam in our image after our likeness they shall have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heavens and over the cattle and over the earth and over every reptile that is creeping on the earth. So Elohim creates the man in his own image an image of Elohim created in him male and female created in them. And Elohim blesses them and Elohim says to them, be fruitful multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the seas and over the fowl of the heavens and over every living thing that is creeping on the earth. The end of the chapter. Evening is and morning is the sixth day and the heavens and the earth become finished and on their host. On the seventh day Elohim finishes His work which He made in the arrests on the seventh day for all His work which He made. Elohim blesses the seventh day and sanctifies it because of it in it He arrests for all His work which Elohim created to make. We mentioned a while ago that we have the six days of creation the first three days in which the fundamental components of the earth has been arranged and in the next three days four, five and six the earth is made habitable for the habitation of man, of Adam. The first day separation between light and darkness. In brother Kenny's book on creation he reports that there was an argument hundred and fifty years ago as to the nature of light. Light is not a material entity. There was a theory by Newton another theory that light was something like a very substance like ether. In fact we discovered that light really is a vibration traveling in void at a fantastic speed of 300,000 km per second. Light has not been created as such in the verse we just read. We discovered in the remains of living creatures which probably lived between the verses 1 and 2 of Genesis 1 capacity of seeing very accurately so probably light was available at the time. Here the main problem, the main theme is separation from light and darkness. God separates. Morally, spiritually speaking, it's the same. He is the one who created, who called light to shine to coerce and thwart. Shine in our hearts. The seventh day there is the separation between the firmament and the earth. Water above the firmament and the water in the firmament. The third day there is separation between land and seas. In fourth, fifth and sixth day there is the relationship between the various components. Basically the creation is consisting of one mineral creation, insensitive, immaterial. Material, no touch. The seventh is the vegetable creation. Insensitive, but herb, grass, a tree lives and dies. That's the tenth. Then animal creation which is the material part of body and a living soul which makes it living but led by its instinct. Nothing else. A very important verse has been very often forgotten. In Peter, Peter calling about the rebels saying they are comparable to beasts made to be taken and destroyed. In other words, the end of living of an animal does not have a moral significance. Beyond there is nothing. This is the fantastic and complete difference with a human being. A human being which is the next level of creation is made of a body, material part, a soul and spirit. Soul, Psyche and spirit, Numa. And in Hebrew the same word is used for breathing and spirit. Man is created by God as one person comprising body, soul and spirit. Man only has a spirit which makes him capable of being in relation with God. When taken by his instinct like Nebuchadnezzar he will fall back like normal, like an animal and he eat the grass of the fields for seven years like Nebuchadnezzar but it's not in God's thoughts to do this. Mineral creation, vegetable creation, animal, human. Then heavenly, angelic. This is not talked about here in this chapter because they were made in the former time, Job 38 I think tells us that the stars would cry of joy and the angels too. Mineral creation is insensitive. Vegetable creation finds its food in the mineral creation. Animal creation finds its food in the vegetable creation and human creation finds its food in the lower creation. The word create bara in Hebrew is only used three times. Verse 1, Genesis 1.1, God created. Verse 21, God created great whales every living creature that moves through the waters and verse 27, God created man in his own image. It's interesting. First verse, it's the body, material creation. Second is animal creation and third is human creation. Body and soul makes an animal. Body, soul and spirit makes a human, makes an animal. Basic question. I don't know where you are in England but at least in France our children are still being taught about evolution. Basic question. We don't have enough time this evening to take this into detail but just one word. Basically, is it evolution or creation? No question, creation. Evolution is something that doesn't exist. It was launched by Darwin and Lamarck and taken back by Darwin. Apparently Darwin at the end of his life regretted very deeply that he had launched a fatal mistake as to the evolution. To make man coming from a name, from a monkey is nothing short of a strong insult to the God creator, period. The thing I don't understand is how intelligent people, you know, can be carried that far. At the same time, in the middle of the 19th century Louis Passant made very strong measurements, experiments and launched a fatal blow against evolution. He demonstrated that the spontaneous creation of life was impossible. Meanwhile also, Carleau developed the principle of thermodynamics. There are two basic principles which are interesting for us. The first principle is that the energy is conserving. It doesn't vanish. And the second principle states that the entropy which is the energy over the absolute temperature cannot do anything else but increase. In other words, nothing is created, nothing is destroyed but everything tends to decline. Now how in the world can you explain now that you take a small cell, develop it in something like a fish, an animal and finally you get a man? It's ridiculous. It doesn't make any sense. And still the books in the hands of our children today in France teach evolution. There was a mistake also made between the two words create and make. Barre and Assat. They are not equivalent. Although for man, for example, man is created and he is made. One word about the problem of the decline of energy. The sun is a very interesting example. The sun undertakes continuously a change from hydrogen to helium which makes its weight to lose approximately four and a half million tons per second. Yet if you calculate based on the size and volume and weight of the sun the possible length of time of the sun you'll find this in billions of years. So God is ever safe in what he did. The sun will not stop shining before God has finished his way with man. We said a while ago that light travels at the speed of 300,000 km per second. A light year is a measure of length which is the distance which is travelled by the speed of light during one basic average year. If you take the distance between earth and sun which is 150 million km roughly, 90 million miles, you will find that a light year is 63,000 times the distance between the earth and the sun. And there are stars which are several thousand light years of us. So I think you will agree that the earth is a grain of sand and I am a small grain of sand upon the earth. Yet earth takes its value in the fact that at one time God sent his own beloved son. He came to Jerusalem and died at the cross to change and forever the course of events. Blessed be his name. We said that there are three days where the shape of the earth is finished and three days the earth is replenished. The culminating point of those six days of creation is the creation of man according to God's counsels. And only in this case it is said in the scripture let us, God speaks, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish. God created them man in his own image in the image of God created him male and female created them created he them. So God has created man in his image in his likeness. Image and likeness are not quite exactly the same. If you carry an image of your wife or of your mother a photograph I look at the photograph and say oh that's my mother. That's an image. Before photography was invented you know, whether it was any kind of photography the only way of keeping the memories of a person was the paper. Now if the artist was good the resemblance was good. But if the artist was not that good it was not very it was not very resembling. Yet it was the image. The likeness shows there are similar features morally speaking. And man has been initially created as the image of God and the likeness of God. The Lord Jesus Christ when he came on earth was fully the image of the invisible God. The expression is found in 2 Corinthians 4 and in Colossians 1. It's never said in the scripture that he was under the likeness of God. Why? Because he was God himself. He was made under the likeness of man. He accepted to take the man's condition he made himself of reputation. We just read the scripture that beautiful scripture in Philippians 2. Being God he took the image of man. He took the place of man and being man he went down to be the servant of everyone. That's his glory. At the end of the 6th day God states clearly that what he had done was good. It says 7 times that it was good except for the 2nd day and the 3rd day it says twice. On the 7th day, something different it was very good and God rested. The 7th day, the end of that Sabbath, the end of this creation week God rested. And Israel was supposed to keep the Sabbath the 7th day as the rest day in remembrance of God making the world and the heavens and resting on the 7th day. This is an image of another rest which is the rest in redemption. And Christ will bring that rest. There is a sabbatical for Hebrews 4 There is a sabbatical rest for the people of God. Now, the interesting enough, the description starts over in Genesis 2 verse 29 Genesis 2 verse 4 These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens. Yes Mr. Wigram says These are the generations of the heavens and the earth and they are being created in the day of making by Jehovah Elohim of earth and heavens. An interesting point is that the description of chapter 1 it was Elohim at work Elohim, the plural of Elohim, the Godhead God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Incidentally, I think creation is essentially attributed the Son and the Holy Spirit all to the Godhead as a whole and maybe one time to the Father, but I'm not sure. Now, the description starts over, it is not a supplementary description it is another aspect and God is now called Jehovah Elohim not Jehovah alone, Jehovah Elohim Jehovah is the name God takes including his attributes as revealed to Moses at the time Israel was going to be taken out of Egypt in the beginning of Exodus. Jehovah supposes assumes God being in relationship with man and this is interesting because the description of creation not only concentrates from chapter 1 verse 2 and the following on the earth but it concentrates on man to be the inhabitant of the earth so heaven and earth, Genesis 1 verse 1, the earth as such to be organized to receive man and man now being in relation with God the creation of man is repeated and there are two details which are given here which were not shown in chapter 1 verse 7 Genesis 2 7, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became the living soul man was then taken of the dust of the ground in fact the name Adam the name of the first man I think in Hebrew means red earth or clay the expression, the clay is very interesting as you know the creation is made either of sand which is silicium clay which is aluminum or carbon incidentally in the precious source of the bible diamond is pure carbon although the value of the materials do not make the value of the stone the value of the stone is from the capacity of reflecting the light and separating the light into the sumptuous colors of the rainbow man is taken from something which is found in abundance on earth and has no value what is the value of man in the eyes of God he has a spirit man can be in relation with God himself through the work of the Holy Spirit man is then taken from the clay taken from the clay from the silence of the earth and after the fall he is called to return to the earth which is that he was not initially in God's provisions the second God breathed in him in his nostrils the breath of life and it is not said to any animal animals are called living souls although man as such is a special living soul because he has a spirit in the new creation there is a very interesting counterpart if you look very quickly on John 20 on the day of resurrection the end of the day when the Lord Jesus shows himself to the disciples which were in the upper room he says receive ye the Holy Spirit it is not the Holy Spirit as a third person of deity coming down as a person on the assembly on the day of Pentecost as in Acts 2 the spirit of the risen Christ which is blown into the disciples spiritually speaking exactly the same way as in the first creation the spirit of man was breathed into the nostrils of man to become a living soul the fact that man has been the image of God and that he has received the breath of life is found several times in the scripture with some interesting applications incidentally the fact that the man is made in the image of God is one thing which makes the penalty of a murder of taking somebody for somebody else's life extremely serious and in fact it should be punished of death Genesis 9 is very clear second thing also is that that I think is interesting for us we have a tongue we have a mouth we cannot use it to give worship to God and next time turn around and speak badly of men because men have been created in the image of God the fact that the image of God is also given in 1 Corinthians 11 as to the position of man as opposed to woman in the society in the world and also in the assembly although there is no difference between man and woman in the assembly as to the position towards Christ God planted the garden the garden even there was one river distributed spreading into four rivers two Euphrates Hedekel which is the Tigris are well known they go to the Mesopotamia and they will have an important bearing in the future in the world after the flood on Euphrates there is Babylon which is the apostasy on the religious side and on the Tigris, Hedekel there is Nineveh which is the capital of Assyria and the king of the north which is as important also in the last events the two other rivers are not known I will just shield behind Mr. Kelly and suggest that one is going to the Dead Sea no, to the Black Sea and the other one to the Caspian Sea but I think the idea is this there is only one river that's because it spreads much the same as the gospel of Christ today coming down from heaven spreads in all four corners of the world in order to give the good news of salvation there was nothing for man to do except tilt the garden painlessly no effort enjoy God's blessing man was in authority he was the vice manager maybe the expression is not too good the vice manager of God on this world he was in authority and the proof of this authority was given by the fact that God brought the animals to Adam and asked him to name them give names to people is an expression of the authority the Lord Jesus gives names to his disciples change names Israel name was changed from Jacob to Israel by God himself Nebuchadnezzar gave the four Hebrew young men different names Chaldean names here Adam gives names but there was something missing when God was creating the animals he created them every time by their species separately male and female and man was alone and he says it's the second counsel God takes as to Adam chapter 2 verse 20 Adam gave names to all cattle in the fold and so forth and for Adam there was not found a help need for him and the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead there were and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man many a woman and brought her unto the man and Adam said this is now born of my bones and cleft of my flesh and shall be called woman Esha because she was taken out of man now this is the last beautiful act of creation of God considering man that he did not want to be alone the woman Eve which is not named here yet she is named only after the father Eve was brought to the man to Adam and there was Adam and Eve the first couple the rib taken from man's side was under the shoulder strength and protection and close to the heart a source of affections this is exactly what a wife is towards her husband but beyond this obviously referring to Ephesians 5 last verse there is a mystery behind it which is the mystery of the church and Christ, Christ and the church if you look at the generations of Adam of Adam in chapter 5 you will find that the creation is related to quickly and there is an interesting expression in this reading the book of the generations of Adam he created in the likeness of God, male and female created and blessed them and called their blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they were created in other words they have a similar name it's not Adam and Eve Adam comprises man and woman, man and his wife it is to be found for the church in 1 Corinthians 12 verse 12 here is Christ this is Christ and the church before entering into some details as to this I would like now just to bring briefly the summary of the history of man in the first two chapters of Genesis we found the creation man on earth knowing the state of innocence he did not have the sense, the feeling the capacity of distinguishing between good and evil the knowledge of good and evil and the conscience he didn't have at the time the state is dispensation Mr. Darby thinks it's not really dispensation regardless that state did not last very long the two proofs at least are that Adam didn't have enough time to name his wife and apparently they certainly didn't have children in the state of innocence now knowing our hearts I think you will agree probably that the state of innocence probably that the state of innocence lasted one day probably not much more and don't accuse our parents Adam and Eve who have eaten the forbidden fruit because we would have done likewise knowing our hearts starting at the state of innocence and ending in the last not last dispensation the beginning of the end the beginning of the end which has no end the eternal state there are several dispensations the first one is the dispensation of conscience it started with a fall chapter 2 and ended up with a flood it lasted 1650 years there was a crisis immediately after the fall there were four people living on the earth Adam and Eve Abel and Cain and one was murdered Abel the first elect blessed through a murder the generation of Cain is occupied with the earth nothing else they invent the cities they invent killing the ground they invent the arts musical instruments and then the technology everything just to make a little more comfortable in the earth which has which was cursed by God the earth was cursed because of man's folly and the man was cursed on account of the earth because the earth had received Abel's blood and he was murdered by his brother Cain it ended up with a flood 1650 years later the flood was something tremendous tremendous the days of Noah the Lord Jesus speaks about the days of Noah and the time of the days of Noah and only eight peoples were saved through with the ark after this there was another state another dispensation which is called the government it lasted 427 years 430 years it started with a flood and ended up at the time Terak died and Abraham repensed the call of God and entered the land of promise and was the received the blessings promises of the blessings unconditional blessings the state lasted another 430 years until Israel went out of Egypt it's called the dispensation of promise starting at the crossing of the Red Sea to Christ there is a length of time of approximately 1500 years which is roughly 3 times 490 years the three successive steps of Israel's sad and destructive history on earth the first ended up with the priesthood in Eli was in the second was the unfaithfulness of the kingdom transportation to Babylon and after the 400 silent years the coming of Christ there is only one week which remains to run of the 70 weeks 69 have elapsed another week will take place when the church has gone meanwhile we say the clock of prophetic events has stopped because the church is outside of the earth then the judgments we considered at length in the preceding conferences here will take place and introduce the millennial kingdom the length of which 1000 years is only mentioned in Revelation it will end up with the final judgment of the dead the dissolution of the heavens of the blue earth and the appearing of the new creation of the new heaven and new earth in which righteousness inhabits dwells all together the history of man would have lasted something comparable 7000 years we don't know exactly if the lord comes this evening it will be about this the lord knows but for encouragement the lord has given some very interesting points where our heart can flow down and find an emblem speaking to our hearts as to the mystery in God's counsel concerning Christ and the church Adam and Eve is the first one they are all together seven who will have it will take a few minutes to just survey this quickly what the fact essentially stressed in Adam and Eve is the fact that Christ and the church is united into one Adam says there are not two in one the lord Jesus calls again this in Matthew 19 I think it says that same what God has united man cannot separate so man and man and his wife Adam and Eve Ish and Isha make one person Christ and the church the next is I think Isaac and Rebecca Isaac is offered and is received by his father through resurrection as Hebrews 11 tells us in Genesis 22 Rebecca which means attractive is mentioned her name is mentioned for the first time in the end of Genesis 22 in Genesis 24 she is received by Isaac the faithful servant has fetched her in the place of origin of his father Abraham and then she stays in the fields the servant says this is my master what does she do she makes her place and she is carried on the temple of Sarah's Isaac's mother the lord Jesus wants the true affections and hearts of his church all and every one of us Jacob and Rachel we have more picture of the earthly of Israel on earth there is one point which is being stressed very strongly Jacob loved Rachel the last word he spoke in death bed speaking to Joseph 49 years after the death of Rachel in Bethlehem see she went Jacob had worked strongly hardly 14 years of Rachel who is the servant he says I love my master my wife, my children I want to go out free and he will serve forever Exodus 21 Deuteronomy 15 is the lord Jesus the next is Joseph and Asher Joseph is at the peak of his power at the time he received who was from the nations Ashton is identified with Joseph at the time of his glory Joseph was rejected in his person his 11 brothers could not stand him they hated him what did the world do in particular they have seen and hated me and my father John 16 so Joseph was hated in his person and Ashton is identified and associated with him at the time of his glory next is Moses and Zephora Zephora? Moses was not rejected essentially in his person but in his mission they did not understand that God had sent him to his people to deliver them it took them 40 years to understand and Zephora was identified with Moses at the time of his rejection now please be cautious do not change the order of events at this moment we should be in the position of Zephora waiting the lord's return in glory in the world when we will be the true Ashton and we should be identified with the lord Jesus at the time of his rejection in a world which rejected him and which still rejects him and we are faithful to carry this testimony then the lord Jesus will honor us and allow us to be with him and he comes back to reign in glory then the next emblem is Ruth and Boaz we find the expression of the redemption of the prize paid God is for Israel the Goel the true Goel, the redemptor the redeemer the lord Jesus is the redeemer of the church it says in several epistles and the last one maybe the more touching is David and Abigail Abigail at the time David was rejected by Saul he was fiend like a bird Abigail found in him something which nothing could show outwardly for her the coming of David in glory in power in his kingdom was absolutely as sure as it had been today and yet there was no outside sign of this Christ should grasp our hearts and affections in spite of the fact that nothing is shown of Christ's glory this time then we are sure that he would come one day we find the same thing exactly in the repentant manufacturer on the cross the beginning of the cross both manufacturers railed Christ the manufacturers Mark and Matthew both tell us that they started with railing him and at one time the repentant one returned to himself and asked the Lord Jesus to remember him in his time of his kingdom the kingdom of Christ what was that kingdom of Christ at this time? nothing but an object of rail an object of mockery in the hands of his enemies for the manufacturer something was absolutely clear so the Lord Jesus answered way beyond his request and promised him a place with him in paradise what a beauty what is now the opposition comparison between the first creation and the second creation in the second creation in the world to come we find prophetically in Revelation 19 the marriage of the Lamb so all those types, emblems the seven ones just mentioned in the Old Testament will finally be replaced by the actual fact of Christ receiving his wife we have been today espoused as a chaste virgin so we belong to Christ as much now as if the marriage of the Lamb had taken place but it's a question of faith and it's a question of faithfulness of our affections but the heavens rejoice in Revelation 19 whereas the world is in tears because Babylon has been broken down then we find in Revelation 21 and 22 after the eternal state the retrospect on the church during the millennium times and we find the wife ready adorned as the wife of her husband eternal youth there is no more spot no more wrinkle and also there is no more sorrows, there are no more tears because they have been wiped away from our eyes by the God of our comfort in the heavenly city Jerusalem what do we find? a river same as the river in Eden we find in the paradise of God a tree of life a tree of life a tree of life as a fruit which is the promised blessing for the overcomer in Ephesus and the leaves are for the healing of the nations now we don't the time does not permit us you will look easily in Ezekiel 47 and you will find the same expressions are used for the tree and for the blessing and for the water the water flows from underneath the sanctuary and increases in depth you can cross it to your knee to your body then you have to swim there is no limit to God's blessing there is one basic difference in the garden of Eden there were two trees the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge good and evil the second tree does not take has no place in the paradise of God because the responsibility of man as such was answered at the cross by the Lord Jesus and there is place only for the tree of life its fruit and its leaves there is no temple God and the Lamb of the temple there is no sun remember the sun was organized its interesting the sun the planet earth is a satellite of the sun in Genesis 1 the sun is placed in relation to the earth which is obvious because the earth is in God's sight to be the habitation of man in the new city in the heavenly Jerusalem in the new Jerusalem there is no sun God and the Lamb is the Lamb and yet at this time where is the Lamb of heavens to be found? in the church we are supposed to carry the testimony of the Lord Jesus until he comes maybe keeping us faithful to do this until his return a new creation of stainless joy gleams through the present blue a world of bliss without annoyance the saints eternal return to hymn number 81 and glory over the host of the given sight is found in the Christ is born on high redemption's welcome be where sacred is glory found in the Christ is born on high redemption's welcome be where sacred is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory found in the Christ is glory …