The Beginning and the Beginning Again
Genesis 1:26-31; Genesis 2:1-10
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
The word Genesis means the "beginning." It is the first Book of the Bible, and in its opening Chapter s we have the story of the beginning of the original creation, of the earth renewed and blessed, of the creation of man and of woman, of the vision of the Garden of Eden, of the entrance of sin and Satan, of the pronunciation of the curse, etc.
The Book of Revelation is the Book of the "new beginning." We find in its last few Chapter s the great consummation of everything which began in Genesis. The curse passes out, and the new life enters in.
A key to all of these things is found in the statement: "Behold, I make all things new."
In Genesis we have a flower in the bud; in Revelation we have the same flower in the bloom, with all of its radiant glory and aroma filling the new heavens and the new earth.
1. The original earth. Perhaps, we should have said the original Heaven and earth. The first verse of Genesis says: "In the beginning God created the Heaven and the earth." Revelation 21:1 says: "I saw a new Heaven and a new earth: for the first Heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea."
Between the statement of Genesis 1:1, and that of Revelation 21:1, we have the whole story of the physical earth.
(1) There is the earth as God created it. It was not created waste and void.
(2) We have the earth without form and void, with darkness upon the face of the deep.
(3) We have the Spirit of God moving upon the face of the waters, and God saying, "Let there be light."
(4) There follows the story of the earth renewed and blessed as described in Genesis 1:1-31. The dry land appears, the earth brings forth grass, the herb, and the fruit tree. The sun and the moon are placed in the heaven to rule the day and the night. The waters are made to bring forth, the moving creature that has life. In the firmament above, the fowl and birds are made to fly.
2. The earth's great cataclysmic judgment. In Genesis 6:1-22 there begins the story of man's wickedness and of God's determination to destroy man from off the face of the earth. There follows the history of the ark and of the preservation of Noah and his family. Then the earth is destroyed by water. Every living thing is swept away before the wrath of God. The waters in the heavens above fall upon the earth beneath. Finally, the ark rests upon Mount Ararat; the earth is once more renewed and blest, and God places His bow in the cloud for a token of a covenant between Him and the peoples of the earth.
3. The earth's next cataclysmic judgment. This judgment will fall upon the earth during the time of the great tribulation. As we see it, we are now hastening toward that very hour. During that day of judgment, God will not forget the pledge of His rainbow; and the waters will not destroy man from off the earth. The judgments will be of a different order. The earth will tremble and will be moved exceedingly. The peoples of the earth will cry unto the rocks and mountains to fall upon them. There will be a great earthquake, and thunders, and lightnings, and voices.
4. After this cataclysmic judgment has abated God will once more renew and bless the earth. Every mountain shall be brought low and every valley exalted. Unprecedented fertility will be given to the soil. Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree. The wilderness will bloom and blossom as a rose.
5. The earth's final cataclysmic judgment. At the end of the thousand years of millennial blessings, we read of the great white throne from which the heavens and the earth fled away. Peter speaking of this hour says in the Spirit "The heavens and the earth, which are now, * * are kept in store, reserved unto fire." He also said: "The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up."
In the Book of Hebrews there is this statement, "Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also Heaven."
6. The new Heaven and the new earth. We now come to the close of the Bible message concerning the Heaven and the earth. The former things have passed away, the new Heaven and the new earth appear upon the scene, and God's City, the New Jerusalem, is seen descending, and resting upon, the new earth.
Thus we have scoped the history of the earth.
I. A CONTRAST BETWEEN PHYSICAL CONDITIONS IN THE ORIGINAL AND THE NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH (Genesis 1:3-4; Genesis 1:14-16)
1. The period when God said, "Let there be light." At this time there was not yet any sun or moon to lighten the earth, but God was the light thereof. In Revelation there is described, in chapter 21, a similar period. We read: "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it; for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." The nations of the new earth will walk in the light of that wonderful City, which will radiate its glory to the uttermost ends of the earth.
The period when God divided the day from the night. From that day until this we have had the rising of the sun and the setting thereof. We have had light by day and darkness by night. In the new heavens and the new earth, we find this expression, "There shall be no night there." Night and darkness passes with the passing of the first heaven and earth, and with the passing of the light of the sun and the moon.
2. The contrast between the seas of the first and second earth. In Genesis 1:1-31, we read that God gathered the waters unto heaven unto one place and He said, "Let the dry land appear." The dry land He called earth and the waters called He seas. In the new Heaven and the new earth of Revelation 21:1-27 we read: "And there was no more sea."
3. The contrast between the fruit tree of the original and final earth. The story is written of the Garden of Eden, "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 the knowledge of good and evil."
In the New Jerusalem, we read: There "was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month."
In Genesis we read of man being shut out lest they should eat of the tree of life and live. In Revelation we read, "Blessed are they that do His Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city."
4. The contrast in the rivers of the original and final earth. In Genesis 2:10, it is written, "And a river went out of Eden to water the Garden." In Revelation 22:1 we read: "And He shewed me a pure river of Water of Life, clear as crystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb."
II. A CONTRAST BETWEEN MAN AND HIS DOMINION IN THE ORIGINAL AND THE NEW HEAVEN AND EARTH (Genesis 1:26)
1. Man given dominion. Our text tells us of how God said: "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the fowl of the air," etc.
When man was driven out of the Garden of Eden that dominion was lost in park
2. The prophecy of a restored dominion. In Psalms 8:4-6 we read these words: "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the Son of Man, that Thou visitest Him? for Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned Him with glory and honour. Thou madest Him to have dominion over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under His feet."
3. The prophecy of a restored dominion is to be fulfilled in Christ. It is in the Book of Hebrews we read: "But now we see not yet all thing's put under Him. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour."
Our Lord Jesus Christ shall subdue all things. He must reign until He has put all things under His feet.
In all of this conquest, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Captain of our salvation. Where the Captain goes, the soldiers follow. His victory is theirs. They share every conquest with Him. He leads them in the train of His triumph.
4. The prophecy of the new Heavens and the new earth. In that Heavenly made City, and upon that earth will be established the Throne of God and of the Lamb. All dominion and authority will be invested in the One who conquered death and hell, and we in Him shall reign forevermore.
III. A CONTRAST IN SATAN'S POWER AND DOMINION (Genesis 3:1)
1. Satan enters in. Into the Garden of Eden Satan came seeking, if possible, to frustrate the plan of God, and to cast man down from his high estate. We are aware of the results. Eve and Adam both fell under Satan's strategies and deceptions. The result was that the curse was pronounced upon the woman, then upon the man. In the curse upon the man, the physical earth was involved and made subject to vanity for man's sake.
2. Satan proclaimed god of this world. With the authority of God broken, Satan himself assumed headship. The result was that the enemy became known as "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience," Christ said of Satan, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me." In the Epistle of John we read of the world lying in the lap of the wicked one. In Corinthians we read, "The god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not."
In the wilderness temptation Satan offered unto Christ the kingdoms of the world and the glories of them, if He would accept Satan's sovereignty and headship.
3. Satan's last stand. In the Book of Revelation we find where Satan, the old dragon and serpent, is cast out of Heaven, onto the earth. The devilish trinity consisting of the devil, the antichrist, and the false prophet, will at that time fill the earth with violence a violence equaled only by that which swayed man in the days of Noah. Satan will realize his time is short, and with one great final effort he will seek to rule God out of the earth, and to expel Christ from the thoughts of the hearts of men.
4. Satan cast into the pit of the abyss, and then into the lake of fire. In Revelation 20:1-15 we read of Satan being chained and cast into the pit. He will not be allowed, during the Millennial Kingdom of Christ, to tempt the world and to rule it.
Finally, he who entered into the world scene, in Genesis 3:1-24, will find his last abode in the lake of fire, where the beast and the false prophet are.
IV. A CONTRAST BETWEEN MAN'S SIN AND HIS FINAL SALVATION (Genesis 3:9-12)
1. How sin entered in. It was in the Garden of Eden that Satan cast his vile snare. He entered the Garden with one thought, the dethronement of God in the lives of the first man and woman. Not only that, but he entered with the express purpose of tempting man to enthrone himself as God. Incidentally, of course, Satan sought to take the place of authority over man.
Until this day sin may be summed up in one word, even this; "We have turned every one to his own way."
2. How sin is passed from man to man. There is a Scripture which says: "In sin did my mother conceive me." This heart of sin, therefore, which everyone of us possess in birth is passed down from father to son, throughout all generations. It passes after the Law which God Himself established in the creation, when He said, "Kind * * after his kind." The evolutionary theory would deny this eternal Law, and seek to establish the transmutation of species.
All flesh is sinful. "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God."
3. How God met the issue of man's redemption from sin. The 5th chapter of Romans tells the story of how grace superabounded over sin and its sway.
By one man sin entered into the world; by Another, life entered. By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; by Another salvation came, and death passed out, as life reigned.
This change was not wrought by any transmutation of species. It was wrought as follows:
(1) Christ in His death satisfied the offended Law, sustained its majesty, bore its penalty, and suffered the Just for the unjust.
(2) Christ by His life and by virtue of His death, through His Spirit, begat within the believing soul a new life. We were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of blood, nor of the will of man, but of God.
4. How sin and its results will pass into salvation and its glory. In Revelation we find the following wonderful statements:
"And there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
Because of sin came death. Because of salvation came life forevermore. Sin separated from God, salvation brings us back to God.
V. THE CURSE ENTERING AND THE CURSE PASSING AWAY (Genesis 3:16-19)
1. The curse upon the woman. Unto the woman, God said: "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception." We believe that as God spoke the words of this curse that there came back, as it were, an echo from the Cross of Calvary saying, "A Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." To the woman God also said, "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Back from the Cross again, we catch an echo: "He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied."
The sorrow of the woman in childbirth, anticipated the sorrow of the Son of God as upon the Cross He saw the travail of His soul, and was satisfied.
Every time a child is born by physical birth through the travail of his mother, we cannot but anticipate the fact that he is born the second time, through the travail of the Saviour. The Prophet asked: "Who shall declare His generation?" the answer given by the Spirit was: "He shall see His seed, * * and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand."
2. The curse upon the physical earth. Unto Adam, God said: "Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field."
The physical earth and every tiling related thereto the fruit of the ground, the beasts, the fishes, the fowls, all are brought under the effect of sin. All are made subject to vanity for men's sake. Therefore in Romans we read: "[The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now."
Let us catch, if we can, from Calvary God's echo to this curse. We read: "They had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head." Thus, when Jesus Christ died for. men that they might be saved, He included in. that redemptive work the deliverance of the creation, which was made subject to vanity. We say this because the creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption, into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
When man sinned the creation came under the curse. When Christ comes and the world accepts His reign, the creation shall also be delivered from its bondage of corruption. "Instead of the thorns shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree."
3. The curse upon the man. Unto Adam God also said: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Once more we catch an. echo from the Garden of Eden, as Christ approached the Cross. We read of Christ and He sweat "as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."
As we look further on into the glories of eternity, we read, "And there shall be no more curse." We also read: "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away."
How wonderful is the far sweeping vision of the Cross of Christ, in its answer to the curse pronounced in Eden.
VI. THE COATS OF SKINS (Genesis 3:21)
1. Adam and Eve and their fig leaf aprons. In Genesis 3:7 it is written: "They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons." To us this passage of Scripture stands for everything that sinful man has done, or attempted to do, in order to cover his sin. From the time that Adam and Eve first sinned until this very hour the unregenerate world has sought in vain to cover their own sinful hearts.
We think of Cain and Abel, and of how Cain offered up the fruits of his field. In this, Cain made no confession of sin, and accepted no sacrificial deliverance from his sins. There was no blood and no suggestion of blood in the products of the ground. They may have appeared beautiful, and, ethically, they may have seemed more to be desired than the blood sacrifice of Abel. However, Cain's offering stank in the nostrils of God.
Unto this hour men are seeking to climb up some other way, than by the way of the Cross. They vainly imagine that they can be saved without the Blood of the Lamb.
2. God and the coats of skins. In Genesis 3:21 we read: "Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them."
(1) What we cover, God uncovers. Have we not read of how it is written, "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper"? Have you not also read: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness"?
(2) What we uncover, God covers. By this statement we mean, that if we are ready to acknowledge the sinfulness of our heart; and, if we are willing to give up hope of hiding our sins from God; God stands ready, through the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, to clothe us in His righteousness.
How wonderful is the phrase: "These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb."
AN ILLUSTRATION
HEAVEN ENGAGED AHEAD
"We have * * an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (2 Corinthians 5:1). Some friends lately in traveling arrived at an English hotel, but found that it had been full for days. They were turning away to seek accommodation elsewhere, when a lady of the party bade the others adieu, and expressed her intention of remaining. "How can that be," they asked, "when you hear the hotel is full?" "Oh!" she replied, "I telegraphed on ahead a number of days ago, and my room is secured," My friend, send on your name ahead, and the door of Heaven can never be shut against you. Be sure it is a wise precaution. Then everything will be ready for you. And when the journey of life is over, you will mount up as with angel wings, and inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Moody's Addresses.