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The Beginning and the End - Part Six

Nov 17, 2024 by: John Herbert | Series: The Beginning and the End

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Ge 3:17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake……

We will add some more detail to what is revealed about the cursed ground today.

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Sunday November 17th 2024 
The Beginning and the End
Part Six

Last week we had gone back to look again at the ruin of the material creation a second time: the cursed ground, from our opening verse. And as we had looked at this, we saw that the ruin of the creation was further explained to us by the Lord through Paul in the Book of Romans - Ro 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; 21 because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.

These verses from Romans provide God’s own commentary on that which took place in the Garden from the perspective of the previously restored material creation as it received the consequences of sin once again.

And according to the verses from Romans, the material creation previously restored over four days in Genesis Chapter 1, accepted ruin for the second time because it was given hope. Hope, that at the revealing of the sons of God, it will be delivered from the bondage of corruption, delivered from the curse placed upon it ‘into the glorious liberty of the children of God.’

And we will remember that the revealing of the sons of God is a reference to the decisions and determinations that will be made at the Judgment Seat of Christ following the resurrection/rapture of the church, when faithful Christians will be called to stand up out of the unfaithful Christians to receive the adoption as firstborn sons, to receive the salvation of their souls and become the Bride for Christ – Php 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the out-resurrection from the dead.

Ro 8:23 Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body. 24 For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one still hope for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance.

And it is the identification of these faithful Christians at the Judgment Seat, those Christians who will receive the adoption, the redemption of their body, who will be the Bride for Christ, that sets in motion within chronological time, the events leading to the redemption of the inheritance, the removal of the curse upon the material creation. And this same sequencing of events has been set in place through the type presented in the account of Ruth and Boaz - Ru 3: 8 Now it happened at midnight that the man was startled, and turned himself; and there, a woman was lying at his feet. 9 And he said, “Who are you?” So she answered, “I am Ruth, your maidservant. Take your maidservant under your wing, for you are a close relative.” 10 Then he said, “Blessed are you of the LORD, my daughter! For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether poor or rich. 11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you request, for all the people of my town know that you are a virtuous woman. [Ruth is identified on Boaz’s threshing floor, making known her purpose for being there] 
……….18 Then she [Naomi] said, “Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out; for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.” 4:1 Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there……….[It is here that Boaz redeems the inheritance] 
…….9 And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses this day that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, from the hand of Naomi. 10 Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to perpetuate the name of the dead through his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day.”

The sequence of events that begin with Ruth’s appearance on Boaz’s threshing floor at midnight is not the first time this sequence had been seen. In fact, it had been established through the foundational types of the seventh and tenth generations from Adam. Enoch is the seventh generation from Adam and his removal from the earth alive, provides the foundational picture for the resurrection/rapture of the church, and by implication, the revealing of the sons of God seen in Ruth’s appearance at Boaz’s threshing floor. Noah is the tenth generation from Adam, and Noah and his family passing through the flood provides the foundational picture for the Tribulation, the time of Jacob’s trouble, which is synonymous with the redemption of the inheritance seen in Boaz’s actions at the gate of the city.

Again then, Enoch is taken into heaven, the resurrection/rapture of the church when the sons of God will be revealed, and then Noah passes through the flood, the time of Jacob’s trouble, the time when the inheritance will be redeemed. And again, Ruth is identified on Boaz’s threshing floor and then Boaz redeems the inheritance for her.

The time of Jacob’s trouble, the Tribulation, we also saw to be inseparably connected with the fourth and final form of the Babylonian kingdom. That seen in the fourth part of the great image of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel Chapter 2, and the fourth beast of Daniel’s vision in Daniel Chapter 7. And the time of Jacob’s trouble, which is the final seven years that remain of Daniel’s seventy- week prophecy, will end the four days, the four thousand years from Adam, providing the inextricable connection with the four days for the redemption of the ruined material creation seen in Genesis Chapter 1, the Book of origins, the Book of beginnings.

And the sequencing of events presented through the types of Enoch/Noah, Ruth and Boaz is confirmed for us again in the order of the events seen when the Christ is revealed, beginning with – 
Re 1:1 The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place…………10 I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice, as of a trumpet, 11 saying, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last,” and, “What you see, write in a book and send it to the seven churches which are in Asia……2:1 “To the angel of the church of Ephesus write, ‘These things says He who holds the seven stars in His right hand, who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands: 2 “I know your works………6:1 Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, “Come and see.”

We begin with the resurrection/rapture of the church into Christ’s presence in Revelation Chapter 1, the judgment of the church then follows in Revelation Chapters 2-3, when the sons of God will be revealed and adopted; when these same sons who will be the Bride for Christ will be taken from the body of Christ, as the Woman was taken from Adam’s body. The out-resurrection that Paul spoke of.

Then there is an allusion to the resurrection/rapture of the church again in Chapter 4, which is followed by actions related to future regality as the twenty-four elders cast down their crowns, crowns which will be worn during the Millennial Kingdom by those identified at the Judgment Seat. And then the Christ is revealed in Chapter 5 to be the slain Lamb who is worthy to open the seven sealed scroll, containing the terms for the redemption of the inheritance which then leads to the inheritance being redeemed during the Tribulation, the time of Jacob’s trouble. The final seven years that begin in Chapter 6 with the opening of the first seal on the scroll showing the first of four horses and their rider. The final seven years then being brought to their conclusion as the remaining seals are opened.

And if we go back to the verses from Romans Chapter 8, we will recall that the creation was subjected to futility in the hope of deliverance from the bondage of corruption. Hope that was given to the creation based upon Him, the Alpha and the Omega, the One who subjected it in this hope. The same One worthy to redeem the inheritance, by whom all things were made and for whom all things were made, the One who has made possible the revealing of the sons of God, the many sons to be brought to glory – Heb 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

And to understand the basis for the hope given to the material creation ruined a second time and the basis for the revealing of the sons of God, we will go back again into the foundation, to where once more, the end is declared from the beginning – Ge 3:21 Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

And the basis upon which this hope of deliverance from the bondage of corruption for the material creation is founded, is revealed through God’s provision of a substitutionary death, and shed blood to pay redemption’s price.

Adam in his unfallen state, not having been deceived, deliberately and intentionally entered into his wife’s sin with her – 1 Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression.

Just as Adam knew that he could not rule apart from his wife, as God had declared them to be one flesh together, he also knew for that very same reason, that only together could they be redeemed. God had said at their creation, that they were to have dominion as one flesh together. Adam believed that which God had said, and believed that having said it, God must bring this to pass – Nu 23:19 “God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?

He therefore understood that God would do whatever was necessary to bring to pass that which He had said was the purpose for their creation – Ge 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 28 Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

And Adam’s faith seen in this instance finds a parallel with Abraham’s faith concerning the sacrifice of Issac – Heb 11:17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.

And the action God took on their behalf, that Adam believed would be theirs, is seen in the foundation to be provided by God for Adam and his wife through the substitutionary death and shed blood of the animals killed to clothe them. And this foundational picture of the means of redemption finds its ultimate fulfillment in the substitutionary death and shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the slain Lamb of Revelation Chapter 5. The One who subjected the creation to futility in the hope of its deliverance, deliverance based upon His death and shed blood, the same death and shed blood that would make possible the revealing of the sons of God.

The animals slain in the Garden provide the foundation but in them we must also see the Christ. This foundation is then built upon in –
Ge 4:8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

In Genesis Chapter 4, the foundational picture for redemption is enhanced by the death and shed blood of Abel at the hands of his brother because Abel’s sacrifice was accepted, and Cain’s was not. This is the first time that the death of a man is seen and in it we are provided with a type for national Israel’s killing of their Brother, the Christ, when they were ‘in the field’ together. More detail is given to the brother slaying his Brother through the account of Isaac’s sacrifice
Ge 22:2 Then He said, “Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.” 3 So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son; and he split the wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place of which God had told him.

Here we now see a father who is to offer his ‘only son’, whom he loves, as a sacrifice for sin – Ge 22:13 Then Abraham lifted his eyes and looked, and there behind him was a ram caught in a thicket by its horns. So Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt offering instead of his son.

Again, we see a substitutionary death where the ram is accepted in Isaac’s place. And from here we can go to the Exodus where the Passover lambs are introduced in a substitutionary capacity – 
Ex 12:1 Now the LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, 2 “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you. 3 Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying: “On the tenth of this month every man shall take for himself a lamb, according to the house of his father, a lamb for a household.

What is common throughout is a substitutionary death and shed blood to pay the price of redemption. A substitutionary death that God alone provides and accepts. And all is contained so far in the writings of Moses. The Moses who wrote about the Christ – 
Jn 5:46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me.

It is perhaps no surprise that this statement is recorded in the Gospel of John. And equally of no surprise that it is in John’s Gospel that, that recorded by Moses concerning redemption is brought to its fullness –
Jn 1:29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!

Adam and Eve could not redeem themselves, the restored creation under a curse cannot redeem itself; Israel when in Egypt could not redeem itself and every human being procreated in the likeness of fallen Adam can do nothing to bring about their own redemption either. All is contingent upon God’s intervention to provide redemption’s price, a substitutionary death and shed blood – 
Ge 22:7 But Isaac spoke to Abraham his father and said, “My father!” And he said, “Here I am, my son.” Then he said, “Look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?” 8 And Abraham said, “My son, God will provide for Himself the lamb for a burnt offering.” So the two of them went together.

Ex 12:13 Now the blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you; and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt. 
 
Eph 1:7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace………

2 Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

Redemption for fallen Adam and the Woman, redemption for Israel in Egypt and yet future beyond the Tribulation, redemption for those born dead in trespasses and sins and for the creation under a curse is brought to pass by one means ONLY, a substitutionary death and shed blood. Which is the sole prerogative of Deity.

And so, if redemption can only be brought to pass by God’s intervention on the basis of a substitutionary death and shed blood, which is what we have seen established in Genesis and therefore cannot ever change, then where do we find God’s provision of a substitutionary death and shed blood that made it possible for God to begin the redemption of the ruined material creation following Satan’s rebellion in the third verse of Genesis? Well, it has been set in place in Genesis as we have seen and is then brought to its fulness in the Book that unveils the Christ from the OT Scriptures – 
Re 13:8………………the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

It is the death and shed blood of the Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and for whom, all things were made, that made it possible for God to speak the words, ‘let there be light’, on the first day in Genesis Chapter 1.

It is essential that we understand that the means of redemption NEVER changes, and that God will only act in accordance with that which He has said. And so, if it was necessary for animals to be slain and their blood shed to provide redemption for Adam and Eve once they had been ruined by sin, then death and shed blood was no less necessary for the ruined material creation to be redeemed following Satan’s rebellion.

The Lord Jesus is the Alpha, the Beginning, who through His substitutionary death and shed blood has not only declared the end but is the Omega, the End Himself. The detail is not given by Moses in Genesis as this is the foundation, the Book of beginnings, and nor does it need to be, because the same God who inspired Moses to write the first verses of the first Book of Scripture added the detail Himself in the last Book, the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ from the OT Scriptures. Remembering – Heb 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

And just as it is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world who made possible the redemption of the material creation in Genesis Chapter 1, so it is the same slain Lamb who makes possible the redemption of the inheritance witnessed in the Revelation, bringing about the deliverance of the material creation under a curse for a second time – Re 5:1 And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat on the throne a scroll written inside and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 Then I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and to loose its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on the earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll, or to look at it. 4 So I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the scroll, or to look at it. 5 But one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has prevailed to open the scroll and to loose its seven seals.” 6 And I looked, and behold, in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 Then He came and took the scroll out of the right hand of Him who sat on the throne.

God had given the Passover Lamb exclusively to the Jews to kill, established in foundation in – Ex 12:5 Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male of the first year. You may take it from the sheep or from the goats. 6 Now you shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month. Then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it at twilight.

The Jewish people alone were the only ones to whom this privilege was given, which would lead us to ask the obvious question, ‘How is it possible for the Lamb to have been slain from the foundation of the world when the Jewish people, the only ones to whom this was given, didn’t crucify Him within the boundaries of time until 33AD?

And the answer to this question we now already know as we have seen it revealed in our previous studies through the verses we looked at in – Ecc 1:9 That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. 10 Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us.

Ecc 3: 14 I know that whatever God does, It shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, And nothing taken from it. God does it, that men should fear before Him. 15 That which is has already been, And what is to be has already been; And God requires an account of what is past.

And it is in the death and shed blood of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world that we find the efficacy for the death and shed blood of the animals killed to clothe Adam and Eve and for every Passover lamb until the Lord’s crucifixion. We see in – Heb 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins.

The blood of animals of itself could never take away sin, as sin can only ever be taken away by the intervention of Deity. But the death and shed blood of these animals had an inseparable connection to the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. The death and shed blood of God the Son that existed from the foundation of the world and was then seen within the boundaries of linear time in 33 AD.
 
We will need to pick this up again next time. If we remain and the Lord is willing, and we have prayed.

The Beginning and the End - Part Six

Refresh A Recap from the Sermon

The Beginning and the End - Part Six

Nov 17, 2024

Speaker: John Herbert

Series: The Beginning and the End

Category: Sunday Morning

Refresh
A Recap from the Sermon