WE HAVE PREVIOUSLY DEALT WITH THIS SUBJECT IN A MESSAGE TITLED, IN SEARCH OF EDEN, BUT LATELY THERE HAVE BEEN SOME THINGS OPEN UP TO ME THAT HAVE JUST MADE THIS PICTURE SO BEAUTIFUL. THEREFORE TAKING A LITTLE DIFFERENT APPROACH THAN BEFORE, I WANT TO COVER SOME THINGS THAT I BELIEVE WILL BE OF INTEREST TO YOU, AND WE WILL TITLE THIS MESSAGE, EXPLORING EDEN, FOR THAT IS WHAT WE WANT TO DO. WE HAVE COME FROM MANY WALKS OF LIFE, WITH ALL KINDS OF IDEAS ABOUT THE BIBLE, MAINLY AS A RESULT OF WHAT WE HAVE BEEN TAUGHT BY THOSE RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS IN OUR FORMER YEARS. BUT WE ARE RAPIDLY APPROACHING THE END OF THE AGE, AND IT IS THE PURPOSE OF GOD FOR HIS TRUE CHILDREN TO HAVE A PROPER UNDERSTANDING OF THE SCRIPTURES BEFORE TIME RUNS OUT COMPLETELY, SO LET UP PRAY THAT GOD WILL JUST OPEN OUR UNDERSTANDING AS WE LOOK AT THESE VARIOUS POINTS OF INTEREST IN THIS MESSAGE. WHAT WE WILL BE LOOKING AT WAS NOT EVEN RECORDED UNTIL SOME 1400 YEARS BEFORE THE ADVENT OF CHRIST, AND CERTAIN THINGS WITHIN IT ARE WRITTEN IN FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE THAT IS NOT EVEN RELATED TO NATURAL GEOGRAPHICAL TERMINOLOGY: THEREFORE, IT TAKES THE HOLY SPIRIT TO CLEAR IT UP FOR US. I HAVE BEEN THINKING OF HOW WE ARE SO PRONE TO LOOK AT THE LONG LIFE SPANS OF PEOPLE BEFORE THE FLOOD, AND THINK HOW THEY COULD HAVE COMMUNICATED ORALLY FROM FATHER TO SON, THE TRUE STORY OF THE ACTS AND DEEDS OF MANKIND FROM THE TIME GOD PLACED THE FIRST MAN UPON THE FACE OF THE EARTH. WELL NATURALLY THERE CAN BE A CERTAIN PORTION OF TRUTH PASSED ON, IN THAT WAY, BUT THERE IS SOMETHING ELSE TO CONSIDER ALSO. IF MAN, IN SUCH A SHORT SPAN OF TIME AFTER ADAM AND EVE WERE REMOVED FROM THE GARDEN, COULD BEGIN TO LOSE HIS CONTACT WITH THE CREATOR, DO YOU THINK HE WOULD HAVE NECESSARILY REMEMBERED AND APPRECIATED EVERYTHING ELSE THAT WAS COMMITTED TO HIM? ALL EIGHT PEOPLE IN THE ARK KNEW WHY THEY WERE THERE, AND WHEN THEY AGAIN SET FOOT ON DRY GROUND, THEY ALL KNEW THAT IT WAS BY THE GRACE AND MERCY OF GOD, THAT THEY WERE PRIVILEGED TO DO SO, BUT THREE GENERATIONS LATER, THEY WERE GOING IN THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION FROM WHAT GOD STARTED THEM IN. THEREFORE I AM CONVINCED THAT WHAT WE ARE LOOKING AT HERE, FOR THE MOST PART ANYWAY, WAS GIVEN TO MOSES BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD. HE BROUGHT THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL OUT OF EGYPT, AND 1450 YEARS BEFORE CHRIST, HE WROTE THE FIRST FIVE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE. GENESIS IS THE FIRST OF THE FIVE, AND IT RECORDS THE HISTORY OF CREATION, THE ORIGIN OF MAN, AND WHAT HAS HAPPENED BECAUSE OF SIN. SOME OF THE TERMINOLOGY PERTAINS TO NATURAL GEOGRAPHICAL AREAS, BUT THERE ARE ALSO PARTS OF IT THAT ARE WRITTEN IN SPIRITUAL TERMS, AND GOD MEANT FOR IT TO BE WRITTEN THAT WAY. WHY? YOU MAY ASK. BECAUSE GOD KNEW THE COURSE MAN WOULD TAKE THROUGH TIME, AND HE WANTED THE TRUTH TO BE CONCEALED FROM THESE INTELLECTUAL MINDS THAT ARE STRICTLY THE PRODUCTS OF WHAT HAPPENED IN THE GARDEN BETWEEN EVE AND THE SERPENT. YOU CANNOT EVEN TALK TO THEM ABOUT THE CREATOR; THEY DO NOT WANT TO HEAR IT. BUT THOSE WHO ARE PREDESTINED SEED OF GOD ARE HUNGERING FOR TRUTH, AND IT IS TO THEM THAT THE SPIRIT OF GOD IS REVEALING THE HIDDEN TRUTHS OF THE SCRIPTURES, SO LET US YIELD OURSELVES TO HIS LEADING, AND ALLOW HIM TO TEACH US FROM THIS BLESSED OLD TIME TESTED BOOK.

THE BEGINNING OF MAN

First I want to explain, or define, the word of Eden. It is an English word that means, The Beginning of God. Not that God Himself had a beginning but it is the beginning of what God planned. That is why He said, I am the beginning and the end. You have to associate the word beginning, with something that has been created by Him who had no beginning. Then if there is an end, He is the terminator of it. Therefore it is God from beginning to end, regardless of what you are looking at, because He is the great designer of all things. In our modern world of science, if you want to study about prehistoric man, you go to the central parts of Africa, China, and Burma, where they have found traces of what they call that. But if you want to study about mankind today, you go to the Middle East and explore between the Tigris River and the Nile, because our history shows that this is the cradle of our existence. Our beginning had a different setting than what modern man tries to put us into. Our beginning started somewhere in the Middle East, in a place referred to as Eden, or paradise of God. Mankind has always been prone to think of that garden as a place where beautiful trees, flowers, ferns and all such like would grow, so let’s look at it very carefully. Turn to Genesis 2:7 where we will get the first scripture for our thought. “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” That means he became conscious of his earthly environment. All five senses were activated; sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. “And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; (The garden was the paradise of God.), and there He put the man whom He had formed.” That put something in the process of starting. Eastward has to illustrate to us that God is setting in motion a beginning for His purpose for man, He positions him geographical wise to the earth, in a precise spot where his beginning is going to be related to time. With their modern instruments, men have put the international date line, where Thursday meets Friday, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But I am convinced that this precise geographical area where God placed paradise, and where He placed the man He created, is also the place where east meets west, and north meets south. As far as God is concerned, all directions are determined from that point. That is exactly why in the 16th chapter of the book of Revelation, it refers to the kings of the east; not kings in the Middle East where this was. It is speaking of kingdoms and empires that would be on earth in the ending of time, and it is that area of the world that is completely east of the area of Eden, where He began His Bible setting. Therefore, we associate the kings of the east, as from those areas of East Asia, and all the way into the Orients, which were never even thought of, in the early times of Bible prophecy. So we will need to think of east as a fixed point somewhere in the mind of God, but let us not get too technical with it. The main thing to remember is that man had a beginning, and time is in relationship to this man; for God does not even live in time. Verse 8 says that God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. But let me remind you again, this is Bible language. God did not use hands to plant this garden, for my Bible tells me, (written by the apostle Paul) that Abraham sojourned in a strange land, looking for a city whose founder and builder is God, not made with hands. Therefore if this city Abraham was looking for, the city we read about in the last two chapters of the Bible, was not made with hands, then this garden was not planted with hands either. When we read about this garden, you have to get your eyes off of the ground and off of the trees, and see something else there, or you will not see the garden it is referring to at all. If you can just envision what the garden was, in relationship to the ground, earth wise, this will help you to better understand when I say, Adam and Eve were not driven out of a geographical spot of ground, but were driven from the most cherished thing that could ever be in life, the presence of God. Remember that now, and we will read verse 9. “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is good for food.” Where did these trees come from? They came out of the ground. These trees were not what constitutes the garden, for the same kind of trees were also growing out of the ground everywhere else. This man Adam could not be everywhere. God associated him with a beginning point. So without reading the rest of that verse, I want to go to verse 28, in the first chapter, at this time, and see Adam, long before he was put in a body on earth. Here we see him in his spirit makeup, created in the image of God. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” To replenish, is to fill it up again. That ought to let some of these intellectual atheists know that the earth has been full of something, somewhere in th eon ages past. That proves there was a prehistoric world, but it is in no way associated with our present existence. (We have thoroughly covered that subject in another message.) So God told them, (while they were still only in spirit form, without human bodies) Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Now verse 29, is associated with the part of verse 9 that I did not read, there in chapter 2, so notice what it says. “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed (carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, and all such like from the vegetable family, are your herb bearing seed) which is upon the face of the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.” Naturally the trees were, we will say, the peach, the apple, the fig and date, and such like. Long before he was ever on earth in a physical body of flesh, God was feeding this into his intelligence, so that when He did put him here, he would already know what he needed to know. Then in verse 30, He tells him what has been given unto the animals for their food.

WHAT IS PARADISE?

Alright, God has Adam and Eve fully instructed, and now He is placing them in a physical body, formed from the dust of the earth, in order that they may be able to carry out the instructions already given them. But keep in mind, the Creator is directing his approach to the whole thing. He is the one that puts the man in a particular spot on the earth. Actually when we think of this paradise of God, it is something that we cannot even describe by any earthly picture. Artists and painters in all ages of time have portrayed what their imagination tells them this paradise might have been like, but I am fully persuaded that none of them have ever actually been able to show it like it really was. It was not trees set in a straight row, nor flowers planted in pots, and grass trimmed a certain way, that made paradise what it was; for paradise is not something you can explore scientifically. Nevertheless man has always pictured it as a beautifully landscaped area, where the trees are so magnificent, the flowers ever blooming, and if there is an animal in the picture, it will usually show a lamb and a lion somewhere close together, and angels in the background, looking through the trees. Well such as environment truly does speak of paradise, as we think of paradise, but what made this environment Adam and Eve was in, paradise? It was the spirit of God, the Creator, who had placed Himself there, to be man’s shelter, his inspiration, his guiding force, his motivation. Without motivation, man does not know which way to go. As we study the New Testament, we are made aware of the fact that God desires to come back inside these vessels of clay. God does not need buildings to dwell in; it is these human houses that He desires to dwell in. He is not affected by cold nor hot; He is everything. Therefore let us try to think of paradise as a place where God has placed Himself in a manifestation of His glory and presence, a place where man starts God’s long awaited plan for the earth. This was a new beginning for the earth. The earth had been populated before, but not with the same species as is found upon the earth today. Its former inhabitants were prehistoric creatures ruled by angels. That is when the angels were tested, and that is when Lucifer exalted himself, and caused God to have to cast him down from his high position as an archangel. But now, let us read verse 9 again, “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. (Adam knew what every one of those natural trees were for) the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.” Please take note of the fact that nothing at all is said about the tree of life growing out of the ground. That tree, is not a tree that you can examine biologically, nor geographically, for it does not grow out of the ground like those they were given for food. It is not even associated with the earth; therefore it does not exist on the earth’s nutrients, and cannot furnish nutrients to physical man. It is a tree that stands symbolically in the realm of paradise, through which man, in his God sent purpose, was to replenish the earth. The language used there, is a key to help us understand that it is not a natural tree. It was in the MIDST of the garden. A peach tree growing out of the ground will repopulate by producing more of its kind, but this tree of life, that was in the midst of the garden, we would have to say, was a spiritual law, by which man’s reproduction was to be governed. The tree of knowledge of good and evil, was also in the midst of the garden, and likewise was not a tree that was growing out of the ground. Both trees are symbolic in their function. That is why we printed the article, The Two Laws of Eden; for they really are two spiritual laws. When you go to the 2nd chapter of Revelation, you discover that paradise still exists, and that over comers have a promise of partaking of that tree, which still stands in the midst of paradise.

MAN OUTSIDE OF PARADISE

Does it not seem strange that after 4000 years, when God spoke to John on the Isle of Patmos, telling him to write the things he would see, and send it to the seven churches of Asia, Ephesus was the first one of those churches mentioned. Well that is because Ephesus was the one that typed the apostolic age, the beginning of the era of the Church. During this dispensation of grace, typed by those seven churches, God has been calling His lost children to repent, overcome, and partake of that tree of life, which still stands in the paradise of God. Paradise is in the realm of the spirit; it is God’s domain. It is that spirit realm that Adam and Eve were driven from, and in reality it is not a place that is made up of trees and other plant life. The language of the Bible can make it sound like that, but God wants us to know that paradise is in the presence of the living God. Let me ask you this, though. Are we to believe that eating from the tree of life in Revelation 2:7 is exactly the same as it would have been in Genesis 2? No. In Genesis the tree of life was in relationship to God’s perfect plan, for man to repopulate the earth. Had Adam and Eve partaken of that tree, instead of good and evil, they would have repopulated the earth with offspring, which would have had the same Godlikeness and image that Adam had. But since they chose to partake of the other tree, which in reality was the sex act, for pleasure, rather than just for the purpose of bearing offspring into the world, like God had told them to do, they had to suffer the pre-announced consequences, which was to be driven from that presence of their Creator. They were no longer allowed to abide in the presence of that Spirit which is eternal life. That is what God meant in Genesis 2:17 when He said to them, ” In the DAY that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” They did not die physically as soon as they disobeyed God, but they did die spiritually, when God removed them from His presence. Therefore we will have to say, Adam and Eve did multiply and replenish (refill) the earth, but they did it from the wrong tree. Birth is still the result of a sex act between a man and a woman, but because of Adam and Eve’s disobedience, there is no eternal life in it. That is the difference between partaking of the tree of knowledge, instead of the tree of life. When they partook of the sex act for pleasure, rather than for God’s original purpose to reproduce themselves, they perverted that beautiful relationship, and God expelled them form His presence, (the garden) which was paradise, and the world has been filled with offspring that came from the tree of knowledge. We are all products of the tree of knowledge. Alright now, did Adam dig up a literal tree, and transplant it outside of a fenced in garden? Is that how you think of those two trees, that were in the midst of the garden where God’s son and daughter were placed? I hope all of you in this assembly know better than that by now. Those two trees were not literal plant life trees at all; it was two spiritual laws whereby Adam and Eve had a choice as to which they would follow. That is why modern man is climbing the limbs of the tree of knowledge right today, wanting to explore space, and all suchlike. Well we have all been made aware of the tragedy that has shaken the world, when those seven people in the space shuttle were blown into oblivion, and that has caused me to do a lot of thinking. It seems that our president, and all those involved in the space program had reached a point where there was no limit as to what they would do next, or try next. It reminds me of what was taking place in the plains of Shinar, when all men were of one mind, and one purpose, and they had set about to build themselves a tower that would reach into heaven. God Himself said that if He did not intervene, nothing would be restrained from them which they had imagined to do. Therefore He came down and confused their language, and scattered them, and that put an end to their great plans. No. I am not saying that we should look at this space program as exactly the same thing, but I will say this: God will just allow the thing to go so far, and then He will surely call a halt to the whole thing. I just thought, as I hear that we have that thing out there, taking pictures of the planet Uranus, to try to find out how many moons it has: they may just as well count the mice in my corn crib, and tell me how many grains of corn they are eating every day. What benefit is that kind of information? Will that feed the poor souls that are starving to death the world over? They could care less about that; their great knowledge has driven them to bounds beyond compassion for such things. It just lets us see how crazy earthly minded people have become, eating from the tree of knowledge.

EATING FROM THE TREE OF LIFE

There is nothing wrong with science, as long as God is allowed to be the administrator of it; but when He is no longer wanted, and no longer needed, recognized, nor appreciated, then I am afraid He will turn all of that technology into heartbreak and sadness. But praise God, there is a people on earth today, who, even in the face of all of this scientific technology, are partaking of the tree of life, as we find in Revelation 2:7. Those who repent, accept the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour, and overcome Satan and all of his powers of darkness: are promised that. Jesus Christ was that righteous branch of the tree of eternal life, that Isaiah prophesied about. He was the very fruit of everything that you and I should have been. But we were not, because we were born off the tree of knowledge. Therefore to eat of the tree of life, according to Revelation 2:7, is to have access to what that tree symbolizes in its eternal meaning. It is to have access to the life of God, which, once you receive it, you have eternal existence. It is God’s eternal life, coming to blend in with your spirit, which makes you one with God, and gives you eternal life. This is what God’s plan of redemption is all about, to get us back into the place with God, that Adam fell from. All of this language points to an experience the believer must receive. Then when you go to Revelation 22, you see pictured there the whole family of God, which through redemption, have partaken of the tree of life, through the ages of time. Symbolically it shows the completed work of God in redemption, with the tree of life on either side of a pure river of water of life, which proceeded out from the throne of God.

THE AREA CALLED EDEN

Let us go back to Genesis, back to the garden, before we proceed any further with these scriptures in the book of Revelation, for we want to make sure we realize that even though much of this language pertains to things in the realm of the spirit, there was definitely a geographical spot of the earth that Adam and Eve were associated with. The tree of life in the midst of the garden, ( the paradise of God) was associated only to the spiritual realm, the glorious realm where the presence of God abode, but there was a certain geographical area where man has to have his beginning, and he was to be subject to the mind of his Creator. Always remember, God did not put man on the earth to do what he (the man) wanted to do. He was put here with a commission, to repopulate this big earth, but he was supposed to be subject to the mind and leadership of his Creator, and fill the earth with sons and daughters of God. But God is not a dictator, so He placed two trees (two spiritual laws) in the midst of the garden, and instructed His son accordingly, so with that in mind, let us go to verse 19, of this 2nd chapter. I believe Moses was inspired by God to write these things: for if it was just a handed down story, from generation to generation; it would have gotten way off course before it got to him. But let us read what Moses was inspired to write. “And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.” Remember now, Saints: This particular river is in relationship to the natural area where God has placed His paradise, for the water in that river, whatever its purpose was, it was to the plant life in that particular spot. But do not bother to go running to a map, trying to find that river, for we have had the great flood and many centuries of earthquakes, and so forth, that have changed the layout of the land from what it was in the day of Adam’s beginning. Well there was a river there, and this is what Moses wrote about it. “And from thence it was parted, and became into four heads.” As for these four heads, we just have to realize that God used language such as this to confuse a lot of intellectual brains who would read the Bible only from a critical standpoint, never desiring to benefit from it in any spiritual way. I was just thinking this week, how mortal men will go to a seminary, spend a fortune of earthly money, study Greek and Hebrew, and the proper usage of words, and when they finish their education they speak everything so exactly right, it makes a fellow like me ashamed of himself. But brother, his little garden is so natural, there is no possible way he can see the paradise in it. All they can visualize, is a fenced-in garden of beautiful trees, shrubs, flowers and all such as that. But remember, Eden was the territory, and the garden was paradise within that territory, so notice now, as we look at the heads of this river. “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: there is bdellium and the onyx stone.” If you look at some of the old Bible maps, you will find that word Havilah, running right across an area which is now called Saudia Arabia. But it is all desert now, so you are not going to go there, and find this old river bed. Well it says there was gold there, and that the gold was good. It was out of the land of Saudia Arabia, that King Solomon imported gold by the untold poundage. Archaeologists claim to have found some mines, or the ruins of some ancient mines, that they believe was King Solomon’s mines. “And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the land of Ethiopia.” Looking at a map, you will notice that the land of Ethiopia lays south of Egypt, yet the major part of Ethiopia is a plateau, mountainous region, higher in altitude than the lowlands of Egypt. Therefore where it says that this river compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia, it means that it drains all of that whole area of land. All of the other streams run into it, just like out West, in the United States, you have the Great Divide. Everything on the east side of the Great Divide eventually works its way to the Mississippi River, and everything on the western slopes of the Great Divide will go into the Pacific Ocean. Therefore when we think of this river that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia; it is the Nile River, that drains the great watershed of all the high plateau elevations of Ethiopia. Down through the lowlands of Egypt, it eventually finds its way to the Mediterranean Sea. Those two rivers were to form a boundary line, so let us get the other two. “And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria.” Your ancient Bible maps will show that to be the Tigris River. “And the fourth river is Euphrates.” Just before they go into the Persian Gulf, these last two rivers meet, forming a Y, and from there, they flow as one. But when we see these rivers so specifically identified, we are looking at a geographical boundary of the total area called Eden, that was named after the garden of paradise. Therefore we can say, somewhere between the Nile and the Tigris, which is the eastern and the western end of it, God planted a garden in the eastern portion of it, and that is where He started His beginning of the present man that you and I are the descendants of.

ADAM HAD RESPONSIBILITIES

Verse 15 gives us a repeat of part of verse 8. “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.” Many questions are asked here. Why did God put Adam in this kind of a body, and what were his actual duties? This spirit man, that was created in the image and likeness of God, was given this body of clay so he could have earthly contact with the natural things of God’s creation. Being made in the image and likeness of God means that he had certain capabilities that were to be expressed. He was an offspring of God, so he would think like his Father, act like his Father, and carry out the things of his Father. Having a body, that his Father did not have, Adam was placed in an earthly realm among trees and other plant life, not only to dress, but also to subdue. There were certain things to be administered to the plant life, yet within that same realm of paradise, I believe there were certain spiritual forces, all pertaining to the realm of God, which Adam knew, and knew how to apply. In other words, if Adam had followed God’s original plan, there never would have been any extreme seasons of cold and hot, dry and wet; but would have remained about the same all year long. That is why you read in the Bible concerning the Millennium, how that the law shall go forth from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, in those days. Now brothers and sisters: whatever the word of the Lord is, in those days, it will not be pertaining to salvation, as it has to us. It will be a word of instruction and increased knowledge, for the purpose of restoring back, something that has been long lost and unassociated to the human concept. Natural man, in his present existence explores in the scientific realm, and thinks he is really tapping into unlimited resources, but oh, if he only knew his Creator, what a difference it would make. We look at the earth today, and see the starving millions, and you look at Africa: it looks like a cursed continent, with this great drought which has swept through Chad and Ethiopia, and is moving right on down through that central region of Uganda, and on southward. We received a letter from the Christians there, and they were telling of suffering, as a result of the drought, political unrest, and many other hardships, and I could not help but think of how it will be in the Millennium. There will not be any droughts in that day, when Jesus Christ and His bride rule upon this earth for a thousand years. There will be no starvation then, because the curse that was put upon this earth will be lifted. The Bible says; The field shall yield its increase, and it even says that those which sow the grain, shall overtake the ones that are reaping the former crop. In other words, Here comes another bunch, Hurry up, and get that reaper going, we have to plow this field again. That is just my way of illustration, but it will be one crop right after another one, and there will be no need for all of this high powered fertilize we have to use today. The reason we need all of this fertilizer and insecticide now, is because of the curse of God put on the ground when Adam sinned; it will not yield its full potential. Whether you want to admit it or not, man has just about reached the end of his vast technology. Jesus will need none of natural man’s great wisdom in the Millennium. Things will be run in the order that Adam should have ran them. Oh, saints, just think: If sin had never entered the picture, after 6000 years, the whole earth today would have been just like the spot where God placed Adam and Eve. That was the ultimate purpose of the Creator, in it all, so that is what the earth will be like, in its redeemed state, a complete paradise.

HOW LIFE SHOULD HAVE BEEN

Let us continue on in verse 16. “And the Lord God commanded the man saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat.” God is not changing anything. He is just reminding Adam of what is already there, in his intellect, which was put there when He created him, before he ever had a physical body. In other words, The fruit of every plant life tree, thou mayest freely eat. “But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” Adam knew what God was talking about; he did not have to say, what is that? He knew exactly what the tree of knowledge was, and the tree of life also, and he knew that when he disobeyed God, what the result would be, for God had already made that clear to him. Therefore we will say it like this, Adam had two realms of understanding. He knew that the fruit of the plant life was for the replenishing of the nutrients of the physical body that he already had, and he knew that the fruit of the tree of life was for the replenishing of himself; to fill the earth with others of his kind. I hope every person under the sound of my voice, and especially to you young people, will realize that the original sex relationship between man and woman was to be strictly by the law of life, and was to be controlled by the woman, just as it is in the animal kingdom. You do not see animals conducting themselves in the filthy, perverted ways humans do. Up the road here, you cannot help but notice the sign which says, “Talk to me dirty.” We are supposed to be the offspring of God, and yet man, in his natural human makeup, continually thinks and talks in such derogatory terms as that, always pointing to perverted sex. Life was to be a sacred thing, and the sex act was to be for the purpose of reproduction of life, and not just for pleasure. A person could learn a lot about God’s original plan for mankind, if he or she would just pay close attention to the animal kingdom, as they go about their regular routine of life. They do not have that uncontrollable sex urge to contend with. They still function just as their Creator created them to. The female has her period of time when conception is possible, and that is when the sex relationship takes place, and only then. Woman’s monthly period is a result of the curse; for in the beginning, before the curse, she would have that one period, that she would be very conscious of, when she would carry out a relationship with her husband in complete innocency, for the sole purpose of reproducing themselves, knowing full well that they were doing exactly what the Creator had told them to do. You can see this same law of life working in plant life. When you see a tree blooming, what is that a sign of? It is male and female life mating, and the fruit is the product of it all. In the animal kingdom, that time is referred to as the mating season, and the female always knows when she is coming into it, and chooses a mate to produce little offspring for the Creator, and you never see them putting on an act to entertain each other, like perverted humans do. When the mating is over, the male animal goes his way, to enjoy the freedom of the forest, and never has any feelings of having done anything wrong, for he is doing exactly as the Creator meant for him to do.

ADAM-EVE-THE SERPENT-JESUS

When the serpent yielded himself to the devil, the serpent being a creature much in the physical likeness of man, the devil was being permitted to come against the son and daughter with a test, so now I want to show you something. Adam and Eve were given only one test, and they failed it. Why test them on anything else, after they had already failed this crucial test? But think, when Jesus, the second Adam, which was the only begotten Son of God, became filled with the eternal Spirit of the Father, He was driven by that Spirit, into the wilderness, where He also was tested by the devil. Why was He tested? He was tested for the same reason Adam was. He was given the chance to prove that He would be faithful to what He was foreordained to accomplish. He had to be tested, as to whether there was any chance of failure in Him. Jehovah knew He would not fail, but it had to be that way for your sake and mine. Why was Jesus not given only one test, you may ask? Let us look at it this way: If He had failed the first one, there would have been no need for the second and third, but He did not fail the first, nor the second, so He had to be tested in every area of life, and overcome, in order to accomplish His foreordained purpose. He set an example before all believers, of overcoming by the word of God, and at the same time proved that He was a worthy sacrifice, to pay our sin debt before God. Therefore when we are tested, tempted, and tried, we can look to Him who died for us and remember that He set a perfect example for us. He did not overcome the temptation with any power beyond that which we all have available to us. Now some of you may say, “But He was perfect, and had the fulness of the Spirit of God in Him.” Yes, but He did not rely upon any of that supernatural power to overcome those temptations. He did nothing that any other true child of God could not do, for He overcame every temptation by holding up in the face of Satan the written word of God. What you must realize that Satan cannot force a child of God to sin; he can only place the temptation before you, and you make the choice as to what you are going to do. One thing is sure though; if you are determined to overcome, you have the enablement of the Spirit of God within you to help you do it. What you must realize, is that if it had been impossible for Jesus to yield to Satan’s temptations, then He was not our example at all, and the temptation was a farce. No brothers and sisters, if He had jumped from that high place as Satan tempted Him to do, He would have fallen to His death, and there would have been no Calvary, and you and I would not be here today. On the other hand, if Adam and Eve had stood their first test, there might have been a second one, because they were not only commissioned to replenish the earth with their kind; they were to do other things also. But because they failed the first test, there was no reason for another, for they had already forfeited the whole thing. That lets you and me know why we are like we are today, and why the whole earth is in such a terrible state of disarray, because Adam failed first. Alright, so Adam and Eve were introduced to the intimate act for the pleasure of it, instead of for the sole purpose of reproduction, which means that they partook of the tree of knowledge, but if God had killed them physically, He would have thwarted the whole purpose; because, basically, He put them there to replenish the earth. You must keep in mind the fact that we are looking at this from the standpoint of God’s foreknowledge according to what we read in the first chapter of Ephesians. He knew all of this before the world was ever created. He knew what Adam would do, and He knew what Jesus would do. That is why He could inspire the prophets to write what they did about Him. God saw Him on the cross paying the penalty for Adam’s sin, before there was ever a star or anything. But His immediate action, to cover their nakedness is recorded in verse 21 of chapter 3. “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them.” You see primitive man portrayed: living in caves and wearing coats of skins, but this is not necessarily the picture we are getting here. God was getting ready to move them out, but He was not going to let them go, without showing mercy, so He made those coats of skins for them. Therefore when they looked at them: they had to know where they came from, and what kind of animal they came off of. They were made to realize that an innocent animal had to give it’s life: in order for them not to have to look at their nakedness. But even still, they would have to carry their guilt and you know how the devil likes to torment people. He leads you into sin, and then he will never let you forget it, once he has you trapped. But God did not want those two to live the rest of their lives condemned, without knowing that He had provided something to cover them. Nevertheless, once He had them covered, they had to be removed from their former environment, lest they go ahead and reproduce themselves from the tree of life, after learning of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was just like what God said to the children of Israel, in Deuteronomy 11:26, “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse.” It had to be one or the other; it could not be both. God told Adam and Eve which tree to partake of, in order to fulfill His perfect will in their reproduction, but He created them with the ability to make choices and they chose the other tree. Therefore after He clothed them, He separated them from the beautiful paradise. (3:22) “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live for ever: therefore the Lord sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken.” Most of the questions come from the statement, “Lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever.” But it is because they cannot see that tree, so I want to go slow and try to make it clear. They had already eaten (or partaken) of the tree of knowledge. They knew the wrong that they had done, and they knew how bad they felt because of it. If you have never robbed a bank, or stolen anything, are you worried about being punished for that? No, you are not. But once you do those things, you know how bad a person would feel. You then measure that feeling against the time when you did not feel that way. In your mind, you know where good was and you know where evil was, and what a terrible conflict is set up within. However we must keep in mind that eating from the tree of life, as it is spoken of here, is not what gave Adam and Eve life, nor could it. Remember, they are in paradise, which is life itself. Therefore to eat of, or partake of the tree of life, meant that they would reproduce life, eternal life, which is of their kind. In other words, if God had left them right as they were, they would have lived forever, because they were in paradise, and paradise is eternal life. As long as they dwelt in paradise, they would have retained that knowledge of how to partake of the tree of life and reproduce themselves with offspring endowed with eternal life also. God had to drive them from His presence, (the garden) in order to prevent that. Let me repeat something I said a few minutes ago. Eating the fruit of the plant life trees was for the purpose of renewing their natural physical flesh, and this tree of life was only to be eaten of now and then for one specific purpose, and that purpose was to reproduce themselves and fill the earth with offspring which would also have eternal life. Therefore when God stripped them of His eternal presence, and yet allowed them to go ahead and reproduce themselves, then naturally their children were void of eternal life also. Why? Because every species was to bring forth of its own kind, and Adam and Eve no longer had eternal life. A lot of people get worried when they hear this statement, thinking it is contrary to the Bible doctrine of eternal security of the believer, but let me assure you, it is not the same thing. Adam and Eve had that eternal Spirit, but it was conditional, depending upon whether they passed their test, for God had already told them that to eat of the tree of knowledge would bring death. On the other hand, those believers of every age, who have obeyed God from the heart, and have been sealed by that same Spirit, (baptized by the Holy Ghost) have a promise, (Heb.13:5) “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” God does not give and take back His Spirit, like children playing with toys. He only gives that new birth experience to whose who have already been approved. In Ephesians 4:30, you find these words, written by the apostle Paul. “And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.” You could also read Romans 8, Galatians 4, and many other scriptures to confirm the promise of God to believers, and you will see that it is not the same situation as it was with Adam and Eve. Therefore let me say it again, the tree of life itself, was the means by how that eternal life was to be extended to the offspring Adam and Eve would bring into the world, and it in no way gave them eternal life, for they were already dwelling in eternal life, which is the very presence of God Himself. This is what gets people’s minds all confused, so I want to make it as clear as possible, for the wording here in the Bible, makes it sound like they could eat of the tree of life, and that is what would give them eternal life, and allow them to live forever. Sure, God said, Lest he put forth his hand, and take ALSO of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, so let me say this in a way that I believe will help you catch the point. Suppose God had just talked to Adam like this, Adam: Now that you understand that the sex act can be used for pleasure, I am not going to allow you to stay here and eat of this tree also, and live in this realm forever, in your sins. What did He do then? He did not drive him away from the tree, He drove him away from paradise, and his habitation in paradise is what gave him eternal life. Therefore when God drove him from paradise, He took that eternal existence from him. So what it all adds up to, is the fact that we must get back into paradise in order to have access to the tree of life. “Therefore the Lord God said, “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden.” Why did He not just move the tree? Because the tree was something that was related to paradise itself, so He drove him from paradise, to till the ground from whence he was taken, and brothers and sisters, that is where all the other trees were growing, and that is where his own body was taken from. Now as I have said many times, Adam and Eve were not driven from any geographical spot of ground. Geographically they remained right where they had been all along. But the difference was, they were no longer dwelling in that anointing presence of the Spirit of God. It was not a literal garden they were driven from; it was a spiritual environment, called paradise.

CHERUBIMS GUARD THE WAY BACK TO GOD

What did God do after He had driven Adam and Eve from His presence? Verse 24 says, “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, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Now let us keep this straight in our minds. If the garden was paradise, and paradise is the presence of God, then what were the cherubims guarding? East of the garden would have to pertain to something of what God’s original purpose was. Those angels were not restraining Adam from going where he wanted to go, and neither were they keeping him from any of the plant life trees God had originally given them for food. No. Those angels were spirit beings, that knew the entrance into the anointing presence of God, and from the time Adam and Eve were driven from that presence, no man, nor woman has been able to walk into the anointing of God just any time they desire to. On the other hand; the devil has so possessed a lot of people today, witches, fortune tellers, and all such like, until they can go right into that spirit as quick as a flash, but I hope none of you would ever be fooled by such a spirit as that. Man has remained on the outside of that spiritual presence of god ever since Adam and Eve were driven out. Oh, yes, we can have a measure of the spirit of God in us, but we cannot activate that anointing just any time we choose; God activates it when He chooses. Let me say also, There has not been a man or woman back in the paradise of God that Adam and Eve were driven out of, except those who have died and gone to glory. What ever you may imagine paradise to have been like, only those who have gone like that, have been able to see why it was such a beautiful place. It is only your spirit that goes there, and that makes what John saw coming down from heaven a beautiful reality. It is not that city of gold, that we have tried to make it, but rather, those righteous souls that God has redeemed through the ages. John said, (Rev. 21:2-3) “And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” It is called a city, and what better way could it have been portrayed, than that, in order to conceal the truth from intellectual minds? Well let me get back and make another point here. As Adam and Eve stood there, with their coats of skin, and God pronouncing the curses upon them, God said to Eve, “I will greatly multiply they sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” Now in medical terminology, what does that mean: I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception? It means: I will multiply the periods you normally would have had just for the purpose of conception. God has designed her with all the beauty and sacredness you could ever imagine and in her body, there was a law of the Creator, that was activated only by Him, and she was the only other one besides Him, that would ever know when that law was working, for the purpose of reproduction. That is why she would have known what eating from the tree of life was, and it was definitely not to give her and Adam eternal life, for they were already in the presence of God who is eternal life. No. That tree of life was for the purpose of giving eternal life to their offspring. But remember, the whole thing was tied to the presence of God in the garden. Had they never sinned, paradise never would have left. We would all still be enjoying it. But you can walk the world over, trying to find that garden of paradise, and never find it, for it is no longer there. Brothers and Sisters: Just try to imagine how Adam and Eve must have felt, when God removed them from that glorious realm. God did not erase the memory of what they had previously enjoyed with Him; therefore they lived the rest of their lives remembering, but unable to get back into that same anointing. That is why God set the cherubims between them, and Him, to make sure they did not. They were the only two humans that were ever privileged to know that original anointing, and they were the only ones that ever knew where those angels stood. From that time on, they were only in God’s permissive will. No. God did not leave the earth altogether, but they were sure never going to walk and talk with Him, in that same beautiful atmosphere that they had before. They became sinners, subject to a law of God, as they partook of sex for pleasure; and just look what the devil has done with it all. No wonder the Messiah had to be born of a virgin birth: all other mankind had that sentence of death reigning in them.

THE SERPENT’S SEED AND ADAM’S SEED

As Adam and Eve were driven from the garden, Eve had in her womb the seed from two sources. There was the seed of the serpent, but there was also the seed of Adam, and both were there as a result of sex for pleasure. However those who disagree with serpent seed, just love to read the first verse of Genesis, chapter 4, for they think the wording there proves their case, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.” Eve’s statement was true of course, for all life comes from God. He is the only source of life. But what you have to be sensitive enough to pick up, is the revelation of the next verse. “And she again bare his brother Abel. (In other words, they were looked upon as twins, but they were not twins at all. Even their very natures declared they were not twins.) And Abel was a keeper of sheep, BUT Cain was a tiller of the ground.” That is what the serpent was. Now the term for this dual conception is SUPER-FETATION, and here is what Webster’s Dictionary gives as the definition of that word. “Successive fertilization of two or more ova of different ovulations resulting in the presence of embryos of unlike ages in the same uterus.” Please notice, that verse 2 does NOT say, And Adam knew Eve again, and she conceived, and bare Abel. Eve gave birth to two boys, but the record shows that she knew only one man, Adam, and all the evidence shows that it was not twins by Adam. Cain is not even in the genealogy of Adam. That alone ought to tell people something. But notice verse 25 of chapter 4. “Adam knew his wife again: and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, SHE SAID, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.” Adam’s genealogy runs down through Seth’s descendants, and the descendants of Cain are given as separate from Adam’s line.

I cannot see for the life of me, why so many theologians will read these same scriptures, and then gag and cough, and carry on so, when serpent seed is mentioned, and say, That is a doctrine of the devil. Well what seems strange to me, is that they are always ready to tell you what the tree of knowledge of good and evil was not, but none of them will ever tell you what it was. Even with all of their education, most of them no doubt, still look at those two trees in the midst of the garden as plant life trees, just like all the other trees. That is why I have said, No true revelation of the word of God ever comes out of a theological seminary. Those man made systems with all of their theories, cannot produce a true revelation from the word of God. Hand-me-down traditions is what comes out of those places, so let me say once again, The garden God planted, was not something that covered the whole region of Eden. In the scriptures we read earlier, we saw that the area of Eden was all the area between the Tigris River and the Nile River, so that is a vast stretch of territory. But the Bible says, “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden.” That garden is not something you can explore biologically, for it was much, much more than just plant life growing: God’s presence was there. His purpose was to be the motivator of whatever the man He had created, did. When He put Adam there to dress and care for the garden, do not ever think He said, Now Adam: It is all yours, do as you please. No. He does not put man here like that. He does not call a man to preach, and say to him, Go, preach whatever you want to. I assure you there are a lot of them doing that today, but the truth is, God never called them to preach. A lot of them have been sent out by their parents because they felt they should have a preacher in the family. But let me tell you: If God does not give a man something to preach, all he can do is rattle, strictly from a natural mind. A revelation is not something you can get, just any time you want. You can study theology as long and hard as you can, but until God gives you a revelation on something, it remains hidden to you. You can only see what is written in the Bible, until the Spirit of God anoints you to read between the lines.

GOD PROJECTS HIS PERFECT WILL

I said a long time ago, and I will keep on saying it; If the garden that man was driven from had been just some geographical spot of ground somewhere, that man was forbidden to enter into, it would still be there, and man would still be forbidden to enter therein. That is why we have got to realize that it was the way God placed His presence there, that made it a garden of paradise. Had man not sinned within that realm, eventually the whole earth would have been filled with that same presence. That is what the Millennium is coming for, to fulfill the long awaited purpose of God: wherein the knowledge and glory of the Lord shall cover the whole earth, as the waters cover the sea. Let us just refresh our thinking. The Bible says God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. Does that mean that God had them in a place where there was no ground? No, there was just as much ground in the garden as there was anywhere else in Eden, for as I keep pointing out, The garden was not a geographical spot of ground. God’s presence is what made it a garden of paradise. It was God’s beginning place for the man He had created in His own image. That is why it says He planted a garden eastward in Eden; that was the beginning place. But before the plan got off of the launching pad, the devil already had it messed up. Yet we must realize that God permitted the whole thing to go as it did, in order that He might be able to show forth His other attributes. If He could create, He could also show mercy and redeem, so do not feel that this took God by surprise. He knew all of that, before He ever created the first star or anything else. Our biggest problem in trying to study the scriptures, is all the whys. If God knew this, why did He allow that, and so on? It was His purpose to express all of His many attributes, and in order to do so, He had to allow the circumstances that would necessitate it. Well, as Adam and Eve went forth from the garden, that left them as the only humans that would ever know what that original paradise was like. Those boys did not ever know, for they were born off of that other tree. They were earth bound from birth, just as all the rest of us have been. Adam and Eve were the only two people that knew why those cherubims were there. It was so they could never press themselves back into the presence of God, and hold on to eternal life: carrying out the plan of God. Let us just use that thought for a moment. What about the children of Israel? When God brought them right out through the Red Sea, and took them to Kadesh Barnea, and the spies came back with their report, you know the story; they had already complained too much. God told them they would wander in the wilderness forty years, yet after He had already pronounced their penalty, the decided that they would force the hand of God and battle that bunch of heathen anyhow, but God was not with them, so they took a licking. Anytime you read in the Bible where God projects His perfect plan, and man, through his unbelieving attitude, complains about it, then God turns them to a secondary plan, and if they still try to force themselves in, after God has made the change, they are always blocked, just like Adam and Eve were. God had driven them from a realm where they could see angels just as clearly as they could see each other, and He knew that they would try to get back into that realm, if He did not take steps to prevent it. Therefore He placed those cherubims between them and His anointing presence, so they could never press themselves back into that realm again. That left them subject only to the tree of knowledge, and every last one of us are a product of it. That is why we all act like we do. That is why we have the kind of knowledge, to know how to get to the moon. But when it comes to the word of God, we are blind as bats. If it were not for the grace of God, we would not know a thing about Him. When we try to imagine what paradise should have been like, we try to conceive of it with our natural mind, and all we can think of is apple trees, peach trees, fig trees, and all such as that. Well all of that was there, abut that is not what made it a garden of paradise; it was the presence of God that make it paradise. Their testing tree was in the midst of the garden also, and to the natural mind, it seems like that should be just another of those plant life trees, but I assure you, Adam did not transplant any of those trees, and we still have the tree of knowledge with us today. Satan tested Jesus with the fruit of that same tree: If thou be the Son of God, command these stones to be made bread. Well that sort of thing was going to be part of His ministry, but He did not fall into Satan’s trap, and fail His test, like Adam did.

GOD’S MERCIFUL PROVISION

Adam failed his test and no doubt he and Eve thought many times, how it was for them before they disobeyed God’s word. Yet outside the garden; they were covered with those skins, so that caused them to know that they could trust God to be merciful to them, and that somewhere in time, He would take care of the situation. But Adam no longer had a servant, he was going to have to till the ground himself. Some people think I am crazy when they hear me say that Adam had a servant, but I assure you, that is exactly what the serpent was. Have you not read in the Bible how God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him. And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof?” Well, out of all those animals, there was not one of them that could be to Adam what he needed, to fulfill the command of God to be fruitful and multiply, but Adam did get a servant from among them, that could talk and communicate with him, and it was through that servant, that Satan first got to Eve. The Bible says that the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field, and that is a word that means cunning, or crafty, usually in a bad sense. So he came to Eve and said, “Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” In other words, Are you sure you know what God meant? That is how the devil works on people, even still today; he questions the word of God that you hold on to. He questioned Eve, through the serpent, and he questions you also: Are you sure it was a sex act, that caused the fall of Adam and Eve? Our critics are usually not that kind; they will tell you straight out that you are crazy, for believing a thing like that, yet they cannot tell you what their sin was. They would rather say, I do not see that it matters, what they actually did. It sure does matter. I would hate to think that the whole human race was born in sin, just because Eve ate a nice big red apple, and then gave one to Adam. Well there are a lot of people in the world, that would rather believe that, than to know the truth, and if they continue to pursue that course, they will end up right where Cain is. Do not ever think Cain repented of his evil ways. God offered him a chance, but he chose to murder his half brother instead, so he will burn with all the other serpent seed that have spurned the word of God since then. Those two boys grew up, never having known what Adam and Eve knew, about the garden of paradise. But when they grew up, they knew that they were fully responsible for their own standing with God. Abel had a revelation imparted to him by the Creator, because of the quality of the spirit he had within him. He knew God had to be worshiped with a blood sacrifice. But Cain carried just enough attributes of his mother to give him a religious feeling, and make him feel that it was his duty to go to church. He was like a lot of people are today; they go to church at least once a week, but they have no revelation whatsoever of the word of God, and when they leave church, they do not want to talk about it anymore until they go to church again. If you try to talk to them about a revelation that is burning in your soul, they get very uncomfortable and bored. All they want is a simple little sermon when they go to church, and all the rest of the time they want to spend on some worldly pursuit. God cannot speak to them because they do not have a spirit inside them that reaches out to Him, and desires to know His will for their lives.

GOD WANTS OUR HEART

Abel brought a blood sacrifice to God, according to the revelation he had, and Cain, no doubt thought that was awful. You know, there are a lot of people in the world today that would not kill an animal for anything in the world, and when they read in the Bible how God required that certain animals be sacrificed, they will even speak against God for requiring it. Yet it was people like that, that cried, crucify him! When Pilot asked, “What shall I do then with Jesus which is called Christ?” It makes you wonder how people with a murderous spirit in them, could be so sympathetic to animals that God allowed man to kill. Brothers and sisters: I am not advocating the idea of killing animals just to test out your gun, but when you take the attitude that some people have, it is nothing less than a rebellion against God. Well all Cain knew was that he was supposed to bring something to God, and being a tiller of the ground, he must have thought God would be very pleased when he brought the best of what he had raised: with his own human efforts. Being a son of the serpent, he had that natural instinct to know what to do with the soil, to get the very best out of it. Do not try to tell me that God would give Adam a servant whose duty it would be to till the ground and not put within his intellect the biological laws of vegetable life. So Cain had inherited that ability from his father; therefore he must have been very proud of what he brought to God that day, but God rejected it, just like He does the works of our hands yet today. God wants our hearts, not our material possessions. Well the point is, without a revelation, it is impossible to please God. Abel had a revelation, and Cain did not, therefore Abel’s offering was accepted and Cain’s was refused, and the more Cain thought about the whole thing, the madder he got, and when he got the opportunity he committed the first murder this side of Genesis 1:2. How did murder get into his mind? You may ask. It was an attribute of the devil, transmitted to Cain through his father the serpent, that had yielded his spirit to the devil. Lucifer, the devil, was a fallen angel from the prehistoric world, which had committed murder during that time, when the angels were tested here on this earth. God stripped him of his place as the anointed cherub, that stood in the presence of his Creator, and from that time on he has been the devil, the enemy of God. He was permitted though, to stand in the shadows and wait for this present creation to be placed upon earth, and then allowed to take a whack at the plan of God, by putting it in the mind of the old serpent to seduce Eve. Some have said that God made a mistake by allowing that, but no, this was all foreknown of Him from the beginning. It was the way He had determined for Adam to be tested. Satan programmed the psychological makeup of the old serpent, just like he has these sex deviates of our day, that abuse little children, cut them to pieces, and hide them. All of this kind of behavior is a result of what happened there in the garden of Eden, when the serpent yielded his mind to Satan, and Eve yielded to him, and then pulled Adam into the whole plot. That serpent only had one opportunity though. God did not even ask him to give an account of what he had done. When Eve said, “The serpent beguiled me:” God said to the serpent, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.” There that serpent stood, in an upright position, with an intellect and the ability to carry on a vocal conversation with Adam and Eve, and right before their eyes, he became a crawling reptile. That took place while they were still in paradise, and the serpent lost his identity forever. He will never be restored to his original form. But I want you to know, that outside of that beautiful environment, every time Eve saw him, she recognized him. That is why God said, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.” Eve hated him. Now she did not hate every snake she saw; she only hated the serpent. She knew which one he was, but generations since then, have no way of knowing. As for what I said about the serpent not being restored, you will find that in Isaiah 65:25. The prophet, speaking of the Millennium says, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord.” Yes he is still out there (or at least, his seed are) multiplying themselves, in that cursed state, never to be restored back. That is why man does not have a servant today, and that is why the scientists are still searching for the missing link between man and the highest form of the animal kingdom. That missing link is now crawling on his belly in the reptile family, instead of walking upright as he did before he was cursed.

REVELATION MAKES THE DIFFERENCE

Let us think about the serpent’s son Cain, for a few minutes now. Having his father’s God given ability, he could really grow those fruits and vegetables. He knew just exactly how to take care of them. Our garden experts of today could not even hold a candle to him. Brothers and sisters: I have to say these things like this, because we are exploring the field of intelligence, and this serpent’s main function was gardening. When God stripped him of his arms and legs, and put a curse on the ground, that left Adam to till the ground himself, and raise his food, and get callouses on his hands. God said to him,”In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground.” Then when Cain grew up, he had that natural instinct in him: to know how to till the ground and grow crops. But Abel, being Adam’s son, had the natural ability to take care of animals. God had told Adam, in the original commission, Subdue the earth, and have dominion over every living thing, so Abel was a keeper of sheep. Well anyhow, it came time to make an offering to the Lord, and both of these young men brought the best of what they had and offered it unto their Creator. The only trouble was, Cain did not have a revelation of why the offering was to be made, so he brought some of the best of what he had raised with his own hands, tilling the ground. Naturally, without a revelation as to why the offering was being made, he no doubt thought God should be very pleased with him. But those fruits and vegetables had no significance in God’s plan of redemption, so He had no respect for Cain’s offering. But when Abel brought the best from his flock, and offered a blood sacrifice; that fit right in with what God had already done, for He had to kill some animals, to get the skins to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness. Right there, is where Abel’s revelation came from: knowing what God had done to cover his parents, after they had sinned, so when he brought a sacrifice to God, because of a revelation he had: that pleased God, and He visibly manifested some kind of presence to him, that made Cain very jealous and angry. That was God’s way of saying to Abel, you are accepted. Then God spoke audibly to Cain, saying, “Why art thou wroth? Why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted?” In other words, Cain: If you bring the right sacrifice, you will be accepted also, but do not feel that just because you are a good Baptist, or Methodist: I am obligated to come to you on your terms. Well, Cain was just like a lot of these religious people of our day; Bless God, you are not going to see me act like that! So God said to him, “And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.” Sometimes it pays to observe what others are being blessed in, and just keep our mouth shut, and do likewise. Many times that is how we learn what pleases God. It was not in Cain’s nature to try to do any differently though. Instead of taking heed to those words, he just became more and more bitter as the days passed, until finally that bitterness got such control over him, he just had to destroy the thing he felt was keeping God from blessing him. Man’s natural approach to a situation like that, is, I will destroy the thing that stands between God and me, and then God will have to talk to me. Well God did talk to him, but it was not what he wanted to hear. He allowed Satan to motivate him, to commit the first murder this side of the garden of Eden. Satan himself was already a murderer. That is why Jesus said what He did to those Jews that tormented Him. In John 8:44, (after those Jews had been contending with Him for quite some time) we read where Jesus said to them, “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” Somewhere in the prehistoric age, Satan, who was then known as Lucifer the archangel, had done the same thing he inspired Cain to do; he had become a murderer. So there stood Cain, after he had killed Abel, and hid him, and God said to him, “Where is Abel thy brother?” That was not what Cain wanted to hear God say to him, so notice how he answered (Gen.4:9). “I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper?” There was a lie, another attribute of what Jesus said the devil was, a liar. But God said, “What hast thou done? The voice of hy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground. And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother’s blood from thy hand; When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.” At that moment Cain knew that he had gone too far; there was no avenue for him to appropriate God’s forgiveness, so his next thought was to run away, just get away from everything that would remind him of what he had done. That is why a lot of people react, instead of facing their problems, they just try to run from them. So Cain left there and went to dwell in the land of Nod, on the east of Eden.

EARTH POPULATED BY ONE FAMILY

We have already pointed out that the region of Eden ran all the way from the Nile, in Egypt, to the Tigris, which is in the borders of ancient Assyria. That would be your extreme dimension east and west, of the area called Eden. Of course we realize also that the garden of paradise was in the eastern part of this vast territory, so that lets us know that God purposed for man to have his beginning in the earth, in the place where all directions meet. It is man, that has placed the international date line out in the Pacific Ocean. God had nothing to do with that. But what I want to point out is that Cain left Eden and went even further east. That would have put him in an area like Pakistan or even in India, and that is where he began to multiply his kind. Now one of the first questions people ask you when they quiz you on this subject is, Where did Cain get his wife? Well, there was only one place where he could have gotten a wife: she had to be his sister. There was no other place for him to get a wife. It was the same way after the flood, when only Noah’s family was left alive to repopulate the earth. Those men had to take their sisters, cousins, nieces, and so forth, to be their wives. The Bible does not name any certain woman, before the flood. The genealogies run down through the firstborn males, and then it says, and So and So lived after he begat that certain son, so many more years, and begat sons and daughters. Therefore many of those daughters became the wife of one of her brothers. That is how the earth was repopulated from the seed of one man and woman. Just a little plain common sense would answer those questions for us, without asking anyone else. So as we continue on here, let me say this, As you read on down through chapter 4, and on through chapter 5, which covers the genealogies of Cain and Abel, you realize that there is a great mass of people involved, in those two lines, and none of them had ever seen paradise. They had no thoughts about anything like that. Adam and Eve had known what a beautiful garden of paradise looked like, and if they had never sinned, that same beautiful environment would have spread out over the whole earth. But Satan was allowed to get into the picture, and that changed everything. In that environment, Adam would have ruled the animal kingdom and he knew certain laws related to the repopulation of the animal kingdom. Therefore if they had never sinned, you would not have a situation like we have today, with the stronger of them eating the weaker. That is referred to a keeping a balance of the environment, but all of that is necessary only because Satan is in control of all of this overpopulation, both of man and beast. Under God’s original plan for the human race; man and woman never would have known the sex relationship for any purpose other than to reproduce life, and give God another son or daughter in His own image and likeness. Every woman would have known the exact time that she could conceive, and that is the only time that she would have entered into a sex relationship with her husband, and the child born from that relationship would have been born into the world with eternal life. Brothers and sisters, there are an awful lot of people in churches throughout the world today; that would call me a filthy mouthed preacher if they could hear me say these things. But those same people allow their little children to sit in public schools and be taught all about sex, and they never say anything to try to stop it. They teach those children all about sex, and tell them what a beautiful thing it is, but they never tell them that to enter into that relationship outside of marriage, is against the will of God, and that they will have to pay a price both naturally and spiritually, for the error of their ways. When they tell them that there is nothing wrong with participating in that relationship and that old fogies like us, only imagine it to be wrong, that is that same old devil that was back in the garden of Eden, talking to Eve through the serpent. What we are seeing today is exactly what the devil was after, there in the garden. He wanted to drag this relationship to the lowest levels of human degradation, that it could possibly be brought to. Women will strip off stark naked, just to entertain a bunch of filthy minded, lustful men. Now you may say, But Adam and Eve were naked, there in the garden, but let me remind you that the presence and glory of God was their covering until they disobeyed. They did not even think of themselves as being naked, until after they had sinned. After that, they could only see themselves as two naked, physical beings.

GOD WILL CLOTHE US

Think about this: When you die, and go into the grave, your body is going to rot, and so are those clothes that you are buried in. Therefore when you come forth in the resurrection, the only covering you are going to have, is what Adam and Eve had before they sinned. It will be up to God to clothe you with something that will not wear out; like the clothes we wear today. We will not have to be bothered with shopping for clothes to cover our immortal bodies, and neither will we have to be concerned about what Satan is doing. He will be out of the picture forever, as far as the immortal people are concerned. Satan’s crew is still trying their very best to gain the thing Eve lost, in the garden. As we have already said, No woman since then has known exactly when she can conceive, nor when she cannot. But medical science is trying their level best to find ways that women can have sex without taking the chance of getting in trouble. If she could only know exactly when that period was, she would know when to play around and when not to. I know this is straight talk, but things have gone too far for us to keep our heads buried in the sand like an ostrich, and pretend like everything is exactly like it should be. Satan is after your children and he is not going to let up, so the least you can do is try to warn them of some of his cunning devices. Crime of every sort is on the increase, but the most abominable thing in the sight of God, is the perverted way that human beings are using their bodies. Animals do not behave like that. The only time you see anything irregular taking place among the animal kingdom is when Satan tampers with certain ones, to entertain perverted mankind. But as a general rule, they conduct themselves exactly as their Creator meant for them to: they have that relationship only for the purpose of reproduction, and they know exactly when the time is right. God did not put the animal kingdom here to be tested; they were put here for you and me to rule over. Of course we all realize that the nature and habits of animals have been affected by what took place in the garden of Eden, but their reproduction laws remain the same. Only the woman’s was changed. I get happy just thinking about the day when Satan will bound for a thousand years, and the immortal saints will rule with Christ for that whole time, and all of God’s creation, except the old serpent, will be redeemed and restored back to its original beginning. No I am not including the wicked and ungodly element of degenerate mankind in that: they will be destroyed in the lake of fire. But that old lion, over there in Africa, that enjoys killing and devouring other little animals, will wake up some morning and the sun shining in his eyes will be different, and those other little animals will no longer have to flee from it. Today he likes blood and meat; but in that day, his shaggy old head will bow down and eat grass just like a milk cow. What will cause the change? Jesus the second Adam, will take over the reins, along with His immortal bride, and Satan will not be around to cause trouble. Hallelujah! If some of these scientists could hear me talking, they would say for sure that I am crazy. But I say, If I am crazy, just leave me alone, I like what I am seeing. The Millennium is going to be the front door, back into paradise, so why should we not be happy about it. Even if I knew that I would die tonight, I would still rejoice to know what God is going to do in this old planet earth one day soon. It is a beautiful subject, and the truth of it comes from the only book in the world, that has stood the test through the ages. Modern man has no respect for the Bible, because he is a product of what Satan started there in the garden of Eden. The serpent was designed intellectually, by the Creator, to know how to associate all things relative to the earth; and when he became a tool of the devil, to plant his seed in the womb of Adam’s wife, there came forth from it, a species that was part man, and part serpent. To some extent he had the same outlook as Adam’s sons. But in other ways, his reasoning could never rise above the natural earth that he was of. His offspring were smart men, but they were void of the spirit of God. Some of them were fine musicians by the standards of the world, and some of them were craftsmen of various sorts, and through the ages, the world has recognized them for their great talents in music and art, and so forth. But the sad thing is, it was all done leaving God out of the picture. I have no particular pick against any of that kind of music, but when something is designed without giving any recognition to God at all, I find it hard to get very thrilled about it. The world loves that celebrity image, that goes with such as that, and the celebrities live off of the praise of mortal flesh, never realizing that they owe their lives to God, and that their talent came from Him. Little old David was a musician too, but when the inspiration struck him; can you imagine him lifting his voice and starting to sing in high C, about everything else other than God? No. Every time he opened his mouth, out came something about the Creator. To me, he was a celebrity, and I am persuaded that he was the kind of man that God is still calling today. He has no delight in these men of renown; for most of them are always trying to prove that God does not exist. They would rather believe that we evolved from something that evolved from something else, going all the way back to a slimy old frog pond somewhere. They are so smart, yet their theories are so ridiculous that even little children can see through them. But that is a serpent seed; they cannot give God any recognition.

GENERATIONS OF MIXED SEED

A lot of people want to blame Noah’s wife for being the cause of serpent’s seed on this side of the flood. But I want to show you why she was no more to blame than Noah was. The Bible says Noah was a just man and perfect (or upright) in his generation. But it does not say that he was a pure seed of Adam. Noah was the firstborn of a man by the name of Lamech, and the Bible says that after Lamech begat Noah, he lived five hundred and ninety five years, and begat sons and daughters. Now if Noah was a pure seed, so were his brothers and sisters; therefore I ask you, why did they all perish in the flood? Furthermore, since it was common practice for brothers and sisters to marry and raise children: if Noah was a pure seed, and desired to please God, as the scriptures indicate that he did, why did he not marry one of his sisters, in order to keep his line pure? There is absolutely no scripture to justify anyone saying that Noah was a pure seed, and that his wife was the one to blame for serpent seed on this side of the flood. The Bible says that Lamech (Noah’s father) lived 595 years after he begat Noah, and begat sons and daughters. Therefore if Noah was a pure seed: so were his brothers and sisters, so there would have been no reason for Noah to take a wife of mixed blood line. Furthermore why were none of his brothers and sisters spared, if they were pure seed? Another interesting thing we might pay attention to, is the fact that Noah never begat any daughters. That forced his sons to have to look elsewhere for their wives. But those sons of Noah did begat daughters, in order that Noah’s grandsons might have wives to carry out the commission God had given: Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. Now Shem, Ham and Japeth were brothers: all having the same father and mother, but I want you to look at the mixed variety they fathered into the world. That was not just because they had wives of mixed bloodlines: they also had those mixed attributes in them. The pure seed had already dropped out of the picture a long way back down the line. By the time of Lamech’s and Noah’s days, there was no such thing born, as pure seed of Adam, for the two lines had already been mixed a long time before that. Chapter six, (which is not a continuation of chapter 5, for it goes back and picks up where this mixing of the two lines first started) tells us that as men began to multiply upon the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, the sons of God (which were Seth’s line, still living in the region of Eden) saw the daughters of men, that they were fair; (to look upon) and they took them wives of all which they chose. Those daughters of Cain’s line were so beautiful, that these sons of Seth’s line could not resist them, once they began to come over and parade themselves before them. It was not the sons of Seth, that first introduced polygamy, but once they stepped across the marginal line of safety, they no longer had any resistance left in them. The Bible says, They took them wives of all which they chose. Therefore from that time on, they married back and forth, had polygamous marriages, and eventually there ceased to be any pure seed born. That is what caused Enoch, the seventh from Adam, to ask himself, just how much longer can God tolerate this sort of thing, without doing something about it? That is why he gave his firstborn that prophetic name: Methuselah. By revelation, somehow or other, he knew: when he is gone, it (the end) shall come. His revelation was right, but the end did not come for a long time after that; for Methuselah lived to be the oldest man on record, nine hundred and sixty nine years old. All the time that little boy was growing up, Enoch watched him; thinking that just any moment, the end would come. He was looking for God’s judgment in his day; yet Methuselah lived six hundred and sixty nine years, after God took his daddy on home to be with Him. All of that expectation no doubt, is what caused Enoch to walk so close to God, that God just took him on, and got him out of all that ungodly mess. But just as his name implied, the year Methuselah died, the flood hit the earth, and wiped the slate clean; except for Noah and his family. Somewhere within the geographical boundaries of Eden: Noah built a boat; and right there, is where the storm began to hit. That torrential downpour continued for forty days and nights, without any let up; but Noah was ready. He took his family, along with all the animals God had instructed him to take, and entered into that odd shaped old boat, and the heavens opened up. Now that boat wasn’t built in a port, nor on skids to be launched. God was going to launch it, without Noah doing one thing to help. Those flood waters just lifted it above every tree top, and Noah’s family just sat there rocking. He did not have a compass, nor a pilot wheel or rudder, and he had no idea whatsoever as to where they were going. But months later, the old boat came to rest on top of Mt. Ararat, at the northern borders of Eden. God did not take it too far from the cradle of civilization. Therefore when the waters abated, they came right back down off of that mountain, down across the foothills of Turkey, right back into the plains of Shinar; where once again, another civilization was started. They were in Eden; but they were not in paradise. Eden has always remained, but that spiritual realm that Adam and Eve knew, has never returned to Eden. I have been accused of saying that the garden of Eden did not have natural trees growing there. But what I really said, and will say again, is that the garden of Eden was more than just some spot of ground with a lot of trees growing in it. The trees growing in the garden were no different than the trees growing outside of it, if we may use that kind of terminology. For surely we know by now, that it was God’s presence that made it a garden of paradise.

NOAH CURSES CANAAN

Aright, before we go to the New Testament, I want to say a few words about something here in the 9th chapter of Genesis. Something that took place after the flood. The 9th chapter starts out telling that God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.” That terminology literally means Fill it up again. Of course we all know that the earth was inhabited by a great mass of people before the flood, therefore it is no strange thing to us for God to say, Replenish it. We understand what He meant. On the other hand, when He said that to Adam and Eve, a lot of people think that was very strange, because they do not realize that the earth was inhabited prior to Adam’s day. Yes it was inhabited by prehistoric creatures, when angels were tested: and one third of them joined forces with Lucifer, against God. But what I want to deal with, starts in verse 20, so let us read it. Noah and his family are back on dry ground, and they have their commission from God, and time brings us to verse 20. “And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: (which is grapes) and he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.” Now the few words I have just read, does not even say that Ham laughed; it just said that he came and told his brethren, which were outside. “And Shem and Japeth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness.” The reason I am mentioning this is because we have certain men today, that are always elaborating on what they believe Ham did, that so displeased Noah. First let me say this though; Noah’s whole family came from the other side of the flood, therefore they were well acquainted with the immoral conditions that existed then. Yet out of that hour and time, Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Not that he could be compared with Seth, nor any of those earlier generations, but because he lived above the overall condition of immorality that prevailed all around him. God does not compare us to the standard of what someone was 400 years ago; He looks at us in the hour we live in. The moral condition before the flood was excessive drunkenness, sodomy, incest, and a general breakdown of human decency and respect for others. Then of course, there are always those who just love to laugh and enjoy someone’s predicament; I have seen it many times. We have all seen drunk people conducting themselves in ways that they just naturally created fun. But in the army, I saw some of them get so drunk they would see spotted pups, pink elephants, and all such like. So the point is: It is wrong to exploit another persons predicament, and use it to gratify our own flesh, laughing and making fun of them, which I believe is exactly what Ham did: when he saw his father lying naked in his drunken condition. However some of these know-it-all preachers, take the word nakedness, and compare it with the 18th chapter of Leviticus, and get their own private interpretation of Ham’s sin. We cannot take something that was written in the law hundreds of years after this event took place, and build a revelation, just because of one word. We all know that words take on different meanings over a span of 5 or 6 hundred years, so just a word alone is not sufficient to build a revelation off of. Nevertheless there are those who insist that Ham committed an act of incest with his mother, while Noah was in his state of drunkenness; and there are others who will argue that he committed an act of sodomy with Noah, when he found him lying there drunk and naked. But saints, I am convinced that if he had committed any such act, as either one of these, he would not have wanted to expose his guilt by telling his two brothers anything about it. No. I believe that what we read here, is exactly what happened, except that it just does not give the specific details of how Ham laughed and made fun of his father’s dilemma. Ham had seen a lot of this sort of thing before the flood, where individuals would make fun of others, that were found in this condition, and maybe without even considering how this sort of thing would look in the eyes of God, he did the very same thing; he made fun of his father and did not try to do one thing to help him. Well as I was made to think on this subject again, it lay heavy upon my mind, and then I remembered reading something in the Bible that had shed more light on this subject. It is found in the 2nd chapter of Habakkuk, verse 15, so let us read it. “Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor to drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look upon their nakedness!” Now that does not apply to his father’s wife, nor his neighbor’s wife; it means just exactly what it says. Notice that next verse; it shows how God looks upon any individual who would do such a thing. “Thou art filled with shame for glory: (That is the state of a man who would do such a thing, glory in someone else’s predicament), drink thou also, and let thy foreskin be uncovered: the cup of the Lord’s right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.” The root of it all is that a person who would do such things, is full of shame. Well a lot of people would say, Oh, you should not read such things as that. But let me tell you something, you are living in a perverted age, and I will not try to pull the cover over such a picture, when the whole world is full of this same kind of spirit. I am not trying to make this sound derogatory, I am only trying to give you some scriptural basis for that which we believe and teach. It says, “The cup of the Lord’s right hand shall be turned unto thee, and shameful spewing shall be on thy glory.” That just shows that God will reverse the situation, on those who will allow themselves to stoop that low. Even though such a person might not even consider committing an act of incest, or sodomy, God still looks upon this sort of thing as an abomination, and He will not let such a person get by with it forever. To me, these scriptures speak of a breakdown morally and mentally, and they let us see that there are limits to what God will tolerate. It is one thing to laugh at some of the funny things a drunk man will do; but it is quite a different story when we take delight in something like that, or when we look forward to the time when such a person will get drunk again, just so we can laugh at him. Saints: I hope I am saying this in a way that will allow you to see what I see. God had already destroyed that whole mass of people whose spirits were filled with that kink of outlook and attitude toward each other, and Ham was among those that had been spared to repopulate the earth again, and he knew better than to do such a thing. Which, as I said, I believe he just simply came to his brothers laughing and said something like: You ought to see the old man! Boy, if he isn’t something to see. He told them in a way that sounded funny to him; but to show the respect that they had for their dad; look what they did. They took a garment and walked backwards to cover him, without looking upon him in his state of embarrassment. The last six words of verse 23 should explain verse 22. Ham saw the nakedness of his father, and Shem and Japeth walked backward to cover him, in order not to see the same thing. Nakedness in both verses, has the same application. So let us notice verse 24 now. “And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. And he said, Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant. And God shall enlarge Japeth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” As for how Noah knew what he had done, we have to believe one of two things; either he awoke from his drunken sleep and started asking questions when he found someone else’s garment over him, or the same inspiration that gave him the authority to curse Ham’s fourth son, (when at the time he did not even have any sons) let him know. If God revealed it to him like that, then it was not necessary for him to ask any questions. I do not know which way it was, but I am fully persuaded, that what Ham did, was just laugh and make fun of him. I brought with me the writings of a Jewish historian; Josephus, and on page 41, we will read what he had to say about this incident in the life of Noah. This is not scripture; it is what this historian accumulated and wrote, so let us read it. “Noah, when after the deluge, (the flood) the earth was resettled in its former condition, set about its cultivation and when he had planted it with vines, and when the fruit was ripe, and he had gathered the grapes in their season, and the wine was ready for use, he offered sacrifice, and feasted, and being drunk he fell asleep, and lay naked in an unseemly manner. When his youngest son saw this, he came, laughing, (That is what I said before I ever read what Josephus wrote about it), and showed to his brethren, but they covered their father’s nakedness. And when Noah had been made sensible of what had been done, he prayed for prosperity to his other sons, but for Ham, he did not curse him by reason of his nearness in blood, but cursed his prosperity, and when the others has escaped that curse, God inflicted it on the children of Canaan.” That was his fourth son, and Ham had no children at all, at that time. His first child was Cush, his second was Mizraim, the third Phut, and then Canaan was the fourth. Now with that, I am going to let the record stand, and hope that every one of you are as convinced as I am that it was not an act of incest, nor sodomy on the part of Ham, but in the eyes of God, to laugh and make fun the way Ham did, is just as bad.

THE NEW BIRTH IS NECESSARY

I wanted to get that point about Noah in this message, for I believe it has been the cause of a lot of unnecessary speculation; but now, let us go on exploring Eden. Adam and Eve did not die physically when they disobeyed God, but they did die spiritually, just as God had told them they would, if they partook of the tree of knowledge. Being put outside of that original paradise, was their first death. God cursed them, clothed them with coats of skin, and put them outside of that blissful realm of paradise. There are two particular things to notice: They died spiritually, never to be restored back to that blissful state, and they were left alive for centuries, to till the ground, and to multiply themselves upon the earth, under the law of the tree of knowledge. Now let me say this; If our mind is vague about any of this, do not worry about it, for it will all break through one of these days. Just remember though, that they were spiritually dead. That is why the term new birth is so important; it makes us alive again. Not the terminology itself, but the reality that it speaks of. That term was never used though, until a Pharisee by the name of Nicodemus, (a doctor of divinity) came to Jesus one night. Jesus said to him, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Why did He talk like that? No one had ever even thought of a new birth before. Therefore Nicodemus answered just like anyone else would have; he said, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus was not talking about the kind of birth Nicodemus was thinking of, but instead of explaining it the way we might think He should have, He simply said, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Then He said to him, “That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.” The kingdom of God is a spiritual kingdom, that cannot be seen with our natural eyes. One cannot say, Here it is; or there it is; for it is within you. Jesus was slowly introducing the usage of words and terminology, that would begin to point man’s thinking back to God, and away from natural logic. Paul tells us in Ephesians how that we are a spiritual house, lively stones, built upon a holy foundation. We are made to be a spiritual house, to become a habitation of God, by His Spirit. So in Hebrews 12:18, Paul takes from the Old Testament, a little event and display of God, that took place before a natural minded people, and goes on to give a spiritual application. “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burneth with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, (You can read that in Exodus, chapter 19), and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to them any more.” That was a great display of God in His sovereignty, which did not look much like paradise to any of those who witnessed it. Just imagine, a mountain peak covered with a dark cloud, streaks of lightning flashing, and loud claps of thunder, that seemed to shake the whole mountain. Yet it was not raining. It was the way Jehovah chose to manifest His presence, to draw attention to Moses, and to the others at the foot of the mountain: Do not come too close. What a God! They could hear the trumpet, and they could hear the voice, and it scared them half to death. “For they could not endure that which was commanded, and if so much as a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned, or thrust through with a dart: and so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake.” My, it must have been a fearful thing, to look up there and see such a display of God’s omnipotency. That is really what you would have to call it; for it was not God in His glory; it was His power that was being demonstrated: so that even Moses expressed fear. But notice verse 22 now, what Paul turns all of this into. “But ye are come to Mt. Zion, and unto the city of the living God.” Think about that now brothers and sisters. There is not a one of you in here; born of the Spirit of God, that could even say, I came to a literal mountain and touched it. No, Paul was not speaking of a literal geographical area, as the Israelites were, in all of their associations with Jehovah. When God brought them out of Egypt: they knew they had been in Egypt; they knew they had come through the wilderness, and they knew they had come unto the land that God had promised them. God set a type through them, in the natural, of all that He would one day do for mankind spiritually. Mount Zion, in the natural, is the mountain where God chose to put His name in the Old Testament era; and that is where He had a temple built by King Solomon, in which He manifested His Shekinah glory. But you and I did not come to a literal mountain; we came to a spiritual mountain, a mountain that cannot be seen. Therefore if we can begin to see what Paul was looking at, and if it is opening the door of our thinking, then when we get to the book of Revelation, we will have no trouble seeing that new Jerusalem, that descends from God out of heaven. In other words, the paradise that our ancient father and mother were driven out of is the paradise God is bringing us back to. There, it was a garden, but here, it will be a city. It was God there; and it will be God here. There was no city, in the beginning. There was no need for one. Mrs. Adam never had any of the appliances this generation cannot possibly do without. As you read the book of Genesis, you will see that it was Cain and his line that first began to build cities. It was that line that started all of the murder and perversion, and their cities became a refuge for them to protect them from their enemies. Even the Israelites did not live in cities until God brought them into the land He had promised them. There, they became possessors of villages and houses, as well as cities, that had been built by the Canaanites. That is how city dwelling slowly began to be a practice of life for the people of God. But even as the people of God began to settle in the promised land, He still did not immediately place His name in any particular spot. In His foreordained plan, there was a particular mountain upon which stood an ancient Jebusite city called Salem: that He had chosen to place His name in. Time itself brought about the manifestation of that. Keep in mind; when the world was not thickly populated, there was no need for the people of God to dwell in cities. That is why Abraham did not choose to dwell in Sodom and Gomorrah. He dwelt in the hills, and in the desert, but he never dwelt in a city; he just dwelt near them.

WHAT ANCIENT CITIES WERE

God knew that mankind in general would one day increase in population to the point where it would be necessary for many of them to begin to function within that of a city structure. Therefore as time moved on, many of those cities were not only places of refuge, but places of dwelling, of communication, of commerce and trade. But in ancient times, the one thing that stood out about any city, was how its walls were built. Those walls were not constructed just to set up curio shops in them; they were built for the protection of the inhabitants of the city. A city without strong walls usually never grew to be very large. So we must realize that the walls were to signify the defense and military capability of the city, to protect its inhabitants. Remember now, a city is not just a beautiful place with beautiful houses, with gold locks, and all such like. In reality, a city was a place wherein life functioned, and it was a place of safety. But what about the city John saw in the book of Revelation? In the 21st chapter it was described from its outer dimensions, and it looks exactly like a city. But I want to tell you something; There is not one house in it. You can say I am crazy, if you want to; but I will just simply tell you to go read your Bible again. It tells you how tall the walls are and that the wall of it has twelve foundations. Not the city, the wall. Now that means it has twelve layers. When you go to natural Jerusalem, you do not see the footing of those walls. How many of you know that the foundation of a wall is a footing? That is what carried the weight of it. If your foundation is not sufficient, your building will not stand. Well, it says those foundations are named after the twelve apostles. But do not try to tell me that John, James, Matthew, nor any of them, ever hauled anything up there to help build those walls. No saints, I am not crazy; I just believe a lot of people have been reading their Bibles wrong. When John described it, he said, “And the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass. Now what does that tell you? That is a gold like you have never seen, but it is a gold that you have been living by. That gold is what put you on the road back to paradise; back to the habitation of God. Read what it says: The city was pure gold, like unto clear glass, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it was transparent glass. So not only was the city of that kind of gold; the street of it was too. But I assure you, there is not one ounce of natural gold in heaven. All of this is symbolic. God used terminology that would be familiar to us, to portray the value of those invisible, or spiritual things that we are pressing toward. As I said earlier; the closest man can come to portraying what he believes paradise was like in the beginning, is to construct a beautiful park with trees, flowers, and whatever they feel speaks of serenity. What are those places for? For people to get away from the rush, rush of everyday life, and relax for awhile. Just to be able to walk in serenity and quietness is a desire of mankind at times, but in this day and hour our parks are filled with thugs and perverts, so that it is not safe to go within the bounds of them. Many of the cities are the same way, all over the world today; just incubators of evil. The devil rules them. Now please do not misunderstand me; I am not condemning people who live in cities, but merely stating facts as we deal with this message. At any rate; the paradise of God is leading us back to is portrayed as a city, and that is something I do not want to miss. This is our eternal habitation with Him, in the eon ages to come. There will be no heaters, no air conditioning, no refrigerators, nor any of the things we see in a natural city today. The only thing those apostles ever sent up there was human souls.

THE HEAVENLY JERUSALEM

I had better finish what I was reading in Hebrews before I go too far with this city of Revelation 21 & 22. In Hebrews 12:22, the writer (which was Paul) said, “But ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels. To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, (Brother, that’s what she is!), which are written in heaven, (That is exactly why God does not need a church book down here; our names are written in heaven in the only book that matters; the book of life.), and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the mediator (or administrator) of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” This gospel of salvation that we talk about, is God’s new covenant, that He has made with mankind, and Paul clearly states right here; that we have come to Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Naturally he is speaking of a spiritual experience, rather than a natural one. I will never forget the night I surrendered my heart to God, out here in a little old country church. The only mountain I encountered, was Raymond Jackson; I had to get myself out of the way, in order to find that peace of mind and assurance that I was looking for. In a spiritual sense though: we really do approach the habitation of God to seek refuge, or a sanctuary within His realm. That is the only true security we have in this life; everything else can fall apart in a day’s time. But what did God say to the church at Ephesus, in the first Church Age? (Revelation 2:7) “To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.” What it really boils down to, is yielding to the perfect will of God. He has opened up to lost mankind, that which man had not had access to, since the day Adam and Eve were driven from the garden of Eden. Nothing short of a sovereign act of God could open up the way whereby we could be escorted back into His presence, and receive that measure of His Spirit that enables us to overcome Satan. Though it is only a measure, it is still sufficient for anything we need, until we reach the other side. Only when He lifts us up out of the grave, in immortality, will He grant to us the fullness of what Adam lost. But praise God, every one of His redeemed children are represented in that beautiful city that John saw coming down from God out of heaven. Men, for centuries, have been looking for the tree of life; or we will say, for a paradise somewhere. But the actual paradise that we are looking for, is in the spirit world; it is the presence of God the way Adam and Eve knew it. As we have said, God is omnipresent, and omnipotent, so He can manifest Himself any way He chooses: to let His children know that they are living and walking in His watchful presence. But one day we will once again dwell in the fullness of His glorious presence. That is why, when John saw that new city coming down: prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, he heard the words; “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God.” The Methodists teach that we are all going to die one day, leave this world and go to heaven, but that is not the picture we get from the scriptures. The Bible tells us that heaven is coming down. In other words, God is coming back to earth in the fullness of His great being, to dwell with us here. That does not mean that God has been away from the earth for six thousand years; it just means that His glory had been withheld from the earth, and from His creation, because of sin. No wonder David said, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” We were everyone born into this world with a nature to sin; that is why we needed redemption.

Now we still plan to go into Revelation, chapters 21 and 22, and explore that city which lieth four square; but this is enough for now, so look for the completion of this message in our next issue. May the Lord bless you every one.