Can I just say I love to hear the sounds of children in this room. I'm so serious.
This is a blessing to hear children in a church, and it's a sign of life, and there's no better place for them to be than right here.
And by design, we want families to come here and to worship together, and there's no better place for a child to learn what it means to be a part of the church
and to learn what it means to worship than to be right beside mom or dad or grandpa or grandma and to see them worshiping.
So those little coos and awes don't bother me at all. I love it, and the Lord loves it as well.
If you would, let's turn to Genesis. Open up our Bibles to the book of Genesis this morning.
We're continuing our series in Genesis. If this is your first time joining us with us in a while,
we've been walking through the book of Genesis together, so you've missed a little bit, but not that much
because we're in Genesis chapter 2 this morning. We finished our look at this week of creation,
and now we get to see what life was like in the Garden of Eden.
And so our passage this morning is Genesis chapter 2, verses 4 through 17.
If you don't have your own Bible with you, that's okay. We provide Bibles in the seat backs,
either behind you or in front of you.
But I would recommend you to have a copy of God's Word open in front of you as we walk through this passage together.
Genesis 2, verses 4 through 17.
And when you found it, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word this morning.
These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created,
in the day that the Lord God made the earth into heavens.
When no bush of the field was yet in the land, and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up,
for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground,
and a mist was going up from the land and was watering the face of the ground.
Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
And the man became a living creature.
And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east,
and there he put the man whom he had formed.
And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up
every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
The tree of life was in the midst of the garden,
and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden,
and there it divided and became four rivers.
The name of the first is the Pishon.
It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
And the gold of that land is good.
Bidellium and onyx stone are there.
The name of the second river is the Gihon.
It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush.
And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria.
And the fourth river is the Euphrates.
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it.
And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,
You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat.
For in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.
Father, we thank you and we praise you for your word.
And we ask now as we sit under it, God, would you teach us and draw us to Christ?
We pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
You may be seated.
For a brief season early on in our marriage before having kids,
I developed a nightly routine where whatever else I was doing,
whatever I had done during that day,
seven o'clock came and I stopped whatever it was I had to do.
I would find my way to the couch and I would turn on the television
and I would watch Wheel of Fortune every single weeknight.
In fact, I got so into Wheel of Fortune that I auditioned for Wheel of Fortune
and I made my way past several preliminary rounds before I was eventually eliminated.
But that's another story for another day.
If you've ever watched Wheel of Fortune, you know that one of the most painful parts of the show
is when it comes to the very last puzzle and the person is there,
all the pressure of the world is on them to solve that last puzzle
and the time is ticking and then it ends and they haven't done it
and they fail to achieve the prize.
And Pat Sajak does this cruel thing where he makes them look at the prize they could have won
had they succeeded.
Sometimes it's a car, sometimes it's a trip,
sometimes it's a whole bunch of money and everybody in the audience
and everybody watching at home just lets out this exasperated groan
as they look at what could have been.
That's a little bit like how it feels reading our passage this morning in Genesis chapter 2,
this picture of a perfect paradise.
It's a picture of a perfect world free from sin.
It's beautiful.
Everything that mankind needs is here.
God is here with man.
It's absolutely perfect.
And it almost hurts to read it because we know deep down
that is how things are supposed to be.
This is what we should be enjoying right now.
But you and I and Adam in our place, we have lost out on the prize.
What we see here in Genesis chapter 2 is a brief glimpse,
this window into a perfect world.
This is a brief glimpse of what the world looked like before sin comes in
and wrecks the whole thing.
And we see a brief glimpse of God's design for the universe.
And the big picture for our passage this morning is this.
God created man to enjoy paradise with him in covenant relationship.
That's the big idea this morning.
I'll say it again.
God created man to enjoy paradise with him in covenant relationship.
So let's look at our text and we'll see what was life like in the Garden of Eden.
First, we see life in the Garden came with great blessing.
Life in the Garden came with great blessing.
Look there with me starting in verse 4.
And you notice that it begins with this heading here.
It says,
These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created
in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens.
This is sort of like a header of a new section of the book.
You'll see this over and over and over again as we walk our way through Genesis.
And it's an organizational tool.
That's a good reminder.
It's a good indicator for us that we're entering into a new section of the book.
Which explains in part why we're circling back now to some of the topics that we've already addressed.
And we finished last week, this whole week of creation.
God worked six days in creating the world.
And then he rested on the seventh day.
But now it's like we're going backwards, aren't we?
And we get another look here at the world being formed.
He says,
When no bush of the field was yet in the land,
and no small plant of the field had yet sprung up,
for the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the land,
and there was no man to work the ground,
and a mist was going up from the land,
and was watering the whole face of the ground.
This is sort of a recap, isn't it?
And you might wonder,
well, why are we coming back to that same material again?
And why does it sound just a little bit different than the first account?
And again, this is just sort of how Hebrew literature works.
It's not linear in a straight line like you and I tend to think.
It's more circular.
It comes back around,
and it focuses in on something in more detail,
or from a different perspective.
That's what we see here.
And the point is, in this section,
is to show us, again, the prize that we should have won.
This is the good, perfect creation that we, by design, are meant to enjoy.
This is what we could have had.
Now, look with me at all the blessings that Adam gets to enjoy here in the garden.
For one, Adam gets to enjoy the blessing of God's design in the garden.
He gets to enjoy the blessing of God's formation of the universe by His Word.
If you remember from chapter 1, we saw that, again, God is the main character of this story.
The Bible begins with God.
He's the focus of the Bible.
He's the focus of creation.
The whole Bible is not about us.
It's about God.
The creation is not about us.
It's about God.
He's the main actor.
And we see Him acting time and time and time again throughout this account.
The plants haven't grown because God hasn't caused it to rain, verse 5.
God forms the man from dust, verse 7.
He breathes life into him, verse 7.
God plants a garden, verse 8.
He puts man in the garden, verse 8.
God makes the trees to spring up, verse 9.
God speaks and He gives commands to the man, verse 16.
It is clear to me that the emphasis here is that this is God's world.
God's at the center of it.
He's the main character of the story, and Adam simply gets to enjoy it.
It's a blessing for man.
He simply gets to receive and enjoy the world that God has made.
But before he can do that, we see another blessing.
Adam gets to enjoy the blessing of life.
Look there to verse 7 with me.
I love this picture of God creating man.
Look there with me at verse 7.
It says,
The Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life,
and the man became a living creature.
You know, we should realize that life itself is a blessing
and a gift from God.
Amen?
Life itself is a blessing from God,
an undeserved blessing from God.
We tend to think that life itself is a right, don't we?
Our Declaration of Independence, what does it say?
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men have this fundamental right to life and liberty
and the pursuit of happiness, it says.
And while that may be true on a horizontal man-to-man level
between us and God, that is not true.
God does not owe us life.
God does not owe us liberty.
God does not owe us pursuit of any sort of joy or happiness.
All of this is a good blessing and a gift from God.
Every day that we have life is a gift.
We shouldn't presume upon our next breath.
We shouldn't presume upon our waking up tomorrow morning.
And every moment we have is a gift and a blessing from God.
We get to see this clearly here.
We also get to see where man comes from.
This is sort of mankind's origin story here.
It says we come from the dust of the ground.
God has taken mankind like a potter with clay
and molded us as his creation.
There's a song that we sometimes sing here.
It's called,
My Worth is Not in What I Own.
And it's got this line that I love.
He says,
Two wonders here that I confess.
My worth and my unworthiness.
And we see both represented here, don't we?
We're dust.
Our unworthiness is on display here.
We come from the dust.
We're not evolved creatures.
We can't find our origins in anything in the animal kingdom.
That's actually a step too high, isn't it?
We come from the dust of the ground.
We ought to be humbled by this.
And yet, we also see that God has taken us from dust
and he's molded us and he's embedded within each one of us
this undeniable worth.
That every single one of us,
man, woman, boy, girl, child, adult, believer, non-believer,
every single one of us is made in the image of God.
Adam gets to enjoy this blessing of life from God himself.
And then we see that Adam gets to enjoy the blessing of a perfect land.
The Garden of Eden is a perfect paradise for him to enjoy.
We see verses 8 through 14 show us this glorious garden paradise.
Look there with me to verse 8.
It says, God planted a garden.
Just imagine that with me.
God planted a garden.
In my family, when we lived in Myrtle Beach area,
we used to go to Brook Green Gardens.
I can hardly pronounce it.
You know what I'm talking about.
Brook Green Gardens is beautiful.
We love to walk around there and see the plants
and the beauty of this garden.
Man can create some beautiful gardens,
but just imagine God planted a garden.
Man, we see that he caused to spring up every tree that's pleasant to the sight.
It's beautiful to look at.
It's pretty.
It's full of color and life and vibrant.
And it says it's good for food.
It's not just good to look at.
It's good to eat.
Adam could take food whenever he pleased.
Everything Adam needed was right there at arm's reach.
You see, the land was well watered.
You have these four rivers flowing through.
It's full of gold and precious gems.
It's just absolutely beautiful.
You imagine this.
Anything Adam could have possibly wanted or needed,
God had already thought of it.
And he placed it right there for him to enjoy in the garden.
Now, stop for just a minute
and think about how Israel would have responded to this
when they read this account.
Do you remember where they are?
Do you remember where they are when they're receiving the book of Genesis?
Moses is compiling this for them
and they're reading this as they're in the wilderness,
in the desert,
journeying through the desert.
On the way to the promised land.
How would they feel as they read this account
of this lush and beautiful and abundant garden
with all the food they need?
It's green.
It's lovely.
It's pretty.
And they're here in the desert.
Surely they would just groan and feel this sense of sorrow.
How in the world could we have lost all of this?
What happened?
This is what we could have had?
This is what we were made for?
And look how far we've fallen from this state of blessing.
Now to this.
There is this infinite gulf between what Adam enjoyed in the Garden of Eden
and what Israel endured in the desert.
And here as we zoom forward to us a few thousand years later,
that gulf is still there, isn't it?
I don't know about you.
I don't live in a perfect garden paradise.
My life is not perfect.
The place where I live is not perfect.
There's things that aren't quite right.
I don't have everything that I think I need.
There's an infinite gulf between what Adam enjoyed in the Garden
and what we experience, isn't there, in our day-to-day life.
We should read this text
and feel a sense of loss.
This is what could have been.
This is what should be.
C.S. Lewis has this quote.
I'm going to butcher it.
He says something like,
if we find ourselves to have a desire
that nothing in this world can satisfy,
the most probable explanation
is that we were made for another world.
It's the world that we see in Genesis chapter 2.
We were made to enjoy paradise
in covenant relationship with God, our Creator,
but because of our sin,
we have forfeited our right to the prize.
You know, it's tempting sometimes, isn't it?
When we look at our lives
and we look around at the world that we live in
and we see all the broken things inside of us
and without,
it's tempting for us to blame God for all of that, isn't it?
I mean, Israel did that.
Lord, why have you brought us out into the wilderness
to die out here?
It's tempting for us to look out and to blame God,
but we look at Genesis 2
and an honest reading would show us
that God has designed blessing for us.
God's design is that
we were made to enjoy paradise with Him
in covenant relationship.
But second,
second, what we see here in verses 15 through 17
is that all of this was conditional.
There are conditions
that must be met
for Adam to continue in this garden paradise.
So second,
second, we see life in the garden
came with great responsibility.
Life in the garden came with great responsibility.
Verse 15, look there with me.
He says,
Then the Lord God took man
and put him in the garden
to cultivate it and keep it.
The Lord God commanded the man,
saying,
From any tree of the garden
you may eat freely,
but from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil
you shall not eat,
for in the day that you eat from it
you will surely die.
God here is very clearly
laying out the conditions here for Adam.
This is the word of the Lord.
Adam's enjoyment of this garden paradise
was conditional.
If he obeys the word of the Lord perfectly,
then he gets to enjoy the blessings
of this garden paradise forever.
But if he disobeys the word of the Lord,
even in one part,
the day you eat of it again,
you shall surely die.
This is the word of God.
And we should realize also,
this is a blessing here as well,
isn't it?
Here before the fall,
here before sin enters the world,
the presence of God
is here with Adam
and the word of God
is there.
They're guiding Adam.
God delivers the word of the Lord
to Adam here
even before sin enters the world.
It's a blessing.
Man from the beginning
is given the word of the Lord.
He is bound to the word of God.
He's governed by the word of God.
He's subject to it.
Here in the beginning,
God declares by his word
for Adam what's good
and what's right.
And Adam is created
with the capacity
to listen
and to obey the word of the Lord.
and the expectation
that he should,
he must do so.
All of this is very good.
It's God's design.
Sometimes the law of the Lord especially,
it gets a bad rap, doesn't it?
And we kind of talk about the law
like it's a burden
and our sin,
especially on this side of the fall,
it makes us say,
well, that's restrictive.
That's too much.
Why can't God just let us do what we want?
But the law of the Lord,
when we understand it rightly,
it's not a burden,
it's a blessing
and a gift.
And we go home this afternoon
and read Psalm 119
and you tell me
the impression you get
of how Israel and David
felt about the law of the Lord.
Blessed are those
whose way is blameless,
who walk in the law of the Lord,
he says.
I will praise you
with an upright heart
when I learn your righteous rules.
How can a young man
keep his way pure?
By guarding it
according to your word.
With my whole heart,
I seek you.
Let me not wonder
from your commandments.
I have stored up your word
in my heart
that I might not sin
against you.
Blessed are you,
O Lord.
Teach me your statutes.
With my lips,
I declare all the rules
of your mouth.
In the way of your testimonies,
I delight as much
as in all riches.
I will meditate
on your precepts
and fix my eyes
on your ways.
I will delight
in your statutes.
I will not forget
your word.
The law of the Lord
is a wonderful gift
for God's people.
I wonder if you love
the word like this
or if it feels
like a burden
to you.
The law of the Lord
here is a blessing.
It's a gift for Adam
and Adam is meant
to live by it.
And again,
if he does perfectly,
if he perfectly obeys
the law of the Lord,
he gets to enjoy
all of these
wonderful blessings.
And we see here
there's a positive command
and a negative command,
isn't there?
There is something to do
and something not to do.
What must he do?
Verse 15.
Literally,
verse 15,
it says,
God put man in the garden
to serve and obey.
And we saw a couple
of weeks ago,
didn't we?
This blessing of work.
Man was made
in God's image
and he's given this task
of filling the earth
and subduing it,
ruling over it
as God's image bearers.
He was meant
to work as an extension
of God's work
in the world.
That's what he must do.
But there's also
this command
what he must not do,
isn't there?
Look there again
to verse 16.
You may surely eat
of every tree
of the garden,
but from the tree
of the knowledge
of good and evil
you shall not eat.
For in the day
you eat of it
you shall surely die.
Now,
we've got to think
about this for a second.
Because there is
something here
in the garden
of Eden,
in perfect paradise,
that man is told
he must not do.
Have you ever thought
about this?
We need to grasp this.
Because for many of us,
our idea of paradise,
if we could draw up
our perfect paradise,
our version of Eden,
it would be that
nobody can tell us
what to do
or not to do.
Our vision of perfection,
our vision of paradise
is that we are
absolutely free
and autonomous.
We are a law
unto ourselves.
Our vision of
a perfect paradise
is that nobody
can tell us what to do
and nobody can deny me
of what I want.
but here in a perfect world,
here in paradise
before the fall,
God tells man,
don't do that.
God,
by his word,
he put boundaries
and limits in place
that are good for us,
for our flourishing
and for our life
that we might thrive
with him in relationship.
He tells the oceans
to go here
and no further.
He tells the sun
to stay there
and to shine.
He tells the stars
to go here
and he tells man,
don't eat of that tree
because the second
he does so,
here's the warning.
All of this blessing
for him
is lost
but not just for him.
Here's what we need
to understand.
This is why this account
matters for you,
for us this morning.
Not just for him.
All of this will be lost
for him
and all of this
will be lost
for us.
Our hope
of enjoying
this garden paradise
with God,
it hangs in the balance
on whether or not
Adam can do
what he's told to do.
And the reason why
is because third,
third,
life in the garden
is defined
by something called
covenant.
It's defined
by covenant.
covenant.
You remember
the big picture
here?
God created man
to enjoy paradise
with him
in covenant
relationship.
Covenant
relationship.
We tend to
complicate this.
It seems like
an overwhelming,
scary topic
to talk about
but really
it's not that
complicated
because everything
that we just
described
this whole time
we've been sitting
here
is what it means
to be in
covenant.
In the Bible
covenants
define
relationships.
And we just
got done with
Valentine's Day.
Right?
All over the world
men and women
are thinking
they need to sit
down and have
the DTR talk.
You know what that is?
They need to define
the relationship.
We need to
come to terms
on how I relate
to you
and you relate
to me.
I need to understand
the relationship here.
Are we boyfriend,
girlfriend?
What is this
relationship that
we're in?
In the Bible
God defines
the relationship
by way of
covenant.
Ligon Duncan
defines it like this.
He says a covenant
is a special
relationship
established
and bestowed
by God
that has
blessings
and obligations.
And it is
of life
and death
significance.
You may feel
like your
boyfriend,
girlfriend's
situation
is of life
and death
significance.
It's not
quite there.
In the Bible
though,
a covenant
is a special
relationship
established
and bestowed
by God
that has
blessings
and obligations
and is
of life
and death
significance.
And isn't
that what we
see here
in the
garden?
Isn't
that what
we've
just seen?
Here in
the garden
of Eden
we see
that God
has defined
the relationship
between him
and Adam
in what we
call the
covenant
of works.
God
initiates
this
relationship.
God
establishes
the terms.
God
makes
these big
promises.
Eternal
life.
Life
forever
in the
garden.
And God
says here
is what
you must
do in
order to
enjoy
all of
this.
If you
succeed
you get
to enjoy
all the
benefits
of
eternal
life
and
paradise.
But if
you
fail
then
guess
what?
You
die.
But again
not just
you,
not just
Adam,
it's you
and everyone
whom you
represent.
You and
everyone
who descends
from you.
This covenant
here in the
garden with
all of its
promised
blessings
and all
of its
promised
consequences
it
includes
us.
It
defines
our
relationship
with God.
You want
to know
why we're
not in
the garden
of Eden
this morning?
It's
because
Adam
has
failed
in our
place.
You want
to know
why we
don't
enjoy
perfect
paradise
and
in
right
relationship
with
the
Lord?
It's
because
we
are
included
by
natural
right
in
Adam.
Adam
has
failed
as our
representative
and so
now
his
sin
is
our
sin.
His
failure
is
our
failure.
His
punishment
is
our
punishment.
We
don't
enter
the
world
on
neutral
terms
with
God.
We
enter
the
world
in
covenant
with
God
that's
been
broken
already
in
Adam.
This is
bad news.
Is it
not?
This is
bad news.
God
if it
sounds
unfair
to
you
that
we
might
enter
on
negative
terms
with
God
that
we
might
have
no
chance
in
our
own
right
of
earning
our
way
to
right
relationship
with
the
Lord.
Just wait
till I
tell you
about
the
good
news.
The
good
news
of the
gospel
is
that
God
has
made
a
way
to
bring
us
back
into
covenant
relationship
with
him
by
sending
his
own
son
Jesus
as
the
head
of
a
new
and
better
covenant.
So
Jesus
Christ
has
come
to
redeem
what
Adam
has
lost.
This
is
why
we
call
Jesus
the
true
and
better
Adam.
Did
you
hear
what
we
just
sang
moments
ago?
He
the
true
and
better
Adam
come
to
save
the
hell
bound
man
Jesus
is
the
true
and
better
Adam
because
unlike
us
Jesus
doesn't
inherit
Adam's
natural
guilt.
He's
born
of a
virgin.
He's
born
without
our
sin
nature.
And
what we
see
is that
unlike
Adam
and
unlike
all
of
us
Christ
Jesus
has
perfectly
obeyed
the
law
of
God.
Positive
and
negative.
He
has
positively
obeyed
everything
God
commanded
!
And
he
has
avoided
!
Every
temptation
and
every
sin.
He's
tempted
and
tried
in
every
way
as
we
are
yet
without
sin.
And
Jesus
Christ
the
true
and
better
Adam
he
lived
the
perfect
life
that
you
and
I
should
have
lived
!
And
he
died
the
sinner's
death
that
you
and
I
deserve
to
die.
You
want
to
talk
about
unfair?
This
is
unfair!
Jesus
says
how
about
I
take
on
all
of
the
punishment
that
you
have
earned
and
I'll
just
give
you
all
of
the
eternal
life
and
righteousness
that
I've
earned!
How
about
that
deal?
I
will
become
a
curse
for
you
so
that
in
me
you
might
become
the
righteousness
of
God
who
can
be
blessed
in
me
he
says
he
made
him
who
knew
no
sin
to
become
sin
for
us
so
that
in
him
we
might
become
the
righteousness
of
God
all
you
have
to
do
is
simply
repent
of your
sin
and
trust
in
Christ
come
to
him
in
faith
you
know
this
is
why
try
harder
just
this
doesn't
cut
it
does
it
any
sort
of
works
righteousness
I'm
just
trying
to
be
a
better
Christian
I'm
trying
to
better
myself
I
just
want
to be
a good
Christian
person
none
of that
none
of that
works
it
doesn't
cut
it
you
can't
better
yourself
into
paradise
it's
impossible
no
amount
of
effort
you
put
in
will
get
you
one
inch
closer
to
God
why
because
covenant
defines
the
relationship
you
are
either
in
Adam
or
you
are
in
Christ
and
all
of
your
best
efforts
in
Adam
are
worthless
you
must
simply
come
to
Christ
in
faith
and
say
I
can't
do
this
my
greatest
efforts
are
not
enough
I'm
guilty
I'm
a
sinner
and
I
need
you
to
save
me
you
are
either
in
Adam
or
you
are
in
Christ
Paul
says
in
Romans
chapter
5
therefore
as
one
trespass
led
to
condemnation
for
all
men
so
one
act
of
righteousness
leads
to
justification
and
life
for
all
men
for
as
by
the
one
man's
disobedience
the
many
were
made
sinners
so
by
the
one
man's
obedience
the
many
will
be
made
righteous
he
says
in
Romans
6
23
the
wages
of
sin
is
death
but
the
free
gift
of
God
is
eternal
life
in
Christ
Jesus
our
Lord
church
do
you
want
to
be
paid
a
wage
or
do
you
want
the
free
gift
this
if
God
pays
you
the
wage
that
you
deserve
for
your
righteousness
your
works
we're
toast
and
we
need
the
free
gift
of
eternal
life
in
covenant
relationship
with
God
in
paradise
and
that
free
gift
is
found
only
by
faith
in
Jesus
Christ
the
call for
us
this
morning
church
if
you're
not
a
believer
the
call
for
you
is
come
to
faith
in
Christ
repent
of
your
sin
turn
from
your
wicked
ways
and
put
your
faith
in
the
Lord
stop
trying
to
better
yourself
you
can't
you
need
a
new
representative
not
Adam
but
Christ
stands
here
with
open
arms
and
says
come
to
me
come
to
me
come
receive
my
righteousness
and
come
receive
eternal
life
by
faith
alone
in
Christ
alone
if
you're
not
a
believer
come
to
Christ
and it's
true that
as
sinners
we look at
Genesis chapter 2
and we grieve what we've lost
but as Christians
church we can
look at this passage
and rejoice
at what Christ has done
to give us
in him
a certain
hope of a new
and better
paradise to come
where we
his covenant
people can enjoy
God forever
in paradise
I want to
close this
morning by
reading from
Revelation
we're going from the very
first two chapters
of the Bible
to the very last
two chapters
of the Bible
this morning
and I just want you to
notice again how
familiar this
should sound
this is what
awaits all of us
in Christ
John says
then I saw a new
heaven and a new
earth
for the first
heaven and the first
earth had passed
away and the sea
was no more
and I saw the
holy city
the new Jerusalem
coming down out of
heaven from God
prepared as a bride
!
I was
adorned for her
husband
and I heard a loud
voice from the throne
saying behold
the dwelling place
of God
is with man
he will dwell
with them
and they will be
his people
and God himself
will be with them
as their God
he will wipe away
every tear from
their eyes
and death
shall be no more
neither shall there
be mourning
nor crying
nor pain
anymore
for the former
things have
passed away
and he who is
seated on the
throne
said behold
I am making
all things
new
chapter 22
then the angel
showed me the
river of the
water of life
bright as crystal
flowing from the
throne of God
and of the Lamb
through the middle
of the street
of the city
also on either
side of the river
the tree of life
with its twelve
kinds of fruit
yielding its fruit
each month
the leaves of the
tree were for the
healing of the
nations
no longer will
there be anything
accursed
but the throne
of God
and of the Lamb
will be in it
and his servants
will worship
him
they will see
his face
and his name
will be on
their foreheads
and night
will be no
more
they will need
no light
of lamp
or sun
for the Lord
God will be
their light
and they will
reign
forever
and ever
father
we thank you
for sending
Christ
in our place
the true
and better
Adam
who lived
in our place
and perfectly
fulfilled
the law
of God
where none
of us
can
Lord
none of us
can knock
down the doors
of paradise
but Christ
has entered
in on our
behalf
so he says
like he said
to the thief
on the cross
today
if you believe
in me
today
you will be
with me
in paradise
we thank you
for Jesus
Lord
we confess
our sin
to you
and we thank
you that
Jesus
welcomes
sinners
into the
presence
of God
by his
blood
the new
covenant
we love
you Lord
we pray
this in
Jesus name
amen
through