Good morning, brethren.  If you would like to write down a title, the title of today’s sermon is “The Genesis Project.”  The end of the world is on people’s minds all over the place.  Commentators on the news commonly mention World War III.  There are worldwide religious wars on people’s lips, as there seems to be a clash between ideologies and religious beliefs.  Terms and comments we often hear today, that we did not used to hear years ago except in a few religious circles, are things like Armageddon, rapture, Petra and apocalyptic.  Newscasters frequently refer to natural disasters with the phrase “of Biblical proportions.”  The new mantra is global warming, another thing to worry about.  Add to the mix Hollywood, television and religious fiction, and you have a hysteria building around the world.  We do not want to add to that hysteria.  Yet religious figures preach death, destruction, doom and gloom.  Where are people to turn to for hope in the future?  If this is God’s beautiful creation, why would God want it to end in mass death, horror and chaos?

Some say God can start all over again.  He is God, isn’t He?  He can fix it all after it is ruined.  Isn’t that what God did in Genesis?  Didn’t He take the chaos, the confusion
(tohu and bohu) and fix it and start again?  Indeed, if the doomsday crowd is correct, God would have to remove radioactivity from the earth in order to have a Millennium. He would have to reverse nuclear winter.  He would have to clean up the earth’s lakes, rivers and oceans and then restock them with fish.  He would have to restock the land with wildlife and repopulate the earth with people.  He would have to build humanity new cities to dwell in, for mankind would have bombed themselves back into the stone age!  In order to have a Millennium, God would have had to reinvigorate man with knowledge and restore all the knowledge that he has to run these cities to be able to live in a beautiful Millennium.  Like I said, in effect, God would be reversing a new stone age and starting again with another Genesis.  Does that sound right that God should have to go back and start again?  Is He that great of a failure that everything He initiated back in Genesis would need to be redone?

What we see around us today is a result of six thousand years of human ingenuity, invention, inspiration and perspiration.  Thomas Edison once said invention is ten percent inspiration and ninety percent perspiration.  Each generation of mankind has built upon the achievements of the generation that went before.  Today we have beautiful roads, bridges, fantastic buildings, architecture, airports, planes delivering millions of people to destinations around the world, cell phones and computers.  All of these things have been painstakingly built one generation after another.  Wipe out that knowledge and start a Millennium!  It would take at least a thousand years under peaceful conditions to get anywhere close to where we are today.  This means, of course, for most of the people living in the Millennium, it would not be a Millennium!  They would start out eking an existence from the ground with stone age tools.  There would be no tractors or fuel.  It is not something that makes sense.  God is not going to allow Satan to knock Him that far back in what He has been doing for the last six thousand years.  Should God’s Church be part of the doomsday crowd?

Turn to Isaiah 52 for a Scripture we have heard many times before, but let’s review it. Read Isaiah 52:7-10.  All the ends of the earth shall see, and we know the Book of Revelation proclaims that there will be an innumerable multitude of every nation, kindred, tongue and people.  Innumerable means it cannot be numbered!  How would that be possible if almost all life is destroyed from the face of the earth?

Let’s turn to another beautiful promise that we should count on God keeping.  Turn to Genesis chapter 8.  This is after the flood.  Beginning in verse 21.  “And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma.  Then the Lord said in His heart, ‘I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.  While the earth remains,  seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.’”

That precludes and makes impossible a nuclear winter, because this says every year mankind would plant their seed and harvest their crops as long as the earth exists.  God is in the process of achieving something great.  He is not about to trick mankind with a Scripture and a promise like that and then allow us to come near to utter destruction.  We would come to almost total annihilation that only some miraculous event could reverse.  Nuclear winter, nuclear devastation and earthquakes that knock down all the mountains would, in essence, render the planet uninhabitable.  The few survivors would have wished they had never survived!

WHAT THE SIGNS OF THE END ARE NOT
Turn to Matthew 24.  When the disciples asked Jesus Christ what would be the signs of His second coming, He was very clear what not to look for.  Matthew chapter 24, beginning in verse 3:  “Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, ‘Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?’”  What will be the sign?  What should we be looking for?

Verse 4:  “And Jesus answered and said to them:  ‘Take heed that no one deceives you.  [First He tells them what not to look for.]  For many will come in My name, saying, “I am the Christ,” and will deceive many.  And you will hear [what they will be saying, is what He is saying here] of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.’”

He said, do not be deceived by what many will be saying in My name.  They will be saying there will be all this devastation and say these are signs of My coming.  Luke 21:7-9 says the same thing.  Do not be terrified by those who say the end of the world and My coming will be in evidence by the destruction that is taking place around the earth.

Brethren, there have always been wars, rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes and pestilences as long as mankind has existed.  You cannot point to them as signs of Jesus Christ’s coming, other than the fact that these are birth pangs (the things that mankind must suffer) in order to experience the birth of a new age.  It will be a new age, not a new world.  This earth is not going to get destroyed.  God is going to bring a new age of peace.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 45.  Verse 18:  “For thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain [He did not create the earth in vain], who formed it to be inhabited:  ‘I am the Lord, and there is no other.  I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth; I did not say to the seed of Jacob, “Seek Me in vain;” I, the Lord, speak righteousness, I declare things that are right.’”

One of the things that Jesus Christ said is, I have created the earth to be inhabited.  At Jesus Christ’s first coming the angels sang, and what did they sing?  They sang peace on earth, good will toward men.  Does that sound like destruction of the planet?  Is that peace?  World War III and a clash between religions that destroys the fabric of society and knocks us back into the stone age does not sound like peace.

Christ said do not be deceived.  Those are not the signs of My coming.  He said the one physical sign you can watch for, before you understand that the end of the age can begin, is that the gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all the world as a witness, and then the end shall come.  That did not occur until Mr. Herbert Armstrong had the gospel preached to the entire world as a witness before he died.  That changed the course of history.  We cannot go into all of that today, but we want to look at some very interesting Scriptures to understand what God is doing in the Genesis project.

SATAN’S RUINED PLANET
Back in the recesses of time before Adamic man existed on the earth, the earth was a horrible place.  The earth existed before Genesis chapter 1.  He said let there be light.  The earth was here because God’s Spirit moved over the waters.  Scientists have proven the earth, the solar system and the universe are 13 to 15 billion years old.  That is mathematically provable.  But before Adam was created, the earth was a horrible place.  Satan was the god of this world.  That is god with a little “g”.  You can corroborate that in II Corinthians 4:4.  He ruined the planet.  He was ruling a planet that was in ruins that he caused.  It was a devastated and wasted place.  It was wild and chaotic.  It was a place where no love or light of the truth existed.  In the far enough reaches back in time, it was inhabited by strange and vicious creatures.  Eventually it was inhabited by man-like creatures, but it was inhabited by millions and millions of demons! The earth, indeed, was a horrible place.

We do not know all the details, but God gives us enough to understand that the earth was chaos and waste, tohu and bohu.   His Spirit moved over the earth and said “Let there be light,” but the sun already existed.  We understand that the light was the truth of God.  He brought truth to a small place on the earth called the Garden of Eden.  Up until that time, Satan was ruling the devastated wasteland.

Turn back to Ezekiel chapter 28 to see exactly what happened to Satan and his fall.  Ezekiel chapter 28, beginning in verse 11:  “Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, “Thus says the Lord God…”’”  Tyre existed as a city-state several thousand years after the Garden of Eden, but look what we are told here.  The king behind the king of Tyre is Satan.  He is the power behind the throne.

Continuing in the last half of verse 12 God is speaking:  “‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.  You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering:  the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.  The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.  You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God;  you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.’”  He was in God’s kingdom.  Satan walked among other living beings who were alive doing God’s will.  He was one of the chief ones.  He was a covering cherub.

Verse 15 of Ezekiel 28:  “‘You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.  By the abundance of your trading you became filled with violence within, and you sinned; therefore I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God; and I destroyed you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the fiery stones.’”

God destroyed Satan’s position and cast him away from the throne as a profane thing when iniquity was found in him and because he had become a peddler (a merchant) of iniquity.  He took one-third of God’s angels through lies and deceit.  In the case of mankind, he became a peddler of death and destruction.  Satan is Apollyon, destroyer.  God changed his name from Lucifer meaning “light bringer” (or truth bringer) to destroyer.  It is Satan, the god of this world, who is full of death and destruction, doom and gloom.  That is what he intends for mankind.

THE ACCUSER
Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter 10.  Christ is talking to the seventy that He had sent out.  Read Luke 10:17-20.  They were among the registered.  They were among the 144,000.  God said, rejoice because your names are written in heaven.  He said, I saw Satan fall.  I was there when he was cast out of the throne, and I am giving you power over him as the serpent and over his serpents and scorpions!  I give you power over them, and they shall not be able to hurt you.  That does not mean not to persecute and be put to death.  Satan had Jesus Christ killed.  He was saying, you will be protected from demonic influence. You would be protected from the lies and the deceit of Satan.  You will be able to see because of the truth of God and the light that I am giving to you.  That is what He is talking about here.  Satan still had access, though, to heaven as an accuser until Jesus Christ’s resurrection.

Go back to Job chapter 1.  We will see Satan mentioned here as a son of God who comes to accuse.  Job chapter 1, verse 6:  “Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them.  And the Lord said to Satan, ‘From where do you come?’  So Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.’”

Satan was in control of the earth after his fall from heaven.  If you read the story of Job, he could still go back and accuse.  He wanted the opportunity to accuse Job of actual sins.  He has the right to do so, as the “god” of this world.

Turn to Luke chapter 22.  Christ is speaking to Peter.  Read verses 31 to 34.  Christ knew that Satan was after Peter.  He said He knew Peter would sin and lie.  He knew that he would fall for one of Satan’s deceptions (one of Satan’s tricks).  That goes to show us that even Christ had to pray for the faith of Peter to withstand the attack.

When we sin, we are under the death penalty, and Satan has every right to accuse.  He has the right to go to the Father and say, look at Your servant.  Look at the silly thing he did!  I got him to deny You and to lie.  Now he falls under the curse of death.

It is only by the blood of Christ that we can get up after an episode like that in our lives, and we all have them.  But Satan continues to lead us to sin, and we continue to fall for his deceptions.  He hopes there will be a time when we do not get back up!  He hopes there will be a time when we do not cover ourselves with the blood of Christ.  That is his desire and his game plan.

Turn to Revelation chapter 12.  After Christ’s resurrection, this episode takes place.  Read Revelation 12:7-12.  The accuser could no longer go to heaven and accuse other angels.  He no longer has access to accuse in that way, but he is on the earth causing us to accuse one another in the body of Christ.  It is a long and sad story, but he has a lot of power yet. He is very angry.  He is angry with the Church of God.  He wants to halt God’s forward progress.  If he can get us to accuse one another and not forgive one another, then he wins. It tells us right here it is by the blood of the Lamb that we overcome, so he tries to get us to sin and not cover ourselves by the blood of the Lamb.  This is how he wins.  He comes very close at the end of the age to doing just that throughout God’s Church.  But he shall not win.

Satan seeks to prevent the Church from fulfilling its destiny.  He seeks to halt God in His tracks in the creation process.  The angels sang at Christ’s first coming, peace on earth to men of good will.  Satan does not want peace on earth.  In fact, he wants mankind to perish, and God will not let it happen.  It is our job to assist God as the body of Christ. While Satan fights to hold to the last bit of turf he has (the earth) and to prevent the Millennium from occurring, it is the purpose of the Church to be the salt of the earth.  The Church should help preserve this earth for a beautiful Millennium and to fulfill our destiny.

The great accomplishment of God so far is that He has reduced Satan’s dominion.  No longer do the angels in heaven have to worry about more of them falling.  He is gone from their presence.  But he is here!  He and his demons are still roaming about this earth, going to and fro, trying to accuse God’s people and destroy the Church of God, so that Christ will not be able to come and marry His bride.  Then the world will not experience the beautiful Millennium.  But the amazing accomplishment of God is that He has reduced Satan’s sphere of influence to a very small speck in the universe.  The problem is this is where God wants to set up His throne and to initiate the Millennium right here on earth.  Therefore, the next step in God’s creation plan is to bring peace on earth and to make a fruitful paradise and a fruitful garden for God.

THE TWO TREES IN THE GARDEN
Let’s go back to Genesis.  We will go back to the Garden of Eden and to the story of Adam and Eve.  For a few minutes we will spend some time there and see what God did, indeed, begin back in Genesis.  Genesis chapter 2, verse 7:  “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 being.”  Man became a living being.

Genesis 2, verse 8:  “The Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed.”  God created the man and put him in a garden to sustain the man.  It is the garden called Eden.  The man was told to dress and keep it.

Drop down to verse 15:  “The the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it.”  Eden means a region of Adam’s home, to be soft and pleasant, to live voluptuously.  Beth Eden means the house of pleasure.  So God made the Garden of Eden to be a beautiful place for Adam and Even and their offspring to dwell.

Eden was an environment built by God.  It was full of spiritual light, so that he could be educated and grow in the image and likeness of God.  This was not just his physical looks, but to be like God in character.  He was to have light and truth in abundance.  He was to have physical food and water so that Adam could live physically.  But spiritually he was to have good food and water in order to grow in character and produce something from this garden for God that would be everlasting.  Eventually he could then replace Satan and his demons, who form an evil government over the earth and who have made it such a horrible place.  Satan seemed to spoil it all when he corrupted mankind.

Turn to Genesis chapter 3.  God was very angry with Satan after he tempted Adam and Eve, and He said this in verse 22:  “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us [due to the fall and taking from the tree of knowledge of good and evil], to know good and evil.  And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever’ therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.  So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”

It would seem that God had suffered a horrible defeat.  The opportunity to produce the character He wanted in mankind was seemingly taken from Him by the corrupter, Satan the devil.  Mankind had to be pushed out of the Garden of Eden, but mankind was still made of dirt.  Adam and Eve were still dirt of the ground, breathing air, drinking water, living on food and struggling to make a living from the ground full of thorns, weeds and thistles.  Was that what God was trying to produce?  Was He trying to produce physical food for these people, or was God trying to make mankind in His image and likeness in every way so they could be part of His family?  Of course it was more than just to have a physical man eating physical food.  God knew this delay in his plan would be temporary.  He had figured a way around it. He would win in the long run.

Back up to Genesis 1:26-27.  “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’  So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”

God’s intent was to make mankind in His very image, most importantly the image of His character.  Mankind was to bear fruit, so he would be like God and replace Satan and the demons as the rulers of this earth.  This would eventually create a beautiful Millennium for all of mankind.  So God would continue to create.  That is God’s job.  His job is a Creator.  He is a Builder.  Satan is a destroyer and a deceiver.  Is God going to let a destroyer and a deceiver win by halting the creation process and taking this creation and moving mankind to destroy it?  It would be every bit as bad as in Genesis 1 when the Spirit of God moved over the surface of the water.  There is no way God is going to let that happen!  God’s plan has been building to prevent it.  God has been doing a remarkable work, continuing to create on this earth what would do away with death and destruction.  He is not going to fall backwards.

GOD THE SPIRITUAL FARMER
Turn to James chapter 5 to see that God, in essence, became a spiritual farmer.  In the Garden of Eden He was a farmer.  He made mankind to dress and keep the garden.  God was the initiator of that by pulling the dirt together, putting the water and air into the dirt, and making man who is a living and breathing being.  God continues to farm but in a different way.  He is now a spiritual farmer.

Turn to James chapter 5 where James is speaking to the brethren.  Verse 7:  “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.  See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.  You also be patient.  Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”

God is a farmer, and He sends the former rain (the Old Testament) and the latter rain, which James is actually penning part of here.  The truth of God is the thoughts of God that make the earth produce spiritual fruit.  It still requires the dirt that is mankind (the dust of the ground), but God will provide the light, the water and the seed to produce spiritual fruit.  Spiritual fruit is holy righteous character in His image and likeness.  In other words, God is not done creating, and Satan did not stop the process.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 55 and read verses 8-13.  God’s sign is that He will win and make this earth a beautiful productive place.  We watch the spring starting now with the rain coming, the sunlight warming the soil and the seeds sprouting in a physical sense.  God says My thoughts (My doctrines is what that means), My truth, My light and the seed that My Son has cast upon the earth will bear spiritual fruit for Me.  That is what I desire. It is what I please to do, and nothing will stop Me!  No horrible evil being like Satan will ever stop this.  God is not done creating, and nothing will prevent Him from continuing to create.  He wants human beings in His image and likeness, and He will not be defeated.

There are amazing parallels between the creation week and what God has been doing for the last six thousand years.  In the Garden of Eden God provided water, light, food and protection for Adam and Eve.  God has now called the people to Himself.  He has been working with people with the Holy Spirit (the seed of God).  They also receive the light from God and His thoughts as the water and the rain.  They receive food from God to produce spiritual fruit just like He gave Adam and Eve in the Garden.  He provides a safe nurturing environment for God’s people to grow.  For a long time He hedged us about so that we could continue to grow and produce fruit, eventually to replace Satan’s government with a beautiful, wonderful government the kingdom of God.

6000 YEARS OF CREATION
He has been working for six days.  II Peter 3:8 says a day to God is like a thousand years.  For six days He has been creating people out of the dust of the ground whom He would make and fashion into the image and likeness of Himself.  He has been working on this for six thousand years.  Creation week was just the beginning.  It was just the physical beginning of a marvelous thing that God has been working on spiritually for quite some time.  He is almost done!  He is not going to let some Satanic being bomb it back to the stone age.  That is not His purpose.  That would defeat Him.  He would need to have another Genesis, as we mentioned.  He would have to start again.

God is going to take the monkey off our backs.  He is going to take Satan and his influence away from the earth, and let the earth have a thousand years where we can continue to build, fix and correct our mistakes.  Our cities will become gleaming cities.  We will not be polluting the earth.  We will learn how to do it right without greed, lust, violence and envy.  We will learn how to do it with proper worship and keeping God’s holy days, and not pagan days.  With Satan’s influence gone, this earth will, indeed, become a beautiful place.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
We forget sometimes that mankind has been picking from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. I have heard too many people say man destroys everything he touches. That is not true.  We all live far better today than mankind has ever lived before.  We live in comfort and in style.  We are able to listen to beautiful music created by man.  We heard some beautiful special music today written by a human being.  The earth has beautiful buildings for us to dwell in and work in.  We travel in cars and not on horseback, donkeys or foot.  We have wonderful things that we have done over the last six thousand years to make the earth a better place.

Yes, there is the dark side.  We also produce weapons.  We produce nuclear bombs.  But isn’t mankind trying to come to grips with that?  Yes, let’s give them credit.  There are a lot of people on this earth who want peace.  They want peace desperately.  There are people willing to lay down their lives to help bring about peace in areas on this planet.  UN peacekeepers are everywhere.  There are a lot of men and women laying down their lives in a variety of ways.  There are people fighting AIDS in Africa and malaria in tropical regions.  They are laying down their lives so that their fellow man can live better.  It is not true that we destroy everything we touch.  There is a lot of love out there.

PREPARING THE BRIDE
When we get rid of the lies and the deception and we are set free from this monkey on our backs, this earth will have a beautiful Millennium.  It is our job and our destiny as the Church of God to bring up the final remnant to complete what will be the bride of Christ. It will serve as the government in this kingdom of God and allow the Millennium to occur.  As the salt of the earth we have work to do to get this job done.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 58.  Beginning in verse 10:  “If you extend your soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then your light shall dawn in the darkness, and your darkness shall be as the noonday.  The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, and strengthen your bones; you shall be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.  Those from among you shall build the old waste places; you shall raise up the foundations of many generations; and you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.”  That is the job and the purpose of the Church, brethren.

We need to love the people of the earth the way Jesus Christ loved the afflicted, the downtrodden, the sick and the lame.  We need to be willing to lay down our lives for them, to love them and to show them the way.  We need to be a light to them; then God will be a light to us at the resurrection.   We will be to Him like a well-watered Garden.  What is a well-watered garden?  It is the Garden of Eden.  He will have created from mankind a fruitful garden with people in His Church (the body of Christ) who are made in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ did not go around punishing people with bombs and whatever weaponry was available at the time.  He brought healing and peace.  He brought knowledge and truth.  He brought patience and understanding.  He told the hypocritical Pharisees who were harsh on the world and those underneath them, it is the sick and the lame who need a physician.  It is the sinners of the world who need help.  They need the blood of Christ, but it starts with the firstfruits.

We can be just like the Pharisees and condemn the world.  They are people who do not know their left hand from their right.  We can tell them they deserve all the calamities that the pundits say is about to come upon them at the hand of God, but then we are not bringing the good news.  We are not bringing the glad tidings of peace on earth for men of good will.

I will tell you, ninety-nine percent of the people of the world want to do what is right.  They want to do what is right, but they are deceived.  That is what Christ understood.  They are deceived by this lying, deceiving spirit who has this world in a mess.  He has deceived the entire world.  Unfortunately, at the end of the age he has deceived many in God’s Church so that the Church is preaching his message of death, destruction, doom and gloom instead of bringing hope.

Jeremiah chapter 4 tells us that we are to make the fallow ground of our minds and hearts soft soil, so that we can receive the seed of God and bear fruit for Him.  We need to be soft soil, so that when Christ gives us the truth of God to bear fruit and gives us the Holy Spirit, we do not turn hardhearted.  We do not want to become like rocky, stony ground. We do not want to become ground full of thorns and thistles like Adam had to deal with physically.  He said the earth will bear fruit of thorns and thistles, and you will be constantly picking them out of your garden.  Brethren, the spiritual garden of God should be full of good fruit because we are to be like a Garden of Eden, as we saw.  We should be a well-watered garden who is taking the truth of God, the thoughts of God and the information we have in the Bible, and turning it into character made in the image and likeness of God.  That is what we are supposed to be doing.

The tree is, indeed, in the midst of the garden.  The garden is the Church.  Turn to Revelation chapter 2.  This is speaking to the first era of the Church, the Ephesus era, in verse 7:   “‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches [to the Church].  To him who overcomes [which means grow in character and use the blood of the Lamb to beat sin] I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God.’”

If we have the Holy Spirit, can we not be imbibing of the tree of life?  Of course we can!  God’s word, His body, His truth, His life are all available to us.  He said, you must eat of My body to bear fruit.

Back up, if you would, to Revelation chapter 1.  John is speaking.  Read verses 12-20.  So Jesus Christ is standing in the midst of the seven Churches.  He is the tree of life.  He has the fruit we need to imbibe of, in order to bear fruit like Him and be made in His image and likeness.  We need to be made in His image and likeness, and He is the tree of life.

Brethren, what are we picking from?  Unfortunately, Satan the devil still has his power. That power is to tempt us to pick of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and to sin. When we pick of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, we are bearing in God’s mind (His garden) thorns and thistles.  Thorns and thistles is what the dust of the ground produces when we pick from the wrong tree.

This garden is still a struggle for us.  Just as the first Adam had to struggle with picking the physical thorns and thistles out of his garden, mankind has to continually fight Satan.  The Church must continue to fight and win and overcome.  We have the help of the Holy Spirit, which means it should be possible to develop character to make us in the image and likeness of God.  We can do this.

Turn, if you would, back to Luke chapter 23.  It is a very interesting comment that Christ made as He was hauling up the cross to be killed.  There was a group of people following Him, and, of course, they were sad.  Read Luke 23:26-31.  That should read, “green tree.”  He said, I am the green tree.  If they are going to do this to Me, what do you think they are going to do to you?  What would be the reasoning here?

Satan killed Jesus Christ.  It was Satan behind this crucifixion.  It was Satan driving the people to do what they did.  Of those who would follow in His footsteps, some would make serious mistakes. They would be pregnant with the Holy Spirit, or in other words they would be carrying the seed of God. They would be carrying that seed and some would say, I wish I had never been begotten. That is what is occurring here.  I wish I had never been begotten.  Now continue because a very strange set of circumstances here surrounds Christ’s death.

CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST
Continue reading Luke 23:32-43.  You will be with Me when the earth is a beautiful garden.  What is it with these two criminals?  One blasphemed Christ by saying, save us and yourself.  We don’t care about the world!  Let’s do something to save ourselves here.  The Romans were egging Christ on the same way:  let Him save Himself.  Jesus Christ did not come to die for Himself.  He did not come just to die for the Church.  I do think these two criminals picture those who are crucified with Christ.  If you were to go to Galatians chapter 2, it says we are crucified with Christ.  The Church is crucified with Christ.  It says, it is not I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.  We are crucified with Christ, and He lives in us.

I think we are seeing that those who have the Holy Spirit and who have had the distinct honor and the blessing to die (figuratively) and be brought up out of the water and be covered with Christ’s blood, are going to be in it for selfish reasons.  Save us, God!  Give us a place of safety!  Let the world get destroyed.  We could not care less!  Others will realize that our purpose is an unselfish one, and that we deserve to die.  But by Christ’s blood, we will be resurrected.  We have that hope.  We have a chance.  Our purpose is a noble one.  It is to help God bring peace on earth.  It is not to be selfish.  One is bearing fruit in the image and likeness of God.  The other is bearing thorns and thistles.

CROWN OF THORNS
There was another strange event surrounding Christ’s death.  It makes a point in the Scriptures to tell us that they wove a crown of thorns and pushed it into Christ’s head. They made Him wear that.  Satan was behind everything that happened that day.  To humiliate Christ, Satan was showing Him that within the body of Christ many thorns and thistles would remain and bear fruit for Satan.  These thorns and thistles are sometimes called tares.  They would be part of the body of Christ and be a humiliation to Jesus Christ.  Within the body of Christ there would be selfish people who would want to save only themselves.  There would be selfish people to condemn the world.  There would be selfish people who only want some huge reward and let the rest of the world suffer.

Satan had that placed on Christ’s head because the mind of Christ is what is supposed to be running the body.  When the body won’t forgive, is harsh, is judgmental, is unmerciful and condemning of everyone else, we are producing thorns and thistles.  We can personally become a tare.  Satan knew that, and he wanted to humiliate Christ along with people spitting on Him and wiping Him. They embarrassed Him in every way Satan could that day.  Christ said, you will be with Me in paradise, because He recognized we are here to help.  We are not here to save ourselves.  I am not going through all of this to save Me!  I could have done that in Matthew 4 at the temptation.  I did not have to suffer.  I could have just played Satan’s game and got it over with.  He said, I am doing this for all of mankind.

Turn to Luke chapter 9.  At one point, He had to rebuke His own disciples for selfishness.  Read Luke 9:51-56.  If we condemn, if we will not forgive, if we are harsh and judgmental, not only are we blind but we are of a different spirit.  Christ is in the forgiving business.  That is what He went through.  He wants to wash us of our sins.  We read in Revelation 12 that it is by the blood of the Lamb (His blood) that we overcome. Our job is to overcome, brethren, and to be made in His image and likeness as if a new man.

Turn, if you would, to I Corinthians chapter 15.  Verse 22:  “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive.”  We know that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son for all.  We are just the firstfruits.  The Church is the firstfruits. We must have the attitude that God loves everybody and is out to help them all.

Continuing in I Corinthians 15, read verses 45-49.  If we want to eventually be just like Him, we have to start bearing His image now as a new man.

Turn to Romans chapter 6.  Read verses 1-5.  But we have to be walking in newness of life now to partake of that resurrection.

Continue reading Romans 6:6-11.  That is, to be crucified with Christ.

Continue reading in the last half of verse 11:  “…but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.  For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.”

Sin should not have dominion over those of us who are part of the new man.  This new creation that God is finishing started way back in Genesis.  It has taken six thousand years to get to the culmination to reach the very point where God can bring about a Millennium. He can offer this peace and offer eternal life to everyone else.  He can offer a chance to all the rest who have died.

We must be loving like Christ was loving.  We must be willing to lay down our lives for our fellow man and not selfishly be looking out for ourselves.  We should not be condemning the world, for if we are, then we are of another spirit.  We are of another spirit, and it is speaking of either the Spirit of God or the spirit of Satan.  Are we bearing thorns and thistles, or are we bearing fruit for God?

THORNS OR FRUIT
There is a commercial on TV that I have seen several times.  There is a man promoting orange juice.  You may have seen it.  He is wearing a lot of fruit on his head.  He says you can have all of this or you can just have a glass of orange juice.  If we could look at ourselves in a spiritual mirror, what would we see growing out of our mind and heart?  Do we see thorns, thistles and weeds, or do we see beautiful fruit such as apples, oranges, peaches and pears?  These are things that people can live on.  What is our character like? We want to be like the tree of life.  We want to be like Jesus Christ, made in the image of Him and the Father.  We need to pluck out thorns and thistles from our lives.  Abraham Lincoln once said, wherever I could I plucked a thistle and planted a flower.  Wherever he could, he did that.

Turn, if you would, to II Corinthians chapter 5, verse 16.  “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh.  Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.   Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  We are part of the Garden of Eden, creating a new creation, brethren.  People, indeed, made in the image and likeness of God, and we are something new on the earth.  That is what we are supposed to be doing.

Reread verse 17:  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.  Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.”  The whole world will be redeemed to Jesus Christ except the few that are so hardhearted that they will not give up their way of life.  But God is going to win big, bigger than we ever dreamt.

Continue reading in II Corinthians 5:20.  “Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us:  we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

If Christ became our sin, if He took on our thorns and thistles and washed us clean with His blood and with His word, why would we say the world deserves to die a horrible death when they do not even have the Holy Spirit?   They do not know their left hand from their right hand.  They are waiting, brethren, for Jesus Christ to finish this creation and bring about the Millennium.  They are waiting, and it is going to come.

Turn back to Luke chapter 8.  There will be an innumerable multitude of every kindred, nation and tongue.  It is going to be beautiful.  God is not going to have to start by going back to the beginning of Genesis and putting fish back in the oceans and taking the radioactivity out of the ground.  He is going to continue moving forward.

Read Luke 8:4-10.  That is temporary.  That is until the firstfruits are dealt with.

Verse 11:  “‘Now the parable is this:  The seed is the word of God.  Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.  But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.  Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life [with sins of this life, with selfishness] and bring no fruit to maturity.’”  They are full of thorns and thistles.

Verse 15:  “‘But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.’”  Brethren, that is our purpose.  We are supposed to preserve this earth by being the salt and the light of the earth and by getting ready to replace Satan’s demonic system with God’s government (his kingdom).

What does all of this have to do with the end of the age?  At the end of the age, God’s garden has many thorns, thistles and tares.  Each of us has some of them in our lives. Some of us have a lot of them.  We need to start plucking rapidly, brethren.  We need to plant flowers and good fruit-bearing plants (character) while we still have time.  We need to be growing the things that God will use to help bring peace, safety and a beautiful world to the rest of humanity.

WHAT MANNER OF SPIRIT?
I just read to you Luke 9:51-56, and I ask you what manner of spirit are we of?  The condition of the Church at this time is a condition of what God sees growing out of our minds and hearts.  We have been overrun with selfishness.  We saw what that looks like on Calvary.  To be only concerned with safety for ourselves and not caring about the world is not an attitude God appreciates because He died for all mankind.  The Father gave Him for all mankind.

The Church is now known for division, harshness, judgmentalism and a condemning attitude toward the world.  God wants us to be known for our love for one another.  He wants us to be known for our forgiveness, our kindness, our mercy and compassion.  These are the signs we want to produce.  The Church is for signs and wonders.  It is not earthquakes.  It is not wars and rumors of wars.

Turn to Isaiah 8, verse 16, please.  It tells us that the Church is for true signs and wonders.  “Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples.  And I will wait on the Lord, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; and I will hope in Him.  Here am I and the children whom the Lord has given me!  We are for signs and wonders in Israel from the Lord of hosts, who dwells in Mount Zion.”

Christ is proclaiming that He and the children God the Father have given Him are for signs and wonders.  The last signs and wonders at the end of the age are that we are overcome and overwhelmed by selfishness and by sin.  We are struggling.  We are poor, blind, wretched, naked and miserable, but there is help.  We need to open the door and let Jesus Christ in with good food.  We need to help Him put the eye salve on our eyes, so that we can see our condition and start plucking thorns and thistles as rapidly as we can with what little time we have left.

Let’s recognize what God has done in the creation process up to this point and that He is almost finished.  We are the last soil He is working with.  We are the very remnant at the end of the age.  We have a job to do that is very important.  It is a rear guard sort of thing. We are the guardians of the truth.  We are the guardians of kindness and compassion for our fellow man.  We should be those who are willing to lay down our lives for other people to get this whole thing over with and to get this horrible beast off the earth.  We need his attitudes locked away so that the earth can experience a beautiful Millennium.

Turn, if you would, back to Isaiah chapter 58.  We read some of this earlier.  We will read a little bit more beginning in verse 6.  “‘Is this not the fast that I have chosen:  to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and that you break every yoke?  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry [we are talking about spiritual food, brethren], and that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out [many have been cast out of the Church and beaten and persecuted]; when you see the naked, that you cover him, and not hide yourself from your own flesh?’”  Do we hide from the rest of the body of Christ?

Continue reading Isaiah 58:8-12.  We have a job to do, brethren, to be a well-watered garden.  We have to be willing to be examples to all we meet, especially within the body of Christ.  We cannot deny our own flesh by not forgiving them.  If we will not forgive, God cannot forgive us.  We have to go about being compassionate to one another, forgiving one another and being kind so that God can forgive us.  We want to bear fruit to be in the image and likeness of Jesus Christ and God the Father.  We want to be a fruitful, well-watered garden.

I would like to conclude with Romans chapter 8.  Verse 18:  “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.  For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God.  For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.  For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.”