I've always had a little bit of a intrigue where it comes to Vincent van Gogh and his paintings. They just seemed really amazing to me. And I had the privilege of being able to listen to a discussion with a Vincent van Gogh scholar. And there was some things that were brought out in that discussion I just thought, I want to bring them out today because they really remind us of what we're going to be looking at in Genesis chapter 2. If you were to go to Amsterdam, you would buy a ticket to the Vincent van Gogh Museum. You would wait in line for hours. You'd walk into the museum and the centerpiece, the masterpiece in the middle of the museum is van Gogh's The Potato Eaters. There it is there. You can't see it as good as you need to on a screen. You have to see it in a painting. The unique impressionistic style of Van Gogh influenced – it was still representational of what he saw, but his style influenced the art world in a greater way than he could ever imagine. If you were looking at this painting in front of it, you would see broad brush strokes rather than fine, fine lines. You'd see vibrant colours. And if you were to have an overall view of the over 900 paintings that Van Gogh painted, you would often see depictions of scenes in the raw reality of life. Van Gogh had a way of depicting the harsh realities of life using the medium of art, beauty, colours. lines. He captured the poverty of people, these are coal miners, a coal mining family, on a diet of potatoes and he captured that on a canvas with the beauty of and creativity and masterful use of colour. Colour was a big deal for him. He was able to portray the ugliness in a medium of beauty. Even himself, even in his own life, he was remanded in an asylum for a period of time, painted over 100 paintings there. I mean, the man was in a bad way. He cut his own ear off. And he was able to paint the brilliance of joyful colours of irises in the reality of his own pain. The beauty of art for Van Gogh was proof for him that there was a glory beyond this world, a transcendent God of absolute beauty and glory. Now, when we use the word transcendent, because I'm going to use that word a bit this morning, transcendent and imminent. And when we use the word transcendent, we mean something that is above us. above us, beyond us. When we use the word imminent, we're meaning something that is close to us, with us, around us. So they're kind of two dimensions, transcendent and imminent. Depicted in artwork like Van Gogh's, there's often the harsh reality of life in a Genesis 3 world, and yet the beauty in the presentation of it that has you longing for something beyond it, something transcendent. Actually, when you walk out into our hallway through to the Fellowship Hall, you're going to see another painting there that does much the same thing. When you and I see beauty and creativity right alongside harsh reality, we long for the beauty and glory, don't we? Because we understand the harsh reality of this world. We long for the beauty and glory. We know that this world can't possibly satisfy our longing, so we search for it. And it becomes our life search, but the absolute beauty and glory we long for really is beyond us. It's transcendent. What we want is for the true and absolute goodness and glorious beauty to not just be so transcendent, but also imminent. Now, if we had that unblemished beauty and glory, we'd probably call it by a particular word, paradise, wouldn't we? Isn't that our identification, isn't that our definition of paradise? Living in unblemished glory and beauty and goodness. Yeah. Yeah. We have a longing for it, much like the longing portrayed in a Van Gogh painting. As we probably come into Genesis 2 this morning, we're going to engage with unblemished beauty and glory. something that we don't know around us today. We're going to look at Eden, the garden, and we're gonna have this longing for paradise. And this morning, I want you to know that there is real, there is true hope for it. You can have real hope of this. And so, let me put this to you today, that the hope of paradise is made possible in Christ, who restores transcendent glory in our imminent reality. The hope of paradise is made possible in Christ, who restores God's transcendent glory in our imminent reality. Now, I'm hoping to explain that statement as we progress through Genesis 2, and as we approach this chapter, it's helpful to know what Moses, the author, is doing. Moses, after Genesis 1, is actually taking a step back, and he's giving us much more intimate detail on the creation of Adam and Eve in the garden that was made for them. Now, I know we've already seen something of God's power, His amazing power and glory in Genesis 1, but this morning I'm asking you to notice how personally and intimately God created us to be His with Him in the garden. I'm asking you to see God's intimate, personal love and care in creation of humanity. In these verses, let's start in verse 4 to 7 as we look at this setting. Genesis 2 verse 4 to 7, 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, 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. 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. As we come into this description of this garden first, can we just consider this about us being created and put into this garden, that we are physically humans, we are physically and spiritually dependent on God who intimately, intimately created us. Now as we go through Genesis we're going to see Moses, actually he's going to break the book up, in like 10 sections, and those 10 sections are basically genealogies, and that's where you get this word generations. It's like lines of descendants. The first one in the beginning is in Genesis 2 verse 4, and you see these are the generations of the heavens and the earth. In the word translated as generations, it's the Hebrew word toledot. It's like a genealogy. In every other genealogy that you are going to see this word in Genesis, in the book of Genesis, there's a person named. This is the generation of and it'll name a person. In chapter 5 we're going to see the generations of Adam and then Noah and then Shem and then Terah and then ongoing. They show who the genealogy comes forth from but We have to ask a question in this very first one. Who do Adam and Eve come from? Who do Adam and Eve come forth from? Well, God created humanity. They come from God, who created them out of the dust of the earth. So this generation is the generation of the heavens and the earth by which God created human beings and put them into this garden, created them out of the dust of the earth. So the big point here is that we are looking at the first generation of humanity in the creation. There is nothing before Adam and Eve, no humanity before Adam and Eve. creation and this whole chapter particularly focuses in on their creation origin in intimate detail and we're not going to be able to miss God's personal intimate creation of humanity. Moses also, it seems, wants us to know that we are considering a world that's very different to the world that we know, that the world that the first recipients of Genesis would know, the Israelites in the wilderness coming toward the promised land, it's a very different world to what they know. Let me remind you, when we were in Genesis 1, we spent five or so weeks in there, we were looking at the consecutive order of creation in God, progressively creating in readiness for the pinnacle of creation to be placed into creation, and that was mankind created in God's image. Every aspect of creation along the way we saw was pristine, wasn't it? God calling it good. and valuable for life. There is the heavens and the earth, there is sky and earth, there is atmosphere, there is sea, there is land, there is light, stars and moon for navigation and seasons and times and vegetation, all perfectly prepared for the pinnacle of creation on day six, humanity. So Moses is referring to that creation as God is going to create humanity and put Adam and Eve into this creation. The perfect environment for the beginning of humanity in fruitful provision. But it's not like the creation that the Israelites would have experienced in the wilderness. It's not like the creation that you and I experience today. And Moses says it in a particular way. He says, when no bush of the field was yet in the land, no small plant of the field had yet sprung up. Some people come to Genesis 2 and they look at this and say, hang on, didn't God already make the plants on day three, right? So why is this here? Is there a contradiction? And some liberal scholars particularly try to use that to say these are two separate, different creation accounts that contradict each other. That is absolute nonsense. We actually get the answer to this in the actual text. The explanation is very simple, what God is referring to. Verse 5 tells us there's no bush of the field, or plant of the field, and he tells us why there wasn't, because God had not yet caused it to rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground. Do you see that? If you don't read the whole thing, you miss the point here. We're not talking about all the amazing vegetation already created here. We're talking about agricultural farming, crops being planted in the field, grown through human effort and ingenuity. That hadn't happened yet. There was a time when Adam and Eve had every provision they needed in the garden, even before the development of crops in a field. And so the statement is pretty much simply saying this. This is not the world that you know. Because what we know, all of us, is we only know working by the sweat of our brow to produce every bite of food, right? Adam and Eve were created into a garden of provision, before anything was to be cultivated, and before there was a need for rain to sustain such crops. And in fact, God even provided for that. Verse six describes a mist, or it could be translated spring, of water for this lush, fertile garden. Imagine already being in that garden. Do you want to be there yet? Do you want to be there yet? Now please don't lose focus. because this whole focus in Genesis 2 is God intimately creating humanity. With God still always as the main character, it's what he's doing. But before we get to verse 7 in this text, we're reminded that there is this beautiful and glorious creation, but it cannot be complete without a caretaker to live and enjoy all that God has provided for his glory. We do read the words, there was no man to work the ground. There's something missing. Imagine a creation full of beauty, full of plants, creatures, all in God's splendor, and no humanity, no creature with the ability to exercise care and dominion and fruitfulness in the awareness and the enjoyment of God who created it in the worship of Him. So, look carefully at verse 7. Then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground, breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living creature. Right here is where we see something of the intimacy with which God creates humanity. As a creature, God doesn't just make us or create us, we see this word forms, he forms us and he uses this word in a wider way with such intimate detail. God has intimately created his creatures. Now he does form animals out of the ground too, but we don't get it said in such an intimate way as this. He forms, molds, and then we have this statement, he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. And so we have this intimate picture, whatever it means, God fashioning, molding man like a piece of clay, and we came from the dust of the ground, so it literally was. and giving life in a way not described for any other creature. They're simply formed and they live. But mankind receives something of life directly. Think about this. It's not just the ability to breathe and have a heartbeat. Some quality and amazement of life breathed directly by God. Whatever that means. Whatever that means. And I want to put to you I believe what we are looking at here is the distinction between humans and animals in the human soul or spirit, the very life of man given by God. We have life in a way that they do not have. The Bible consistently talks about us in terms of not just body, not just creaturely aspects, but body and soul or spirit. Now if you missed my blog this week, shameless plug, but it's for a reason. I can't spend time on that here in the text, so go back, read the blog this week and where I tried to explain a lot more about the elevated biblical position of body and soul in humanity, but we are formed, personally formed by God. with both physical and spiritual aspects to us. And even this personal forming, this personal involvement of God, it looks like you could almost say, well that's just in Genesis 2, that's just in his moulding and creating and breathing life into Adam and Eve in the garden, but that's not the way that this is described in the rest of scripture. I know that's unique in the creation of the very first human beings, but even the psalmists describe our own existence knowing that we are a product of even normal reproductive processes and development in the womb, but even in that, in all of that, we are intimately formed and given life by God. Listen to Psalm 139 verse 13. For you formed, you, God. Stop here. The first thing we notice is God formed my inward parts. You knitted me together in my mother's womb. We, even in this room, even through the normal reproductive process, we are intimate products of God's doing. Listen, whether any modern philosopher, psychologist or politician want to admit that or not. Every human is created in the same personal mould as these first two humans. We are intimately connected. We're intimately connected as physical beings to the physical creation because we are physical creations like all other creatures in that we have physical bodies. God formed us out of the dust of the earth we see here and the responsibility we are given as human image bearers of God is actually within the span. We are contained within the boundaries of a physical creation. We are not God. We depend upon our creator as his physical creatures for our physical needs. we're also connected to God in a way that animals can never be. He breathed, breathed. Whatever God's personal breath is, I can't explain it, but it's life, it's soulish life, it's spiritual life, his breath of life, We live in spiritual awareness as image bearers that there is something more to us. We never in the Bible hear of animals dying in the scriptures and their soul departing to be with God. We do of humans. We don't live on instinct. We live according to living responsibility and life and mind and heart given to us by God, not just chemical reactions of a body and brain. We have life reflected in being in God's image, able to live in his creation in all of its beauty and love and obey God in a life aware of his glory and beauty and wonder all around us. Don't skip over the fact that God breathed life into humanity. And let's just realize something. The entirety of Genesis 2 focuses in on God's relationship with Adam and soon Eve. their creation, their responsibilities, their purpose, their roles, all in relationship with their God. given to them by God. This chapter is God's personal attention and love and care for his image bearers as the pinnacle of his creation and this personal intimate focus is seen in different ways. It's seen in the focus of the text, the personal gift of intimate breathed by God life that we've talked about but I want to put it to you that we also see it in the very name of God used in Genesis 2. I want you to notice, if you remember, in Genesis 1, if you read all the way through Genesis 1, we see the word for God, which is, we talked about this word, this Hebrew word, Elohim. It's just translated in Genesis 1 as God, God created, God, Elohim. Now in Genesis 2, we see an addition, there's an intimate focus on God's relationship with humanity, and look at what Moses does in Genesis 2, he adds in God's personal name known to his people, Israel, the first recipients of this book of Genesis. And he adds in this word, Lord. Do you see it there? Not just God, but Lord God. That word Lord in our Bibles is translated from the Hebrew word Yahweh, the I am. That would be an absolute standout to the original readers. It should be a standout to us. This is the name of the God who has covenant relationship with us. They know this so intimately. It's not some unnamed God, the Lord God, Yahweh Elohim, the one true God of Israel, the personal God in covenant relationship with his people, is the one who intimately made, with great care and love, humanity. Wow. Wow. Okay, so before we move on, let's consider this for us. Not only was God in all his glory a transcendent God who creates, But look at this, He is personally, intimately creating in His creation, putting His breath in us. Can I just ask this, because we're a church that likes getting as deep as we can into the richness of the depth of Scripture and having wonderful talks about theological concepts. Can we always please remind ourselves that God is not a theological concept? Can we always please do that? Even in the importance of getting as rich as we can, as deep as we can into the text of Scripture, can we please, please remind ourselves of it's not just God's transcendent untouchability in the theological concepts of Scripture. Yes, He is beyond us, He is above us, only God is God, but we are created to love God. We're created to know him, to trust him, to obey him, to live with him, enjoy him. And that's why all through the scriptures we get these personal aspects of the way that we cry out to God and talk to God. Read the Psalms, so personal. You hear the yearning of humans who understand that God is not simply transcendent, but he is in his beautiful forgiveness and reconciliation with him through sacrifice, through Christ, he's imminent. And so you have people crying out, hear me God, incline your ear to me, bless me, heal me, help me, thank you. Be praised, your love endures forever. Your praise in this world all around us should be proclaimed throughout all of the earth. Now imagine, that earth. filled with the glory of God in perfect condition. Imagine the Genesis 1 and 2 world. Imagine it for a moment. That's what the next verses describe further. I want to put this to you. Paradise, it's not just about the physical aspects of it. Paradise is the enjoyment of God's beauty and glory and goodness as we serve him in enjoying his provision and in his presence. Provision and presence. Let me read verses eight to 15. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he put 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, 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 Havilla where there is gold and the gold of that land is good, bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. 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, put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it. This text, particularly that first verse in verse 8, is actually where we get and use the word paradise. Paradise in the Greek version of the Old Testament, garden, the word is paradise, so it does mean paradise. The word for Eden here also comes from a Hebrew word that many scholars believe comes from the word that means delicacy or joy. So we're getting a description straight off of this paradise of delicacy and joy. And look closely at the describing words in the text. Every tree is pleasant. Do you see that word pleasant? Pleasant, beautiful. to the sight. Beautiful and good in provision, good for food. Everything beautiful and full of provision for humanity to enjoy with the amazing senses that God has given us, particularly sight and taste we get here, right? And then in verse 10, he talks specifically about two specific trees in this garden, the tree of life, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We're going to talk more about those next week, wait for next week. I'll talk a little about it today, but they're there and there's a river to water the garden that expands then into four rivers going every direction. There's oars and jewels in sparkling beauty and future usefulness for humanity. And in verse 15, it shows everything there is there for man's use. He is to work and keep it. It's for usefulness. It's for man's use to discover and develop and care for and even protect. And all of the glorious, unblemished beauty and goodness intimately present. And God is personally and intimately putting man in there where he is with it. and intimately present with his creation of humanity in this incredible garden. When God put Adam into the garden, he put him in an environment where Adam could use the beautiful and good creation to serve God. And there was a tree in the middle, the tree of life, would remind Adam that he is dependent on God for life. This tree reminds me there's God who's going to give me life. God is my source of life. There's a tree of the knowledge of good and evil that reminds us that Adam was to obey and love God. He's to relationally love God and live for God in that garden. And so Adam was put in paradise with responsibility to God in caretaking everything around him, everything he saw, everything he would do, everything he would enjoy was on the basis of his intimate relationship with God who provides and sustains all things. I want you to sit back and just imagine that for a moment. Imagine the wonder, imagine the beauty, imagine the enjoyment of that. Now I want to put a concept to you. We're going to finish on this concept this morning, not just a concept, a reality. When we think about how wonderful that Genesis 2 picture is, here's the truth. I don't think you see a lot of it around you. We see snippets of beauty, don't we? We see snippets of goodness. God's provision in everything. But not like Adam and Eve saw it. Not in the unblemished glory and wonder of Genesis 2. We don't see that world around us today, only glimpses. In some respects, like Van Gogh, where we have a constant longing for it. A constant longing. So I want to put this to you. that sin has made separation from God's transcendent beauty and goodness. But Christ has fulfilled our longing. And that's where I want to go in our last time together here now. You see, instead of depending on God in the provision of the tree of life, Adam and Eve disbelieved God in their disobedience with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And every week, For the last few weeks, I hope you've noticed something. We've seen the same thread, haven't we? God's original intention, God's original glory and wonder in what he has done, whether it's image bearing, rest, dominion, whatever it is, mankind's sin, God's redemptive thread through Jesus to restore that in his creation. That's what we've seen every week for the last number of weeks. So we're gonna do that again today. It's no different. And I wanna look specifically at the last verse of Genesis 3 today as we think about this. Look at the result of Adam and Eve's sin in the garden, Genesis 3, 24. He drove out the man. And at the east of the garden, at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed the cherubim. and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life." Cherubim, God's guarding angelic beings, were guarding the way to the tree of life and the Garden of Eden. absolute separation from the transcendent beauty and goodness of God. Now, the reality is today you would say, well where is that? Today there's no place in the world where we're going to find cherubim guarding the east entrance to the garden for us to go back in. Why? Well, we're going to get there but since that time there's been a great flood It's the whole topography of the earth has been rearranged, the garden, the rivers, the entrance, the tree of life, it's all gone, everything. Humanity has been separated from the transcendent beauty and goodness of God ever since Genesis 3. That's exactly the way that the prophet Isaiah explains sin. Isaiah 59 verse 1 and 2, just listen to how he explains it. Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dulled that it cannot hear, but your iniquities, your sin, have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he does not hear. We have completely in reliance of God. We're in total reliance of God to do something about this because we can't. We can't go back into that garden. It's gone. We can't do anything to get right with God and come back into his presence. It's not there. And let me suggest that the original readers of Genesis knew something about this. because they were given plans to the tabernacle and to the temple that depicted this in every way in which they were built. And I want us to finish by seeing this this morning. The temple and tabernacle were built in a way that they showed, because of your sin, you can't come in, but I'm making a way for you to come back. Now you might ask, how? How is that just even in the way that the tabernacle and temple is built? Well, look for starters at some of the features of the temple. I'm just gonna look at one to start with. Exodus chapter 26, verse one. This is the directions on building the tabernacle. And as part of these directions, we hear this. Moreover, you shall make the tabernacle with 10 curtains of fine twined linen and blue and purple and scarlet yarns. You shall make them with cherubim skillfully worked into them. Guarding, particularly the Holy of Holies, because of your sin, you can't come in. Curtains with guarding cherubim covered the innermost part of the building known as the Holy of Holies, where God's dwelling presence was. You can't go in there saying, do not come in here. Nobody was allowed to go into that place that typified God's dwelling presence with his people. But there was a way that God would give them to come back to him. The Israelites knew that once per year, just once per year, after making careful sacrifice for themselves, the high priest could take the blood of sacrifice behind that curtain, sprinkling it on the mercy seat. You see, through a substitutionary sacrifice, taken behind the curtain, sprinkling on the mercy seat, Through that substitutionary sacrifice, there was again a way that God, through that substitution, that punishment on someone else for our sin, would bring us back into the dwelling presence of God in his transcendent beauty and goodness. It could only be a picture of that happening because they had to do it over and over and over and over again. Always a picture. There's a promise coming. There's a promise coming. There's a promise coming. Because of your sin, you can't go in. But there's a promise coming. Trust in the promise. the Tabernacle and Temple, there was this picture of the hope of return to an imminent enjoyment of God's transcendent beauty. But even there, in the way that it was depicted, it was a picture of that in Israel. They did have something of God's presence with them. In fact, the picture of God dwelling with his people in the Temple is garden-like. It's like, hey, here's a picture of the promise of a new Eden yet to come. I wanted to show you where we see some of that. Here's one place that we see it. There's a place in the Old Testament while Israel is going through the wilderness where a prophet, a prophet of a false god was attempting to curse them. And God would not allow that prophet to do that. In fact, the Israelites in the wilderness were camped as they approached the promised land, and God stopped that prophet, Balaam, from doing, from cursing them, and he caused him to actually pronounce blessing instead of curse. And so as he looked at the camp of Israel, camped around the tabernacle of God, with God dwelling in their centre, he described God's people, with their God, being a picture of a garden. Listen to it, Numbers chapter 24, verse 5 to 7, from the mouth of a pagan prophet. How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel, like palm groves that stretch afar, like gardens beside a river, like aloes that the Lord has planted, like cedar trees beside the waters. Water shall flow from his buckets, and his seed shall be in many waters. His king shall be higher than Agog, and his kingdom shall be exalted." That's just a snippet, there's more. There's something Edenic-like in God's people, camped around the dwelling place of their God, dwelling with their God. They were a living, breathing pitcher of hope and a return to Eden. because of what that temple is about, what God was doing through it. The temple itself represented so many aspects that were actually described in the Garden of Eden, in the temple itself. If you were to read all of the descriptions of the temple, and you can go and read that around Exodus 26, you'd find that its entrance, the entrance to the temple, was in the east. It was elevated, the temple, on a mountain. like Eden was, because rivers flowed from it. Rivers don't flow uphill, folks. It had candlesticks in it, like trees. The priest's garments had pomegranates woven into them. The priest wore a breastplate filled with beautiful gems. Ezekiel, Joel, and Zechariah all had visions that God gave them of the ultimate temple, and their visions of the ultimate temple had rivers flowing out of it. And the duties of the priest, the duties of the priest around the tabernacle and temple, they were described with two words. The only other time in the Bible that you see these two words together. Adam was to work and keep the garden, and the priests were to work and keep the temple. Could otherwise be translated as serve and protect. The temple itself, was a constant reminder of God's promise that he was making provision through a substitutionary sacrifice for us to again return into his forgiveness for our sin and enjoy the transcendent beauty and goodness of God in imminent reality. Where is that fulfilled? What was it walking to? What is it looking to? Well, coming to fulfilment of that, we know, don't we? We see it in Jesus, and Jesus describes it in himself. In John 2, listen to how Jesus describes it to those who are coming against him. in a discussion about the temple. In John 2, 19 to 22, Jesus answered them, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. The Jews then said, it has taken 46 years to build this temple, they were talking about Herod's temple at the time, and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking about the temple of his body. when therefore he was raised, after he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. They understood what he was really talking about. Jesus himself was to be the once and for all sacrifice that would fill all the hope and all the promise of the temple He is our way back to reconciliation with God and the enjoyment of His glory. How is that? Well, we know how. It's through His death on the cross, His payment, His substitutionary sacrifice for sin, and His resurrection from the dead. We just cannot miss a huge fact here, okay? What happened when Jesus died on the cross? What happened? Was there some type of fulfillment that says, yes, yes, we can now come to God through Christ rather than this physical temple? Look at Matthew chapter 27, verse 50 to 51. You remember last week we talked about Jesus' last words, it is finished, the work is finished, right? And then look at this, and Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit, and behold, The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. And the earth shook. And the rocks were split. Think about the power of that event. That's saying to you, listen, there is fulfillment here. There is powerful fulfillment that shakes earth and splits rocks. And that fulfilment is clearly seen in the curtain. No more guarding cherubim. It's ripped in two. They're not there anymore. Full access. No longer need for cherubim on the curtains of the temple to remind us that because of our sin we can't come in, we can't have access to God through this, through what's happening here, because it's fulfilled in Jesus. Our access is Him. He is the temple. There is no longer a need for a priest to sprinkle the blood of an animal on the mercy seat in the Holy Holies. The once and for all substitution for our sin has been made. Jesus has fulfilled the temple as our hope of restoration with God. And in Him is the promise of a new Eden. In Him is the promise of a new Eden. What is our way back to paradise? What is our hope of restoration and access to the unblemished goodness and beauty of God? Well, here is the way. Jesus said it himself in John chapter four, verse six. Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. He's the way. Jesus is God's transcendent beauty and goodness made imminent. He is Emmanuel, God with us. He is our temple, God's dwelling presence with us, and the way back to the garden. Well, where does it all lead? If you have repented of your sin and you have faith in Christ, if you are in Christ, then here is where it all leads. Because of Christ, one day, one day, because he has fulfilled everything, one day he will bring consummation fulfillment. and we will live in the unblemished surroundings of the transcendent beauty and goodness of God in a totally new creation. Let me give you the description of that from Revelation 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 12 kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. And by the way, you're going to notice that there's a tree not in this garden. The tree of the knowledge of the fruit of evil, knowledge of good and evil, is not there. Just the tree of life. 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 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. Now until that time, that glorious day for all of eternity afterwards. We're not there yet. But Jesus has not left us alone. God's dwelling presence is his spirit within everyone who has faith in Jesus. He dwells in us. And he dwells in us as a promise of what is yet to come. Look at the way we read about this in Ephesians, Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13 and 14. In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. and brothers and sisters, until we are in that new creation together, we who are in Christ are the hope of a return to the transcendent beauty and goodness of God. We are. We have God dwelling in us. Here is a picture of Eden right in front of my face. Look at what Paul says in Ephesians chapter two, verse 19 to 22. So then you, this is talking to the Ephesian church who are in Christ, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a temple in the Lord. What structure? The church. in Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. We're about to go and have fellowship lunch together, I hope you come. A whole heap of believers in Jesus, as the temple of the Lord, encouraging each other in Christ, enjoying his goodness, knowing his forgiveness, living in his grace and his mercy, holding on to the absolute certainty of his future hope. We, the church, hear me, wear a better painting than Van Gogh could have ever realised. We are the picture of the promise of God in his dwelling presence of transcendent beauty and goodness in imminent reality. The picture of it, not the consummation fulfillment of it. We're waiting for that, but we're saying, hey, here's the promise right here. Come to Jesus with us. We get to enjoy his beauty, goodness, and truth right now in Christ in readiness for all of its fullness when we will all inherit God's future consummation glory. Are you with us? That's the question this morning, are you with us? And will you be there with us? Because there's only one way, and it's through Jesus. So let me leave you with these words that we started with. The hope of paradise is made possible in Christ, who restores God's transcendent glory in our imminent reality. Praise God. I hope you live reminding yourself of that every day. Let's pray.