HANDOUT FOR SERMON: “THE TREE OF LIFE & THE GARDEN OF EDEN.”                                                                        Sept. 11th, 2022, 9:30 a.m. Manchester, TN

INTRODUCTION:

The Garden of Eden was a wonderful place. There was no sin there, there was no separation from God there and all man needed was provided for by God. No death, no sin and no pain-what a unbelievable place! If this place was offered to you-would YOU be interested.  Open your Bible to Genesis. Let us start in the beginning, when God placed Adam and Eve in a marvelous place called “The Garden of Eden.” In the middle was a tree of life (Gen. 2:9) If this place was offered to you, would you be interested in moving there?  Due to the “tree of life” – this is the reason Adam could live forever and never die.  All Adam had to do was to be satisfied with all the good God had done and not seek evil.  Such an easy rule, maybe the easiest rule in the world! “You do not need to know about evil!” This garden was perfect but Man yearned for more because He wasn’t satisfied.

Read: Genesis 2:7-15, Genesis 3:1-6, Genesis 3:17-19. Then the serpent comes and tempts man. Both sinned and sin ruined everything! Sin destroyed the good that God had done for Adam. Because of his sin things would change. Adam was expelled from the garden away from the tree of life and became subject to every form of corruption and pain because of his sin.

1.ADAM’S LIFE IN THE GARDEN.

Adam introduced sin into a sinless world.
They were banished.
Even now generations later that wonderful garden in inaccessible.
By one person and just one sin he lost all and so did we!

Do you think Adam ever wished to go back to the garden? Maybe he went to the gates where the Cherubim stood and begged for a second chance? To let him back in since he had now learned his lesson. Once he fathered his first son as a good he might have wished to be back in the Garden with the tree of life instead of raising his children in such an evil world.

What about YOU? Would you have done any better? Have you sinned once within the past 48 hours? Within the past week or month?

Read scripture: Romans 5:12-14

When redemption is introduced to us in the New Testament God goes back to the beginning and the Garden of Eden. He wants us to remember the sin of Adam and what it did! All it took was ONE SIN! All of us in this room are guilty of at least ONE SIN, if not many! If one sin gets you evicted from the presence of God, how will any of us ever make it? There would never be a “garden” for any of us!

Our need to accept who we are and where we are! Romans 5:14 Once we do so there is HOPE! The first Adam brought sin into the world and the 2nd Adam (Christ) came to remove sin in the lives of people. We turn our attention away from the 1st Adam and look to the 2nd Adam and what He did for us and what He can do for us! In Christ alone – hope is found!

Read Scripture: Romans 5:1-2, Romans 5:15-18.

Adams choice and sin got us all kicked out of the garden. Jesus, the 2nd Adam brings peace with God. We have access to His grace by our faith. We can rejoice in hope of the glory of God because of the 2nd Adam, Jesus Christ.  In Romans 5:15-18 we hear of the “free gift” that came through Jesus. Adam sinned one time and everything broke/ all good was lost. Jesus can fix everything and restore goodness despite thousands and thousands of sins! We learn of His abundant grace (Romans 5:17). One act of righteousness resulted in justification of life. Jesus’ death fixes all our sins.

What about a person that is a “pretty good person” or a “fairly righteous person” or “most of the time righteous?”  All the “pretty good” people in this world have sinned, if not many times at least once. We have seen what the one sin of Adam resulted in! So, what about OUR ONE SIN?? Jesus only can fix it! Our obedience to lots of righteous things can not fix our sin, it is repaired by the mercy and grace and sacrifice of Jesus!

1 Corinthians 15:20-22 & 45 Jesus is the life giving Adam!

Christ brought sinlessness into a sinful world.
We are invited and welcomed by Jesus.
In contrast to Adam who brought sin into a sinless garden (the perfect garden).
Thus, we were banished or cast out of that perfect garden with no possible return!

WOULD YOU LIKE TO RETURN TO THE GARDEN & THE TREE OF LIFE?

Genesis 1-3 Describes the garden lost.
Revelation 20-22 Describes the garden restored.
It exists again, Revelation 2:27.
No reference to the garden anywhere else in the NT but in Revelation.
We get a picture or vision of heaven. Do you realize what heaven looks like?
God speaks as if the garden is available again.
What man has lost; Christ have given us access to again.
Revelation 21:17-21 The precious stones and gold.
Genesis 2:11-12 Gold and precious stones & tree of life.

REVELATIONS 22:13-16

You must believe in Jesus. Verses 12-13 He is the alpha and omega, beginning & end.
Your robe must be Verses 14-15 Rev. 1:5, Mark 16:16, 1 John 1:9 Washed in the blood of Christ.
All baptized believers will honor my word and treat it with respect. Verses 18-21

CONCLUSION:

In the judgment it will be YOU and JESUS and the book!  What will He ask or say?

Did you believe in ME?
Did you wash your robes in the power of MY blood in baptism?
Did you honor my word in the days you lived on the earth?

Jesus decides WHO He will let in and have access to the “tree of life!”