Turn with me in your Bibles please
to 1 Corinthians chapter one. 1 Corinthians chapter one. We'll read a part of chapter
one and a little bit of chapter two. 1 Corinthians chapter one, let's
begin with verse 17. 1 Corinthians 1, verse 17. Paul is speaking and says, for
Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not
with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made
of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For
after that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew
not God. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ
crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For we see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things which are mighty, and base things of the world,
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things
which are not to bring to naught things that are. that no flesh
should glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and
sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And I, brethren,
when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or
of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. For I determined
not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And I was with you in weakness,
and in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration
of the spirit and of power, that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Paul said a little
later on to the Galatians, God forbid that I should glory save
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We glory in Jesus Christ
and the cross on which we died. And it's proven in that very
verse because he goes on to say, by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. And then later on in 1 Corinthians
10, verse 31, he says, Whether, therefore, you eat or drink or
whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And how could
we glorify God more than to be thankful for His Son and what
His Son accomplished for us? Let's pray. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
2. Genesis chapter 2. Let me read verses 8 through
19 and deal with them, God helping me. Genesis 2.8, And the Lord
God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the
man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the
Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food. The tree of life also in the
midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and
evil. And a river went out of Eden
to water the garden, and from thence it was parted and became
into four heads. The name of the first is Pison,
that which is compasses the land of Havilah, where there is gold.
And the gold of that land is good. There is Bedillium and
the Arctic stone. And the name of the second river
is Gion. the same as that that compasses
the whole land of Ethiopia. And the name of the third river
is Hittikal, that is, it which goeth toward the east of Assyria,
and the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man,
put him into the Garden of Eden to dress it, and the Lord God
commanded the man, saying, Out of every tree of the garden thou
mayest freely eat, but of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, It is
not good that man should be alone. I will make him a helpmeet for
him, and out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of
the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto
Adam to see what he would call them. And whatsoever Adam called
every living creature, that was the name thereof. I want to talk
about this Garden of Eden, this Garden of Eden. You know, the
Scriptures is written for our learning and our admonition.
And they're written that through them we might have patience and
comfort. That's what it says in Romans 15, 4. Let me read
it to you. For whatsoever things were written
aforetime were written for our learning, written for us to learn,
that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, of
the Scriptures. The Scriptures give us patience
and comfort and encouragement of the scriptures might have
hope. And that's what they do for me.
They give me good hope. They teach me some things. Learn.
That's what we're doing. We're learning. And we want to
learn. But I want to talk about the
Garden of Eden. Here in the Garden of Eden, we see grace upon grace. Grace upon grace in the Garden
of Eden. The man that God made out of
the dust is brought in this garden to enjoy all the fullness of
God in this garden. And so I want us to look at this
garden as a type of the provision that God has made for man in
the Lord Jesus Christ. We always want to find Christ.
That's what he read this evening. We want to preach Christ in him
crucified. And I believe that we can find
God's provision for us and the grace of God through our Lord
Jesus Christ here in the Garden of Eden. And the first thing
about it is this. The Garden of Eden was God's
provision. God's provision. God provided
it. Adam didn't provide it. Nobody else provided it. God
provided it. And look what it said. It said
it was a garden. And it said in verse 8, The Lord
God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And oh, it was a garden. And you know a garden is enclosed. It's a special enclosure. It's
a special enclosure, prepared place for a prepared man. That's
what this is here. I know, I was looking at a place
the other day, these folks got all kinds of cattle and they
wanted a garden. So they got all these cattle
panels and they, I mean, they got enough cattle, their garden's
about the size of this room right here, and they got cattle panels
all around it so the cows can't get in the garden. Well, God
planted a garden eastward and it's enclosed and God prepared
this garden for man. made this wonderful, glorious,
blessed garden, and then put man right in the middle, and
he prepared it for man, prepared it for Adam. And oh, beloved,
listen, and this garden, this garden was made before God ever
made the man. He made the man, and then he
put him in it. And the covenant with our Lord Jesus Christ was
made before the world ever was. Christ was the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. We were chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world. God provided us our Lord Jesus
Christ in a covenant in Him, just like He made this garden
for man. Christ was given to us in a covenant of grace, or
we were given to Him in a covenant of grace. And we were chosen
in Him in this covenant of grace. It was a prepared place. Then
look what else it says about it. In verse eight, it was planted
by the Lord. And the Lord God planted this
garden. God planted it. And this is why
I love, everything that you find that has to do with what God
did, man ain't got nothing to do with it. God planted this
garden. Man had no hand in it. None whatsoever. He had no part in creating it.
He didn't have no part in making the garden. He had no part in
putting Himself in the garden. And what part did we have in
God providing Christ? What part did we have in God
giving Christ for us? You know, He didn't have no...
And that's why we understand, and bless God for this, that
salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
don't have a thing... Listen. Man, he likes to boast
about his free will. He likes to boast about his power.
He likes to boast about God giving man a chance. But I'll tell you
what, there's nothing ever in this Bible that deals with that.
God planted this garden. God put man in this garden. God
created this garden. And God gave Christ. God put
us in Christ before the foundation of the world. And we didn't have
anything to do with it. We found out that salvation is
of the Lord. Huh? And I'll tell you, bless
His name, here's what else happened here. In this garden, God considered
all of man's needs, all of man's needs, God considered it in this
garden. And when He put him in this garden,
He provided for everything that a man would ever need and more
than enough to satisfy him. He did, and that's why He gave
Christ, and Christ has all the preeminence, because we find
in Him all that satisfies us, all we need for our souls, for
our minds, for our hearts, for what we need in this world, God
provided for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We sung it there, Jesus
Christ is all I need. All I need. He is all my wisdom,
all my righteousness. He is all I need. Don't need
anything else. And then look what he did in
this garden. Down in verse nine. And out of the ground made the
Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food. Here's the first tree put it
in the garden. The tree of life. What does man
need more than anything else from God? What does man need
more than anything else from God? He needs life. And you know
where the tree of life for believers is? In the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And His doing and dying on a
cross and His death on a cross is where we get life from. You
know, our Lord Jesus says, I am come that you might have life,
and you might have it, how much life is He gonna give us? That
you might have it more abundantly. How abundant is the life that
God gave us in Christ? Well, I'll tell you how abundant
it is. Every how much life is in Christ, that's how much life
we have. Every how much wisdom's in Christ, that's what we have.
Every how much righteousness, that's what we have. Ever how
much power, ever how much grace, ever how much mercy, that's what
we have. Everything that we could possibly
need, God gave it to us in our Lord Jesus Christ. And I tell
you what, in this tree of life that God put in this garden,
if Adam ate of that tree of life, in him, to him it would become
eternal life. If he'd ate of that tree of life,
he'd live forever. He'd live forever. But all listen,
Adam was driving from the garden. Look over here in verse 3, 24. God drove Adam out of the garden
before he ate of the tree of life. Look what it says here
in verse 24 of chapter 3. It said in verse 23, the Lord
God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from
which he was taken. So he drove out the man and he
placed at the east of the garden of Eden, cherubims and a flaming
sword, which turned every way to keep the way to the tree of
life. And I'll tell you what, to be driven away from the tree
of life, God drove him away from the tree of life and to be without
Christ. To be without God, to be without
Christ is to be without hope. And then when he planted this
sword in this cherubim there, look what he says, is to keep
the way to the tree of life. is to keep the way, to preserve
the way to the tree of life. Not to keep people from getting
to it, but to make sure that when you got to it, got to the
cross, when you got to Christ, He preserved the way and there's
no other way getting there other than going the way God prepared
because He won't let you come any other way. There's nothing
but a flaming sword for a man who does not get to Christ. That's
all that he'll ever know, is God's flaming sword of justice.
But when he has that sword, it's to preserve that way so that
men, when they get to Christ, there ain't no other way to get
there, to that cross, and God's made the way plain. And then
back over here again in chapter two, again in verse nine. And
oh my, look what he said. He said, and God planted in the
garden every tree that is pleasant, pleasant. Pleasure to the sight. Oh my. Adam, when he was in the garden,
he looked around and everything he looked at was pleasant. It
gave him great pleasure. He had enjoy. He looked around
and everything was, oh, this is the most beautiful place and
look at these trees. And he had such pleasure. They
gave, he looked at them and it gave him pleasure. And beloved,
What have we? What pleasure? I don't know of
anything that's more pleasurable, anything more enjoyable than
being a Christian, being a believer in this world. That's the most
enjoyable life that there are in this world. I told Shirley
this the other day, and I believe I've told you all that. If we
was to get to the end of the way, and we just ended up being
like animals, and we just went out of existence, This thing
of Christianity and believing the Bible and trusting Christ
has made my life so much fuller, so much happier, so much more
enjoyable, so much more pleasant. All the people that I've been
blessed to know, the enjoyment that I've had, the places I've
been, and the things that... Now listen, it's worth believing. Oh, what joy, what pleasure we
get out of this. And it's all because God planted
it for us to enjoy at the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's
nothing, nothing more enjoyable than being a believer. I'll tell
you what, I was preaching a funeral one time and I got to talking
about how that, you know, if you don't know Christ, If you
don't know the Lord Jesus, and you don't embrace Him, and find
pleasure in Him, and delight in Him, and have intimate communion
with Him, and just rejoice in Him, you don't know Him. You
don't know Him. This is the thing about knowing
Christ. I mean, it is absolutely, it's the most joyous, pleasant,
good thing that happened to us in our lives. Look at us here. We're listening to a man get
up here and he quoted tonight, God took the things which are
not. I'm a not. I'm absolutely nothing. That's
what Paul said, nothing. I'm a not. N-O-T. To bring the
nothing. Everything else. Why? That everyone that has breath,
let him praise the Lord, let him glory in the Lord. And only
God can take a man and make him enjoy Christ and give him all
the glory for everything that's ever happened. If he gets sick,
he'll give God the glory. If he rejoices and got good health,
he gives God the glory. If he's got money in his pocket,
he gives God the glory, and after he pays his bill, if he's broke,
he said he gives God the glory. Ain't that right? Full or empty,
it makes no difference. God gets all the glory. Oh, it's
pleasant, ain't it? This is pleasant. The cross is
pleasant. Oh, it's pleasant. And then look
what else he said. And not only is he planted these
trees pleasant to the sight, but good for food. Good for food. Who is our food? Who is our food? Who do we feed
on? Christ says, my flesh is meat indeed. My blood is drink
indeed. He said he was the water of life. He said he was that bread which
came down from heaven. And he said, a man that eateth
my flesh and drinketh my blood, he shall live forever. So our
food, Our food, our spiritual food is the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself. He's our bread and you know how
bread's made? They used to have meals and people
take all their corn or their wheat or whatever it was and
have it ground. Herman says, you know, when he
first come down here, he'd take that big hickory cane corn, take
it out of the ground and have cornmeal there. And that people
used to do that. Well, bread, our Lord Jesus Christ,
He's the bread of life. He was put in the crucible and
ground down under God's wrath and God's justice and God's judgment. And boy, out of that came bread.
And every time we take that bread, we say we do it in memory of
Him. And in that blood, when He took that cup and handed it
to His disciples, He says, this is the blood and the new covenant
which is shed for many. And oh, we drank His blood and
we eat His flesh and we eat Him as the bread and we drink Him
as our water. Oh my, His food, He builds us
up. And you know what food does for
you? It nourishes you, strengthens you, holds you up, meets the
needs of your soul, meets the needs of your body. And how many
times have you come to a service and you thought, boy, you didn't
feel like coming. You was weak and weary and tired,
didn't feel good, but you come and then when you leave, you're
so glad that you came. And I tell you what, every promise
of God, Old Spurgeon I believe said this, every promise of God
is a fruit tree, is a fruit tree. And it's full of every fruit
on it is a promise of God. And it's full, full of the promises
of God. And then look what else it says
about verse nine about these trees. Look what it says about
the trees. It's pleasant to the sight, good
for food, and the tree of life, and then there's the tree of
knowledge of good and evil. Now let me say something about
that. I'll tell you something we know, and we found this out
from the day we was born. We know what evil is. We was
born knowing what evil is. We was born knowing what sin
is. But it's only in the Lord Jesus Christ in him crucified,
Do we really learn what good and evil really is? Oh, evil,
we know how sinful man is. We know how sinful sin is. We
know that. But then on the other side of
it, how good is God? How good is God's grace? How good is God's patience? How
good is God's long-suffering? How good was God? How good was
God that He put His own Son in this world, and then put Him
on a tree, and here we know nothing but sinfulness, and we knew nothing
but the sin, how sinful sin was, and then He brought us to that
blessed tree, and then we found out good. The Lord is good and
He's good to Israel. God, He drives His way in the
whirlwind and He is good. I don't care what happens to
us, God's good. It's the goodness of God that
leads a man to repentance. I remember one time a fellow
was Trying to use he lost a child and a son and there was this
fella at a funeral trying to get everybody to feel sorry for
the mother and what he lost and his son. And you ought to, you
know, trust Christ because of this woman lost her son. Listen,
I don't care how many children you lost. That don't have nothing
to do with trust. God ain't going to save somebody
because somebody else's child died. He's going to save them
because his son died. And I don't mean to be ugly or
cruel, but that's what I'm telling you. It's not what somebody else
loses. It's Christ that God says for
you to look to. That's the one we look to. And
oh my, and you know when we're planted in Christ, planted in
Christ, that's when we truly learn what sin is and what grace
is. And until we're put in Christ,
we don't know how sinful sin is, and we didn't know anything
about grace. Now we know God is good, and
everything outside him is evil. And you know what? We know that
in us dwelleth no good thing, but in him is everything we need.
So we're not dwelling on how bad we are, we're gonna dwell
on how good he is, how gracious he is. Look what else it says
now down here in verse 10 about the garden of Eden. And a river
went out of Eden to water the garden. There's a river of water. And
what did it do? The river went out of Eden to
water the garden. God had a river right in the
middle of it. It started up here, and it went out, and it had four
different heads. One went this way, one went that
way, one went this way, and one went another way. Four rivers.
But they all went out from the garden of Eden, and all beloved,
a river watered this garden. And look what it says, the name
of the first, it came into four heads, the name of the first
is Pisan, which is, passes the land where there's gold. Oh my,
the river of gold. And the gold of that land is
good gold. And look what it, Bedillium and
Onyx stone. There's wealth in the river. Look with me, look with me over
here at Psalm 46. There's a river in them that
are gold. You know, people went up to the Yukon, and went up
the Yukon River, and they go up there to find gold. But oh
my, here's a river that God said, good gold in it, good gold. Psalm
46, look at it with me. There was a river of water that
went forth the garden, to water the garden. And then they were
surrounded, this place was surrounded by fruitful rivers that went
around it. Look what it says down here in
verse 4, Psalm 46. There is a river, listen to this
now, the streams, one river, we've got lots of streams, whereof
shall make glad the city of God. Oh my, all of the Lord's people,
God sends a river, and streams, what's some of the streams that
come out of that? Righteousness, forgiveness, justification, grace,
mercy, all these things come out of these streams. There's
a river. Stream of grace goes this way. Stream of righteousness
goes that way. Stream of life goes another way.
Stream of justification, stream of forgiveness. There is a fountain
open. And oh, look what it says. And
this says, it makes glad the city of God. the holy place of
the tabernacles of the most high. And listen to this, God's in
the midst of her. God's in the midst of her. Where
does he come through? In this river, in this river.
Oh, surrounded, Eden was surrounded by fruitful, fruitful rivers. Now let's back over again here
in Genesis 2. Let's look at this again about
the, we've got trees. God planted the garden. God put
man in the garden. formed him, and then he put him
in the garden. And then, oh, look what it says down here in
verse 15. Look at man's glorious, glorious privilege. Oh, my. God put him in the garden, and
the Lord God took the man. Look what it says. The Lord God
took the man. Took him. And what did he do
to him? Put him in the garden. Adam said, boy, I sure would
like to get in that garden. No, he didn't say that. That
sure is a pretty garden. I'd like to be in it. No, no.
God took him, set him right down the middle of it. And what is,
how do we get in Christ? God puts us in Christ. Of God are you in Christ. You
can't get in Christ if God don't put you in Christ. You don't
get in Christ by going to altars. You don't get in Christ by raising
your hands. You don't get in Christ by joining
a church. There's a world of difference
in joining a church and being joined to Christ. Oh my. And I tell you what, and the
Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden. Now
I want you to notice something. Up to this time, he had just
said God. God. God created. God created. Now he says the Lord God. And
he says the Lord God, God means creator. Elohim, power and might,
that's the Hebrew name Elohim. He has power and might. Then
you put Lord God, Lord in front of it, that's Jehovah. So God,
Elohim, Lord, Jehovah means God of revelation. and God of redemption. So he's the Lord God who created
everything, got the power and the might. He's Lord, he's Jehovah,
who is the God that reveals things to us and makes us to know and
then to redeem us by the blood of his blessed son. And then
look what he says, and he put him in the garden to dress it.
Oh my, and I tell you, just like God put him in there, we only
get in Christ by a supernatural act of God. And all making the
garden wasn't enough. God got to put the man in it.
And look, and he was put in there to enjoy the work of God. Oh,
God said, dress this garden. Dress this garden. Oh, what grace.
What grace that God would put a man in the middle of the garden.
And what grace, what grace that God would put us in Christ. What
grace. Adam didn't do nothing to be
put in the garden. We didn't do anything to be put
in Christ. We absolutely had nothing to
do with it. And Adam entered into a garden that was finished. The work was done. The work was
good. And he was put in a garden, a
beautiful, beautiful garden. And we was put in Christ. And
as he was put in there to enjoy what God did in the Garden of
Eden, we was put in Christ to enjoy a finished work, what He
did. Adam went into a garden finished,
we're in Christ because of a finished work. But look what man was made
to do. And the Lord God commanded the
man, put him in the garden and said, dress it, dress it. I don't know what in the world
that means. You know, I've heard people say, you know, laying
by this row and that row and getting weeds and things out,
but it couldn't be no weeds in this garden. This is the Garden
of Eden, curse hadn't come yet. But he said, dress it. This is
what God had him to do before the fall. He found such full
satisfaction and enjoyment. What he was doing, whatever the
dressing of it is, it did not have any work to it, did not
have any trouble to it, did not have any toil to it. It was enjoyable. Dress this garden. And then he
says, look what else he said, and keep it. Keep it. And what
does that word keep mean? Watch over it. Guard it. Keep
it. Watch out. Keep guard. Was this
some kind of a warning of danger that God was telling Adam about
when He first put him in the garden? He said, dress it and
keep it. Enjoy it. Satisfy it. And oh,
no work, no trouble, no toil. And in Christ, we work out our
own salvation with fear and trembling. You know why? Because it's God
which worketh in us, both to will and to do. It's no work
or trouble at all to be in Christ, is it? It's the most enjoyable
thing, being in Christ every once in a while. But yet, at
the same time, we keep watch, we keep on guard. We keep on
guard. We must keep on guard. We watch
out for all the dangers to our souls and to our brethren. And though we live by faith,
we're not idle, we keep watch. You know, when Peter told the
elders his, you know, feed the flock of God, which God hath
made you overseers. And that word overseer means
to be watchful. It means to watch out for them. To guard them. Look at, you know,
it's like a shepherd taking care of his sheep. Watch out for them.
Watch out for them. If we watched out for one another
more, Joyce and I was talking here a few weeks ago, we were
talking about the love of Christ that covers a multitude of sins
and how love covers a multitude of sins. And I told her, I said, yes,
I said, oh my, I said, the love of these people here has covered
a multitude of my sins for years. God, your love for me has covered
my sins, covered a multitude of sins for you. And I hope the
love that I have for you covers your sin. Because we've all,
all done some foolish things in front of one another. But
oh, I tell you, that's why we keep watch out for one another.
If you can't watch out for a brother, and keep guard for a brother,
and not, if you ain't got love that covers, and that's what
he said here, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling,
for God works in you. And he works in us, and we watch
out for one another. You know, if you get sick, If
you get sick, let me ask you this, don't you lose your appetite? Sometimes you get sick and you
lose your appetite. Well, people get spiritually sick and they
lose their spiritual appetite. Just like we have health naturally,
we have spiritual health. And sometimes our spiritual health
gets very bad. We get weak and we don't have
an appetite. And we don't enjoy the gospel
the way we should. There's lots of things that happen
to us. And I tell you something, when a fellow gets spiritually
sick, or I get or you do, here's the first thing you do. You start
going to the Lord. You say, Oh Lord, I'm in such
a state. I'm not getting anything out
of the Gospel. I'm not getting anything out of the Word. And
that's what we're talking about. He says, You keep it. This is,
you know, the Son of Solomon says, We are as a garden enclosed. And the church is as a garden
enclosed. And God's enclosed us in this
garden. And He's enclosed us in Christ. And we, just like a garden, God
tends this garden. He puts a hedge around this garden.
And has lots and lots of different kinds of plants in a garden.
We went the other day and bought flowers. You would not believe
the flowers we bought. But man assists planting a flower
if he ain't going to take care of it. And God planted a garden
and He's going to take care of it. Oh, listen, and so we watch
out for all our dangers to our own souls and our brethren's
though We live by faith. We're not idle and then look
in verse 16 17 now quit Well, I won't I've got a couple other
things to show you I shouldn't say I'll quit But look what he
says He put him in the garden with all the liberty that he
could possibly have all the freedom He could possibly have and yet
he God also gave him a warning And the Lord God commanded the
man, verse 16, saying, of every tree of the garden, eat, eat,
eat, and enjoy it, because it's pleasant for food, pleasant to
the sight, and good for food. Eat of every tree of the garden. You may freely eat, but there's
one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thou shalt
not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die, or in dying, thou shalt die. Now he was put
in there, freely eat. Help yourself. You got a whole
garden. You got everything in it you
could possibly want. But I've got this one tree here.
I want you to understand that you're dependent on me. I put
you here. I created you. And I gave you
all the freedom and liberty you could possibly want. And we have
freedom in Christ. We have great liberty in Christ.
We're not under any kind of law or bondage. But God said, now
listen. Eat freely. But here's one thing. Don't you
eat that. Don't you eat it. Don't eat it.
You got enough here. I gave you everything you could
possibly want. So don't eat on this. Because
the day you eat of it, you're going to find out. Not that I'm
just a creator, but I'm also a just God. And He found out. And oh, beloved, and that's what
God shows us. And that's why we say, shall
we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How can
we who are dead to sin live any longer? Look over here in Isaiah
59 with me. You know, sin will cut off fellowship.
It will cut off fellowship with God. It really will. It really,
really will. And men, you know, you don't
have to go out here and get into some kind of meanness to sin. You know, there's lots of things
that will cut off this fellowship with God. But look what He says,
Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it cannot save.
neither is here heavy that it cannot hear. But your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have
hid His face from you, that He will not listen to what you have
said." He won't listen to you. He won't listen to you. Now,
I want to show you one thing and I'm going to quit. Revelations
22. I will quit at this. We talked about tree of life,
pleasant for the eyes, good for food, a river of water going
out of there, and there's this tree of life. And you know where
that's in the Garden of Eden. Adam didn't have any trouble,
he enjoyed working in that garden. But look right here in Revelations
22, look in verse 1. And he showed me a pure river
of water of life. And listen to this, it's clear
as crystal. Clear as crystal. And word had
come out, it proceeded out of the throne of God and out of
the Lamb. That came out of Eden. This is
it, glory coming out from the throne of God and the Lamb. And
listen to this, and in the midst of the street and on either side
of the river was there the tree of life. And it bear 12 manner of fruits. And she yielded her fruit every
single month. And I tell you, we get to eat
of this all the time when we're there. And the leaves of the
tree for we're the healing of the nations. Oh my, what a blessed,
blessed thing it's gonna be. Oh, you think the garden is eaten
with something. Wait till you get to paradise. There's a river
of water flowing out of there. Boy, look at that. You ever been
in a place where you could look to the bottom and I mean look
a long way and see the bottom? Will you imagine what that river
of life is going to be coming out of the throat of God and
the Lamb? And I'm going to tell you something. We won't even have to drink of
it. We won't dip our feet in it or nothing like that. It's
just there to show that life, life comes from God and Christ. Because He's the one we're going
to worship, not the river, not the tree of life, Him. He's just
showing us how there's such an abundance in Him. If there was
that much in the Garden of Eden, imagine what it's going to be
like in paradise. Huh? Amen. Oh, Blessed Father,
in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for being our
Savior. Thank you for being our Redeemer.
Thank you for revealing yourself to us, revealing us your Word,
making it alive and real and effectual to us, making it vital
to our very souls, vital to our lives. And Lord Jesus, as Steve
read back a while ago, Lord, you save us such as are poor
and needy. And Lord Jesus, that's what we
are. We're poor and needy. And so
Lord, save us, save us and save us and keep saving us. Save us
and take us to be with you someday. Lord, we need saving continually,
constantly. Save us from ourselves. Save
us from our flesh. Save us from our hardness and
weakness and our frailties. Because Lord, if Adam fail even
when he was in the garden. Lord, what would we do apart
from your grace, apart from your hope, apart from your help, apart
from the Holy Ghost preserving us and keeping us? Lord, work
in us both to will and to do of your good pleasure. We ask
these things in Christ's holy name. Amen. Amen.