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This morning we're going to continue our exposition on the book of Genesis. If you have the book of Genesis open up uh it'll be good. So the topic of today is the fall uh the paradise lost. So let me give you some words of introduction through a video.
Can we play Adriel?
I see trees of green, red roses, too. I see them blue from me and you. And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world.
I see. Skies of blue and clouds of white. The bright blessed day, the dark sacred night. And I think to myself,
what a wonderful world.
The colors of the rainbow. So pretty in the sky are also on the faces of people going by. I see friends shaking hands. [Music] That's a picture of our world. It's a wonderful world, isn't it? Or was it supposed to be a wonderful world? And as the pictures depict, something gone wrong. Um, obviously, it was supposed to be a wonderful world. And um, so with this morning, we're going to talk about paradise. What was paradise? How did we lose it? Now, how do you get back? Very simple. Let's start with a word of prayer. Lord, we ask that this morning we live in a wonderful world that's been marred by sin and death and destruction. And we now feel the effects so greatly. In fact, we can even smell it. It chokes our lungs as we walk out of this church. Um, how do we get here? What happened? How do we lose it? And how do we get back? For we pray that the words of Genesis will be drilled into our hearts uh to help us realize where we are and to look to you if we ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. And word when we talk about the word paradise, people have got different ideas. If you ask um what is paradise, some of you like Patrick will think it's a huge place with huge crabs that you eat this every day in clang or you place which endless food or you place a tropical paradise where you could just kick back have your pino colata and just relax. story was told of a uh British French and a Russian who were basically viewing a painting of Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden. And the British guy said, you know, um, look at their reserve, they're calm, you know, they must be British. The French man disagreed. Nonsense. You know, look at them. They're naked and they're beautiful. It must be French, right? Then the Russian guy says, "Look at them. No clothes, no shelter. They only have an apple to eat." And they're being told, "This is paradise. This must be Russia." So we have different ideas of what paradise is, isn't it? People tell you what it is. And uh so let's go back to the word of God. God word will tell you what paradise is. And and let's look at 28. The Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east where he put man whom he had formed. So here he have a place you see called Eden. And the word Eden in Hebrew means delight. It's a wonderful place. It's a place of delight. But what constitutes this delight? Uh we all think it's the food, it's the crab, it's the whatever. But what let's let's look and see what Eden really is. Here we have Eden is the place and there's a garden in the place. The place isn't a garden you know very very clear God planted a garden in Eden so Eden is bigger than the garden and um the river flowed out of Eden not out of the garden a river flowed out of Eden to water the garden and they divided it became four rivers. So in Eden they started one river by the time it goes into the river it becomes four right very very important uh here we have the and the only two that we can identify today is the Tigris and Euphrates the rest we do not know so it must be a beautiful place where there's lots of water you know lot is associated with life and growth and if you look at Eden you have water coming from Eden into the garden where it froze into three uh four tributaries and this is the place where life flows out. Now where is God? God is in Eden. He planted the garden. Man didn't plant the garden. God planted the garden. He and from Eden flows the one river divides into four. And you can see the symbolism here because we look at the where the temple in Ezekiel chapter 47 when Ezekiel has a vision of the temple there's a huge river you know where the river comes out of the river comes out of the holy of holies the holiest part of the temple and it pours out of the temple to water the rest of the world if you look in revelations there's a new Jerusalem new Jerusalem and in New Jerusalem there's also a huge river you You know where the river is under the throne of God comes out the huge river. So all the three symbolism tells you where there is God whether is in the inner holy of holies in from his throne and garden of Eden where he's having his rest comes life and life abundantly where God is. Then you have uh the picture here. So therefore, we look at Selomon's temple. You've got the holy of holies. You've got the holy place and it's as if Eden and then you've got the holy place which is basically where man is which is basically the garden of Eden. Then you look this one that flowed around the land of Havlar where there is gold. The gold of the land was good. Delium and onyx stones are there. Why does the author tell us specifically about the delium and the onyx stone and the gold? Well, we know the entire sanctuary is covered with gold and onyx in its furniture and its cladding all over. So, it's a symbol of God's presence. If you look at the priests who are there, gold threads on his ephod, gold and onyx stone on the breastplate which represents the 12 tribes. And then you've got a golden clasp with onyx stones set on the top. And so therefore this reminds us that there is a place that garden of Eden is like a temple and the people are like the first priests. And the Lord took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord commanded man saying you may surely eat of every tree of the garden but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it. For in the day you eat of it you shall surely die. Now let's look closely. Now you've got God putting him there. Okay. Then immediately there's a commandment. Okay. Notice the sequence. The Lord put the man in the garden of Eden to work it and to keep it separately. The word work which is in Hebrew abad means to cultivate or to serve and keep is to exercise great care or to guard. Basically to jaga. If you put these two words together and you look in the Old Testament you see that only occurring in two kinds of situations. one Israelites serving and keeping God's word when Abbad and Samar are together and priests who keep the service or charge of the temple and guard it and keep and keep uncleanness out. So when God puts Adam and Eve there to basically guard and serve him there, it is them who should worship and obey. They're not just farmers. They're not just cultivators. And you look at the evidence for that by looking at verse six. Immediately when he's asked to to serve and guard the temple, they are actually asked they're commanded. The God commanded the man saying, "You may eat of all every tree the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat, for in that day you will eat of it, you shall surely die." So here they are. The this is the prime directive. The role of man is to worship and obey. And you basically have spiritual development. The tree is actually given for spiritual development. You are allowed to eat the tree of life and every other tree huge forest there. Uh the only thing you cannot eat is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So man sitting in the garden of Eden is spiritually developed because every day he makes a choice. I can eat everything else and this one I cannot eat. So therefore he's choosing to obey. and choosing to obey will give him spiritual development in terms of his growth in his loyalty and his worship of God. If there isn't the tree of good knowledge, how do I know that he really loves me? There is no choice involved. So man is given a choice. So and this is Isaiah that says for thus say is the Lord who created the heavens for his God who formed the earth and made it. He established it. He did not create it empty. He formed it to be inhabited. So the world is supposed to be inhabited, not just the Garden of Eden, the world. And then you've got the edict given to them in Genesis 1:28 that you're supposed to multiply, fill the earth, have dominion over the fish and the birds and every living thing. If you put them together, they're supposed to have dominion, number one. And they're also wor supposed to worship and obey, which mean the first men and women uh inside the Garden of Eden are actually kings, dominion, and they're priests, which means they worship as well. They're not prophets because they're walking with God every day. God speaks to them every day, so you don't need a prophet. But they are actually priests and king in this place called delight. So Eden is delight when you're walking with God, when you're worshiping with God, and you're serving him. That is what paradise is. Paradise isn't a place where you go and the biggest crab's eye, you don't care what God does, and you just eat. Paradise is a sweet spot in human existence where you find delight. You're looking for delight in your life. The only place you can find delight is when you're worshiping and we're serving. Remember that. Uh that's what paradise is. Now what happens? How do we lose paradise? Um the serpent, Mr. Satan, uh the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord had made. And the Lord makes no apology to you. Some people say why God made Satan. Might as well ask why God made you. God made every creature. They have their free will, isn't it? And here you have a serpent which is crafty. Nothing wrong with being crafty, clever, but you can use your cleverness for certain things, good or bad. Uh and then he said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? Three things that happened in this temptation. One is he entertain doubt? The first thing you do is entertain doubt. The word actually in Hebrew it says is doubtless. Sure. Doubtless. It is a play on irony. It's like Malaysia in Malaysian language you say really. Uh it's irony. Irony is like uh when somebody asks how are you? Yeah great. You see your your face and what you say is different than that. Your face says lousy but your mouth say great. How are you? I'm great. I'm wonderful. Couldn't have a better day. Fresh air outside. Okay. So that's called irony. All right. Anybody a lot of us are ironic, isn't it? The way we say things. Okay. Uh so you I is using words contrary to so it's ironic. It's used in order to basically throw the woman you know so that she'll feel like very small immature lose confidence. You know what are you? You know I I remember the trying to share or witness Christ to when I was a young intern, you know, in the Prince of Wales hospital and I was operating one day and my big time register was there training me and he found out I was a Christian, you know, and the first thing he does is basically mock you. He says, "Oh, Christian, God squad going to come attack me and convert me, you know, basically you trying to show that you're stupid. you are uh how come about you actually graduate is it and you're still Christian which which school did you come from or your school so so the sneering is a way you cast doubt and many of times and what you do when you when you actually sneer somebody you're not really saying anything you're just saying that you're an atheist and you're trying to impose your beliefs on somebody else right so what gives you the right so basically what he does try to cast doubt um and he does it in such a way that he says to the woman did god actually said you cannot eat of any tree in the garden. Wow. Any tree. Here's the turning around. You know, can you spot the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Anyone? Huh? How many trees of good and evil are there? One. You go and find it in the middle of a huge garden. Got one. And what Satan wants you to do is focus on the one. Everything else suddenly unimportant. woman said the woman's response. This was a woman's response. Okay, very important. He'll cast doubt. He'll sneer at you. We may eat the fruit of the trees and garden Eden. But God said, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, lest neither shall you touch it, lest you die." Look at it very carefully. There is a woman's response. First thing he says, "We may eat." Wow. You say, "We may eat." When your mother tells you you may eat, what does this look like compared to what God said? God said you're free to eat. The difference between you're free to eat and you may eat. Big difference isn't it? That means something restrictive. Actually, God very stingy one. We may eat can a little bit you know where else God said you are free to eat. You see a bit the way she has already cast it her mind her psychology has already changed. The six second thing is that you the tree in the of the trees fruit of the trees in the garden you shall not eat of the one that is in the midst of the garden of all the tree the one this is the reality in her eyes like that right that's the only one that matters the all the rest doesn't matter anymore suddenly her f focuses focuses on the one thing and then you cannot even touch it did God say anything about touching you can touch [ __ ] you can rub it on your backside. You can do whatever. You can smell it. You can lick it, but you cannot eat it. All right. So now she's adding to it basically. All right. So he's trying to cast God as a stingy God that God create all these for himself only and he doesn't really want us to partake of it. Um there's a website where host conversations on faith and they looked at about 50 testimonies of people who left the faith in 2011. 22 out of 50 left because God had failed to do what they thought he should do for them. Exactly like white Eve the that the that one tree becomes the most important tree. Uh this is a former Baptist missionary. I beg God to show himself to me and put an end to my inner torture. So far it hasn't happened. The only thing I know for sure is I have unanswered questions. You got some question cannot answer. That one I I leave God. That's all it takes. That's history. Uh first time I questioned the faith was when my grandmother shriveled up in front of me was for six months due to cancer. I was 13. My mother and father were getting divorced. Father told me I should have been aborted. I prayed to God nothing fails like prayers. And because some of these prayers were not answered, he leaves God. You might remember in 2012, you feel like many of us feel that God owes us an apology. Uh there's always a triggering event that happens when our faith breaks down. In 2006, there was a an Amish community in the United States. There was a tragic shooting. There's a man uh Charles Spaxter, I think. Um his picture is here. He woke up one morning. He kissed his wife and kids goodbye. Uh and then he went off to a schoolhouse where he took his gun and held the children hostage and he shot 10 out of all the children. Five of the children died immediately. The other five were injured. And uh do you know this man? Do you know why the reason he was a Christian man? And the reason he shot the children was because he had a child. His child was born premature. And that was premature at 26 weeks. And because the child was born premature, the child at 26 years could not survive. And the child died. And that was for him that triggering event that that that tree in the middle. Everything else God gave. Let me show you his family. He's got three children, a beautiful loving wife. All the blessings God could given him in a developed nation. And to him, the most important thing was not the three children of wife. in his job. The most important thing was my child was aborted at 26 weeks and God is a stingy horrible God and he chose that path and to his anger by shooting the nine children. Amazing thing was his wife Marie Monville. She went on television and she was so touched by the love given to her by the Amish people who immediately forgave her. And she um wrote a book called One Light Still Shines. And uh she said that day she stood in her in her living room as she described on on a TV interview and she had two choices. She had one choice. There was a God whom they told her about whom she believed studied God's word. She went to Sunday school. She had been a Christian all her time. And that was a God was described to her. On the other hand, there was a God that allowed the husband to go and shoot 10 children so that she felt the most ashamed woman in the face of the earth. Is this the same kind of God? She had a choice. He had a choice. But this woman made the opposite choice to her husband. She chose to lay this at the feet of Jesus and say, "Look, I I don't understand. I don't understand, but I'm not going to doubt. I'm going to put that you are God and you have a bigger purpose for me. She laid it down because there's so much that God has done in her life. You see, what Satan does is he takes the small events, the triggering events in your life. If you lost a spouse, if you have an illness, if you lost your job, if that person wronged you, and that becomes the most important thing. You see out of all the trees in the garden you have but suddenly the trees fade from your memory you only got one tree one job God didn't give me one girlfriend it didn't work out then God is stingy and once you allow the doubt to come in to to to destroy your trust then you now go to next step which called believe the lie the serpent said to the woman you will not surely not die for God knows When you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God knowing good and evil. And here is Satan telling a lie. But when you tell the best lies in the world have a bit of truth, isn't it right? Yeah. So therefore you look what is the knowledge of what is right and wrong. You see a doctor knows the disease. You know what is healthy and what is disease, right? The patient also knows what is healthy, what is disease. But he knows it by experience. The other word knows it by studying and looking at you. All right? Same as God. God knows about good and evil by resisting evil. You know about good and evil by giving in to evil. So the devil is correct. The moment you take the fruit, you know what is good and evil. Why? Because you ate it. It's correct. Okay? But you know it in a different way. You know it by giving into it. Other people know by resisting it. That's the difference. and and then the knowledge of good and evil is found twice in the book of Genesis and it tells you what it really means. God came to Laban in Aramean in the night dream of the night and said to him be careful that you do not speak to Jacob either good or bad which is knowledge of good and evil. Then Laban replied the matter comes from the Lord so we cannot speak to you good or bad good or evil. So basically knowledge of good and evil is something that only God can decide. You see what I mean? So the right to decide what is good and evil is the knowledge of good and evil and basically giving you the tree and the fruit is basically uh giving you the the the is taking it to is the usurping the right to decide what is right and wrong. Eric Ericson u is a famous one of the 10 most quoted psychologists in the world. He has a theory on psychosocial development. If you're a pediatrician you probably learn about him. Um uh and he teaches on the development of children of babies. It says for a child, not necessarily so fat, the most important thing for this child is not to be dropped, not to be left alone, not to be abandoned. If you can have a childhood where you are dropped accidentally, whoops, when you're bathing you or you are abandoned or you're home alone or something happened, if you have that, then you will grow up. You won't grow up properly. when you grow up you'll be neurotic you'll be anxious you'll be obsessive compulsive all the problems you have go back to childhood when your mother dropped you when you you know that's his theory basically so the issue here is trust trust is very very important and the issue for us for many of us we can believe God exists no problem we can believe God power sure no problem we can believe God has a law follow right follow wrong but the problem we cannot did do his trust. That is the issue. The main issue we can come and we listen to sermon. Yeah, we agree. It's fantastic. You go home, but you want to put your hand and trust God. Cannot, right? Maybe some of us have childhoods which have mother droppers. U this is a nice uh move uh uh series when I was growing up. It's called the odd couple. Uh the odd couple have two guys, Felix and some of us any remember the show? Felix is the type fella and this guy is Joe or something. And what happens? Felix is obsessive, compulsive. He's immaculately dressed. He follows the rules. He's wears his tie. He's very, very neat. He lives in the same room as this guy who smells, who eats whatever he wants, who plays is is always in sweatshirts. And there are two of them. And the two of them actually represent the kind of people we have in church. There's one which is Felix, the obsessive compulsive fellow who's a legalist. And the problem with him is that he can't trust God's goodness. And so that what what he does is that basically he lives good lives. He's a legalist. He follows all the laws in order why to compel God to bless him because I've done my homework. I've done my prayers. I done my confession. God must bless me because underlying it, I can't trust God. On the other hand, this fellow doesn't trust God at all because God gives you these laws so that make you miserable, right? So you can't trust God. So therefore, you break all his laws in order to be free of God. So we believe the lie that God doesn't want the best for us. So the third thing is that you follow your heart. All the movies tell you to follow your heart, right? And here we have the woman saw the tree was good for food, delight to the eyes, and desired to make one wise. Fantastic, isn't it? All right. So, what does the tree, the fruit look like? For years, this is a great theological issue. Everybody been writing about it for many, many years. What kind of fruit is this? Anybody know? In Malaysia, we got one fruit that possibly can be. You know why? What fruit is this? Dragon. Dragon come from where? So, it could be a dragon fruit. I really think he's a durian because he's the king. He's the king of all fruits. And if you look at the durian, um, you know, you think about it, why did God give them a fruit to eat? Why can't God give them a Here you are in Eden. Here you can walk and talk and play. Cannot pee here. Cannot bear out there. And you cannot beat your wife. Right? He could have given them laws, right? So this is bad. You pee here, good. You pee there, bad. So breaking the law is bad. Instead, he gave them something good. Who created this uh tree of uh good and evil? God, does it look smelly, ugly, horrible, eat, poison, die? No. It is a good thing. The problem here if God said to you don't pee here here is bad then you equate yourself to obeying law means being good. No God gives you something good. All right. So when good things become your God things that is when you break the law as it were. So when so nothing wrong with good things, nothing wrong with the durian, right? But if good things become your security, your significance, then you're in bondage and then that's sin. A lot of good things in life. We talk about race. Nothing wrong with race. You know, everybody shouting the the China, all this sort of business in Nothing wrong with being Chinese, but it's you should be proud of your race. So how many of you are not proud of your race? put your hands up. You you should be proud. If you're Indian, you should be proud of your race. If you're Malay, you should be proud of your race. But it's a good thing. Race comes with culture uh and background and heritage, you should be proud of it. But when it becomes a ultimate thing, an idolatry where you use it in order to discriminate against other people that it becomes then evil thing. Isn't that when your good things become your ultimate things? How many of you work hard? Put your hands up in your job. One only. The rest all bludging away. Yeah. Anything wrong with working hard? Nothing wrong with working hard. Only five of you here work hard. The rest of you work hard but you won't admit it. All right. But if it's working hard create uh becomes your ultimate thing so that you have this destructive materialism where whatever you work whatever you gain is never enough then it will destroy your life. Isn't it? How many of you husbands here love your wife? Put your hands up. H the rest of you don't. Sorry for you. You go home now. But if loving your wife is a wonderful thing. But if loving your wife becomes something that only validates you that if my wife loves me back and says hello honey today then oh I feel good and my and life goes on. If my wife doesn't appreciate me my life is finished then what you have done you take something good which is the love for your wife and made her the ultimate thing where God should be the ultimate thing. You see what I mean? So sin is taking the good things in life to become your god things in life. And there's nothing that devastates and poisons our life. You know everything that poisons your life isn't bad things. When was the last time you robbed the bank? Can't remember Rama being a pastor. How many the donation in your account?
uh I don't know whether we have Arabs here but uh uh good things be when good things become your ultimate things everything that poisons your life is actually good things you give him you know sugar is great isn't it how many love sugar I love sugar too much of sugar diabetes isn't it it is the problem is when good things become your god things in life look at the the Pharisees you know when Jesus came on earth he only had trouble tax collector and Pharisee Right? He got no trouble a tax collector. You know why they always break the law? They know they break the law and they and they know they're sinners. The problem he had was Pharisees. You know why Pharisees don't break the law? The law is a good thing. When the good thing become the ultimate thing, it becomes their God. Then they have lost their way. Now people blame God. But this is what James say. When I'm tempted, I am uh uh uh no one can say when he's tempted, I'm tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil for he himself tempts no one. Everyone is tempted. He is leed and enticed by his own desires. All right? So when you are actually tempted, you see you see who created this the the the devil, the creature, God. Is it God's fault he made Satan? It's not God's fault. You are tempted and you believe the lie and you're enticed by your own desire. Write down every trial is a temptation because every trial triggers a desire inside you. You say you can't say like Flip Wilson the the comedian used to say the devil made me do it. Cannot the devil cannot make you do it. The devil can suggest to you but it is you who would led aside by your own desire. So losing paradise starts with doubting God, believing the lie and following your heart. So every time you come to this, you need to be very very careful. Okay? And here we have the results. Then the both eyes were open. They knew they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together. They made themselves lying cloth. They heard the sound of the Lord walking to cool the garden the day. And the man wife hid themselves in the presence of the Lord and amongst the trees of the garden. Hello. Suddenly when they took the fruit, something happened. They were naked. The And you compare this to 25. The man and his wife were naked and were not ashamed. Within five lines, you know, one chapter, suddenly then they realized they're naked. Something happened. All right. And what is guilt? Guilt is I did something bad. Shame is I am bad. And the definition of shame is the sense of unease with yourself at the heart of your being. At the heart of your being, if you look yourself really honestly, we have a sense of unease that we're just simply not good enough. Uh Mark Twain actually said uh man is the only animal that blushes and the only animal that needs to. All right. The only animal that actually tries to be God on their own. And uh so what happens is that they sow fig leaves. Fig leaves are basically metaphorical for man-made righteousness. So we all are doing two things. We're trying to put more fig leaves, bigger fig leaves, and tearing other people's fig leaves around. Right? That that's what we do. So why do what are our fig leaves in our lives? We work harder so we have bigger career. Bigger career cover there better more money cover there better more handsome cover there better isn't that so whatever we do there is a motive behind because we each feel inadequate. Whatever money you earn is always inadequate. Your house not big enough got to get bigger and bigger and bigger. Why? Because you have a sense of inadequacy. Have you met people who are never satisfied? They go in the room whatever you do they find something wrong. Why? Because they reflects an inner unease. We have to cover ourselves. All right? Or either we cover ourselves or or or we basically um uh um tear other people's fig leaves down. How many of you ever been to Nudish beach? You probably won't admit to me if you had. When you go to nudis beach, I won't tell you whether I went before one number one rule. What is the number one rule when you go to nudis beach? Huh? You can wear your swimmers. No, you can't. Everybody talang you also talang right? You why? Because if you are wearing your your your your underwear or your bathing suit and you go on a everybody got no fig leaf, right? You got fake leaf, right? So who is superior? You. So when you remind you next time you go to Kuji beach and there's a a dudes beach there you go you remember number one rule take off your everything all right so this issue is very important is that it tells you that we're hiding we're hiding something and the only way we can be equal other people we all take off everything together you mean so we either tear down other people's fig leaves and and that's why some of us will criticize each other you know fellow always eating from the globe cafe never put money there you know find something freeloader something you know I get all these complaints uh a and so the other people's fig leaf not so good so if they are more naked you are less naked right but we are all naked that is the problem uh how do we get back let me end the sermon with a third point how do we actually get back to the starting point uh the man called his wife Eve because she was the mother of all living and a god Lord God made for Adam and his wife garments of skin and clothe them. And the Lord God said, "Behold, the man has become what like one of us, knowing good and evil, now lest he reach out of his hand and take of the uh uh tree of life and eat and live forever." Therefore God sent him out from the garden even to work the ground from which he was taken. And he drove out the man to the east of the garden and he placed cherubam and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. So here they are naked. God b them. Clothes from skins are very important. God didn't order from Levi's. Okay. God killed a couple of animals and he clothed them and they cast them out. Uh lest he reach out his hand and take of the tree of life and eat and forever and stay in this horrible situation he's in. So he's always reaching out because he wants to go back. A garden of Eden is the garden of delight. Of course they kick you out, you want to go back. It's always reaching out. And you look in popular culture dark recesses of our memory. Oh, what is this? That there is a memory of where we once were. It it's hardwired into our DNA. He wants to go back to a place where it's beyond the rainbow, where all the dreams will come true, where all the things are supposed to work, where people are supposed to love each other, where the lion will lie down with the lamb. There is a memory, you know, inside each of our hearts, there is a memory. And when and we try to recreate it, we we try to build Eden in London, okay? Uh uh but a place without God, we we try to build cities. We we look as far even as far as uh the space station or in Mars. Why? Because we're looking for that place beyond the rain. But we're going back to paradise. We need to get back to paradise. A place and time where it was good. Even in the current controversy in our our country, all the old people will get down and say, you know, in 1960 it wasn't like this. We all sit together, all the three races. We're always looking back when it was used to be better. Um but there's nowhere. Look, he drove the man out and the east of the garden of Eden. He placed the cherubim with a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life. The flaming sword means what? Judgment. There's no way back. You doubt God, believe the lie, follow your heart, you fall into sin, you be your own God, you leave Eden. You know what Eden is? Delight. How do you get the delight? You worship and you obey. The moment you don't worship and you don't obey, you don't worship. And so therefore, you leave and the air is a cherubam that tells us a flaming sword of judgment. And then you've got animals. Animals tell you what animal skins. You think the the the tiger say, "Hey brother, you have my coat. I don't need it. This is my summer coat. I give you my summer coat." No, he slaughtered the animal, right? God slaughtered the animals and took their sacrifice, the animal sacrifice and you gave it to men to cover their nakedness which was the very thing that was revealed that inadequacy because of what they had done in terms of uh disobedience towards God. Thousands of years later on we have another tree of life. This tree of life is made of wood. And there's a nice beautiful uh poem written by George Herbert. It says, "All ye who pass by, behold and see man stole the fruit, but I must climb the tree, the tree of life for all but me." There's another tree thousands of years later on. And through this tree, we go back to Eden. The only way we go back because this new tree is the tree of his love. Eden lies at the foot of the cross where we go back to the cross to the new tree of life. And there you learn to do what Eden is supposed to do to bring delight to worship and obey. We go back through the cross to worship and delay and then you will have Eden in our lives. Let me end with a story of two Peters. One is taken from Luke chapter 5, one is taken from John chapter 1 21. In Luke chapter 5, both stories tell of Peter and a bunch of sailors uh in the lake of Guanessaret, Lake uh uh Galilee, Sea of Galilee. Uh there have been both stories tell you that they've been fishing through the night and cannot get any fish. Both story tells you Jesus comes by and Jesus is not a fisherman. It tells you you throw your net onto the right side. Both times they threw the net on the right side. Both times a huge bunch of fish came out and both times there's a different response to the same guy Peter. In Luke chapter 5, when they reached down after a hard night of fruitless fishing and they they great have this great big harvest, Peter realized something and he fell and he ran from Jesus and he fell on the floor and was totally ashamed. Depart from me. You know what he said? I am a sinful man. He felt shame and the shame drove him away from God because he realized that this is God and this is somebody holy. This is somebody perfect of which he felt totally absolutely naked. In John chapter 21, exactly the same lake, exactly the same person, exactly the same scenario. You got the fish. You know what Peter did? He jumped into the water and he swam faster than Michael Phelps. towards Jesus Christ. He ran and one he goes away, the other one he runs towards. And that is a and and you know what? If Peter was ashamed, you know, in John 21, he's got more reason to be ashamed. You know why? He denied Jesus three times. And yet he is able to run. And the difference is the cross. When you have the cross of Christ, you have two things in your life, my friends, this morning. This morning, you can say, I will try to not doubt God. I will try not to believe the lie. I will try not to follow my desires and maybe I will be good enough so that God will take me in. And if that's your strategy for today to reverse the to get back to the Garden of Eden, you will never do that. you the shame because you will never be good enough. The shame will drive you away. You will say, "Depart from me. I'm a sinful man." Because no matter how well you follow God's law, you will never make it. On the other hand, why Peter can run towards the cross, Jesus Christ? Because the cross. Because he knew the deep shame is covered by the sacrifice on the cross. And the deep shame drives him to the foot of the cross where he gets forgiveness. He gets justification and he gets Eden, a return to paradise. And that is what God brings for us this morning. What will our response be this morning? Will we turn away by our guilt and shame? Or will we take our guilt and shame and bring it to the foot of the cross and have Jesus embrace us? Let's pray. Father Lord, we just thank you for your word deep in our hearts.
I think we share the song with authority that we look forward to a land beyond the rainbow. Our hearts resonate with that song. Our hearts ache with a memory of a time that once was. But Lord, you provided your son Jesus Christ for us. And we pray that we feel this morning we're inadequate. All we have to do is to rush towards the cross, swim towards the cross and lay our burdens, lay our sins, lay our embarrassment, lay our shame before the foot of the cross. Father, we pray that we stop our work. We stop working for our own righteousness. that we stop striving to get bigger fig leaves and we stop trying to tear down other people's fig leaves and instead Lord rely on the biggest fig leaf provided for us in the shape of the cross we ask this for Jesus sake amen
