Sin entered the world through Satan's temptation of Eve, leading to humanity's fall from grace. It details how Eve engaged in conversation with the serpent, added to God's word, and ultimately ate the forbidden fruit, which she then gave to Adam. This act of disobedience resulted in immediate spiritual death, broken fellowship with God, and the introduction of guilt and shame, symbolized by their use of fig leaves to cover themselves. The sermon contrasts the forbidden tree with the tree of life and emphasizes that while sin brought death and separation, God provided a way of salvation through Jesus Christ, who bore the curse on the cross, offering life and redemption to all who believe.
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who can get outside of life. Shall we turn then to our Bibles in Genesis two and verse nine. And out to the ground may 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. Verse two. One of chapter three. Now the serpent was more supple than all beasts of the field that the Lord had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, He shall not eat of every tree of the garden.
And the woman said, On to the serpent, He may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree. which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall he touch it, lest he die. The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil. And then the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that It was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree to be desired to make one wise.
She took of the fruit thereof, and it ate, and gave also unto her husband, with her aunt Edith. The eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sowed fig leaves together, and made themselves equal. This will be the second last message on the work days of God. Next Sunday will be the eleventh, and the last will be taking up some important things relative to the temptation. This morning we'll be speaking a lot on trees and leaves. Of course they go together. Here we have the entrance of sin.
Who brought it? Satan brought it. He is behind every temptation. And here, of course, he tempted Eve. And he's behind every temptation. Remember, he even tempted the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter four when he said to the Lord Jesus, command that these stones be made bread. The Lord said, It is written, Thou shalt not live by bread alone. for every word that precedes that of the mouth of the Lord. That's one thing Eve had, that she should have used the word of the Lord.
Christ used it three times over, he said, the intent of the devil. It is written, it is written, it is written, and that's the sword you can make good use of when you are tempted by the devil. And the devil also said, when he took the world up from the pinnacle of the temple, Now cast yourself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, lest thou dash thy foot against thy scum. And the Lord said, It is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Then the devil had taken them up to high mountains, who of all the kings of the world, in a moment of time, and he said, All these will I give thee. if thou fall down and worship me.
Christ says it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and think only shalt thou serve. And that's our offense and that's our defense as Christians, the word of the living God. Same as when you're asked to do something. Rather that's temptation. You're tempted when you're asked to do something. you sin and you do it. You can't keep Satan from knocking at your door, but you can help opening the door and letting him in. And oftentimes Christians are tempted.
Something is suggested to them. That's not sin to be tempted. But it is sin. If you do it, well, you know it's wrong. A man may come up to me and say, I'd like to pull off a bank here. That bank down the corner looks easy. How about joining me, rob that bank? If I hesitate, the longer I hesitate, he thinks I'm thinking in favor of it. If I say no, I'll have no partner to go on my way. Now, I don't worry about robbing that bank.
Why did I want to rob that back? I didn't. It was suggested to me. But I objected immediately. We're wrong. The devil makes suggestions to you and to me. If we hesitate, we're on dangerous ground. We're taking it over. If we say yes, we've sinned. If we say no, we've got the victim. And so the devil is always trying to tempt people, tempt them, tempt them. When he does, may you say, it is that I'm going by the word of God, I want nothing of it.
No, that's your victory. Somebody with Eve on this occasion was, and she made a mistake, and even this finger, he got her ear. And he wanted to get into her heart. And he made a suggestion. Relative to the tree. Why? Who says. What God said. Asa nitha. What should she have done? God has said. There was no question about that. The first thing he should have done was to have brought to Adam. Called him immediately.
and let Adam talk to the devil. But no, she got into a conversation with the devil. She began to listen, and that's exactly what the devil wanted her to do. And that's what the devil wants you to do. Listen. He wants to get your ear, make some suggestions. And the first thing she did was enter into a debate with the devil. That was her mistake when she even listened to it. And her mistake was she took on the devil herself instead of calling to Adam.
That's what God would have had her do. Is there any wonder that she sinned? God said, in the day thou eatest of all, thou shalt surely die. He didn't say maybe. And the devil qualified to get Eve gone in there. And she made a mistake. She says, God says, we can eat of the tree of the light, and neither shall we touch it. God didn't say any such thing. He didn't say you should touch it. You couldn't touch it. He added. She added to the word of God.
The devil says, or lest he die, God says you will die. And here you find how the devil was tripping up Eve. You say more about that next Sunday, Lord God. How subtle he was. And here he was misquoting the Bible and adding to the Bible, so was Eve. And there's where we're on dangerous ground. Philanus, instead of quoting the word of God exactly, The first thing is if the devil tries to get your ear, put your fingers in your ear, turn away. If you know a scripture quoted, that's your best offensive connection with the devil.
And so you have sin entered here. She took, she gave, she sinned, and she fled into the garden. along with Adam that she gave to him, and they made big names. Sin is the transgression of the law. Both of them transgressed. He transgressed against the spoken word of God. And that's where she got into trouble. What was the effect of that sin, the end of sin? Did. Why did they flee? God had the custom of coming down on the eve of the day, evening, and talking to Adam and Eve, but not this time.
And when they sinned, they fled into the garden. They were guilty. It's time when they took me, April, to cover them up. Yes, no person or no place is the same after they sinned. That's true. The place was never the same. Eden's God. Adam and Eve were never the same. They were happy up until they sinned. No one likes to meet a person that they wronged, or a person maybe they owe money to and can't pay.
They don't like meeting those kind of people. There's a sense of guilt. that was true that Adam and Eve did. That's the first time the human race ever knew did and shame because they have sinned against God. I don't think Eve wanted to taste that fruit just because of its flavor. I really believe behind it all. It was because that was forbidden. God says you can have all the other trees. But that one, don't you take. Don't you eat it.
What's wrong with that tree? Well, Eve got curious. Why doesn't God want us to take that tree? You know, curiosity is something. And here is Eve. And she's thinking, why am I denied? Why has God withheld from us that tree? Yes, something forbidden is the very thing that somebody wants. You tell your child not to do something when you're a back-stirring little group. That's the curiosity in a child.
One time there was a farmer, he and his wife were Christians, and they had a hired man there, wasn't a Christian, and he got into a discussion quite often about the Bible. And the subject of Adam and Eve came up. And of course, he didn't go along with the fact that what they did was right. And the father brought out the fact, well, man can't stand temptation. He said, I can't stand being prohibited in something, hindered from doing something. Oh, he said, I can't. I can't. A little way the farmer's left were going to leave the town, and they said to the high man, I want you to clean the place up and clean off the table and dish it.
They'll come in a place. But that dish in the middle of the table turned over. Don't touch that. Don't touch that. On the left. Well, then they'd gone. The man took off every other dish. And he swiped around that one. Why don't they want me to touch that? He got curious. Why don't they want me to touch that? What could be wrong? And so his curiosity got the best one, and he lifted up out there and a little mouse. Right away. He tried to get the mouse, but he didn't, because the cat took care of that.
He tried his best to get a mouse. He couldn't find one. When the farmer came home, first thing he did, well, oh, so he couldn't resist temptation. That's the human nature. You forbid somebody from doing something they were to do. And that's exactly what happened in the garden. God forbid them, eating of that tree. And they couldn't keep from disobeying. God. A cloud came over Adam and Eve. Their fellowship with God was broken.
No longer did they walk with God than the cool of the day. And they were in disgrace. That's how bad sin is. God says in the day, though we just thought there are those shall surely die. When Adam and Eve sinned, They died immediately, spirits of them. In other words, their fellowship with God was broken. And they were going to die physically, eventually. They didn't die right away physically. They did spirits of it. But not physically, because they lived two, three hundred years, and they got funds of dollars.
You can cut a big limb off at three, and it will stay green for quite a while. But then it'll eventually triumph and the leaves fall off. The moment Adam and Eve sinned, they sinned spiritually against God. Fellowship was broken. But they didn't die immediately, physically. They lived quite a long time. But they eventually died. And another death... That is eternal death. That's a possibility. You'll die immediately.
Sitting against God with no fellowship. You'll die eventually because sin is working in your body to bring forth fruit unto death. You may live as long as Methuselah, nine hundred and sixty-nine years, but he died. And if you don't accept Christ, death eternal is a possibility. a lake of fire which burneth with fire and himself. The devil didn't tell these to go and sin. No, he didn't. But he insinuated in the most cleverest way that there is nothing wrong with going and taking that fruit and eating it.
The devil plays down the seriousness of disobeying God. Oh, you won't have anything to worry about. You won't die. God is withholding something from it. Don't give. He tries to imply that you're nothing to worry about by sinning and getting caught. How the devil tells us that today, it's nothing wrong to worry about. It's not that serious. It's that serious that if you can lose going to heaven, I'll be sure I'll go to heaven, unless you get your sins forgiven. You know, when you think of it here, when Adam was faced with what had happened, she not only blamed Eve, she said, she gave it to her.
He blamed God. She said, the woman now gave us me. She gave it. God says, Adam, you can't blame Eve for that. It's your responsibility. As in Adam, all died. All died. In Christ, all shall be made alive. And so here you have sin, its entrance. Then you have its effect, sinning against God on a fellowship with God and death working in your members. And now here you have sin's exit. Because God was able to make a provision for Adam and Eve.
when he made them coats of animal skin, blood had to be shed. And so we find how God has made a provision for man in the person of his Son. You know, God tells us that the seed, the provision for our sin, is going to come through the woman feed. He says the seed of the woman, even though she sinned, The seed of the women shall brew for serpents' head. And that was true. You have not plainly taught in your Bible. A woman shall conceive and bear the son. And thou shalt call his name Emmanuel.
Matthew one fourteen, and she shall bring forth the son. Thou shalt call his name Emmanuel. He shall save his people from their sin. Galatians four four says, When the purpose of time has come, God sent forth a son made of a woman made under the law, for they did with them that went under the law, that they might see the adoption of sons through the woman. Through the woman sin came into the world, and through the woman's seed, Jesus Christ sinned, for they taking care of all so Satan. He says in John, first John, three eight, the Son of God was manifested to do what?
to destroy the works of the devil. And so, all because of sin coming in, how man has suffered down the centuries, all the grief, the sorrow, the suffering, the death, all because of sin, that tree had more terrible fruit. And yet God in this group, Keep the driven Adam and Eve out and let them die, which they would have done. That would have been the end of the human race. But God in grace said no. He manifested his government dealings and he drove them out of the car.
But he manifested his grace in providing a savior through the world. Jesus Christ came into the world. how wonderful God's salvation is. Now they lessen in the leaves. They laid big leaves. Why? They cover up what they've done. Of course, that didn't do them any good. You know, there's a verse in the New Testament that talks about leaves only. Described from Pharisees, the Lord Jesus, was constantly debating with them. They were so religious, showed self-righteous.
And one day the Lord and the disciples were coming along, and he saw a big tree, all the beautiful porlies, the leaves. Then it was so wonderful. He remembered, and he lifted the leaves, and there was no fruit. He crushed it, and it died. He looked for food. There are people today that are extremely religious. The scribes and Pharisees were. Outwardly, yes, they appear beautiful unto man. The exterior, the foliage, wonderful, it's green. My, they are clean, honest folk, very religious.
That was true, the scribes and Pharisees. But the Lord Jesus looks beyond the exterior. He looks at the heart. No proof. and he crushed it and they'd trade with it up. There are people today, they've got leaves open. An outward religion, something on the surface. They remember the church. They may be standing in the pulpit. They don't drink, they don't swear, they don't smoke, they don't steal. All the leaves are lava. They look good, but underneath there's no proof of the Holy Spirit.
Christ says, I'll curse you. Your good works will take you to heaven. God sees in your religious life leaves only, no fruit, and the curse will be yours. Leave only. Then you'll find another instance about the word only. you find Jesus only. And that's remarkable over in Matthew. And when they had lifted up their eyes, they saw no man say, Jesus only. If all you've got is leaves only, you need Jesus only. Christ and Christ alone will save you, put away all your sins and give you a new life, his own life.
Then you come to another and believe only. Leaves only, Jesus only, and believe only. It tells you that in Luke eight, fifty. And but when Jesus heard it, he answered him, saying, Fear not, believe only, and she shall be made holy. He's talking to Jairus, and Jairus will go to twelve at thine. He says, Believe only. And that's all you've got to do. Not work only, not join the church. Believe only. Believe in what Christ has done on the cross.
He shed his blood to put away your sins. And only as you believe, it was through disbelief that still entered into the world. Adam, he is through bleeding. You get your soul saved and your sins put away. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. How wonderful these things are. Then he said, the word owner. You find that over in Matthew eight and eight. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my root, but speak the word owner of thy servant for the day forward.
four wonderful things, leaves only an outward profession. Jesus only, God's wonderful possession, a priceless possession, and it can be lost. Then you tell to the next one, leave him. He is God's way of salvation, a joyful confession. For you had the word of He is a divine authority, God's marvelous revelation. Those poor oneness, these only, are you in that class?
Or have you come to see and know Jesus only? Through what? Through any alone? Through any thought, the word only. Just his word. We're born again by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever. Not the word of men. The word. of the living God. Talking about trees, it's very, very interesting. But of course trees were very important in the book of Revelation. And I was noticing the other night I got my concordant job. The tree of life is found three times in Genesis and three times in the book of Revelation. And almost each case it's in the midst.
And the tree of life speaks about Jesus Christ of what he did. on the cross. And there was no withered leaves on the tree of light. And so a lot has to do with the trees. Now, when you think of Adam and Eve, you have them disobeying God. And what happened to them, fallen sinners, because of what they did? concerning that tree. They disobeyed God. They took the fruit. They ate it. There you have the tree. And also Adam and Eve were hiding behind the trees of the garden.
Yes. Many of them today are hiding behind certain things, hoping they can get to heaven, hoping God doesn't see them. They're hiding behind the trees. Hide behind good work. hiding behind the pig knees and hiding behind the trees. They had Adam hiding behind the tree, a fallen sinner. Zacchaeus, he was up a tree. Are they led the sinner? Now silver in, I think it's Luke, E. G. Nightly, but Zacchaeus up a tree. He had to be brought down. And then God will have to bring you down.
You're up the tree. finding yourself in your exalted position, God says you're going to have to come down. No use being up the tree of pride, conceit, self-righteousness. And so Zacchaeus was up a tree, man's religion. Nathaniel, he was under a tree. And there he was under the tree. And the Lord Jesus says, Nathaniel, when thou was under the tree, I saw thee. Nathaniel was under the tree. Here he is a convicted sinner. But then I find Christ on the tree.
What you do? Dying for sinners. If you have the one Adam behind the tree, Adam and Eve, And Zacchaeus, he was up the tree. Nathaniel was under the tree. Christ was on the tree. Here is salvation for whosoever is. How wonderful to have Christ and fall through that one who was on the tree. And you have from the tree to the glory. A dying thief. He said to the Lord Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
The Lord said, Today shalt thou be with thee in paradise from the tree to the glory. How wonderful God's salvation is. Here you have a saved sinner. We've noticed the other foreign sinner and Adam and Eve, a religious sinner, in Zacchaeus and a convicted sinner. In Nathaniel, a saved sinner on a tree, what he was. And he got his salvation from the land who was on the other tree in the middle. There are a lot in your Bible about trees.
For instance, you read this in verse two, verse twenty-four, who his own self bear thou the sins and his own body on the tree. that we, being dead to sin, should live unto God, unto righteousness, by whose stripes you hear. And in Acts ten, thirty-nine forty, and we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on a tree. And again in Galatians three thirteen, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us from it is of question is everyone that hangeth on a tree. The tree is a wonderful thing.
It's on that tree called Calvary, the middle cross, for they had to cut down a tree to that feet with these to hang on and one for Jesus Christ. And it's through the man that hung on that tree that you can be saved and saved forever. remarkable thing about Adam. After what happened, he had hope. In verse twenty, he called her name Eve, for she's the mother of all living. That's an amazing thing. Adam had hope that after all that had happened, there was still hope, and it was through Eve.
And that was true. She's the mother of all of it. But Adam couldn't execute that. It was God and God only through this Son, Jesus Christ, coming into the world through the measure, and going to the cross and suffering on Teldra's cross. That's the only hope of man's salvation. And Adam's hope in Eve was fulfilled to the ones she bore, that is, through her seed. That's the hope of that. And you think of these trees, they're very interesting. Two trees, and they can be contrasted or compared.
The first tree was planted by God. It certainly was. The second tree was planted by man. God planted those guys, those trees, tree of the noise of good and evil, and the tree of light. But man planted the next one, and that was the world for which Jesus Christ died. So God planted the first tree, and man planted the second. The first tree was present to the eyes. It says that, beautiful, delightful. The second tree that planted by man was hideous, repellent, butchery, murder.
That's what that cross spoke of. That's what that tree bore, the mutilated man, the body of the Son of God, beaten, hurried, bleeding, shaken apart. That's not pleasant to the eye. And so the tree, the first tree was pleasant to the eye. So the eye, the second one was not. Then again you have God, you forbid man, to eat the tree, the fruit of the first tree. But he invites men and women to come and partake of the fruit of the second tree, Jesus Christ.
He says, poor everyone that thirsteth come. He invites men and women today to come and receive Christ. All things already come. God is inviting you to come to Christ. He's inviting you to accept His Son as your personal Savior. Satan tried every trick to get man to partake of the first tree to disobey God. And He's using every certain device to keep you from partaking of the second tree. The cross. He doesn't want you to accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. When you think of eating of the first tree, that brought sin, death.
We call it disobedience. Eating of the second tree brings life and salvation through Jesus Christ. Eating of the first tree, man was turned out to paradise. Receiving the fruit of the second tree, you enter into paradise. what man lost through Adam and Eve, you can gain what they lost because of what they did to that tree. You can regain through Jesus Christ the bleeding what he did to you upon the tree. He bore the curse of God on Calvary's cross.
You know, there were two people related to the first tree, Adam and Eve. There were two related to the next one, Calvary, two thieves, one on the right hand and one on the left. One of those thieves repented and entered into life and paradise that very day. The other thieves didn't and went to hell. The difference was in their choice. They had to make a decision relative to that man on the middle cross. The one saw what he had done was wrong.
He confessed it. He appealed to Jesus Christ, the Savior. And Christ didn't say, no, you ruled peace. You've saved all your life, you've cussed this war, you've murdered. You want me to save you now at the end of your life. You've got no life to live for through me. Jesus Christ didn't do that. He would serve a person when they've only got an hour or two left. That's grace. That thief couldn't work the same stuff. He couldn't get baptized or join the church if they're in the cross. That thief could only do one thing.
That is believe. And it was followed by confession. We indeed justly. We are receiving the duty awards of our faith. This man hath done nothing amiss. That faith was saved on grace alone, through the work of Christ alone. Not his own works. No church involved, no ordinance. Christ alone. Christ said today, shall thou be with me in power. younger people. He listened to all that.
He saw his buddy in crime get saved. He repent. He didn't. He went to hell. You're listening to the same message that will save precious souls and many have been saved. And it's a sad thing to listen to this message when you've heard the same message that others heard and got saved. They accepted Christ, and you hear it, and you go to hell, because you wouldn't believe. Here's God's salvation. What a story in trees and leaves that all boiled down to a decision.
The decision that Eve made was a battle. The decision that Eve made won was a good one. What is your decision this morning? Will you accept the Lord Jesus? Will you believe on him right now? You know you've sinned. You'd hate for anybody to know what you've done. God knows. And every sin you've ever committed, God will wipe away through the precious, eternal blood of Jesus Christ, and he'll save you now. This morning, He said to the thief, I'll think about it no.
He said to them, The very role of that thief said to him, Lord, bend the way when thou thine, and thou tell us in thy kingdom, that thou follow without a comma. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. That's how quick God will save you this morning. If you look to that man on the middle cross, bearing sins not his own, but yours. If you have no debts, pay our debts, buy as precious blood, when you receive, when you accept them as your Savior, say, will you do it now? That's the whole thing.
Millions of people died and went to hell over these thousands of years who were almost forsaken. Now to believe, all the most persuaded, Christ to receive. Seems now some so to say, Go, Spirit, go thy way, some more convenient day, on thee I'll call. This is the most convenient moment you've ever had, that you may not have another moment so convenient as this one to accept Jesus Christ.
as your Savior, who I'll help you to do it. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we do come humbly into thy presence. We thank thee for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank thee for all who have trusted him. May there be some this morning who will. For the first time, open our hearts and let this single end. And if they will, peace and joy and salvation will flow in their hearts and will be saved. Grant someone may receive Christ today. May I ask it in his name.
Amen. Shall we sing in closing? Tim number three, seven, six, three, seven, six. Right in my bondage, sorrow and night. Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come. into thy freedom, gladness, and life, Jesus, I come to thee out of my sickness, into thy health, out of my want, and into thy wealth, out of my sin, and into thyself, Jesus, I come to thee. When do you come? Maybe you have. You haven't told me. Come and do so. As we stand and see. Thank you.