If you take your Bible and turn to Genesis, chapter number two, Genesis chapter number two, last Sunday morning we began looking at the stark contrast between two trees mentioned in scripture that really stand out more than all the other trees since time began. In fact, these two trees have had more of an impact on mankind that all of the other trees combined. The two trees we're talking about, of course, is the tree of knowledge of good and evil, where man sinned, plunged us all into sin, and then the cross of Christ, where Christ, the second Adam, gave his life on the cross of Calvary, and so we might have life and have it more abundantly and have it eternally, amen? Last week we saw that the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a tree forbidden for mankind. According to Genesis 2 verse 16 and 17, that's going to be our, our text again for today as we look at another truth here. Let's read this. And the Lord God commanded the man saying of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. And here's the phrase we want to look at today. For in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. So the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a tree that was forbidden. God said don't eat. But the cross of Christ, we said, is a tree that is required for mankind. We must look and live. Amen. And this morning I want us to see another contrast between these two trees. And that's this. A tree of knowledge of good and evil was a place of death. It was a place of death. The Lord said, for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now, the Hebrew rendering of that is dying thou shalt die. And Genesis 3, 6, when Eve ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree and gave to Adam, and he ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree along with her, you know, there was an instantaneous change that took place in their lives. It was a definite change. They knew something had happened. And Adam and Eve, what really happened that day is that they spiritually died. We'll talk about what that means here in just a moment. So when the Lord said that they would surely die in that day that they ate, that did take place. They died spiritually just like that. Additionally, we know that Adam and Eve began to die physically that day. You ever heard of someone who was under a sentence of death called, he's just a dead man walking? Or maybe someone says, they're as good as dead. That was the case with Adam and Eve. Understand that the scripture records in Genesis chapter number five that Adam lived 930 years. Now I want you to think about that. 930 years is a good long time. Nevertheless, the sentence of death, the cause of sin, assured that he was no more but a dead man walking. God said, Thou shalt surely die. In other words, death is going to be sure for you. And he was as good as dead, he could have died at any moment along that 930 year path that he walked this earth. None of us know the day of our death. He certainly did not know the day of his death, but he had God's assurance, hey, you ate of that tree, you're gonna die. And listen, we are in Adam, and we're as good as dead. except for the life that comes to us through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen. When we were born in this world, we were as good as dead. I'm glad I'm not as good as dead anymore. Amen. They said, well, you're still going to die, preacher. Yeah, I may. I hope to go up in the rapture. But if the physical death comes, I know to be absent from the bodies, be present with the Lord. You know, it's really a different scenario that we're talking about there. That one act of sin by mankind was the greatest tragedy of all time because of its great impact on all mankind, even had an impact on all of creation. We're going to see that this morning. That one act of sin, I want you to see first of all, was tragic because of its internal impact on man, the internal impact. By that, I'm talking about that man died spiritually. In Genesis 3, let's take a look in Genesis 3 verse number 7. It says, And the eyes of them both were open. That's what happened after they both ate. The eyes of them both were open and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. Think about that for just a minute. Man was made to have fellowship with God. And he did have fellowship with God up until this point. Knew something transpired. He was trying to hide from God. Can you imagine the ludicracy of that? Where are you going to hide from God? You can't. You can't hide from God. Look at verse number nine. The Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? Now, it's not that Adam was really good at hiding. In fact, God asked that question. It's for man to acknowledge where he was at. That's the purpose of that. God knew precisely where he was at. Verse 10, and he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. You know, man died spiritually the moment he ate of that tree. In Genesis 2, verse 15 through 25, and I'm not gonna read those verses, I'm gonna give you a summary of what happens there. God gave man some responsibilities when he created man. You'll find in verse number 15 that God put man in the garden to dress it and to keep it. Then in verses 16 to 17, we see that God gave him freedom to eat with responsibility. You can eat any tree that you want to, but that one tree you need to leave alone. Then God gave him the responsibility to name every living creature in verse 19 and 20. And God gave him the responsibility to lead a mate, a helpmate. God gave him a helpmate in verses 21 through 25. And Adam had the responsibility to lead her about. Now understand that man, unlike any other creature, was made to have fellowship with God. But man's sin broke that fellowship with God. We just read that in verses 8 through 10 there. And what a great tragedy. I want you to think about this. To have had sweet fellowship with the God of the universe one day and to be spiritually dead the next. That's what's happened to them. I mean, they had sweet fellowship with the Lord. But that was broken. In Genesis 3, verses 12 and 13, we read that man was trying to pass the buck on the responsibility. It's not my fault, it's the woman you gave to me. Basically, he was, in blaming the woman, he was really blaming God. The woman that thou gavest me. If you hadn't given me the woman, Mankind today is still trying to pass the book on responsibility for their sin. I saw it a lot when I was ministering in prison ministry, ministered for nine and a half years in the prisons. And a lot of folks want to say, well, you know, it wasn't my fault, it was my family or my friends that drug me into what got me in here. And a lot of times we blame family or friends. Or someone would say, well, it's a neighborhood I grew up in. I grew up in a neighborhood, and quite frankly, it was just a bad side of the town, and I was pulled in. But there were folks that grew up on that bad side of the town that did not get pulled in. We make a choice, don't we? Some say it was because I grew up poor. There's all kinds of stories of people growing up poor who chose to rise above the poverty in their lives. And then, of course, there are many that say, well, the devil made me do it. And, of course, that was a phrase that came out of the 1970s when Flip Wilson was in a television show. He said, the devil made me do it, and people grabbed a hold of that, and that was their story, and I'm sticking to it. The devil made me do it, and that's my story, and I'm sticking to it. But man chose to sin. Bottom line. Chose to sin. That one act of sin was tragic because of its internal impact on man. Second thing I want you to see is that that one act of sin was tragic because of its external impact on creation. We see there in verse number 14 of chapter three, it says, And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly thou shalt go, and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put in between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall be to thy husband, he shall rule over thee. And to Adam he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns, also, and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou returneth to the ground, for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and into dust shalt thou return. We see all of creation curves, all of plant life and animal life were affected Every time you have to pull weeds out of your flower bed or out of your garden, have to hoe your garden, that is a testimony to the consequences of sin. Every time you have to slap a mosquito or a gnat, it should remind you of the consequences a sin. Every time you have to go to the doctor or have to take medicine, it should remind you of the consequences of sin, because all of those things come from sin's effect in this world. We see not only was all of creation cursed, but also the battle of the ages began there. Verse 15, we read about that. The battle for the souls of men was on. Satan desired, and his desire still is, to keep souls damned to eternity in hell. God wants those same souls to live forever with him in heaven. That's why he provided a way for salvation. We know that toil and trouble began. We just read about it in verses 16 through 19 there. Listen, work did not begin there, but labor did. You know there was work before sin entered? Yeah, over in Genesis 2.15, a man was put in the garden. It says, and the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. There was a job to do. There was a work to do, but there was no labor in it. It was enjoyable. For the woman, there's labor and childbirth. For men and women both, there's labor and work. We know that physical death began. You know that up to this point, there was no death? You know, there's some folks who want to try to read into the scriptures a gap between Genesis 1-1 and Genesis 1-2. They say, well, you know, in there, that's where the dinosaurs came and they, you know, they were on the face of the earth and they were, you know, they died out during that time. No, there was no death. Dinosaurs lived with Adam. They did. But Genesis 3 and verse 21, we see the very first death. It says there, unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothe them. Now in order to get coats of skins, what do you gotta do? got to kill the animal. That animal had to sacrifice his life for Adam and Eve to get a covering for their sin. It's a picture of what Jesus did for us on the cross. Up to that point there had been no death, and then paradise was lost. Look at verse number 22. there of chapter 3. It says, And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. And now, lest ye put forth his hand, and take also the tree of life, and eat, and live forever. And what the Lord was concerned about was that they live forever in that condition of sin. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence 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 of the tree of life. Aren't you glad that The Lord moved man out of that garden and he didn't take and live forever in his sin. Can you imagine living in these bodies like we are right now forever? It would be bad, wouldn't it? It would be bad. The most perfect place God created was forfeited by man. In fact, verse 24 says that God drove out the man, drove him out of there. So we see the internal impact, we see the external impact. And then that one act of sin was tragic because of its eventual impact on man. Genesis 5, 5 says, And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died. You can call Genesis 5 the death chapter. because it lists a genealogy there, and every one of it says, and he died, and he died, and he died, over and over again. Adam died. Yes, he lived 930 years, but he died. The eventual impact includes physical death. Man began to die physically the day that he ate of the fruit. And since that time, man has continued to die physically. Every cemetery is a testimony to the tragedy of sin. Every cemetery is a reminder that we too will pass that way. Hebrews 9, 27 puts it this way. It is appointed unto men once to die. After this, the judgment. Psalm 89 verse 48 says, what man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Ecclesiastes 3 verse 20, all go into one place, all are of dust, and all turn to dust again. Romans 5, 12, wherefore as by one man's sin entered into the world, and death by sin. That's why I say there couldn't be death beforehand, otherwise the word of God would not be true. We know the word of God is true. The Bible says it's by one man that sin entered into the world and death came by sin, right? And so you have no death before Genesis 3, 21. Then every person who loses a loved one to death wants to know why. And a lot of folks will shake a fist in God's face, you know, they'll point a finger and say, this is God's fault that this happened. No, this man's fault, Adam's fault. And listen, the eventual impact includes eternal death if that's not taken care of. Hebrews 9.27 says, but after this, the judgment. It's pointing to man wants to die, but after this, the judgment. We're all going to stand before God. And those who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior will stand at the great white throne judgment in Revelation 20 verse 14. It says, and death and hell were cast in the lake of fire. This is the second death. You don't want to take part in the second death. There's an internal impact, external impact, eventual impact. Fourthly, that one act of sin was tragic because of its universal impact on creation. All of mankind was impacted. All of us. You could say even the Lord Jesus Christ was impacted because he came into the world to die for sin. He wouldn't have had to come into the world to die for sin if it hadn't been for Adam sinning to begin with. Now Christ had no sin of his own. He took in his body our sin. So understand that. Look at Romans chapter 8 real quick. Romans chapter 8 and we see all of creation was impacted and it talks about that very thing in Romans 8 and I want to pick up in verse number 18. Romans 8, 18. It says, For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Talking about the future glory, when Christ comes back and changes us. Amen? That's what he's talking about. Look at verse 19. For the earnest expectation of the creature waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Verse 22, For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first roots of the spirit. Even we, ourselves, grown within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. We're ready for Jesus to come back and change this vile body into one like his own. So, because of the because of sin has a universal impact on creation. That one act of sin, fifthly, the one act of sin was tragic because of its eternal impact on man. Because of sin, man was doomed in his sin, and that meant eternal death, meant separation from God for eternity in hell, except for what Jesus Christ did on the other tree. Because of sin, a substitute was needed. Again, that was pictured in Genesis 3.21 when God himself took the life of that animal to provide a covering. We needed a substitute as a sacrifice for our sin, and Jesus provided that. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 5 verse 20 and 21 says, But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. We needed a substitute. We needed a covering for our sin. 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, For he, speaking of God, hath made him, speaking of Jesus, to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ is our covering. He is our atonement. He is our righteousness. We have none of our own. because of sin, our substitute came, and that brings us to the contrast of the other tree that we're talking about, and that's the cross of Christ. Yes, the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a place of death, but the cross of Christ is a place of life. The cross of Christ brings us spiritual life here and now. The tree of knowledge of good and evil was a living tree that brought forth death, in mankind because of disobedience, but the cross of Christ was a dying tree. They had to cut the tree down in order to put Christ on it. It was a dying tree that brought forth life. Jesus Christ, the man on that cross, because of his obedience, there was, first of all, was Christ's obedience. Philippians 2 verse 8 puts it this way. It says that he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Luke 19 verse 10 says, For the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. In order to save, he had to give himself. How did Christ accomplish that? By his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. Then there's the obedience of the sinner to believe the gospel, Ephesians 2 verse 1. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin. How was that accomplished? Well, when we obeyed the gospel and believed on Christ's finished work on the cross of Calvary on our behalf, that's when the change took place. John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Romans 8.1 says there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. So the cross of Christ brings us spiritual life here now. Secondly, the cross of Christ brings us physical life hereafter. And we're looking forward to that, aren't we? Because it's not going to be the same kind of life that we have right now. These bodies are going to be changed in a body just like the resurrected Lord. It's a spiritual body, amen. It's a body, but it's a spiritual body. And we know that 1 Thessalonians 4, I'm not going to read those verses, verses 13 through 18 and 1 Corinthians 15, verse 51 through 57 talk about the coming of Jesus, when he's going to come, he's going to change us in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, the last trump, amen, we're going to change. I like Hebrews 2.9 that says, but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Jesus tasted death for us. I like the Easter song that we sing sometimes, we shall rise, hallelujah, we shall rise. Looking forward to that resurrection morning. Then last of all, I want you to see the cross of Christ brings us not only spiritual life here now and physical life hereafter, but the cross of Christ brings us eternal life here and hereafter. Do you know if you're in Christ, eternal life is your present possession? It's a present possession. John 3.36 says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. So not that you're going to get everlasting life one day. You have everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. John 5, 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death into life. We have passed from death into life. You say, but we still die physically. Yeah, be answered from the bodies, be present with the Lord. Amen? It's not the same as what it was before we came to Christ. So, in conclusion here, the tree of knowledge of good and evil is a place of death. We all are protectors of that tree because of our position of being in Adam. Every one of us was in Adam. But we don't have to be stuck with all the consequences of that tree, do we? We have an alternative. We have another tree. We can look to the cross of Christ. The cross of Christ is a place of life. We become partakers of the cross of Christ by grace, through faith, which changes our position from being under condemnation to being in Christ. And from being under the shadow of death to having the life of Christ within. Our positioning of being in Christ gives us spiritual life and it guarantees us eternal life. Amen. So do you know Christ today? That's the question. You partake of that first tree. Have you partaken of the second tree? That first tree, all it will get you is death. for all eternity. Come to Jesus if you don't know Him. Embrace Him today. Come get His life. And if you do know Him, listen, everybody that's in Adam needs to know about Christ. They're not going to know unless we tell them. We need to be busy telling them, listen, you've got a problem. You were born in sin. You need Jesus. Come to Jesus today. Amen. Let's pray.