Image: Mountains Landscape from iStockphoto.com

Image: Mountains Landscape from iStockphoto.com

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Download the Notes: 07272014TheSearchForParadiseDonRuhl

The Search for Paradise 

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • July 27, In the year of our Lord, 2014

Persuasion: 

  1. Man’s Quest For Paradise 
    1. Robert Owen’s socialism failed
    2. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden
    3. The founding of America
    4. Communism
    5. Materialism
  2. Man’s Original Paradise 
    1. The original paradise had everything man seeks in a paradise
      1. Dominion
      2. Rich supply of food
      3. Ease and comfort—Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed
      4. No criminal element
      5. No pressures
      6. No sin and death, hence all the miseries associated with it
      7. Fellowship with God
    2. Still was not good enough (Genesis 3).
      1. Man was given an inch and
        1. took a mile.
        2. So it was lost!
      2. Psalm 8 shows that man was already just a little lower than God.
        1. David wrote this psalm
          1. after God had cursed the Earth for Adam and Eve’s sin, and
          2. after God had destroyed the world with a flood.
        2. How much more truthful were these things for Adam and Eve,

          3 When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
          The moon and the stars, which You have ordained,
          4 What is man that You are mindful of him,
          And the son of man that You visit him?
          5 For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
          And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
          6 You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
          You have put all things under his feet,
          7 All sheep and oxen—
          Even the beasts of the field,
          8 The birds of the air,
          And the fish of the sea
          That pass through the paths of the seas.
          (Psa 8.3–8)
      3. He was the apex of creation!
      4. Then we read this,

        4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate (Gen 3.4–6).

        1. Already had plenty of food.
        2. Already had plenty of delightful sights.
        3. Already had plenty of wisdom by fellowship with the wisest One.
    3. However, the Lord provided the prospect of a new paradise
      1. The land of Canaan
        1. A promise
        2. The troublous journey to get there
          1. Slavery in Egypt
          2. Crossing of Red Sea
          3. Journey in wilderness
          4. Crossing of Jordan
        3. A type of the true paradise,

          8 For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. 9 There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. 10 For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His. 11 Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience (Heb 4.8–11).
      2. We are sojourners here,

        8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God (Heb 11.8–10).

        13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them (Heb 11.13–16).

  3. Paradise Regained 
    1. Do not expect perfect conditions on this earth ever
      1. The earth will be destroyed,

        10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up (2Pe 3.10).
      2. How should we then live?

        11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? (2Pe 3.11–12).
      3. The promise

        13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells (2Pe 3.13).
    2. The qualities Adam and Eve experienced shall be ours

      4 how he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2Co 12.4).

      7 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev 2.7).

      1. Note: paradise of God
      2. No ordinary paradise
    3. Revelation 22 says it all,

      1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations (Rev 22.1–2).

Exhortation: 

  1. When Confronting the Issues of Life Remember: 
    1. This life will never be a paradise
    2. Overcome these issues and you shall be in the true paradise
  2. What Adam lost, we shall gain in Christ. 
    1. In Adam the Paradise of Eden was lost,
    2. in Christ the true paradise of God is secured.
      1. We have the promise that nothing shall ever spoil the Paradise of God,

        27 But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles, or causes an abomination or a lie, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life (Rev 21.27).

        15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie (Rev 22.15).

      2. What are you going to do about it?
        1. God wants you in His paradise.
        2. Do you want to go there?