It's good to be back here with
you once again. It took some getting here. Delayed flights, cancelled flights,
rearranged flights, aeroplanes which needed fixing. But we're
here and what the Lord's purpose is He brings the past and we're
very glad to be here. Now before we come to the word
let us seek the Lord's face in prayer briefly. Our Lord God
and Heavenly Father we do thank and praise Thee for all thy mercies
unto sinners such as us, for thy mercies to a wayward, wicked,
undeserving people whom thou hast chosen in Christ. We thank thee, Lord, as we have
heard this morning, that salvation is of the Lord. Thou hast purposed
it, thou hast wrought it, thou hast brought it to pass, thou
dost preach it, thou dost gather in thy people. thou dost save
every one for whom Christ died. O Lord we pray as we gather now
that thou wouldst preach this gospel. We are but men but voice
pieces given to declare Christ. O Lord may we not hear a man
but may we hear Christ preach his gospel preach himself this
day. Give us ears to hear. Give us
hearts to believe. Give us faith in Christ alone.
Glorify his name we pray this day. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you turn in your Bibles please
to Genesis and Chapter 3. Genesis Chapter 3. Where we read of Adam and Eve
in the garden. and the fall of man. Genesis
chapter 3, verse 1. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea,
have God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
And the woman said unto the serpent, We 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 hath said, ye shall not eat of
it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And 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 gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her
husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both
were opened, 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. And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? 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 shouldst 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. 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
shalt thou go and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. And I will put enmity between
thee and the woman between thy seed and her seed and it shall
bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel. And to 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 and he shall rule over thee. And unto 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, curse it 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 the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground. For out of it
was thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou
return. And Adam called his wife's name
Eve, because she was the mother of all living. And to Adam also
and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothed
them. And the Lord God said, behold,
the man is become as one of us to know good and evil. And now
lest he put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life
and eat and live forever. 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. 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 And the Lord God called unto
Adam and said unto him, where art thou? Where art thou? Where art thou? Where are you
today? Where are you hiding? Of whom are you hiding from? Where are you hiding? Adam and Eve here hid. They hid amongst the trees of
the garden. They began to make themselves
aprons sewn from fig leaves. They hid from the presence of
the Lord. Why? Well they knew that they were
naked. They knew that they were guilty. They knew their shame and they
tried to cover it up. They tried to hide their guilt.
They tried to hide their shame. They tried to hide their nakedness. How did they know they were naked? Because they had come to receive
a knowledge of good and evil. How did they know good and evil?
Because they had eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil. That tree which the Lord God
commanded them not to eat of. Thence they hid themselves. Where art thou? We all do the same. We all hide from the presence
of the Lord because we all by nature know that we are naked
before a holy God. We know in our hearts that we
are guilty. before a righteous God. We have
a knowledge of good and evil because our forefathers ate of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We know what we
are and we know what we have done and we all by nature hide
ourselves somewhere. Adam and Eve, knowing their nakedness,
made themselves aprons sewn from fig leaves. They tried to cover
it up. They tried to cover it up. They
tried by their own works, in their own wisdom, of their own
will, to cover themselves and hide their guilt and their sin. from the eyes of a holy God. And we do the same. We have all
in them eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
We have all come to the law, the knowledge of good and evil,
and eaten of it. And by that knowledge, by that
law, we try to make ourselves aprons, we try to cover ourselves
in righteousness, we try to live a right and hide ourselves from
the view of God's holiness. Yes, we have a knowledge of good
and evil, a knowledge of the law, a knowledge of works, a
knowledge of free will. We're all the same by nature. We are all, as it were, in a
garden, hiding among the trees, hiding among the trees of religion,
perhaps, having a knowledge that we are naked before a holy God,
that we are sinners who need to be clothed. But we don't come by nature unto
Christ. Now of course, people vary. For some, their knowledge or
their love of knowledge is more to love the evil than the good.
And some hide themselves in the trees of wickedness, pretending
that God isn't there because they cannot see him. consuming
themselves in the pleasures of this world, in their own ambitions,
their own desires, using their energies to further their own
ends, and turning their backs upon God, and shutting their
ears to the truth, and running afar off. But still they hide
amongst trees, hoping that God will not see. until the day comes
when they reach the end of their lives and they breathe no more. And a voice comes unto them out
of eternity, where art thou? And they have no cover for righteousness
save that which they have sown in their lifetime, their own
wicked deeds. And God says unto them, Go into outer darkness. I never
knew you. Where art thou? Perhaps your
knowledge includes a knowledge of good as well as evil. Perhaps you are hiding amongst
the trees of religion or the trees of the scriptures. and you are seeking to sew yourself
an apron which will cover your sin. You're seeking to make yourself
somehow more appealing unto a holy God. You're striving to live
a right. But still, it's your own works
and your own will and your own effort and you will not, you
have not come unto Christ. You see in this garden in which
God put Adam and his wife Eve were two trees. out of the ground made the Lord
God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good
for food the tree of life also in the midst of the garden and
the tree of knowledge of good and evil there were two trees and God commanded Adam not to
eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He said, 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, for in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. But in the midst of the garden
was the tree of life. And Eve, and then Adam, Deceived
first by the serpent, then Adam threw his wife, ate of the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil, but they did not eat of
the tree of life. And we're just the same, especially
in religion. We walk amongst the trees. We'll
eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil but we don't
eat of the tree of life except God calls us and draws us and
gives us to eat. We don't come to Christ. They never went to the tree of
life. When Christ came into this world and came unto the religious,
the scribes and the Pharisees, who every day tried to trap him
in his words, tried to point the finger and find fault with
the Son of God. When he came unto them, these
custodians of the law, these keepers of the oracles of God,
these masters in Israel, These men of the book, these teachers
of the people, these preachers, these people that should have
known the scriptures inside and out and should have seen that
those scriptures pointed unto Christ and should have received
him at his coming, these people simply in those scriptures found
a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And that tree and its
fruits slew them. And by the fruit of that tree
they tried to slay the Son of God, trapping him in his words. They searched the scriptures. They went as it were through
the garden, through the trees of the book, And all they found
was a tree of knowledge of good and evil. They never found in
the midst the tree of life. They never saw in the scriptures
Jesus Christ alone. Christ said unto them, Search
the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life. and they are they which testify
of me and ye will not come to me that ye might have life ye
will not come to me that ye might have life you see they were hiding in the
trees of the scriptures they were hiding in the trees of religion and there we are And there you
may be too, in the trees, hidden away, in religion, coming to
church, reading the Bible, in the scriptures, and yet not seeing Christ. The Bible made of paper, made from trees,
is a book as it were like a garden in which is the knowledge of
good and evil and in the midst of it is a tree
of life. But you can search this book
from cover to cover, you can spend your life in religion.
You can go to this church and that church. You can rise to
great heights in religion. You can become a preacher. You
can know your theology inside and out. You can know your covenant
theology. You can know this thing and that
thing and this matter and that matter. You can argue and debate.
You can put us all right with your teaching with your understanding,
but do you know Christ? There we hide in these trees
of religion, but all we find there by nature is a knowledge
of good and evil. In the scriptures we find law,
Whether we're looking at the Old Testament and the law of
Moses or whether we're looking at the New Testament and the
epistles and the exhortations, all we see are do's and don'ts. Touch not, taste not, handle
not. Do this, don't do that. Believe
this, don't believe that. And we can grasp the truth in
so many ways and never know Christ. We can eat of the fruit of the
tree. We can take from this book, for
we see that it's a book that will do us good. When the woman
saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant
to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her
husband with her and he did eat. We can take the scriptures and
we can see in them that this is the way to God. This is the
way to wisdom. But except God leads us in those
scriptures to Christ. to the tree of life and gives
us to eat of him, then all we have is a knowledge of good and
evil, all we have is a knowledge of law. And we try to clothe
ourselves in our obedience to it. We take the scriptures, Old
Testament and New Testament, We make a profession of faith
in Jesus, we say we've accepted him, we believe him. We say he
died on the cross for sinners, he died for me. We say I want
to serve the Lord and I'm reading the scriptures to know how I
should serve him and how I should please him. And by all this,
all our obedience, all our wisdom, we are sewing ourselves aprons
out of fig leaves. We are making ourselves clothing
of righteousness, of our own doing, our own will and our own
wisdom. We have a self-righteousness
which we've put on our shoulders, which we've wrapped around us
as an apron. in order to hide from the wrath
of God which we know is revealed from heaven above against all
unrighteousness and wickedness. Because through the knowledge
of good and evil we've discovered we are naked and guilty before
a holy God. Through the scriptures we know
we're guilty and by the scriptures, by this knowledge we will clothe
ourselves. But we've never eaten of the
tree of life. We've never come to Christ. And all that we have
is of man. Is that true of you? Yes, we hide in these trees of
religion. We know we're naked. We try to
clothe ourselves by knowledge, by works, and by the will of
man. Are you hiding in the trees of
religion? Are you hiding in John 3, 16,
for example? 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. How many go there and hide
themselves in what they see as a universal redemption or the
universal love of God for all men. And God's desire, they say,
to see all men come to him and be saved. Is that your presumed
salvation? Oh well, you say, God loves all. He loves me. So I believe I've
accepted Jesus. I'm sure he will receive me. I've made a decision. I asked Jesus into my heart. Is that your fig leaf religion
that you have sown? Taking a supposed universal love
of God for all men as your grounds of salvation. Do you think that
God loves all? That he wants everyone without
exception to be saved, but that he cannot save them unless they
choose him first. Does your salvation depend upon
your decision? Is your Jesus stood waiting for
you to choose him? Who is on the throne? Is Christ? Are you upon your knees before
him crying for mercy? Or is he at your knees whilst
you sit on your throne, pleading for you to receive his salvation? Who's the saviour? And where
has your knowledge of good and evil got you? In which do you trust? God's
grace, his mercy, his will in salvation, or your will to choose
Jesus and accept him and ask him into your heart? Is that
the fig leaf behind which you are hiding? Perhaps you say, no, I can see
the error of the Armenian religion. I know God didn't die for all,
there's enough in the scriptures to tell me elsewhere that the
atonement, that Christ's death was for a people. If you read
on in John chapter 3 from this verse, if you read on in John's
gospel from chapter 3, you will get further and you can't read
John's gospel and think that God's love is universal. Christ
in chapter 10 tells us that He laid down his life for the sheep
and not the goats. And that goats don't become sheep
by making a decision. But goats don't believe because
they're goats. And sheep believe because they're
sheep. And God has either made you a
sheep or he's made you a goat. You cannot read John's gospel
faithfully without seeing that God's grace under sinners is
distinguishing. He has a people, a particular
people, a chosen people for whom Christ died. And that's the people
whom he saves. And he saves that people effectively,
powerfully, and nothing prevents it. Everyone for whom Christ
died will at some point come to hear the gospel and will be
given faith by God. Being regenerated by the Spirit
of God, quickened unto life, born again, he will give them
faith to believe. because they're his and he will
come and find them and he will call them and draw them to himself. He will come unto them as he
came unto Adam and Eve in the garden and call out unto them
by name, where art thou? And though they may be hiding
and though they may have turned to their own self-righteousness
and though they may have tried to clothe themselves He will
find them and reveal unto them what they are as lost guilty
sinners and he will show them that their fig leaves won't cover
them and he will take a sacrifice and shed blood and clothe them and welcome them in to his kingdom,
an everlasting kingdom of which we read in Revelation, in which
is the tree of life. And he will lead them to that
tree and give them to eat of that tree and to drink of the
river of the water of life. Yes, God's love is particular
and distinguishing. But you may say well I know that. I know that Christ died for the
sheep. The Armenians have got it wrong.
I know that Christ died for the sheep. And many in reformed religion
will say this. They say that we believe in election.
But how often do they come to John 3.16 and say, well it does say that
God so loved the world. And we know that Christ didn't
die for all men without exception, but there is a sense surely in
which he loves all men. And he wants them all to be saved. There is surely a universality
to God's love. And we mustn't be so distinguishing
in particular when we preach the gospel because we'll frighten
people away. If they know that Christ only
died for the elect and that he's only looking for the lost sheep
of Israel, they'll just turn away. They won't listen to that. So they cling on to a sense in
which God's love is universal. And yet they cling on to fig
leaves of their own imagination and their own making. Because this too is a lie and
a deception. For God so loved the world, it's
not stressing the scope of whom the world describes to you. It's stressing the depths of
God's love for his people in his world. He so loved the world,
he so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. What
is the world? It can be considered in many
ways. But ultimately, God made this world for one purpose, for
his Son, and for a people whom he chose in his Son to deliver
from their sins, to redeem, to wash in the blood of the Lamb,
to gather as one people the bride of Christ, for whom Christ died. whom he loves and whom he saves. That's his world. The world,
the bride that he prepared for his son as his wife. A people called the bride, called
the church, chosen from the four corners of the earth, from every
tribe, kindred and tongue. A people from all places and
all classes, but a people that God chose. Scattered amongst
this physical realm, but prepared of God, chosen of God from the
foundation of the world as a bride for his son. And God so loved
his son, and so loved that bride, and so loved the creation in
which he put that people as a picture of a coming creation which will
be eternal and everlasting. The world to come in which this
people will be brought with Christ to live and reign with him forever. God so loved that world and his
son and that people in the world that he gave his son. He gave
the only begotten Son of God, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. The stress here is not
on the scope of the people concerned but on the love, the depth of
God's love for that people. He so loved the world. He so
loved those whom he gave to his son. He so loved his creation
and his world to come in which he would bring this people that
he gave his son. People love to take this verse
and say it means everyone in the world. What a nonsense. A gardener loves his garden. He gives himself for caring for
that garden, for planting flowers and plants in the garden. He
works to tend that garden. and bring that garden into a
beautiful garden as he weeds and as he sows and as he waters. But he doesn't love everything
in the garden. He doesn't love the weeds and
the fawns and the briars. He digs them up and casts them
out and burns them. Yet he still loves the garden
and he tends it. God so loved the world, he loves
the sheep, not the goats. He loves his own in Christ. God loves the world because of
Christ and his people in it, who will be drawn out and brought
into the world to come, an everlasting world. He loves his sheep, not
the goats. He never loved them, nor did
he give his son for them. But we, in religion, love the
idea that our will and our works can save us. So we will go wherever
in these scriptures, in these scriptures, and we will take
these verses and we will make them suit ourselves. And we will
say, well, there you go, God must love me. I'm in the world
and I believe on the sun, so I will be saved. And we deceive ourselves because
in our presumption we make fig leaves out of our knowledge of
good and evil. We try to cover ourselves, but
it covers nothing. It covers nothing. Our presumption
won't save us. God must make himself known unto
us. He must come unto us in the garden
and call us, where art thou? And make himself known. You see, people that preach these
things show plenty of love to the goats. They try to make God's love universal. They want to welcome everybody
in to try to fill up their churches, but they hate the sheep. When
you preach the truth to them and say that's not the truth,
God's love is particular. It's set upon his own how they
rage and how they fight and how they argue. And you soon discover
that their love is not universal. Their love is for those that
believe the same deception. And they hate those that love
God and his truth in the gospel. They're just like the world in
reality. because we've all eaten of the
same tree and we've all got the same knowledge of good and evil.
You can have this knowledge, this wisdom in religion and you
can have it outside of religion. This world in this day and age
speaks a lot about diversity and inclusion and everybody being
welcome. But when you preach the Gospel
you'll find you're the least welcome in such a world. and
you'll find that their love and their tolerance and their welcome
does not extend to you. And the same spirit is found
in religion. There are those in religion that
want to make God's love universal, welcoming of everyone, but they
hate those who love Christ because they've never eaten, of the tree
of life and never known him. Let us be crystal clear about
such things. Brother Don Faulkner used to
say, when you find a truth in the Bible, take it as far as it can be taken. Some will say, we have to be
careful about things, we mustn't take them too far. When you say
that God's love is particular and that Christ only died for
a certain people, don't go too far, you'll put people off. When
you say that God said, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I
hated, well, be careful. Don't push it too far, you'll
offend people. Now you can take it as far as
that can be taken. Jacob have I loved, and Esau
have I hated. God means what he says. He has
a people chosen from all eternity in Christ. Christ died for that
people. Christ saved that people effectually. And Christ sends the gospel by
his spirit to preach unto that people that they might hear and
they might receive faith and they might believe. And every
single one for whom he died will hear and will believe. He is
a saviour, a mighty saviour. He does what he says and nothing
thwarts him. He is not an ineffectual saviour
who wants to save everyone, who desires to save everyone, but
can't unless they will. And that puts man in his seat. God saves his own, effectually. And he comes unto them in the
garden, wherever they are hiding, and says unto them, where art
thou? Presumption won't save us. A trust in a supposed universal
love for all mankind will not save you. A trust in our own
decision won't save us. When we see our nakedness and
try to clothe ourselves with our own self-righteousness, it
won't do, it's not good enough. That makes us our own saviour. Our decision saves us. Our clothing
of fig leaves saves us. Our work saves us. Our righteousness
saves us. But that doesn't save. It's a
delusion. It's just hiding in the trees,
making aprons out of fig leaves when the Lord comes our way. We're still vile, wretched sinners. None of that will save us. Are you saying, creature, that
there's nothing I can do to save myself? Yes. I'm saying there's nothing whatsoever
that you can do to save yourself. Are you saying, preacher, that
some are saved and some aren't? Yes, some are saved and some
aren't. Are you saying, preacher, that
there is a people called the sheep and a people called the
goats, and if I'm a goat, there's nothing I can do about it? Yes,
if you're a goat, there's nothing you can do to make yourself a
sheep. So you're saying, preacher, that I might not be saved. Yes, you might not be saved. And there may be nothing that
you can do to save yourself because salvation is not of your will
or your wisdom or your righteousness. It simply isn't. and any preacher
that tries to sugarcoat the gospel, and tries somehow to pretend
otherwise, and to make it more palatable, just to try to convince
you that maybe you could be saved, just to try to say, God wants
you to be saved, God loves you, you just need to believe, and
somehow you may be saved by doing that, is a liar to your soul. deceives you. You see many will
hear me today and will say, well you're too harsh, you're too
narrow, you'll just divide, you'll have people running away, you
won't keep people by preaching such things. God won't lose any of his sheep
for whom Christ died and we're not about trying to keep people
in pews in a church. to make an appearance of a full
meeting to impress people. God's preachers are sent to deal
faithfully with your souls. And I am answerable unto God
for dealing faithfully with your souls. Either Christ died for
you and shed his blood for you and washed you in that blood
and chose you from the foundation of the world or he didn't. And if that scares you or worries
you, that's a good thing. If you suddenly become concerned
that, well, maybe I'm not, but I want to be, That's a good thing. Because there's plenty that hear
the truth and they just rage against it and run out the door
and don't want to know. But if it worries you that you
might not be a sheep, go to the Lord and fall on your knees and
pray and say, Lord have mercy upon me the sinner. Because if
God brings you there and gives you a concern and sounds an alarm,
perhaps you are one of his sheep, because all that call upon his
name shall be saved. And if you're brought to see
your nakedness and brought to see that you cannot make yourself
an apron out of your decision, your works, your own righteousness,
that you are just guilty before God, and at his mercy, then you're
in a good place. You're in a good place. Presumption
will not save. Salvation is particular. God
called out to Adam, where art thou? He came unto Adam and his
wife. He said, why are you hiding? and then he made a sacrifice
for them and he clothed them, he covered them in righteousness,
he washed them in blood. Presumption won't save, the blood
of Christ does. We need to be brought to cry
out with Top Lady in his hymn, The Rock of Ages. I've no cover
for my sin. I've no cover. Lord have mercy upon me, the
sinner. Simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress. Helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Saviour, or I die. Wash me, Savior, or I die. Because left to ourselves, there
in the trees we will remain, hiding in the trees of religion,
convinced of nothing but our knowledge of good and evil. Until we hear voice calling unto
us. Until the Lord comes to us in
the word by his gospel and calls out, where art thou? Where are you hiding? We need
to hear him. We need to hear the Spirit of
God in the word, in the gospel, The Word of God, the Scriptures,
must be revealed. We need to hear Christ in the
Word. We need to be brought to the
Tree of Life. Otherwise it's just words, it's
just knowledge, it's just a book of knowledge of good and evil.
We feed only at one tree, and we never know Christ. We
need him to call. We need him to lead us to the
tree of life. He has to find us. He has to
come to us. And he has to come unto us by
way of sacrifice. There must be bloodshed in order
that we might be clothed. You see after Adam and Eve sinned
and plunged all mankind into judgment. After man fell in the
garden, God drove out man from the garden. He drove them out. And they could not return. Because
the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us to
know good and evil. And now lest he put forth his
hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live forever,
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. You see, once man fell and ate
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he'd become
as one of us, God said. And what if he should, by his
own will and his own decision, put forth his hand and just take
of the tree of life and eat? So God prevented it. And that's where free will is,
you see. You may decide you're going to accept Jesus. But you can't get to the tree
of life because God has cast you out. You've been driven out from the
garden and there is a way to that tree of life guarded by
cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way. So your
decision won't do. God must bring you back. God
must bring you unto Christ who went a way that took him to this flaming
sword, a pathway that led him to a tree
upon which he was nailed. A tree which is made unto his
people a tree of life. See Christ who is the tree of
life was nailed to a tree and because he gave his life for
that people he has made a way of salvation. There's only one way to life. There's only one way, Christ. And Christ had to go to the cross
to lead his children into paradise. At the cross, the one thief by
grace was turned unto Christ and believed. And Christ turned
to him and said, you will be with me in paradise. The other thief continued in
his rebellion to rail upon Christ. One was saved, the other was
lost. And in the midst of the two hung
a man into whom was thrust a flaming sword of judgment because of
the sins of his people. He was slain. He was judged. It cost Christ his life to bring
a people into paradise. But he so loved that people. He so loved the world he made
for that people that he gave himself for them. He gave himself for them. He
shed his blood. He bore their every sin. He was made sin, the wrath of
God poured down from heaven upon his own son as he hung upon the
tree. And he took every sin away. And
he took his blood. and he came unto each and every
one for whom he died. As he does today, he comes unto
them in the gospel with his blood and says unto them, where art
thou? And he covers them in his blood
and clothes them in the righteousness of God and says unto them, as
he said unto that priest, today thou shalt be with me. in paradise. 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. There's only one way to that truth, there's only one
way to life, through Christ, his death and his resurrection. Why was this placed at the east
of the garden? Because the sun arises in the
east. And though God slew his son,
and though he died because of the sins of his people, death
could not keep him. He rose. He rose victoriously
from the grave. And he ascended. And today, sat
at the right hand of God in glory, he comes in his gospel and he
says unto us, where art thou? Where art thou? Are you still hiding in the trees?
Are you still trying to sew yourself aprons with fig leaves? or are
you covered by his blood? Where art thou? We all ate of
that one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and
the fruit of eating of that tree was death. By nature, we're all
dead. We're all lost, and we're all
condemned. And we need God to come unto
us and to lead us back to paradise. You need him to come unto you
and say, where art thou? There's only one remedy, to be
led by the way of the cross, to eat of the other tree, the
tree of life, the fruit of which is life everlasting. You need
him to bring you there. Oh yes, we may be hiding. We
may hide in religion. You may be hiding today. You
may deceive others. You may come and sit down in
the meeting and sit in the pew and say all the right things
and quote the scriptures and nobody can tell and you seem
like you're a believer, you're hiding. But God can see. And you need a better hiding
place. than the law. You need a better
hiding place than the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
The law will only condemn us and that knowledge will only
slay you and add to your condemnation when you come to God in the last
day saying, Lord, Lord, I've done this in thy name and that
in thy name. And if you didn't have faith
in Christ, he will say unto you, I never
knew you, depart from me. ye worker of iniquity. Your religion
was of nothing worth. Your knowledge never saved you. The trees of your garden, the
trees of religion never hid you. They just made you self-righteous. You're trusting in your own works,
you're trusting in your own will, is that you today? Better to
hear it now from me than from him on that day. We need a hiding place from the
wrath of God. We need our sins to be washed
away. But the trees of religion won't
hide us. We need to be hid in Christ. We need to be in him. in the tree of life, eating the
fruit of the tree of life, that we should never perish. We need
Christ and Christ alone. For ye are dead and your life
is hid with Christ in God, Paul writes in Colossians. Are you
dead in Christ? Are you dead to this world and
its sins? Has God taken you and crucified
you with Christ? Has he taken that sword of justice
and crucified you with Christ upon the tree? Are you dead? And are you risen again with
Christ? Is your life hid with Christ in God? Are you found
hid in him? Where art thou? Are you hiding? Hiding in Christ
alone.