Turn over to me in the book of
Genesis, if you'd like to. The book of Genesis, and I want
to read a few verses here in this passage. Let's begin in
verse 1. Genesis chapter 18, verse 1.
And the Lord appeared unto him, Abraham, in the plains of Mamre,
And he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day. And he lifted
up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three men stood by him. And
when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and
bowed himself towards the ground, and said, My lord, if now I have
found favor in thy sight, pass not away, I pray thee, from thy
servant. Let a little water, I pray thee,
be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the
tree. and I will fetch a morsel of bread, and conquer ye your
hearts. After that ye shall pass on.
Well, therefore, are ye come to your servant? And they said,
So do it as thou hast said. Abraham hasted to the tent to
Sarah, and said, Make ready quickly three measures of fine meal,
knit it, and make cakes upon the earth the hearth. And Abraham
ran unto the heard, and fetched a calf tender and good, and gave
it to a young man, and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter
and milk and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before
them, and he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat. And
they said unto him, Where is Sarah thy wife? And he said,
Behold, in the tent. And he said, I will certainly
return unto thee according to the time of life, and, lo, Sarah
thy wife shall have a son. And Sarah heard it in the tent
door which was behind them. Now Abraham and Sarah were old
and well stricken in age, and it ceased to be with Sarah according
to the manner of women. Therefore Sarah laughed within
herself, saying, After I am waxed old, shall I have pleasure, my
Lord being old also? And the Lord said unto Abraham,
Wherefore did Sarah laugh, saying, Shall I of a charity bear a son,
which am old? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? At the time appointed, I will return unto thee according
to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son. Then Sarah
denied, saying, Our life's not. For she was afraid, and he said,
Nay, but thou didst life. And the men rose up from the
fence and looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to
bring them on their way. They tell us even to this day
and some of the Arab countries, those that you can still visit
in at least, that they still have this custom, that they welcome
strangers. If you're passing by, that they'll
welcome you into their house and assure you protection from
anybody that would do you harm. That was an old custom, the commentaries
tell us, in these countries, these eastern countries, that
if they saw a stranger coming by, They would invite him to
sit and rest himself and provide water to wash your feet. That
probably was a custom because Lot did that. Remember when the
angels came down in the next chapter and Lot invited them
into his house? But I can't believe that the
Holy Spirit would put this passage in here just to teach us of an
old custom that was in these countries. I think there's a
lesson here to be taught us from this passage. You know, the Bible
says whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures
might have hope. So he makes this wonderful statement here
that I just want to look at just for a few minutes, when he says
to them here in verse 5, verse 4, Rest yourselves under
the tree. rest yourself under the tree.
Now, I think there's a spiritual lesson in this. The Holy Spirit
intends to teach us something about this little phrase, rest
yourself under the tree. When we go to the New Testament
and we read about Christ and Him crucified, it's often described
as Him on a tree. When the Jews, when the apostles
began to preach during the early book of Acts, they made statements
like this, The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you slew
and hanged on a tree. And the apostle Peter preaching
to the Gentiles, and he said, We are witnesses of all things
that Christ did in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom
they slew and hanged on a tree. And the first message the apostle
Paul preached, he said this, when they had fulfilled everything
that was written of him, they took him down from the tree and
laid him in a sepulchre. So this tree that the Holy Spirit
says rests under this tree represents to us Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's the first thing I want
us to see. Then there's some invitations concerning resting
under this tree. What is this tree that is fit
to rest under? I want us to look at a couple
of places. Look in Deuteronomy chapter 21. If you'll hold Genesis
chapter 18 and look here in Deuteronomy chapter 21, I want to show you
a couple of places that you probably already know. But to prove that
this tree is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So look here in
Deuteronomy chapter 21, look in verse 22. If a man hath committed a sin
worthy of death, and he be put to death, you're going to put
him to death, and you hang him on a tree, His body shall not
remain all night upon the tree, but thou shalt in any wise bury
him that day, for he that is hanged is accursed of God, that
thy land be not defiled which the Lord thy God giveth thee
for man's inheritance." The Lord had a way of protecting the Jews
in their land. He wouldn't stand for open violence,
murder, stealing and sinning. He said if a man has committed
a sin worthy of death, and you're going to put him to death and
you hang him on a tree, then don't leave him there all day.
That evening take him down and bury him. Now every sin wasn't
worthy of death, but some sins were. It violated the Lord's
justice to the point that it put him to death. And that's
what this is about. But when we go over to the New
Testament, we find who this is really speaking about, don't
we? Look in Galatians chapter 3 and look in verse 13 and verse
14. Galatians chapter 3 and verse
13 and verse 14. Look at this. This tells us about
this tree that is fit to rest under. Christ and Him crucified. He's a place to rest yourself.
Look in verse 13. This is amazing according to
the passage that we just read in Deuteronomy. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, and He's done it like this, being
made a curse for us. For it is written, we just read
it, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now Christ wasn't
a criminal. He wasn't a sinner. He was a
holy thing from the time He was born to the time He died. But you know He had sin when
He died upon that cross. But it wasn't ours. It wasn't
His. It was ours. He was cursed for
us. The only way you and I could
be delivered from the curse of the law is for somebody, some
fit person, to be a curse for us. Every sin is worthy of death. The wages of sin is death. Therefore
Christ died. And where did He die? On a tree. Accursed of God on a tree. Look
in another place. Look in 1 Peter 2. So many places
in the New Testament the Bible talks about a tree. And that's
Christ and Him crucified. Look in 1 Peter 2. And look in
verse 21. Speaking of the Lord, 1 Peter
2, verse 21, 21 For even hereunto were you called, because Christ
also suffered for us, leaving us in an example, that we should
follow His steps. 22 Who did no sin, neither was
any guile found in his mouth. 23 When he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not. 24 But committed himself to him that judgeth righteously,
who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness, by whose
stripes ye were ill." The cross is the most amazing thing because
here we are taught by the Apostle Peter that sin was transferred
He bare our sins in His own body. How did they get in His body?
The prophet said, all we like sheep have gone astray, and God
hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Christ took our sins
and made them His own. Where did He do that? Upon the
cross of Calvary. Upon the tree. Now, there's a
lot of men opposed to this. I have some commentaries that
I read after, and they said there's no way that you can transfer
sin. There's no way that you can transfer
guilt. I can't. And you can't. But God can. What happens to
us if He leaves our sin on us? We die. But if He takes our sins
from us, which He can do because He's God, and puts them on His
Son, and His Son receives those as He did, because He's our representative
and substitute, then those sins become His. And now He's responsible
for those sins. And now He stands before God. Now He stands before the court
of heaven, and the heaven says, You're guilty. You're guilty. You must die. You're cursed,
even of God. And that's the way, brothers
and sisters, you and I are redeemed from the curse of the law. Look
what he says in chapter 3, and look in verse 18. For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins the just of the unjust, that
he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
justified in the Spirit. Redeemed. So what is this tree? What is this tree? It's Christ
and Him crucified. Paul said, I know nothing among
you, say, Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Now, look at the invitation.
Look at some things concerning this tree. Christ and Him crucified. The first thing then, in the
light of this, by keeping this in mind, he says, rest yourself
under this tree. So this tree is a place to rest.
Christ and Him crucified is a place to rest your soul. Your poor, guilty soul. Come unto Me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn
of Me, and you shall find rest for your souls. You know, there's
rest. Well, there's rest in Christ.
There's rest from our labors. There's rest from our guilt,
heaviness. There's rest. Don't you love
it when you come home, man, you've worked hard all day and you're
mentally exhausted, you're physically exhausted, and you lay down on
your bed and you just rest your full weight up on that bed. Rest
is wonderful, isn't it? Well, I tell you the best rest
you and I can enjoy in this life is rest for our souls. Rest from
self-salvation. Rest from our guilt. Rest from
our unworthiness. Come and rest yourselves under
this tree. Oh, this tree is a place where
sin has been punished. Justice has been satisfied. The
wrath of God Almighty has been poured out to the uttermost until
there's no more wrath left. Under this tree is God's smiling
face. Under this tree is forgiveness
of sins. This place where Christ and Him
crucified is enjoyed. Come and rest yourself under
this tree. And isn't it amazing? It must
have been a big tree because Abraham put his tent on this
tree. Sarah had her whole tent. She went about washing dishes
and washing clothes. Her whole tent lived under the
shade of this tree. Abraham had a table set up under
this tree. He rested there himself. And
here's the amazing thing. The Lord Himself rested under
this tree. And the angels rested under this
tree. Everybody under this tree was
resting. I know that Sarah, all of them
seemed to be running about the business of serving the Lord
and cooking this cake for Him and everything. But it was rest. Even when the Lord reproved Sarah
for her unbelief. He didn't condemn her. He made
the promise sure to her, didn't He? Under this tree, there's
no condemnation. There's no guilt. They were so
free and at rest. Resting in Christ and being crucified. You know, isn't it amazing that
everybody that knows anything about this tree, they can rest. God the Father rests, doesn't
He? Is He not resting in His Son? Well, sure He is. He's trusting His Son that He's
finished the work of our redemption. God doesn't expect anything out
of you. He's resting in His Son. There
He is in heaven. What's He doing? He's resting.
The angels, what are they doing? They're under this tree. They're
resting. Even Christ Himself. What's He doing? He's resting.
It seems like everybody's resting but us. It seems like we're the
only ones that have a problem coming here and resting our souls
under this tree. You know, under the law, when
those priests, the common priests went into the tabernacle, into
the holy place and they went in there and they filled the
lamps with oil and they put bread on the table and the high priest
went into the holy place and sprinkled blood on the mercy
seat. But you know with all the furniture that was in there,
there was one piece of furniture you didn't find in there. It
was a stool. They didn't have a chair in there.
They never sat down. And you know why? The work was
never done. It was never accomplished. Paul
said the priests stand daily. They stand daily, offering the
same sacrifice which can never take away sin. But this man,
Jesus Christ, because He offered one sacrifice for sin forever,
He sat down on the right hand of God. He's resting in His completed
work. And I've said this morning, brothers
and sisters, that you and I can bring ourselves right here and
rest our guilty, weary souls under this tree. Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. I don't know if you have trouble
with sin like I do or not, but I struggle with sin. Don't you?
Struggle with this guilt and sometimes you try to justify
yourself if I just feel guilty enough. That ain't nothing but
self-righteousness, is it? Why should I go around feeling
guilty? Why should I? Well, I'm a sinner. I've sinned.
Oh, and feeling sorry is going to atone for it? If I can bring
just a little bit of sorrow, if I can bring just a little
bit more prayer, if I can bring just a little bit more Bible
reading, if I can add something, then I can find rest for my soul. That's not where rest is found.
Rest is found under this tree. Somebody made the statement that
when we consider our sins, even when we repent of sin and we
go sorrowing for it and we weep over our sin, you know there's
only one way that we're lawfully allowed to consider our sins. They were purged away 2,000 years
ago on a cross outside the city of Jerusalem. Christ, by Him,
self purged our sin. They're purged. They're gone.
Isn't that rest? Oh, come and rest yourself under
this tree. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Rest where He rests. Rest where
the angels are resting. Rest where the saints in heaven
are resting. Rest under this tree. Here in
verse 4 he says something else, not only rest yourself, but he
said in verse 4, let a little water, I pray thee, be fetched,
and wash your feet. Wash your feet. Rest yourself
and wash your feet. Now when they walked on these
dusty paths, all they wore was sandals. And as they walked,
their feet got extremely dirty. And when they would go to someone's
house, one of the first things they would provide for you was
a pan of water. And sometimes you washed your
own feet, and they washed your feet. So Abraham brought a pan
of water and said, wash your feet. So that's what they were
doing. He provided a pan of water to
wash their feet. Now is the Lord going to let
Abraham outdo Him? Is He going to say, Abraham,
you bring me a pan of water to wash in, and then Him not have
anything to wash His saints' feet in? My brothers and sisters,
you and I go through this world, and it's a dirty place, isn't
it? This world is a vile, stinking, corrupt land to walk through. And as God's children walk through
this land, you're going to get your feet dirty. You go off to
work, and all that goes on on your job, and all that goes on
with your neighbors, and all that goes on within your own
heart, you get dirty, don't you? You feel like you defiled yourself
living in this world. What are we to do when we come
home of the night and we say, oh, I wish I hadn't thought that.
Oh, I wish I hadn't said that. I wish I hadn't did that. I'm
just so dirty. Well, what do we do? We come
under this tree and there's a fountain open for sin and uncleanness. And we wash ourselves. We don't
have to go to bed feeling guilty. We don't have to go to bed with
our feet dirty. We wash ourselves. If we confess
our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
do what? Cleanse us. Cleanse us. As we walk and live a Christian
life, this fountain is still open for us to wash in and to
be cleansed in. Come and wash your feet. Isn't that wonderful to think
about? I think while we're like an old long-faced mule sometimes,
and we don't enjoy the Christian life more than we do, we forget
these things. I was telling Liam this morning,
we were talking about how my dad was this way. We couldn't
do anything on the Lord's Day. On Sunday, we couldn't do anything.
And he was telling us about, they were raised the same way
on what they call the Christian Sabbath. Boy, you can do anything.
I remember Henry Mayhem was telling one time about a little boy called
Billy. Back during the Puritan days,
and Billy was running through the house on Sunday, and his
dad said, Billy, sit down. We don't do that. Today's Sunday. Billy sat down on the couch and
started whistling. His mother come by and said, Billy, quit
whistling. Today's Sunday. Billy got up and sneaked outside
and went to the barn, and there was this old long-faced mule
with his head hung over the gate. And Billy said, Mule, I don't
know what denomination you are, but you've got to be a Christian.
A miserable long... Don't we get like that sometimes? Well, there's no reason to get
like that for any reason. There's a fountain open for sin
and uncleanness. Wash in it. Wash. Oh, I'm such a failure. Wash. Oh, I did this. Wash. While you
rest yourself under this tree. Something else about this tree.
Fourthly, it was a place to comfort one's heart. See what he said
there in verse 5? I will fetch a morsel of bread
and comfort ye your hearts. Under this tree was a place that
would comfort your heart. I had a group of people that
got so aggravated at me and they went and started telling things
about me and this broke my heart absolutely. They started telling
things that were awful on me and vile to the gospel. At first it broke my heart and
then I made me mad. And then I got so mad I wanted
to fight. You know how we get. And my heart
got so full of bitterness. And you know what I had to do?
I had to go right back to this tree. That's where I found heart
comfort. There's comfort under this tree.
You remember the time that Israel had left out of Egypt and they
went out into the... They went to a place called Shur,
S-H-U-R. And they went three days out into the wilderness.
And they found a big pool of water. They were so thirsty.
But when they tried to drink of it, it was bitter. Remember
that? The waters of Myra. And they began to cry and murmur.
And the Lord showed Moses a tree of all things. He cut it down
and threw it in the waters. And the Bible says the waters
became sweet. That's what I'm saying about
this tree that we rest under. And sometimes life, sometimes
life is just, it can become bitter, can't it? It can become bitter,
so uncomfortable. Things can change. Our world
can be turned upside down. Our jobs, Ken, our jobs that
we used to love. Something happens, then it becomes
bitter and we can't even work there anymore. We lose our health,
our physical health, our mental health. And life becomes a burden
to us. We say, I can't believe I'm in
this shape. How did I get in this shape?
Families that were so close, they become divided and there's
bitterness among them. And those who should love us
don't love us anymore. And life itself gets so uncomfortable. Well, there's a tree. that you
can cut down and throw it right in the midst of your bitterness.
Right in the midst of your trouble. I can't explain this, but I can
say it like this. Bring Jesus Christ and Him crucified
right down in the midst of your living in this world. Right down
in the midst of your troubles and see if He don't make your
bitterness sweeter. I don't know how to explain that,
but He does it. He doesn't. Rest under this tree and comfort
your hearts. You remember, I think it's in
Revelation 21-22, when John was looking at that river of life,
that pure river flowing out from the throne of God into the Lamb,
and he saw this tree of life. And he said that it had these
leaves on it that were for the healings of the nation. It produced
leaves. Now what is that? What is that
tree that has leaves on it that will heal? That's Christ in Him
crucified. John saw Him there in heaven.
He was in the midst of the throne and in the midst of the elders.
There He is as God in the midst of the throne. And there He is
as man in the midst of the elders. And John said, I saw Him as a
lamb that had been slain. Christ in Him crucified. There's
healing in Him. By whose stripes we are healed. And we all find places in our
lives that, boy, the bitterness sets in, the disappointment sets
in, and we think, what are we going to do? There's no remedy
for the way I feel. But there is under this tree,
under this tree, that we may be healed. Ain't that the way
Peter says it? The Son of Righteousness shall
arise with healing in His way. Brothers and sisters, I would
encourage us all that if we're having struggles in this world,
if we're having problems and our world's been turned upside
down, then come under this tree and be comforted. Comfort yourself
under this tree. I can't explain how it happens,
but I just know this. There's comfort in Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. He'll meet every need that you
have. He healed those who had need
of being healed. Healed them of what? It didn't
matter. It just don't matter. If you're sick, He can heal you.
Come and rest yourself under this tree and comfort your hearts. Fifthly, something else about
this tree, under this tree heaven and earth met in sweet communion. This is amazing that the Lord
of Glory and these two holy angels had taken human bodies and they
had come down here from heaven and appeared to Abraham and Sarah. So here you have the Lord of
Glory and these two holy angels And they're sitting here with
Abraham who said, I'm nothing but dust and ashes. And they're
sitting here with Sarah. And there's no fear there. Nobody's fearful. Nobody's repulsed. They're set together in sweet
communion. Heaven and earth seem to become
one. And they hold sweet communion,
the Lord and His angels, with saints. Christ in Him crucified
has made heaven and earth one. The cross of Christ has reconciled
earth and heaven and has removed all reasons for enmity, all reasons
for fear, and now poor saints upon this earth can feel at home
in the very presence of God. Isn't that amazing? that angels
appeared to men in the New Testament. The first thing the angels had
to say was, Fear not. Fear not. Don't be afraid, shepherds. I bring you good tidings of great
joy. Glory to God in the highest.
Well, of course it's glory to God, but listen, and peace on
earth, and goodwill to men. Under this cross, heaven and
earth become one. You're not having a baby, are
you? I saw you rubbing that belly out there. Oh, man, we're going
to have a baby. Bless your heart. You know what happened
when Jesus Christ died? He made peace, didn't He? He
made peace through the blood of His cross. And God hath reconciled
all things unto Himself. Will there be things in heaven
or things on earth? And now in Christ, we can all
sit together and have sweet communion, not only with one another, but
with heaven. I don't understand this, but
Hebrews chapter 12 tells us that we have come into the presence
of just men made perfect. God, the judge of all the earth. And to Jesus, the mediator. We
have no reason to fear, do we? No reason to fear at all. Under
this tree, heaven and earth. becomes one. And lastly, in verse 4 and in
verse 5. Let a little water, I pray, that
you be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under
the tree. I will fetch a morsel of bread
and comfort you your hearts. After that, you shall pass on. After that, you shall pass on.
Rest yourself under this tree, there's where you can rest, there's
where you can gather your strength, and then you can pass on. We can't live the Christian life
in ourselves. We don't have the strength to
do it. You can't live a Christian until he makes you a Christian.
And you can't live the Christian life except you live it in the
power of Jesus Christ. Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His mouth. I will suggest to you this morning
that, brothers and sisters, if we live the Christian life, the
way to live it is coming here and sitting under this tree,
resting ourselves. And only as we do that can we
go on about our way. I don't see how in the world
people live without sitting under the Gospel. You folks have had
trouble with that, haven't you? Why do you want a pastor? We
want to sit under this tree. Every Sunday, we want to sit
under this tree. Because that's where we're strengthened. Under
this tree. That's where we can go out and
face the world. Go on our way. Under this tree. After that,
like we said this morning, the life that I now live, I live
by faith in the Son of God who loved me. under this tree. Are you resting?
Are you resting under this tree? Are you resting under Christ
and Him crucified? Just come there often and sit
down. Rest your soul. And then when
you get up, you can go on your way. And all will be well. Let's pray. Oh, Father, thank
You. Thank You, Gracious Father, for
Christ and Him crucified. Rest for our weary souls. Rest
for our burdens. Life made so sweet, as sweet
as you're pleased to make it. We're able to bear it, to be
loving and patient and gracious, sending unto you, Lord, knowing
that you've finished the work on our behalf. Without this,
Lord, we'd despair. All the burdens of this life
would crush us to death. If we couldn't see Your smiling
face, Your redeeming face, we could not face this frowning
world. We could not face dying, not face death and eternity.
Oh, Lord, but under Your tree, we can face all things, have
a degree of happiness and joy and contentment. Oh, thank You
for the tree. Watch over this dear people,
Lord. Send them a pastor. One after your own heart. One
to feed them with wisdom and understanding. Feed them with
Christ Himself. In His name we pray.