Turn with me again to the book
of Genesis chapter 3. I might be somewhat repetitious
this morning, and I'm sure that won't take you by surprise. Genesis chapter 3 verse 22, and
I'll read through Verse 24, And the Lord God said, Behold,
the man is become as one of us to no 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
which he was taken. So he drove out the man and 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. The man soon, I don't know how
soon, after his creation, after God created him, placed him in
a perfect environment Soon thereafter, man sinned against God and failed. And the result of man's transgression
against God, the result of that was death,
spiritual death, and eventually physical death. That's the reason
that Me and today do not love God, do not love Christ, and
are not committed to Him is because they're dead spiritually. And we cannot do anything about
this situation. I can't bring someone that's
dead back to life. I can't call someone that doesn't
love the gospel to love the gospel. I can't, I'm helpless, I couldn't
even make myself do it. And if you do, or if I do, it's
because the same God that created us and drove man from the garden
has given us love for Him and for His Word, for His Gospel.
I know this, I know that I don't feel like that I love Him like
I should, like I want to. I know, I feel that way, that's
my perspective. I don't feel that I've ever been
committed to him the way that I really should be. That's my
view, my perception of myself. I never feel like I get in this
pulpit prepared enough. And most of the time when I step
down from this podium, I feel like I've preached the worst
message that I could possibly, anyone could ever preach. I just feel like most of the
time, and this is really, it's got something to do with self-righteousness. It's got something to do with
the knowledge of sin, which God said now He's as one of us, He
knows good and evil. We know the good and we know
the evil, and we look at ourself, we say evil. We look at Him,
we say good. That's the way believer is, the
way a child of God is. But the truth of the matter is
that when man sinned, he died spiritually. And the only way
that we'll ever live spiritually is if he gives us life. And in
the giving of that life, there begins a warfare between the
flesh and the spirit. And this is what goes on all
the time. It never ends. It'll end someday
when this flesh finally dies, but it won't end until then.
If there's not a war going on, then there's no life. That's
just plain and simple. If there's not a war going on,
if you don't fight against yourself, fight against the flesh, if it's
not a fight and a struggle, then you're still dead. And, boy,
sometimes you just anticipate. You know, I can't really say
that I want to die, but you anticipate being rid of this flesh. Good
grief. When will this thing be over,
you know? And because of man's sin, because
of his transgression, God drove him from the garden, sent him
from the garden. He made him leave. And this suggests,
and I don't fully understand all that transpired here, the
time period, the time frame, as they say when they're investigating
a crime scene. I don't necessarily know the
time frame. and all that transpired, but
we do have some evidence here that man did not willingly go
from the garden, because it says, Scripture says that God drove
him from the garden, sent him from the garden. And this was because I feel that
this was because he had some knowledge now of good and evil.
Because the Lord God had spoken to Adam, And this was a gracious thing
that God did. If He ever speaks to you, it's
a gracious thing. If He ever makes you to know
your sin, it's a gracious thing. Not many folks have a clue to
what sin is. And Adam had more than a clue. When God spoke to him, he said,
Adam, where are you? And he said, here I am. God said,
what did you do? God both knew where he was and
he knew what he did. But this was to make Adam really
know where he was and what he did. And if God in grace and
mercy would speak to us and say, where are you and what are you
doing? I really believe that we would
know who we are and what we're doing. Until He does, we won't.
And because God has spoken to him and made known his sin, He
drove him from the garden. But before this, as we said last
week, the Gospel is preached many times in shadows, pictures,
and types. before this happened and after
this happened, before he drove him from the garden. And God
killed an animal and clothed Adam and Eve. I know some commentators
said God made Adam kill the animal, made him skin it and made his
own clothes. But I don't think that's the
situation at all. The scripture does not say that or does not
allude to that. But it says that God took the
skin of an animal, which in order for him to take the skin, he
had to die. His blood had to be shed. And he took the skin
from that animal and made clothes for Adam, and he clothed them.
And they were driven from the garden. This all transpired. Like I said, I don't know the
time period, time frame. and all that went on here, but
we find Adam and Eve outside the garden, and God rested there at the gate, the
east, the only entrance to the garden, God rested in His Shekinah
glory, the flaming sword, it was brandished, it was moving
so fast it was just a glittering instrument, and there was no
way that they could get back into the garden. And that sword,
of course, represents the justice of God, the Word of God, God's
judgment on sin. And after anyone entered the
garden, entered into paradise, it must be by the way that God
prescribed. And here the Scripture says in
verse 24, So he drove man out, and placed
at the east of Garden of Eden cherubim's flaming sword which
turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. And that's what I want us to
focus on this morning is the way of the tree of life, or the
way of life, or the tree of life, however you would want to describe
it. Sin left its mark upon human
nature. I know that we, if we're aware
of this at all, it's just a little. The depth of our depravity, the
distance of our fall is incomprehensible. I'm sure of this, that if we
knew the scope of it, the depth of it, that we wouldn't be able
to bear it. God reveals it to us as He is
pleased to, in a manner that He is pleased to, that we can
comprehend as much as He is pleased for us to comprehend, for us
to know that it is so. I don't know the depth of my
sin. I know what the Scriptures say
and I believe it. But as far as experiencing it,
feeling it, being able to see it fully, no. We see more and
more of it all the time as we grow in grace and knowledge.
but we can't see the whole scope of it. Sin left its mark upon
us. And I can, you know, and I know
this is a weak illustration, but I can see the mark of it
today in myself and in you and in those around me. I see it in myself. hopefully more than I see it
anywhere else as far as life's experience. But let me say this
before I continue. My illustration is that where
it is seen the most, sin's devastating consequences is in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is where it's seen the most. But to bring it to home, to us, I see it not so much in my physical
demeanor, if you will, but I see it in my thinking. I see it in
my attitude. I see it in my desire. I have
some things about me that you don't see. You see the marks
of sin in me by the things I do or I don't do, as I you. But when God gives me the ability
and the grace and the eyes to see myself inwardly, I see that an ugly thing. I don't see a pretty picture.
I see the marks of Adam's fall in myself. I see the, and like I said, I
don't see the depth of the scope of it, but listen to me. I see
the proneness, the ability, The ability to explode into a mass
of nothing but vileness and corruption. Would God leave me to myself? I see the proneness of hatred
for God. I see the self-glorying, righteous, self-centeredness of myself sometimes. And it's almost more, I feel, my unworthiness. And I'm not
saying this, I don't feel this morning in a sanctimonious way
to say that that in some way my condition
merits His favor. I'm not saying that. But just
the open-neckedness of my sin and my corruption. As David said,
my sin is ever before me. And he said, it's before God
I've done this evil, and I've sinned in Thy sight. The mark of Sin is upon us. And I believe with all of my
heart, the Scriptures teach that in some degree, God must reveal
this to us before we'd ever cry out to Him for mercy. For some,
it's enough to know a doctrine. For some, it's enough to be religious
in some way. For some, it's enough, just little
piecemeal things. that really mean nothing. But God that must reveal to us
our blindness, our death, our hardness of heart, our sin and
our evil. This is the reason Adam and Eve
did not want to leave the garden because they knew good and evil. And this is the very reason that
all those who have been awakened to the goodness and the glory
of God and awakened to the sinfulness of sin, this is the reason they
want to get back into the garden. This is our desire for Christ
because He is everything we are not. And we are everything He
is. And as I said in the marking the indelible markings
of our fallen nature, we see self-righteousness, self-justification,
excuses, human reasoning, the exaltation of human opinion above
the Word of God. In short, we see man's rebellion
and enmity, hatred against God. It says this of the believer,
of the child of God. In Colossians 121, And you who
were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. Do we know anything about being
alienated and enemies? That's strong words. That's strong. Think about it.
Alienated. Driven from. Sent from. driven
out, alienated from God and enemies of God. Is it a contradiction to say
that we hate our enemies? I'm talking about in a natural
sense. Now think about it. Is it so
far-fetched To think, for me to think that I hate my enemies? I'm talking about a natural man.
If someone is my enemy, I'm not talking about someone that hates
me, but someone that I consider to be my enemy. I'll tell you
my greatest enemy is myself. I've heard of thee with the hearing
of the ear, now my eye sees you, therefore I hate myself. I'm an enemy. Sin is an enemy
of God. Is it something that is so far fetched
that I would think that Whatever is an enemy of God is my enemy.
I'm speaking now as a believer, a child of God. Sin is my enemy. I am my own enemy. This natural
man is. When I would do good, evil is
present with me. I hate that. The believer hates every false
way and false God. Man was driven from the garden
Man by nature is a rebel and an enemy against God. And what I want us to see this
morning, most of all, is that salvation is by the grace of
God alone, through faith in Christ alone. Now I know I said I'd be repetitious,
and the gospel is a repetition of what God has said. And all
of God's preachers are saying the same thing, Sunday after
Sunday, week after week, message after message, if they're indeed
God's preachers. But here we see in this passage
a way to the tree of life. And we know that the Lord Jesus
Christ is that tree of life. We know that He is the way to
God. And that salvation is by His
grace alone. It's not by our works, but it's
by His grace. It's by faith. He gives faith
to see. Faith embraces the Lord Jesus
Christ. Embraces means to love. to desire. The devil knew the Lord Jesus
Christ. He knows Him. Judas Iscariot knew Christ. So if you say, do you know Christ?
That's a broad thing to say. That covers a lot in a lot of
people. You say, yes, I know him. But
my question is this, do you love him? Do you desire him? Is he your way of life? Is he? Is he your way of life? How many mothers have said, my
children are my life? They're my life. What are they
saying? I live for them. I love them. I'd do anything for them. I'd
die for them. And they have. When we say we believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, we know Him. Is this what we're saying? He's my life. I love Him. I'd
give anything for Him. I'd die for him. Have you ever read Fox's book
of Christian martyrs? It's a good book, a historical
book. It just tells some things that happened during the great
persecution. And, you know, not to get on
a sad note or make anyone feel sorry for anyone, but just to
show you what I mean to give you an illustration. Those that professed faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, they were given an option. Renounce faith in Him, deny Him,
or you'll die. Now, these are good stories.
They're true. Renounce Him or you'll die. You'll be burned
at the stake. They took mothers. They were eight months pregnant, ripped their bellies open, their
wombs open, took that baby out and put it, hold it over hot
oil, boiling oil. You deny your faith in Jesus
Christ or you're going to watch your baby boil in that hot oil. They'd tie believers, a rope
around their neck, one around their feet, between two horses,
one headed east and one west. You deny or you'll die. Now we've not been brought to
that point. I thank the Lord for that. But there were those that would
not deny the Lord Jesus Christ upon those options. They said
no. But we Now listen, we are brought
by His Spirit, by His grace, by His sovereign power to this
same position. Every one of us that are believers
are brought to this same position. Do we love Him or do we not? This is where we stand. And if
the footmen tire you, what will the horses do? If we can't contend
with the little things that would draw us away from Christ, how
are we going to stand when the big things come? If a little
prosperity, a little enjoyment of the world, a little things
of the flesh, a little this and a little of that, if that takes
us away and gets us all in a tizzy about and gets our priorities
all screwed up, what would we do? when the horses come, when
the floods come, when the trials come, when the sword comes. Salvation is by the grace of
God, and His grace is strong. That's what I'm saying, His grace
is powerful. His grace is not what man makes it out to be.
There's a way of life. that God has provided and everything is
provided in it the way itself, which is the Lord Jesus Christ,
is powerful and strong and it's in the hands of God. This way
of life is God's way. And He brings all of His children
in the same way. There's things that I can say
about every one of us that without variance with every
believer. That's so, because the scripture
says it's so. That's simple. There's only one
way. In that day there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David, that's the church,
the children, the children of God, and to the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. There'll be a way open. There'll
be a door open. There'll be a gate open. And
sinners can come in. Sinners will be brought in the
same God that drove that out brings His children in. He said this door, this gate,
this way, He provides. And if He don't provide it in
vain, He provides it with a purpose. And that's all those that He
brings, He brings them completely in. This is His way. Here we have
the way of life. The Lord Jesus Christ. And it's
so plain in the Scriptures. It's so plain. There's not a
doubt about it. Not one place for doubt. It's
so plain. The only thing men can do with
this is to deny it and say it's a lie. It's not so. Now let me
read this to you. You already can quote it. You
already know it. John 14, 6, Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way. Now is that plain enough? I am
the way. If He is the way, then there
is no other way. If I say this is the Son, what
am I saying? There is only one Son and that's
it. What is that thing shining up
there in the sky? That is the Son, the only one. He is the way. The Gospel points
me into the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the way. I'm not telling you to reform,
to stop doing this, stop doing that, to make some kind of reformation
or adjustments. I'm saying that there's only
one way. I'm just saying what God said.
I'm just saying what Christ said. He said, I'm the way, the truth
and the life. And that flaming sword that glitters
and moves every which way, that's there to make sure and certain that there is no entrance except
by this one way, the Lord Jesus Christ. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. Now that's, there really shouldn't
be but one gospel. There really isn't, but there's
some other that says there is another gospel. But Paul said
to the church at Galatia, he said, they're cursed. There is
no other gospel. There is no other way. No man
comes to the Father but by me. In John 1.14, that the Word was
made flesh. The Word is God. And He's made
flesh and dwell among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory of the Almighty God and of the Father, full of grace
and full of truth. Now here we have the only true
and living God, God of justice, God of glory, majesty, power. And we have a sinner that's everything
that's opposite of Him. He's unrighteous. He's unholy.
He's unjust. And they cannot ever come into
agreement. God cannot agree with sin. And
a sinner, because he loves sin and because he's dead in it,
he can never love righteousness and holiness. He just can't do
it. He can pretend to. He can go to church. He can make a profession. He
can become religious. He can be baptized. He can do all the things, but he can't ever be in agreement
with God. And God can never be in agreement
with him. Not going to happen. Light and darkness can't dwell
together. Sin and righteousness can't dwell together. But the
Scriptures tell us of a way. Man can't do it on his own. God,
apart from His Son, if I can use this expression, can't do
it. God could never save a sinner apart from Christ. If He could, Christ wouldn't
have had to come and die. If God said, I'll just save this
one, that one, I'll, you know, just make things right, God couldn't
do that because He's holy and just and good. He hates sin. But there's a way. Just one way. One God. One sinner. One way. I'm that sinner. Let's look at it that way. There's
just one sinner. I'm that sinner. And here's God who cannot approach. But boy, there is a way. And
I want to know that way, don't you? The Lord Jesus Christ is
that way. He was made flesh and dwells
among us. We beheld His glory. What is His glory? He's sinless. Here is a man in the flesh that's
sinless. That which separates from all others is that which
is glorious. He's separate from sinners. He's
a perfect man. He's the man that can enter.
He's the man that can get through the gate. He's the man that justice
has to hold his sword still. If there's any man that's perfect
and holy and just and right, he can come in. The Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the way. He's the way to
God. He went within the veil. He approaches
God. He's in the presence of God.
He's in His very presence. He ascended into His very presence.
He satisfied every demand of God's law. And as every mouth must be stopped,
the whole world become guilty before God. On the other hand,
the law must close its mouth when the Lord Jesus Christ approaches
because it has no accusation against Him, because in Him is
no sin. Now here is the glorious thing
about it, and I don't understand all there is concerning this
either. But hopefully I'm learning, and you're learning, We learn
together, but I know this is glorious, and I'm thankful. But
the Lord Jesus Christ took my sin to one God, one sinner,
one Savior. He took my sin into His own self because He
loved me. That's the only reason I could
find the Scriptures. His great love wherewith He loved us. In
this was love of God was manifest that He become a perpetuation
of satisfaction for my sin. He took my sin into His own body
and satisfied the justice of God. God punished Him for my
sin. And now the only way that I can enter is to enter in the
Lord Jesus Christ. You know, there must be, let
me give you two illustrations of this. The wrath of God in
the antediluvian world, that's before the flood, the wrath of
God was going to be poured out. And God prepared by Noah, He
prepared a provision for His people to not suffer the wrath
of God. Noah was a sinner, so was his
family. But Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. And God prepared an ark. Let's
say that we know that the hands of Noah built the ark, but God
built the ark. Let's say for the sake of the
truth and the spiritual truth of it, God built that ark. And
God put Noah and those whom He chose to put in that ark inside
the ark, and He shut the door. This is the only place that was
safe. The only place that no one in
his family would be saved was in that ark. And that ark is
a picture of the top of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the only place that we're
safe and we can enter into paradise, enter into the presence
of God, is in that ark in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's wrath
was poured out on His Son. God's wrath was poured out on
the ark. But those inside didn't sustain any damage because the
ark took the battering and the beating. And we don't sustain
any damage because the Lord Jesus Christ took the battering and
the beating of God's wrath. He's the way of life. The only
entrance is in the Lord Jesus Christ. The law was given by
Moses which said death. But grace and truth came by the
Lord Jesus Christ who is life. The law says die. Christ said
live. The law was, by the law was the
issue of death because it pronounced death upon all sin. But in the
Lord Jesus Christ, He came that we might have life and have it
more abundantly. I give unto them eternal life,
and they shall never perish. For as the Father hath life in
Himself, so hath He given the Son to have life in Himself."
That's life to give. He that hath the Son. He that
hath the Son. Do you have the Son? And again, what that means is
this, and I think you know that and I may be wording it, maybe
not to your satisfaction, but he that has a son loves him,
embraces him, desires him. He that has the son has life. And he that hath not the son
hath not life. He's just religious. He's just
got a hold of a doctrine. He's just doing a duty. But he that has a son has life. He can love. He does love. The thief cometh not but for
to steal and to kill and to destroy. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I
am come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. There's one way. God has made it so simple, hasn't
he? There is one way, and that's Christ. There's one life, and
that's Christ. There's one gospel, that's Christ. There's one doctrine, that's
Christ. I don't get confused when I think
about it like that, do you? Oh, when I start thinking about
the Charismatics, the Pentecostals, the Baptists, and there's about
half a dozen different brands of Baptists. and Presbyterians, and Methodists,
and all the different preachers saying all these different things.
That just drives you crazy each second. You try to pick out some
one saying something, somebody else says it. Why not listen
to God's preachers saying Christ's all? He's it. There ain't nothing
else. Why don't forget about all this
other stuff? It's just junk, just garbage. Or just enough
truth isn't to make it a fable. to make it a lie and to damn
you, what God said. That's what's
important to Him. That's what's necessary is what
God said. The Lord Jesus Christ said, I'm
the way, I'm the truth, and I'm the life. He said, I didn't come to steal
and to kill and destroy. He said, I come to not have life
and have it more abundantly. This way of life is God's way,
not man's. That's one thing that makes it
good. I'll give you about four or five things here to consider,
and then we'll move on. It's God's way, not man's. That's wonderful, isn't it? You
know, everybody's got a way. You've got your way, and I've
got mine, and we all have different ways. That's the same way it
is in religion. Everybody's got different ways.
You do it this way and we do it that way. We sing an old song,
you know, you go to your church and I'll go to mine, but let's
walk along together. Let's just join hands, walk down
the road together. God loves us all. We all wind
up in heaven. I'll go in here at the Methodist
church and you go in at the Baptist church or the Catholic church,
but we're both going to wind up inside the pearly gates. Everybody's got their way. Somebody
said, you've got to talk to Mary, the Pope. Somebody said, you've
got to come to the altar. Somebody said, you've got to
sign this, you've got to do that. Scripture, let me simplify it
for you. Christ said, I'm the way. Don't come up here to the
altar. Don't go running off after every
wind of doctrine to find life or just one way of life. That's
Christ. It's not man's way. The way that
I read to you this morning in Isaiah 35, Jonah said there's
just one way. When God brought him to as low
as a man could go and still live. Some think that Jonah died. I'm just preaching to those who
are interested this morning. Jonah said, he said, I've seen a way. When he was the belly of hell,
the seaweed had wrapped around him, the bars were before him
and he couldn't help himself. He was a sinner before God. There
he was at the gate. He said, I see a way. He said,
salvation's of the Lord. That's all the way there is.
It's of Him. There's nobody else. It's God's way. There's just
one way, not many ways, one entrance to the ark, one entrance to the
garden. Scripture says there's a way
it seems right, but then there are the ways of death. There's
just one way. Straight is the gate, Matthew
7, 14, and narrow the way, and few there be that find it. This
way is by grace through faith. It's by spiritual birth. It's
by the personal work of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the way
of life. God guards that way. No one's
going to get any other way. No other way except Christ. I believe that's the gospel.
And I believe that's the truth. I'm confident that that's the
truth. That's what scriptures teach.
Any other message ain't worth preaching. Not worth hearing. That's the way. Not very many
people want to hear it. Look around you and see that. Don't care. You know, that's
funny how people, I don't know why we think we have to impress
somebody or fool somebody or something. There's no, you know,
folks don't need to worry about what the preacher thinks or says.
I mean, I appreciate the respect. You know, it's evident who loves
the gospel and who don't. To a certain degree. And it will be, finally. Let's
bow our heads. Our Father, we thank you this
morning for the truth. Lord, there's so many ways. Lord, so many false gods, so
many false Christs, so many false gospels. Lord, we thank you that
you've made it by your grace. You've condescended, made it
simple. Lord, you've shown us that Christ is on the way. Lord,
we'll never know him apart from your grace. Lord, this is your
work, not ours. We're so thankful. Lord, I pray
that you'd reveal the Lord Jesus Christ to us afresh. Lord, increase our desire and
love for Him. Lord, forgive us for our sins
and failures. Lord, we know that we indeed,
Lord, it must be of grace because in this flesh dwells no good
thing. Lord, I appeal to you. I beseech you, Lord, that you
hold the Lord Jesus Christ before us. Lord, we are depending on
you for all things. In Christ's name we pray. You
can be dismissed.