Amen. John the Apostle had been shown a river that is proceeding out of the
throne of God. This river sets forth the Lord
Himself. God Almighty, God the Father,
God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, in all of the grace and power
and mercy and compassion that He has everlastingly purposed
to give to His people in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. That river is Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ. God in human flesh. The river. God Almighty. You cannot separate God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. The triune God. One God. And the fullness of
the Godhead in the man Christ Jesus. Now, I just can't enter
into the depth of that, but that's so. God Himself, the Lord, David
said, said to my Lord, sit thou at my right hand. There's a street in the city
of God, a street that we all soon shall
see all that believe Him, all that know Him." This is real. This is gloriously real. All
that Almighty God has everlastingly loved and chosen in Christ. Very soon. Very soon. we are
going to actually see Him who is the street. The street. Revelation 21, verse 21 says,
the latter part, And the street of the city was pure gold, as
it were transparent glass. One street. Christ Himself. He is the gold. Buy of me gold. He is the gold. He is the golden
street. Gold tried in the fire of divine
judgment and God's wrath for His people, even our walk. And we shall walk. That's what
Revelation 21, 24 says. And the nations of them which
are saved shall walk, have their mobility, have their movement. Even the walk of God's people
shall be in the light of His presence. Even Christ Himself
must be that by which we walk, the Lord Himself. He is the river. He is the street. He is the light. Without Him,
we can do nothing. Now, the Scripture says, verse
2, I'd like to look at one verse this morning, verse 2. Revelation
22, in the midst of the street of it and on either side of the
river was there the tree of life which bare twelve manner of fruits
and yielded her fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. Now to better understand that
first line, In that verse right there, it
says, in the midst of the street of it and on either side of the
river was there the tree of life. This is the literal of that portion
of that Scripture. In the midst of its street and
of the river from here and there was the tree of life. This is
what it's saying. In the midst or in the middle. between the river and the street
is what it's saying. There is a river that flows from
the throne of God. There is a street that is the
way. So this is actually what's being
said in that first part of the second verse. The street which
is the way to the Father. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh
unto the Father but by Me, the street. The river, the Scripture says
in verse 1 that we looked at last week, proceeds out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb. So there is a river that flows
from God to the people. And there is a
way that goes to the Father. So it's like a two-way street. Can I say it like that? All that
comes from the Father, from the river, is to the people of God. All that comes to the Father
is by the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the midst of that
double way is the tree of life. He is the mediator between God
and man. The man, Christ Jesus. He's the prophet from God to
men. And He is the priest from men
to God. So in the midst of the street
of it and on either side of the river is what it's saying. In
the middle, He is the center. He is all in all is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He is said here to be the
tree of life. Now this tree of life, the Scripture
says, which bear twelve manner of fruits. I thought it was real
interesting. The word bear there is the same
word made In 2 Corinthians 5.21, He hath made him sin. Bear right here is the same word. It means to produce, to be made. He, the tree of life
that is in the middle between the river from God and the way
to God. Way to the throne, way to the
Father, in the middle, right there, tree of life. And there
are made bare twelve manner of fruits. Now, the number twelve, that's
a very interesting number. One of the dictionaries, it was
a Greek dictionary. I've always said this, I don't
speak Greek, I don't speak Hebrew, but I can look up words, what
they mean. The number 12 has to do with
divine administration. That's how much I know about
the number 12, biblically. It has to do with God's sovereignty. It represents, sets forth all
that Almighty God has declared to be in His administrative council. Twelve apostles. Why did He choose
twelve apostles? It pleased Him to do so. Does
He not have the right? Twelve tribes of Israel. Why
twelve tribes? Twelve hours of the day. Twelve fruits. He buried twelve
fruits. Why twelve? It pleased Him to
do so. But this number twelve, as far
as our understanding, someone says, well, that means twelve
means a dozen. It always means a dozen. Really? It always means twelve. Revelation 7, just turn back
to Revelation 7. Let me read you a verse of scripture,
we're 12. As far as our understanding,
what does it mean? It means, well, it means whatever God Almighty
says it means. Revelation 12, I'm sorry, Revelation
7, verse 2. And I saw another angel ascending
from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried
with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given,
to hurt the earth and the sea, saying, Hurt not the earth, neither
the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of
our God in their foreheads." And I heard the number of them
that were sealed. And there were sealed 144,000 of all the tribes
of the children of Israel, 144,000. of the tribe of Judah, 12,000.
Reuben, 12,000. Gad, 12,000. Asher, 12,000. Nephilim,
12,000. Manassas, 12,000. Simeon, 12,000. Levi, 12,000. Itzikar,
12,000. Zabulon, 12,000. Joseph, 12,000. Benjamin, 12,000. There
it is. Exactly, exactly, 144,000, exactly
how many was done? Read verse 9. After this, I beheld
and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and
people and tongues stood before the throne and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes and palms in their hand. How many? A number that no man
could number. I thought it said 12,000. I thought
it said 144,000. It is a number that is given and
the exact interpretation of it is not set forth. It's a number
that no man could number. 12,000. Here back in Revelation 22, it
says on either side of the river there was the tree of life which
bear twelve fruits. The manner of is in italics. It is twelve fruits. And it set
forth that which is produced. Those twelve fruits were born,
bear, b-a-r-e, bear, produced or created. And it's the evidence
or the character of the one that produces them. That means twelve
fruits produced. And that which is produced is
evidenced or is the evidence of the one that produces it.
Here's the same word, fruits. That's that word twelve fruits. That word, fruits, it actually
means to be plucked, and it also means that which is evidence
of the One from Whom it came. Listen to this one. Matthew 7,
16. You shall know them by their fruits. That's what the word
means. To evidence the character of. Here was a tree of life. And
it bare twelve fruits. The fruit of the tree of life
is that which he has within himself and is everything that answers
to our need. Twelve fruits. Twelve manner
of fruits. And this tree of life yielded
her fruit every month. Will we eat in heaven? Adam ate before he fell. The trees of the garden were
given. What will we eat? This is how much we know. Twelve
manna of fruits. She yielded her fruit every month. I can tell you for a fact I know
what it means concerning the tree of life. He is evergreen. He ever liveth. The fruit, all
spiritual blessings of God's grace is from Him who loved us
and gave Himself for us. We will walk. We will see. We will have fellowship with. We will bow. We will worship.
Let me tell you something. We will be vitally more alive
than we are right now. We are plagued with the presence
of an old fallen nature. But in that day, no more tears,
no more sorrow, no more pain. Nothing except the glory of Him
who has everlastingly loved us and gave Himself for us. Intimate relation, intimate feeding,
intimate walking, personal, gloriously personal in this life and in life eternal. All of the elect, the bride,
the church, is going to be sustained by the Lord Jesus Christ. What
will it be like? The Scripture says, "...Eye hath
not seen, ear hath not heard, neither hath entered into the
heart of man that which God hath prepared for those that love
Him." You look back in the garden.
There was a garden. He sustained it. What will it
be like in that day? More than you and I can ever
imagine. The tree of life, He who produces the fruit, the sustenance
of all of His people as He sustains us right now, He shall forever
sustain us. Without Him we can do nothing
ever, ever, ever. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. The healing, the restoring, the
cure. Now I thought on that for a long
time. I looked at that and the leaves
of the tree were for the healing of the nations. I think to understand that last
part, we've got to go back to the garden. Let's go back to
the beginning. In the garden, there were two
trees in particular that were spoken of. Genesis 2.9 says,
And 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. The tree of life. The tree of life that was in
the first book of the Holy Scriptures and the tree of life that's in
the last book of the Holy Scriptures. The tree of life. Christ Himself. Christ Himself is the tree of
life. He said, I am the vine. You're
the branches. I'm the vine. He is the tree.
The tree of knowledge of good and evil. The tree that first of all, I
know this, sets forth God's sovereignty and right to place upon man God's
demand for obedience. The tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. That tree. The knowledge of good
and evil, that tree that set forth what it is to know good
without the ability to perform it and to know evil without the
ability to avoid it. One of them is to know good without
the ability to perform it or to do it and to know evil and
not be able to not do it. Now that's a predicament. Well,
Adam ate of the forbidden fruit, and so did his wife. His wife
ate and she gave it to Adam. And the Scripture says that as
soon as he ate, they both knew that they were naked. They knew immediately. They knew good. That was the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They both knew good. That is, they knew that God was
to be obeyed. And they hadn't done it. They knew they were wrong as
soon as they ate. We're naked. And they knew evil. That is,
they knew that they had no ability to avoid it. We've disobeyed God. He was to be obeyed and we didn't
do it. So what they did was they sewed
fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. But those leaves did not cover
them before God. The Lord came walking in the
garden, and the Scripture says Adam and Eve heard Him, and they
hid themselves. And the Lord called to them. And Adam said, Well, I hid myself
because we were naked. And He said, Who told you you
were naked? The Lord said, Did you eat of
the fruit that I forbid you? And Adam said, Well, the woman that you gave me, she
gave it to me and I ate it. The Lord spoke to Eve and He
said, You ate? She said, Well, the serpent beguiled
me. The Scripture says that Almighty
God lest man put forth his hand and take also of the tree of
life and eat and live forever." That is, in that state, God put
him out. But what did Adam and Eve try
to do to cover themselves? The Scripture says that they
took fig leaves, sewed them together to make themselves a covering. to hide their nakedness before
God. They took leaves and tried to
make themselves a robe, a covering. This is exactly what man by nature
does today apart from the regenerating grace of Almighty God. saying that he wants to eat of
Christ, drink of Christ. Man says that I can be a rebellious
creature. He knows good and evil. Man by
nature knows good and evil. We've talked about this before
back in Mexico where those Mayan The priests would take it and
cut the hearts out of those sacrifices. They know good and evil. They
know good without the ability to do it, and they know evil
and they can't avoid it. They know man by nature right
now knows what Adam and Eve did in the garden when they rebelled
against God is exactly what man by nature does now. A rebellious
creature that thinks that he can cover himself and reconcile
himself back to God and make himself a covering by taking
his axe. Adam set forth what man thinks. I can take and make myself a
covering. I'll give my heart to Jesus.
I'll be baptized. I'll join the church. I'm going
to read my Bible. I'm going to pray through. I'm
going to speak in tongues. I'm going to turn over a new
leaf. I'm going to quit drinking and
smoking and cussing as much. And I'm going to make myself
a coat. will make me a fig leaf coat. But Almighty God covered them with the skins of
animals. And the Scripture says, setting
forth the same truth, man cannot take the leaves of his own wicked
works and cover himself before God but of the tree of life. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Only this tree, only the product of this tree, only the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ can cover a man before God. Only
these leaves, not the fig leaves of Adam's work, but the leaves
of this tree. This tree. is for the healing. This is the product of this tree. The leaves of this tree is His
righteousness, His obedience, His sacrifice. His life is the
only covering that robes the objects of God's mercy and compassion. In the midst of the street of
it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of
life, which bared twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations." May Almighty God add His blessing
upon the hearing and the preaching and the understanding of His
Word for His glory and for our good. Amen.