The Tree of Life (Part 2)

Q: What does the Bible say about the tree of life?

The Bible describes the tree of life in Revelation 22:2 as bearing twelve kinds of fruits and providing healing for the nations. The tree of life is mentioned in both Genesis and Revelation. In Revelation 22:2, it symbolizes eternal life and restoration, as it bears twelve manner of fruits each month and its leaves are for the healing of the nations. This tree signifies not only physical sustenance but also spiritual nourishment, ultimately pointing to Christ as the source of eternal life. The presence of the tree in both Eden and the New Jerusalem underscores God's promise of life and communion with Him for His redeemed people.

Q: How do we know that Christ is the tree of life?

Christ is symbolically referred to as the tree of life because through Him, believers receive eternal life and restoration. In theological terms, the tree of life represents Christ, who is the source of life for all believers. Just as access to the tree of life restored humanity in the Garden of Eden, Christ's redemptive work allows believers to partake of eternal life. This is highlighted in Revelation 2:7, where it states that to the one who overcomes, God will grant the right to eat from the tree of life. Therefore, Christ embodies the ultimate fulfillment of what the tree of life symbolizes—a restoration of fellowship with God and the imparting of eternal life to His people.

Q: Why is understanding the fall of man important for Christians?

Understanding the fall of man is crucial as it explains the need for redemption through Christ and God's mercy towards sinners. The fall of man, as narrated in Genesis 3, provides deep insight into human nature and the necessity of divine salvation. Adam and Eve's disobedience led to a separation from God, illustrating the consequences of sin and its impact on all of humanity. Without comprehending the depths of this fall, one cannot fully appreciate the grace offered through Christ. His sacrifice on the cross is vital for reconciliation; it highlights God's justice and mercy. Understanding the fall allows Christians to grasp the significance of salvation and the extent of God's love, making the message of the Gospel clearer and more profound.

Q: How does Christ reconcile believers to God?

Christ reconciles believers to God by taking on their sins and offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice. Christ’s reconciliation of believers to God is based on His perfect obedience and sacrificial death. As the second Adam, He bore the weight of Adam's disobedience and the sins of the elect, satisfying God's justice through His death on the cross. This act of love and justice allows believers to approach God not based on their works but through the righteousness of Christ. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is central to this reconciliation; it assures believers that their guilt is transferred to Christ, and through faith in Him, they are declared righteous. This foundational truth assures believers of their acceptance before God, fulfilling the promises made from the beginning.

Q: What does it mean to be justified before God?

To be justified before God means to be declared righteous based on faith in Christ, rather than personal merit. Justification is a central tenet of Reformed theology, signifying that believers are declared righteous by God through faith in Christ alone. This act is not based on any works or worthiness of the individual, but solely on the imputed righteousness of Christ. Romans 3:24 states that we are justified freely by His grace. This doctrine offers profound comfort to believers, assuring them that their standing before God is secure, not fluctuating with personal performance but anchored in the finished work of Christ. It emphasizes that salvation is entirely an act of God’s grace, inviting believers to live in freedom and gratitude for the mercy they have received.

Let's take our Bibles. Well, I tell you what, I was
going to say Revelation. Let's turn to Genesis chapter
2. Genesis chapter 2. While you're
turning there, I'm going to ask you to be remembering Jan. This
is Joyce's sister. She's going to be going in, got
some tests that they're going to have to be doing on her and think that maybe she has cancer. So let's just be remembering
her. Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Our Father, we thank You this
morning for another time we've come together. What a privilege
and an honor to be able to assemble ourselves together in your name
to look at your Word. Bless this Word, we pray. Teach
us. Lord, we are needy people that
need to be taught by your Spirit. For Christ's sake we ask these
things. Amen. Last Sunday morning, in the second
service, I dealt with Revelation 22, verse 2. You just hold your place there
in Genesis 2. And this was the passage that
I looked at. It said, "...in the midst of
the street of it, 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." I dealt with the tree of life. And this morning I'd like to
just take this first service and Let's kind of recap what
was actually dealt with in that verse, and then, Lord willing,
in the next service we'll go to the third verse of the 22nd
chapter of Revelation. In the Garden of Eden, the Scripture
says that the Lord God made to grow every tree that was pleasant
to the sight and was good for food. God made the trees. Every tree, he said, is pleasant. Now, there was one tree that
was in the Garden of Eden, and that was the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. And God forbid man to eat. of that tree. The eating of the
tree, or the eating of the fruit of the tree, of the knowledge
of good and evil, carried a penalty with it. The Lord told Adam,
in the day that you eat of that tree, you are going to die. Genesis 2, 17, 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. Dying, you're going to die. You're
going to die spiritually. The moment you eat of that tree,
the moment that you partake, the moment that you eat, you're
going to die right there. There would be a knowledge of
good and evil. When you ate of it, the moment
you eat, you will possess the knowledge of good and you will
possess the knowledge of evil in the day that you eat. There
would be the knowledge of good, that is to say, you would possess
good you would know that God needs
to be appeased. But you're not going to know
how to accomplish it. You'll know it. Every man, every
woman born in Adam knows good. That is, they know that God,
or their God, is angry. I said, you look at the Mayan
Indians, and I talked about going down to Walter Grovers We went
to these Mayan Indian ruins and there they were. They'd say,
yeah, these Indians would take it and they would sacrifice these
maidens. They would capture these men
that were warriors that they'd capture and they'd bring them
and they'd put them on this sacrificial table here and they'd cut their
hearts out. Why? They knew that their God
was angry. Everybody knows that. Everybody
knows in their mind that Their God, whoever their God is, is
angry. And they know that that God has
to be appeased. So they know good. But they also
have the knowledge of evil. What does that mean? They know
that they're the ones that did it. But they're not able to avoid
evil. They're in a real plight. They
know good and they know evil. They know good but not able to
accomplish it, and they know evil and they're not able to
avoid it. Now that tree was the symbol
of God's authority, God's sovereignty. And it was man's boundary to
his liberty. You can go this far. Man was
created by Almighty God and man was in subjection. to God. You can eat of all the trees,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, don't eat that
one. And the day you eat that one,
you're going to die. Now, immediately following God's
instruction. Now look in Genesis 2.17. Here's
what God told 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." Now, I want you to look at the
next verse. Look at the next thing that God
said. Verse 18, And the Lord God said,
It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make him and
help meet for him. It doesn't say, I will make him
a helpmeet, as if that's one word. That's not. I will make
him an help. That is, I will make him or I
will accomplish or appoint or bestow him an help. That is, that word help, there
is an aid. I will help. I will give him
an aid. that is meet for him, or fit
for him, or that is before him. I will make him and help meet
for him. Now, this help or this aid was
not formed out of the dust as Adam was. It was taken out of
himself. The scripture says, verse 21,
ìThe Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept,
and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof. And the rib which the Lord God
had taken from man made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, ìThis is now bone
of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because
she was taken out of Therefore shall a man leave his father
and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be
one flesh." Now, a woman was formed out of the man, and Adam
said, ìThis is bone of my bone. This is flesh of my flesh. Sheís found out of me.î Now,
there is a glorious picture. of the church, the bride, formed
out of the very one who is her head, her Lord, her husband,
the woman, the church, found and formed in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Adam and Eve were innocent. They were formed in There was
no fear, there was no guilt, because there was no sin. Here
they were. But something happened in the
garden that changed man's position before God. Satan, the serpent,
beguiled Eve, fooled her. And he tempted her. to eat of that fruit that was
forbidden by Almighty God to eat. Though Adam had been told
by God that the penalty for disobedience was death, when Eve ate of that
tree, verse 6 of the third chapter of Genesis says, the woman saw
that the tree was good for food. 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 it also unto her husband with her, and
he did eat. And Adam ate of that fruit with
his eyes wide open. He knew just exactly what he
was doing. When she ate of that fruit, he
knew she was going to die. And Adam took of that fruit and
ate of that fruit. His love for her would not let
her die alone. The eyes of both of them were
open. And the Scripture says they knew
that they were naked. They knew they were. They knew
good now. that they were exposed before
Almighty God. They knew that God now was angry. The day you eat of it, you're
going to die. They knew it. They knew because
of sin that their nakedness must be covered before God, but they
didn't know how to do it. How are we going to cover ourselves
before God? You leave a man or a woman to
themselves. And you ask them, you think God
is angry? Oh, I'm sure God's angry. What
is it going to take to hide yourself, to hide your spiritual nakedness
before God? What's that going to take? And
you'll hear every excuse under the sun. You'll hear, well, you
know, you've got to go to church. Now, we're just going to have
to start going to church now. We're going to have to get right with
God. We're going to have to start being witnesses. You know what,
we need to start doing our home study. Now, we need to start
saying grace before church. Now, we're going to start doing,
you know, we're going to start reading our Bible and we're going to
start. What is it going to take? Man doesn't know. He doesn't
know how to accomplish. They know evil. They know that
God's got to be appeased, but they don't know how to avoid
continuing doing. The moment that the reckoning
came, God was walking in the garden and he called to Adam
and he said, Where are you? Where art thou? Now guilty, afraid, knowingly
that he had rebelled against God, Adam said, I hid myself. Why did you hide yourself? He
said, I was naked. Who told you that you were? Who
told you that? Well, the Lord said, after talking
with Adam, and in the next message I want to deal with the curse
that was placed when God spoke with Adam. The Lord said in chapter
3, verse 22, 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 the tree of life, and
eat and live forever, God put him out of the garden. He had eaten of the fruit of
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Behold, the man
is become of one of us. That is to say, behold, man exists
once for all. Man is going to live, and lest
he take. He knows good and evil. He knows
good without the ability to perform it, and evil without the ability
to avoid it. And now, lest he take his hand
and eat of the tree of life and stay forever in that state. Now,
let me ask you, why couldn't Adam immediately have eaten of
the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why
could not have Adam eaten of the tree of life immediately
and live? Why couldn't he? God said, lest
he do that, let's put him out. Let's put him out. Why was Adam
put out? Why could he not have eaten? Well, God put man out, first
of all, because of man's sins. Your sins have separated between
you and your God. Why is a man separated? Because
of sin. But I'll tell you this, God putting
Adam out of that garden was the indescribable mercy of Almighty
God. Mercy and grace. You say, how's
that? If God Almighty would have allowed
Adam to approach that tree of life. Now, you remember who that
tree of life sets forth. That's Christ. He's the tree. There is Christ Himself, God
Himself. If Adam and Eve had attempted
to eat of the tree of life and to obtain life by their own ability
in that state, If they would have approached the tree of life
in that state, what would have happened? Well, I'll tell you
exactly what would have happened. God would have killed them. Let's
turn over to Leviticus 10 for just a second. Leviticus, Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus chapter 10. Let me show you what happens
when a man tries to approach God. in his sinful, rebellious
state. What's going to happen? Leviticus
10, 1, And Nadab and Abihu the sons of Aaron took either of
them his censer, and put fire therein, put incense thereon,
and offered strange fire before the Lord, which he commanded
them not. And there went out fire from the Lord, and devoured
them, and they died before the Lord. You remember a man named Uzzah.
Uzzah was a man that was standing by the ark, and the oxen were
pulling this ark. The ark of the covenant was on
this little trailer, and some oxen were pulling it, and it
was kind of shaking back and forth. And Uzzah thought that
he would put his hand out and steady the ark that day. And when he touched that ark,
God killed him. Why? Leviticus 21-17 reveals
this, that no blemish is going to approach God in any other
way except this, justice. For you to think that you can
approach Almighty God, well, I'm going to come to the Lord
and I'm going to come before the Lord and I'm going to confess
my sins and I'm going to just make everything okay, and everything's
going to be fine, and God and myself, we've just got a good
thing going, and everything's going to be good, God Almighty
will put you in hell. You will not approach God in
any other way than in a substitute. You will not approach God unless
the Lord Jesus Christ has reconciled you back to God. You're not going to do it. Not
in any other way except in justice. Why did God put Adam and Eve
out? They were objects of God's mercy.
Adam and Eve being the objects of His mercy and seeing the salvation
of the Lord in the clothing that God provided, they covered themselves
with some fig leaves God killed some animals and covered them
and put them out. They were dead in their ability
to reconcile themselves back to God, but had one hope in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Adam and Eve, through disobedience,
were made answerable to the law. When God told them, if you eat,
or when, not if. God didn't say if. God said,
in the day that you eat. Do you think God knew that? Do
you think he knew that they were going to eat? In the day you
eat, you're going to die. Adam, through disobedience, made
himself answerable to God's law. The Lord Jesus Christ, through
obedience, made himself, made under that law, made himself
answerable for. all like Adam and Eve, who were
objects of His mercy. The Lord Jesus Christ must reconcile
us back to God. Had Adam and Eve approached that
tree in their state, God had to kill them. Why? He is a just
God. He is just. But you say, yes,
but I thought God was a merciful God. He is, but not at the expense
of His justice. He's not going to just sweep
it under the carpet. He's not just going to say, well,
no big deal. It is a big deal. How do you
know it's a big deal? Look at the cross. Do you think
that the Lord God Himself would do anything other than when Christ
the Son Made flesh. I mean, made sin. Made flesh
and made sin. Do you think when the Lord Jesus
Christ made the guiltiness, made what we are, He was made sin? Not just the sin offering, though
He was an offering for sin. But He was made sin. Made what
we are before Almighty God. Made sin. Upon that cross, what
was there? As I said before a few weeks
ago, what was there? You say the Lamb. That's right.
Holy, harmless in Himself. Never did He rebel against God
in Himself. Never. But what was upon that
cross? Sin. Sin was upon that cross. He hath made Him sin. Who knew no sin? made sin, and
God dealt with it, dealt with my guilt and your guilt, if God
Almighty has purposed to show mercy to you. He put away the
guilt of all His elect, all His sheep. You say, well, now wait
a minute. Wait a minute. I thought that
Jesus Christ died for all of the sins of all the people of
all the world, everybody without distinction. Turn with me to
John chapter 10, and let me show you who Christ died for so that
you don't misunderstand me. The question is, did Jesus Christ
die for every single person that has ever been born in this world? And aren't all of the people
born in this world sheep? No. Did Jesus Christ die for
everybody? No. No. If I show you that in
the Word of God, then the answer is, this is what God says. John
chapter 10. Verse 15, As the Father knoweth
me, even so know I the Father. And I lay down my life for the
sheep. Someone says, okay, I'll go along
with you. Lay down my life for the sheep.
And of the sheep I have, which are not of this fold, them also
I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall
be one fold and one shepherd Therefore doth my Father love
me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power
to lay it down. I have power to take it again,
this commandment have I received of my Father." There was a division,
therefore, again, among the Jews for these sayings. And many of
them said, He hath the devil. He's mad. Why hear ye him? Now here's the natural man talking.
I'm not going to hear that. I'm not going to hear that. You're
mad. You're demonic. Others said,
These are not the words of him that hath a devil. Can a devil
open the eyes of the blind? And there was at Jerusalem the
feast of the dedication, and it was winter. And Jesus walked
in the temple in Solomon's porch. Then came the Jews, ran about
him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to die? If
thou be the Christ, tell us plainly, Jesus answered them, I told you,
and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me. But now look at verse 26. But
ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto
you. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them. and they follow Me, and I give
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall
any man pluck them out of My hand." Why did they not believe? The Lord says, because you are
not My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me to
put away Adam's guilt. Christ Himself must be made what
Adam is. Sin. Adam was put out of paradise
because of sin. But even in God's justice, we
see grace. He said, I will have mercy. On
whom I'll have mercy. On whom I will. I will have compassion. Adam was put out, separated. Why? Because of sin. But what
happened? The Lord Jesus Christ, when Adam
ate of that tree, He made Himself answerable before Almighty God
by disobedience. The Lord Jesus Christ, in mercy
and grace, made Himself answerable before Almighty God for Adam
and all like Adam. the elect, the sheep. And he
answered and bore in his own body the guilt of what Adam and
all God's elect owed God. He put it away and charged them
with righteousness that believe. He gives them a heart to believe,
and the evidence that there is is that they do believe. And
they are charged or given, listen to this, the righteousness of
God. And then Revelation 2.7 says,
To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which
is in the midst of the paradise of God. Adam and all like him,
the recipients of God's mercy and grace. have been reconciled. Now they
can eat of the tree of life. Now they eat of Him. It's given
unto them. They don't approach Him on their
own merit. They approach Him in the merit
of another. They approach Him not in their
self-righteousness, but they approach Him in the righteousness
of God. They approach Him with no guilt,
no record justified before Almighty God. Justified! No record of
sin. He put it away. There is no record
of it in Christ. They never sinned. The Lord God
Himself will say unto them in that day, Well done. Well done. How good and faithful
servant. Adam ate of that tree. and disobeyed
God, put Adam because of sin, in mercy and grace, Christ made
Himself answerable before Almighty God and reconciled. He would not let Adam eat in
the state that he was in if he approached. And I'll tell you
this, every man that attempts to approach Almighty God without
a substitute, God must put that man in hell. He must, because
he's just. Lord willing, we'll have another
service in a moment.

The Tree of Life (Part 2)

What does the Bible say about the tree of life?

How do we know that Christ is the tree of life?

Why is understanding the fall of man important for Christians?

How does Christ reconcile believers to God?

What does it mean to be justified before God?

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The Tree of Life (Part 2)

What does the Bible say about the tree of life?

How do we know that Christ is the tree of life?

Why is understanding the fall of man important for Christians?

How does Christ reconcile believers to God?

What does it mean to be justified before God?

Sermon Transcript

About Marvin Stalnaker

Comments

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