It's great to see you. It's great to be together. I
pray the Lord will meet with us and bless us today. I've asked
Brother Tony if he would lead us in prayer. Thank you. Gracious Heavenly
Father, Lord, we thank you again for this morning. It's time for us to come together,
Lord. As we gather, we ask that you
would remember all but ruined. Lord, there is
no good thing in us. And so, Lord, we must look to
you for life and everything good. And we pray this morning that
by your spirit that you would teach us the things of the Lord
Jesus Christ and reveal them to us, Lord, that we might love
him Turn with me, if you would, to Genesis chapter 1. Genesis chapter 1. While I was at the conference
last weekend, one of the men who preached mentioned the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. And I got to dwelling on that
and what the Lord said to Adam concerning that. And I'd like for us to look at
it for our Bible study this morning. Genesis 1 verse 1 says, in the beginning, God, God. In the beginning, God. God, Father, Son, and Spirit. When we see God, that is Father,
Son, and Spirit. God created the heaven and the
earth. God created, and then you can
read on down in these verses, God created everything. God created
everything. If you look at verse 26, It says, and God said, let us,
father, son, and spirit, make man in our image after our likeness. Down in verse 29, and God said,
behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon
the face of all the earth. And every tree, and the witch
is the fruit of a tree yielding seed, to you it shall be for
meat. You're welcome to eat it, you
will eat it. Verse 30, and to every beast
of the earth, every fowl of the air, everything that creepeth
upon the earth wherein there is life, I've given every green
herb for meat, and it was so. And God saw everything that he
had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and
the morning were the sixth day. It was very good, everything
he did, everything he made. He said, I've given you every
herb and every tree on the face of this earth for food. You can freely lay hold of it,
take it, eat it, consume it. In chapter two, our Lord clarified,
but one. All right, but one. You can have all of it, you can
have all of it, except for this one tree. Look at chapter two,
verse eight. And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed,
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. Every tree, and he singles out
two of them, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. Look at chapter three, verse
six. 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. Verse 17 says, 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, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life." Verse 22. 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. Now everybody knows that
the tragedy that took place in the Garden of Eden was the sin
of disobedience. Everybody knows that. Adam sinned
against God when he disobeyed God. Romans 5 verse 12 says,
by one man sin entered the world and death by sin and so death
passed upon all men for that all have sinned. It goes on in
Romans 5 to say, by one man's offense, death reigned by one. By the offense of one, judgment
came upon all men to condemnation. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. Many people hear that and they
say, that's not fair. He did it, not me. But here's what most people don't
understand. This is what most people don't
realize. He is me. I am him. I mean that literally. An oak tree grows and matures. And an acorn falls and dies in
the ground. And a new oak tree starts coming
up. That's the same tree. We ever
thought about that? That's the same tree. That's
not a different tree. That's not a new tree that's
very similar to the old tree. That's the same tree. The very
seed of the old tree. And every man and woman born
on this earth is the very seed of Adam. Being his seed, I committed the
sin of disobeying God. In him, I did. It was my fault. It was your fault. In him. We did it in him. Now here's
what I want us to consider this morning. What exactly was Adam's
disobedience against God? We know that he disobeyed God.
What exactly was his disobedience against God? What did God command
him not to do? And what did Adam do that caused
him to disobey God? And I want us to really understand
this. I want us to really understand
this. Men and women are still doing
this to this day. What Adam did, men and women
are still doing it to this day. And God is still angry with this
disobedience against His commandment. I want to dig in deep to this
for just a minute. I'm not going to be long. I want
to be very brief. I'm going to try to be very to
the point. But let's see if the Spirit of the Lord will reveal
this to us. What did God command and what
commandment did Adam break? Look with me again at Genesis
2. Verse 16. And the Lord God commanded the
man saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat." Every tree. And again, two trees were specifically
pointed out, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. The tree of life, the Lord said,
you can have it. All right, the tree of life.
The Lord said, you can have it, you can eat from it. But he said
in verse 17, 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. Adam partook of the fruit of
that tree, and he died. He spiritually died. And the
moment he died, This is what I want us to get a hold of. The
moment he died, he could no longer take part. He could no longer
be a partaker of the tree of life. That's what chapter 3,
verse 22 told us. That was very important. Look
at it again. Genesis 3, 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 hold 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. God said no
more. You can't touch it. Not now. Not now. I believe this is one
of the most important things that we could ever see and believe
in the scripture. I believe, I strongly believe
that this is one of the most important things we could ever
see and believe in the scripture. Here's the reason why. If we
are wrong on what happened in the fall, we will be wrong on
it all. We will be. If we don't understand
this, we won't understand any of it. I'm telling you, this
is so. People who claim to be lost need to understand this. And I know that's a very small
group of people. People who claim to be lost need
to understand this, but I'll tell you this. People who claim
to be saved need to understand this more. People who claim to
be saved need to understand this more. If a soul is going to be
driven away from God, it's gonna be because of this right here.
It'll be because of this right here. So may God reveal it, cause
us to understand this, and may he apply it to our life right
now. These two trees represent two
very important things, two great things, the tree of life, and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What is life? What is life? Here's the answer.
Christ is life. Christ is life. If we ask the
question, what is the way? This would be the answer, Christ.
If we ask, what is the truth? Pilate did, he asked him, what
is truth? Here's the answer, Christ. He
said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life. He said,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that hath the son hath
life because he is life. The tree of life is Christ. Tree of life is Christ, it's
mentioned in Genesis at the beginning, it's mentioned in Revelation
at the end. It's brought up again in the book of Revelation, Revelation
22. I'm going to paraphrase, don't turn, I'm going to paraphrase
this. But it says, blessed is every redeemed child of God who has been redeemed from the
curse of Adam. No more curse. and has been allowed to enter
in through the gates into the holy heavenly city because they've
been given the right and the ability to lay hold on the tree
of life again. That's Christ. They've been allowed and they've
been made able to lay hold of Christ. Adam lost his right and
his ability to lay hold of Christ. That's what he lost. And it's
all because he laid hold of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, what is the knowledge of
good and evil? Here's the answer. It's the law. Okay? It's the law. Understanding,
setting forth the establishment of good and bad, right and wrong. That's the law. The only way
that a police officer can discern whether he ought to shake a man's
hand and pat him on the back and send him on his way or cuff
him and stuff him is he has to have an understanding of the
law. He has to have a discernment of the law. Now this is what God told Adam.
He said, everything is yours. Life is yours freely. Just don't try to lay hold on
the law. It was all good. Even the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil. It was good. The law's
good. There's nothing wrong with the law. But he said, Adam, don't
you try to do what only Christ can do. Don't you put your hope in and
your trust in and your confidence for eternal life in trying to
fulfill what only Christ can fulfill. Only Christ is good. We're only good in him. Only
Christ is right, righteous. Only Christ is holy. Only Christ
can fulfill the law and satisfy God for his people. And for us
to lay hold of the law is for us to try to add our works to
Christ's. And God won't have it. He will
not have it. As soon as Adam and Eve laid
hold of the law for holiness, the adversary said, And I hope
this will be an eye-opening thing for many. We hear and are told religion,
and sometimes it's hard to undo a lot of what was told to us
throughout our life. Sometimes we carry a lot of, I think the
word is baggage, with us because we've been told things and we
thought that's how it was. But just see if this makes sense
to you, okay? The adversary told Eve, if you eat this, you'll
be like him. Isn't that what the adversary
said? And that's what false preachers are still telling men and women
to this day. They'll say, if you will lay
hold of the law, you'll be like God. You wanna be like God, don't
you? Don't you wanna be like God?
Lay hold of the law. The do's and don'ts of the law.
You gotta... partake of the law. As soon as
Adam and Eve laid hold of the law for their own holiness and
their own righteousness before God, my own, I don't want his,
I want my own. I don't need the righteousness
of Christ, I'll take my own. As soon as they did that, it
caused them to immediately start trying to produce their own works. They sewed fig leaves together. trying to cover themselves. Why
did they do that? They never had to do that before. Right after that, the gospel
came to them. When the Lord made coats of skin,
he slayed an animal, he shed blood, and he took the innocence
of that substitute and laid it on them. The gospel came to them. The Lord told him in that you're
covered in Christ. You don't need to sow your own
fig leaves together. You're covered in Christ. You
always were, you always will be. You don't have to work your own
righteousness. Christ is your righteousness. The problem with
all error, starting in the garden, and it'll
be the problem until this world ends. All error is the result
of man trying to lay hold of the law. All error. Man in great
error wrongly thinks that in order to be like God, he has
to lay hold of the law. Thinks he has to add the law
to Christ. That's what man thinks he has
to do. Well, I have to add the law to Christ. God said, I will
not have it. Man will not lay hold on my son
and the law for acceptance with me. It's Christ alone. It is
Christ alone or nothing. Do you remember while our Lord
walked this earth, do you remember what tree he cursed? He went
up for fruit and it didn't bear any, so he cursed the tree and
it came back and it was withered and dead. It was the fig tree.
Fig leaves represent man's works and God cursed him and he said
it's Christ alone or nothing. Christ alone or nothing. Turn
with me over to Galatians chapter 3. Galatians 3 verse 10 says, for as many as are of the works
of the law are under the curse. That's how it was for Adam. That's
how it is still to this day. As many as are of the works of
the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. We cannot fulfill the law. And if we break one, we break
them all. That's the problem. Verse 11
says, but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God,
it is evident. For the just shall live by faith.
Faith is looking to Christ. And the law is not of faith. The law is not looking to Christ.
The law points us to Christ. But it's not us looking to Christ. The man that doeth them shall
live in them. You make that bed, you have to sleep in it. Verse
13 says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law,
being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth on a tree. The reason Christ came was for
the purpose of taking that law out of our hands into His own in order to fulfill all of the
good that needed to be done. And in order to fulfill and satisfy
the payment and the penalty and the suffering for all the evil
that had been done. And that's what Christ did. That's
what he did. He redeemed us from the curse
of the law. He redeemed us from the curse
that laying hold on the knowledge of good and evil brought to us. Laying hold of that. plead that
for my justification before God. Look with me at Romans chapter
three. Romans three, verse 19, it says, Now we know that what things
soever the law saith that saith to them who are under the law
that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become
guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. That's all it can do is expose
our sin to us. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. That's the tree of life. That's
Christ. The righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. Everything points to Christ. Everything in the Old Testament
points to Christ. Everything in the New Testament
points to Christ. Verse 22, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there is no difference. For all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, whom God had set forth to be a propitiation. That word
means a bloody victim. through faith in his blood to
declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." What that means is the law was appeased. in Christ's
redemption of us. The law was satisfied. The Lord
did not forgive sinners. He saved sinners. How did he
do that? He removed their sin from them
and laid it on himself. And the one who died was the
one who bore the sin. And the ones who enter in are
the ones who don't have a speck of it on them. He was just in
justifying his people. So verse 27 says, where is boasting
then? It's excluded. By what law? Of
works? No, by the law of faith. Verse
28 says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by Christ,
by faith, faith in Christ, without the deeds of the law. That means lay hold of the tree
of life alone, Christ alone. Every time you hear somebody
say, or if you think it in your own mind, if this ever comes
through your mind, if you say, well, I know that Christ did
all the work in salvation, but somehow I have to add the law
back in. Somehow I have to see something
in me that is obedient to the law. Don't do it. Gabriel, are you against the
law? God forbid. I love that law. But don't lay hold, according
to the commandment of God Almighty, don't lay hold of the works of
the law as the cause of our salvation or the evidence of our salvation. If you want to be saved, you
better stop sinning and obey the law. No. Christ is my salvation,
purposed before the foundation of the world. He was the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. It's not the cause, it's not
the evidence. Well, how do you know if you're saved? Well, do
you still sin? Then you're not saved. Not true.
Thank God. It's not the cause and it's not
the evidence. Faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. Christ is the
cause. And that gift he gives to us
to believe he is the cause. That's the evidence. Faith in
Christ. Lay hold of Christ alone. His works alone. That's the cause. And He is the evidence. Faith
in Him is the evidence. Now, do we make void the law
because we cannot fulfill the law? God forbid. But that's another
message for another time. All right? When it comes to our
eternal life, is Christ alone. It's Christ alone. We cannot
mix works and grace. We can't do it. We cannot lay
hold of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. If we do that, we'll ruin everything and we'll
die in our sin. And I'm talking about, this happens
all the time, all error. Men can have wrong doctrine and
lay hold of the law and ruin everything. Men can have correct
doctrine and lay hold of the law and ruin everything. They
can stand up and talk about total depravity and unconditional election
and limited atonement and irresistible grace and perseverance of the
saints and say, now let's add the law to the back of that and
they ruin everything. They ruin everything. It's Christ
alone. Life and acceptance with God
is in Christ alone. Pray the Lord will keep us right
there.