Turn this morning, if you will,
to Genesis Chapter 2. Genesis Chapter 2. The Bible,
the book you hold there in your hands or in your lap tells us, tells each and every
one of us in here and each and every single person alive on
this earth right now, this book tells us exactly where we live. You say, that sounds like a pretty
bold statement. Well, I'll go better than that. Not only does
this book tell every person that's alive on this earth where they
live, it tells them how they live. And even more than that,
it tells each and every person who's alive on this earth with
whom they live. And I think I can make good on
those claims in a few minutes. But let me give you a little
perspective on this phrase, everyone who is alive on earth. Since I began speaking about
one minute ago, The most conservative estimate
I could find says that at least 104 people have died. Every minute of every day in
this world, in this life, 104 people are no longer alive on
this earth. And, you know, if you're young,
it's easy to think, well, that's not so many. That's not so many. When I was young, I might have
thought that too. But I'm like David now who said, I've been
young and now I'm old. And that day seems very close
at hand to me. Let me give you some real perspective.
A hundred and four people every minute over the course of one
year adds up to 54 million people who are no longer alive on this
earth. Have I got your attention now? Twelve months from this day,
54 million people will no longer
be alive on this earth. Let's look then at Genesis 2
and how human life began on this earth and what happened to bring
forth this 54 million. I'm going to show you where Adam
lived. I'm going to show you how he lived and with whom he
lived. Have you got Genesis 2 verse
7? And the Lord God formed man of
the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life And man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted
a garden eastward in Eden. And there he put the man whom
he had formed. I want us to notice that two
things happened here. God formed man and breathed physical
life into him. So he had physical life. But
then it says there he gave him a living soul. He gave him spiritual
life as well. Then I want us to notice that
in verse 9 it says, Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow
every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food.
There's a lot of trees in that garden. Some just look nice,
but others bore fruit, had food. But there's two particular trees
I want us to notice. It says next, the tree of life. was also in the midst of the
garden. It was right in the middle. It was easy to get to. Adam didn't
have to go hunting for it or looking for it. It was right
there in the middle of the garden. And the tree of knowledge of
good and evil. Now the tree of life, this is
real simple. The tree of life, as long as
one ate of that tree, they would live forever physically. And
the evidence of that is after Adam had to leave the garden,
do you know how long he lived? 900 more years. You know why?
The residue of what he ate from that tree was with him that long.
The minute it left him, he died. But the other tree, the first
tree, the tree of life, as long as you ate of it, you live physically.
But the second tree of the knowledge of good and evil, if you ate
from that tree, you died. Spiritually. You didn't die physically,
but you died spiritually. And of course, we know that's
what Adam did. Look down. That's where Adam
lived in the garden. Now, how did Adam live? What
did he do? Look at verse 15. And the Lord
God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress
it and to keep it. That just means he took care
of it. He watched over it, and this was not a grievous task.
It was very pleasant. Adam didn't break a sweat doing
this because the Lord told him when he left the garden, he said,
boy, you're going to earn it now by the sweat of your brow. But up to then, dressing and
keeping the garden was a great pleasure. Adam had everything
he needed. So that's where Adam lived in
the garden, and how he lived was he dressed and kept the garden.
But with whom did Adam live? Look at verse 21. And the Lord
God caused Adam to fall, caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam,
and he slept. And he took one of his ribs and
closed up the flesh instead 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, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they
shall be one flesh. And they were both naked, the
man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. So Adam, with whom
did he live? He lived with Eve. This is pretty
clear, isn't it? But also, Adam lived with someone
else. He lived with the Lord God. You
say, how do you know that? Well, after Adam disobeyed and
ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and the Lord
came walking in the garden in the cool of the day, calling
Adam's name, Adam answered. You know why? He knew who it
was. He was familiar with this voice
because he lived there. He communed with his God in the
Garden of Eden. Look at chapter 3, verse 8. And they, Adam and Eve, heard
the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God
called unto Adam and said unto him, Where are you? Not because
he didn't know where he was, but he wanted to hear Adam say
it. And Adam said, I heard thy voice in the garden. How did
he know it was his voice? Because he lived with him. till
he ate of that tree, he lived with him. He had the right to.
And he said, I was afraid because I was naked and I hid myself.
You see, Adam didn't realize that as long as he ate from the
tree of life, he lived forever. In the instant he ate of the
other tree, what happened? He died spiritually. He was already
dead spiritually at this point. And he was afraid. And that's the reason you and
I are all now, by nature, part of the 54 million. When Adam
ate, he died spiritually, and then he began to die physically.
Turn over to Psalm, or I'm sorry, before you do that, look at Genesis
3, verse 22. And the Lord God said, Behold,
the man is become as one of us. Who's us? God the Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And the Lord God said, He's like
us now. He knows the difference between
good and evil. He ate of that tree 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. Even though Adam died spiritually
at that moment in time, if he was allowed to stay in the garden
and he kept eating that fruit of the tree of life, he would
have lived physically forever. Verse 23, Therefore the Lord
God sent Adam 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. He put Adam out of the garden.
And I don't know, there's all this speculation about does the
garden still exist? Does that tree still exist? I
don't know. But I know this, nobody can see
it. Nobody can find it. Because the Lord God put cherubims
there and I don't know what flaming swords of fire are. I don't want
to know. All I know is none of us can
get at it and therefore we're going to be one of the 54 million.
It's appointed unto us once to die. Now, turn to Psalm 58 with
me. Psalm 58. So what about the world now?
We know where Adam lived, we know with whom he lived, and
we know how he lived. What about the world now? Where
do people live? How do we live? And with whom
do we live? This book tells us. Where do we live? We live in
sin. That's the place we live. Look
at Psalm 58 verse 1. Do ye indeed speak righteousness,
O congregation? Do you judge uprightly, O you
sons of men? Yea, in heart you work wickedness.
You weigh the violence of your hands in the earth. The wicked
are estranged from the womb. They go astray as soon as they
are born, speaking lies. If you have children, it takes
willful blindness to disregard the natural depravity that we're
born with, all of us. I mean, it is, I watch my own
grandchildren. And their parents say, no, and
they go, you just see it. They just go, I'll do it anyway. What's wrong with them? They're
born in sin and they live in sin because they are sin, just
like us. If we look in the mirror, it
shouldn't surprise us that what we see in the mirror is what
we see in them. Where do we live? Philippians
2 says, in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. Where
do we live? Genesis 6 says, the wickedness
of man was great in the earth. Every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart is only evil continually. Where does man live? We live
in sin. How does man live? Same answer.
We live in sin. And how do we live? With whom do we live? Sinners. If I live by myself all alone,
I'm still living with a sinner. It's who and what I am. So you see, the answers are all
here. It's who and what we are by nature. So what became or
what becomes of the 54 million every year? What happens to it? I mean, I said plainly, and that
was a conservative estimate. Some people think it's like 80,
90 million. Nobody knows about some people that die. But what
becomes of those 54 million? Turn over to Luke 16 and we'll
see that our Lord told us. He plainly told a gathering of
Jews and of his disciples. In Luke 16, during his earthly ministry this
came up and our Lord told. And God's Word clearly teaches
there's only two alternatives. Sorry, there's only two. Purgatory
is a lie. It's something the Catholic Church
made up to salve consciences, and it's a lie. But all who leave
this earth, everyone goes to one of two places. The two places
have names in the Bible. One's called heaven, and one
is called hell. Hebrews 9, don't turn there,
declares, It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this,
the judgment. So the 54 million die, and what
happens? Well, one by one, they come to
this thing called the judgment. And they appear at the judgment,
and the judge renders one of two verdicts. He says, innocent
or guilty. He says, righteous or evil. He says, perfect or flawed. He says, good or wicked. He says, lifted up or cast down. He says, enter in or depart from
me. One is heaven and one is hell.
And I'm not trying to frighten anybody. I'm just telling you,
you'll see our Lord taught on this. Look at Luke 16 verse 19. There was a certain rich man,
which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and he fared sumptuously
every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores. He
was a leper. And desiring to be fed with the
crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover, the dogs
came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. And let me clarify this real
quick. I don't know why our Lord used that. I think it's most
of the commentators believe he said Abraham's bosom because
the Jews, that's what they knew as this place called heaven,
Abraham's bosom. But it's still accurate for this
reason. You know what's in Abraham's
bosom? a new heart just like that of the Lord Jesus Christ.
This man went to the same place Abraham went and he was one with
Christ. He had a new heart. He had spiritual
life. But it says, and he was carried
by the angels into Abraham's bosom and the rich man also died
and was buried and in hell. He lifted up his eyes, being
in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his
bosom. And he cried, the rich man did,
and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus,
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my
tongue, for I'm tormented in this flame. But Abraham said,
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things,
and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and
thou art tormented. And beside all this, between
us and you, there is a great goal fixed, so that they which
would pass from hence to there cannot, to you, neither can they
pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray
thee therefore, father, that thou, the rich man said, would
you send him, send Lazarus to my father's house? I've got five
brothers. that Lazarus may testify unto
them, lest they also come into this place of torment. And Abraham
said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear
them. And he said, Nay, father, Abraham, but if one went unto
them from the dead, they will repent. And Abraham, look at
his answer, he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from
the dead. One did rise from the grave, the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was standing in their presence, and they wouldn't believe him.
Now, our Lord spoke these words, so
it's true in all the particulars. What he said here about these
places are true. What he said about heaven and
hell. How do we know? Because our Lord made heaven,
He made earth, and He made hell. And He knows what's going on
in all three places. Notice about the rich man. Let
me make some observation about these two men. The rich man dies. That shouldn't surprise us. It
is appointed unto all men to die once. Even the rich. Money is not going to keep anybody
from dying. And then notice he's sent to an awful place. Why?
He lived where? In sin. He lived how? In sin. He lived with whom? Sin. And that's what God does with
sinners. He calls out to Abraham. And I think this is most interesting.
Do we realize who he called out to? Abraham. Why didn't he call out, Lord? Lord God? Lord Jesus Christ,
why didn't he call out to him? There's a simple answer. He didn't
know him. He didn't know who he was. He
didn't know what he did, why he did it, where he is now. He
didn't know him. He couldn't call out to him because he didn't
know him. The other reason, he's still
unrepentant. He's still not sorry for how
he lived. Not at all. He makes a request for mercy.
Did you notice that? You think, well, I thought somebody
who asked for mercy, God gave it to him. Well, what was his definition of mercy?
You know what he said? He could have said, Abraham,
have mercy on me. Forgive me of my sin. Is there
somebody who can forgive me of my sin? Is there somebody who
can give me a righteousness? That's not his definition of
mercy. His definition of mercy is, that's
his heart. That's his heart. What's our
definition of mercy? The sad truth, if given a do-over,
you all know about do-overs, don't you? If given a do-over,
the rich man would not, indeed could not change anything. Why?
He is sin. He was born in sin. He lived
in sin. He is sin. And he will not repent. But then notice that the rich
man had a second request. He said, send Lazarus to warn
my brothers. And this is very telling. He
obviously recognized, we realize in this place, he recognized
Lazarus for who he was. He knew this man. He knew Abraham. This is Lazarus. And remember
what this rich man did with Lazarus when he was alive. He ignored
his poverty. He ignored his sickness. He ignored
his overall pitiful condition. He still considers Lazarus as
only a messenger boy, a thing laid out at his gate, not as
what Lazarus is. Do you know what Lazarus is already
there? Lazarus is a child of the Lord God Almighty. Lazarus,
you see, the rich man is now a poor man. And this poor man
Lazarus is now the rich man glorified. Do we see how there's a verse
of scripture in Esther where the Lord says, the way of the
wicked are turned upside down. In this life, here's the rich
man and here's Lazarus. But oh, it's changed now, hasn't
it? Here's Lazarus and here's the
rich man. But let's review Lazarus' case
for just a minute too. What was the difference? Why
didn't Lazarus go the same place the rich man did? He certainly
deserved to as much as the rich man. And the answer is, listen
to this, if you don't hear anything else I say this morning, listen
to this. Someone else went to that place
for Lazarus. Lazarus asked for grace and mercy. You know, grace is not getting
what you deserve. and mercy. Mercy is not getting
what you deserve and grace is getting what you don't deserve.
And that's what Lazarus asked for and that's what he got. Think
about Lazarus a minute here. He was so poor he was a beggar.
He was so sick he was a leper. He was laid low at the gate.
He was so hungry he just wanted some crumbs. He was dog licked. You know what that meant to these
Jews? It meant he was defiled. You didn't let a dog lick you.
He was defiled. And he died as evidence that
he was a sinner. Why didn't Lazarus go where the
rich man went? The simple answer is the Lord
Jesus Christ went for him. He went for him. When they took
him down off of that cross and put him in that grave, you know
where Christ went? He went He went exactly where
the rich man was. But it only took him three days
as the Lord God to endure an eternity of what the rich man
was getting. Jesus Christ went for Lazarus.
Jesus Christ made himself poor. He was born in a cow stall. How
many lepers did Jesus Christ cure? They'd come to him and
he'd lay his hand on them and just suck all the leprosy out
of them and give them his health. He'd spit on the blind man and
put it on his eyes and he'd take the blind man's blindness into
himself and give this man sight. It's because Christ died that
we can see what we see spiritually. He gives us life. Jesus Christ
was laid low. He condescended to become a man.
There's no... Try to think of an illustration.
If one of us... If, Roy, you're working out in the garden and
here's a slug on the ground, and you became the slug and the
slug became you, that doesn't even begin to compare when Jesus
Christ became a man and became sin that we might be one with
Him. Jesus Christ knew of Lazarus hunger and thirst on the cross.
What did he say? I thirst. I thirst. Jesus Christ
was beaten and abused, spit upon like a mangy cur dog. He was
defiled. Jesus Christ died, not for anything
he did, but he died for what his Lazaruses did. Are we a Lazarus? If we are, Christ died in our
place. He lived in our place. And then
Lazarus arose because Christ arose. Lazarus was in heaven
because that's where Christ is. They know one another. He and
Jesus Christ are one and the same. How did all this happen? Well, before the foundation of
the world, God the Father chose a people. And in time, God the
Son, Jesus Christ, came down here and lived for them. a perfect
life. And then he died for them, for their sin. In time God the
Spirit calls each one of them and reveals all of this day by
day to them and gives each one of them spiritual life. Adam
died spiritually when he ate of that tree. The Spirit of God
can come to a person and give that life again. That's what
being born again means. That's what the new birth is. We died spiritually in Adam and
we're born again in Christ. The Holy Spirit can give new
life. How did all this happen? Well, the rich man asked for
mercy. He wanted a drink. Lazarus, too, cried for mercy. How do we know? Because he was
given a new heart by the Spirit of God. And if you read through
these scriptures, you'll find over and over again examples
of that. Was it Blind Bartimaeus who said,
Oh, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Those who cried for mercy
received mercy, and by mercy they mean a new heart, a perfect
righteousness in Christ that my sin is put away. When Lazarus died physically,
he arose as Christ arose to newness of life. If we want the one who
Lazarus went to be with, call on him for mercy. If we want
to go where the rich man went, ask for foolish things. Keep
pursuing other things. And if this revelation of God's
Spirit occurs in us, things happen. You know what change occurs?
First of all, there's a change in where we live. You know where we want to live?
As believers, we desire to live in the midst of other believers.
We want to be where the gospel is preached, where this message
is preached, where Christ the Lord God is exalted. That's where
we want to be. How do we live? And I know to
our sorrow we still sin, but we don't want to anymore, do
we? No. We live by faith, though, assured
of God's forgiveness in Christ. We still sin, but rely on Christ
our righteousness. And then in whom do we live?
We live in Jesus Christ our Lord. In Him we live and move and have
our being. Now let me give you one other
thing. Turn over to Revelation 2. How can I go where Lazarus went? How can I go be with whom Lazarus
was with? With the Lord Jesus Christ. The
simple answer is that How can we do that? Become what
Lazarus was, a mercy beggar. Our Lord makes it so simple.
He teaches in the scripture, you ask, I'll give. You ask,
I'll give. It really is that simple. Ask for what? Mercy. Mercy, forgiveness
of sin and righteousness in Christ. are the two places real? Our
Lord said they were and he gave this example in the scriptures
but more than that he actually, listen to me now, he actually
let a man go there. Did you know that? He let a man
go where Lazarus was and come back and write about it. You know what it is? It's called
the book of Revelation. This is the revelation of what's
happening in heaven. And let me just give you a couple
quick things here. This won't take but a minute. Look in Revelation 2 verse 7.
John the Apostle got there and what he saw in verse 7, he said,
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto
the churches. To him that overcometh will I
give to eat, what? of the tree of life. You look
it up. That's the same tree. I don't
know if it's the same tree that was in the garden and was transplanted.
I don't know if it's the same type of tree. I don't care. All
I know is that what John saw when he got there was the tree
of life, which means if you eat of it, you're going to live physically
forever. And he said, I will, will I give
to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise
of God. Right there, just like in the
midst of the garden where Adam was, if he had just not eaten
of that tree and kept eating this tree, he'd live forever.
And in this place, heaven, is the tree of life. You eat of
it and you live eternally. But now, look over at Revelation
22. I'll show you one more thing. Revelation 22, 2, look at the
start of verse 1. John says, And he showed me a
pure river of the water of life. We know Christ is the water,
and it flows like a river. Our Lord flows through that place
like a river. You want a drink? Get a drink of the water of life.
Clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and
of the Lamb. And look what's in the midst of the street of
it. And I think I've said this before.
People make a mess of things talking about the streets of
gold. There's no streets there. There's one street. And you say,
how come only one? Because there's only one place
to go, and that's to the Lord Jesus Christ, to his throne.
They don't need a bunch of streets. There's not high streets and
low streets and nice streets and slummy streets. No, there's
just a street, and it all leads to Christ. And in the midst of
it, you ever go through one of those old southern towns where
the road's like this, and down the middle, they got all these
big old trees growing there. And on the sides of the street,
they got these trees. And look what it says about this. And in the midst of the street
and on either side of the river, this river of life on both sides,
you don't have to cross the river to get to this, what's there,
is the tree of life. These trees are everywhere there,
everywhere. In the midst of the street and
on either side of the river, there's the tree of life which
bear 12 manner of fruits. and yield her fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
You know what? I had this thought about brother
Maurice who died. He was one of the 54 million
this year. I had this thought, brother Maurice,
I don't know if he's walking on the street or by the river,
but you know what? The tree of life was here. The
tree of life was here. And brother Maurice just had
him at his fill of it. and he'll live not just another
month or another day or another year, thousand, he'll live eternally
because God's provided for his people to live forever in his
presence. And then one last verse, I want
you to look at Revelation 2 verse 14. Blessed are they that do His
commandments. Who's that? Well, it's not you
and me by ourselves. It's certainly not the rich man.
You know who it is? It's everybody who's in Christ.
The only person who ever kept the commandments of God is the
Lord Jesus Christ. So, blessed are they that do
His commandments that they may have right to what? The tree
of life. You got a right to it. And they
may enter in through the gates of the city. Lazarus, he didn't
have to now go beg for the crumbs off the table. No, he has a right
to the fruit on the tree of life. And he eats freely of it whenever
he's hungry. Unlike Adam, fallen sons of Adam,
those who go to this place have no sin. Christ put it away. They're
perfect. Christ gave them his righteousness.
And I don't exactly know how this works, but this much is
clear. God's people in glory take of the fruit. It's everywhere.
They eat and they live forever, eternally. And we all must be
part. We don't have any choice. We
all must be part of the 54 million. But we don't have to be like
the rich man. We can be like Lazarus. a mercy beggar who lived
in Christ forever. We can actually be like Christ.
Let me describe Lazarus for you now. Lazarus is no longer a beggar. He owns everything that's there. You say, how's that? Well, the
scripture says he's a joint heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. His
inheritance is everything. He has a right to the tree. But
Lazarus, he's not sick anymore. Scripture says there's healing
in the Lord's wings. Lazarus is made all new. Lazarus
is not laid low anymore. No, he walks the streets along
the river and Lazarus is certainly not hungry. All he wants is in
that tree of life that God provides. Now though he died, he now has
eternal life. Because there is a man in glory
named the Lord Jesus Christ, there's another man in glory
named Lazarus. Now, will it be for us? Want
to be Lazarus? Want to be a rich man? That's
a pretty clear choice, isn't it? And it's one of only two
choices. May God give us the grace to
beg for mercy like Lazarus did. That we might go to be one day
with the Lord Jesus Christ.