With me, verses 8 through 17. We continue our study through
the book of Genesis. 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. And a river went
out of Eden to water the garden. From thence it was parted and
became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison. That is it which encompasses
the whole land of Hevelah, where there is gold, and the gold of
that land is good. There is Spidellum and the Onyx
Stone. The name of the second river
is Gihon. same as it encompassed the whole land of Ethiopia. The
name of the third river is Ithaca, which goeth toward the east of
Assyria, and the fourth river is Euphrates. And the Lord God
took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it
and to keep it. The Lord God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. 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." Two trees. There's much to be seen here
in every line, every word, but there's not enough time. And
we don't have the capacity to take it all in. But in any way,
we know in part, we preach in part anyway. But this is what
we do know and what we'll, I believe, understand from this. The Lord,
in verse 8, planted a garden eastward in Eden, the Garden
of Eden. Now, I'm not going to address
or argue with what the world says about Adam and Eve. You know, they scoff at this.
It's a true story, and it was a real place and real Adam and
Eve, our first parent. But when the Lord God made man,
he in wisdom and love and mercy put him in a garden, a beautiful
garden that he had planted. We can't imagine what this garden
must have looked like. God planted this garden. I told
you about my garden that I planted. Dad and Mom are real impressed
with it. And I kind of am too, but it
remains to be seen if any proof is going to come out of it. But
God planted this garden. As beautiful as the gardens are
around the world that we see now, even in the midst of sin,
can you imagine, can you possibly imagine what that garden must
have been like without thorns and thistles and weeds? Every
fruit perfect. Everything in it full and fruitful. And He put man in it. He put
man in the garden. That was man's abode. That's where man lived. He lived
in a garden. The sky was his roof, the grass
was his floor, and God was his companion. He didn't need anything. He didn't even need clothes.
What a wonderful thing. And his character was holiness.
Things sure did change after sin. After sin, now man lives
in cages of glass and steel and wood, glass and steel and concrete,
does it? And he lives in cities where
there's no sky. When they talk about the skyline,
they're not talking about the sky, they're talking about buildings.
No trees, no grass. Is it any wonder that man, being
like a caged animal, is just going crazy like a mad dog? Is it any wonder? Well, but God
put him in this garden. And here's a note. If you want
some therapy, get out of the house. Don't sit in the house
with the blinds drawn. That will make you depressed.
Go outside and walk. in the sun. Walk in the garden,
if you have one. Verse 9, it says, God out of
the ground made every tree that is pleasant to the sight, good
for food. Every tree. Every tree that was
good to look to, good for food. Fruit is, to me, one of the most
marvelous of God's creation. Fruit. It's no wonder that the
Lord uses fruit as a picture of what he esteems so highly
in his son and in his people, fruit. But fruit is just, is
there anything quite like fruit? It looks luscious, it tastes,
the apple, think of all the fruit, trees and plants our Lord has
created, apples and oranges and papayas and Mango, that's my
favorite, and peaches next to it. Bananas and so forth. You
think of that. Fruits. Every one of them. Beautiful
to look at, and so good for you and good for food. But he only
mentions two trees here in this garden. Two trees, because God's
Word is spiritual. This is a spiritual picture.
Verse 9. In the midst of the garden was a tree of life. Right in the middle. The tree
that had the preeminence, right in the middle, that stood right
in the middle of it all, was the tree of life. I shouldn't
have to tell you what that is. You know already, I'm sure. But
that was in the midst with preeminence. And then there was another tree,
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now, God doesn't
create anything evil. This tree had no evil in itself.
There was no evil in this truth. None whatsoever. There's no evil
in things. Romans 14, 14. Paul said, I'm
persuaded by the Lord that there's nothing unclean of itself. There's nothing sinful in any...
God cannot create something evil. Sinful. There was no evil in
this tree. There's no evil in things. One
time our Lord shocked the Pharisees who prided themselves in their
abstinence from this and from that. And He said, you listen
to me, there's nothing, no thing going into the mouth that can
defile a man. And that shocked them, didn't
it? And it still shocks people today. They won't have it. Here's
what our Lord said. He said, evil and sin doesn't
come from things, it comes out of the heart. There's no evil,
no sin in what God has created. The evil is in what man does
with it, how man abuses it. Sin was not in this tree. This
tree was merely a an object or a picture of God's
absolute reign and sovereignty over man. He said, I'll give
you everything. You can have anything and everything
is yours, including the tree of life. The tree of life is, take it.
He said, everything but that tree. Everything but, it's just
a symbol. Was that a hard and unreasonable
command? Everything but that one thing. Just a picture, a symbol of God's
sovereignty. There was no evil in that tree.
The evil was in the heart of Adam and Eve when they said,
we ain't going to have that. We're gods. We have free will. That's where it all started,
free will. It started with Adam, didn't it? Adam said, I will.
God said, you will not. He will do what I will. And God
said to Adam, my will will be done. This is what you will not
do. And Adam said, I will have my will. That's where the evil
came from. It wasn't in the tree, he said. It wasn't in the thing.
All right, go on with me. Verses 10 through 14, he mentions
these four. Well, a river went out of Eden
to water the garden and parted into four heads. There was one
river that parted into four heads. There was one source of water
that watered the whole earth and it parted into four heads.
And I already read that to you. It mentions these rivers and
the land full of gold and precious stones and so forth. Those of you who know these scriptures,
isn't it amazing that in the very beginning, which is the
book of Genesis, he mentions a tree and a river. And then in the last chapter
of God's book, in Revelation 22, he mentions a tree and a
river. Now, what is that? We've already
said that Well, I didn't say it did. Christ is that tree of
life. Christ is the river. In Revelation
22, He showed me a pure river of water of life. That's Christ.
Flowing out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. Christ is
the source of the water of life. And in the midst of the street
thereof was a tree of life, which bear twelve manner of fruit.
And the leaves of that tree are fruit for the healing of the
nations. So there you have it. Christ
is all. Amazingly, because did not Christ
say, I'm the first and I'm the last? I'm the first, I'm the
last, I'm the beginning, Genesis, and I'm the end, Revelation. They are they which testify of
me. In the volume of the book, it
is written of the Lord Jesus Christ. That tree is Christ who
is life. That river is Christ from whom
all blessings flow. You already knew that, didn't
you? What is this tree of the knowledge of good and evil? We're
going to see that, I hope. And he mentioned gold and precious
stones. What's that? Four rivers apart. We could study this. We could
look into those names, but for the sake of time, we won't. But
it just happened to be four rivers that came from one. The Lord
had four Gospels written, didn't He? Four Gospels. Christ is the
water of life. Christ is life. And he had four
men write down these four stories that told the same story. From
whom all blessings flow. And that gospel, like those rivers,
went out all over the land and watered that land and made it
fruitful and so forth. So it is with the gospel. These
gospels have gone throughout this barren land and watered
it and brought forth fruit. So that's those rivers in a nutshell,
the gold and precious stones. That's Christ in them. Speak
of Him. All right. What is this tree of the knowledge
of good people? Now look at verse 15. The Lord
God took the man and put him into the Garden of Eden to dress
it and to keep it. God put man in a garden. That
was his dwelling place. Now a garden is a beautiful place,
isn't it? A garden is a place where there's
fruit, where there's beauty to be seen, sweet-smelling savor
and taste. What could that garden be? What
could that garden represent but the Lord Jesus Christ? Huh? That garden. the dwelling place
of God's people. Christ is all. He's our dwelling
place. In Him we live and move and have
our being. He said this, He said, In me
is thy fruit found. Don't get any fruit. It's going
to be for me. He said, I am the vine, you're
the branches. Christ is that garden. Also,
His church. His church is called the garden. And if you're familiar with it,
in the Book of Canticles, or Song of Solomon. This is it.
Song of Solomon, Chapter 6. And this is the church that is
speaking of Christ, and she says, Where is thy beloved gone? O
thou fairest among women, where is your beloved turned aside,
that we may seek him? Where are we going to find the
Beloved? She said, my Beloved has gone down into His garden. That's where you'll find Him.
In His garden. His church is called the garden.
To the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, to gather the
lilies. And she said, I'm my Beloved's, and my Beloved is
mine. He feedeth among the lilies. That's where you'll find Christ.
Christ is the garden, and His church, where He dwells, is a
garden. And he said in another place there in Song of Solomon,
blow, oh wind, upon my garden, and let the spices flow therein.
If you come where his church is, where his people are, where
Christ is, where the gospel is preached, it's a sweet-smelling
savor of life. There's fruit to be found, the
water of life. That's the garden. If I asked
you what this garden was, would you tell me? Well, sure you could.
You know these things before. But he put man in this garden
to dress it and to keep it. He didn't say plow it up and
plant what you feel like. Adam didn't plant one single
plant. He didn't add one thing to this
garden. He didn't say plow it up. He
didn't say weed it. There was no weeds in that garden. He said, you dress it. It was
already planted. Somebody planted it. Who planted
it? The Lord planted it. I tell you what, if Adam had
planted something, the Lord would have rooted it up. Isn't that
what he said? Every plant that my father hadn't
planted would be rooted up. You see, God's church, God's
people, were predetermined, ordained, chosen, elects, chosen in Christ
who is His garden before the foundation of the world. Predetermined
every single person in His garden. Already in the mind of God, already
planted before the world began. We don't put people into the
kingdom of God, do we? For that matter, we don't plant
churches. If the Lord doesn't build the house, they labor in
vain. Build it. The Lord plants. We water and
so forth. I know Paul said that, but he's
talking about throwing the seed of the gospel out there. And
who's going to make it generate? We can throw the seed out there
like I'm doing right now. Who can put it in somebody's
heart? Who can actually plant it? Who can actually make the
seed of life spring forth into life? I can't do it. Nobody can
do it. It's not our prayer. They won't
do it. The Spirit of God. Only the Spirit of God. But this
garden was of the Lord's planting. And the Scripture says of those
in Christ. Now Adam wasn't to do anything,
add anything to it or take anything away from it. He wasn't to plow
it or plant it. He said, you just dress it and you keep it.
If you're in Christ, you're complete in Him. The work's finished. Nothing for you to do. Alright, what's he talking about
dressing it and keeping it? Well, man was not created an
idle creature, was he? Man wasn't created an idle creature. He's an active creature. He's
a working creature like his Creator. Those in Christ are complete.
There's no work to be done for salvation. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. We
don't work to be saved, but God's people, after He saved them,
They work. They work. Faith without works
is dead. And faith worketh by love. Adam, these weren't chores to
Adam. He didn't break a sweat. He didn't break a sweat. It was
an enjoyable thing. Enjoyable. And faith worketh
by love. The works that God's people do,
works of charity, works of service to His garden. It's not work. Remember when
we all got together and tidied our building and grounds up for
the meeting? That wasn't work, was it? It
was positively enjoyable. Well, those in Christ, they work,
but not to be saved. Not for salvation. Because of
it. It's out of gratitude. It's our
reasonable service. Adam was put in. It said, dress
it and keep it. We're called to dress or adorn
the doctrine of Christ our Lord. Adorn it. Adorn the doctrine.
Keep it. He said, He that hath my words,
and keepeth them, abideth by them. It is. Believe with me. And we bear much fruit in doing
so. Verse 6. Now, Lord God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat. 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." Every tree, including the tree
of life, was allowed for man to eat. But he didn't. Why didn't
he eat the tree of life? He didn't eat the tree of life.
And later on, God barred his way from eating the tree of life,
saying, unless he eat it, it'll live forever. Why didn't he eat it? Why didn't
Satan tempt him to eat that? Well, I know this. You know,
it's not ours so much to ask why, but it's ours to believe.
Men and women like to argue with God. Who art thou that replies
against God? Why is there evil in the world?
Why did God allow this to happen? Why, why, why, why? It wouldn't
have happened unless God had ordained it. It wouldn't happen.
Nothing would happen unless God ordained it. You know it? You
don't know it. Why then? Why did this happen?
Don't ask why. Just bow to it. But He didn't. I know this, that The Lord in
His wisdom predestined all things, and before we could truly see
God's great goodness, man is about to fall. It's about to
be a fall. Had not we fallen in Adam, every
single man would be liable to fall. Christ being the head came in,
and everybody in Christ, salvation is not up to them. Our salvation was up to Adam,
and he failed. We all died in Adam. But when
Christ came, salvation was up to him. He didn't fail. God and
his wisdom. At any rate, there's death before
life. These two trees are a picture. They were real trees, mind you.
They were real trees, I believe, with fruit on them, but they
only represent something. Eating fruit is not going to
make you die or live, for that matter. Eating fruit will not
make you live forever, and eating fruit won't make you die. We
already said that. But here's the Gospel, Romans
chapter 7. What does this tree represent?
Romans chapter 7. You already know. You just don't
know you know. Romans 7. This is nothing new. I'm not
telling you something new. Romans chapter 7. This tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. How does a person know good and
evil? How? Where does that sink? Good
and evil. Romans 7. Look at that. Represents
a couple of things. Romans 7 verse 7. What shall
we say then? Is the law of sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin except
by the law. I had not known lust. Except
the law hath said, Thou shalt not covet. Read on. Sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscent. Without the law, sin was dead.
I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came,
sin revived and I died. The commandment which was ordained
to life, I found to be unto death. Sin, taking occasion by the commandment,
deceived me, by it slew me. The law is holy, the commandment
is holy and just and whole. How do you know good? How do
you know evil? The law. The law. Verse 13. Was then that which is good made
death unto me? God forbid, but sin, that it
might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good,
that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly, succeeding
sinful. tempted Adam and Eve with this
tree to eat it. And so he does with the law.
The law. Tell me how every person by nature
thinks they're going to get to God. You show me one person on
the top side of this earth that doesn't think that you've got
to be good to get to heaven. And if you're bad, you go to
heaven. Or somewhere. Tell me one person that doesn't
think that you do good, you get rewarded. You do bad, you get
punished. Good and evil. The law. Gotta
keep the law. A woman told me that one time. I confronted her when I worked
on the railroad. And she said, I don't know much
about the scripture, but the word that I do know this, you
better keep those ten commandments. And I said, it's obvious you
don't know much about the scripture. Because you can't keep the commandment.
If you think you can, you're going to fall. You're going to
fall. So this represents the law. Galatians
3. Right over there with Galatians 3. Look at that. The law. And
Satan. Why didn't Satan tempt us to
tempt Adam and Eve with taking the tree of life? Would Satan
tell a person to run to Christ? That's the one thing he will
not do, is tell you to go to Christ. Go take that tree of
life. Oh here, here's the law, keep
it. Nothing he'd love more than for
you to try to keep the law. Satan's work is in religion as
much or more than anything. People trying to keep the law.
The law is just the knowledge of God's holiness. and our guilt
and our sin. What the law sayeth, it sayeth
to them that are under the law, that every man ought to be what?
Stopped! And all the world become what?
Guilty! Before God. Knowledge of good
and evil. Alright? This tree also represents,
where are you going to see good and evil? Christ's crucifixion. That's
where you're going to see the holiness of God. What does God
think about sin? Will God punish sin? Look at
Christ hanging on the cross, for He made His Son to be sin
for that. Will God punish people? Cast people? There's a man cast
out of His presence, hanging on that tree. And in that tree
also you see the wonderful goodness of God. Look at it, Galatians
3 verse 11. It says that no man is justified
by the law on the side of God. It's evident, for the just shall
live by faith. Habakkuk, where that is found,
first found, it says the just shall live by his faith. And
the law, verse 12, is not of faith, but the man that doeth
them shall live in them. 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. Why did the Lord see fit to call
that hewn piece of wood a tree? Because it's the tree, the knowledge
of the good and evil. But you say that Adam died when
he ate it. So do we. When we come to Christ, we die. No. We die. In Christ, when Christ was crucified,
I was crucified. Did He stay crucified then? No. He lived. When Christ arose,
I arose. Christ was made sin. And I want
you to see this in closing. Revelation 2, go over there,
Revelation 2. Christ was made sin, and Christ
died, and in Christ, His people were killed. They were crucified. The law was satisfied. And Christ
arose, and when He arose, we arose too. And we live in Him. And we have right to Him who
is the tree of life. Revelation 2, look at that. 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 of the tree of life which is in the midst of the
paradise of God." The tree of life. Those that died in Adam,
he brings to Christ our life and they partake of him and then
What's the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Well, the law.
Christ crucified. What's the tree of life? Well,
Christ. It's all about Him. It's all
Him. In Him we live and move and have
our being. He's the garden. He's the fruit.
He's the gold. He's the stones. He's the rivers.
He's all and in all. Nothing new. Things old. Things new. It's all the same.
It's all Him. OK.