Chapter 1 would be at the very
top of the list of many of our favorite portions of Scripture. And by that I mean portions of
Scripture that God has used to speak to us and to bless us. And I want to read a section
of this, and we'll begin at chapter 1 and verse 3. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him, in love having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ Himself,
according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of
the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. And then, speaking of the Beloved,
he then says, in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace, wherein
he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having
made known unto us the mystery of his will. according to his
good pleasure which he had purposed in himself, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance.
being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will. And we should
be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ,
in whom he also trusted. After that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise,
which is the earnest of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased
possession, unto the praise of His glory. And we'll stop our
reading there with verse 14. And as you well know from this
passage of Scripture, The work of the Father in his electing
and predestinating grace, it is to the praise of the glory
of his grace. The work of the Lord Jesus in
redeeming us and the fact that we've always been accepted in
him, that's to the praise of the glory of his grace. And then the ministry and work
of the Spirit of God who is the earnest of our inheritance, his
work in us. is indeed unto the praise of
his glory. Marvelous portion of scripture.
And it is an honor to read it on many occasions. And we're
so thankful that the Lord laid it upon the heart of the apostle
to write these blessed words for our ratification and our
encouragement. Let's bow our heads together. Our Lord, we are thankful that
we can have access to you, and that access is through the Lord
Jesus, our blessed Savior and Redeemer. He is the mediator
by whom we come to you. And we're so thankful, Father,
that in old eternity You ordained us unto salvation and You gave
us to Your Son. You indeed trusted Him with the
everlasting safety of all those that you gave him in covenant
grace. And our Lord Jesus was fully
up to the task of saving us and preserving us and redeeming us
and indeed one day presenting us unto you a beautiful, marvelous
church, having neither spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing. You
have chosen us to be holy, and indeed in the Lord Jesus Christ
we are made the righteousness of God and we're made sanctification
as well. He is our holiness. It is with
thanksgiving, Lord, from our hearts that we bow before you
in thanksgiving. in gratitude, knowing that if
you had not purposed to do something for us as far as salvation is
concerned, then we would be left out. For if it were up to us,
we would have no interest in the Son of God or in the means
by which you reconcile sinners unto yourself through the bloody
death of the Lord Jesus. So we thank you that you have
included us. that you gave us in covenant
love to Christ, and we have an able Savior. And He will keep
all of those you entrusted to Him. And someday all of us will
stand before you in the beauties of our Savior, And our Lord Jesus
will receive all of the honor and all of the glory for the
acceptance that we have in Him and for the beauty that we possess
in Him who is our righteousness. And now, Father, we lift up to
you those that are sick, those that are weak, those that are
suffering. Lord, we ask for Brother Scott
Thompson, that you would continue to give him needed strength. Lord, we're thankful that you
brought him through the surgery, which from all accounts appears
to have been successful. And Lord, we know he has some
other issues that's causing great pain. in his back, and we ask
that you would ease that pain. As the doctors go about their
program of pain management, we ask that he will indeed get some
relief, and hopefully he can come home tomorrow, be with Scott
and with Tommy, And she assists him and helps him. And we ask,
oh God, that you would give her strength for the task that lays
ahead. We ask for our sister, Claire
Heller. Lord, that if it would be your
will, give her a restoration of wellness. We know that she
has been seriously injured. The fact that she has been in
ICU for over two weeks is certainly indicative of that. Lord, she needs your mercy, if
you're pleased, to strengthen her, we would be greatly thankful. Or if you take her home unto
glory, Lord will thank you for that. It is such a wonderful thing
to know that all of your children, each of us here this evening,
and those who are watching by way of the internet, and all
of those who are the people of God across the world, it is such
a blessing to know that we're in the hands of our God and that
you will work everything together in each of our lives for our
spiritual good. And though we may not understand
how some particular trial or difficulty fits into that marvelous
scheme of Yours, Your predestinated purpose for us. Yet, we believe
You, Father, and we want to believe You more fully. And we'd like
to rest, Lord, without any doubts, upon the bosom of our Lord Jesus
Christ and find in Him great consolation for our souls and
for our hearts. Lord, give us faith to believe
You. Surely if there is a sin we're
all guilty of, it is the sin of doubt, of not believing our
God as we should, Forgive us. Forgive us for the feebleness
of our confidence in our great God. Lord, give to us the gift of
believing You more. As we look into Your Word tonight,
Father, we ask that You would bless in the Scriptures as we
present the things of God And we would not be negligent in
remembering those who grieve, those who sorrow. But Lord, those of us, those
of your people who've lost, those family members who are
in Christ Jesus, indeed they sorrow not as others who have
no hope. We pray that you'll bless all
of your people who are undergoing trials of various descriptions. All of these are according to
your eternal purpose. We thank you, O God, that you're
the sovereign protector of your people, and you govern all things
to bring to pass that which you ordained even before you made
the world. So take the Word of God tonight
and make it to be to us a source of blessing and encouragement
and instruction and may we worship tonight and adore our God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. In His name we ask these things.
Amen. Well, if you would, go back to
the book of Revelation chapter 22 You know, we studied the book
of Revelation, and just to kind of repeat a few things that I
said during the series of messages that I brought, the book of Revelation
consists of seven visions. And each vision takes us from
our Lord's first advent to His second advent. In fact, the entire
book of the Revelation is doing that. It's presenting to us our
Lord Jesus. It is, after all, the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the unveiling of the Son
of God. And He is unveiled, He is revealed
to us from His first coming and goes through the book of the
Revelation, and it sets before us his redemptive work, his successful
redemptive work, and it takes us all the way to that time when
he comes again, and then he ushers in eternity. It is good for me to remember,
and this will be good for you to remember also, Our God has
one purpose in all that he's doing, and we must never lose
sight of that. That which God is doing, that
which God set out to do even before he made this whole world,
is to glorify himself in the salvation of a group of people
to the honor of that blessed one who is our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, there is, as you read through
the book of the Revelation, and to me, it's one of the most marvelous
of the books of the Bible. because there's so much expectation
as you read through the book. It's almost as you begin in Revelation
chapter 1 and you go page after page and chapter after chapter. It's like the book is building
up and you know there's something wonderful that is going to come.
And there's this anticipation. as you read through it, an expectation,
perhaps is a good word to use, an expectation of a glorious,
everlasting end, that is an end that will go on forever and ever. Now, I know that there's a lot
going on in the world now, and there's a lot to be upset about,
and there's a lot to, you can get easily frustrated. That's the reason I told Nancy
I just don't watch much news. It's really not much news anyway. It's somebody's idea of what's
going on. But I don't watch much of it
because if I do, then I begin to focus on all of this evil
that's going on and I lose the focus of that which I must always
focus on. Our God is working His purpose
always. Don't ever lose focus of that.
If you take your eyes off of that, if you let your mind, you
know, kind of fall into, well, look at this, look at this evil
over here, look at all this stuff that's going on, and you'll get
so frustrated, you'll get angry, you'll get upset, you'll lose
any joy, you'll lose any peace that you have. Always come back
to this, and may the Lord enable me and you to keep our focus
on this, our God is bringing His purpose to pass. Now, it
may be, and oft times it is, very painful for us. But yet, that which He has determined
to do, He is doing it. And the way things are going
to wind up, you see history, and we got, here's a history
teacher, a retired history teacher, got other retired teachers. History
doesn't go like this. History runs on a line. It's got a goal out there. Now,
not in men's eyes, it may go round and round, but in the purpose
of God, all things are moving toward the end that He has already
determined. It's already fixed. It's already
settled. The end will be the Lord Jesus
our Savior will be glorified and magnified in the salvation
of a multitude which no man can number and all to the praise
of the glory of God. We must not lose sight of that. For when we do, that's when frustration
stirs up the heart and you get upset. And it doesn't do any
good to get upset. It doesn't change anything. And
you worry, what if this happens? Well, that's not worry, it doesn't
change anything either. The best we can do, the best
thing we can do is cast our care upon the Lord and say, Lord,
you see all that's going on, and in a way that's way beyond
my comprehension, you're bringing your purpose to pass, and Lord,
help me to just keep my eyes of faith fixed on Christ Jesus,
my Lord. And as you go through the book
of the Revelation, there's some things that happens to the people
of God that they were terrible. Persecution and bloodshed and
martyrdom. And yet, the will of God is being
worked out. In Revelation 21, we have a picture
of the Lord's people Here's a picture of the bride of our Savior in
her glory as God sees her. Ron read to us this past Lord's
Day morning a good portion of Revelation chapter 21 in a symbolic
way. God sets before us His church,
His people as He sees us. You know, as we see ourselves,
we're sinful, we're polluted, and we're not a good people at
all. But as God sees us, He sees us
in the beauties of Christ Jesus. And He sees the end from the
beginning, because from the beginning, He ordained all things to the
end. And He sees us righteous. in
the Lord who is our righteousness. And so therefore in Revelation
chapter 21, you see a portrait, not of a literal city And it's
a mistake to go to Revelation chapter 21 and say, well, now
this is how big heaven's going to be. And we're gonna be walking
on streets of gold and things like that. There's so much symbolism
here. And that which is being set forth
is the beauty of and the glory of the Lord. Bride of the Lord
Jesus. In fact, look back in chapter
21. Let me just read two, three verses
to you here. Because here's the blessedness
of the glorified church of our Savior. We're set forth, we're
likened unto the bride, the bride prepared for the Savior. Look
at chapter 21, verse one. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. 21. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away, and there was no more sea. And
I, John, saw the holy city." This is not a location that he
sees. This is not like we would fly
over and say, well, there's the city of Ashland there, and there's
the city of Lexington, and there's the city of Louisville. No, this is not a literal piece
of ground or property. He says, I saw the holy city. He describes it as being the
new Jerusalem. And he sees it coming down from
God out of heaven. and prepared as a bride for her
bridegroom or for her husband, adorned for her husband. And
he says in the third verse, and I heard a great voice out of
heaven saying, behold, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with
men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God." Now
doesn't that remind you when he talks about the Lord tabernacling
with men. Doesn't that put you in mind
of John chapter one in verse 14, the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, tabernacled among us. And we beheld, John said,
his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father,
full of grace and truth. And our savior is going to tabernacle
with us forever, forever. He's going to abide
with us. And as you go through Revelation
chapter 21, and read it again at your leisure, he presents
the imagery of the new Jerusalem, of this vast, glorious city,
the city of God. That's what we are. We're the
city of God. And he presents us as the Lord
himself sees us in Christ Jesus. And then we get to the 22nd chapter. And this, actually the 22nd chapter
doesn't begin a new vision. because this is the seventh vision
of the book of Revelation, which begins at chapter number 20.
Chapter 20, 21, and 22, that is the seventh vision. And as you get into chapter 22,
this is a continuation of what he's been speaking about in the
21st chapter. And so he says, and he showed
me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding
out of the throne of God and of the Lamb, and in the midst
of the street of it. Now, just like the city is not
a literal piece of property or land made up of of city blocks
and that sort of thing. Well, so the street, the street,
it's symbolism as well. This is not like 13th Street. There's a street in the middle
of the tabernacle of God, in the middle of the church as it
were. And there's a river, he says. Once again, here is beautiful
symbolism. And there was a tree of life,
which bared 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. Well, there are no months in
eternity, right? There's no time, there are no
days, weeks, months, and years in eternity. Time shall be no
more. He's setting before us some imagery
here or symbolic words to give us an idea of what this glorious
everlasting state of the people of God is going to be like. And
he says of this particular tree of life, and of course the title
of the message is Christ the Tree of Life, He says this particular
tree, it bared 12 manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. So here's a continual yielding
of fruit. And the leaves of the tree, not
the kind you rake. Once again, he's presenting to
us a picture. that our Lord Jesus, he is the
tree of life to us. He's everything to us. Here is
a tree which portrays our Savior. And here is a tree from root
to fruit is all about taking care of the people of God. If you'll get that in your mind
concerning the tree of life, from the root to the fruit, to
the leaves, every facet about this tree of life exists for
the benefit and the blessing of the salvation even of the
people of God. That is the city. And that which
is going to be In addition, that which is in addition to all that's
been said, he says this in verse three, and there shall be no
more curse. No more curse. And of course,
all of this takes us back to that original paradise in Eden's
garden. Because after Adam and Eve fell,
what happened? God pronounced curses. He cursed the serpent. He cursed
the land. Bring forth thorns and thistles
and briars and stuff like that. And then our Lord Jesus was made
a curse. But in the new Jerusalem, in
eternity, where the people of God, when the people of God dwell
with Jesus Christ in His perfections, there will be no more curse ever. Won't that be wonderful? No more
curse. Well, what does this What's the
focal point of all of this, of this big city, of all of these
people? Verse three, the throne of God
and of the lamb. The lamb shall be in and the
servant shall serve him. And here's one of the great blessings
of this city. They shall see his face. Here's
the end goal. This is what it's all about. It's all about, this is what
God has done from the beginning. He has ordained, He chose a people
in Christ unto salvation. I read that to you from Ephesians
1. We've been redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, and
the Spirit of God has called us to the Savior by effectual
grace, and God's purpose for us is we will one day see His
face and abide with Him forever and ever. Oh, glorious eternal
day. And his name shall be in their
foreheads. So we're going to have his name
tattooed on our forehead? No. No more than there's going
to be 666 tattooed on the foreheads of the ungodly. He's talking
about the mind. He's talking about the heart. The wicked, you see, are all
about the things of the flesh, 666, the things of man. But the people of God, those
chosen in grace unto Christ Jesus, that which has been impressed
upon our understanding and upon our minds and upon our hearts
is this, Christ is all. That's what's been impressed
upon our minds. His name's gonna be in our foreheads.
And there's a sense in which His name's on our foreheads now,
because this is what we enjoy doing, is exalting our Lord and
our Savior. Now, chapter 22 begins by, John
says, he showed me, he manifested to me a pure river of water of
life, clear as crystal, He says, coming out of the throne of God
and of the Lamb. Now, whenever you think of the
word throne, what must you think of? Well,
you need to think of the king, right? You think of a throne,
you think of a king. You think of a king, you think
of authority. You think of authority, you think
of sovereignty. You think of sovereignty, you
think of a reign, the reign of the King. This is what this portrays
here. This all comes forth from the
throne of God and of the Lamb. Don't miss that. Now, this One
who is the Lamb of God is the Son of God. And He's always been
upon His throne. But He stepped off the throne
and He became our Savior The Lamb of God. And by his sacrificial
death, he satisfied justice for all the people of God. He honored
all of God's laws. He paid the penalty for sin. And because He did the work that
the Father assigned Him, the work of saving His people, of
redeeming us, of reconciling us, of establishing righteousness
for us, God has exalted the Lamb. And He's seated upon His throne. So he has sovereign authority. He reigns. Now you'll notice
this river comes from the throne of God. Now since the throne
of God and of the Lamb, since that portrays or pictures or
symbolizes to us authority and sovereignty, a kingly reign,
then we know this river is not a feeble, weak river. It's a river that's going to
accomplish God's purpose. Why? Because it comes from the
throne. You see, rivers, even on earth,
rivers, typically, they partake of the characteristic of that
location where it begins. Maybe it's a sulfur in the land
and so here's a little stream that comes out and the water
takes on that sulfur smell or whatever it is. Well, you see
this river, this river of pure water that comes forth from the
throne of God is the love of God. And it takes on the characteristic
of its source. And the source of this river
is the throne of God and of the Lamb. And so this love of God
is therefore not a weak, feeble wish on God's part, but this
river goes forth, this river of love, the love of God for
sinners in Christ Jesus, this river goes forth with authority,
with sovereign power and ability, to save every object of God's
love. I emphasize there when I read
Ephesians chapter one, in love having predestinated us. Because
really, that's the proper way to read it from verses three
and four and five, in love having predestinated us. People, when
they hear, some people, not God's people, but some people, when
they hear of God's election unto salvation, they hear of predestination. They think, oh, that's that old
cold, hard doctrine. It has no feeling. God just made
arbitrary choice, just random choice. All right, I'll pick
this one and this one. That's not right, that's a poor,
that really reveals no understanding of the doctrine of election or
predestination at all. Because this election and predestination
is to be traced to the very heart of God and everlasting love that
was in his heart for his people. Love's behind it all. And it
isn't a feeble love. It's not just a wish on God's
part. And that's what most people think
of when they think of the love of God. They think of some kind
of a wish that God has. Well, you know, God loves everybody.
He wishes well for everybody. He wants you to succeed. He wants you to prosper. That's
not the love of God. The love of God comes forth from
His heart. It is everlasting. And like the
throne of God from which it proceeds, this love of God goes forth to
arrest the hearts of those who belong to Him. And He'll make
sure that they come to love Him. So John says we love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. So the Lord says, he showed me,
or John says, he showed me a pure river. And you know it's gotta
be pure because it's coming from the throne of God. It can't be
polluted. It comes forth from the, proceeds
from the throne of God and of the Lamb. And in the midst of
the street, right in the middle, and on either side of the river,
there's this tree of life. It's an unusual tree. This is our savior. But the way
he became to us the tree of life is by way of the tree of death. That's how he became the tree
of life to us. You see, if he doesn't die, he
won't be the tree of life. This magnificent tree, and I
said from root to fruit, every facet of this tree is for the
good of the salvation of God's elect. but there will be no tree
of life of which we eat of the fruit of it and by which we're
healed by the leaves of it. There will be no tree of life
for us unless there's a tree of death for him. That's how
he got to be the tree of life. He died for our sins upon the
tree of death. And we must understand this.
If we seek life everlasting, I do, don't you? I seek life
everlasting. Then we must not seek it in ourselves
nor in anything else except Jesus Christ and Him crucified, buried
and risen again. We must seek everlasting life
in the tree of life who became the tree of life. by means of
the tree of death. Think of the death of our Savior. He died as a result of the religious
and civil people of His day who hated Him. But more than that, They bear responsibility. But
more than that, he faced the tree of death because of the
purpose of God. The scriptures are very clear
on that. He died because God ordained
him to die. Because there wasn't any way
to settle justice unless he died upon the cross of Calvary. And
he died on the accursed tree. And I made mention of this this
past Lord's Day, and I read to you Deuteronomy 21, 22. Cursed is everyone who hangs
on a tree. You think about that. God couldn't
put a curse upon any means of death that he chose, right? And there were many means by
which men could be executed and many means by which men were
executed, men and women, I suppose. Stoning. Isaiah was sawn asunder. Being beheaded. But to no other way of death
did God Almighty attach a curse, except to one way. Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Why do you reckon he attached
a curse to that? That's the way his son was going
to die. God had ordained that. And it's
an amazing truth. Our Lord Jesus died under the
curse of God. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
on a tree. And you go to Galatians chapter
3 and verse 13, and we read that we're redeemed by the Savior
who has made a curse for us. He died upon the cursed tree
and he died a shameful death. He was naked. What shame? The son of God? The son of God
who was obedient to God in all things, obedient to parental
law, obedient to civil law, obedient to God's law, and they stripped
him of his clothing and nailed him to a cross. What an ignominious
death. What a shameful death. He died. And he hung between two thieves.
He was numbered with the transgressors. Isaiah chapter 53 says that. And he died a very painful death. What does it say to us When we read of his crucifixion
and the agonies that he bore, the crown of thorns and the nails
in his hands and in his feet, it says pain, it says agony. I mean, they accused him of being
a malefactor. Oh, Pilate, when they said crucify,
Pilate said, what accusation do you bring against me? And
they said to him, if he weren't a malefactor, we wouldn't have
brought him to you. He's a felon. He's a convicted
felon and he's worthy of death. So let him die the most painful
death that we know of, death by crucifixion. He died the death of a criminal.
And he died a death that satisfied justice. His death was a penal
sacrifice. You so often read of that, if
you read some of the older writers, they'll say his was a penal death. What does that mean? What is
penal short for? Penalty. It was a penalty. It's the penalty of sin. The
penalty of sin is not a slap on the wrist. The penalty of
sin is not being beaten with a whip. The penalty of sin is
death. That's why his death is a penal
suffering. It's a penal death. It's a penalty.
It's wages paid out. The wages of sin is what? It's death, isn't it? Well, that's
what he paid. That's how he paid. His life,
he laid down his life. That was a penal sacrifice. And he died a lingering death.
He hung on that cross six hours. But even at that, it was very
surprising to Pilate that he was dead after only six hours. Bring that centurion in. Did
he really die? Yeah, he died. You know why he
was so shocked that he died so soon? Because it has been well
documented. There have been men who were
crucified and hung on crosses for 48 hours, and then they decided Take them down. And they lived
to be old men after lingering on the cross for 48 hours. Well, our Lord, He lingered only
for six hours. You see, His death wasn't being
controlled by anybody else. His death was up to Himself. He said, I have the power to
lay it down. That's what he said. I have the
power to lay it down. I got the power to take it again.
This commandment have I received from my father. The tree of death. But then think here quickly. Note the results of the death
of Christ in the tree of life. Of this tree, I think we can
say every portion of it's useful. because our Savior, He meets
every single need we have. Let's start with the roots. The
roots of this tree. Roots to a tree are vital, right? I don't know a whole lot about
trees, but I do know that roots are important. Well, here's this
tree of life, and I see two roots. His deity and His humanity. Had to have them both. Deity
and humanity. He's God. That fact means that
He has all power and all glory. And the fact that He's man proves
that He was capable of suffering and capable of dying. two roots
to this tree. He can't be a tree of life unless
it's got two roots, divine and human. And then this tree of
life is good for food. It yields fruit every month. And we eat of the fruit of this
tree. He's bred to strengthen us, isn't he? That's the fruit
of this tree. He's the man that come down from
heaven. His flesh, we eat of his flesh by faith, by faith. Here's bread to strengthen, here's
meat for the mature. And this tree of life is good
for drink. You know, a lot of trees, you
tap into them, you can, there's, the sap of them is good, maple
syrup. I love maple syrup. And other
coconut milk comes from the coconuts and on and on. Well, what about
this tree? It's good for drink. Here's milk
for young believers, right? Here's water to quench our spiritual
thirst. And here's wine that makes the
heart merry. And this tree of life, it yields
clothing. The robe of righteousness. Adam
and Eve, when they needed clothes, they ran to the fig tree. Ah, we'll run to the fig tree.
We'll get the leaves of the fig tree. It won't do. You got to have the righteousness
produced by the tree of life, Christ our Lord. And this tree
of life provides shelter from the storm. We gather beneath His branches
and no harm shall ever come to us. Now, we know, hey, when it
comes up a lightning storm, the number one place not to go Under
a tree you know that don't you Nancy's daddy used to raise black
Angus cattle They taste good, but ain't too smart Come up a
thunderstorm four or five of them be underneath the oak tree
over there And we found dead cattle when the lightning hit
the tree Not a good place to go for safety unless You run
to the Tree of Life because He's already taken the storm of God's
judgment. The lightning's already fell
on Him. It'll never hit you. It's the
only place of safety, the Tree of Life. The thunderbolts of
God's vengeance have already fallen on Him. None can perish
who hide beneath the branches of the Tree of Life. and this tree of life provides
medicine for the sick. It says here, the leaves of the
tree were for the healing of the nation, the doctrines of
the tree for healing. Well, that doesn't surprise us
because he's a great physician. Every spiritual ailment you've
got, the leaves of this tree cure. Pharisees said to the disciples,
why does your master eat and drink with sinners? The Savior
said, well, here's what you don't understand. The whole need not
a physician, but those that are sick. And I say to all of us
who are spiritually sick, the leaves of the tree of life are
for the healing of the nations. And the Bible says with his stripes,
We're healed. And I'll give you one last thing.
This tree of life provides shade from the heat and the storms
of this life. He's the shelter in the time
of storm, isn't he? Are you in the middle of a storm
in your life? Well, run to this tree. run to
this tree, get right up to the bark, as it were, and hug up
to him. There's safety there. That doesn't
mean that your trouble's going to end. No. But you're reminded that he's
the one who brought the troubles. And He's the one who protects
you even in the midst of them. Doesn't matter what happens.
Doesn't matter. He's the tree of life. Lord,
take the things of our Savior and show them unto us. May our hearts be made to rejoice
in Him who is to us the tree of life, all because of the tree
of His death. And he who died for us ever lives
to make intercession for us. We're so thankful for this marvelous,
wonderful tree of life to us. Bless us as we go home and strengthen
us in the faith and bring us back to worship at the next appointed
time. For Christ's sake, I pray. Amen.