Thank you, Joe. Let's go back
to Genesis chapter 3 for our message this evening. Genesis
chapter 3. God made a man, made him in his
own image, but that man, he fell and to
transgression against God. And here's the thing we need
to remember about Adam. He fell not as a private individual,
but as a representative man. And actually, it's a good thing
that he was a representative man. We fell in Adam But we didn't
fall like the angels fell. The angels, they didn't have
a representative, they were followers. They didn't have somebody to
stand for them and to act for them. Lucifer, he fell on his
own, and then the angels that decided they were gonna follow
him, they each of them, they just followed of their own accord. And therefore there could be
no mercy to them because they had no representative. And that
which was their fate was everlasting damnation. Now Adam was a representative
man. We call him, the theologians
call him, the federal headship of Adam. He was our head. He
was our representative. He acted on our behalf and we're
very much used to and acquainted to with a representative kind
of government where there are people who represent us whether
we like what they're doing or not, whether we agree with their
actions or not. They are our representatives.
Our president represents us. The ambassador who's been appointed
by our to go to a foreign country, he represents us. And so we're
very much acquainted with the idea of representation. Adam was our representative.
As long as he was obedient to God, we were obedient to God. But in the very moment that he
transgressed God's law, we fell. Now we know Eve, and at that
point when she did fall, she had not yet been named, as I'm
sure you noticed as Joe read there in chapter three, she wasn't
named till after the fall. But Eve, or Adam's wife, she
was deceived, but she represented nobody. She was not the appointed spokesman,
as it were, for anybody. That one God had set aside to
be the father of the race of all mankind was Adam. And when Adam, when he stood
before God innocent, so did we. But when Adam transgressed God's
law, we did as well. So when Adam's wife fell, nothing
happened to Adam. It had no effect upon his standing
before God because she was not his representative. She was,
as the scripture says, his help meat. Adam represented Eve, his
wife, and he represented all of us. And when he broke God's
law, when he fell, we all fell. Now, when they fell, Adam and
his wife, when they fell, they knew they were naked. Joe read
that to us. And the reason they knew that
was because their consciences were awakened. They knew then
they had done evil. Their conscience told them that. Their innermost being was troubled. Before this, they were never
troubled, but now they are. And they knew they had done wrong,
but they did not have an answer to their dilemma. Yes, their eyes were opened,
we read that. Their eyes were opened at least
to some extent as to their condition. And they became wretched and
miserable and poor and blind and naked. And they knew something
had to be done, but they didn't know what was to be done. They didn't know how to counteract
this. They're in territory they've
never been in before. They didn't know how to get rid
of the evil that they now had. And they didn't know the remedy
for evil. Well, they made fig leaf aprons. That was their natural inclination. We've got to cover up our nakedness.
So we'll do it. And they made these fig leaf
aprons. But that wouldn't satisfy God. And moreover, it wouldn't help
them. So there are two things that
are going on here. Number one, there's the integrity
of God's law. There's divine justice that's
gonna go to work now. God had already said in Genesis
chapter two, in the day ye eat thereof, you'll surely die. So there's God's law, there's
God's wrath that's got to be appeased by death. So that's
going on, and that's most important, the honor, the integrity of God's
justice and law. But there's something else going
on. Adam and Eve, how are they gonna live? Because God has said, in the
day ye eat thereof, you'll surely die. So here are two individuals
who have immediately died spiritually. They need life. That's what they
need. They've got to have life. They're
in a state of death now, and they've got to have righteousness,
and they're in a state of unrighteousness. They're in a state of violators
against God's law. And they need forgiveness. And
they're filled with their own shame. They're shamed of what
they did. But they don't know what the
remedy is. And then on the other side, there's that justice of
God, because God said to him, the day ye fear of, you'll surely
die. God has got to get death, therefore. Now, there's no issue there.
Well, there's no question about that. There's no debate about
that. God has got to get death. Justice when aggravated, the
law of God when broken, it demands death as satisfaction. So here really are the two things
that are at work. There must be a substitute for
our fallen mom and dad, and there's got to be satisfaction to God's
demands. Well, Adam and his wife, they
come up with their own idea. They'll manufacture their own
covering, a fig leaf apron. But that's not a remedy. Because that's not gonna hold
up or appease the justice of God. And it's not gonna meet
their needs. Because there's no life in the
fig leaf aprons. There's no forgiveness there.
There's no righteousness there. It was obvious that they didn't
know what was to be done about the situation to rectify the
wrong that they had done against God. With all of the intelligence
God gave to Adam, he didn't have a clue what to do to remedy the
situation. Isn't it amazing? And if you
wanna see the actual depravity of man, think about things like
this. Man can, we can split an atom. Man can discover diseases and
then discover remedies, cures for the diseases. And men can
go into outer space. You watch the two astronauts,
no doubt, as I did just the other day as they blasted off. And
you say, wow, isn't that amazing? That rocket comes back down,
lands on that ship, on that freighter or whatever it was. And you say,
wow, what intelligence behind all of that. and the physicians
and the remedies that they have for the diseases of men and the
surgical abilities that doctors and surgeons have. And we're
most appreciative of those gifts that they've got and many other
abilities that men have demonstrated and the things that they do.
But with all of their intelligence, they don't have any understanding
how the God of the Bible saves sinners. And if you want to know,
if you want evidence of the violence of man and the depravity of man,
just look at the ways that men come up with in order to seek
salvation. Why they'll cut themselves, They'll
try to go up steps of holy cathedrals on their knees. They'll punish
themselves. They'll do all kinds of things. They'll do anything and everything
except flee to the only one who can save them, the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's evidence of man's depravity. Thankfully, God did something
for them. After announcing the seed of
the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent, and
then after pronouncing a curse upon the earth and upon the man
and the woman, the Lord illustrated the way by which he would make
people like us presentable unto himself. We must be clothed. Not with something that we come
up with ourselves. It's got to be God himself who
clothes us. Chapter 3 and verse 21, unto
Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins
and he clothed them. to cover the evil of our parents. Here's what's required. The innocent
had to die for the guilty, and then the guilty could live. And that principle is followed
all the way through the Old Testament. Every book, every chapter, Every
page, a river of blood runs through the Old Testament. It goes on
through that intertestamental period of 400 years between the
Old Testament and the New Testament. And then right on through the
birth and then the ministry of our Lord Jesus. That river goes
all the way to the cross of Calvary. And there we see the fulfillment
of all of those pictures going all the way back to when God
killed those animals and he robed our fallen parents. From there
all the way to the cross, We see in picture and in typology
that which our Lord Jesus actually did when he suffered, bled, and
died upon the cross of Calvary. You see his cross death. That was the way. which upheld
the integrity of God's law and his justice. And that was the
way that righteousness was brought in and life was brought in for
us. Thus, both problems are solved. By one remedy, the death of the
Lord Jesus. Let's consider this tree of life
now. This was also a real tree, as
real as any of the rest, as real as the tree of knowledge of good
and evil. But it was different from all
of the other trees, this tree of life. It had a virtue that no other
tree possessed. Just as the cross of Calvary,
And I don't mean the beam upon which our Lord died, but the
doctrine of atonement. That's the answer to the dilemma
of how can God be just and justify the ungodly. There's a virtue
there, a virtue that it isn't seen anywhere else, except in
the Christ of the cross. A tree of life was a life-giving
tree or a life-sustaining tree. It was a tree, if a man ate of
the fruit of it, as Adam and Eve no doubt did, they remained
as they were and they would never die. And this is the issue here
that is at work as our brother read to us in verse 22. And getting
into the 23rd verse, This is a tree of life that if
you ate of it, apparently, if you ate of it, you would remain
as you were forever. And God prevented them from eating
of it because they must not think now. that they can do something
like eat of this tree of life and it will reverse the situation
and they'll get life again. No, it's not going to work that
way. And so God bars them from eating
the fruit of the tree of life. Some people call this the tree
of immortality. It would, as I indicated this
morning, it seems that Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of this
tree every day. And that was okay, that was okay
until they fell. You know, when I read of this,
the tree of life, I immediately think of the Savior because almost
every other time in the scriptures where something is associated
with life, it has to do with the Lord Jesus. For instance,
in Psalm 36 verse nine, he's called the fountain of life. For with thee is the fountain
of life, in thy light shall we see light. He is the fountain
of life. He's the origin of life. There
is no life apart from Christ Jesus, who is our life. That's
what Paul says in the book of Colossians, Christ who is our
life. He gives physical life. He gives
spiritual life. He gives eternal life. He gives
everlasting life. Jim, what's the difference between
eternal life and everlasting life? Everlasting life is the
length of it. Eternal life is the quality of
it. It is to know God. That's our
Lord's definition of it. This is life eternal, that you
might know God, that you might know him who sent his son into
this world to know God and to know his son, Christ Jesus, the
Lord. He is the fountain of life. Doesn't matter what kind of life
you're talking about, he's the fountain of it. He's the origin
of it. And then we read he's the water
of life. You remember our Savior meeting
the woman at the well. It was an arranged meeting, arranged
back before God made the world. And he told that woman at the
well, he said, whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give
him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. And so we read in Revelation
22 and 17, and the spirit and the bride say, come. And let
him that hear it say, come. And let him that is a thirst
come. And whosoever will, let him come and take up the water
of life freely. Are you thirsty for Christ Jesus? Come and drink. Drink of the
water of life freely, freely again. And here again, we see
this word freely. We were confronted with it this
morning. Freely, without any cost to you, without any consideration
of who you are, what you've done, it's free. Just come and drink
freely of the water of life. Drink abundantly, our Lord Jesus
is the water of life. On the last day of the Feast
of the Tabernacles, he stood and cried, saying, if any man
thirsts, let him come unto me and drink. Are you thirsty? Do
you thirst for righteousness? Do you thirst for life? Do you
thirst for God? Do you thirst for salvation that's
in Christ? Come to him and drink. That is,
believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then we read of the way of
life. The way of life. Christ said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Proverbs 15, 24 says, the way
of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell
beneath. The way of life is the one who
is above, who's exalted upon his throne. He's the way of life. Every other way is a way of death. Isn't that right? Every other
way is a way of death. There's one way of life. It's
a narrow way. Thank God, few there are, few
there be that find it though. We do find that way. And then
He's the bread of life. He's the bread of life to all
who eat of Him. Eat of Christ, feast on Him.
and live forever. And he's the light of life, for
he is light. All light originates in him and
it comes forth from him. Life emanates from the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the one who enlightens people. Therefore, I'm quite certain
that by this tree of life, we're to understand the Lord Jesus
and his cross death. because we read in 2 Timothy
chapter 2 that he abolished death and he hath brought life and
immortality to light through the gospel. Now, we know that the, here's
the tree of life is mentioned back in chapter two, verse nine.
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 then we don't read anything
about the tree of life. until we get to chapter three
toward the end, and this is after the fall, this tree of immortality. God said, don't eat of it. Don't eat of the other tree.
Of this tree, he says, now you can't eat of it. You can't eat
of it because he kept them from it. He kept them from it. this tree of life. Understand
this, this paradise that they were in, it wasn't so much a
home for Adam and his wife Eve as it was the dwelling place
of God. I think it's important to remember
that. It isn't so much the home of Adam and his wife as it was
the dwelling place of God. Because you see, this paradise
corresponded to the holy of holies in the tabernacle as I mentioned
a little bit this morning. and into the Holy of Holies,
nobody could enter except the high priest, and he only one
time a year. The rest of the time, it was
no, you can't come in here. Your presence is forbidden. And God, as it were, put up,
he put up a fiery sword. and two cherubim, which in essence
said to Adam and Eve, you can't come in here. But we were with
you. Yes, you were. But you're alienated
from me now. You're separated from me. What
has separated? It's like the Lord told Israel,
your sins and your iniquities have separated you and God. And
now God's in there and he's not coming out. And y'all are out
here and you're not going back in. There's a separation there. There's an alienation there. And here's the lesson that is
taught by the Lord driving Adam and
Eve out of the garden. And it is this. In fact, I'll read it to you.
Turn to Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine, and look
at verse seven. Hebrews nine, verse seven. This
is talking about the Old Testament tabernacle. But into the second, into the
holy of holies, went the high priest alone once every year,
not without blood. He had to have the blood of a
bullock and the blood of a goat, which he offered for himself
and for the errors of the people. The Holy Ghost, this signifying
that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest
while as yet the first tabernacle was standing. Was yet standing. And you see, this kind of corresponds
to what's happened over here in Genesis the third chapter.
The way back into paradise That's where I wanna go, don't you?
Not an earthly paradise. I wanna go to the heavenly paradise.
But the way into the heavenly paradise is not clearly set forth
as of yet. But there are some things that
give us some good indications of the way that's going to be,
how we can get into paradise, how we can get back into the
presence of God. We were in his presence in Adam,
in unfallen Adam. We were in the presence of God.
We had communion of God. We had fellowship with God. But
ever since he transgressed God's law, as he was put out of paradise,
we went with him. And God's in there and we're
out here. And God's not coming out here
and we're not going in there unless, unless one who is in
paradise comes down here to do something for us. That's the Savior. And by his cross death, what
happens? Well, what happened to that believing
thief? Very first time in the Bible,
really, the word paradise is mentioned. It's used by our Lord
Jesus. The thief said, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. I believe you've got a kingdom.
I want you to remember me and I believe you're the Lord. Lord,
remember me. Verily I say unto you, today
thou shalt be with me, oh, bless the name of God, in paradise. You're gonna go right into the
presence of God. But he's a thief. He's a murderer. There's every indication he was
certainly a robber and maybe even a rapist. How is that man,
that vile creature, with whom none of us would have anything
to do with, how is it that that poor rotten humanity, how is
it that he will go into paradise? Because of who his Savior is
and what his Savior did for him. And you see, that's the glory
of the gospel. And it's what most people don't
see. They can't comprehend. You see, in the garden, God put
up, as it were, a lot of pictures here, as it were, a veil. And in essence, saying to Adam,
you can't come back in here. No entrance. Go back to Genesis. Let me show you something here.
Go back to Genesis 3. You can't come back in. Not as
you are. Not in the kind of shape you're
in. God's holy. God's righteous. God's just. And here's a man who's fallen
into iniquity. And he's just, he's compounded
his error with self-righteousness. It wasn't enough for him to become
a sinful man. Now he's got to become a self-righteous
sinful man. He just adds insult to injury. Because you see, false religion
just adds to the problem. And his was a false religion
because he's trying to straighten himself up. He's endeavoring to make things
right himself. Can't do it. And you would think,
if you didn't know man's depravity, you'd think that Adam and his
wife, after they did this, and they heard the voice of the Lord
God calling in the cool of the day, you'd think that they'd
fell down on their faces before him and said, oh God, forgive
us. Oh God, forgive us. No, didn't
do that. They're gonna dress themselves
up. How's this look, honey? That fits you pretty good, Adam.
You look pretty good there yourself, Eve. All dressed up in your new
fig leaf apron. But it won't do for God. Oh,
it would do for their own eyes, but it won't satisfy God. Now
you hear me, God's only satisfied with his son and his sacrifice
upon the cross of Calvary. That's what God, you wanna know
what God's pleased with, what God's satisfied with? His son
and his son's death, that's all. And permit me to say it this way,
if you want to get on God's good side, you better kind of get
up close to Christ Jesus, the Lord. That's the only hope you
got. Outside of Him, there is no hope
in there, right? There's no hope anywhere else.
And get rid of your fig leaf aprons. Get out of the fig leaf
apron making business. and be satisfied to be saved
by the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. That's the only
righteousness that'll do. He's the Lord, our righteousness,
the scripture says. Notice what it says here in chapter
three. God says in verse 22, and the
Lord God said, behold, the man has become as one of us. Now,
man hadn't become God, of course, but he does now know good and
evil. He doesn't know how to do good,
and he doesn't know how to get rid of evil, but he knows good
and evil now. And God says, and now lest he
put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and
live in this kind of state forever, in this kind of shape forever,
therefore the Lord, he sent him forth out of the garden. And
I want you to notice the language here. Therefore the Lord God,
he sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from
whence he was taken. He sent him forth, verse 24,
he drove him out. You know what that says to me?
He didn't want to go. I don't want to go. But you're going. But Lord, I
want to stay with you. You can't stay with me because
you're evil and I'm good. So he couldn't stay. So he drove
out the man. But now watch this. And he placed
at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubims, two cherubims,
a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of
the tree of life. Because this tree of life, this
isn't the last time we're gonna read about this. And Wednesday
evening, in my message, I'm gonna take you to the book of Revelation,
where we see this tree of life again in picture and in symbolism. But here's what I wanna show
you now, verse 24 again. So he drove out the man and he
placed at the east of the garden, that word placed. It's a tremendous word. It means
he, God. dwelt, also translated tabernacled. This was his abode. He dwelt
at the east of the Garden of Eden among the cherubims. That's where God was. And if
they wanted to worship God, which they did, this is where they're
gonna worship. You see, it isn't that worship
ended in the fall. No, there must still be worship,
but it is worship through a substitute through the blood of an innocent
victim. Now, let me take you to a passage
of scripture. Go to the book of Exodus, Exodus. See if I can, I jotted the reference
down here. Look at Exodus chapter 25. And by the way, and I'll read
this here in Exodus chapter 25, I got a question for you. I was
talking to a brother the other day and I mentioned this to him. Let's suppose you were Adam and
Eve. Which would you rather be? Which
state, which condition would you rather be in? in the garden, in paradise, having
not sinned, or outside of paradise, having sinned? I don't answer
out loud, obviously. Which of the two situations you
think would really be the best to be in? The best place to be in is outside
the paradise. You say, why in the world would
you say that, Jim? Inside a paradise, Adam's safety,
Adam's life, totally dependent upon his own
obedience, upon his own righteousness, upon
his own complete obedience to the law of God. Outside the garden, having been
robed by God, now his life and his righteousness is all dependent
upon his Savior. That's the best place to be in.
Because you don't want to ever be in a position to where your
life and your salvation, your righteousness is dependent upon
you because you're going to fail. Better to be outside of paradise. And I know that the fall of man
was awful, but it was a fall in which he
was caught. in the arms of Christ Jesus.
Isn't that wonderful? He caught him. He caught him. Let me give you this passage
here in Exodus 25. When the Lord gave instructions
pertaining to the building of the tabernacle, he told Moses,
he said, there's only one place where he would meet with men
and men could meet with him. Look at Exodus 25, and I'll just
read a few verses here. I won't read them all. Verse
eight, first of all. And God said, and let them make
me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them. That same word found
over there in Genesis three, dwell. He placed, he dwelt there
at the chair bend. He dwelt there. Now drop down
to verse 18. Thou shalt make two cherubims
of gold. You begin to pick up on the picture
here. There's a lot of similarity. Thou shalt make two cherubims
of gold, a beat and work, shalt thou make them in the two ends
of the mercy seat. and make one cherub on the one
end and the other cherub on the other end. Even of the mercy
seat shall you make the cherubims on the two ends thereof, and
the cherubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, covering
the mercy seat with their wings, and their faces shall look one
to another. Toward the mercy seat shall be
the faces of the cherubims be. And thou shalt put the mercy
seat above upon the ark. What was within the ark? The
law of God. That man had broken, And in the
ark thou shalt put the testimony that I shall give thee, and there
I will meet with thee." That's where I'll meet with you. Nowhere
else. Between the cherubim. What were
we just reading over here in chapter three? There's the two
cherubim. And God said, that's where I'm gonna
dwell. That's where you'll meet me. And here he says, and I will
commune with thee, I'll meet with thee, I'll commune with
thee from above the mercy seat between the two cherubims which
are upon the ark of the testimony of all things which I will give
thee in commandment unto the children of Israel. And over
here, we go right back to Genesis chapter three. He drove out the
man and he placed, he dwelt, he tabernacled at the east of
the garden of Eden, cherubim, and a flaming sword, which turned
every way to keep the way of the tree of life. One translation on this verse
reads, and he dwelt between the cherubim at the east of the Garden
of Eden in a fierce fire, or shekinah, that's the word, this
flaming sword, the shekinah, unfolding itself to preserve
or to keep the way of the tree of life. You see, God's presence
here at the entrance to paradise with Adam out there and the Lord
in here had pictured our Lord Jesus Christ. He tabernacled among us. The scripture says that the throne
of God, it's a fiery throne. A fiery throne. Yep, that's God's home. That's
God's dwelling place. And Adam, you can't come back
in, not as you are. But God says, I'll meet with
you. I'll meet with you. And there's no question about
it, as we get into chapter four, that's where Abel and Cain came
to worship God. Read with me. In the chapter
four now. And Adam knew Eve, his wife,
and she conceived and bear Cain and said, I've gotten a man from
the Lord. Literally, I've gotten a man,
the Lord. Verse two of chapter four. And
she again bears brother Abel. Abel was a keeper of sheep, but
Cain was a tiller of the ground. The ground that God had cursed.
And really, if you think about it, Cain would have been, he'd
had to work the hardest because he's a tiller of the ground and
the ground is cursed. Thorns and thistles, God said,
he'll bring forth. And boy, Cain's out there working
every day in the garden and in the vineyards, whatever it was
he grew. And then it says, in process of time, it came to pass
that Cain brought her the fruit of the ground, an offering unto
the Lord. Where did he bring it? Where did he bring it? He brought it where God was worshiped. When did he bring it? You notice
in my Bible over in the margin it says, in the process of time,
at the end of the days, which would indicate to me every Saturday,
end of the week, is regular worship service. They had a particular
place to go, I'm going to go worship God. Where are you going
to worship God? Well, you can't worship Him anywhere.
There's one place you can meet with God. It's right over there
where that fire is. Where that great Shekinah glory
is. And I don't have a doubt and
there's no doubt in my mind because this is indicated through the
scriptures, through the Old Testament scriptures that the way that
God manifested that he had respect to Abel's sacrifice is that fire
from over there went up and devoured his offering. And the way Cain
knew God had no respect for his offering was that he brought
his olives and his olive oil and whatever fruits or vegetables,
whatever it was, he brought those and he laid them down on the
offering. And I'm sure he backed up thinking, well, the fire is
going to fall. Nothing happened. Because God was not pleased at
all. There was no satisfying of justice
in Cain's offering. For there was no death. There was no shedding of blood. But Abel's, oh, verse four, he
brought with the firstling of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto
Abel and his offering. but unto Cain and to his offering,
he didn't have respect. You know what that means? God
wouldn't even regard it. Or to literally put it, he wouldn't
even look at it. There's no consideration of Cain's
offering. You think that's going to appease
a holy God? what you grew with your hands,
and I know you diligently worked, and false religion is full of
works. And oftentimes, as you see the
zeal of false religion, don't you sometimes feel like they
do more than we do? That's because they're working
their way to heaven, or trying to. But zealous works. That won't
count. It's better to go to the place
of worship. Go where God meets men and men
meet God. Right there where the Lord tabernacled
at the east of the garden, where he dwelt. And anytime, excuse me, when
Adam and Eve wanted to worship, that's where they worshiped.
Where do you think Cain and Abel learned? Where do you think they
learned to worship God? It was from their, they learned
from their mom and dad. But Cain being rebellious and
being just the natural man, He put forth his own labor. Surely
God will be pleased with this. Man, I have put a lot of sweat
and tears into this. I've been out there hoeing in
the garden and doing all these things, and man, that's hard
work, working the ground that's cursed. But I did it. And I grew these, and these are
the best I've got. And I know the Shekinah glory
is gonna dash off that sword and come and devour my sacrifice. God said, I'm not gonna have
anything to do with that. Because it didn't point to Christ. Christ, who is the tree of life
through his cross death. And so we'll continue that the
Lord willing Wednesday. Well, I hope that's been helpful
for you. I always want to try to minister to the people of
God, and first of all, honor the Lord, and then be of help
to you, instruct you, and try to instruct those who are, maybe
God's given a thirst for salvation to drink of the water of life
freely, drink of Christ and Him crucified. Well, let me pray. David's going.