We read from the last book of
the Bible, the revelation of Jesus Christ, and from the last
chapter of the last book of the Bible, both a wonderful book
and a wonderful chapter in which we read of those great things
which are to come, the great inheritance of the child of God,
that kingdom, that city, that holy Jerusalem to which one day
they will be led, in which one day they will dwell with the
Lamb of God around His throne forevermore. A place where there
will be no more tears, no more sorrow, no more sadness, no more
disease, no more death, no more sin. A place in which the people
of God will dwell with Christ forevermore. Where they will
dwell with and in the tree of life. For in this chapter, at the end
of the Bible, in the last recorded words of Christ given by his
prophet to his people and his church throughout all time, We
read again at the end of the Bible as we read at the very
beginning of the Bible of the Tree of Life. The Word of God
opens with a garden, a paradise that God created upon earth in
which the first man walked. It opens with a garden in the
midst of which was the Tree of Life. And it ends with a city,
a city to come in which there is a river full of water of life
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb and in
the midst of the street of that city and on either side of the
river was there the tree of life. which bared twelve manner of
fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the nations. and in that place
there shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it, and His servant shall serve Him,
and they shall see His face, and His name shall be in their
foreheads, and there shall be no night there, and they need
no candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth
them light, and they shall reign forever and ever. beginning of the word of God
and at the close of the word of God we read of the tree of
life because that tree is a picture of Christ who is without beginning
and without end. As he closes the chapter, I am
Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the
last. Blessed are they that do his
commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and
may enter in through the gates into the city. Oh, what a tree
this is. What a saviour this is. Alpha and Omega. The beginning
and the end. The first and the last. He is everything. He is the one
in whom there is life. Eternal life. And outside of
him there is but death. One day you and I will either
enter into this city, because we have the right to the tree
of life. And because God has led us there,
and given us that right, and brought us to that tree, and
caused us to eat of that tree, and made us to live when once
we were dead. Either one day we will enter
into that city, or one day we will be destroyed and cast out. Now have you got a right to the
Tree of Life? Has God led you to the Tree of
Life? Have you eaten of the Tree of
Life? Do you know anything of the Tree
of Life? Or are you without? Are you today? And will you be in that day? Outside of the City of God. Outside of that place where the
Tree of Life is in the midst. Will you be found without? Because if you are, you are found
in the company of dogs, sorcerers, whoremongers, murderers, idolaters,
and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Everyone who sins in that
day. Everyone who has no answer for
their sin. Everyone who has no righteousness. Everyone who has never eaten
of the tree of life will be found without. For without are dogs,
and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters,
and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Now that's an awful description
of an evil people. And you may reject that description. You may say, well that's not
me. What an awful way to describe
me. I'm no dog. I'm no sorcerer. I'm no whoremonger. I'm no murderer. I've never murdered anyone. Don't
call me an idolater. But have you ever loved? And
have you ever made a lie? Whatever you may think of a former,
somewhere in this list you are found out. You may not like to
think of yourself as a dog, a sorcerer, a whoremonger, a murderer, but
in many ways before God in your heart, in the thoughts within,
in the motives and the desires that flow from your heart, that's
just what you are. How many times do we put to death
others who cross our path? Oh, we might not physically pick
up a weapon to slay them with, but how often hatred bubbles
up in our hearts for those that get in our way, for those that
cross us, for those we dislike, for those who dislike us. How
often we're filled with hatred. how often the heart of the murderer
rises up within and how often when man is faced with the gospel
and with the truth of God and with the reality of Christ and
his gospel the sovereignty of God the power of God and the
rule of God when we're brought to see that our natural heart
rises up against it. Left to ourselves, left without
hearing of these things, the sin within may lay dormant. But
when we hear of a God in whose hands we are, a God who demands
righteousness, a God who will judge us because of our sin,
when we hear that there is no salvation in any name except
in the name of Jesus Christ when we hear that salvation comes
at the command of God and not at our command or our decision
or because of our will then our enmity rises up because mankind's
problem Your problem and my problem is that we love to be the ones
in control. We love to be sat upon the throne. We love to be the one sat on
the throne of God. But here's a city and here's
a place in which if you enter you will find that there is a
throne and that it is God who is sat upon the throne and none
other. And the reason that there are
dogs and sorcerers, murderers and liars outside is because
none of them will accept God sat upon that throne. They want
to be sat there and you want to be sat there and you will
not enter in. Even if the doors were flung
wide open and you were bid to come in, you'd say no, because
you want to be in control. That's the heart of man. At the
beginning in the garden, when God created man in innocency
and put him in that garden and placed two trees in that garden
the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil that man was free to eat of that tree of life and he was
commanded not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil for in the day that he ate of that tree he would surely
die But without any restriction against eating of the tree of
life, ultimately man in the beginning and man ever since, and you and
I today by nature, go one way and one way only. We don't take
of the tree of life to eat. But we do go to that tree that
God warned us against. We will go. We insist on going
to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We insist on
taking that which God said would kill us. We insist on doing that
which God has warned us of. We will get to heaven, as it
were, by our own means. we will find out we will learn
what is right and wrong we will do what is right and wrong and
we by our own wisdom and our own strength will get to glory
by our own means That's what was symbolized when Adam ate
of that tree and that's what man's been doing ever since.
He will come to these things, he will eat of these things in
his own wisdom, he will fill his own mind with knowledge,
he will respond and do, he will in arrogance and confidence and
pride say I have the means and the ability to do, I will walk
this way, I will be righteous, I will show God how great I am,
I will earn my right to heaven. And in so doing, he takes of
a tree which God said of him, in the day that thou eatest of
that tree, thou shalt surely die. When you try to get to heaven
by your own strength, you shall surely die. When you try to build
your tower of Babel, God will cast it down. When you try to
present yourself as holy before the righteous and the holy and
the living God, when in reality your heart is full of sin and
full of rebellion and full of a desire to throw Him off the
throne and put you in His place, you will surely die and you will
be found outside of that city of God. where the people of God
dwell with He who is the tree of life. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end, the first and the last. We see this tree at the
beginning of the scriptures. We see it at the end. But for this tree to bring life,
to a people who never chose to eat of it but went away and would
not enter in and would not eat of the Tree of Life to a people
who rejected it to a people who rejected He who the Tree of Life
is an image of to a people who rejected the Son of God Jesus
Christ the Saviour, to a people who would not bow down and worship,
to a people who would not receive Him when He came unto His own.
For God to bring that people to life, that tree must be slain. That tree must be cut down. That tree must be burnt. that tree had to be destroyed
that tree had to suffer so that that people who would eat of
another tree might be brought to that place where through death
they might be brought to life once more the tree of life is
Christ the tree but the tree who when he came into this world
as a man had to die that those who were dead might live Adam
in the garden could eat of the tree of life freely but once
he'd sinned he was cast out of the garden and there was a flaming
sword which turned every which way preventing him from going
back there was no way back to that tree of life until that
sword had it exacted its judgment it will either exact its judgment
upon you or it will exact its judgment upon another in your
place the freedom to enter and to go to that tree that was given
to Adam at the beginning ceased to be when sin entered into this
world and death by sin. You may say, if I was Adam, if
I was in that garden, if that tree of life was given to me,
I'd eat of it. But you're full of sin, and you'll
never get to that tree, except you pass this sword, this flaming
sword which turns every way, except we deal with God's justice. except God's justice deals with
our sin. There's no way to the Tree of
Life. Between the first book in the
Bible and the last book in the Bible, between the first reference
to the Tree of Life and the last reference to the Tree of Life
which we read here, there is a burning sword which had to
come down. it will either come down upon
you and cut you down for eternity or it had to come down upon he
who is the tree of life and cut him down because of what you
and I have done if you're to be saved if you're to eat of
this tree of life and live if you're to enter into this city
of which John writes then that sort will have had to have done
its work. Christ came and he came into
this world, this world of sin. This world in which there was
once a garden planted in Eden. This world in which there were
once two trees. This world in which man ate of
the tree that he was forbidden to eat of, and left the tree
that would have brought him life. Christ came into this world of
sin, into this world of death, into this world of rebellion,
to take the sin, to take the rebellion, to take the death
of his people. and bear it upon himself, to
bear their sins, to bear their rebellion, to bear their hatred
of God, to stand before God as they are, in their place, before
the justice of God as though he'd done all that they had done,
to stand before God as the guilty one. guilty of all their sins. You think of everything you've
done, everything you've fought, everything you've said. Oh child
of God, think of all that you are and all that you've done
and all that you can be. That's what Christ bore. That's
the shame he bore. That's the guilt he bore. Those
are the sins he bore. And that's how God looked upon
him. All that you hide from everybody else. All that stinking filth
inside. All that hatred and enmity. All
that selfishness, that arrogance, that pride. All that you are
as fallen man. That's what Christ bore. That's the shame he bore. And
that's why God took his flaming sword. and brought it down upon
his own son, the son of his love, the son of God, the only begotten
son of God, the tree of life. God brought the sword down to
the base, to the root of the tree of life and cut him down. Would not that bring the end
of all things? Would not that be the greatest
tragedy in history? The one place in which there
is life, the one tree of life, the one source of life Himself
cut down. Is not that the end? When Christ
was slain, when Christ hung in the darkness upon the cross,
when the light of the sun was taken away as Christ was made
sin and as the people around looked upon and saw the darkness
come down and heard Christ upon the cross and beheld when they
saw these things happen was that the end of all things? Did they
think that was the end? Did they think that was the hope
gone? The disciples Those who loved Christ, those who walked
with him, those who followed him. What did they think at that
hour? All their hopes had come crashing
down. He to whom they looked. He whom they thought would bring
redemption to Israel. He whom they thought would bring
them deliverance. He in whom all their hopes rested. Here he is upon a cross in the
darkness. Crucified. Slain. All that they hoped in was gone. Oh can you not see the darkness
of that hour? We live in history the other
side. We know the end from the beginning. We know what happened on the
third day. We know where we are today. But
at that hour if you enter in by faith, if you go to where
the disciples were, in the darkness, The Son of God, the light of
the world was slain. Every hope came crashing down. What hope is there if there is
no more tree of life? What hope is there if the tree
is gone? What hope is there if the sun
is gone? What hope is there if the light
is gone? What hope is there if all there
is is darkness and death and wrath and judgment? There's no
hope. And if by faith God leads you
to that point where he shows you your sin, and shows you the
iniquity within, and shows you the wrath of God against that
sin, and shows you how bad you are, how evil you are before
him, and how final and full his judgment is, if he leads you
to the cross and shows you the wrath of God being poured down
because of your sin and you enter in and you feel the conviction
of God against your sin and you know that you're a sinner and
you know that you've only earned the wrath of God and you know
you deserve to be cast out into hell all you'll see at that point
is the darkness the death everything crashing down to nothing Because
that's the only way that God could save a people was if he
brought everything to nothing. He created them upon this earth. He put man upon the earth in
innocence. He placed them in the garden.
He said you may eat of the trees of this garden freely. You may
eat of the tree in the midst of the garden freely. He could
have eaten of the tree of life and man didn't. He ate of the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil and death entered in.
sin entered into his heart and death by sin and the darkness
came down upon the earth and that was the end of everything
but God could only deliver him if he took the darkness which
was in man if he took the sin which was in man if he took the
death that had entered into this world and judged it all and destroyed
it all and brought it to its conclusion. God must take the
sins of his people, he must judge them. And he will either do so in eternity
to come where there is no end to the darkness, where the judgment
is eternal because that's how bad the sin is that's how bad
the consequences of man's sin is it's eternal it brings upon
us eternal wrath and judgment and darkness from which there's
no escape but if God's to deliver us from
that then he must take that and take what would come upon us
and leave us in darkness forever and place it upon one who can
take that which is eternal take that which is everlasting without
end take that which is final and drink it up until it is no
more When the disciples looked on and saw the darkness and saw
the Saviour and heard His last cry and saw Him hanging upon
the cross dead. When they heard His last breath,
His last cry and they knew He was dead. What did they think? When you've looked by faith into
the cross, into the darkness, unto this tree of life cut down
in those hours when Christ hung dead. What do you think? What did you think? Is that the
end? God had to do it. God had to
bring it upon him. But is that the end? Will faith
look beyond? the disciples into whose hearts
God put faith, though it was tragic, though it appeared final,
though the Savior was dead, they knew that He had said on the
third day, I will rise again. Or they had heard Him say. Whether
they comprehended or not, they'd heard Him say. Whether they believed
it or not, he'd promised to them. And indeed on the third day,
out of the darkness, out of the depths, out of death, out of
judgment, out of the grave, the light shone. The stone was rolled
away. The light began to shine forth. The life came forth. And Christ rose from the dead. It was not the end. It was not
the end. It was not without hope. But his death was the beginning. It brought every hope. it brought
forth the life that was once shut forever unto those who were
dead. Eternal judgment was what The
child of God's sin had brought upon him. Eternal judgment is
what man's sin has brought upon him. But those for whom Christ
died had that eternity of wrath and darkness poured out upon
the Saviour who on the third day rose from the dead. and the light which had been
once made dark upon the cross, the light of the sun which had
been cancelled out by the wrath of God against the sins that
he bore, the light shone forth because he'd taken the judgment
and he'd taken the eternity of judgment and he'd consumed it. He drank the cup of God's wrath
to the dregs. There was no more price to pay. No more judgment to be exacted. No more death to experience. No more sins to be answered. On the third day the Son of God
rose again from the dead. On the third day there was resurrection. On the third day the light shone
forth from the tomb. On the third day the tree of
life began to grow forth again. That tree which had been cut
down cut down by the sword of God's justice, cut down by evil
men that sought to destroy him, cut down in the determinate counsel
of God as he allowed these men, as he moved these men to take
his son and crucify him, on the third day that tree which had
been cut down began to grow again. The life was there again. the
roots which went right down into the ground which went right back
into eternity the roots of he who is Alpha and Omega the beginning
and the end the first and the last reached down and brought
forth life again and the tree grew forth and branches came
forth and leaves budded on the branches and the branches were
the people of God and the leaves were each individual saved, grafted
in and the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations far from being over That day
when Christ died, that day when the tree of life was cut down,
that day when the flaming sword of God's justice came upon the
sins of his people, that day when the Son of God and the sun
was brought to darkness, that day which appeared to be the
end of all things was the beginning. the beginning of all things,
the beginning of the life of every child of God, the beginning
of the life of all God's people. chosen in Christ from all eternity
but in time on that day brought forth in resurrected life with
the Son of God on that day they rose and the tree grew and the
branches came forth and the gospel was sent forth and the gospel
was preached and sinners heard as the apostles, the twelve apostles
went forth at the command of Christ and began to preach these
things and those that heard believed as they came to see and to know
that they were branches and leaves upon this tree the tree of life
which through the gospel God brought them to eat of and to
live forevermore he died that we in Him might live if we're
in Him, if we know Him, if He died for us. The tree of life. In the midst of the street of
it on either side of the river was there the tree of life which
bared twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. Here's a tree, a tree which Christ
speaks of in many places. In John 15 he tells his disciples,
I am the true vine and my father is the husbandman. Every branch
in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and every branch
that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more
fruit. now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you abide in me and I in you
as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in
the vine no more can ye except ye abide in me I am the vine
ye are the branches he that abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth
forth much fruit For without me ye can do nothing. If a man
abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered,
and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they
are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done
unto you. Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. He's the tree, we're the branches,
the leaves. And every month, this tree brings
forth fruit. 12 manna of fruits, yielded every
month. And the leaves of the tree were
for the healing of the nations. 12 manna of fruits, oh how significant
is the number 12 in the scriptures. God's people in the beginning,
Israel, were comprised of the 12 sons of Jacob, the 12 sons
of Israel, the 12 tribes of Israel, 12 manna of fruits. When Christ called his disciples,
he called 12 and sent forth 12 apostles to preach the gospel
following his resurrection. continuing in the symbolic meaning
of the 12, the completeness of Israel. This gospel is founded
upon the 12 tribes, the 12 patriarchs, the 12 apostles of the land. And in this we see the completeness
and the unity of the people of God. Taken out of every tribe,
kindred and tongue. Twelve manner of fruit. This
tree is a tree that extends in its reach to the four corners
of the earth. It's not a gospel just for the
Jews. It's not a gospel just for the
Gentiles. It's not a gospel for this race
or that race, this people or that people, this kingdom or
that kingdom, this colour or that colour. It's not a gospel
for the rich or the poor or those in between. It's not a gospel
for the intellectual or for the foolish. It's a gospel which
is sent to the four corners of this earth, to every tribe, kindred
and tongue, to all people. God has his people whom he's
chosen out of every tribe, every kindred, every tongue. To the
Jew first, and also to the Gentile. There are twelve manner of fruits,
each distinct, each their own. but each of God, and each brought
forth as fruit by God. It's all God's work. He's the
tree. He sends forth the Tree of Life. He leads His people to the Tree
of Life. He causes them to eat of the
Tree of Life. He causes them to be grafted
in. He makes them to be branches
and leaves upon the Tree of Life and He causes them to bring forth
fruit. They don't do it, He does it. They can't make themselves to
live. But in the power of His Gospel, He can bring the worst
of sinners, the most evil of man, the most depraved of man,
the one who has gone as far off, the one who naturally has no
hope, the one who's cast out by all others, the one who's
cast out by the religious world, the one who's cast out by his
own sin, the one who's cast out in his own judgment. He can bring
the worst of sinners unto this tree. and bring them to life. 12th manner of fruits. You may
say, well, I'm not like they are. I'm not like that people
that go to that meeting. I wouldn't be accepted amongst
them. I wouldn't be accepted by their God. They don't know
what I've done. Oh, I know they call themselves
sinners, but there's nothing like me. 12th manner of fruits. Those who've sinned in every
way. Those who've sinned in their
hearts and in their heads. Those who've sinned in deed as
well as thought. Some have fallen greatly. Some
have made a mess of their lives. Some appear to be holy and righteous. Yet they're all sinners before
a holy God. You may say, I've lived well,
I've lived fine. I've never murdered, I've never
stolen, I've never been an adulterer. I've been upright from my youth.
But God looks within and sees you within and sees the sin within. We're all sinners, we've all
gone astray. Some externally, some internally,
but we're all the same before a holy God. 12 manna of fruits,
12 tribes. Every tribe, every kindred, every
tongue. And all must be brought to the
same tree, by the same path, by the same gospel. All must
be brought by faith. to see a Saviour crucified for
them because of their own sin. All must die that they might
rise again. All must come to know the meaning
of death and resurrection. All must come through 1 Corinthians
15 where Paul speaks of death and resurrection, of the need
for death before there's life. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. It's sown in corruption, it is
raised in incorruption. It's sown in dishonor, it is
raised in glory. It's sown in weakness, it is
raised in power. It is sown a natural body, it
is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there
is a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first
man Adam was made a living soul, the last Adam was made a quickening
spirit. how be it that was not first
which is spiritual but that which is natural and afterward that
which is spiritual the first man is of the earth earthy you
and I The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy,
such as they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
as they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. You can't do it. You can't get
to this city. You can't enter Jerusalem above. You can't enter into that place
where the tree of life is in the midst. You can't take of
the tree of life in your natural state. Flesh and blood cannot
inherit the kingdom of God. You must be brought to an end
of yourself. You must be slain. You must be
brought to sea. Your sins laid upon a saviour,
crucified in your place. And you must be able to say,
I should have been crucified. I deserve that. I am dead by
nature. You'll never live, you'll never
be raised again until you've been brought there. Behold I
show you a mystery, we shall not all sleep but we shall all
be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last
trump for the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible and we shall all be changed for this incorruptible
must put on incorruption and this mortal man must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written,
death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? the sting of death is sin and
the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ he died that we
should live he died that those who could bring forth no fruit
unto God no fruit should in him bring forth fruit abundantly I through the law am dead unto
the law, that I might live unto God, that we might bring forth
fruit. The law condemned us. The law
found us wanting. Man by his own strength and works
could do nothing, but he found himself under condemnation. But
having been condemned, having been slain, having seen himself
slain with Christ, rising with Him, he brings forth fruit. And he brings forth fruit monthly. This tree bore twelve manner
of fruits and yielded her fruit every month and the leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the nations. Monthly. We don't bring forth fruit but
once. We don't bring forth fruit at
one point. We don't look in our lives and
say, well there was a day when I knew a blessing. But those
who are brought to Christ, those who experience the power of his
gospel, those who are grafted into that vine, those who are
branches upon this tree, bring forth fruit monthly, 12 times
in the year. There's a complete work. There's a completeness. A completeness
to this covenantal work of the gospel. God will save a people. God will bring a people unto
life. And that people will bring forth
fruit abundantly. It's constant. Every month he'll
bring forth fruit. He lives through this people. They live in him. They don't
try to live. They don't struggle to live.
He brings forth fruit and he brings it forth by the gospel. And only by the gospel. Whenever
they turn to the left hand or to the right hand, whenever they
turn to South, they turn back to the ways of death. Whenever
we seek to live and to walk before God in our own strength and in
our own wisdom, we fall and we stumble and we feel the death. But when we walk in the liberty
wherewith He hath made us free, when we walk in the Gospel, delivered
from the law, delivered from the condemnation, when we walk
in faith with our gaze set upon Christ, set upon the tree of
life, when we eat of that tree, there is a constant fruit of
the Gospel. It may seem very often in the
day in which we live that the gospel is preached and falls
upon deaf ears. Like the water of life is poured
forth and falls upon dry ground. We may feel that we preach and
declare the truth and we see so little budding of life. But before God, his tree is bringing
forth life constantly. When God looks upon his tree
and the branches of his tree and the leaves of his tree as
they extend across the nations throughout this world, he's building
his church, he's preaching his gospel and the tree is bringing
forth fruit monthly. wherever we may be there might
be that there's life brought forth by the gospel where we
are this day and then we see nothing more apparently no more
souls being gathered into the meeting no more people being
brought to confess Christ but elsewhere the Gospels preached
and another saved and over there the Gospels preached and another
saved and throughout God's church the Gospels preached and His
people live and they rise up over the concerns of the day
they rise up over the trials and the tribulations through
which they're brought to walk and their faith rises up over
that which can be seen and it looks unto that which is not
seen. And even amongst those who gather as a few, even amongst
those who journey as it were struggling along, they feel the
fruit of the Gospel every day as they're brought by God's grace
and mercy. to look up beyond self, to look
up beyond their circumstances, to look up beyond this world,
to look up by faith into that city to come wherein in the midst
of it there is the tree of life. Every day that we in the Gospel
are brought by faith to look unto Christ, the heart is moved,
the heart is touched and life is brought forth There's fruit. There's no fruit to be found
through your own wisdom, through your own strength, through your
own trying to bring things to happen. There's no fruit to be
found by looking around at circumstances and despairing at them. There's
no fruit to be found in the things of man. But the fruit is constant
when the gaze of faith is set upon Christ in the midst of his
people. He's always there, no matter
how dark the day, no matter how hard the trial, no matter how
tragic your circumstances may be, no matter what we may be
faced with on a daily basis, No matter how awful man might
be to us, no matter how much externally we might look on events
and despair at them, when we look beyond by faith unto God,
unto Christ, unto a risen Saviour, unto He who died and is risen
again, unto the tree of life, we see the fruit. Twelve manna
of fruit brought forth and yielding it monthly. and we see the impact
of the leaves on this tree for the leaves are for the healing
of the nations the leaves of the tree were for the healing
of the nations and there shall be no more curse these leaves speak of every single
child of God which is in Christ in this tree, every single bud
of life in this tree, these green leaves on the branches. God uses everyone and he uses
the gospel through everyone for the fervent of the work of his
kingdom, for the fervent of the work of his gospel in the kingdom,
for the healing of the nations. We live in tumultuous days We
live in days where if we look upon the nations of this world,
all we see on a daily basis is hatred, war, famine, violence,
strife, upset, misery, evil, despair on every side and in
every nation. Many look upon these things and
throw up their hands in horror and say, what can be done? What
can be done? There's violence and tragedy
everywhere. The world's not getting better,
it's getting worse. and man comes up with his answers
and man has his schemes and his ideals and his philosophies and
men think they can solve the problems of the world by doing
this or by doing that and men push their views and their ideals
upon everyone else and they strive to make peace in this world when
all the time there's warfare and there's warfare because of
the sinning man but there is an answer to what
we see in the nations. There is an answer to the disease
and the death of sin in this world. The problem in the nations
is the sin which entered into the hearts of man, which brought
death. That's the world's problem. and
there is a healing of the nations there is an answer for the problems
in the nations it's not in the politics and in the ways of man
it's not in the philosophies and the dreams and the ideals
of man the godless philosophies the answer is in the tree the
tree of life the answer, the healing of the nations is to
be found in this tree this life, this gospel, this salvation,
this fruit and this yield. The answer is to be found in
these leaves. The leaves of the tree were for
the healing of the nations. The leaves were. Every single
child of God has such an impact as the gospel is worked by God's
grace in them, has such an impact upon the nations, our very presence
in this world. is for the good of this world,
because it is God's means to separate His people out of this
world, to deliver them from their sins, and to ultimately, on the
last day, bring every one of them into this place, the city
of God, of Jerusalem to come. in the midst of which is the
tree of life. This is God's answer to the troubles
of this world. This is God's answer to the disease
of the nations. This is God's answer to every
woe and trial and difficulty you might encounter in life anywhere
and at any time. This is what heals the nations,
the leaves on the tree of life. You might think, child of God,
you're nothing. You might think your realm of
influence is nothing. You might think that God hasn't
put you into any great work. You might think that you come
into contact with so few people and have so few opportunities
to speak of Christ. You might think, what am I doing?
But your very presence in this world, the very fact that God
took you out of death, took you out of darkness, brought you
into the light, brought you to this tree of life, grafted you
in and brought forth fruit through you. The very fact that God saved
you by his grace is for the good of the nations. Whether you speak,
whether you're silent, whether you do this, whether you do that,
God's work in saving his people, in sending forth his gospel,
and in building his church is for the healing of the nations. And the day comes when all his
people, united to this tree, having life in this tree, having
righteousness as those who are leaves upon that tree, not as
those who took fig leaves to cover themselves with their own
righteousness, but those who have and are the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ, those who are made to be his righteousness,
the righteousness of God in Christ, those who are leaves, the covering
of the tree, those who are taken by grace and not by works, those
who are delivered by God from their sins, those who come to
know the power of the gospel and the revelation of the righteousness
of God by the faith of Jesus Christ in the gospel, those who've
been brought to live by God's grace are those who know what
it is to eat of the tree of life. What it is to have right to the
tree of life. What it is to enter in through
the gates into the city. What it is to be blessed of God
forevermore. What it is to sit around the
throne of the Lamb of God and to hear Him who says, I am Alpha
and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Do you know Him? Do you know
Him? Do you know this tree? Do you
know this life? Where are you headed? Where are
you looking? Of what tree have you eaten?
Do you know? Shall you see on that day his
face? And shall his name be in your
forehead? Amen.