The Tree of Life - Jason Schrock

Good morning to each one, and Christian greetings as we are together. Good

to see each of you here, and trust that you have been blessed as

I have in our service thus far. I think we could go home at

this point, and I feel we have been fed. The devotionals, Sunday

school, and the singing of songs all very much appreciated. I have a

subject before us this morning that in many ways is at least interesting to me,

and I trust it is to you as well. This subject is introduced

in the account of the Creation, and as far as direct reference to it,

it's the Bible is silent till we get to the last chapter of the

book of the Bible. And so I like to talk this morning about the

tree of life. I would say at the beginning here that the tree of

life is intended for everyone, but there will be few that will partake of

it. And so we want to look back at the creation when God made

the world and everything in it. And if I would ask you, what

method did God use to create the world? Maybe I should ask that,

but you would probably say, well, he spoke it into existence. And

that is true. But as I was reading this account again carefully in preparation

for this message. It indicates, and I don't know how you think about

that, and it indicates that not only was there a spoken word, but

there was action on the part of God. The word said is given eight

times, the word made six times, the word formed twice, and the

word planted once. And so looking at that, God said, is about

equal to God? Did now how that all was? I'm not here to

say, but I found that that interesting man was formed from the dust of

the ground, and so were the animals of the birds, and formed has

the thought of to squeeze into shape, to mold, like like a potterwood

a vessel. I'm going to read some here from Genesis two and three free

as a backdrop for what we'd like to share further. I'm going to start

here with the Genesis two. Like to read verses seven to ten, and

then verses fifteen to seventeen. Genesis two, verse seven, and the Lord

God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils

the breath of life, and man became a living soul. And the Lord

God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom

he had formed and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every

tree that is pleasant to the site and good for food. The tree of

life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of

good and evil. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden.

And from thence it was parted and became into four heads. And then

it talks about these four rivers that flowed out of the garden. I think

we'll skip reading that and jump on down to verse fifteen. And the Lord

God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it

and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying,

of every tree of the garden, thou mayst freely eat, But of the

Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.

From the day thou eatest throve, thou shalt surely die. And then

he goes on and talks about the creation of the woman. And so we

have here introduced to us the thought of a tree, and it is called

the tree of Life. And I don't know just what your thoughts are in

relation to the Tree of Life, but we'd like to share some things here

this morning at least that have come to my attention. But I think to

really get the view of this, I'd like to just read the next chapter,

chapter three. I know that it's very familiar to us, and yet

thinking of the Tree of life, thinking of the tree of knowledge of good

and evil, thinking that because of what man has done, he does not

have access to the Tree of life, I think we need that whole background

of chapter three. So I'd like to read that. Now the serpent was

more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.

And he said, unto the woman, yea hath God said, ye shall

not eat of every tree of the garden. And the woman said, unto

the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,

But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the

garden. God has said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall

ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said to the woman,

ye shall not surely die, for God to know that the day ye

eat there of, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be

as God's knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree

was good for food, and that was pleasant to the eyes, and a

tree to be desired to make one wise, she took up the fruit thereof

and did eat, and gave also under her husband with her, and he

did eat, and the eyes if both of them were open, and they

knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves

aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden

in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from

the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. And the

Lord called into Adam and said it to him, where art thou? And

he said, I heard the voice in the garden, and I was afraid

because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, who

told me that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree? Whereof?

I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat. And the man said,

the woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the

tree, and I of the tree, and I did eat. And the

Lord God said it to the woman, what is this that thou hast done?

And the woman said, the serpent began me, and I did eat,

and the Lord God said it in the serpent. Because thou hast done

this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field.

Upon thy belly, shalt thou go and thust shalt thou eat all the

days of thy life. And I will put enmity between THEE and the woman,

between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and

thou shalt bruise his heel. Unto the woman, he said, I will

greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception. In sorrow, thou shalt bring forth

children, and thy desires shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule

over thee and unto Adam. He said, because thou art, because thou

has hearkened under the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree

of which I commanded thee, saying thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed

is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow, thou shalt eat of it

all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth

to thee, and now shall eat the herb of the field. In the

sweat of thy face. Shalt thou eat bread till they will return under the

ground, for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art,

and under dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his wife's name Eve,

because she was a mother of all living. Unto Adam also and to his

wife did the Lord God make coats of skin and clothe them. And the

Lord God said, behold, the man has become one of us to know

good and evil. And now lest he put forth his hand and take also

of the Tree of Life, and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord

God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence

he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed at

the east of the garden of Eden charbans and a flaming sword, which turned

every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life. And so here

we have the introduction in chapters two and three of the Tree of Life and

somewhat what it was intended for. And then the Bible goes silent as far

as speaking specifically of the Tree of Life till we get the revelation. But

the Bible is full from cover to cover of things in relation to the tree

of life, which you won't have obviously won't have time to go into all

that today, So let's focus here at this point a few minutes on the

garden of Eden. This account said that God planted it. And I'm not

sure what all was in the garden. We have just a few hints.

It mentions that there were trees, and there was a water source that went

to four rivers into four rivers. And can we imagine the delight of God

in preparing a habitation for this crowning work of his man. That he would

like to have a place, a wonderful place for man to live, and

he desired to truly make it a lovely place. And I suppose that he

looked over all the plants and the trees, and yes, even the animals,

and chose that which he deemed would be the best. And I'm not

sure what all that would be, but you always I think of the trees.

There were probably some lovely palm trees with their fronds waving in the breeze,

fruit trees, lovely shade trees, maybe some cedars. I would almost

believe that he would have planted a grove of redwoods. There just majestic,

so that Adam could say, Wow, there were trees and bushes that bloom

profusely, lovely green grass. I don't know. We can just go on

and on and imagine landscape to perfection. And in the midst of this garden

was a fountain, a fountain of water, and it flowed out of the

garden into four rivers, and those rivers went east. Keep that in mind.

We'll get back to that now. Usually we see where there are maybe

creeks and streams and rivers that come together and float larger and larger quantities of

water until it gets out to the ocean or to the sea. But in

this setting we see that the water was abundant, that came out of the

garden and flowed in four directions to water the earth. How satisfied God must

have been with his handiwork the beautiful garden that he planted. But of special

interest, there were two trees that he planted in the midst of the garden.

One was the tree of life and the other was the tree of the

knowledge of good and evil. You know, I'm sure there was adequate food

there, and God must have said, here, help yourself. There's all

kinds of food. Just help yourself whatever's here. But there's one tree that

you dare not eat of, and that is the Tree of the Knowledge of

Good and evil. You know, I guess in a way that's maybe an

indication that even at this point there was evil in the spiritual realm. There

wasn't here on earth yet, I don't think. But the Tree of Knowledge

of good and evil, as far as we know, there didn't seem to

be any special instructions concerning the Tree of Life, and I would think it

would have also had fruit on it. Probably so man in his original state

was sinless, and he was in fellowship with God. He was immortal,

going to live forever on condition. So Adam did not need to eat of

this tree, because immortality had already been given to him as a gift of

divine gift. And so the tree of Life was a seal to Adam,

assuring him of continued life and continued immortality. And as I said, this

immortal life was on condition of obedience of not eating of the Tree of the

Knowledge of Good and evil. And we know that through the suggestion of the

serpent and in disobedience to God's command, Adam and Eve ate of the tree

of the knowledge of good and evil, and it resulted in estrangement from God.

It resulted in them no longer being immortal. It resulted in death setting

in Man by transgression fell, and he was no longer immortal, he was

no longer sinless, no longer did he have fellowship with God. And God

placed a cursed on Adam and Eve and the serpent. And he drove Adam

and Eve from the garden. And to make sure that they would not get

back and eat of that tree of life and live forever in their sinful state,

he placed Cherubim there to guard a man from the garden. Here in

three verse twenty four, it says, so he drove out the man,

and he placed at the east of the garden of beating Cherubim and a flaming

sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the Tree of life.

I'm so thankful that God did not put the cherubim there to keep man

from the tree of life, but he kept it there to keep the way

of the tree of life. And so God left open the prospect of future

access to this tree of life, to restoration of immortality. And so he

got's perfect plan. He reserved the tree of life for mankind, and they

would only have access after atonement was made to cleanse their sin and reconciliation was

made with him. And now no longer could man look at this tree and

say that I have eternal life. That transfer of trust needed to go to

the promised seed that was to come that we read about there in Genesis three.

And then I mentioned that we have again the tree of life picked up

in the book of Revelation. Now in Proverbs, think there's about four times

where it talks about a tree of life. Something is a tree of life,

but not the tree of life. So let's turn now to the last

chapter of the Bible. I like to read a couple verses here Revelation twenty

two one and two. And he showed me a pure river of water of

life, clearest crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the

Lamb. And in the midst of the street of it, And on either

side of the river was there the Tree of Life, which bare twelve manner

of fruits and yielded her fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree

were for the healing of the nations. So we find here a river of

life coming, I would say, from the throne of God, coming from

God's Eden right in the midst of it. There's a river now that's coming.

Now, how could this be? On either side of this river,

there's a tree of life. There's a lot of things I don't understand here,

but it's interesting. And now we're told that this tree bears tell manner

of fruit, a different fruit for each month. And then it mentioned the

leaves. The leaves are for the healing of the nations. So I suppose

this whole account, not the whole account, but what I've read so far

bears a couple of questions. Was the tree of life in the garden a

physical tree? I think it was. I think it was a physical tree.

Is a tree of life that we read about here in revelation? Is

that a physical tree? Well, I'm going to let that answer that be

answered in the future. Depends maybe how we look at this. But you

know what, there's so many things in the Bible that are physical that point

to a spiritual truth. We just had an example of that last Sunday.

We partook of natural bread that represented the broken body of the Lord. But

it was not the body of Christ. It just represents we drank the cup

the fruit of the vine that represented the blood of Jesus. I would like

to say this morning that I believe that this tree of life is Jesus,

Jesus the Messiah, and man could not partake of the tree until the Messiah

offered himself as an ultimate sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. And now we

understand as we look back, that the way of the tree of life has

been kept all these centuries, all these millenniums, so that today we can

partake of the fruit of the tree of life. I'd like to look at

several aspects of this account. First of all, I'd like to think of

the river. I think there's significance here in the river in the garden.

The river flowed from the midst of the garden, the midst of what God

had prepared for his creation, and that source of water divided into four rivers

and water of the earth. And like I said, that's different than what

we often think of and watercourses usually one dream flows into another and another.

I was just thinking about that where we live, just south of our house,

there's a ditch that goes that goes through the field, and the water

from that goes along the road ditch right in front of our house, and

it flows there, and then it flows on down and eventually back behind Smithy

there somewhere it flows into Muddy Creek. The water goes on Muddy Creek and

then it flows on north somewhere south of Carvallace. It merges into the Willamorte

River. Then the Wlamar River goes to the Columbia and Portland, and from

there it goes on out to the ocean at Astoria. It's interesting to think

about it that that water, that little treckle of water that flows by our

place, in front of our place by the road, eventually finds its way

clear on out to a wide two mile wide mouth at the Columbia to go

into the ocean. All right. Now, the water Eden was just the

opposite from a single source. It flowed outward. And I was trying to

think, is there an example of that? And probably not exactly. Probably

the closest I come to is the Montolius River there in central Oagan, a

river that flows out of a mountain and spreads out. But those are physical

aspects. But the water, I believe Derek talked about the woman at the

well. Jesus told the woman at the well that he was the water or

he was, yeah, the water that brings life. I'm going to read

several verses from John seven in relation to water, John seven, Versus thirty

seven to thirty nine. John seven, verse thirty seven. In that last

day, the great day of the Feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,

if any man thirst, let him come into me and drink. He

that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly

shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the spirit,

which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not

yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified. Here Jesus is saying that

this fountain of living water is going to come through and out from his believers.

And so we find that throughout the Bible that water meant life. Now,

I'd like to look at a portion in the Book of Ezekiel. I

don't know if you would think of Ezekiel as being as talking about the tree

of life, but it's interesting if you want to turn to the forty seventh

chapter and if you think of or if you look at the setting of Ezekiel.

He was one of the Jews that was taken captive to Babylon, and

he prophesied there in Babylon, and different times God showed to him visions and

told him to tell the people, told him to gather the elders together and

show them what was going to be going to take place. If we go

back, I think it's maybe maybe the fortieth chapter, it says that in

the twenty fifth year of the captivity, he was taken in spirit back to

Jerusalem and he was shown the temple. Now we know the temple had been

destroyed and this was to be a reconstructed temple, and there were all kinds

of measurements. There was, I guess an angel that would have shown him,

and there was there was measurements, and there were descriptions of this temple.

And then he shows him a vision of water proceeding out of that temple.

And this is I believe if we look at this, that there are

reminders here of the Garden of Eden and reminders of what we see in Revelation.

I'm going to read the first twelve verses of Ezekiel forty seven. And

you might notice here as I read, there's water coming out for the temple.

And what direction is it going? Well, it's going east, just

like it did in the garden of Eden. Afterward he brought me again into

the door of the house, and behold, waters issued out from under the

threshold of the house eastward. For the forefront of the house stood toward the

east, and the waters came down from and from under the right side of

the house, at the south side of the the altar. Then brought he

me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the

way without onto the water gate by the way that looketh eastward. And behold

there ran out waters on the right side. And when the man that had

the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits.

Now a thousand cubits would be a little less or a little more than a

quarter of a mile, little less than a third of a mile. He

measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the water. The waters

were to the ankles. Then again he measured a thousand and brought me through

the waters, and waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand,

and brought me through the waters. Through the waters were to the loins.

Afterward he measured a thousand, and it was a river that could not

pass over. That I could not pass over, for the waters were risen

waters to swim in a river that could not be passed over. And he

said it to me, said a man hast Au seen this. Then he

brought me and caused me to return to the brink of the river. Now,

when I had returned, behold at the bank of the river, where

very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then he said

unto me, these waters issue out toward the east country, and go down

into the desert and go into the sea, which being brought forth into the

sea, the water shall be healed, and it shall come to pass at

everything that liveth, which moveth whatsoever, whethersoever the river shall come, shall

live. And there shall be a very great multitude of fish because these waters

shall come thither, for they shall be healed, and everything shall live,

whether the river cometh. And it shall come to pass that the fissure shall

stand upon it from Ingudae even in egg lim, and they shall be a

place to spread forth nets the fish shall be according to their camp kinds,

as a fish of the great sea, exceeding many. But the myriplaces are

of and the marshes thereof shall not be healed. They shall be given to

salt, and by the river upon the bank thereof, And on this side

and on that side shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not

fade fade. Neither shall the fruit throve be consumed. It shall bring forth

new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the

sanctuary, And the fruit throve shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof

for medicine. Well, there's a lot of things here that would have meanings

deeper meaning, but we find here that they went on thousand cubas. He

could walk through his angles, another thousand to his knees, another thousand to

the thighs. Then it was too deep to wade Verse seven. We find

that there were trees on both sides, and we find out in Revelation twenty

one. And then it's interesting that there were healing waters. And if you

think about this, it would seem that these waters were headed to the dead

sea, where there is no marine life. We were at the dead sea.

Here a number of years ago. I didn't see any fishing boats out

there. I didn't see anybody stand on the bank fishing. But it said

here that there will be fish. Let's see the fish as the fish of

the great Sea, exceeding many. And so I think what it says is

that this water that comes out from the temple will heal anything that is dead

and bring life to it. And then Verse twelve talks about trees for food,

fruit every month, leaves for medicine for healing. So let's think just

a little about fruit. Obviously, the tree in the garden of Eden would

have had fruit because God kept Adam and Eve, blocked Adam and Eve from

it less they eat from it. And Ezekiel here talks about fruit, and

Revelation twenty two talks about fruit, and it would seem that there is perpetual

fruit bearing monthly. Don't I don't know if any fruit tree like that.

Maybe you do, maybe that in some of the tropic areas there's trees that

I don't know about, some of the of the citrus, whether they would

have fruit every month or not. But we don't know of that here.

But the Tree of Life has fruit every month. Twelve fruit now My understanding

is that twelve. The number twelve represents completeness, and so there is no

more that God can or will do for our salvation. It's complete twelve manner

of fruit. The plan of salvation is complete, and there is fruit available

to all at all seasons. And Jesus had a promise to the church at

Ephesus. There in Ephesians two seven, he said, he that hath an

ear, let him hear what the spirit says to the churches, to him

that overcometh, to him, will I give to eat of the Tree of

life, which is in the Paradise of God. So Jesus was saying talking

about the tree of life in the Paradise of God, which is developed further

inter twenty two. Then I found this interesting. Hadn't really given this much

thought before. But the healing leaves, what's the meaning of the healing leaves.

Well, obviously there is a source sickness that needs to be healed,

and that sickness, I believe is a sinful condition of mankind. And it

seems to me that the leaves represent pardon to the sinners. It represents healing

to the sin sic soul. And who's it forwards? For all nations.

Why was there no mention in the in Genesis at the time that God made

a planet of the garden. Why is there no mention of the leaves of

the Tree of life. They weren't needed at that point when there was planeted

the leaves weren't needed. But we find the leaves mentioned in the Ezekiel.

We find them mentioned in Revelation. So God has long desired that man could

eat of this fruit of the Tree of life and live forever. But because

of sin, man cannot partake of it. And now only in man's restored

and redeemed condition, through his son Jesus Christ, will God allow access to

the Tree of life. And in this condition, God desires that his children

would live eternally, And now they're redeemed have access to the Tree of life.

Going back to Revelation twenty two again, like to read a couple verses

there. Revelation twenty two, verse fourteen says, Blessed are they that do

his command that they may have right to the Tree of Life and may enter

in through the gates into the city. Blessed are those who do his commandments.

They'll have a right to that tree of life, and they can enter

into the city, and they can be they can see that river of life,

and they can enjoy the fruits of the tree of life. You know,

this is a beautiful story, how man has been allowed back into fellowship

with God and restored back into fellowship. It's a beautiful story. But as

I said at the beginning, not all will partake of this tree of life.

There will be those who will be still be excluded eternally. We know

that we are all guilty of sin. There's none righteous, no, not

one. We have all been estranged from God, we have all been kept

from the from the tree of life. We all have the sentence of death.

And so eternal bliss will not be for all. Those who reject the

offer of cleansing from sin will be without. Now let's look at the next

verse. We see that for without not everybody's within without our dogs and sorcerers

and hormongers, and murderers and idolaters, and who's whoever loveth and maketh a

lie. We had that in our Sunday school lesson dult Sunday school lesson about

the truth. Who's whoever loveth and maketh a lie? And so as I

think of the as I think of this Tree of Life, and that there

has been restoration that has been made, and we've been given much more than

what was lost there in the garden of Eden. God is faithful. Where

grace abounded or sin about it, grace did much more abound. So I

guess the question to each of us here this morning is where am I?

Where are you in relation to the Tree of Life? Have you accepted its

leaves for the healing of your sin sic? Soul? Are you partaking of

its fruits? Or have you rejected the remedy that God has provided. The

fruit of the Tree of Life is available all twelve manner of fruit. And

I don't know just exactly how that all is as far as partaking of it

now, partaking of it in the glory land, But I believe that there

is a sense where today we have the privilege of partaking of the fruit of

the Tree of Life, and it is complete. There's nothing more that God

can do, nothing more that He will do, because He has made the

way possible for us to be restored back to Him. So I'm thankful this

morning for the Tree of Life and what it means to us now and in

the future. Let's have us all