Introduction

Revelation 22:2b-3a ESV  …also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  (3)  No longer will there be anything accursed…

• If you haven’t caught on to this already, and I have said it plenty of times… but God has ALREADY created the Earth perfectly.
  • The idea of a perfect earth is not a new thing that God has been striving toward or hoping will one day happen.
  • GOD STARTED WITH A PERFECT EARTH.
  • Things were perfect when God created the Garden of Eden.
  • Things were perfect when God created Adam and Eve.
    • So on a perfect Earth, in the perfect Garden, existed two perfect Garden tenders, who served a perfect God.
    • There was no need for a New Jerusalem.
    • There was no need for a cross or an empty grave.
    • There was no need for the Bible, or even the 10 commandments.
    • There was no sin, there was no curse, there was no law.
      • Well except for one thing… there was ONE commandment… there was ONE law.
  • You see there were two very special trees in the Garden of Eden, well at least two that we know of…
    • The first was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Genesis 2:16-17 ESV  And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden,  (17)  but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”

• Well, we know how that turned out… man and woman, with the help of a sneaky little satanic snake, we ruined perfection by breaking the one law, and we ate of the tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.So then we were cursed… our perfection stripped from us by our own doing, now forced to work the land and suffer pain in child bearing amongst other things…And it is after this curse that we see the second special tree in this garden mentioned…

Genesis 3:22-23 ESV  Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”  (23)  therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

• You see, in the 3^rd chapter of the 1^st book of the Bible we are introduced to this special tree, the Tree of Life… and it’s fruit has the ability to give eternal life.
  • Now when I was in my first theology class in University, my professor tried to teach us that the creation story in Genesis is just a myth.
    • It was just poetic language that the tribal people passed down from generation to generation.
    • And a SHOCKING number of so called Christian Scholars believe such nonsense…
  • And they point to things like the Tree of Life as proof.
    • “Look at this mythical tale of a tree that gives eternal life! It’s just like the fountain of youth of other cultures… it’s just mythology… If the rest of the Bible was like this we wouldn’t believe a word of it, but we don’t see this mythology in other books because culture went away from oral tradition, you see… that’s why the first three chapters in Genesis are so fairy tale like… because they are! Take them with a grain of salt!”
    • Well, Dr. Professor man, it looks like John did not get your memo… because the Bible treats Genesis 1-3 as GOSPEL truth… and it’s not like we hear about the Tree of Life once and then forget about it… NO! The tree is mentioned in the 3^rd chapter of the first book and the last chapter of the last book!

Revelation 22:2b-3a ESV  …also, on either side of the river, the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  (3)  No longer will there be anything accursed…

• Now let me show you something else interesting, let me read you this again but in the New King James Version, it highlights something I don’t want you to miss…

Revelation 22:2-3a NKJV  In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  (3)  And there shall be no more curse…

• Do you see that, the Tree of Life is first mentioned in the Bible right after the curse is issued!
  • And now, the Bible closes with the Tree of Life once again, and the curse being no more.
  • Literally the bible is bookended between the curse and the tree of life.
  • *hold up Bible* TRULY THIS IS THE STORY OF WHAT HAPPENS TO MAN WHEN WE HAVE THE CURSE AND DON’T HAVE THE TREE.
    • Because there is only a couple chapters before the curse and the tree, and only a few verses AFTER the curse and the tree.
    • 99.999% of this book is about a time period where we do not have access to the Tree of Life but we are under the curse…
    • I FIND THAT FASCINATING… but maybe I am just odd, I don’t know.
• Here is what I do know, the tree of Life is what ushers in eternity for Man Kind.

• Which Eternity Do You Face? Redeeming the Tree of Life…

Point One – The Grace of Excommunication

Genesis 3:22-24 ESV  Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”  (23)  therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.  (24)  He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

• My first point this morning is “The grace of excommunication”…
  • Now what on earth does excommunication have to do with eternity, the Tree of Life, and living curse free?
    • I am glad you asked! Let’s talk about that!
• If you don’t know, the word “excommunication” means “Being kicked out of the community”… ex-community… excommunication.
  • It is the word we in the church world use to describe kicking someone out of the church. If you are told to never come back to CLC then I have “Excommunicated” you from the church.
    • It is not normally a pleasant topic of discourse… in other words, it’s not fun to talk about.
• But nonetheless, Excommunication is a Godly trait. God Excommunicates people, so His church should excommunicate people, just as you as a Christian should excommunicate people from your life…
• But that’s not exactly what I want to talk about this morning, I want to talk about the grace that I see in God excommunicated Adam and Eve…
  • I see God’s loving, caring, grace, when He kicks Adam and Eve out of the Garden…
• Why did God kick Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden?
  • We are told very specifically why:

Genesis 3:22 ESV  Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”

• God kicked man out of the garden because He did not want man to live forever?
  • BUT WHY DID GOD NOT WANT MAN TO LIVE FOREVER?
  • I am sure there is more than one reason, I mean God said “If you eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil you shall surely die” and God is not a liar… they ate of that fruit, they don’t get to not die…
    • But many theologians will tell you that they DID die, right then and there, when they ate the fruit… they died in that they lost perfection, they lost fellowship with God, they lost closeness with their creator, their old perfect self was killed and now they are stuck with this cursed self…
    • Most theologians will say Adam and Eve died the first death right then and there…
  • But still I think that is at least PART of it… nonetheless, I think there is more to this story…
    • What if God was being gracious to Adam and Eve?
    • Was there Grace in this Excommunication? I think there was.
• Why? Because GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO LIVE A CURSED ETERNITY.
  • The tree of Life disappears from the Bible as soon as the curse is introduced… and it only REAPEARES as soon as the curse is defeated.
  • Let me say that again, because this is key…
    • The Tree of Life disappears from the Bible, we don’t hear about it any more, as soon as the curse is introduced… and it only REAPEARS in the Bible once the curse is said to be “no more”.
    • That means Biblically, the Curse and the Tree don’t coexist…
  • GOD DOESN’T ALLOW US TO HAVE ETERNAL LIFE AND HAVE THE CURSE! THEY DON’T GO TOGETHER.
• And praise God for that!
  • Can you imagine, men, having to deal with your job for the rest of eternity? Dealing with that boss forever? Waking up at 6am and driving in to work, for the next 10,000 years and then 10,000,000,000 more after that?
  • Women, do you really want to deal with menstruation FOREVER?! That’s part of the curse…
  • Look y’all… pain sickness… sorrow… all a part of the curse…
  • I got Covid for the second time this week, IT WAS SO LAME! Do we really want to be talking about masks and vaccines, and WHO and CDC guidelines for ETERNITY?!
  • A lot of people have gone through a really hard month this month in CLC, there has been a lot of tears… is this really how we want eternity to go down?
  • THAT’S NOT THE ETERNITY THAT I WANT. IS THAT THE ETERNITY THAT YOU WANT?
• So God, seeing our suffering and pain in the curse, He says “NO!!!!! You don’t want to live this way forever! Get out of the Garden, get away from eternal life… until the curse is gone!”
• God’s plan for us was never to keep us from eternal life forever, but to keep it from us until we were free from the curse.
  • I see grace there, I do… grace in God not wanting us to live like… this… forever.
• And it is why we as a church, from time to time, excommunicate people… because we LOVE them and want them to change… if you come to church for years and years and years and never change… if you stay wicked and evil… then we are doing you a DISSERVICE by letting you stay here.
  • We are allowing you to believe that this is the best it can be, that it wont get better for you… because you falsely find comfort in a church and a God in whom you don’t obey…
  • So you don’t change… and your life doesn’t change… and the consequences of your choices don’t change… but hey, you feel great because people Hug you at church and ask you how your dog Sam Wise is doing…
  • MAN NOBODY CARES ABOUT HOW SAM WISE IS DOING!?! HOW IS YOUR SOUL! WHY HAVEN’T YOU REPENTED?! WHY AREN’T YOU CHANGING FROM GLORY TO GLORY?!
  • Our church moto is “Come as you are but don’t stay that way” if you stay that way too long you might get asked to leave… because we don’t want to give you a false sense of security.
  • Get out of the church… go live in the world… let them abuse you, beat you up, lie to you, trick you, let you down, and curse you…
    • But when you are ready to get rid of the curse, then come back to church give your life to Jesus, be eternally changed, and live free and forever!
  • But you don’t get to have Death and Eternal Life at the same time.
    • You don’t get to have the curse and the Tree.
    • You don’t get to have sin and the Savior.
      • CHOOSE ONE!
      • Life or death?
      • The Savior or the Sin
      • The Curse or the Tree?
    • I choose the SAVIOR! I CHOOSE THE TREE! I CHOOSE LIFE!
• Thank You Jesus for not coddling me in my sin, but allowing me to feel the pain of the curse so that I would want it OUT of my life!
• Speaking of the curse and New Jerusalem, the Prophet Isaiah prophecies:

Isaiah 25:6-9 ESV  On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.  (7)  And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  (8)  He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken.  (9)  It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the LORD; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

• This brings me to point two, point two this morning is “The Tree is Available Now”

Point Two – The Tree is Available Now

Genesis 3:22-23 ESV  Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now, lest he reach out his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat, and live forever—”  (23)  therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken.

Revelation 22:2-3a NKJV  In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.  (3)  And there shall be no more curse…

• So the Tree of Life bookends the Bible… it is only mentioned in two places as far as I can tell, in Revelation and in Genesis… it is mentioned twice in Revelation, once in Chapter 2 where those who “overcome” are promised the tree of life, and then finally here in chapter 22.
  • We only see the tree of life in a curse free world, once the curse enters the world, we have the tree of life removed… when the curse is removed, the tree of life is reintroduced… technically we see lots of trees of life in New Jerusalem, the original has multiplied into a grove… but that is beside the point…
  • The Tree of Life bookends Scripture… in the perfect past there is the Tree of Life, and in the perfect curse free future there are the trees of life.
• BUT THERE IS ANOTHER TREE. ONE THAT IS AVALIBLE NOW. ONE THAT IS CURSE FREE. ONE THAT GRANTS ETERNAL LIFE. AND YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL YOU ARE WALKING THE STREETS OF NEW JERUSALEM TO TASTE OF IT.

Galatians 3:13 ESV  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—

• You see there is another tree, it is the tree of Christ… the tree that Christ was hung on.
  • It is why I love our Cross here that Leon made for us… because it looks MUCH more like a cross that Jesus would have been hung on.
  • These modern crosses look very little like what the Romans would have used, the Romans would have cut down a tree and done just the bare minimum amount of work to make it shaped like a cross… they would not have sanded it, or polished it, it would not be square and perfect… in many aspects it would still resemble a tree!
  • And that is why Scripture calls the cross of Christ a tree!

1 Peter 2:24 ESV  He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.

Acts 5:29-30 ESV  But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.  (30)  The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree.

• Jesus was crucified on a tree! AN ETERNAL LIFE GIVING TREE.
  • It wouldn’t surprise me at all if God, in His infinite wisdom, power, control, and maybe even divine sense of humor…
  • If God planted a Tree of life somewhere near the Roman hill of Calvary, and for 30 years that tree grew and grew, unknown to the people around it, and then one day around the year 33AD, some Roman solider cut it down, not knowing what it was, and used it to fashion a cross much like that one, for our Savior to die on.
    • Or not, it was probably Olive wood, but still… I like to think about this stuff sometime…
• Nevertheless, there was a tree that appears not at the end or the begging of this Book, but here, in the Gospels, readily available to you and to me.
• Now my encouragement this morning is to those who have eaten of that tree:

Psalms 34:8 ESV  Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

• So my encouragement is to those who have tasted and who have seen that the Lord is good. To the born again… Remember this… THE TREE DOES NOT COEXIST WITH THE CURSE. THE TREE DEFEATS THE CURSE. THE TREE DESTROYS THE CURSE.
  • If you are living the Born again life… THEN STOP LIVING LIKE YOU ARE CURSED.
    • Man I have seen Christians go through death and decay and destruction and still hold their head high.
    • Still sing praises to God.
    • Still find a reason for Joy.
      • And then I see Christians who get a cold and are like “WHY DOES GOD HATE ME?!”
      • And I am preaching to myself here church, I need to get my mind wrapped around this…
  • I have eaten of the Tree of Life!
  • I am free from the curse!
  • I have stepped into eternity.
  • Oh death where is your sting?
  • Oh grave where is your victory?
    • BECAUSE IT AINT HERE *point to self*
  • I have eaten of the tree of Life! I don’t have death inside of me anymore!
    • I have love, I have Joy, I have Peace, I have Patience, I have Kindness, I have Faithfulness, I have Gentleness, I have self control…
    • Oh yeah I have all those things… but you know what, I just can’t find any death in there… I can’t find any sorrow… I can’t find any pain… I can’t find any curse!
  • And when that Pain and that Sorrow and that Sin and that Curse starts rearing their ugly head I simply need to think of that Tree and my Savior up on it, and I can see that pain, that sin, that sorrow, that curse… I can see it being crucified for me.
• You know Psalm 103 has become my favorite Psalm by far, it is medicine for my soul… when David is feeling low, feeling down, feeling cursed… he cries out…

Psalms 103:1-2 ESV  Of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!  (2)  Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits,

• Bless the Lord oh my Soul and forget not all his benefits…
  • In other words… STOP FEELING CURSED, SOUL, REMEMBER ALL THAT GOD HAS DONE FOR YOU!
  • REMEMBER HOW HE SAVED YOU! HOW HE HEALED YOU! HOW HE FORGAVE YOU! HOW HE REDEEMED YOU!
  • David, when feeling cursed, does not ASK for more blessings, instead, He remembers the blessings already given!
    • It doesn’t matter what happens to you in life… because the BEST thing in eternity *point to cross* HAS ALREADY HAPPENED FOR YOU!
    • Bless the Lord and Don’t Forget!
• One day we will have trees of life and no curse…
• BUT THAT DAY CAN BE TODAY!

Conclusion

Conclusion here

• Gospel Call

Prayer for encouragement to those who feel cursed (break off heaviness from last week)