Message 18 - By Jerry D. Green
Which Tree are You Of?
This message is
about two trees that grew in a garden called Eden. For fallen man that
wonderful garden ceased to exist (as such) about six thousand years ago but the
two trees of the garden are with us to this very day. The names of the two
trees are “…the tree of LIFE…” and, “…the tree of KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND
EVIL…,” and, their effect upon mankind is the same today as it was (and
could have been) in the garden of Eden. If Adam and Eve had only partook of “…the tree of LIFE…,” instead of “…the tree of KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL,” they would have LIVED forever in the
abundant life of God (Genesis 3:22; John 10:10), instead of in sin, and suffered the consequences thereof,
which is eternal death. I’m sure most readers are familiar with
the story in Genesis 3:1-7, how “…that old serpent, which is the Devil, and
Satan…” (Revelation
20:2) deceived Eve into partaking of the fruit of “the tree of
knowledge of good and evil,” and how she gave the fruit to her husband Adam, and he partook
also. And just as God had said,
“…in
the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die;” they both died that day, although it was first (and immediately) a
spiritual death (Genesis 2:17). Not only did THEY die that day, but
“…by (that) one man (Adam,) SIN entered into the
world, and death by SIN; (also,
because of Adam’s transgression) …death passed upon all men, for…all
have SINNED”
(being born of SIN;
the same fallen sin nature as
Adam; Romans 5:12). Life or death to them, depended
entirely upon which tree they ate of, and does until this day. If we
continuously eat of “…the tree of LIFE…,” we will “…LIVE forever” in abundant life, but if we eat of “…the tree of knowledge
of good and evil,” we shall “…surely DIE.”
What are these two
trees? “…The tree of KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL” is a tree of
the “…law
of sin and death” (Romans 8:2; any and all religious law [or laws] of men,
are of sin and death). These laws can be oral, written, or implied; but
it is also the law of an old sinful nature, which is within the
heart of every man, woman, boy, or girl that has ever been born of the seed of
Adam (which produces an “…old man…” of sin) (Romans 7:22-23). And because the very
nature of man is corrupt, everything man produces is corrupt. “…We are all as an
unclean thing, and all (of) OUR (the old man’s)
righteousnessES (plural; all of our “good,” including our “good” works,
which emanate from the old man; the old tree; not our righteousness, for
we have none) are as filthy rags;
and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities (sins), like the wind, have taken us away” (Isaiah 64:6). Here is something very hard for most people
to understand. All of the Adamic man’s righteousnesses and/or goodnesses
“…are
as filthy rags….” The
tree of death is a tree of the knowledge of both good and evil, but even the
good of this tree is death. Life issues only from the tree of life (Jesus
Christ; Galatians 2:19-21). Most religious people spend all of their
time and energy continually plucking the evil fruit, from what they believe to
be, their good tree. They are forever pruning, grooming and dressing their
tree. Some get their tree looking pretty good, but it is still a tree of death.
“O
Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for
your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away” (Hosea 6:4). This is the goodness of all who are of the old Adamic tree;
the old sin nature.
What is the answer
for this old sin tree? God spoke through Isaiah of the new
creation which was to come, saying, “To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto
them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for
the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called TREES of righteousness, the
PLANTING OF THE LORD, that He might be glorified” (Isaiah 61:3). John the Baptist, prophesying of Jesus and
the gospel of Him which was (at that time) yet to come, said “…Now also the axe is laid unto the
root of the (tree,
and) trees: therefore every tree which bringeth NOT forth good fruit (and that’s every one of us before going to the cross with
Jesus; before true salvation; before being truly born again of God) is hewn down, and
cast into the fire”
(Matthew 3:10). This is
the very essence of the work of the cross. For by it, was all mankind “…crucified with… (Christ), that the body (the whole) of sin… be destroyed,
that henceforth we… (would) not serve sin. For he that is dead is
FREED FROM sin” (Romans
6:6-7). The old sin TREE (our old sin nature) is cut off at the roots and
cast into the fire; destroyed; put away in Christ (Romans 6:6; Hebrews
9:26). The death of the cross with Jesus, is the only possible way for a
person to ever be FREE from sin as well as religious law. It is
also an absolute prerequisite for resurrection. There can never be a new,
resurrected life (raised again “…in newness of life…
in Him…”; Romans
6:4-6; John 1:4; II Corinthians 5:21; a new man; a new tree)
except there first be a death. We must know absolutely, as Paul did by
revelation knowledge, that we were and are “…crucified with Christ: nevertheless… (we)
LIVE; yet
(it’s) not… (us that LIVE), but (it’s) Christ (that)
LIVETH
in… (us): and the LIFE which… (we) …now LIVE in the flesh… (these natural, physical, mortal bodies,
we) …LIVE
by the faith (the true gospel) of the Son of God,
who loved… (us), and gave Himself for… (us)”
(Galatians 2:20).
Praise be to God!, crucifixion (death) with Jesus Christ is the only
possible answer for the old sin tree and the only way man
can ever be partaker of His resurrected LIFE (our tree of righteousness).
“For the law of the Spirit of LIFE in Christ Jesus hath made
me FREE from the law of SIN and death” (Romans 8:2). Here’s the old sin
tree being spoken of again; the old tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a
tree of law, as well an old sinful nature. But thanks be
to God and to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, we are now made free
FROM the old sin tree; the old sinful Adamic
nature, which generates the old man of sin; plus, all of the old
religious laws of Moses and of all other men’s religious laws of “…sin and death….” Being crucified with Jesus, and
being “…justified by His blood…,” we are now “…saved (‘…from wrath through Him…’) by His (resurrected) LIFE” (Romans
5:9-10), “…partakers of the divine nature… (II Peter 1:4);
…new creature(s) …” in Christ
Jesus; new creations in Him (II Corinthians 5:17).
This new tree of
life, the new, divine, sinless nature (“…the Spirit of LIFE…”) that springs up within the new, truly
born again child of God IS pure and holy. It is therefore sinless
as well as eternal (I John 3:9). Yet, in spite of all this, we live in a
religious world where Christian people are constantly taught that we are all sinners;
that we all sin every day; and that we always will be sinners.
Because of this, we begin to examine our
lives to see what our sin or sins of the day were. I was angry with the children, and/or the
spouse, and we had a dispute over something and now I’m condemned in my spirit.
Anger is an emotion but is not
necessarily a sin. You may have had good reason to be angry with
the child, or with the spouse; if so be your anger did not get out of control. Or maybe you had opportunity to witness to
someone and you didn’t take advantage of it; or maybe you were extremely
impatient with someone today, and now you feel awful about it. Or, you know you
shouldn’t have eaten so much; you know that it is a sin to
overeat, and on and on it goes. Now a sinner hearing these things
says, “You know, I may not as bad as I thought I was. After all, you Christians
sin everyday just like I do; some even worse. I may drink a
little but I don’t overeat. I may sometimes get angry and beat the wife and
kids when I’ve had a little too much to drink, but at least I’m not a hypocrite
like you Christians. Why do I need to get saved anyway; and from what? I’d
still be a sinner just like you.
Well, I will tell
you, NOT everything we do is sin; but the scriptures are very
specific about some things that are sin. Here are some examples. “Know ye not that the
unrighteous shall NOT inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers
of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And such WERE (past tense) some of you: but ye are
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord
Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God” (I
Corinthians 6:9-11). And
again, “…The works of the flesh (the old sin
nature) are manifest, which
are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings,
murders, drunkenness, revellings, and (all)
SUCH LIKE: of the which I tell you before, as I have
also told you in time past, that they which do such things SHALL NOT
inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians
5:19-21). If you are doing any of these things you can know for certain
that you ARE a sinner and will be subject to the fate of a sinner.
As truly born again
children of God, we should be daily partakers of the flesh and blood of Jesus
Christ for these are OUR “…tree of LIFE…, …OUR daily bread”; (NOT the sacraments; John 6:35-59).
“…If
any man shall take away from the WORDS… of the prophecy… of this book (Strong’s #975), God shall take away his part… (from) the *book (*Strong’s #3586 [or, TREE]) of life (See Note
below.), and…
(from) …the holy city, and
from the things which are written in this book (Strong’s #975; Revelation 22:19).”
*Note! The word
“book” is used three times is this verse. The first and third
time it is translated from the Greek word, Strong’s #975. The second
time it is translated from the Greek word, Strong’s #3586. Nowhere else
in all the New Testament is this Greek word, Strong’s #3586, translated book,
but is consistently translated TREE, WOOD, or a WOOD PRODUCT. Based on this, I
believe the correct translation here should be TREE. Because of the
interruption of this explanation, I will rewrite the verse (below), using the
word tree instead of book in its second occurrence).
“And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this
prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the TREE of life, and out of the
holy city, and from the things which are written in this book” (Revelation 22:19). We should ever be partaking of our “…tree of LIFE…,” for from this tree flows true righteousness; and only, true righteousness. In like manner,
everything which flows from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, is evil
(no matter how good it may seem), even as everything which flows from the tree
of LIFE, good. Let’s just always be sure our fruit is the product of “our” tree
of LIFE.
We may not have as
much fruit on our GOOD new tree as we would like or should have (i.e., love,
joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, [Godly] goodness, faith, meekness,
temperance, etc.), but the fruit we do have is good fruit. Our goal should ever
be to have more and more good fruit on our good tree; of our new tree. Let us not forget that Jesus is coming for a “…glorious church,
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish” (Ephesians 5:27). Let’s always be sure the old tree
doesn’t sprout out again and begin to produce. If this happens the only answer
is to, once again, get back to the feet of Jesus; back on the cross with the
crucified Christ (Romans 6:6). “My little children,
…sin NOT.” But “…IF any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,” and the true gospel of Him (I John 2:1).
JDG
Message 18 - Which Tree are You Of?
------------------------------------------------------------------
TOP of PAGE
NEXT MESSAGE
PREVIOUS MESSAGE
JDG MESSAGES
Keith Surface
MESSAGES
Leroy Surface MESSAGES
