There Were Two Trees in the Midst of Eden — Dean Taylor

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Amen. We're doing things a little bit different today. Emmanuel's responding to, I think, what he heard from the Lord. And, um, we'll just start with a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, O God, how You are calling.

Lord, I am trembling before You this morning, O God. God, I pray, dear Father, that You can speak to us this morning, Lord. I pray, dear Father, that You can come down to us this morning, Lord, and give us Your grace, Lord.

Dear Father, I'm not convinced that there's not some people that were sitting there during that altar call, Lord. Dear Father, I think there were. No, God, do not pass us by, Lord, I pray. Dear God, but have mercy upon us in long-suffering, Father.

And I pray right now that You would go for that one in 99, Lord. Go and seek Him, Father. I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. If you could pray for me this morning, I am naturally trembling coming up here.

When Brother Aaron asked me to give the message, of course, I didn't know that he was going to give the first message, but it would be like our dear pastor to give a sermon on taking the lesser seat and then give a real example of doing it.

God bless you, brother. The Lord has spoken a lot to me during that mission conference too, and it spoke to our family. One of the things that really hit me in that was when he was talking there about the whole purpose.

You know, we talk about the place of Christ and the position of Christ, but then just like what Brother Aaron was saying today, it goes somewhere. It reaches someone. And you know, he brought up the analogy, Brother Denny brought up the analogy of the Moravians and the kind of witness that they had.

You know, and I thought, do you think the Moravians were that different than we are? Do you think they were? Do you think they didn't struggle with their children? That they didn't struggle with their families?

Do you think they didn't have financial problems or something else? No. The difference was though, they very clearly waited upon God, and when He said go, they went. There's a beautiful story, John Wesley, when he's heading to America as a missionary.

He's not born again yet. He's a missionary heading to America to save the Indians. He writes in his diary later, but who will save me? And he's going there, and on that boat, there's a big storm, and the entire mast that was in front of that, and holding that boat, got broke off.

It was that severe of a storm. And there was, he said he writes in his diary, there was screaming and yelling, and he was panicking himself, and he looks over, and there was a group of people huddled together, singing.

Singing. They were singing. They were singing. And he walks over, and it was the Moravians. And after the storm had finally finished, he went to them and he said, weren't you scared to die? They said, no, we weren't.

Well, your children, weren't your children afraid to die? And the lady told him, by God's grace, they weren't. And it changed them. He said something. There's something here. So I see that's the difference.

But what, what's holding us back? What's holding us back from being that same, it's the same God. The same way that worked in those people's hearts can work with us. That we can draw a lot, and we're off.

We're going to go to uncharted land in a boat that takes four months to get there through storms and everything else. Well, the message of the, that's not the message. Amen. That's just an overflow. God bless you, brother.

The Three Groups Called to Enter God’s Rest

The message today is there were two trees in the midst of Eden. There was two trees in the middle of Eden. You know, sometimes a preacher saves the punch of a message to the very end, and I think that's very effective.

But because at the very end of this message, I'm going to ask you a question. I want you to know exactly where I'm going with this sermon. I want you to know exactly. I want informed consent, as we say, into your soul as I go through these things this morning.

And this is where I'm going to be. First of all, I'm looking for three people. This may be three groups of people, but yet it's three people. First of all is the Christian who is a Christian, yes, but has no victory over sin.

You continue to falling into sin. What I want to show you this morning is that God has promised a way for you out of that sin. The second person is that you may not be actually falling into sin. You are constantly coming under condemnation.

You're constantly feeling you're worthless. You feel you're no use for the kingdom of God, and you are no use for the kingdom of God. You have stopped dreaming. You have stopped your vision. You have lost your vision.

You have become unproductive, impotent. You are a bruised reed. You are the second person. And the third person, and I'm glad that Brother Aaron covered this this morning, is a lost soul. And in particular in this case, a lost soul who knows the way of salvation as it was preached here.

Who knows that perhaps a young person who has been in a home and they've heard the gospel their whole life, but yet they're not willing to come and take the step for fear, how would I keep going? You know, I've seen people fall.

How would I keep doing it? So you fear. And there's something in you that makes you not want to take that step. I want to talk to you this morning. God wants to talk to you this morning. And at the end, I'm going to ask you three people or three groups of people a question.

So again, the first is the Christian who's saved, but still falling into sin. The second is the Christian who is constantly under bondage, constantly feeling condemnation, and thereby no use to the kingdom of God.

And three, the lost sinner, who is afraid, who knows the way, but will not step into it. This is a message about sanctification. About being holy, and being holy, and obtaining that holiness by faith.

Hebrews 6 -1 tells us, Therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith towards God. You might rightly say, this is a common theme from this pulpit.

You are right. It is a common theme from this pulpit. And I believe it's one of the beautiful things about this church. The fact that this pulpit preaches a holiness that's real. A practical holiness.

A walking in a holy life is something that's very lacking in the background that I come from. The fact that this pulpit constantly is preaching a holiness that is obtained by faith is something that I think is lacking in this area.

And these two things together is a very powerful, powerful message. It is a common theme from this pulpit. May it ever be. May it ever be. It's preached. Aaron preached a sermon just a few weeks ago on by faith.

You're going to hear many of these things that I preached again today. Emmanuel's preached often on appropriating the grace of God. Of using it that's there. Why aren't you taking it? He's asked us before.

Brother Mel just recently preached an opening on trusting in God by faith. I've heard Paul Lloyd preach these sermons on sanctification by faith. Denny preached two entire conventions on the theme, Leadership of 2004 and Bible School of 1998, of this theme of holiness.

Of walking by faith into holiness and what God wants to us. But see, it's not my point today. I want to come at it a little different. It's not my point again to talk about the theology or for you to have something else to kind of bring with you when you're struggling or to have with you to kind of figure things out.

Really, that's not where I want to go. I want to offer it to you as a choice. That if it's by faith, then just like when you were offered salvation or as you were offered salvation this morning, you were offered holiness and sanctification by faith.

Take it. Walk in it. So that's what I would like to do. And that's where I'm going. I'm going to start off in Genesis. I'm going to go from Genesis and I'm going to show you some of the origins of that.

I'm going to do a little bit through the Old Testament and take you to Abraham. I'm going to show you four stopping spots in Abraham's life, which are four stopping spots in our Christian walk. After that, we're going to go and see how that stream of living water still was crying through the Old Testament, taking us up to the promised one, Jesus Christ.

I'm going to go up through a little bit of misconceptions in Romans chapter 7 and then we're going to conclude and we're going to look at what God has to say for us. I'm looking for three people. And if you're here, and I know you are, listen very carefully.

The sinner. The Christian who's continually falling in sin. The Christian who's constantly under condemnation and you are no good for the Kingdom of God. And the lost soul who should have responded a few minutes ago.

It's a common theme in the Bible. Jesus says for... Excuse me. It says all through the Scriptures, for me to live is Christ. Another place. For I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God.

I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. Hebrews. Let us go in perfection. Philippians. Being confident of this very thing that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.

Ephesians says, Be filled with the Spirit. It also says, And know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Having therefore, in 2 Corinthians, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

I think of the song, Who can faint when such a river ever flows their thirst to a sage? These are promising words. Very promising words. And very powerful words. But you know what? We will never walk in those words.

Those words will never be a reality in our life if we are going to give a substitute for the Holy Spirit. Those are words by which the Holy Spirit obtains those things. But if we apply a substitute, it won't happen.

Let me make that very clear. But they're wonderful words. But are we like Peter? Remember Peter and Acts there? What did he do? The Lord brought down a whole sheet. And in that sheet, they had all kind of clean and unclean animals.

And He said, Go, rise, slay and eat. Get up. Slay it and eat. What did Peter say? I'm asking you. What did Peter say? Not so, Lord. God is giving you great and precious promises. I'll do it. I'll take you.

I'll carry you. I'll move you. Are we saying, Not so, Lord. Not so. Somehow I think the church today is caught somewhere between the cross and Pentecost. We hear a lot of teaching about the place of Christ, our position of Christ, and that's good.

We talk about our salvation through Christ. But Christ also taught that we are to walk in the fullness of life. He wants us to have a victorious life. It's very clear to see in the Apostles' life the difference between the cross and Pentecost.

Do you remember it? It's easy to see. When Peter, after the cross and before Pentecost, what did Peter say? I go a-fishing. I go a-fishing. And the Apostles answered, We go also with thee. When we stop there, we take that cross, we do not walk into Pentecost, that's what happens.

We go a-fishing. Our lives. We lose our purpose. We lose our vocation. We lose the whole reason we're here. We don't go on. We're no use in the Kingdom of God. And that's where God wants us to be. To have that purpose.

He wants to take us to Pentecost where He gives that to us for a reason. For a reason. So, if we stop there, and I believe we have stopped there in some ways. I have stopped there in some ways. We spend too much time on that fishing.

You see, there's a possibility to be in a place in our Christian walk where we have eternal life, but no abounding life. We have a relationship without fellowship. We have a union without communion. We can have a life without health.

We can have a privilege without enjoyment. We can have movement, but no progress. We can have peace with God, but we do not have the peace of God. It is simply not the will of God. I do not believe it is not the will of God that we be fruitless trees, waterless clouds, or savorless salt.

It's not His will. It is not His will. What did Jesus say? I love the way Brother Denny preaches this on the Godly Home series. This is the one where Jesus gives the promise in the last days. This is John 7 .38.

Of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirsts, let him come unto Me and drink. And what is the answer to that then? And he that believeth on Me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

Amen. I believe that's what God has for us today. He wants us that from our very being, everything that's within us rises forth living water. It's a purpose. He can use that. He can take that. So, again, the sermon is there are two trees in the midst of Eden.

The Two Trees in the Midst of Eden

Turn to Genesis 2 .9. Genesis 2 .9 starts like this,. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life also in the midst of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Sometimes we kind of focus just on that bad tree or that tree of knowledge of good and evil. I've seen a lot of pictures. You know, they have just the Garden of Eden and there is just that one tree smack in the middle, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

There's two trees in the midst of Eden. Did you get that? And now, one thing too, in a word, what is the knowledge of good and evil? In a word. If you had to put that in one word. The knowledge of good and evil.

Sin is part of it. Sin lets you know the evil. The knowledge of good and evil is the law. It's there. It is the law. It's the knowledge of good and evil. It tells us the good things and it tells us the evil things.

It's the law. So look real carefully here. At the very beginning, we had two ways. From the very beginning, two ways. Life and law. And there it was. Now keep going with me. Verse 16, And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it.

For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Now, could he eat the tree of life? Yeah. Amen. He was offered that. But I give you one thing not to do. Don't partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

We know the story. I'm not going to bore you with it. The serpent said to him, He shall not surely die. See, I don't see God's words to them as something like, I'm going to send this punishment if you do it.

He's talking from a reality. It's kind of like people say, Would you take the Sermon on the Mount serious? That if you don't keep sinning, you should cut your arm off or pluck your eye out? I always reply, you know, the person who made hell gave that message.

He knows how serious it is. And yes, so here I see God saying, when you eat that, if you are going to try to get that knowledge of good and evil on your own, you're going to die. And this is what happened.

He shall not surely die. Verse 7. You know the story. They ate it and look at verse 7. And the eyes of them both were open. It was true. Open. Suddenly. And they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves apron.

Keep going. 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 amongst the trees of the garden.

And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked and I hid myself. Okay. They were naked. That's right.

They were there. But God was forming them. He just made them out of clay. He was their workmanship. Creating. He was making them. We were walking. We were having relationships. And now you're hiding yourself.

You're running away from me. You're sewing this thing that you think is not going to fix this. And I read these next words not as just like a question, but out of the depths of the very heart of God, we see that this next question coming.

Just like if you would have had a son. Had all your promises, your plans and all into. And you found out he was defiled. I see this just a absolute grief in the heart of God. When he said, Who told thee that thou was naked?

I know you're naked. I know you have sin. I was dealing with that. You were my workmanship. And now you chose your own righteousness. You chose to be like God. And you partake of the law. Who told you you were naked?

Hath thou eaten of the tree? He goes on. Two things I'd like to note about this tree also in verse 22. Go to verse 22. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil.

Note, God is a holy God. God knows good and evil. God cares about good and evil. And he was the sanctifier of this Adam. He wanted to do it. And he said, but now he's done it this way. And I read it this way, that now he's ruined.

But listen to what happens. And now lest he put forth his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him out. Sent him out. You know the story. Put a sword there.

Put angels to guard it. Because now in his ruined state. Now that he realized he could figure this thing out by going to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He took it. And if we let him now partake of this fruit, he's ruined.

He's ruined forever. So the way I read that is, they put him out for his own good. God knew now what we have to do. We have to walk through redemption now. He's out now. There he was. Created in the image of God.

But now his image is confused. Many years ago an archeologist found along the ruins of an ancient Babylon, a brick that they used to make one of the walls. In those days when they would take a brick and they were going to do something like for public service, they would take a brick and the king would put his insignia on that brick.

And on that thing would also be the king's name. Well this brick is an interesting brick. Apparently when this brick was being laid to dry, a stray dog came by and stepped right on the middle of that brick.

And although you can see the insignia, the name of the king is gone. And still today, we don't know what the name of that ancient Babylonian king was. But we see the footprint of a dog. It's the same way with us.

Created in the image of God. But the image of God is marred by sin. The imprint of the dog is on it. He ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. He ate of the law. But he did not eat of life. Knowledge without life.

It's dangerous. Christ came to free this. To set this free. But the tragedy of our day is that we are this day in a church that's so been so maligned by hypocrisy, sin and false teaching, that we are once again walking right by that tree looking into the law to our cure.

And I know in this area we just look at that law as far as moral law. And it's true. There's a sense of moral law that's trying to obtain our own righteousness. There's also the same ceremonial law still goes on.

Most of the people who claim to be Christians today follow a ceremonial law. That they believe by going through a certain sacraments or certain rites or certain things that God will be appeased. It's the ceremonial law.

And still today the heathens will still have some sort of law that they go through. Some sort of a... I'll try to be good. They'll do charity. I work with some surgeons. They go to Tanzania over there doing surgery.

Come back and... Why do they do it? They want to be good. They want to help people, you know. They're doing good. Albert Schweitzer did all kind of good. He was an atheist. He's in hell right now. They try to work that out.

But listen, it's been prophesied to us. Listen to these words in 2 Timothy 3. This know also that in the last days perilous times shall come, for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents.

Did you hear that one? He puts that in such a... with everything else. Disobedient to parents. Right there with blasphemers. You know, we... I don't think we make too light of this godly home thing in this church.

I don't. It's right there with the heart of God. The disobedience with parents is right there with blasphemy. It's serious to the heart of God. Unthankful. Unholy. Without natural affection. Truce breakers.

False accusers. Incontinent. Fierce. Despisers of those that are good. Traitors. Heady. High minded. Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Listen to this. Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof from such turn away.

For of this sort are they which creep into houses and let captive silly women laden with sins, led away with diverse lust. And there's different ways for those men to get in these days. They don't have to just knock on the door.

They can come in through the radio. They can come in through television. They can come through knocking on the door. We're supposed to turn away from them. But listen. Ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth.

Being in a church that preaches these things quite frequently, we run that risk of always learning and never coming to the knowledge of truth. I'm going to ask those three people a question at the end of the sermon.

So I want you to pay very close attention. The Christian who is falling into sin. The Christian who is under condemnation. And the sinner who knows the way of righteousness and is not going there. Are you always learning but never coming to the knowledge of truth?

Four Stopping Points in Abraham’s Life

But God. I'm going to quickly now take you where I said I would. We're going to go through the Old Testament here just a bit to get to the point of Abraham. One of the main whole purposes of the beginning of the whole Old Testament is to take you from Adam through the genealogies up to Abraham.

That's the purpose. If you miss that purpose, you're kind of missing something. From Abraham, we're to take that seed right through and see the children of God prefiguring the church and bringing you right up to Christ.

That's the Old Testament in summary. A few things I would just like to point out on our journey up to Abraham. Genesis 5 .26. I'm just going to point out some different blessings. How God puts in little blessings.

Actually, this is 4 .26. This is after Cain. They had Enoch in verse 18. He ascended into heaven because he found favor with God. We have Enos in verse 26. Then begin men to call upon the name of the Lord.

That's all we get there. Some kind of revival was going on. First revival, men started calling upon the name of the Lord. Keep going. Verse 8. I mean, chapter 6, verse 8. Look what it says of Noah. We know about all the sin of Noah.

I'm not going to go through that. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. By grace, Noah found it and walked in it. And what did he do? He responded. We know that story. Chapter 10. We flip through.

Chapter 10, we get the generations again that's getting us to Abraham. Chapter 11, we see the Tower of Babel and the generations that lead us to Abraham. And in chapter 12, we get to Abraham. Four things are possible stopping points in the life of Abraham.

Number one, idleness. Number two, illegal holiness. In other words, a pretended holiness. Number three, a carnal holiness. And number four, a promised holiness. Number one, idleness. Not found in Abraham.

Look at chapter 12, verse 1. Now the Lord had said unto Abraham, Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house into the land that I will show thee, and I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing.

There's the promise. No Bible. No seminars. No nothing. Just alone with God. Hearing from God. And he says go. And what did he do? He went. Same thing those Moravians did. Amen. When they heard it, they went.

Okay? And he believed those promises. In that there, we know again, God, what did he do? He promised him an heir. He promised him that he would have an heir, that he would not even be able to count the stars of the heaven, would be like if he could count his heirs.

And he believed that promise. So, if you're sitting there, and during that altar call when Emmanuel was talking to you, and you sat there, then you've fallen into that first snare. Idleness. Oh, it's costly.

Abraham heard God. No preacher. No sermon. And went. Got up and went. Second one. This one's easily missed. Turn to chapter 15. This is the legal holiness. Abraham here is going on. It's been a long time.

He's about 86 now. He's heard this promise. He's walking. He just got back from the battle there, saving his brother there with Lot. Melchizedek has come and appeared to him and strengthened him. And now God, once again, comes down and speaks to Abraham.

And he's excited. Listen to what happens in chapter 15, verse 1. After these things, the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not, Abraham. I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.

Amen. When he did that, Abraham said, Okay, I have connection with God again. I've got a question about this heir. You said we'd have an heir. I'm 86. I don't have an heir. I know you promised we have an heir.

And since you promised, I believe you. But I think I've got it figured out now. You see, he goes on. He says,. And Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed. And, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.

And, behold, the word of the... Excuse me. Verse 2. And Abraham said, Lord God, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless? And the steward of my house is this Eleazar of Damascus. And Abraham said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed.

And, lo, one born in my house is an heir. And what he was talking about here is that in this traditional setting here, if you had no heir, but you had a slave born in your home, raised your whole life, you could make this slave an heir.

There was no real heir, but there was a legal heir. And you see, it's just like us when God said, Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless. We say, okay, God, I'm not really holy, but I have a legal holiness, right?

I have this, and so there's nothing really happening in my life. There's no real changes. Nothing's really happening, but we have this understanding, right, God? We have a legal holiness, a pretended holiness.

It's from the background that I come from. A pretended holiness. It's not real. We just have this legal thing in heaven. Listen to what God said. I love this. And behold, the word of the Lord came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir, but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.

This stuff's going to be real. This stuff's going to change your life. This stuff is going to be something you can touch and feel and taste and walk with. That's what it is. So that's the second snare.

Don't stop with a pretended holiness. The third one I think we've heard preached a lot, but just to kind of quickly give you there, we know what he did. He kept going. Okay, Lord, thank you. It's going to be from my seed.

Years go by. I'm counting on the promises. Years go by. And then he finally says, and Sarah finally gets, well, Abraham, this is not going to happen. I've got it figured out now. Okay, it's your seed, but it's not going to be through me.

Why don't I get this servant, this bond slave, and you can have a child with this bond slave and it'll be your heir. Doesn't that work? We've got it figured out. We can do this thing by our own strength.

Enough of this waiting. Let's do it. We know the story. He ends up with Ishmael. Ishmael grows and finally they did get Isaac. They got Isaac. And what happened? Ishmael persecuted Isaac. And it ended up having to do that they put Ishmael out.

Well, in time, Ishmael's descendants moved to east and to south of the Promised Land and became collectively known as the Arabs. And still today, 4 ,000 years later, from that moment, 4 ,000 years later, the conflicts between the children of Sarah and the children of Hagar wage on.

Every time you go by that paper, every time you see it, what's the front page? Ishmael and Isaac. Oh, the depths of the misery when we use carnal means to accomplish spiritual things. It's in Ishmael.

That's the third way. The fourth way was his promise. Amen. We know the story again. He gets Isaac. He has it. Getting Isaac was a promise in itself, but that's not the real promise. And I know Brother Aaron just preached on this the other day, so I'm not going to go into anything about it.

But you know the story. He took Isaac. And believing those promises of God more than even the laws of nature, that if I take this sword and I put it into my son, he said, but of Isaac shall thy seed be.

If I kill him though, I don't understand this. All I know is that he promised the promises of God. And he believed it. Being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was also able to perform. He reared back.

And it was stopped. And hallelujah. Amen. Aaron preached on that the other day. He was stopped. He was able to go on. It prefigured our Father giving Christ. There's lots of symbolism in there. But the fact is, he learned to walk by promises.

He learned to walk by it. So we go on. The history of Israel. We know it. And one thing I wanted to bring out in Exodus 17, the history then for the rest of the Bible goes in and it's about the people of God.

And what happens. Do they trust in God? Do they trust in man? They don't. They trust in man. They fall over and over and over and over again. Here very early, we see in chapter 17 an interesting word used of God in talking about how He's feeling.

And it's chapter 17, verse 1. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin. That's where they are. This is where they were thirsty. They were crying and saying, oh, you've led us into the wilderness.