This morning’s message is a continuation of last week’s on the tree of life, and I have entitled our sermon, “Living in the Tree of Life” – Part 2.
I would like to begin with some food for thought by sharing a real life illustration of a historical figure who walked in the tree of life. George Washington Carver said, “I will never let another man ruin my life by making me hate him.” Carver was an African American and a tremendous innovator during a very difficult time in our country’s history after the American Civil War. He was an innovator and creative because he walked in innocence, whereas others were caught up in bitterness over the war, slavery, and racism. Carver’s secret was that he would go into the woods each and every night and pray for God to forgive the people who mistreated him.
If you have hit a roadblock in your job, your creativity, your relationships with other people and with God, then perhaps you have lost your innocence and are walking in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you feel as though you have no joy or purpose in life, then hopefully by the time this message is over you will have discovered how to regain your innocence and life in the Lord by “Living in the Tree of Life.”
Last week, in Genesis chapter 2, we were introduced to two trees – the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We learned that the tree of life was a simple walk with God, as the one that Adam and Eve enjoyed in the Garden of Eden before the fall. The tree of life is a picture of the Spirit-filled life, walking in grace, and bearing fruit.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is the formation of a value system, or a way of thinking about what is good and evil. It is a judgment system that is not really concerned with true wisdom or true knowledge, but it is based on elevating oneself. It is based on how well you can judge yourself and perfect yourself, and how you can put everyone else in their place. In this judgment system you will not find life, you will only find death and bitterness of heart.
Flowing in the tree of life and living in the tree of life is making decisions from life and liberty, and what stimulates life in both you and others. It is a desire to please God and to stay away from things that hinder your relationship with him. While living in the tree of life you must base all of your decisions on life and death, and not merely on good and evil.
This morning we are going to learn more that will help us to identify when we have succumb to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and how we can overcome this way of thinking to walk and live in true life in the Lord!
Consequences of Mankind’s Fall (Genesis 3:6-13)
6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. 8 And they heard the sound 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. 9 Then the LORD God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” 10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.” 11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” 12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” 13 And the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
In verses 6-7, we see that Adam and Eve partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and their eyes were opened, and when this happened they lost something of great value – their innocence. They immediately covered themselves with fig leaves. They thought they could hide and that they would not be found out; and thus the great cover-up began as soon as they started thinking in these terms. If you pick up any newspaper you will probably read something about a cover-up somewhere, where someone has tried to hide their mistakes or wrongdoings. Right?
Next, we see that God called out to Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” (v. 9). We find that sin, disobedience, and living in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil separate us from God (Isaiah 59:2). It makes us hide from our Creator and Maker. Guilt and shame entered the picture, for they had violated God’s perfect plan. Nakedness was appropriate up until that point.
In verse 11, the Lord asked, “Who told you that you were naked?” He basically said, “Who gave you this information?” “Have you ingested in yourself knowledge that you should not have?” They started thinking in a way that would kill both them and their offspring – thinking in a way that would cause their children to fight so that one would murder the other, as when Cain murdered his brother Abel (Genesis 4:1-16). The knowledge of good and evil leads to death!
Look again at verse 11. The Lord asked, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?” In verse 12, we see how Adam basically declared, “The woman made me do it!” Here, we encounter what is termed as displaced responsibility. In the tree of the knowledge of good and evil someone else is always to blame for our condition. Psychology capitalizes on this way of thinking, for everyone is always a victim. For example, we must blame our Father or Mother for how messed up we are.
I recall watching an episode of the television show “House,” which is about a medical doctor named Dr. House. In this particular episode the attending physicians met for counsel concerning a young boy who was very mean and hateful. They spent nearly half of the episode attempting to discover what chemical imbalance the child had or what disease or virus was causing him to act so mean. Near the end of the show Dr. House said something I can only paraphrase, but it was very intriguing. He said, “We’re looking in all the wrong places. Maybe there is nothing causing this child to be mean. We always see people as being the victims, but perhaps this child is just inherently evil.”
This is what the Bible confirms when is states, “There is none righteous, no not one” (Romans 3:10), and “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). We are all sinners and we all mess up, and so we must learn to accept responsibility for our actions before we can begin to live in the tree of life!
People eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil know who to blame. They can find the evil in every situation, and they can identify the wrong situation that is causing them pain. They could be right, but that is not relevant. If it is poisoning you and making you bitter – you stand right, “dead right,” “dead” right, “dead!” This is what you call empty victory. So, congratulations! You’re right, but it could destroy your relationship with the Lord!
God wants you to be full of His life, keeping no record of wrongs. God asks us to do unnatural things – like forgiving. He asks us to do things that only He can do by empowering us with His Spirit. We should forgive people. God can handle judging people, we can’t.
“Whenever we start blaming others for our own actions or situations, we are really declaring them to be lord over our lives! You see, when we blame others we are saying, ‘God, you are not in charge of my life any longer! Eve is, or the serpent is, or my circumstances are, but you are not!’ . . . You have abdicated authority in your life to someone who has wronged you . . . If you are in this kind of situation with anyone, or anything, you must get back in the tree of life before the knowledge of good and evil kills you. You see, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil says, ‘He did me wrong.’ But the tree of life says, ‘Forgive him and trust the Lord!’”(1)
When Adam said, “The woman made me do it,” he displaced responsibility. In verse 11, Eve basically said, “The snake made me do it!” Now we encounter what’s called victimization. Eve declared she had no choice. In victimization we point the finger and say we can’t do something, because they did something to me. For example, I cannot praise God, or worship God because of this situation, or because of that circumstance.
We must handle life from the tree of life. Realize that what someone did to hurt you is really no big deal in the whole scheme of things. It will never compete with the wonders and joy of heaven, or rob you of God’s blessings. Keep it all in perspective. This will keep you from being victimized, and keep the situation from possessing you. Learn to turn the other cheek.
Remember to maintain your innocence by forgiving, even when what they did was wrong. If you live in the tree of life you will forget the bad things that happen to you, and you will have to scratch your head when people try to bring them back up. Go do something nice for those who wrong you. Show that they can’t take your innocence. Keep a beautiful innocence about you.
You will become anything in God that He has called you to be, if you refuse to live in victimization. Satan sucks godly people into victimization and then pulls them over through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He will take pastors who are great men of God, make them ponder a hurtful situation in ministry that wounded them, and then render them useless. The ones that live in the tree of life live in victory and they keep pressing on. Others are destroyed. They have knowledge that destroys their walk with God. They live with a self-righteous bitterness of how the Enemy wounded them and destroyed them.
Adam put Eve in the place of lord, and we too can place situations as lord over our lives. “You [might] say, ‘I can’t even concentrate when I pray, because every time I try, all I see is George and the money he stole from me” (Darrell Garrett, Living in the Tree of Life). Jesus stated in Matthew 5:23-24, “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Jesus taught us that unforgiveness is a hindrance to the proper exercise of worship, and He stressed forgiveness as a priority over worship.
If we do not forgive and stop claiming victimization, then we will be separated from a proper relationship with God. If you skip down and look at verses 22-23, we read, “Then the Lord God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil’ . . . therefore the Lord God sent him out of the Garden.” Knowing good and evil led to banishment and separation from God’s presence.
Growing in the Tree of Life (Revelation 22:1-2)
1 And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 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.
If we are to live in the tree of life then we need to be growing in it daily. We read here of the “river of life,” and we learn in the gospel of John that the water in this river is equivalent to salvation in Jesus Christ (John 4:5-14, 7:37). Jesus said, “But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).
We also read here that the tree of life was on either side of the river. It could be that the tree of life had multiple runners tapped into the river to where it sprang up on either side, or perhaps the sheer abundance of life in heaven resulted in an entire grove of these trees. What we cannot miss is the fact that the tree of life absorbed its life from the river of life in Jesus. Psalm 1:3 states of the righteous man, “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.” The tree’s power and strength came straight from Jesus, and so should ours! Therefore, to grow in the tree of life we must plunge into Jesus!
Since this tree was tied into Jesus it bore fruit, and in John 15:5 Jesus told us, “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.” Bearing fruit is manifesting the fruit of the Spirit in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23), and it is winning lost people to Christ (Romans 1:13); therefore we too will begin to bear fruit if we plunge into Jesus and grow in His life.
We also read here that the leaves “were for the healing of the nations.” What do leaves do? They exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen; they take the bad and make it good; and they breathe life into the world. Just as God breathed on man the breath of life (Genesis 2:7), it is our responsibility to breathe life into the world – the life of the Holy Spirit (John 20:22) flowing through us.
Time of Reflection
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life are actually choices and attitudes, perspectives and positions we take. Allow me to take a moment to contrast these two trees.
The tree of life leads to life, whereas the tree of the knowledge of good and evil leads to death. In the tree of life we bless and forgive, whereas in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we hold a grudge and justify. In the tree of life we accept responsibility, and in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we displace responsibility. In the tree of life we live in freedom, whereas in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we live in victimization. In the tree of life we flow in unconditional love, whereas in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we struggle in fear. In the tree of life we choose to believe the best, whereas in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we are evaluating and suspicious. In the tree of life we are positive and encouraging, and in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we are critical and cynical. In the tree of life we are concerned with life and death issues, whereas in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil we are concerned with right and wrong.(2)
The tree of life equals life-giving innocence, the type in which Jesus walked. Innocence is not being naïve, and is not a lack of critical thinking and clear direction. Innocence is a determination to respond to this world in a godly fashion. Everyone has had things happen to them, and you will respond from one tree or the other – either innocence, or the sinful nature. So, purposefully become a person of thought, or one who can choose and one who can make their decisions from the tree of life!
Jesus was all about life. Just because we are good and we know the difference between good and evil doesn’t mean we will go to heaven. We go to heaven because we know life, or Jesus Christ, the “life-giving spirit” (1 Corinthians 15:45). Jesus Himself declared, “Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you’” (Matthew 7:22-23a). Just going through the right motions, knowing the right thing to do or the good thing to do, and performing the proper works does not lead to life. Right and wrong, and good and evil cannot bring us life. Only Jesus, God’s one and only Son, leads to life, for he said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Once again I wish to remind you how the Lord said in Deuteronomy 30:19, “I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” Choose life – choose Jesus! We learn how to choose Jesus in Romans 10:9-10, which says, “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Come today and receive life!
NOTES
(1) Darrell Garrett, “Living in the Tree of Life” a sermon found on the Internet in May of 2007 at http://www.sermoncentral.com.
(2) Kim Wenzel, “Smoldering Wick Ministries,” Quapaw, Oklahoma, taken from the Internet in May of 2007 at http://www.smolderingwickministries.org/index.html
