Study the Word

Guest (Male): Moving away from guilt and shame to seeing ourselves as God sees us. Next on Study the Word.

Pastor Thom Keller: God wants to be in a relationship with you.l And he knows that if you live with guilt and shame for the things that you've done, it will keep you away from him. And the only way he can take that fear away from you of coming into his presence is to assure you that your sins have been forgiven, they have been put out of his sight. He doesn't even remember them. They are cast as far away from you as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. And that's why we can walk right into the throne room, assured, confident, certain of his welcomed response to us.

Because as Spurgeon said, we are covered, we are closed in the righteousness of Christ. And the same way he sees Jesus is how he sees you.

Guest (Male): In Genesis chapter 3, we read of the fall of Adam and Eve. God gave them a simple command, don't eat from the tree of life. Of course, we all know that they did. And what happened as a result? But did you realize the tree of life still exists? And one day, if you're a Christian, you'll get to see it in heaven. Not only that, you'll get to eat from it as well. Pretty cool, huh? Let's join Pastor Tom Keller in Genesis chapter 3 for Study the Word. And consider together where the tree of life is today.

Pastor Thom Keller: You know, I like the insight we get here in Adam and Eve's attitude, personality prior to the fall. Prior to the fall, they knew only good. It's all they knew. Remember Genesis 1:31? God said this. And God saw everything that he made, and behold, it was very good. And their opinion was the same, that everything was very good, everything. I think that's really cool. I picture Adam and Eve walking through the garden saying, honey, look at that. That is really good. Honey, look at that. That is really cool. Honey, look at that. That is really beautiful.

All they knew was good. They didn't know any evil. I would have loved to have hung out with them. Think of people being that positive, only seeing the good. All they knew was good. And with that said, I wonder when we get to heaven, if God will restore that pre-fall innocence. And we will know of evil, we will. But I suspect that we will only think about the good, lovely things. As we read in Philippians 4:8. Think of this being the model in heaven. Should be the model on earth. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if there's anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

I just thought that's about the antithesis of social media, isn't it? Wow. You know, years ago I went to Site and Sound and I went to see Noah. And Noah that year was about a 400 lb. Maybe. He was big. Uh and he had big baritone voice. And he was big, big, big and big personality. And he come out on the stage and he was just a happy guy. And he cuz you know, he's the only righteous man on the face of the earth at that time. He was a wonderful man, Noah was. And he go And And on stage he come out and he go, praise God.

Praise God. Praise God. And he did it over and over. And you know, I liked it. I really liked it. And I thought I should be more that way. I should be quicker to praise God. I should be quicker in the course of a day when something good happens just to say either under my breath or audibly, praise God, praise God. And I started doing that more. Now maybe none of you have ever heard me say that which proves I haven't done it much. But I do do it. And I think there's something good about that.

When something good happens in your life, just thank God right on the spot. I think he delights when we do that. Cuz he does so much for us. And then in verse 22, we are reintroduced to a very intriguing tree. Then the Lord God said, look, the human beings have become like us knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life and eat it, then they will live forever. Now remember, Adam was created in the image and likeness of God. But those qualities now include added to those qualities are a pull toward sin, a pull toward self-reliance, a pull toward blaming others.

Their ability to reason and choose have opened up their capacity to sin. And because of this, Adam and Eve were now very different creatures from who they were back in the days of their innocency. Now here's a question. So why was God so determined to prevent Adam and Eve from eating of the tree of life? To prevent them from living forever? Was that a punishment? So they won't live forever? You ate the fruit, now you're not going to live forever. No. God did this as a kindness, as a protection against living an eternal life in sin drenched misery.

One commentator said this, had Adam continued in fellowship with God by obedience, he might have eaten of the tree of life. For he was created for eternal life. But after he had fallen through sin into the power of death, the fruit which produced immortality could only do him harm. For immortality in a state of sin is not the abundant life which God has designed for man, but instead endless misery, which the scriptures call the second death. He ends by saying the expulsion from paradise therefore was a kindness to preserve him from living an eternal death.

Think about it. You knowing you would live forever in a world filled with sin and with your own sinfulness forever and no release from that. That would almost be hell. That 's why the three members of the Trinity said, what if they eat of the tree of life? They will live forever. Meaning live eternally in their state of sin and shame and guilt along with that horrible world filled with sin that has overtaken mankind. And yet And yet the world seeks after this goal to live forever. Jeff Bezos, can the rich live forever? You know, I really like to answer this question.

The answer is yes. The rich and the poor and everyone in between can live forever, right? How do you get there? Jesus. He wants to prop that old body up for another 50 years, maybe another 100 years. We get the better deal, don't we? A whole new body, right? Forget all the being an ice cube room and And I love this picture. Talk about a new body. This title of this painting is First Day in Heaven. First Day in Heaven. Can you imagine that what that first day is going to be like? I think I think our first day when you open your eyes in heaven, cuz the Bible says to be absent from the body is to be

Guest (Male): present with the Lord. Now do you think that's true?

Pastor Thom Keller: So I think when you open your eyes in heaven, you're going to see him like this with a big smile. Come here. Come here. I've been waiting for you. Come here. Come here. First day in heaven. And then verse 23. So the Lord God banished them from the garden of Eden and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. Two points here. Number one, I wonder if Adam and his descendants ever went looking for the tree that they weren't supposed to find. I suspect that at some point curiosity would have got the better of them and they would have at least started to kind of peek around a little bit.

It's kind of like when God said in Genesis 2:17 and 18, he said, Adam, you may freely eat any fruit in the garden except from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Adam, you got that? Yes, God, I got it. You sure you got it? I got it. Don't eat from that tree. You promise you won't? I promise. But God, you said not to. Of course I won't eat from it. I won't. Got it. Not going to eat. You sure? I'm sure. Long pause. Adam says, uh so so God, just exactly where is this tree?

Did you get it? Because curiosity, they'd want to go see it. And once they go see it, the temptation would be there again. And no wonder he hid it. The second point, verse 23, it says God sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. Always bear in mind that before the fall, man was still charged with work. People think work is a consequence of the fall. It is not. Man was called to labor work before the fall. Genesis 1:28. Before the fall, it says this, then God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, govern it, reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, all the animals that scurry along the ground.

Fill the earth, govern it, reign over the earth. But before the fall, he did not have to plow or plant. There was no sweat of the brow. It just came naturally. We know that because Genesis 1:29 pre-fall says this, God said, look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout all the earth and all the fruit trees for your food. They just pull these out of the ground and pull them off of trees. But now as a result of the curse, Adam now had to do difficult manual labor simply to provide food for his family.

Verse 17 to 19, since you listened to your wife, this is a curse. And to the man he said, since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat, ground is cursed because of you. All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it. It will grow thorns and thistles for you. There were no thorns and thistles before this day. Part of the curse. So every time you pull a weed or stick a shovel in hard ground or you water your garden under your breath, just say thanks a lot, Adam.

Thanks a lot, Adam. You know, I find it interesting too, a little aside, before the fall there were no thistles or thorns. And on Jesus they put a crown of thorns. And I think it's so ironic that as they pressed those thorns into his brow, it was such a clear reminder of the innocence lost, of how God designed it to be. And here that evidence of the of the curse are are is right on his forehead. And in verse 24, once banished from the garden, God places mighty angelic beings to ensure that no human being ever discovers the tree of life.

Verse 24, after sending them out, the Lord God stationed mighty cherubim, angels to the east of the garden. He placed a flaming sword that flashed back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. King James and others label these angels as cherubim. The Bible portrays cherubim, these angels, as being the highest ranking of all the angelic beings. They are noted as those angels who will stand by the very throne of God when he comes to judge the world in Revelation. The word cherub or cherubim is found 91 times in the Bible. The vast majority, vast majority are the reference to the two cherubim that are parked over the ark of the covenant with their wings overspread over the mercy seat.

All other references are associated with their great closeness to God. And the New Living Translation says they hold quote a flaming sword flashing back and forth. ESV says a flaming sword that turned every way. Amplified Bible says, so God drove the man out. And at the east of the garden, he permanently permanently stationed the cherubim. And the sword with flashing blade which turned round and round in every direction to protect and guard the way, the entrance, the access to the tree of life. So does this mean that these cherubim still exist somewhere in the Middle East today?

Well, this website said that they know where it is. I thought that's interesting. So I thought I would seek out the trusted authority over all matters pertaining to life and health, Mr. Google. And the top five answers I got, does the tree of life still exist today? Number one answer, no, nothing that existed before the flood of Noah's day survived. Well, that's pretty shallow thinking that God can't let a tree survive. Number two, no, the tree of life would have withered and died. Same argument. Number three, no, it was just a tree indistinguishable from any other tree.

Number four, no, both trees were just figurative. You expect to find that one, won't you? And the last one's one I like the best. Number five, it sure would make for a popular tourist site. Think what you could charge to take people to the tree of life. Man, Bob and Eve tours, we're going to see the tree of life today. Well, God says it still exists. And in fact, you will see it one day if you are a Christian, you will see it one day. And in fact, you will eat from it. Revelation 22:2, down the middle of the great street of the city, where you're going to be one day.

On each side of the river stood the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nation. Same chapter, a few verses later, 14. Blessed are those who wash their robes that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. So that day is yet ahead of us. What a day that's going to be. What a day. So how does the day's lesson apply to me? We know these verses that we have today brazenly and for the first time confront us with the problem of evil.

Why did God create evil? Why? Many people will ask, why does God allow evil? Well, a more thought-through question, since there was a time for mankind in the garden before evil existed with man, the better question would be, why did God allow sin's initial introduction into the world by way of the one prohibited tree? Why? Why did he allow its introduction? Things were going so good in the garden. Why? Well, the answer can be discovered by answering just one simple question. Why did God create man? God created man for his pleasure. And so that we who are made in his likeness could have fellowship with God.

This is a mind-blower, but it's true. Believe it or not, God's heart's desire is to be in a relationship with you. If you can think about parents wanting to be in a relationship with their child, if it's broken, you can get an idea of love that would seek after that. But God's love is on steroids compared with parents. He wants so much to be in a loving relationship with you. But But But how could that relationship be real and meaningful to either God or you if you didn't have the choice to either choose him or to reject him?

Because if there's no choice, if you had to follow him and worship him, then it would be robotic, mandated. God, you're such a great God. Come here. I want to kiss you. Thank you for everything you made. I'm going back now. I mean, how would that be meaningful to you? How would that be meaningful to God? You know, my wife's love for me could only be real and meaningful if she had a choice to choose me. Which by definition necessitates her other choice, a choice to reject me. I've said this before, but in making the point, when I dated my wife, if she would have had a switch in her back, a big switch, and I could have flipped it on and it would have made her love me, I would have been tempted to flip that switch on.

I worked very hard to win my wife. I did. I did. I tell you a quick story. I'll go into a little more detail with you. When I asked her out, she said, I can't go out, I'm seeing another guy. I said, well, I just want to be a friend. I said half the people in the world are the opposite sex. If you don't meet half the people in the world just because you're meeting you already know a guy, you're going to miss out about 3 billion people. And she said, no, but maybe we'll meet.

And that was yes. And so it it progressed. But while I saw her, she was seeing the other guy. You get the picture? So years later after we married, I had a Friday afternoon off and I was skiing up in Harrisburg and I'm going up the chair lift and Sue worked. I was off, so I was skiing by myself. And there's a guy comes and sits in the chair. You know where this is going. Guy sits in the chair next to me. We're going up the chair. And I said, where are you from? He told me.

He said, where are you from? I said, Lebanon. He said, oh, I used to date a girl from Lebanon. And I had a funny feeling. I had a funny feeling. And I said, oh, you did. I said, what was her name? He said Sue Sue Klein. And I just got smoked for about 30 Well, maybe not 30, maybe 10 seconds. And I kept I looked straight ahead and I said, yeah, I married her. Now that gives you a little idea of how I I worked to win her. If I could have flipped that switch and made her love me, I would have been tempted.

But you know, you know, if I would have done that a year later, 5 years later, at some point when we're laying in bed at night and she's sleeping, I would think to myself, if I flip that switch off, would she stay? Right? How could it be real if I made the choice for her? How could your love for God be real if he made the choice for you? The choice has to be there for it to be real and meaningful. What a price we pay. All the sin in the world today comes a result result of that.

But it was worth it to God. The risk was all based on being in a relationship with you. You know, some people will say he should have taken away our free will because look at how ugly the world is. A loving God won't do that. And I say to them, well, let me ask you a question. If you are a father and if God came to you and and about your 14-year-old son, he said to you now, your son's 14 years old, and I've never done this before, but I'm going to offer this to you.

If you will let me, I can make your son do everything you tell him to do for the next 10 years, from 14 to 24, you will get to make every choice he makes. Would you take that power? And parents will say no. And I will say, but you could do a better job. You could keep them out of trouble that you you see the train wreck coming because of your experience that they don't see yet. You could protect them from so much. You don't want that power? They say no. I say why? They say cuz I love him too much.

I love him too much. And then I say, oh, and then you fault God for doing what you yourself won't do? He loves you more than you love your son. And out of love, he will not take away your free will. You criticize him when you would do exactly the same thing with your own child? No. So it comes at a high price. But God has a way after this very brief existence here in this sin-filled earth to get us back to the garden if you will, to get us back to heaven, to get us back into a complete perfect genuine relationship with Jesus.

And that happened by a way of Jesus's death on the cross. Romans 5:17 says this, for the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God's wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus. Sin came into the world through one man. Forgiveness comes into the world taking away all that sin through one man, the God-man, Jesus. In closing, Charles Spurgeon speaks of the beautiful foreshadowing of Jesus that we have in our account today.

Listen to what he says. Spurgeon said quote, some creature had to die in order to provide them with a covering. And we know who died in that in order that we might be robed in his spotless righteousness. The lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world had has made a garment that covers our nakedness so that we are not afraid to stand even before the throne of God. Again, God wants to be in a relationship with you. And he knows that if you live with guilt and shame for the things that you've done, it will keep you away from him.

And the only way he can take that fear away from you of coming into his presence is to assure you that your sins have been forgiven, they have been put out of his sight. He doesn't even remember them. They're cast as far away from you as the east is from the west. He remembers them no more. And that's why we can walk right into the throne room, assured, confident, certain of his welcomed response to us. Because as Spurgeon said, we are covered, we are closed in the righteousness of Christ. And the same way he sees Jesus is how he sees you.

Do you think Jesus has a hard time coming to the throne room feeling guilty and ashamed and no, course not. God sees you the same way when you're clothed in Christ. You're clothed in the righteousness of Christ. And you can come stand before him knowing that he sees you faultless just as though you've never sinned. What a gift. What a genius.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Study the Word with Pastor Tom Keller and a part of our study in Genesis. Hear it again at our website, ccleb.com. Or visit our YouTube page. Subscribe to our channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon and you can watch our services live or on demand. For a CD copy, call 717 273 56 33. Once again, 717 273 56 33. Stay connected with us through Facebook and Instagram. You'll find us at Calvary Chapel Lebanon PA. It takes a team to bring these shows to the radio every day. And we look to our listeners for support.

If you'd like to get behind this ministry with either a one-time donation or ongoing monthly support, visit ccleb.com. Or call 717 273 56 33. If you'd prefer to write, let me give you our mailing address. Study the Word, 740 Willow Street, Lebanon, Pennsylvania 17046. We'd also like to invite you to join us at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. For more information about our service times or to watch the live stream, visit ccleb.com. Or you can go to our YouTube channel at Calvary Chapel Lebanon. Be sure to join us next time when our survey of Genesis resumes. Study the Word with Pastor Tom Keller is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Lebanon, Pennsylvania, made possible through the support of our listeners.