I pray that you would bless our understanding of the Bible. We thank you for it. God, we have your words right here. And Lord, we trust in that. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Yeah, I'll take one. You know, I would rather have it that way, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you rather have the Bible? I mean, I think about, you know, Moses talked with God, and Noah, and we're going to see that even Adam talked with God. And, you know, that'd be awesome. But not everybody's Adam. Not everybody's Noah. Not everybody's Moses. Not everybody's one of the prophets. And a lot of times they didn't hear from God all that often. Right. And so when things were written down, it's interesting to me that scholars will get on you because you say the book, the book, the book pastor always refers to the Bible, the book, the book. And, uh, they'll say, well, don't you know, John, there was no books back then. Don't you know that they wrote on scrolls and papyrus and all that kind of stuff and whatever they wrote on, but the Bible itself calls it a book. And I think it's intentional that the Bible calls it a book. Cause that's what we ended up with. We ended up with a book. And for, you know, more than 2000 years, but a complete book for for at least 2000 years, we've had the Bible. And so we have direct access to the very words of God anytime we want. We don't have to wonder what the preacher said about it. We don't have to remember what the prophet said about it. We don't have to wait for the dreams and visions to come true. We just open up the book and we can all read it for ourselves. Now, I'm going to encourage you to do that today because we're going to go through some strange doctrines, some more. Not so much very strange, but just some different things that some people, I'm sure, have never heard before. But you never have to take what I say for it. I was talking to Brother Wyatt the other day. He was with us to pass out the tracts. I had mentioned we were talking about animals and creation and some interesting things while we were eating dinner. He said, what about this and what do you think about that? I said something and he said, that makes sense, that sounds good. We talked about the gap theory and he said, it all made sense to me, but the thing is that he has his own Bible. And we all have our own Bible. So anything you hear today, anything you hear at all from this church or any other place, you are responsible to open up the Bible and see for yourself. And don't ever say, well, I just don't understand the Bible. I cannot understand the Bible. He understands the Bible. I cannot understand the Bible like he... How do you think I understood the Bible? How do you think pastor understands the Bible? I mean, we don't have microchips implanted in our skulls, you know. Nobody put the software in us. I've been saved for, I don't know, 35 or 30, I don't know how many years, I have to do the math. But over 30 years, and I tell you, it's over a course of time if you stick it out. So that's off topic, you know, but I was just thinking all the way from the song service till now about that. So we're in Genesis chapter 2, and we're in verse 8. Genesis chapter 2. You start relying on people and what they say, you'll get messed up. The Bible doesn't mince words. It says, let God be true, but every man a liar. You say, are you a liar? Absolutely. You know, I'm in sales. I don't know if everybody, most of you know that. I'm in sales, pet products. And when I, I always talk to people and I tell, you know, try, just try this dog food, you know, try this treat, try this whatever. Your pet's gonna love it. And they, so they, and I, and it gives me the open door to say, because you know, salesmen, they lie. But pets don't lie. If they eat the food, if they like it, they don't lie. If they do well on the product, they don't lie. You see the proofs right in the pudding, but people lie. And I always quote that verse, let God be true, but every man a liar. And you should see the reaction I get from people when I do that. The silence, the silence, you know, that's in the Bible. Anyway, Genesis chapter two, verse eight is where we're left off. And it says, and the Lord God planted a garden in Eden. And there he put the man whom he had formed. We're not going to go over that again. 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 knowledge of good and evil. So we're just going to talk about these trees here for a few minutes. And this will be where maybe the strange doctrine comes in. But man was originally a vegetarian. So if you're a vegetarian, you're in good company because Adam was a vegetarian and so was Eve and their children up until a certain time they were vegetarians. God told them that every, keep reading on the sheet, God gave Adam every herb bearing seed and every fruit tree for meat. That's Genesis 129. You can look over there if you'd like. In fact, God says in Deuteronomy, and I have the quote I want on your paper, you don't have to turn here, but Deuteronomy 20.19 says something very interesting. It says, the tree of the field is man's life. So if you're into eating fruits and vegetables and nuts and things that grow on trees, again, you're in good company. God established that. He says in Deuteronomy that the tree of the field is man's life. As a matter of fact, is it in Deuteronomy? Maybe I will turn there. Let me just check before I have you do that. You might want to go with me in case it is there. Oh yes, go over there. Go over to Deuteronomy 20 and look at verse 19. We'll start there and we'll read 19 and 20. This is what God thinks. It's interesting. We're not going to do it today. We're not going to study trees in general. But I would encourage you to, if you have free time, and if you're into that, not everybody wants to study trees in the Bible, but if you do, look at it, because it's very interesting, the correlation between man and trees. There's a correlation between Lucifer and tree. We'll look at that this morning. But it says in Deuteronomy 20, 19, when thou shalt besiege a city a long time in making war against it to take it, thou shalt not destroy the trees thereof by forcing an axe against them. For thou mayest eat of them and thou shalt not cut them down for the tree of the field is man's life to employ them in the siege. Only the trees which thou knowest that they be not trees for meat, Thou shalt destroy and cut them down, and thou shalt build bulwarks against the city that maketh war with thee until it be subdued. So only the trees that aren't for meat you can make your furniture from, you can build your houses from, you can build a boat from if you want to. But the ones for meat, God says don't destroy those, those are for you. And there's something about trees, there's the tree of life we see here. Why did God make a tree, a tree of life? Well, we could get into it, I'm not going to, but what I want to do this morning is identify, hopefully try to identify the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And we'll do that, and we'll try to do it quickly. One of the trees that man is not supposed to eat of, back to your notes, is the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So all the trees that had fruit, that bore fruit, were for man. Man was a vegetarian. Man did not eat animals. That came in after the flood with Noah. And that's when animals started to eat animals, actually, too. But before this, man was just strictly eating from the trees and the herbs and things like that. So the fruit of the tree, of this tree, would bring instant death. Look at chapter 2 in Genesis again. Genesis 2 and verse 17. 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. This tree was not for your life. This tree, you would die if you ate of it. So now again, go over to take a look at Ezekiel chapter 31. Ezekiel chapter 31. I don't want to go on too many rabbit trails. I'm trying, I really am trying, even when I make my notes, to speed up going through these first two chapters. Really, the first three are going to be where I'm going to be bogged down. But if you get into Ezekiel 31, I just want to start reading a little bit in verse 2, and then we'll jump a little ways. It says, Ezekiel 31.2, Son of man, speak unto Pharaoh, the type of the Antichrist, type of the devil, king of Egypt, and to his multitude Whom art thou like in thy greatness? Behold, the Assyrian, another type of the Antichrist, was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, with a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature, and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high, with her rivers running round about his plants. and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. It goes on and talks about it. And then we just let's just jump down to verse nine. Well, let's jump down to verse eight. The cedars in the garden of God. Could not hide him. The fir trees were not like his bows and the chestnut tree were not like his branches, nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. You see what that's talking about, right? That's talking about Satan. That's talking about Lucifer. Then you get to verse nine. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches, so that all the trees of Eden that were in the garden of God envied him. So we're not going to get into it much, but that's just whet your appetite, perhaps, to take a look at this idea of trees and how God likes his man. Go over to Psalm 1. Psalm 1. You know you're like a tree, too? Psalm 1, you know this, you could probably quote the whole chapter. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree. That's strange. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that bringeth forth his fruit in his season. See the fruit of the Spirit? The tree brings forth fruit. That tree of life brought forth eternal fruit. That tree of knowledge of good and evil brought forth death. His leaf also shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. Look at the ungodly, what they're like. The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff. which the wind driveth away. So that's what happens when you grind up the tree. It's just chaff, right? And so, just go back to Genesis 2. I'm just showing you how the Bible has a lot to say about trees. When God healed the blind man, I forget where it is in the Bible right now exactly, because he healed more than one, but when he healed the blind man, he did it partially at first. He said, open your eyes, what do you see? And he says, I see men walking about as trees. And then God says, OK, let me finish the process. And He healed them and He saw men the way they are. It's just kind of interesting. Now, Satan was likened unto a cedar tree there in Ezekiel. But what I'm going to show you here today is I think the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was the representation of Lucifer or Satan now, the serpent. What is a cedar tree? It was taller than any other. It was envied in the garden as branches were. If you read about how the fowls would land in those branches. Now what you have it reduced to, because I'm going to spill the beans early, but you can read on your sheet, is you have it reduced to a vine. It goes like this. What else goes like this? A serpent. Right? And so, what kind of tree might this be? Well, chances are it was a vine tree. A vine tree. You say, a vine tree? You're really pushing things, you know, calling a vine a grape. It's grapes. You call grapes a tree. Well, that's what the Bible says three times. Go back to Ezekiel. I should have had you stay there. Go back to Ezekiel and look at least one reference. We won't look at all of them, but you can look at all of them yourself and you'll see. I passed it up. Alright, Ezekiel chapter 15. Look at verse 2. It says, Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree? or then a branch which is among the trees of the forest. So it's equating it with the trees of the forest. It's calling the vine tree, it's calling what we would call a vine, the grapes, a tree. Look down at verse 6. Therefore thus saith the Lord God as the vine tree among the trees of the forest which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Now you can look up the other references. They say the same thing. It's vine tree. That's what the Bible calls it. So grapes are probably the fruit that Adam and Eve ate off of the vine tree, the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You say, why? Why would you come up with that? I know, I see the Bible says vine tree, but why would it be the vine tree? Why wouldn't it be some other kind of tree? Well, because of what you're going to see next. Grapes are associated with blood in Scripture. Now, I'm looking at the clock. I don't think we're gonna have a lot of time to reference all these, but I will have you turn to Genesis 49. Genesis 49 and verse 11. Genesis 49 and verse 11. You say, well, I thought it was an apple that they ate in the garden. Well, I'll talk about that in a second, but how do you know it was an apple? Where's your biblical proof that it's an apple? I'm going to try to give you some biblical proof, or some food for thought anyway, that will make you look at possibly it being a vine tree that grew grapes. Now grapes are associated with blood in Scripture, Genesis 49, 11. It says, "...binding his foal unto the vine, and his asses colt unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in..." What does it say there? "...the blood of the grapes." Wine is associated with blood. Grapes are associated with blood in the Bible. Matthew 26, don't turn to it because you all know what it is, it's Jesus at the Last Supper with his disciples saying that this cup of the New Testament is my blood, right? I'm getting it wrong, quoting it wrong, but he said this is my blood. What were they drinking? grape juice. They weren't drinking fermented wine. You former Catholics don't say, where's the hooch? We don't do that here. We serve what Jesus called the fruit of the vine, which is fresh grape juice and it's equated with blood. Have you ever wondered why God requires bloodshed for sin? Think about it. What's the first thing God had to do with Adam and Eve when they sinned? He put skins on them. Where did He get those skins? Did He just create those skins? No. He set a precedent in the Bible. He shed the blood, I believe, of a lamb, and shed blood, made the first sacrifice for sins that required bloodshed. Now, we could go through all the scriptures. I've listed many of them here for you, but we won't do that for sake of time. After Adam and Eve sinned, God shed the blood of a lamb to cover their nakedness. By the way, it's interesting that the first thing that they realized when they ate the grape was that they were naked. Go over to Habakkuk. If you can find Habakkuk, I didn't test myself, I put a marker there. Habakkuk chapter 3, I just know it's a quick book to run right past, it's almost to the New Testament. Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 15. Notice in the Bible, before we read the verse, I'll give you time to get there, Adam realized he was naked after he ate that grape. I'm just going to go ahead and use the word grape, okay? Noah got himself drunk and got unclothed, right? There's a parallel between Noah and Adam, we've gone through it before. Right here what you have in Habakkuk 2.15, if you're there now, Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth thy bottle to him. You know, hey, have a little wine with me. Hey, I'm gonna soften you up. Have a drink with me. Well, I was going to say, be careful about that. Don't do that. Don't even be careful. Just don't do that. Don't drink wine. Don't offer the wine. It says, Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink, that putteth thy bottle to him, and maketh him drunken also. Why? That thou mayest look on their nakedness. That's why they do it. Why do you think they're getting drunk in the bars? Well, for several reasons, but this being one of them. In the Bible, when you go through the wine and you go through strong drink, it's associated with nakedness. OK, it brings out doesn't bring out the best in you. It brings out the worst in you. We could go to we could run through the Bible and show you how getting drunk brings out the worst in people and how they'll do stupid things and how they'll do things that aren't just aren't like me. And then they go back and seek it yet again, as the Bible says, tells you in Proverbs. So that's that's just a little aside. But among other things, Adam and Eve sinned, God shed the blood of a lamb to cover their nakedness, and man was required to do so ever since. Even Abel knew to bring a blood sacrifice before God. Go back to Genesis and look at chapter 4. Genesis chapter 4 and verse 3, we'll start there. It says, and in the process of time, It came to pass that came brought of the fruit of the ground and offering unto the Lord. Wrong choice, Cain. How? Well, wait a minute. I tilled the ground. I do this. This is what God blessed me to do. You know, I'm I'm a man of the I'm an outdoor man. You know, I'm not like Jacob, but I'm more like Esau. You know, I go out there and God, you blessed the fruit of my hands and you've given me this wonderful ability. And Lord, I want to present these wonderful blessings of God back to you. God says that's not acceptable. The lesson there, which we'll get to later when we get to this chapter, is you just don't serve the Lord however you think you're supposed to serve the Lord. You don't serve him when you want to serve him, how you want to serve him. You don't read the Bible of your choice. You don't like the genre of music of your choice when it comes to God. You you choose God's ways. They're not acceptable, Cain. Yeah, that's the fruit of the land. That's my land. That's my your labor. You did it and I blessed it. But don't bring it to me for worship. Don't just decide how you worship God and when and if and how. All right, so then it goes on in verse four, but Abel, it doesn't say, but it says, and Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering. Well, where did Abel learn that? Well, he learned it from mom and dad. Mom and dad told him the story. You know what happened to us? We ate that grape, you know, over there. And we shouldn't have done that. And we died that day. Our spirits died. Our bodies changed. And God, you know what he did? He shed blood. and no doubt they had conversations still with God about that. They understood the meaning and the reason behind it. Maybe they didn't quite understand the association with the grape and the blood. You say, well, what is the association? Why would God choose the grape and call it blood? Because you know what happened is when we sin, we got a blood problem now. We'll get into that in a second. But why is that? I don't know. I don't know. All I know is this. It's a vine tree And Satan was a cedar. He was beautiful. He was he was wise above all. He was, I think, the pinnacle of what God said. That's the ultimate creation right there, at least at that time. Now, man is the image of God, right? Body, soul and spirit. But he likened him to that cedar tree. But now he's down to a crawling vine. And there's something about that I can't put two and two together right now for you, but the Bible does say, what does it say about Satan, what he was from the beginning? Anybody know? No, he's a murderer. He's a murderer. Isn't that interesting? That's what the Bible ascribes to him from the beginning. He was a murderer. Blood. bloodshed, something about the grape. I don't know what it is, but there's something about it. It represents something to God and why he represents him now as that tree of knowledge of good and evil. But so I'll just throw that out there for a thought. Thank God for providing an eternal blood sacrifice to us. Why did Jesus have to shed his blood? Now, there's a multitude of verses I give you here. Look them up later. But Jesus took that blood, he put it on the mercy seat up in heaven, and once and for all, no more blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins. They could only forgive sins temporarily. That's why they went down into the heart of the earth, into Abraham's bosom, to paradise. They couldn't get to heaven until Jesus died and shed his blood. Then he went down, as you all know, I hope, he went down and spent three days and three nights in the heart of the earth and he led captivity captive. He took all those Old Testament saints right out of there. He took them up to heaven. Why? Because the eternal blood of God was shed on the cross. And now true forgiveness, true redemption of their sins could be made. And now they could have access to a holy place called heaven. They couldn't have access to it before. They were still in the earth. And so God had to shed his blood. Why did he shed blood? I just, you know, what in the world? You know, the lost person out there with no Bible education, wasn't raised in church. They don't get that. They don't, but you should understand that the reason that God had to shed blood is because your blood got tainted the day you sinned. You brought death into this world. Adam brought death into this world by eating a fruit. That in itself is a little strange, right? But he ate a fruit. He ate a fruit that represented what Satan did. He ate a fruit that represented blood, bad blood. He ate that fruit and when he took it in, he died that day. His spirit died that day. And so Jesus now had to give a blood transfusion to every single one of us. We all need a blood transfusion. We need a change. We need eternal blood because our blood takes us to hell. So, eating blood, the next point there, eating blood is forbidden throughout scripture, is another reason why, just like in the tree of the garden, it's always been forbidden in the Bible. Before the law, I won't turn you there, but you can look it up, well you might, because if you're in Genesis, real quick I am, Genesis 9-4, just to show you. Genesis nine, four, but the flesh with the life is talking about eating. And that's where we were before, about everyone. We used to be a vegetarian and no longer we are. It's right here where it changed. Verse three, every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you, not just the trees anymore, even as the green herb. Have I given you all things but flesh? with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat." And that precedent has never changed. We study dispensations here at this church. We had a Bible Institute class all about dispensations here. And one of the things we talked about, some things are eternal principles. Some things run clear through every dispensation of time, and this is one of those. You look up the rest of the references, Leviticus 17, 12, that's under the law. They were still not supposed to eat blood. And after the law, In Acts chapter 15, when the disciples got together, apostles got together, and established what the gospel would be, they said, oh and one more thing, just command everybody not to eat blood. It's eternal. What's what is it about eating blood that is a principle that runs through the Bible and goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden? It's what we've been talking about. There's the life of the flesh is in the blood. The Bible tells you in Leviticus. And there's something about that blood that Jesus had to shed his blood on the cross. It was God's own blood to forgive us, to cleanse us, because our blood is bad ever since we ate of a tree. So that's why I'm telling you, I believe it was a grape. There's only one forbidden fruit in the Bible. Go over to Numbers chapter six, Numbers chapter six. And you'll see the Bible doesn't tell about any don't don't eat apples. The Bible doesn't say that. Don't eat lemons and don't eat a banana. It doesn't say that, but it does say in Numbers chapter six in verse two, talking about a Nazarite vow. Well, just start in verse one, might as well. And the Lord speak unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When either man or woman shall separate themselves to vow a vow of a Nazarite, to separate themselves unto the Lord. That's why they did it, to separate themselves unto the Lord. He shall separate himself from wine. Interesting. If you want to get right with God, guess what you separate from alcohol, not just alcohol, but wine. All right. Because it says and strong drink. That's fermented out. That's fermented grapes. All right. You understand that, you know, you have to be willingly ignorant not to understand the Bible. Sometimes, you know, well, the Bible, you know, Jesus made water into wine. Why? By the way, why did Jesus make water into wine? to show you what we're talking about right here. That's why possibly, and I said it in another class, possibly the blood that you had running through your veins before was water. And he had to turn it into wine to represent what was going on. And he had to turn it into pure wine, his blood, to give you a picture. Right? Maybe, maybe. Oh, you're crazy, John. Well, then you tell me. Tell me why it's an apple. So, he shall separate himself from wine and strong drink, and shall drink no vinegar of wine or vinegar of strong drink, neither shall he drink any liquor of grapes, nor eat moist grapes or dried. All the days of his separation he shall eat nothing that is made of the vine tree, there's another reference, from the kernels even to the husk. Stay away from those grapes. Now I eat grapes, I just went to Publix and bought two for six, you know, Welch's grape juice. It's okay to drink, you know, they told us, Paul will tell you, he told Timothy, now use a little wine for thy stomach's sake. Yeah, you notice what it said, use it. So if you do get the alcohol, and if you do keep the alcohol in the liquor cabinet, because, well, I guess it's your liquor cabinet. If you keep it there, because, you know, you want to do what they did in the Old West, before they made things like, you know, Benadryl and all that stuff, or whatever, you know, NyQuil, that's what I'm thinking of. Then you take your little shot, and you don't tell anybody, and you keep it there, and you hide it, and whatever you got to do, but don't go advertising that, well, yeah, I drink, you know, Jack Daniels, whenever I get sick. Just don't tell anybody. Alright? Keep it to yourself and don't go back to the Jack Daniels because you're depressed and then go back to the Jack Daniels because, you know, I'm having a rough day and then go back to it because, well, you know, that made me feel good yesterday. I'd like that feeling again. And don't do it for your back pain, right? You know, get a shot for your back pain. You know, but that's what happens, see? So you better understand. The Bible's against it. God's against it. Eating blood is forbidden in scripture. It's the only forbidden fruit in the Bible. So I'm just making the case. We're done. I tried to make a little small case. I've done a whole class on this before, gotten into more things, but make a small case for the fact that when we get up here and say, you know, when Adam ate the grape, you're like, huh? He ate an apple. What are you talking about? No, I believe he ate from the vine tree, a representation of who Satan was. So why then do people say it was an apple? Here it is on your nose. This is just one thought that I grabbed from somebody and I don't even know if it's true but it sounds good so I'm giving it to you. Why do they say it was an apple? It's highly possible that this new view or that this view came from a medieval pun. You know what a pun is, right? The Latin for evil is mellum. And the Latin for apple is malus. One letter difference. Malum, malus. Medieval monks may have played a game with the words to make the fruit which conducted evil, which is malum, into the word apple, which is malus. And we all do that. We all goof around and we all say things and we all... And then the next thing you know is it becomes truth, right? It's the gospel. They ate an apple. And everybody says that in the whole world. They say that he ate an apple. Well, you can't find that in the Bible. You say, well, I didn't find grapes in the Bible. Well, OK. Study it a little deeper, maybe. And that's fine with me. I'm just giving you something that hopefully would be of interest to you. And it kind of connects, right? And it tells you a little bit why Jesus had to shed his blood. It doesn't become so much of a mystery anymore. You know, we're real spiritual, aren't we? Holy, holy, holy. And we want to do something like count some beads or something while we're doing that. Oh, light a candle. Light a candle. This is a very reverent moment. We're real spiritual and we like Catholicism. Almost 2 billion people like it. That's a lot of people in this world. They like that Hinduism, that Buddhism. Talk to people, I'm a spiritual person. I don't go to church, I'm just a spiritual person. No, you're not. Not according to God. That's not spiritual. You worship him in spirit and in truth. If you don't have the Holy Spirit wherever you're doing your worship, you don't have spiritual. You're not spiritual. And so, yeah, but we all want to get real spiritual. And we're like, oh, yeah, but you know, it's real. The Bible is more practical than that. What I'm telling you is the Bible is very practical. You got a blood problem. Your granddaddy ate of a fruit and it was a grape, I believe, whatever, whatever, you know, and his but his blood changed. I know that. because the life of the flesh is in the blood. So if you have life in your flesh and it's in the blood, how come I die? Why do I die? I should be living forever. You know, Adam was in a state of innocence. I don't know if we'll get to it today, but it's on your paper. He is in it. He was in a state of innocence, just like a little child is in a state of innocence. When they die, they go to heaven. Right. And so he didn't sin. But if because the wages of sin is death. Right. So if he had if he had sinned, there would be death. But we die. Even little babies die. Why? Because our blood has changed. Something's wrong with our blood. And Jesus said, you know what? I can fix that. I got I got eternal blood. I'm perfect. You know, I will give you you know, I will give you my I'll give you my kidney. I'll give you a heart, you know, my heart when I die. I'll give you an organ. I'm an organ donor. You know, I'll get that's wonderful. Great. Jesus gave us his blood. It's not some religious, oh, you know, let's do it. It's practical. It's what we need. It makes you understand now why he did that, right? It makes you understand why we get upset when guys like John MacArthur say, it was just the death of Jesus that was efficacious to get you to heaven. No, it wasn't just his death. You couldn't have just strangled him, suffocated him, or whatever, beat him to death. You couldn't have stoned him. Then he couldn't have saved us. He had to shed blood. All right, so I hope that gives you a better understanding. Now, I won't go through it because it's just, you know, more of the same, and I want to get further, but it's probable that the tree of life was an olive tree. Why do you say that? Well, just run through it real quick. In Genesis 8-11, which we won't turn to, Noah sends a dove from the ark, and when it returns, it has an olive leaf in its mouth. Why? Well, because that's all that he could find? No, because that's intentional by God. He had an olive leaf in his mouth, a sign of life. In Exodus 27.20, the lights of the lamp stand in the tabernacle were fueled by what kind of oil? Olive oil. Why? And they burned always. They were always to be lit. Why? It's a sign of eternal life. Olive oil was burning. In Psalm 52.8, David likens his life to an olive tree in the house of God. That's a strange thing to liken yourself unto. Why would he do that? Because he understood it represented eternal life, signifying his life could never be destroyed. He had eternal security. David knew where he was going when he died. And so, I'm like an olive tree, he says. Zechariah 14, verse 4, when Jesus returns to set up his eternal kingdom, he returns to what mountain? Mount of Olives. Strange name for a mountain, right? Romans 11 24 tells us that we are graft into the olive tree when we are saved. So, is that enough biblical evidence for it to be an olive tree? I think so. Now, can I prove it? No, I wasn't there. And God doesn't specifically tell you what kind of tree. He just names them. Right? But it's interesting to know. It gives you some insight into the Bible. Now, back to Genesis 2, verse 10 through 14. It's not on your paper for sake of space, but we'll read it. Genesis 2, 10. And a river went out of Eden to water the garden. And from fence it was parted, and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pisan, if I'm saying it right. That is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold." That's the first time gold is ever used in the Bible. Where there is gold? Okay. God doesn't say anything for frivolous. Verse 12, and the gold of that land is good. There is Delium, if I said that right, and the Onyx Stone, and the name of the second river is Gihon, the same that is that compass the whole land of Ethiopia, and the name of the third river is Hittikal, that is it which goeth toward the east of Syria, and the fourth river is Euphrates. We'll stop right there. So, from these verses, and I am not into geography, I never have been, I'm not like a place guy. Brother Beard, he always talks to me about it, and I listen to him, but I don't get into it as much as some people might do. But, if you take these things here, you can approximate, at least approximate, and I've read a lot about this. Everybody's got an opinion, right? Everybody's got an opinion on where the Garden of Eden was. But the Bible's giving you some real strong clues here as to where it might be. We can get an approximate location, even though the two rivers, Gihon and Pison, no longer exist. They don't exist anymore. You say, well, why don't they exist anymore? I don't know. Maybe because of the flood of Noah, maybe just over the course of time, maybe they weren't real strong rivers, I don't know, but they don't exist anymore. The Tigris, even though they don't exist, the Tigris, which is Hittikal, and Euphrates still do. These rivers are in the Middle East, we know that, and join near the end of the Persian Gulf, we know that. So that'll give you at least a little approximate estimation. Now some people have conjectured that Eden went down, because Eden was paradise they say, and Eden went down to the heart of the earth and was Abraham's bosom. that it never went away. God took it and He just put it there. And then they conjecture that God took it from there when He led captivity captive and He took them up to paradise, that that's now up there and it's called paradise. And then one day God will bring it back down on this earth again. Now you can... Hey, I like that kind of talk. I think that's fun. I don't mind. I don't know if that's true or not. But and so I don't what I'm saying is, if you go, I'm going to go to the Euphrates and I'm going to go right to the Middle East and I'm going to go over there and I'm going to find Garden of Eden and I'm going to get some of that gold over there. I'm sure people have tried. You're not going to find it. All right. And if you do, and I don't know if they're still there, but if you do, you're going to meet a flaming cherub. He's going to cut your head off. Right. He's not going to he's not going to let you in. That's in the Bible, you know. Anyway. Okay, I read that. Verse 11 is the first mention of gold. I mentioned that in the Bible. And verse 12 says it is good. Now, we could go into a long discussion. Again, we could really get bogged down here. But you might want to pick up some literature from Dr. Ruckman about what he thought. You know, man was formed out of the dust of the ground, right? And we could take you to places in the Bible where he's formed in the deep parts of the earth. And the Bible talks about gold here. And why? Why does the Bible talk about gold? All of a sudden, out of nowhere, hey, there's gold there, and it's good. Well, the idea, again, it's conjecture, is that perhaps, perhaps, man, before he was looking like this, which isn't so attractive, man might have been made out of gold dust and had a different appearance. You say, well, why would that be? Well, he's like God. You ever read about what God looks like? You ever read about where God lives? You ever read about where you're going? Let's read about where you're going. Go to Revelation 21. Revelation 21. There's some fascinating things in the Bible. You say, explain them to me, John. I can't. I'd like to. I can just point them out most of the time. But Revelation 21, verse 18. This is when the new heaven and new earth are already here. We're talking about eternity now and you get to verse 18, Revelation 21, 18 and it says, and the building of the wall of it was, this is New Jerusalem. This is where you're going to live. And the building of the wall of it was jasper-like, and the city was pure gold, like unto clear glass, jump down to 21. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, every several gate was of one pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass." Wouldn't it be interesting if Adam and Eve, and I'm not saying they were, wouldn't it be interesting if they were pure gold? and they were clear, and they emitted a light out of their bodies. I could imagine some things, right? And then when they ate that fruit, isn't it funny that they were naked before? Then they ate the grape, and they discovered, I'm naked. Well, you were naked, but their bodies were different. Now they had hands and feet and limbs, and they were in the image of God. But their bodies were different, their blood was different. Their spirit was different. There are a lot of things that were different. I don't know. I don't know. But you know what we're working for as Christians? You know what happened to FDR, Franklin Delano Roosevelt? You know what he did with your money? He took us off the gold standard. Right? What year was that? Anybody know? It doesn't matter. In the 30s, right? Yeah. And so he took you off the gold standards. You say, so what does that mean? That means that in your pocket, if you have any, you have money and all you have in your pocket is paper. That's all you have is paper. Say, no, it's worth something. What's it worth? I'm being serious. What is your money worth? It's worth whatever Washington tells you it's worth. and not even them. It's worth what the Federal Reserve Bank tells you it's worth, right? It's really worth what the world bankers tell you it's worth. The world bankers say, you know what, for now, we're okay with the U.S. dollar being the standard for the world currency. So wherever you go, you can get U.S. dollars. You can make an exchange rate with U.S. dollars, right? That's the standard of the world. But as soon as they decide no longer, then you just have paper in your hand. Literally, that's what the whole world runs off of is paper. The gold standard, there is nothing backing your money, you understand? Now, go do your homework on it and all that, but guess what you get to do when you work for God? Guess what you get when you work for God? Gold, silver, and precious stones. He told the church of Laodicea, I would that you would buy of me gold. How do you get that from God? You earn it through your works. As Christians, we get something substantial. We get something for our money. We get something for eternity that lasts forever. You know why gold was ever chosen as the standard? You know there's better, more valuable metals than gold. You know the one reason why it's the standard above even silver? I'll use silver for an example because it's right there with it. The Bible tells you gold, silver, precious stones. Silver is a currency too in the Bible. But the reason why is because gold doesn't tarnish. Gold doesn't corrupt. Silver will. Other metals will. So the world says, and it's pretty. It comes in different colors. And people like it. And why do you buy a gold necklace? Why do you wear a gold ring? Why don't you wear something else? Because you like it. And the thing about that is, the Bible mentions it right in Genesis. In the second chapter of Genesis, it talks about gold. And you know what the world does? That becomes a standard. The whole world goes by the Bible. They don't even know why they're going by the Bible, you know, because a long time ago, God says, it's like where I live and it's what you're going to like. And I'm telling you right there and for no apparent reason, there's gold there and the gold is good. And maybe, maybe, maybe Adam and Eve were made out of that or Adam and then Eve came from him. So there's no escaping this biblical standard. Verse 15, moving on. And the Lord took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. That's going to be important when it comes to Satan in the next chapter, talking to Eve, that word freely. 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. I don't know how far we're going to get here, but we'll watch the time. Adam was created in a state of innocence. I mentioned that. He was like a little baby. Now, he was a full-grown man. He had knowledge. He talked and walked with God. But he was innocent. So, for example, Adam had one command. The command was, don't eat of the tree. If you eat of that tree, you're going to die. Now he had other commands though. One of the commands was, be fruitful and multiply and replenish your earth. But it wasn't with the contingency of death. He didn't say, be fruitful and multiply or I'll kill you. He had another command, keep the garden and dress it. Dress it and keep it, right? Well, what if Adam got lazy and went to sleep all day one day and didn't do it? It wasn't with the contingency of death. So he was innocent. He could have done wrong. Little babies can do wrong, but they're innocent. You know, I don't want to go through it all because I don't have time. But Paul talked about in Romans seven, I was alive without the law once. But when but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died. So you say, well, when is my child going to be accountable to stand before God someday? They're in the state of innocence when they're little. But when are they going to give you accountable to God? We call that the age of accountability. Right. I don't know. I think it's different for every person because I think it's what Paul said. I think it is when the commandment comes. Sin revives. Say, well, you know, I'm a little child. Can you imagine, can you remember if some of you were saved when you were little, five, six, seven, eight years old? You were little and perhaps you were raised in church and you sat in church. And you were a little hellion, right? All of your little kids are that way, right? You ran around, did whatever you want, broke whatever you want, disobeyed mom and dad whenever you wanted, right? Kids are like that. We're not holding that against your kids, by the way, but we're just telling you what they are. We love your kids. My kids were that way, too, but I loved them and everybody was getting after me at that time. Right? Get a hold of your kids. So anyway, but they're innocent. They don't realize what they're doing wrong, but they don't realize it. They don't realize the consequence. But when the commandment comes, they're sitting in church and they get a pre... I remember when I was young and the commandment came and I'm like, oh, that's me. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, God said that. Some people, now I believe God holds you accountable much younger than this, but some people are in their 30s and 40s and they're saying that. Oh, you mean God said that? Oh, you mean I've been wrong all this time? Wow, I didn't know that. You know, it's getting worse all the time. But God says there is a standard in the Bible, age of accountability, where when you get the commandment, that's why you want to be sensitive to your children when it comes to them understanding things of God. When they start coming to you and saying, what about this and what about that? You know what they're doing? They're contemplating their conviction in their spirit about, you know, God is speaking to you. God is trying to wake you up. God is trying to give you eternal life and He wants to do it early. He'll do it early and that's why you want to bring your kids to church. That's why when you say, let's have family day and let's just worship God out in nature or at the park or whatever, you know, because family is most important. Uh-uh. No, it's not. If you thought family was important, you'd stick your kids under the preaching and teaching of the Bible so that they could get saved as early as possible so that one day when you're driving down the road with your family on family day and they're after the age of accountability and you get hit by a train or another truck or a car and you all die in a car wreck and you go to heaven but your kids go straight to hell? You're telling me you love your kids because you were going to take them to the park and not to church? You were going to take them to the beach and not to church so that they could get preaching and teaching from the Word of God and get the Spirit of God. You know, that's what God uses. He doesn't use family days to get ahold of your kids. He uses preaching. So you bring them here and you make them come here and you make them like it and even if they don't like it, you bring them anyway. Well, you know, they just don't want to go anymore. I don't care. You're going to church. So that's off topic again, but we're telling you Adam was in a state of innocence. He did not have the knowledge of good and evil. By the way, the knowledge of evil always brings death. Go over to Romans chapter 16. We won't finish, we'll just get this far and that's about it. Romans chapter 16. I could show you an age in the Bible where I think possibly that God sets an age, but I'm not going to do it. You know why I'm not going to do it? Because I don't want you to feel comfortable with that. Because I don't know. Because we're in the New Testament now. You know what God says in the New Testament? Hold your finger in Romans and go to Acts. Because my mind, more than my mind, I feel like the Lord wants me to read this to you. Go to Acts chapter 17, I think it is. Go to Acts chapter 17. Paul's talking to a bunch of people who worship idols and everything. They're just like a lot of cultures, they worship everything. He's trying to set them straight. He's talking about the Lord. You get to verse 29. He says, Acts 17, 29, "...for as much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is likened to gold or silver or stone, graven by art in the man's devices." That's why God tells you in Exodus 20 not to do that. Don't grave in any image, because as soon as you do, you're spiritual, remember? You're a spiritual being, and you know what you'll do? You're going to worship it. You're going to hang it around your neck, you're going to put it in your car, it's my lucky charm, it doesn't mean anything, you know, I just keep it with me all the time. Yeah, because you're spiritual. So anyway, that's what they were doing. We're no different, we're people just like them. Verse 30, "...and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now This is, oh, we're in the age of grace. We're in a much more liberal time. You know, God is very, very forgiving. No, He was more forgiving in the Old Testament. He would give His mercy out like candy. I don't mean to be trite about it, but He would give it out. I could show you verses where God gives out His mercy all the time to people in the Old Testament. But now, commandeth all men everywhere to repent. Why? Because, verse 31, because he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man, that man is Jesus, whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead. Hey, Jesus was raised from the dead. A man died on a cross, shed his blood, you understand that now? He shed his blood to save your soul so that you could have eternal life. He went down into the grave and no man has ever on his own power come up from the grave again. The only other people who have come up from the grave are people that Jesus touched. He came up from the grave and now because of that, guess what? No more mercy. Say, no, God is a God of mercy. He's a God of grace. I mean, I'm saved by grace. Yeah, if you receive it. But if you don't, if you don't repent and receive it, guess what? The message is still true. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. That's what will happen. He winked at it in the Old Testament. He said, OK, you guys don't know any better. Never did God come down in the flesh. The mystery of godliness. God was revealed in the flesh and died on a cross, shed his blood for your sins, rose from the dead. Now you're accountable for that. You're accountable to know that you're accountable to that. And if you don't accept Jesus Christ and him alone and him only, you're going to hell, buddy. Straight to hell. No mercy. No. Well, you know, my good works against my bad. That was Old Testament. That's where God was merciful. Go to Ezekiel 18. If a man turned from his wicked ways, I'll be merciful unto him. But not now. It's a little more severe now. You think it's you think it is more severe now? There's only one way. And Paul said, I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus. He was beaten for this message. I love this message. I received Jesus and him alone. He's my atonement. He took my place. If I accept just him and him, his name and I carry his name, I'm a Christian. I get to go to heaven. Yeah, that's right, because he's the righteousness. and you start adding anything to that, you go over to Galatians, you add anything to that, you're accursed. You're going to hell. That's why we preach against those other religions. So I had to say that, but go back now to Romans chapter 16. Romans 16 verse 19. We're talking about this idea of innocence and this knowledge of good and evil and you should not seek it. You should not seek this knowledge, you should not seek it, nor should you offer it to those around you. especially to your children. You say, well, the things I've seen, the things I know, the places I've been, the company I've kept, the experiences I've had, keep it to yourself. We don't care. I don't want to know about it, because it's the knowledge of evil. And the more knowledge that I have of evil, guess what? I'll go do it. Say, no you won't. You're a good Christian. You teach up there and you're a... I'll go do it. Don't put the thought in your kid's mind about little Johnny has two daddies. in kindergarten. Don't put the thought in there that he has two mommies. Don't ask them what gender they prefer to be. Don't start... You know why they do that when they're little? Why? Oh, sex education. Yeah, we need that, you know, because if we don't... Yeah, it's been exploding ever since. Because you're giving them the knowledge of evil. Say, that's not evil. Marriage is honorable and bed undefiled. Yeah, when you're married. But outside of that, it's called adultery and fornication. Now, Romans 16, in verse 19, it says, For your obedience has come abroad unto all men, I am glad, therefore, on your behalf. But yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and simple concerning evil. You see what God says there? Just be wise unto things that are good. Why do you have to worry about all that's bad out there? Why do you have to worry about all the things that you wish that people know and, oh, I'm so naive, I'm so dumb? No, just be wise concerning good and simple with those things. And, you know, when people are around you and they're laughing at some innuendo joke and you don't get it, praise the Lord for that. I don't understand it and don't tell me what it means. I don't need that. And they're sticking that in every movie you watch, they're sticking that in every sitcom you have, they're sticking that in everything where they're just making these little comments, these little comments, and they're just getting you more wise concerning evil. Why don't you just shut up and talk? Howard Cosell did a good job before you guys showed up, you know, sports and all that even. Those guys, I was thinking sports, you know, and he didn't have to resort to all that language, you know, to get his point across. Go to one more, go to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And we're done. 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 33. Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. That's what happens when you start evil communications. You get corrupted. You know what happens? It comes out in your actions. So they're just talking, you know, they're just guys and they just talk. Well, don't listen to them. Don't be around them. Turn it off if it's on. Get away from it. You don't want your kids around it. Okay, this is why, and I'm done. Closing my Bible. This is why you don't want your kids in public school. Now, listen, I do understand. I do. But I can't get into it now because we're out of time. But education is your God, maybe. And education is first and foremost. I mean, my kids have to get an education. No, they don't. I can take you all over the world where kids don't get an education. If they get one, it's optional. Even the country says that. It's optional. Well, in America, it's different. What makes you different? You know, some of the richest people in the world, some of the millionaires and billionaires you wish you were, never graduated high school, dropped out of college, don't have college degrees. They just know how to get it done. They were taught hard work, like the Bible talks about. Now look, education's great, you know. If Raz is going to fly to Indiana again this week, then I hope he gets on a plane that was made by an engineer, you know. But listen, I'm just saying, I would never send my kid to a school at the expense of them coming out to be gay. or to have bad friends that I could never separate them with a crowbar from. That's my friend, mom. That's my friend, dad. You're going to take my friends away from me? Well, who said you had to have friends? And that's not the right kind of friend. But you know what? They're hanging around me eight hours a day every day at the school. And they're laughing at those jokes. And they're telling those stories. And they're watching those shows. And you know if they're watching it, I've got to see it too. I've got to watch it somehow. How am I going to watch it? I want to understand what they're talking. And that's what happens. That's the way it goes. And the Bible says the very opposite. I would that you were simple concerning all that stuff. And evil communications corrupt good manners. And pastor said it not too long ago, I don't remember what sermon it was in, but he said, you know what? We wonder where our kids went wrong and we might want to just look in the mirror. Say, we caused that. We let them watch that. We let them go there. We let them listen to that. We're the ones who didn't take them to church. and when I mean I'm not trying to be pray for my kids they'll come to us and pray for my kids pray their wayward now and some of its legitimate right some of it you know you didn't know any better some of it you weren't even saved yourself some of it you know you but some of it I don't know what's wrong I raised them in church their whole life uh-huh that gets me that's that's