We are continuing our study in Genesis 3. And today we're going to be looking at verse 24, but let's pick up our reading at verse 20 to get a little bit more of the context. So, Genesis 3, and we're going to begin reading at verse 20. And Adam called his wife's name Eve, because she was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also, and to his wife, did the Lord God make coats of skins and clothes of them. And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. And so he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. So previously as we've looked at this idea of being sent forth from the garden we saw A couple of weeks ago, we saw the idea of preparation. That is, God did not, as it were, arbitrarily send Adam and the woman forth from the garden without preparing them for his plan, as they would now be excluded from the garden. And then last time, we saw under the subtitle of protection, we saw the fact that God was protecting certain aspects of now what would be life with God in the wilderness or in the world apart from the pristine Garden of Eden. And we saw that God protected the fact that he made man in his likeness and his image. And we saw that man is made in the likeness of God. And then God, he's made in the image of God when he's born again. And then we talked about the idea of knowing good and evil. And that's a little bit of a difficult topic for us to understand. But we use the simile that an oncologist knows cancer and a cancer patient knows cancer, each of them from a different standpoint. And God can bring good out of evil as mysteriously deep as that is to us. And it's amazing what God can do. In the same way that God used Joseph and it was meant for evil, yet God meant it for good. And in this spiritually mysterious way, the universe and God's plan is more perfect, if I could put it in human terms, due to the fact that evil is now known and God has overcome that evil specifically in the life of the believer. Along the lines of, and if I could quote it again, because this is so profound, and I'm gonna say most churches, most believers do not understand this concept, this idea, but we quoted earlier from John Owen, from his book, Communion with God, and he asked the question, why the fall? If God is omnipotent, if God is sovereign, why did God allow the fall? And the answer that he believes scripture gives us is that God decreed the fall by sovereign design so that recovered man, that is the believer, will be brought to such an estate that in fact is infinitely above where man first appeared. God wants to put you, brother or sister, into an inconceivably better condition than we, mankind, were in before the fall, before the entrance of sin. God is perfected as he is revealed as the Redeemer. And there's a tremendous, profound, deep, deep well of spiritual design and spiritual truth in that statement. Man, the Lord said, has become, has one of us to know good and evil. And we answer the question, is there a one of us within the Trinity? that knows good and evil? Is there one within the Trinity that knows good and evil, like both the oncologist, the doctor, but he also knows it by experience, the cancer patient? And of course, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Genesis chapter three on one hand is so spiritually mysterious and deep and profound, yet hidden within it is God's plan, God's strategic plan for the believer and a revelation of who he is. And so today being sent forth from the garden, the third part of this idea of being sent forth from the garden with the idea of preservation. Again, verse 24, so he drove out the man and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. This verse speaks to the idea that there is hope. If you've been able to follow along and understand just a little bit of the dramatic, infinite fall that man has undergone, at one time being innocent in the presence of God, and then the fall, and then being thrust out, that's a word that's sometimes translated divorce, divorced from God, pushed out, and yet there is hope as we see that God is keeping, guarding, preserving the way to the Tree of Life. And God is going to preserve not just the Tree of Life, but the entire future, everything that is attached to the Tree of Life, its purposes, everything that this imagery points to, not the least of which is that remnant chosen according to grace. It's an amazing thing that we have this hope. I tried to pause when I read that verse because the sentence is not finished in the original. When God says, and now let's teach, should put forth his hand and take also of the tree of life and live forever. And he doesn't finish that sentence because the idea is unthinkable. That awful possibility that man, having sinned, now were to take his hand and reach towards the tree of life and live forever in that eternal state. It's absolutely dreadful. It's unthinkable. And God portrays that as he doesn't finish that sentence. there's this hope. On one hand, there's judgment for excluding man from the Garden of Eden. On the other hand, it's an act of divine grace and mercy and love that God is going to fulfill and complete his plan. Mercy as well as judgment. Well, today, I'd like to look at four ideas, as you see in your outline. First of all, the prohibition to the tree of life. Secondly, the tree of life that we'll see really is a portrayal of the Lord Jesus Christ. Really, we'll just sketch it out. Really, the meat and potatoes will come next time. We talk about Genesis 3 as we begin to wrap it up. Thirdly, we're going to look at the way to the Tree of Life. There is a way to the Tree of Life. And then we'll close with a couple of applications. As I said, we're going to just sketch out a little bit about the Tree of Life. In retrospect, I was thinking perhaps we should have looked at it. The Tree of Life is mentioned in Genesis 2, verse 9, where God very clearly highlights it's in the midst of the garden. It is supreme. It is central. And I just followed verse by verse. We need to understand, why were these two trees put there in the garden? The Puritans have called it either a covenant of works or they call it a probation, but there's a very real link between the two trees and where Christ is called the second Adam in 1 Corinthians chapter 15. So we're gonna develop that more next time. But anyway, number one, the prohibition to the tree of life. Adam and the woman, and subsequently the descendants, God, in verse 24, is divinely keeping the way to the tree of life. If we read this verse carefully, as we've read it a couple times, we notice a couple things. It says, he drove out the man. Of course he drove the woman out too, but remember we've seen Adam is the federal head, so he drove out the man. Reading carefully, we see that unlike some pictures that you might have seen, the cherubims and the flaming sword are not next to the tree of life, but they're at the entrance to the Garden of Eden. In other words, they cannot even begin to get close to that tree of life. The verse says that there are cherubim. That's the plural word. There is more than one cherub. There's cherubims. We read about this flaming sword, or some commentators think it's a flame in the shape of a sword, but it's prominent. It can be seen. This flaming sword, like Ezekiel's wheel within the wheel, keeps turning in on itself. It's moving. It's got this mission to show that it's alive, if you will, and it's active and it's vigilant. There's not gonna be a moment when that flaming sword is put away or hidden so that somebody can sneak in and grab from the tree of life. These cherubims are keeping the way, that is they're guarding, they're watching in order to protect it. And they are protecting this very tree of life, that which is so central, predominant and preeminent. in the garden. And so God drove out, He thrust out, He divorced, He separated the man, and then He preserved his way. He did not want Adam and the woman to partake of the tree of life. Now previously I said, I believed that from verse 21, where unto Adam and also to his wife, the Lord God made coats of skins and clothed them. I believe, along with many of the commentators, that that's the moment of actual redemption for Adam and the woman. God clothing them by virtue of the sacrifice, the blood, God's portion, the clothing, man's portion. And so you might ask the question, well, if Adam and the woman Eve were saved, Why couldn't they take from the tree of life? Why couldn't they? Remember, when we talked about Adam as the federal head and we talked about original sin, there were gonna be many descendants from Adam and the woman that were gonna be born in sin. Though Adam and Eve were, I'm gonna say, they were saved, Spiritual life does not come through lineage, but spiritual death does. And Adam as the federal head was being excluded from the garden for that very reason. Prohibition, Adam and the woman as the federal head and woman, the mother of all living now, ejected from the garden. And one of the primary thoughts here is that sinful man cannot abide in the presence of a holy God. God's perfect righteousness, according to his definition of what perfect is, according to his holiness, His essence, something that has been lost today, God is higher than we can imagine in His holiness, in His purity. And not a single perfection of God, not a single act of man can reconcile a sinful man to a thrice holy God. Man absolutely has to be separated from a holy God. God's holiness shuts us out. Thou, Habakkuk said, speaking of God, thou art of pure eyes that even to behold evil and canst not look on a liquid one. I'll repeat something I said in this series at some time, but if you're ever sharing the gospel with somebody, and they want to minimize sin or bring down the holiness of God, remember to tell them that thousands of years ago, one person on the other side of the globe took a bite from a piece of fruit, and because of that, everybody dies, will ever be born again. We cannot minimize sin and death by sin. Man has to be excluded from that pristine, perfect, intimate fellowship with God because of sin. Your iniquities, Isaiah says, have separated between you and your God so that God has to hide his face from you. Again, God is speaking and dealing with Adam and Eve in the corporate sense, in the federal head sense. He's telling all of humanity that now is ever gonna be born. God says, goes on by Isaiah to said, they cannot cover themselves with their works. Think fig leaves. They cannot cover themselves with their works because even their works are works of iniquity. They walk in darkness. they stumble as the blind man. And Isaiah goes on to even say, they know that their transgressions are with them. I'm not sure I can explain this, but it seems as though compared to let's say a memory that you might have, that you've lost a memory about a person or an event, the whole principle of sin is somehow For the unregenerate is eternally etched within their being, though they might have forgotten a particular sin, that principle of sin, unless they are born again, will stay with you all the way through judgment day and beyond. What did Paul say? He said, as in Adam, all die. A black and white statement. Man left to himself, it's impossible for man in any instance to regain the favor of God. Again, if you're able to contemplate the consequences of the fall, the infinite, infinity is a really big number, the infinite distance that sin has caused between man and God. It's an amazing thing. It has moved us out of the sphere of innocent, perfect fellowship with God. So Adam is thrust out, and God is gonna protect the way to the tree of life and the tree of life itself. And so this imagery, I think, explains to us that this world that is sunk in evil and sin. It explains to us this impenetrable wall that separates a holy God from a sinful people. It explains to us a world that is filled with suffering, with pain, animosity, war, crimes. It explains to us how man responds when he sees these kinds of things in the world. What does he do? Remember, he puts God on trial. We saw that when Adam and Eve came to trial, and all of a sudden the table is turned and God is on trial, which happens today. It explains to us the grief. It explains to us, as Solomon said, the vanity and vexation of spirit as man, now on the outside of Eden, tries to recreate a human Eden within his heart and his mind to find satisfaction, completeness, joy, or whatever. It explains to us the reality of verses like Isaiah 14, verse five. Hell is moved from beneath to meet you. It's God's response to sin. There's a prohibition, God absolutely has to drive out the man and the woman. He's gonna open up another way. It's gonna be God's way, not man's way. He's gonna make provision, but he's illustrating, he's showing something here that by and large in today's world has been lost. That is that sin removes man from the holy presence of a holy God. God will divinely ensure that his plan, his strategic spiritual plan for his own will be kept. He is going to open it up through time and history. But for now, sin has been committed. All of mankind is guilty before a righteous God. he's excluded from the tree of life. And again, on one hand, it's a judgment of God. On the other hand, it's a mercy and a blessing of God because his way is going to be revealed and worked out. Secondly, the tree of life. This week and the next time we talk about Genesis, we're gonna see more completely that the tree of life Central to the garden of utmost importance, this very real tree that was there is symbolic of or represents the Lord Jesus Christ and his finished work. As in Adam, all die. Every descendant in Adam will die, does die. Even so, in Christ shall all be made alive. There's several scriptural texts or themes or ideas that are going to highlight or show to us that Christ is the tree of life. We'll see he's the way as well. Think about that principle of life that the Bible speaks about. The whole Bible talks about that God is life, talking about spiritual life, and he wants that to be the portion of his own. Jesus Christ came opposite of the enemy, who was a murderer from the beginning, a liar from the beginning. Jesus Christ came as life. In him was life, and his life was the light of men. He's the resurrection and the life. He is the water of life. He is the bread of life. Christ who is our life. God came in Christ, the God man, fully God, fully man. And through that whole process of his incarnation, his perfect life, his crucifixion, his resurrection, his ascension, He now has life to give to all who will come to him by faith. He has spiritual life, eternal life to give. And all of God's time and history seems to be centered around the very tree of life, the Lord Jesus Christ. The principle, I think, of life is extended when Jesus speaks quite often about eating and drinking, which sustains life, which gives new life every day. Time and time again, he talks about he is the bread of life. He's man's food, man's supply. He wants people to take him in under that imagery of eating and drinking. There were terrible verses according to those who went away and followed him no more, when he said, unless you eat the flesh of the son of man and you drink his blood, right prior to that, he said, I'm the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him, life in him. as the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me shall," what? Live by me. Christ has opened up a new and a living way into that holy place. Christ is now the way. Christ is the life, true life. If someone were to ask you the question, What is life? We have that Bible answer. This is life eternal, that they might know me, excuse me, that they might know thee, the only true God. If you survey this whole biblical theme or principle of life, it goes back to the Lord Jesus Christ, who was incarnate came into this world to, if I could use a human term, which I don't like, meet man where he is, to gift life. We also have the idea of the tree of life. And I believe there's an association with the cross and the tree. I believe there's a connection between the tree of life in the Garden of Eden and the cross, the tree, where Jesus Christ was crucified. Here is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, coming to the tree and the curse that man incurred, the curse falling upon him because of what we did at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Paul picks this up. He says, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed is everyone who hangeth on a tree." It's not a coincidence that Christ died on a tree. As a matter of fact, Christ was accused of blasphemy, and according to the law in Leviticus chapter 16, the penalty for blasphemy was being stoned to death. Why wasn't Christ stoned to death? Or why didn't he die in some other way? I believe the tree, the cross, is central, showing us the completeness of the curse that was taken care of by the Lord Jesus Christ. We have the principle of life. We have this principle of the tree that I think is tied into the cross work of Christ. we have the view in heaven. You probably are aware that the tree of life is mentioned three times in the book of Revelation. And the tree is so prominent there, it can only refer to Christ who is there for his people. In the midst of the street of it, speaking of heaven, 22 verse two, Revelation, and on either side was there the tree of life, which bear 12 manners of fruit, yielding her fruit every month, and its trees, its leaves were there for the healing of the nations. Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they can have a right to the tree of life." This tree that God is vouchsafing in the Garden of Eden, this tree of life, He's showing all of posterity that man is excluded from it until he opens up and reveals and shows the way to it. Adam and Eve as our federal head, Adam specifically as our federal head, committed a sin that was so grievous, so life-changing that God's plan obviously you as a Christian who know his plan of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ, that will be opened up and revealed the other way. Eden closed, but yet heaven is open. Thirdly, the way to the tree of life. There is a way now that the Bible is going to open up. How to get there? And the first thing I'm amazed about is that this ray of hope with the fact that the tree of life is still there is amazing to me. With all of the sin and the evil and the wickedness that has been multiplied exponentially since Adam and the woman, the rebellion against God, the rebellion that multiplied so fast that just a couple chapters after Genesis chapter 3, God has to bring a worldwide flood to wipe out the evil. The innumerable sins that have been recorded in heaven against God, even sins by some of God's choicest saints, the assaults, we saw briefly some of it, but the assault against the seed of the woman, trying to destroy the seed that would come and crush the serpent's head. The powers of hell assailing Christ on the cross. The persecution of the church for the last 2,000 years. The early apostles and disciples who seem to not get spiritual truth and have the fortitude to carry it out. It's almost like God, Jesus chose the weakest men so that he would get the greatest glory and it would be obvious that it was the power of the Holy Spirit that would animate them and make them what they were? Think about that this tree of life still exists with everything that has come against it. Do not think for one minute that the enemy stopped his assault against God's plan after Genesis chapter three. Do not think that for one minute. God has kept the way to the tree of life. God has guarded it. He has preserved it. He has protected it. And like the Puritan says, so they always have this quaint language. One of the Puritans said, the tree of life being guarded by the angels with their flaming sword is like the star of Bethlehem in the east. showing the way, showing that there is hope, showing that God is still there in control. Man driven out of paradise, but the tree was not removed. It was not cut down. It was still there. And by God's divine, God's power, God's love and mercy, his sovereign plan, He's opened up that way, as again, for all who would come to him by faith. So the fact that there is a way is pretty amazing. Let me parenthetically say, in addition to Christ himself being the tree of life, he's also the way. It is through Him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father. In the same way in that Old Testament imagery of, for example, a high priest offering a sacrifice, where both the sacrifice is pointing to some element of Christ and the high priest is as well. Here we have the way and the tree of life that are resembling or foreshadowing or prefiguring the Lord Jesus Christ and some aspect of his work. But this way, if you were back in Adam and Eve's day, you would want to know, how do I get there? What is the way? How do I find it? And the first thing I have there is the revelation of the cherubim. This is really a side path. But there's an interesting development that the Bible uses that in the scripture, if you follow the cherubim, you find out that what God does is he includes them as specific junctures in his redemptive plan. In his revelation, as he opens up what redemption in Christ is all about, there's always cherubim there, and they're doing something, and they're trying to show us something. as it were, as a witness. He chose to put the cherubim in the garden. Again, God could have done anything to protect the tree in the way. He could have put a force field there, or he could have done something or other. God is all powerful. But he chose to put the cherubim there, and he chooses to put the cherubim in key spots as this redemption is opened up. The cherubim themselves, they're living creatures. We would call them angels, but they appear in a variety of ways, very often as people. They appear relative to what God wants them to do. They're intelligent. as we see them moving or doing this or doing that. They always seem to be ministering in God's direct presence. They most often are seen in the holy place in both the tabernacle in the wilderness and in the temple, Solomon's temple, which was adorned with many, many cherubims in very strategic places. This is just, it's really interesting to me to see how the scriptures fit so perfectly together and to see how God is working in this way. But think about these cherubim for just a minute. Here in Genesis chapter three, the cherubims are as guards or sentinels or the security force clearly there to not allow unlawful entry. No matter what Adam and the woman or their posterity could have done, they could not have gotten past the cherubim. There was this prohibition. Their assigned duty was to keep them out. The inference is if they were not there, Adam and the woman might have tried to come back since they were fallen and they were not perfectly in tune with God's plan. Humanly speaking, they could have ruined the whole thing if they had snuck back. Man cannot even get close to the cherubim. But then, in the tabernacle of God in the wilderness of Sinai, we have the Ark of the Covenant, and we have those two cherubim that are overshadowing with their wings the Ark of the Covenant. and they are there as sentinels, they are there as guards, and they are there to resemble the holy atmosphere that God is there in that most holy place. But there in the midst of the cherubim, God says to that high priest who will come in once a year, there I will meet with thee at the Ark of the Covenant, that place of blood propitiation. And though it's only a single man, the high priest who has access to the God who dwells in the midst of the cherubim, now we have at least a single man able to go in where the cherubim are, next to that presence of God, and be there. There's this entrance that I think is a ray of hope. The ark is guarded by the cherubim, but they are no longer there to keep man out. Though it's only one man once a year, he's able to come in. And then we progressed to Solomon's temple. Remember the tabernacle was temporary. It was always moving about, but Solomon's temple was fixed. It was a more permanent and that The temple was adorned with many cherubim, and when God came in, it was more of a central, remember his presence, which was the life of the church then, his presence, the smoke, and everything was more widespread. It touched, if you will, more people. And then in Ezekiel's day, the cherubim starts opening up all of this biblical revelation to the prophet. And then, as we think about the cherubim in our Lord's Day, you recall that divine moment when Christ died upon the cross and yielded up his ghost. The scripture says the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom. And you might think that has no consequence with God's gospel and the revelation of the cherubim who are trying to get us to understand God's work. Unless you go back to the Old Testament in Exodus and you understand God told those who are creating this temple furniture that that veil was to be adorned with a cherubim. And it's almost as though when that veil was rent from top to bottom. God is saying that the cherubim now, as guards, are being taken out of the way. The Redeemer, Christ, who is dying and making that way of access past the cherubim into the holy place and presence of God, throwing open the gate of heaven, though Eden was closed. And then, when you go into Revelation, and it talks about the tree of life, there's no cherubim there. They have been removed. It's an interesting progression. It's a side path. I think it makes an interesting study, but it's just like the mind of God to drop these hints, these breadcrumbs, if we could just get it, of what he is doing. Again, at the banishment, They were guards to stop entry. In the Holy of Holies, behind the veil, they were there allowing one person in to see this blood propitiation. It's gotta be the gospel, right? And progressing on and on and on. And as this progressive revelation of God's redemption of man, the cherubim are there. But next, the way to the tree of life, how can we get there? What is the way? Death. Counterintuitive to us, but there has to be death in order for life. You who are regenerated know that the only way to God is through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. God commanded His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So now we are justified by what? By His blood and saved from the wrath through Him. God had told Adam, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Adam died spiritually, immediately, And then his natural death would follow on. He began to die physically as well. Christ had to take our place in death, as it were. Dying for us under the judgment of God that he might bring us to God. Again, he is the way, that there's so many alternative attempts to make a way to God. Good works, lineage, confessions of faiths, creeds, legalism. Thou shalt tithe. Thou shalt be involved with a ceremony or this religious observance. Thou shalt not smoke, dance, play cards, whatever. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father but by me. By both his perfect life-meriting righteousness that he gives you, both by his death taking upon himself your sin, bearing it for you so you don't have to bear it on judgment day. He is the way through death. And on Calvary, I think we see that flaming sword, that flaming sword that was plunged, as it were, into Christ, into that secret place of eternality to save the likes of you and me. By his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. The way is through death. But you'll notice in your bulletin, it's not a misprint. I have death again. Because you have to die. You have to die to self. You have to lose your life for his sake that you might find it. We've spoken often about Galatians 2 verse 20. It's not just theology, this is supposed to be reality for the believer. I, fill in your name there, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, Christ liveth, there's that principle of life again, Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, It's almost as there's a separation between me, my persona, living in this tabernacle, this tent, this flesh, the life that I am now living in this flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. We have to die. We did die, Adam did die spiritually as soon as he took of that fruit, did he not? Now that's our portion. Thank you, Adam. But you also have to die naturally. You have to die physically. I was reminded of a song. There's a song that is not known for its melody, but it's known for its title. Everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. Some of us are gonna have very painful deaths. I told my wife, my death, if everything goes according to plan, I'm gonna go to bed some night, and then I'm gonna wake up in heaven. Nobody wants to die. And yet this mortal, this flesh, cannot put on immortality. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom. Corruption does not inherit incorruption. Paul said, this corruptible has to put on incorruption, and this mortal has to put on immortality. And in a final analysis, the only way you can get to the tree of life is you have to die. This whole inheritance from Adam that we got, we go through that process. Nevertheless, yet, wonderfully, there's a way. There is a way. So there is a way to the tree of life. The cherubim have been as signposts along the way, showing to us that God keeps opening it up and opening it up. The way is the death of Christ. But we too must die, die to ourselves, and we're gonna undergo, unless the Lord comes back, this natural death. Let me close quickly with a couple of brief applications. Number one, the tree of life, for the believer, the tree of life is open to us. If you think about that, in some quiet place, apart from distraction, the Holy Spirit illuminates that the tree of life is open to us. What a profound thought. And we need to be vigilant that we do not try to find our satisfaction or completeness in the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life as the woman and subsequently Adam did. Nor can we try to serve two masters. Yes, I want the tree of life, but I want to have all the gusto that this world has to offer as well. The tree of life, is open to the believer. And unless you can exhaust Jesus Christ and do not need him anymore to fill you up with that spiritual life, that should be our priority, that should be our business. The tree of life partaking, eating from, dwelling under his shadow for rest and comfort, partaking of him. The tree of life is open to the believer. Secondly, we need to rest in faith in the reality of, as a believer, the reality that God has kept, guarded, preserved the tree of life and everything that is going to subsequently be connected to that tree of life, like you and your salvation. We have been, Think about this verse in 1 Peter relative to Genesis 3, verse 24. We have been begotten to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To what? To an inheritance that's incorruptible, undefiled, fadeth not away, reserved in heaven, guarded by the cherubims and the flaming sword, and it's being kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be reeled in the last time. Though now for a season, we are rejoicing, but now through a season, we're in heaviness through temptations, trials, afflictions. God kept the way to the tree of life. God is keeping his own who are connected to the tree of life. He's keeping the whole thing. We should be encouraged. We should have faith and trust. Lastly, authentic Christianity is the prerequisite for partaking of the Tree of Life. Authentic Christianity, the real deal. We're gonna look at this more next time, but the scripture says, talking about the blessedness of the one who has overcome, you have to be an overcomer to take from the Tree of Life. Blessed are those that keep his commandments that they might have right to the Tree of Life, The imagery there in Revelation is that it's authentic Christianity that has right to the tree of life. The real deal. Those who have God's law written upon our hearts. Those who understand a summation of the law for the believer as the law of love. Those who As Solomon said, understand the whole duty of man, keep God and fear his commandments. Solomon putting that in the context of we live out our life not in a perfect way, but everything is with an eye to please God and do his will and follow his wisdom. So brethren, we've been kicked out of the Garden of Eden, but heaven is open. A new and a living way. Bless God for his grace. Father, we thank you for your word. Lord, so much there, and yet we understand, knowing that the wisdom of God is so perfect, and will render to thee a glory that is unspeakable, how we can hardly wait for that day when we see this entire plan opened up in heaven. And we have that mind that is able to grasp so much more of what you have been doing down through the ages with the Lord Jesus Christ, your beloved son, getting the adoration and the love and the praise and the worship that he so alone deserves. Father, write your word upon our hearts. We pray, oh God, that the Holy Spirit would water it and bring forth a spiritual harvest. We thank you for this time. We thank you in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, that's 10 for that. That's all.