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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Randy Skeete

Leaves From the Tree of Life

Our Father in heaven, spiritual things are spiritually discerned and we are not naturally spiritual.

And so God, I ask you in the name of Jesus to help us through the agency of the Spirit of truth.

Let Him, dear God, open our understanding that light may flood our minds, that the love of God seen in His Word may soften our hearts.

I humble myself in Your presence, dear Father, and I ask You to use me according to Your will.

At the end of this presentation, dear God, let your name alone be glorified and your people blessed.

The Bible says, and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden and There he put the man whom he had formed.

Verse 9, 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.

When God created mankind, God arranged for man to eat in order to survive.

God arranged biologically, physiologically, that this brand-new species called mankind would have to eat in order that that person's life might be prolonged.

And so God said he provided trees of the vast variety, But the 1 that sustained life was the tree of life.

And so the verse says, and out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that's 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 Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life.

In Patriarchs and Prophets, page 49, paragraph 1, Ellen White writes, obedience, perfect and perpetual was the condition of eternal happiness.

On this condition, they were to have access to the tree of life, or he was to have access to the tree of life, referring to Adam as a representative of the human race.

And so access to this tree was contingent upon obedience.

But notice how the obedience is described, obedience, perfect, and perpetual.

Some English major defined the word perpetual, continual, unending, eternal, forever, everlasting.

On this condition, they would have access to the tree of life.

Now, we know that sin entered into the world because man disobeyed God.

God had said in Genesis 2, 16, 17, and the Lord God commanded the man, saying, of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." God issued a warning, He issued limitations, and he gave the consequence for the violation of the limitations.

Adam and Eve disregarded God's Word and they went with Satan's Word.

It is important what word you allow to enter your mind.

You cannot go wrong studying Daniel and the Revelation as our previous speaker urged us and encouraged us.

The word that enters your mind will determine the quality of your mind.

Like the body physically is what we eat, the mind intellectually, non-physically, is what we study, what we read, what we hear, what we watch.

And so there was the Word of God and there was the Word of Satan.

God said, in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shall surely die.

Satan said in Genesis chapter 3 verse 4, he shall not surely die.

And there was a choice between God's Word and Satan's Word.

Any word different from God's Word is Satan's word.

Listen to God as He speaks to Adam in Genesis 3, verse 17, and unto Adam He said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife.

Her voice was Satan's voice because it wasn't God's voice.

If it is not thus saith the Lord, It is Satan's voice.

Now Satan's voice may come through your congressman, may come through your fiancé, may come through your spouse, may come through your pastor, may come through the guest speaker.

If it varies from God's Word, it is Satan's Word, regardless of the agent through whom that Word comes.

And so God said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, what God is saying, because you listen to someone other than me.

The words that we receive affect us for good or for ill.

Sin entered the world, And God, of course, allowed the eating of fruit trees.

When the flood came and destroyed the world, He allowed the eating of certain clean animals.

In the new world, Let's go to Revelation 22.

Revelation 22, reading from verse 1, do you have that?

The Bible says, and he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

In the midst of the street of it, on either side of the river was there the tree of life, which bear 12 manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree, " finish the verse, were for the healing of the nations.

Now, we see that when this earth is made brand new, new heavens, new earth, it will be the case again that those who are redeemed will eat from the tree of life.

Now why is it necessary for people who are immortal to eat from the tree of life?

Presumably an immortal person cannot die.

But it could be we have the wrong view of immortality.

Let me bring in some light from Ellen White, Spirit of Prophecy, Volume 1, page 69, paragraph 1.

In order for man to possess an endless life, give me another expression for endless life, everlasting life, eternal life.

In order for man to possess an endless life, he must continue to eat of the fruits of the tree of life.

Deprived of that tree, his life would gradually wear away.

You see, you cannot live independent of God.

Whether mortal or immortal, no 1 lives independent of God.

And so in the new world, those of us who can no longer die, so we say, We will live and our lives will be preserved by constant consumption of the tree of life.

Before sin, Adam and Eve had access to the tree of life.

And the life of the tree of life is the life of God.

The life in the tree of life is the life of God Because God is the fountain of life.

Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings, page 61, paragraph 2.

And we can have life only as we are in communion with God.

Separated from God, existence may be ours for a little time, but we do not possess life." Now, why am I saying this?

What is to happen between these 2 idyllic periods?

Do we still have access to the tree of life?

Answer me carefully because I will rebuke you if you're wrong.

Right now, do we have access to the tree of life, yes or no?

All those who say no, raise your right hand.

All those who say yes, raise your left hand.

And Again, this is in support of what Peter said, studying Daniel and Revelation.

And when he says Daniel and Revelation, it's not just Daniel and Revelation, it's the whole Bible.

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Leaves From the Tree of Life

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