Transcription
Why did God place the tree of the knowledge of good and evil there, especially if God knows the beginning and the end and knows the end from the beginning? Right? Amen. Okay, if we are not Calvinists, who are Bible perverts like I used to be, and think that God has causally predetermined everything, in that what you do is what he's predestined you to do, as opposed to God in his foreknowledge knowing what you'll do and taking the things that free creatures will do into consideration to bring out his perfect will, then let's put Calvinism aside. It's not biblical; it's not historical; it's a perversion of Scripture.
Right? If we believe what the Bible says, that God is pure love, now, guys, class has begun. Help me to help you. Hit the like button, share, and invite folks. And, Lord, I hope this will bless you, and may He comfort you and all of us for the glory of the Father, the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
All right, go to 1 John 4:8 and 1 John 4:16. Read 1 John 4. In fact, here, read 1 John 4, verse 8 all the way to 16 slowly but surely. First John, not surely, 1 John chapter 4, the Epistle of John, chapter 4:8-16.
All right, uh, eight, here we go: "He who does not love does not know God, for God is love." In this, the love of God was manifested towards us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us, and His love has been perfected in us. By this, we know that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
Okay, now you caught what love means, brethren. If you're listening, he just read 1 John, the Epistle of John, chapter 4:8-16. God's very nature is love. He is love; He is holiness; He is purity. He's the definition of love. But notice, love is defined as loving another as an action. He is love, meaning He is loving, and He loves another. And notice that loving another means demonstrating your love in deeds, not in words.
So God, who is pure love, the source of love, who is loving, proves His love towards others through His actions. And what was the greatest action? That the Almighty Son of God came into the world to become flesh, to offer His soul, His life, as a ransom for us, for our sins, to make atonement for our sins.
Okay, so pay attention. God's very being is defined by love. Pay attention, brethren. Help me to help you. Let's stay focused. God's very being is defined by love. He is the source of all perfection, goodness, love, holiness. He is love. But notice, love is an action. So notice, to be love is to be loving, meaning loving another and proving your love for another by your deeds. Right? Right?
Okay, so we got it right, right? So since God is love, He created the universe in love. He created creatures out of His love, wanting to create others to experience His love and to be loved by them, not out of need, but out of His very kindness, mercy, compassion, and love. He chose to create sentient beings—beings with awareness, cognition, and will—because He wanted others to experience this infinite, perfect love that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit have always experienced and will always experience inseparably and perfectly.
Okay, you with me so far? Right? Yes? Okay, so you understand why God created? Yes, out of love, because He is not out of need. Before creation, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit eternally, beginningless, exist inseparably with one another in perfect, infinite love. Right? Right?
Okay, so He didn't create out of need; He created out of love, out of kindness. But the thing is, love by its very nature doesn't compel and force itself on another, because that would be rape. Right? That right? Love is a choice. Right? You understand? Right? If I force myself on a woman and force her to love me, will she really love me, or will she despise and hate me? Because it is a form of forcing her to love me, forcing her to reciprocate.
Does anyone love any person that forces and compels them to love them back? No. What would we call someone who forces you and compels you to love them? You call it exactly as psychological, emotional, spiritual, if not physical rape. Because many forms, it's not just physical. You can, one, psychologically molest someone; emotionally, you can molest someone; spiritually, like Satan does to those who follow him. Right? Right?
Okay, since God's very nature is love, He cannot do that. He cannot molest someone psychologically, spiritually, emotionally, let alone physically, because then He isn't God. Right? Right? Nor can God give you the illusion of having free will. Meaning, for true love to exist, He must create those whom He wants to love and whom He wants to be loved by them, the choice to choose to respond to that love.
But then why didn't He just create them with the illusion that they're freely choosing to love God? Because God is not a deceiver. Right? God, by His very nature, is a God of truth, so He cannot lie to Himself, be dishonest with Himself. He cannot go against Himself; He cannot disown who He is and what He's like. So though He could create you thinking that you love Him freely, you're choosing to love Him with that illusion, God, whose very nature is truth, knows He's deceiving you and lying to you because He created you with the illusion that you're responding when in reality He designed you that you had no choice but to love Him.
So God would be lying to Himself, and He cannot deceive Himself. Right? You with me so far? Yeah. Second Timothy 2:13. Focus, brethren. Let me answer this question. Second Timothy: "If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself." Wow! See? Wow! If He were to give you the illusion that you are freely loving Him, but He programmed you that you could not help but love Him, He would be then deceiving Himself and denying Himself, and He can't do that. Right? Right? Correct?
Right? And that means He's lying. Right? He's deceiving. Right? But then read Hebrews 6:17-18. Hebrews 6:17-18. Let's read it, and I'm going to sum up what I said. I'm going to explain why the tree was there. Thus, God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel—immutability meaning it's unchangeable—confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie. Not that He chooses not to lie; it's impossible for Him to lie. Wow! Because it's against His nature.
Okay, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us. Okay, so guys, did you hear it? God's very nature is love, and by His very nature, He is truth. Because that's His nature, He is loving and truthful. It's impossible for Him to lie, deceive, and force Himself on people.
So with that in mind, if God wants to create a world in which there are creatures that He wants to experience His love, if He forces Himself on them, it's not true love; it's a spiritual, psychological rape, molestation. God cannot do that, nor can He create them with the illusion that they are freely choosing to love God, because that means God is deceiving them, because He programmed them to think, "I'm freely choosing to love God," even though they were programmed in such a way they could not help but love God, even though they thought they were choosing to love Him.
Which means God would know that He's lying and deceiving them, and He cannot lie and deceive, because then He would be denying Himself, and God cannot deny Himself or go against His nature. Are you with me there? Yes? Everyone so far? Did everyone get it? I know you got it; I need to make sure everyone else is getting it.
So now He creates heaven and earth. He creates angels, spirit creatures like Satan, and Adam and Eve. So why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? In order to give them the choice: Will you trust me enough and love me enough to know what is right or wrong, or are you going to question my character, my love, and faithfulness, and not trust me enough to tell you what is right and wrong, so you have to go and experience it on your own?
So the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was there in order to give man the opportunity to show: Do you love God enough and trust His character to let Him tell you what is right or wrong, or do you think that you know better and question His character and goodness to call into judgment what He tells you is right and wrong, so that you have to go and find it out and discover it for yourself?
Because you don't trust Him enough to tell you what's best for you. So that's exactly why God accredited Abraham righteousness, because he trusted God. He trusted God to tell him that this is what I'm going to do for you. So you understand why the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was there.
Wow! In other words, it was a test for Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, do you love me enough and trust me enough? Do you see my goodness and faithfulness to you, that I've done nothing but love you and bless you because I want what's best for you? To take me at my word so that you don't have to learn it the hard way, but take me at my word: This is better for you; this is not.
Or are you going to call into question my character, my goodness, and my faithfulness and love to you, and think you can do it better and know better, and go ahead and choose to disobey me so that you can discover right or wrong on your own, apart from me, because you're questioning my character and my goodness, and you think you know better?
So just like Abraham, that's exactly why God accredits us righteousness for trusting in Jesus. Wow! Yeah, but you understand? Go back to this. This was more of an assault on God, because what Adam and Eve were telling God, though you've done nothing but bless us and love us, you created us in a perfect world and perfect environment with perfect bodies.
And you loved Adam so much that you could not stand to see Adam alone, so you created a helper to be his partner in life, to keep him company, where they could then do life together. All that God did to prove His goodness and character and love, they questioned it on the testimony of a serpent—a serpent who did nothing for them, who didn't create them with perfect bodies, who didn't create a perfect world and a perfect garden for them to own and enjoy.
And they took the word of this stranger over the God who had done nothing but prove His goodness to them. Wow! You understand what that was? And others are saying, "Look, God, this serpent, whom we don't know, we're just meeting for the first time, we take his word over against you, a God who's done nothing but love us, bless us, and do everything for our comfort and enjoyment, even giving us a garden with everything to eat except this one. We're going to take his word and trust him over against you, and we're going to question your goodness."
That's what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was.