sermonette: Two Trees - Two Systems

Craig Sablich
Given 16-May-26; Sermon #1875s; 19 minutes

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Rather than for the last year or so. Most of my messages have kept circling back to one subject, the traditions of men. Because the more I worked through Christ confronting the Jews over traditions that slowly rose up and replaced the authority of God. It was not some isolated first century problem. You know, this year makes my 40th year in God's church, and I can honestly say no subject has held my interest quite like this one. I've turned this over from just about every angle I know how sermons, articles, books. But through all those years, I still felt like there was this nagging, unfinished question. Why are there so many versions of Christianity? Where did all these differences begin? How did they grow into such wide variations I mean, if we all claim truth from the same book, how are we arriving at such different conclusions? And if you dare raise that question, people usually just shrug and say, well, I guess everyone has their own interpretation. Think about Pililate asking Jesus, what is truth. You can almost hear the tone, almost as if he asks and walks away before the answer even matters. But you can hear the same rationalized ideas dressed up in modern language. Things like, you speak your truth, I'll speak mine. As if truth now comes in flavors, vanilla, chocolate, Hebrew roots, progressive grace, just pick your flavor. But truth doesn't change depending on who's looking at it. So I kept digging. A few years ago, I found a book called Unity and Diversity in the New Testament. Based on the title, I thought maybe this will help trace where all these differences entered the church. It started off well. The author acknowledged Christ's message was the kingdom of God. But then he argued that the apostles and especially Paul shifted away from the kingdom message and focused the gospel mainly on grace, salvation, and faith through Christ. It sounds scholarly and for some convincing until you hold it up against scripture. Because Christ's gospel message was about a process of salvation that included repentance, baptism, and faith, all tied to inheriting a place in His kingdom. He described that process as being born again. But the apostles did not replace that message, no. They explained it They taught the church how to apply it, integrating it into their life. They showed what repentance looks like, and it's a whole lot deeper than saying, I'm sorry. It means changing the direction of a person's life, walking out of this world system and learning how to live. That system. So that book went back on the shelf. A year or two later I came across a book called Plato's Shadow and another Christendom, The Kingdom That Changed Christianity. Both written by Gary Petty, a a minister with UCG. And then recently I came across another book titled The Primitive Church in Crisis by Alan Knight. Well, brethren, that's when things started coming together. I began to see a pattern of how things changed, why they changed, and when. Once I started comparing those sources with scripture, I was not just seeing fragments anymore. I was beginning to see the whole picture. A key to understanding this issue of the traditions of men starts with a major clue given by Jesus. Now when Christ says he hates something and repeats it. I reckon we ought to pay attention, yeah. In Revelation 2, Jesus tells the church of Ephesus, You hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. Then in verse 15 he says again, you have those who have the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate. That's some pretty strong language, yeah. God doesn't casually throw around the word hate. So naturally the question is why does Jesus hate the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. And what do they have to do with this mystery of lawlessness and the tradition of men? It's almost as if Christ is saying, if you wanna understand false religion, start here. Now historically the Nicolaitans are often traced to Nicholas, a proselyte from Antioch mentioned in Acts 6:5. Scripture doesn't show Nicholas himself leading one away from truth, but it does show something important. False teaching rose from right within the church. Just as Paul warned, men will rise up, speaking perverse things to draw away the disciples after themselves. And it happened fast. Paul later says in the book of Acts that many in Asia had already turned away. History records the Nicolaitans as one of several groups developing inside the true church. Ideas were circulating, cliques forming. Leaders began blending the teachings of the apostles with cultural philosophy. So whether Nicholas was the source or just the name attached later, the pattern is clear. Groups within the early church were already drifting from the system taught by Christ and the apostles. And that drift reveals three major pillars of corruption. Rebellion against God's authority in the Hebrew Bible. Corruption of truth about life and death and redefining God. Now once you tamper with authority, life and death, and the identity of God, You haven't tweaked doctrine. You've built another system that promotes rebellion against God's authority by elevating traditions. So today I want to take a look at this first identifying pillar, how this rebellion against God's authority developed right within the church. And here is the key that ties all this together. This system was not new and did not appear out of nowhere or even begin in the first century. Its roots go much deeper. We have to go to where this all started. Back to the garden Genesis 2:9 introduces us to two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Two trees representing two systems. The tree of life represents God's system. The other tree represents man defining truth for himself, creating his own system. Notice how Satan approaches Eve. He doesn't start by denying truth entirely. He starts with a question. As God indeed said He directly challenges God's authority using a nudge, then a twist that corrupts truth about life and death. You will not surely die. Then comes his real pitch. You will be like God. Now he's redefining God. In other words, you do not need God to define truth. You can do that yourself. And just like that We see the origins of the three pillars of rebellion introduced that defines and identifies Satan's system of lawlessness. They challenge God's authority, distorts truth. And redefines God. He's been using the same pattern ever since. From the garden, Satan's system spreads until every culture and religion on Earth becomes infected. Planting the seeds of the two systems. By the 6th century BC, men like Plato and Pythagoras are spreading Greek thought that elevate the spiritual and devalue the physical. Other cultures of the Middle and Far East build on similar ideas using different forms with the same tendency. Devalue what God created and elevate human reasoning until eventually it led to the idea of if the creation is flawed maybe the Creator is. So now you've got two competing systems, two worlds moving in opposite directions. God's system says creation is very good. Man's system says, well, maybe not. By the first century, these ideas are everywhere. Then Christ comes preaching the kingdom of God, and the apostles step into a world saturated with human reasoning. Which is why Paul warns in Colossians 2:8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men. It's around this time the Catholic Encyclopedia points to the area of Samaria and men like Simon Magus leading its expanding influence inside the early church. History records long tension between Samaritans and Jews, like, likely shaping the rejection of Jewish authority. Evidence suggests many groups blended scriptural truth with philosophy and pagan thought, forming their own new interpretations. Out of that mixture developed Gnosticism. Early church writings reveals many began accepting the pagan view of the God of the Hebrew scriptures as merely a lawgiver, lesser, flawed, even evil. The creator of a flawed world. So they reasoned The God who spoke to Abraham may not be the true God. Now, possibly because Jesus approached the Samaritans with love and revealed Himself as the Messiah. They accepted but attempted to redefine him. So they claim Jesus came to reveal a higher unknown God different from the God of Hebrew scripture. That's not a small adjustment, no. That's a new foundation. But from their perspective, it solved something. They could embrace Jesus while rejecting the God of the Jews. And brethren, that opens some very big doors. So this is where the split in the first century church really takes shape. The Nicolaitans began separating the two gods. One became the God of law, obedience, and judgment. The other, the God of love, freedom, and grace. And if we are honest, you can see why that second version sounded attractive. A Jesus who doesn't require obedience. That sells, brethren. Now grace becomes freedom from law. Truth becomes flexible. Each person is free to define their own truth. Sound familiar? Historical evidence shows the majority of the early church congregations began to embrace and promote this idea of the two-good system. The apostles saw it happening. Paul says in Romans chapter one. Professing to be wise, they became fools. Notice he doesn't say they lacked religion. They knew God. Perhaps knew the truth. But he says they became wise in their own eyes. And this is where it all connects. The Nicolaitan conclusion was simple. If Jesus is separate from the God of the Old Testament. Then the law is gone. And what's left? Lawlessness That's the bridge, brethren. Grace means you do not have to obey. Satan's system promotes replacing the Hebrew God with a different New Testament God, claiming the new succeeds the Old. And brethren, that's the doctrine Jesus says he hates because it rests on a lie about who God is and results in abandoning God's system. But scripture tears that whole idea apart. John says in the beginning was the Word and all things were made through Him. Then he tells us that word became flesh. Jesus Christ. John is describing the Creator. Genesis says Elohim created. John says Christ created. Both are describing the same being. In Isaiah 44:6, Yahweh translated as Lord says, I am the first and the last. Besides me there is no God. Then Jesus says in Revelation, these things says the first and the last, who was dead and came to life. Same title, same God. Then Exodus, God says, I am that I am. And in John 8:58, Jesus says, Before Abraham was, I am. The religious leaders knew exactly what he meant. That's why they reached for stones. He was saying, I'm the one who spoke to Abraham. And once you put those pieces together, the Gnostic system collapses because the God requiring obedience is the same one who died for their sins. The God they claimed was different from Jesus is Jesus. So they rejected the very God they claimed to follow. And suddenly this is not about misunderstanding scripture. It's about deception. Because if Christ is the God of the Old Testament, then his laws still matter. They're his commandments, his authority, and that's the very system Satan has always opposed. So in closing, let's bring this full circle and look at From the garden Satan has been selling one message. You do not have to fully follow God. Same lie repeated refined, repackaged it moved from the garden through the flood through the cultures of men. Greek and Roman thought reshaped it. Gnosticism legitimized it, bringing it right into the church. It shouts, the God who gave the law is not the true God. The Nicolaitans added, Grace means you do not have to obey. And today, modern Christianity embraces the same system, teaching all you have to do is believe. You see, if Satan can destroy God's authority, if he can turn men against the Jews, he can try to erase the God of the Jews. So what began in Eden as two choices became two systems, two kingdoms, even two civilizations. What began with, as God indeed said, became what Scripture calls the mystery of lawlessness. And that means this has never really been isolated choices between right and wrong. It has always been about which kingdom we belong to. Which priesthood we serve. Which gospel we trust. And that makes those two trees much bigger than a garden story. They were the beginning of two worlds. One forms a covenant people through obedience, continues through Abraham, the prophets, Christ, the apostles, and the church, leading to everlasting life in the kingdom of God. The other produces confusion through a mystery religion, matures into mystery Babylon, surfaces in Nicolaitan Gnosticism, the beast system, and ends in everlasting death. So now we see the first identifying mark of the system Jesus hates. Minimize the authority of the Hebrew Bible and its God and elevate the Christ. What began as temptation became a counterfeit civilization, an enemy to the one God is building. And once you see that, Revelation sounds different. Because when God says, come out of her, my people. He is not simply saying leave a false church. He is calling his people out of an entire system, another authority, another kingdom. His system designed to bring mankind into his kingdom is the same yesterday, today and forever. And those same two choices are still here. Trust God and follow Him or to find truth for yourself. So now what God says in Deuteronomy lands with tremendous force. I have set before you life and death. Therefore, choose life. The choice Adam and Eve faced is the same choice before mankind today. And brethren, we'd better choose wisely.