One of my favorite things about
singing is listening to the kids. And as the Lord started adding
to this church daily, such as should be saved, it got to where
I couldn't hear the kids as much anymore. And I thank the Lord
for it. I thank the Lord for children.
I pray these kids sing that song all their days. Nothing but the
blood. Turn with me, if you would, back
to Genesis 2. Genesis 2. If we are going to understand
something about the truth, The truth of this Word. The truth of the Gospel. The truth of salvation. If we're
going to understand something of the truth of this whole matter,
then we need to understand the truth of three very important
events. I am going to say it this way
and then I'm going to show you why I'm saying it this way. We
need to understand the truth of what happened in the garden. We need to understand the truth
of what happened in the garden. And we need to understand the
truth of what happened in the garden. Three very important gardens. Three very important gardens. The first one is right here in
Genesis 2 verse 8. It says, And the Lord God planted
a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He
had formed. What happened in the Garden of
Eden? What happened in the Garden of
Eden? Alright, now let me show you
the other two and then we'll come back. If you want to put a marker
right here, go with me to John 18. John 18 verse 1 says, When Jesus
had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over
the brook Sidron, where was a garden, into the which he entered and
his disciples. Matthew 26 and Mark 14 both tell
us that the name of this garden was Gethsemane. What happened
in the Garden of Gethsemane? This is crucial. If we're going
to understand something about the truth, something about the
gospel, something about salvation, we must know what happened in
the Garden of Eden. We must know what happened in
the Garden of Gethsemane. The third very important garden
that we must have an understanding of what took place there is in
John 19. One chapter over, John 19 verse
41. Now in the place where he was
crucified, there was a garden. And in the garden, a new sepulcher,
wherein was never man yet laid. Where was he crucified? Calvary. What happened in the Garden of
Eden? What happened in the Garden of Gethsemane? And what happened
in the Garden of Calvary? I believe it would shock us to
realize how many people don't know. I believe if we saw that
number, I believe it would shock us. How many people do not know
what happened in the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Gethsemane,
and the Garden of Calvary? And I pray the Lord might reveal
it to us. I'm wanting to be very deliberate.
I pray the Lord will reveal it to us right now because if we
don't understand this, then we do not understand the
truth of the gospel and the truth of salvation. Alright, let's
go to our first garden, back to Genesis. What happened in the garden of
Eden? Look with me at chapter 1, verse
26. And God said, let us make man
in our image, after our likeness, and let them have dominion over
the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over
the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God, created he him, male and
female, created he them. Verse 31 says, and God saw everything
that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening
and the morning were the sixth day. God made man, and he was
very good. He was very good. He was perfect. Man was perfect. Made in the
image of God. Chapter 2 verse 7 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. Man was alive. He was alive to
God. Alive with God. Physically alive
and spiritually alive. God is life. God is life. He is life. Any life that comes,
comes from Him. And in the image of God means
a living soul. Man became a living soul. A living
spirit. Verse 8 says, And the Lord God
planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man
whom He had formed. Verse 15 says, And the Lord God
took the man and put him into 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. 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. Die. Thou shalt surely die. Man goes around trying to figure
out, what do I need to do to give life to myself? What do
I need to do to be saved? What do I need to do? Thou shalt
surely die. Die. Chapter 3 verse 6 says, And when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her, and he did eat. Verse 17 says, And unto
Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy
wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying,
Thou shalt not eat of it. Cursed is the ground for thy
sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns also and thistles shall
it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return
unto the ground. For out of it wast thou taken,
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." What happened
in the Garden of Eden? Man died. Man died. Man spiritually died. In the day that he ate of it,
in the very day that he disobeyed the commandment of God, man became
spiritually separated from God in death. He did not just set
himself back a little bit. He died. He died. In the moment
he rebelled, he earned something before God. In that very moment,
he became worthy of something. He became deserving of something. Right then, as soon as he disobeyed,
he was owed something. Let's read it in Romans chapter
6. Go with me over there. Romans 6 verse 23, For the wages of sin is death. The wages of sin is death. That's
what man earned. That's what he became worthy
of. That's what he was owed. You say, well that's not fair.
Adam did it, not me. Well, turn one chapter back to
Romans 5. Romans 5 verse 12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, death has continued to every
single man, because for that all have sinned. All have sinned. First Corinthians 15 says in
Adam all die. All die. And it's because sin
has passed to every single man born from him. So the problem for man is not
that he just has some bad deeds on his record that he needs to
get fixed. That's not the problem. The problem for man is he's dead. He needs life. He does not need
rehabilitation. He needs life. He does not need a support group.
He needs life. He needs life. That's the problem. He needs life. What is the only
way for a man who is dead in trespasses and sins to receive
life? What is the only way? What must
happen for life to come back to a man who is dead in sin? Here's the answer. The sin must
be removed. That's the answer. The sin is
what killed him. The wages of sin is death. We
just read death entered by sin. As long as there is sin in him,
there will be death in him. It's not that the sin needs to
be tamed. It has to be removed. It's not
that the sin needs to be forgiven. And let me repeat that about
a thousand times. It's not that the sin needs to
be forgiven. It must be removed. It has to
be removed. That's our only hope. That is
the only way. Now let me ask us this question.
What happened in the garden of Gethsemane? Turn with me over to Matthew
26. Matthew 26 verse 36 says, Then cometh Jesus with them unto
a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, sit
ye here while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and
the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very
heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul
is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here, and
watch with me. And he went a little further,
and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, If it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. What's happening right there? Is he sorrowful over the fact
that he's going to have to endure the cross? Is he preparing himself for the
pain and the torture that he's about to endure? Is He saying, Father, is there
any other way than me having to go to this
cross? If there's any other way, let that be the case. Absolutely
not. He set His face like a flint
to this cross. He endured it for the joy set
before Him. He said, for this cause came
I into the world. Then why did he fall on his face
crying, let this cup pass from me? Why was his soul exceeding sorrowful
unto death? Why did he cry in the middle
of verse 42? Oh my father. If this cup may not pass away
from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." What was happening
right then? What caused Him to say, death
is coming to me? What was in that cup? What was
He drinking? He was drinking the sin of all
of the people that God gave to Him. He drank our iniquity like
water. Isaiah 53 says, the Lord laid
on Him the iniquity of us. God the Father, in that moment,
removed the sin from His people. He took all of the sin from all
of His people and He put it in a cup and He handed that cup
to His dearly beloved Son and said, here, drink this. And when Christ drank it, He
made Himself to be sin. And when He made Himself to be
the sin of His people, He made His people to be the righteousness
of God. That's what happened in Gethsemane.
Sin was removed from us by laying it on our Savior. Now what did
He do with it? What happened to all of that
sin? Well, what happened in the third garden will answer that
question. What happened in the garden of Calvary? Turn with
me over to Colossians chapter 2. Colossians chapter 2, verse 13 says, and you being dead in your sins,
and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together
with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses." He removed all
the trespasses from all of His people by quickening them with
Christ, laying those sins on Christ. Verse 14, blotting out
the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His
cross." Those last two words, I love them. His cross. His cross. What happened to our
sin? He nailed them to His cross. He took all of our sin to His
cross. And on that cross, fulfilling
the wages. In doing so, he was owed something. He earned something through that.
Fulfilling the wages, he sovereignly bowed his head and gave up the
ghost. What did he accomplish by doing
that? When he bowed his head, he said, no man takes my life
from me. I lay it down. And when he bowed his head and
gave up the ghost, what did he accomplish in that? Turn over
to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9 verse 12 says, Neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by His own blood He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us." He obtained, in that moment, eternal redemption for
us. When He cried from the cross,
it is finished. At that moment, He did not make
salvation possible. He made salvation finished. Hebrews
9 verse 28 says, So Christ was once offered to bear the sins
of many, and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second
time without sin unto salvation no more. No more. It's gone. He put it away. He
put it all away. That song says, did you hear
what the Lord Jesus said to me? This is what he says through
his message, through the gospel to his people. They're all taken
away, away. Your sins are pardoned and you
are free. They're all taken away. And now
Hebrews 10 verse 14 says, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Perfected forever. What happened
in the Garden of Eden? By sin, man died. Man died. What happened in the Garden of
Gethsemane? Christ willingly took the sin of His people and
He took their penalty of death into His own body. What happened
in the Garden of Calvary? Through the wages, the penalty,
the suffering of death that that sin demanded, Christ put it all
away. That sin that sin ran its course
in His body. Everything that sin has done
to us, everything that sin does, it ran its course in His own
body as He laid there in that grave. And by His accomplishment
in the garden, right there in the garden of Calvary, we are
redeemed. We're perfected. Life has been
given back to us. The sin is gone. And life has
been restored. No longer dead. No longer ruined. Every time that God looks at
a child of His whose sins have been paid for in Christ, every
time He looks at one of His children now, He says, very good. Behold,
it's very good. How do we know that? I can tell
you that until I'm blue in the face. But we're going to go stand
before Him. How do we know? How do you know
I'm telling you the truth? How do we know that Christ put
everything away? Everything is completely restored
for God's people. How do we know that God is pleased
and satisfied enough by what Christ accomplished in His death? How do we know it was enough?
How do we know? How do we know we're going to
be accepted in the Beloved? We'll turn with me over to Acts
17. Acts 17 verse 31 says, Because
He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained. Speaking
of Christ, whereof he hath given assurance unto all. This is how we know. This is
how we can be confident. He hath given assurance unto
all in that he hath raised him from the dead. Do you know what
it means that he was raised back up? It means no more sin. That's what it means. Sin is
what keeps a man dead. And when true life is there,
there's no sin. When there's no sin, there is
no death. Our Lord said, I am he that liveth
and was dead. I took sin into myself and I
took death by sin. But he said, behold, I'm alive
forevermore. And He said, because I live,
you shall live also. Because of what I've done, you're
gonna live also. In me, you have eternal life. We ruined, He redeemed. So all
the glory goes to Him. All the glory goes to Him. All
right, let's all stand together.