The garden of the LORD

Q: What does the Bible say about the Garden of Eden?

The Garden of Eden was a perfect creation by God, designed for humanity's enjoyment and fellowship with Him. The Garden of Eden, referenced in Genesis, was a divine creation where God placed Adam and Eve. It was characterized by beauty and abundance, representing a state of perfect communion between God and man before the fall into sin. In the garden, Adam was given the responsibility to tend to it, and it served as the setting for significant events, including the temptation and the subsequent fall due to disobedience. This narrative is foundational in Scripture, illustrating humanity's original state and God's desire for relationship with His creation. God’s provision and the original instructions given to Adam show the garden’s significance in understanding God's covenant and grace even after the fall.

Q: How do we know that God's promises to His people are true?

God's promises are grounded in His character and faithfulness as depicted throughout Scripture. The assurance of God's promises to His people stems from His unchanging nature and covenant faithfulness. Throughout the Bible, God demonstrates His commitment to His people, especially in the prophecies concerning Zion, His Church. Isaiah 51:3 affirms that God shall comfort Zion and make her wilderness like Eden. This reflects a transformative promise, reiterating that God enriches the lives of His people despite their circumstances. The historical fulfillment of God's promises, such as the coming of Christ and the establishment of the Church, further validates His word. In Christ, believers find the eternal assurance that God's promises are securely founded and will culminate in ultimate restoration.

Q: Why is the concept of the Church as a garden important for Christians?

The Church as a garden highlights God's nurturing care and the flourishing of believers in faith. The metaphor of the Church as a garden is significant in illustrating the caring relationship between God and His people. In this imagery, the growth and health of the garden represent the spiritual vitality of the Church, with Christ as the gardener who tends to it. This relationship emphasizes that believers are planted by the Lord, flourishing in His house and producing fruit in their lives (Psalm 92:13). In contrast to worldly influences, the garden represents a secure place of nourishment and protection where believers can grow in grace and knowledge. This metaphor encourages Christians to recognize their identity in Christ and the responsibility to cultivate that growth through prayer, community, and reliance on God's grace.

Q: How did the Garden of Gethsemane play a role in Christ's mission?

The Garden of Gethsemane was where Jesus prayed and bore the weight of humanity's sins before crucifixion. The Garden of Gethsemane is pivotal in the narrative of Christ's mission, serving as the place where Jesus prepared for His crucifixion. Here, He faced deep anguish, praying fervently and submitting to the will of the Father as He anticipated the sacrifice He was about to make. The garden symbolizes both struggle and surrender, as Jesus bore the sins of His people, demonstrating the depth of His love and commitment to redemption. This moment exemplified the weight of sin and the necessity of His suffering for salvation. Understanding Gethsemane enriches the believer’s appreciation of Christ’s sacrifice and highlights how God’s plan for redemption was fulfilled through pain and obedience.

Q: What does Isaiah 51:3 teach us about God's intention for His people?

Isaiah 51:3 reveals God's promise to transform His people from desolation to joy and fulfillment. In Isaiah 51:3, the promise of God to comfort Zion is a declaration of His intention to restore and transform His people. The imagery of making wilderness places like Eden conveys a profound hope for redemption and renewal, where areas of spiritual barrenness will be filled with joy, thanksgiving, and melody. This verse illustrates God’s commitment to His Church, promising that despite current struggles, He will bring about a future of blessing and restoration. For believers, this assurance encourages faith amidst trials, reminding them that God actively works to fulfill His promises and provide comfort in their lives and communities, pointing to the ultimate restoration through Christ.

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Isaiah chapter 51, reading from our text, verse three. For the Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the Lord.

Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Isaiah 51 verse 3. It is truly a beautiful promise that the Lord makes to Zion We understand Zion to be the church of God, not a building, but people, those whom the Lord has redeemed, those who are his people. The church that is scattered throughout the world and pictured here, not as a flourishing place but waste places, wilderness places, desert places. And the Lord will make those places like Eden and like the garden of the Lord. And in those churches bring joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of melody.

We cannot overlook that in this verse, as in many places of scripture, the Lord uses comparisons, uses change and difference, so that whereas we can't perhaps see the blessing of the Lord in one way, then we contrast it with how it is before His blessing is there. Nearly all of the parables of the Lord use this method of contrasting. We have the parable of the publican praying, but not just him, the Pharisee as well. So you can see the difference. And the Lord setting his seal upon the publicans prayer, God be merciful to me a sinner. And the Lord shows, not just in one direction, but in another, the difference that he makes.

We think of the children of Israel going through the desert, literally, through the wilderness. There was nothing to eat there. There was nothing to drink there. They felt that. They realized it. They realized what it would have been without the Lord's blessing, without Him smiting the rock and the waters flowing out. And Paul says they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. Without the manna that was sent from heaven, there would be nothing there. But with that manner they had food. How would they know the way?

There was no marking out in the desert. But with the Lord providing the pillar of fire by night and cloud by day, he showed them the way when there was no way. And at first he used that same pillar of cloud and fire to go in between the children of Israel and the pursuing Egyptians. It was a protection to them, darkness to the Egyptians, light to the children of Israel. And it was the Lord that made that wilderness a very different place than what it would have been naturally.

And this world as well, full under the curse, the Lord's people in a place where When the Lord begins a work, they say vanity and vexation of spirit, there's no sustenance, there's no help, there's nothing for their soul here. And yet the Lord does make it a place where there is blessing and gladness and joy.

It doesn't come from the world, but it comes from God. And so in the church of God as well, The church has to know that it doesn't come from their ministers, it doesn't come from their membership, it doesn't come from being in a wealthy position or in a prosperous way of themselves. But if the apostle Paul says, what I am, I am by the grace of God, the church of God also says the same, as a body, that they are only what the Lord has made it. And here with the prophet, prophesying of Zion in her mourning, in her distress, of sin, her feeling, her state, her condition.

And there's a promise of comfort from the Lord. The Lord shall comfort Zion. And then to make it clear, He will comfort all her waste places, make her wilderness like Eden, a desert like the Garden of the Lord, is a promise, a blessing for the Church of God, for the people of God, and right down to the end of time.

But what is upon my spirit with this verse is where it is spoken of, the Garden of the Lord. And my mind went to three gardens. I want to bring them before you as three points this evening. The first one is Eden the Garden of the Lord. This is what is referenced here.

He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the Garden of the Lord. Our second reading was in The Gospel according to John, chapter 18. And we read there in verse 1, when Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden into which he entered and his disciples. The garden of Gethsemane, the garden of the Lord. The first point is Eden, the Garden of the Lord. The second is Gethsemane, the Garden of the Lord. And the third is the Church of God, the Garden of the Lord. So I want to look first at Eden.

When the Lord created the heavens and of the earth, He did it as all his things in a very methodical way. First, the first three days was days preparing places. So he prepared the places that on the first day, that on the fourth day, he was going to put into that places the planets, the stars. And then on the second day, He prepared the places where he was going to put the water creatures and the birds, the water and the air that we breathe. And on the third day, he made that which was going to be populated by land animals and man.

So he made all the places first and then methodically goes through each one and he populates So reinforcing the Lord always preparing a place and then putting what he had prepared to go into it, into it. But with man it is even more distinct because we read in Genesis 2 and verse 8, and the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. So not just the earth, which was for land, animals, and man, but for man, a very specific place, Eden, a garden. A garden that was specially made for him, and God put him there.

But we have this same picture when the children of Israel were going from Egypt and they were going to the promised land. God said that he would give them the land of Canaan. They would not need to build houses. They would not need to have vineyards. They would go into that land, the people removed out of it, and they come. and go into it.

A prepared place for a prepared people. We read in John 14, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I am, there ye may be also. So we have the picture of those places prepared and God doing that for his people. But here we have Eden and what a change was brought. We sung of it in our hymn. Before the fall, God saw everything was good, it was perfect.

Into that garden he for man of the dust of the ground, and breathe into his nostrils the breath of life. In that garden, Adam named all of the creatures. In that garden, God gave him the law. Thou shalt eat of every fruit of the tree, but of the tree, the knowledge of good and evil. In the midst of the garden, thou shalt not eat of it, And the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. In that garden he saw that it was not good that man dwell alone. So he took a rib of Adam, and from the rib he formed the woman. He instituted marriage. He brought her to him. In that garden, The Lord came and in the cool of the day had fellowship, walked with Adam and with Eve.

It was a blessed place, a paradise where God was and where man was perfect. Man was created with a free will, man was created capable of falling by his own free will. God saw it fit that he be tried by Satan, that Satan should come and should tempt Eve, and that man would fall. And that in falling, he would bring all his posterity, all of the human race with him. So much happened in that garden. But in that garden as well, there was the tree of life also in the midst of the garden. But Adam and Eve in their fallen state must not take of that. They were banished out of that garden.

But in the gospel, in the promise that was given in that garden, After the fall, that the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, that's seen in Genesis 3 verse 15. I'll put enmity between thee, that is Satan, and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Eden, the place that is compared here in our text. The Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places and will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. In other words, like it was before the fall, like it was as God created it. We may say, actually, that as the Lord deals with his people, with his church, though it may be like Eden, the position of the church blessed in Christ is better than it was in Adam. Adam could and did fall, but that which the Lord has done ensures that those saved by him will never ever perish. I give unto them eternal life. They shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hands.

Genesis are beginnings. but so important and referred back to again and again in scripture, and perhaps as a sign, because there are those that would say, well, you don't have to have six days literal creation. Yes, you do. You either believe the Bible or you don't. In those first three chapters of Genesis, there's the beginnings, the foundation, at one institution after another, all referred back to by our Lord Jesus Christ.

You start unpicking and unraveling that, and you unravel the whole word of God. Every word of God is pure. And there's so many that don't realize what they're doing. When they try to marry up science, they try to marry up what man seems to have found out and undo the Word of God. They cannot. The Word of God stands.

The days of creation were literal days, as we have now. Eden was a real place, though spiritually considered as well. And we need to hold fast. because otherwise we come to passages like this and we lose its beauty, we lose its teaching, we lose that which is pointing back to what God has made and created. Those that think that they can go back millions of years, it was in Eden that death first entered into the world. And yet those that believe in a long earth, as it were, are saying there's death before Eden. No, there was not. And so we need to be aware of those things that, as Satan tempted Eve, so he's still going about and still saying, hath God said? Hath God said?

And I think with many of the Modern translations as well. It brings that question. Hath God said that translation, this translation? I'm talking about the English Bibles here, where there is contradictions, where there's differences. The enemy sowing seed in the very word of God.

It's a beautiful thing when we can look at providence as to how we came to have our Bible in our language, and I believe other nations in their own language. God ordered that providence at that time and at that way, so we may know it is from God. We always remember that God always meant that the scriptures should be translated out of the original tongues. And those scriptures translated, they are still the inspired, infallible word of God. And comparing scripture with scripture, we see the truth of God and know the truth of God. God gave the miracle of tongues at Pentecost, and he gives those that are skilled and able not only to translate, but to have grace and understanding of those things that they are translating.

I mention that as an aside, because when we have a verse like this, in what we may say is the gospel of Isaiah, and yet some would undermine it by taking away the reference to Genesis, We know, of course, that the chapters in the Bibles that is not inspired, they were put in. But it's quite remarkable, really, whether it is done on design, certainly, in God's providence.

It is so in our Bibles that we have a mirror in Isaiah of the whole Bible. The Bible, we have 39 books in the Old Testament, 27 in the New. In Isaiah, we have 39 books, which is equivalent to the Old Testament. It is history. It is prophecy. But then we come to the gospel.

And in the last 27 books, then we have these chapters here that lead up to Christ's coming. the lead up to his sufferings in Isaiah 53, and then the blessings of the church, also in Isaiah. 54, sing, O barren thou that didst not bear, break forth into singing, the gospel sending forth into chapter 55, how every one that thirsteth, and the joy and the gladness in 56, I've often thought of this, with the eunuch, after he was baptized, he went on his way rejoicing. He would have still been reading, wouldn't he, through Isaiah. And he would come to this. read in in our bibles 56 and verse 3 neither let the son of the stranger that has joined himself to the lord speak saying the lord hath utterly separated me from his people neither let the eunuchs say behold i am a dry tree for thus saith the lord unto the eunuchs that keep my sabbaths and choose the things that please me and take hold of my covenant Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters. I'll give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off." Beautiful that the eunuch would have read that.

But going back to our text and thinking of Eden, thinking of the Church of God, the people of God, that had known that, how is it to be restored? How is Eden, how is the church of God to be made like the garden of the Lord? Like Eden, the garden of the Lord. But we need to go then to the second garden, the garden of Gethsemane.

And we read of that in John 18. And if we were to go back to Luke, the same account, we read of that in Luke 21. And verse 37, we read that in the daytime he was teaching in the temple, and at night he went out and abode in the mount that is called the Mount of Olives. That was our Lord loving that place. because he knew what would happen was recorded in the next chapter, Luke 22, and verse 39. He came out and went as he was went to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples also followed him.

When he was at the place, he said unto them, pray that ye enter not into temptation. He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeling down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down. to the ground. The disciples couldn't stay awake, they were sleeping. This was the garden, this was the garden he went into, where we read in John 18, Jesus has spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Cedron, where was a garden. What was so important about the garden of Gethsemane?

So isn't the important part Calvary, Isn't the important part the judgment? Isn't the important part Him laying down His life? But what was He to bear? He had laid on Him the iniquity of us all. That was what was done in Gethsemane. He was to bear the sins of His people to the judgment and to Calvary and to put those sins away. but he had to prove them. We read in Isaiah that he is as a nail that is in a sure place.

They shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house, the small cups, large cups, vessels, large and small, and then that nail shall be cut off and that burden fall off. The sins of his people, great and small, all laid upon him. You imagine, we've got nails, we've got hanging things around the chapel here. If you've got a very heavy coat or you've got something that you're going to put valuable on it, you want to make sure those nails are really good and solid that could hold it. No use if the sins of all the people of God were put on the Lord in the garden, And there he perished there under the weight of them and never got to lay down his life, never got to judgment.

But he bore them, he carried them unto judgment. The Jews would have known that with their sacrifices they laid their hands upon the head of the animal. They identified with them. It was their sin. But the animal was to die. The lamb was to die. So they laid their hand upon it, identifying with it. There's attraction to that lamb.

There is a joining with it, associating with it. And there's a transaction being taken place. a substitution being made. Those things that were put on our account, our sins, are put on His account. And then He pays the debt that we owed. And that is sin.

So, powerfully in that garden, the angel came, strengthening Sweating great drops of blood, a picture of real agony, of something being laid upon him that we cannot see, we cannot know, we cannot fathom. And yet that garden was so necessary. It laid on him the iniquity of us all. He went forth from that garden. He went forth to the judgment and then from judgment to bear those sins away, dying for sins not his own and rising again for the justification of the people of God.

If we are to know a change in Eden, If we are to know a blessing in the Church of God, it is that the Lord has borne our sin in His body, first in the garden, then to judgment, then on the tree, put them away and risen again. That is how the Lord can bless the Church. That is how He can do what is in our text and to make that garden to be such a blessing, and Zion, the Church of God, such a blessing, and to be so comforted. I want to look then at the third garden, which is the Church of God. Again, emphasizing this is not a building, it is the people of God. It is His purchased possession, the Church.

I want to refer you to Solomon's Song. In Song of Solomon, we have in chapter 4, the end of that chapter, in verse 12, a garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, camphor with spikenard, spike nut, and saffron, calamus, and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon. Awake, O north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits? The answer is in verse 1 of chapter 5, I am. Come into my garden, my sister, my spouse.

We have a picture, a garden enclosed. The church, likened to a garden, enclosed. Those of you familiar with some of the gardens around here, we think of Scotney Castle. It's got an enclosed garden in it. Now, Cambridgeshire, the Walpole Estate, has got a walled garden as well. And that wall clearly shows the boundary of what's in the garden and what's out of the garden. And it preserves that garden from things coming in and destroying it, or things going out and losing what is in the garden. It's quite a common thing of those kind of years gone by to have that. But we're used to it in our own homes, too.

I think this text was probably the second one I ever preached from. When I was first sent out into the ministry, we were having our fences done around our house at the back. And all of the fences were down. We felt very vulnerable. We were open to all the neighbors all the way around. We hadn't got the fences up yet. And it really highlighted what a way of feeling felt security to have your own boundaries. So have your own fences all the way around.

So I think if I remember rightly, the first preach, the text I preached from in the morning was, let thy hand be upon the man at thy right hand, the son of man in thy make as strong for thyself, that's Psalm 80, verse 17. And then in the afternoon at Melbourne was this one, a garden enclosed. And that was the very first Lord's Day I ever preached. in the Lord's name.

But the Church of God is referred to as a garden and the plants in it as the people of God. We go to Psalm 92 and verse 13. Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright, he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. Our Lord says a very solemn thing in Matthew 15. that every plant which my Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.

But the Lord does plant. He plants his people in Zion, in the church. It doesn't just happen that there comes this person or that person as joined in church fellowship and joined with the people of God. It is the Lord that appoints them, that plants them, that puts them there.

And it's a beautiful picture, isn't it? We know what if a garden is planted by a person, they're going to look after it. They've chosen the plants. They've chosen where they're going to put them. The plant had no say in that. And the gardener nourishes it, looks after it, cares for it. looks for fruit, does what is necessary so that there is fruitfulness.

From me is thy fruit found. We are told is that coming from the Lord Jesus Christ. The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, neither can ye, except ye abide in me." He's one then of those pictures of the Church of God, looked at from one way or from another way, one illustration, another illustration, This one is the garden and it references going back from Eden and what was done in Gethsemane and what is done in the Church of God to restore Eden, to bring the Church, to bring the people of God into a place of blessing that is more secure than she was before she fell. place where she trusts everything in the Lord and the Lord does everything for her, just as the gardener does everything for that in the garden. The protection, the fruitfulness, nourishment, everything is done by the gardener, the husbandman. Maybe then a real encouragement to us because this text is put in the way of a future. The Lord shall comfort Zion. He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord.

When we may feel personally and as churches to need such a revival and such a building up, I've no doubt with the church in Babylon were encouraged by such verses as this. Remember, this is some 130 years before they were carried away into Babylon. But they had these promises.

Paul speaks of the church that was in the wilderness. God has always had his church, his chosen people, and he has it now. Then they get into low places, individual churches, local churches. It is the Lord that revives and changes. We need to remember that. Sometimes we might think, well, we'll try and change things. We'll make things better. But it's the Lord that will change it.

And he makes there to be joy and gladness where there wasn't. shall be found therein thanksgiving. Why? Because of what the Lord has done. And the voice of melody of singing. This evening we may feel to be in need of a change, need of the Lord to do that. May we be encouraged looking at these gardens, looking at what the Lord has done, and looking at these promises of what he will do, and turn them into prayers. prayers for ourselves personally as each plant, prayers that the Lord would plant others visibly in that same garden and that he would cause us to be fruitful and to have that thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Those times are reviving and blessing, they come forth from And the Lord loves his church as ever loved it and cares for it and nourishes it. May the Lord bring this to pass, bring it to pass personally and with us, us here as a church.

Going back to what was preached at the installation services in my induction services in Psalm 126. Then was our mouth, or from the beginning, when the Lord turned again, the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dream. Then was our mouth filled with laughter and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, the Lord hath done great things for them.

The Lord hath done great things for us, for of we are glad. And the type of the garden or planting is still there. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his cheese with him. Paul says, I have planted. Apollos has watered. But it is the Lord that giveth the increase. And may it be our desire and prayer that the Lord would bless our churches in this way and make us like the garden.

The garden of the LORD

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the Garden of Eden?

How do we know that God's promises to His people are true?

Why is the concept of the Church as a garden important for Christians?

How did the Garden of Gethsemane play a role in Christ's mission?

What does Isaiah 51:3 teach us about God's intention for His people?

Sermon Transcript

About Rowland Wheatley

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The garden of the LORD

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the Garden of Eden?

How do we know that God's promises to His people are true?

Why is the concept of the Church as a garden important for Christians?

How did the Garden of Gethsemane play a role in Christ's mission?

What does Isaiah 51:3 teach us about God's intention for His people?

Sermon Transcript

About Rowland Wheatley

Comments

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