Our first text this morning for
the message will be found in the book of Genesis. You may
open your Bibles to Genesis chapter 2. I want to make a few comments
before I get into the heart of the message. Now, every time
that I prepare a message to preach to us, there are several things
on my mind, especially four. Number one, the Word of God. Paul told Timothy to preach the
Word. Preach the Word. I think this
is the great failing of our day. I think this is the great need
of our day. We're not to preach book reviews
and philosophies and even our systems. We're to preach God's
Word. God said, My Word shall not return
unto be void. it shall accomplish that whereunto
I have sent it." Christ said, My word shall judge you, not
your systems or even your creeds or your catechisms or your confessions
of faith or your summaries of God's word. My word shall judge
you, He said. I must preach the word. And when
I'm preparing a message, this is on my mind. Give the people
as much of God's word as you possibly can give them. And the
second thing that is on my mind when I prepare a message for
myself and for you is the glory of God. Now turn with me. I want to turn to another scripture.
Let's turn to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 9, the glory
of God. Herod was eaten of worms because
he gave not God the glory. He gave not God the glory. I
wonder, not just talking about preachers, but I'm talking about
deacons and elders and Sunday school teachers and professing
Christians, how many of us would be today eaten of worms if God
still judged us like he did Herod for not giving him the glory. In Jeremiah chapter 9, verse
23, thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his
neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich
man glory in his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in
this, that he understandeth and knoweth me." That's the very
basis for glory. That's the foundation for glory.
God forbid, Paul said, God forbid. This statement, God forbid, is
characteristic of the Apostle Paul. It's mainly one that he
uses more than any other writer. And it's an expression of a strong,
strong feeling. He'd say something, then he'd
say, God forbid. And he says, God forbid that
I should glory save in the cross of Christ. We must glorify God. He that glorieth, the Scripture
says, let him glory in the Lord. He that glorieth, let him glory
in the Lord. And the Lord said in 1 Corinthians
1, 29, He chose the base and the poor and those things that
are nothing, that no flesh should glory in His presence. I was
listening to a black preacher one time, and he said, people
glory in their race, and glory in their face, and glory in their
place, and people even glory in their grace. in everything
but God. The third thing that I think
so much about when I'm trying to prepare a message, I must
preach the Word. Got to preach the Word. May God
bless it. If He doesn't, we've still got
to preach it. And we must seek only the glory of God. Not just uppermost, but only. Not primarily, but only the glory
of God. Not my glory or your glory, but
His glory. The third thing is we must preach
not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Turn to the book of
Acts chapter 10. Here's a scripture that I refer
to in messages just frequently. Acts chapter 10 verse 43, but
it's a summary of the whole Old Testament. It's a summary of
the ministry of all the old prophets. It's a summary of the early,
of the Old Testament church. and its reason for existence. It says in Acts 10.43, "...to
him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remission of sin." Who's he talking
about? To him give all the prophets
witness. He's not talking about the apostles.
He's not talking about the evangelists. He's not talking about the early
church deacons. He's talking about the Old Testament
prophets. To him, to Christ, gave all these
prophets witness. Christ was their message. Christ
was their life. Christ was their salvation. And we must preach Christ. He
said, without me you can do nothing. Christ is the Bible, Christ is
salvation, Christ is eternal life, Christ is heaven, Christ
is God. Without me you can do nothing. A sermon without Christ is an abomination. And then the fourth thing that
is on my mind when I'm trying to prepare a message to preach
That is the gospel of God's grace to sinners. Woe is unto me if
I preach not the gospel. Let no individual, it doesn't
matter who that person is, let no individual hear us preach
or speak or exhort on any subject, any subject, and then depart
from our presence not knowing how God saves sinners. Let no
sinner hear us on any subject, and then depart from our building,
and depart from our assembly, and depart from our prayer meetings,
and depart from our church services, not knowing, at least in his
head, how God saves sinners. Sometimes we, in an effort not
to be repetitious, sometimes in an effort not to repeat ourselves
in an effort not to be boring, sometimes in an effort to be
exciting, or to be successful, or to win men's applause, or
to say something new, or say something fresh. We leave out
the freshest thing, and the newest thing, and the greatest thing,
and the most blessed thing, and the most exciting thing, and
that's Christ died for sinners. That's what people need to hear,
and that's what sinners want to hear. And that's what the
saint delights to hear. He wants to hear you talk about
his beloved. He wants to hear you talk about
his Lord. Time is short, and some of us are realizing just
how short it really is. And death is sure, and we're
seeing it all about us. And judgment is certain, and
eternity is so long, and we must preach the gospel of God's grace. Men aren't ready to meet God,
and they need to be ready. So again, in presenting to you
these marvelous themes, the glory of God, the grace of God, the
person of Christ, and the Word of God, I want to take you first
of all to Genesis chapter 2. I want to take you this morning
on a visit to the king's gardens. Nehemiah talked about the gardens
of the king, and I think again in the book of II Kings it talks
about the king's garden. I want us, you and me, I want
us to visit the king's garden. I want us to walk where he walked,
and I want us to visit the gardens where he spoke, and where some
great and marvelous things took place. Now the first garden The
king's garden that we encounter in the word of God is found in
Genesis 2, verse 8. Will you turn there with me?
Genesis 2, verse 8. It says here, And the Lord God
planted a garden. He planted a garden eastward
in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed, 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, the tree of knowledge of good and evil
in a river, went out of Eden to water the garden, and from
thence it was parted and became into four heads." That's the
garden of God. It must have been a beautiful
place. God planted it. Everything was
perfect. After God made it, God said,
it is good. All manner of fruit and vegetables
and flowers. And there were no weeds, no briars,
and no thorns to crowd the plants. There were no insects. There
were no bugs. There were no wild beasts to
spoil the plants or to frighten the man. And no wintry wind blew
through that garden. no scorching sun, no ice, no
snow, and no sweat was ever on a happy brow. And God made man
and he made woman in his own image. How perfect, how beautiful. No disease, no old age, no pain,
no tears, no death. That must have been someplace. God's garden, the King's garden. the Garden of Eden called Paradise. But one day sin entered that
garden. I don't know how long man lived
there without sin. I don't know how long things
continued as God made them, but one day sin entered that garden.
Man disobeyed God, and through that sin he ruined himself. And not only did he ruin himself,
but he ruined God's He ruined all of creation. The Scripture
says, the whole creation groaneth in pain. The flowers, the fruits,
the vegetables, the plants, they felt the pain of man's sin. The
animals, now in that garden the wind howls, darkness falls upon
it, the summer sun burns it and scorches And the weeds and the
briars grow better than the vegetables and the fruits, and sweat and
blood and tears flow strongly and fully because man's sin. It's impossible for us to think
too much about that fall. I think we can think too little
of it. If you visit the hospitals, and visit the prisons, and visit
the rest homes, and visit the funeral homes, and visit the
skid rows, you'll see the results of that fall. It has affected
man's mind, it has affected his affections, it has affected his
will, it has affected his body. It's affected his environment. The fall has brought disease
and death and suffering. The fall has brought all of this
unfortunate, unhappy situation upon the earth. Oh, Paul said,
the exceeding sinfulness of sin. How depressing. And you know,
you don't want to tarry very long here. You just don't want
to stay in this place of Rebellion. All of our misery and our ruin
and our depravity dates back to this place. It's not the same. The curse of God has fallen upon
it. It's a place of death, disease,
and darkness. It's the place of man's rebellion. But wait before we leave that
garden. God speaks. Genesis 3.15. God
speaks before we leave that garden, and God says to Satan, I'll put
enmity, I'll put enmity between you and the woman, between your
seed and her seed. You shall bruise his heel, but
he'll destroy your head. Good news. Yes, sin has destroyed
man and destroyed the garden and destroyed creation, the power
of sin has fallen upon this garden. But God says before we leave
that, remember this, the day of my wrath is coming, and I'm
going to destroy the power of sin and the effects of sin, and
I'm going to destroy all enemies. Someday I'll put an end to this
misery. and the last enemy that shall
be destroyed is death." Let's go to another garden. Turn to
John, chapter 18. John, chapter 18, verse 1. John 18.1. When Jesus had spoken these words,
He went forth with His disciples over the brook Cedron. John 18.1. Where was a garden? Into the which he entered and
his disciples. This garden was called by Matthew,
Mark, and Luke the Garden of Gethsemane. Now you feel like here putting
off your shoes. It's not like that other garden.
You feel like getting out of there. Sin has visited, sin has
ruined it and spoiled it and corrupted it, and it's the monument
of man's rebellion and treason against God, and you want to
just get away from that experience. But here you put off your shoes
because you're on holy ground, especially this night in this
garden of Gethsemane. Twelve men walk into this garden. One of them is superior to the
others. One of them is a majestic, mysterious
person. And he's speaking to the others.
They're following him, and he's speaking to them. And he's saying,
let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. 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.
All of you shall be offended because of me this night. But
remember, I am the vine, and you are the branches. You abide
in me, and my words abide in you, and you shall ask what you
will, and it shall be done." And then he dismisses eight of
them. There were eleven following him. He dismisses eight of them,
and he walks on ahead with three. And he speaks to them, Peter,
James, and John. And then he stops and he commands
them, stay here, watch and pray. I'm going a little further, you
stay here. And then we watch him as he goes
slowly and alone, further into the darkness of that garden.
And then he stops and he kneels and he begins to pray. And as
we stand there and listen, as we draw near and we hear him
pray, we recognize something about this garden. This is the
garden of betrayal. This is the garden of denial. This is the garden of suffering.
The mist of sin that rolls up in the Garden of Eden, that stench
in the nostrils of God, That fog and smog and mist of man's
rebellion and treason and corruption, all of it that rose up in the
Garden of Eden, all of it has come over here and settled in
this Garden of Gethsemane. And it's settled on a person,
all the weight of all of the sins of all believers of all
generations, is isolated and fallen on him. The wrath
of God against sin gathers like a great storm and falls upon
this one man, this one great, mysterious, majestic person. And we hear him pray as that
that cloud of wrath, that storm of God's fury, that filth of
man's guilt, the sins on him, we hear him pray, Oh my God,
my God, if it were possible, if it is possible, let this cup
pass from me. Here in this garden of Gethsemane,
you see the substitute under the weight of my sins and your
sins, He was wounded, bruised. The chastisement of our sins,
our transgressions, fell on Him. And that agony never ceased until
He'd gone through Pilate's hall and the soldiers' hall and Caiaphas'
castle, up to Calvary's cross, and there suffered and bled and
died under the wrath of God for our sins. That agony that began
in the Garden of Gethsemane never let up. until Christ cried, It
is finished. It is finished. Sin started, as far as man is
concerned, in Eden, and sin, as far as the believer is concerned,
ended. Ended in Gethsemane, when it
was laid on Christ. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ. If Christ bore it, I bear it
not. I bear it not. Well, let's go
to another garden, John 19. John chapter 19, verse 40. The king's garden. The king's
garden. Christ died. He died. It was not a coma. when those
experienced soldiers, Roman soldiers, who had crucified many a man,
came to the body of Christ hanging on that cross. They had broken
the legs of the other two, and they came to his, and one of
them said, Well, you know, he's breaking his legs to hasten death. He's already dead. And one of
them took a spear and rammed it up into his side, and from
his side came gushing out blood and water. He was dead. It was
not a coma. Christ died and Christ was buried. He was buried in a tomb where
no man had ever lain, so that when he arose they could not
say it's somebody else. Our Lord died and he was wrapped
in burial clothes and put in a tomb. Now then, here it is. In John 19, verse 40, Then took
they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the
spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury." You bury dead
people. Christ is dead. God said to Adam
in that beautiful garden, If you sin, you die. You die. If you eat of the forbidden
fruit, you die. Death is the result of sin. The
soul that sinneth, it shall die. The wages of sin is death. Sin,
when it's finished, bringeth forth death. And Christ, who
was made sin for us, had to die. He died, and he was buried. Now look at verse 41. Now, in
the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. There was
a garden. And in that garden a new sepulchre
wherein was never man yet laid. And there they buried Jesus. And there they buried Jesus. Then early one Sunday morning
on the first day of the week, we don't worship, we do worship
on the seventh day, we ought to worship God every day. But
we do not set aside the seventh day as a special day of worship
and a special day of assembly and a preaching of the word,
number one, because it was under the old Jewish mosaic law and
the ceremonies and ordinances of that law are done away with.
The second reason we don't assemble on the seventh day and set it
apart as a special day for the assembly of God's people in the
preaching of the gospel is that our Lord lay in the tomb all
day long on the seventh day. It ceased to become a special
day. It ceased to become a ceremonial
day for worship and assembly. The third reason why we do not
meet on the seventh day, but rather on the first day, is that
Christ arose on the first day of the week. In verse 1 of chapter
20, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early. Another reason why we do not
assemble on the seventh day and set it aside as a special day
is that we were commanded by the apostles who wrote the inspired
word to come together on the first day of the week. by their
example and also by their commandments. By their example, it says, when
the apostles or disciples met together on the first day of
the week to break bread, Paul preached to them. And then Paul
said, let every one of you come together on the first day of
the week and lay vines in store as God has prospered him. But that's not our subject. But
on the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the
women came to that garden. They came to that garden to anoint
the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. They came to that garden, and
as they came, one of them said, Now who's going to roll away
the stone? They put him in that grave. They
wrapped him in burial clothes and put him in that grave, and
the Roman government had put a huge stone in front of that
grave. put the seal of the, I guess,
the Roman Empire on the outside of that stone and stationed soldiers
out there, and as they came to the garden that Sunday morning
to anoint the body of Christ, they said, Who's going to roll
away the stone for us? But when they got there, the
soldiers were gone, and the stone was rolled away,
and the Lord Jesus was gone. And the angel of the Lord stood
in front of that tomb and said, Why seek ye the living among
the dead? He is not here, he is risen. When the women went that Sunday
morning to that garden to anoint the body of Christ, they did
not find him in the tomb. He had risen. And my friends,
all of the so-called messiahs, this is the distinctive doctrine
of Christianity. Not only the cross, not only
the substitution, not only the sacrifice, and not only the redemption,
but the resurrection. All of the so-called messiahs
are in their tombs where their followers put them. Buddha is
in his grave. Mohammed is in his grave. Confucius is in his grave. Father Divine is in his grave. Joseph Smith is in the grave. All of it. Mary Baker Eddy will
rest in the grave. If she's not already there, I
don't know. But all of these so-called religious messiahs
are in their graves. except the Lord Jesus Christ. And the reason that no religion
can claim resurrection is they can't present the proof. They
can't present the proof. And they dare not get themselves
out on a limb and claim something that they cannot prove. The Lord
Jesus has risen. He is not in the grave. The angel
said that morning in that garden, He is risen! He is risen! And because he lives, all who
believe on him shall rise. Turn to Acts chapter 1, in the
first chapter of the book of Acts, beginning with verse 9.
Now listen, here's Christ speaking to his disciples after the resurrection
in Acts 1 verse 9, and when he had spoken these things while
they beheld. He was taken up, and a cloud
received him out of their sight. And while they looked up steadfastly
toward heaven, two men stood by them in white apparel, which
also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, which is taken
up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye
have seen him go into heaven." Our Lord Jesus Christ has risen
He has ascended to the right hand of the Father, where we
are seated in Him, and He's coming back again. And when He does,
and when He comes back, He who is my sacrifice, He who is my
substitute, He who is my sanctifier, He who is my justifier, He who
is my intercessor, He who arose for my redemption and my justification,
because He arose I shall rise, when He comes again, I'm going
to see another garden. And for that one, we turn to
Revelation 22. I'm going to see another garden
of God. Some eventful things have taken
place in these gardens. They're the high points of God's
eternal purpose toward man. the garden of sin, the garden
of suffering, the garden of resurrection, and now the garden of glory.
And there you have it all. Sin, the substitution, the sacrifice,
Christ's death for our transgressions, the resurrection. Paul said the
resurrection is as important as the redemption. If Christ
be not risen, yet in your sins. If Christ be not risen with false
witnesses of God, and all who have perished or died believing
in Christ are dead, and we are of all men most miserable, the
disciples were arrested and jailed for preaching the resurrection. If I could have four themes,
these would be the four themes of my ministry. Sin, suffering,
sacrifice, Christ's substitutionary work, the resurrection, and eternal
glory. This is it. And here's the next
garden. It says here in Revelation 22,
verse 1, 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, and in the midst of the street of it,
on either side of the river was the tree of life, which bare
twelve manner of and yielded her fruit every month, and the
leaves of that tree were for the healing of the nations, and
there shall be no more curse." When Adam sinned and walked out
of that Garden of Eden, God said to him, Adam, listen to God. Adam, Genesis 3, 17, cursed is
the ground. Cursed is the ground because
of you. In sorrow, in sorrow you shall
eat of it all the days of your life. Back yond in the garden
of Eden when Adam's sin, not only sin came on this earth,
but sin's twin brother, sorrow. Sorrow. Now brethren, I can promise
anybody here this morning in Christ, I can promise you joy,
In Christ, I can promise you peace. In Christ, I can promise
you life. In Christ, I can promise you
the forgiveness of sin. I can promise you eternal pardon
and justification, acceptance with God. But I can't promise
you freedom from sorrow and freedom from tears and freedom from heartache
and freedom from disappointment. I can't promise you that. and
freedom from tragedy, and freedom from death in your family, and
freedom from loss of your health. I can't promise you that. Because
in this world you shall have tribulation. And God said when
Adam, when man, when you and I walked out of that garden in
the person of our daddy, he said, The ground is cursed because
of you. Everywhere you put your foot,
the curse of God rests on that ground. And in sorrow shall you
eat of it all the days of your life. And that's the reason this
means so much right here, verse 3. In Revelation 22, no more
curse. God lifted it. In this garden
of glory, God lifted the curse. It's not there. Not there anymore. No more curse. Look at the next
line, verse 4, and it says, And they are going to see his face. They're going to see his face.
I'm going to see the Lord. When we see him, we're going
to be like him. You know, man, in his sin, one thing, one reason
I know we're going to be totally without sin and like Christ in
holiness and knowledge is because we couldn't look on his face
and live. God said no man has seen God
at any time. No man can look on God and live. So when I do look on him, And
I'd look on Him without burning up. When I look on Him without
perishing, that means what? That I'm like Him. Holiness,
beholding holiness. Purity, beholding purity. Perfection, beholding perfection. You know, we can face one another
and drop our eyes because of wrong thoughts or guilt. And
we, our eyes are the windows of the souls. They give us a
way. You can read people through their eyes. You can tell almost
what they're thinking. If you study their eyes, they'll
let you. They usually close them, you know, or drop them because
of guilt or embarrassment or shame or timidity or something
like that. But I'm going to look full in
the face of the Lord without having to look down. And that
means my soul is going to be pure and my mind is going to
be clean and my heart is going to be free from any taint of
sin. Now, don't tell me you have that
on this earth. I don't believe you. I don't
believe you. I don't believe there's any perfection
on this earth. I know better. Even Paul said,
I'm not perfect. But I'm going to be. And then
it says here, His name shall be in their foreheads. This is
like the miter in the priest's forehead that says, Holiness
to the Lord. Holiness to the Lord. Now I'm
going to have the mark of the beast, I'm going to have the
mark of the king on my forehead. Holiness to the Lord. And then
it says in verse 5, And there shall be no night. We don't so much anymore. We've
got electricity. We can push a button and make
everything almost as—with as much light as out in the noonday
sun. But the old-timers used to talk
about, in the night the fever rises. In the night the cough
is worse. In the night, the weariness and
the pain increases. In the night, the suffering increases. That's the reason the prophet
wrote, joy comes in the morning. And I wait for thee as they that
watch for the morning. If we can just get through the
night, if we can live through the night, if the patient can
survive this night, If they can see the morning sun, it says
here, John wrote, and there shall be no night there. No night. In the land of fadeless
day lies a city for a square, and it'll never pass away, and
there's no night there. And God shall wipe away all tears,
and no death, no pain, and no fears. And there they count not
time by years, for there's no night there. And the gates will
never close to that city, Foursquare. There life's crystal river flows,
and there's no night there. There they need no sunshine bright
in that city, Foursquare, for the lamb is all the light, and
there's no night there. And all the gates of pearl are
made in that city, Foursquare, And all the streets with gold
are laid in that city, foursquare. And God's going to wipe away
all tears. And there's no death and no pain
and no fears. And they're counting up time
by years, and there's no night there. In the Garden of Eden,
when Adam sinned, darkness, death, and night descended. And when
Christ took that darkness and that death and that night of
our sins in the garden of Gethsemane and paid the price, they buried
him. And in that garden one Sunday morning, our Lord stepped forth
from that tomb, victorious over death, over hell, over the grave,
over the powers of earth and the powers of hell. And he ascended
to glory. He said, I'm coming back. And
when I come back, I'm going to conquer for you every enemy. I'm going to destroy the last
enemy there. And I'm going to step into God's
new garden. And I'm going to see his face. Our Father in heaven, bless this
message. We pray earnestly that every
person in this congregation shall have that hope which maketh not
a shame, shall have that confidence in Christ that he's able to keep
that which we've committed unto him against that day. Let us
put away these silly, empty, vain things of life, and let
us set our affections on things above, where Christ sitteth and
reigneth at the right hand of the Majesty on high. We must
give attention to supporting our families and We must give
attention to caring for our bodies, which thou hast given to us.
We must give attention to responsibilities in a free country. But these
things are marking time, awaiting that great day when we shall
enter into the kingdom that is our first love, make Christ our
first love. Let all these other things, these
other activities, revolve around him. as Christ is uppermost and
chief in our thoughts and our hearts. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Brother Don, you come lead
us in a song, please. Number 242. 242. Stand, please. Out of my bonded sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come into thy freedom, gladness, and
light.