Open—Don Rule
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Want to present to you.
I don't say I want to. I believe God.
Wants to present to you this afternoon a garden that he invites you to enter and enjoy this afternoon.
Where you will see no man save Jesus only.
To get to that point, let's look at a few gardens in Scripture, starting in Genesis chapter 2.
Genesis chapter 2 and verse 15.
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 knowledge 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.
And.
Chapter 3.
And verse.
Eight or verse seven in the eyes of them were both opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. And they heard the voice of the Lord walking in the cool of the day. And Abraham and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden.
The Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself.
And he said, Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest me to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Let's go over to the end of the chapter. We're not going to develop what happens here in the Garden of Eden and.
Verse 22.
And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good and evil, and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever, therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden.
Of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man, and he placed that the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. We all know very well the story that Adam God planted a garden.
And that's where he chose Adam and Eve to live.
And he put them in the garden that he had for them, and in that garden he provided everything necessary for their happiness, for their fellowship with Himself, for the sustaining of their life, for their telling of the ground to cultivate the trees and the plants of the garden, as well as provision and responsibility to guard the garden.
Into which he had placed them.
We just read how because they partook.
When they were not supposed to of the tree of life, God put them out of that garden.
And he put a guard over the entrance to the garden that guarded what?
The tree of life.
The tree of life.
Let's turn on to John's Gospel chapter.
Chapter. I think it's 18.
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John's Gospel.
Chapter 18.
And verse one another garden scene. This garden.
When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the book Kidron.
Where was a garden into the which he entered, and his disciples, and Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place.
Going to apply this.
In this way.
This is a point in the life of the Lord Jesus where he has to say this is your hour and the power of darkness.
This is Satan's hour.
And here we have one of his servants, Judas, who had had the wonderful privilege of being with the Lord Jesus for 3 1/2 years.
He knew the place, He knew the garden where they might find Jesus.
And So what happens?
As a moral picture, what happens is this.
Satan had gone into the Garden of Eden to deceive the man and the woman and to bring them into disobedience.
And further than that, into death.
Their disobedience cost them their life. The wages of sin is death.
And they lost their life as a consequence. That was the work of Satan, to come into that garden.
With that intent.
The little picture here that we've just read about is Satan.
Leading his servants into the garden to destroy the Tree of Life.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
That was his intent and his power at that point.
Was to go back into the garden, if you will, with a further purpose.
To destroy the very tree of life.
Lord Jesus Christ.
Turn over to another garden scene.
In chapter.
20 on Chapter 19.
John, Chapter 19.
And verse 41.
I'll read verse 40. We all know the story. I'm assuming common knowledge, not going into the explaining the details.
John 19 verse 40 And they took the body of Jesus, and wounded in linen claws with the spices, in the manner of the Jews, as to bury now in the place where he was crucified.
There was a garden.
And in the garden, a new sepulchre.
Wren was never man yet laid.
There they laid Jesus. Therefore, because of the Jews, preparation day for the sepulchre was not at hand.
Lord Jesus has been crucified.
And in Satan's way of looking at it.
The Tree of Life had now been destroyed.
And so we go into a garden.
The night falls.
And what do we find?
Jesus Christ dead.
In a sepulchre.
Where's the hope for anything for man?
At this point in the story.
You know too much, your mind immediately puts you beyond. But try to stop. Try to put yourself into the case of what we see in verse. Chapter 20. The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene. Early, when it was yet dark under the sepulchre, she enters the garden. She's the first one recorded. Does she come into the garden to enjoy the tree of life?
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No, she comes into the garden to see a dead body of her. What? The one that was everything to her heart? The one that others could say we had trusted that it had been he.
But he's dead now.
He's dead.
What can we have?
And so now we can look ahead.
If you will, and we know.
The defeat, the lasting ending defeat of Satan had taken place now.
The very one that he tried to destroy and destroy him as a tree of life in the garden of bliss and joy.
He is not here.
He's not here. He's risen indeed.
He's risen indeed.
Turn over to Revelation Chapter 2.
Verse one under the Angel of the Church of Ephesus, right?
He sang, saith He that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. I know thy works, and thy labor, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil, and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and has found them liars.
And S born and has patience, and for my name's sake has labored and has not fainted. Nevertheless I have someone against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent and do the 1St works, or else I will come into thee quickly, and will remove the Candlestick out of its his place, except thou repent.
But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitatons, which I also hate.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
To him that overcometh.
Will I give to eat of the tree of life?
Which is in the midst of the paradise of God.
Get a little of the sense of what's being said here. Umm.
The letter to the Thessalonians, the 1St letter that Paul wrote to them, appears to have been written only a matter of weeks after the gospel had come to Thessalonica and souls had been saved. And Paul is giving the very simplest of all scripture explanation of what it means to be part of God's assembly and the character of Christian life.
And.
In the first chapter and one of the very first verses.
He speaks about.
The work of faith.
The labor of love and the patience of hope.
Faith, hope and love are the three daily characteristics of Christian life.
Everyday life and every one of our circumstances, regardless of whatever it is, should have the components of.
Love, faith and hope.
And here these Saints in the Ephesus assembly, which in all of Scripture is, when you look at the words that are being said to them, the work of faith is there, the patience of hope is there.
The labor is also there, but what's missing from the labor is the right character of love.
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And so they're being told, this is the assembly in all Scripture that we have the greatest things in the in the state in which they were when it in the book, the letter to Ephesus was written. The highest truths of what it is to be in the body of Christ in the church are developed for us more there than anywhere else.
And yet right there in the most blessed of all the assemblies in that way.
We find something that's a hindrance, but the Lord puts his hand on and he says.
I'm going to not be able to use you as a light to the world.
Unless this problem is fixed.
You've left your first love. The works of that love, the labor that's connected with that love was there, but the love itself that.
Motivated. That was not in the right state.
And also just a general comment, what controls your heart? And that's where your love is seen in Scripture. What controls your heart controls your life.
Everyone of us in this room has a life, whatever it is that is has the control of our heart.
As the control of our life and if we turn away from the Lord.
The true one of love will turn to something else and inevitably our heart will be controlled by an idol. It'll be controlled by the lust for money.
The last to be somebody.
The lust of pleasure, it doesn't matter what it is, it'll be something that replaces God in our hearts, because if those things are active in us, they have replaced God in His love from His place that it should have in our heart.
I'd like to give you a one sentence solution.
With a little explanation to that problem.
We won't take the time to turn over, but maybe it's important enough that we do. Anyways, let's go over to back up a page or two to the Book of Jude.
Book of Jude verse 20. Beloved, building yourselves up.
On your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. Keep yourselves in the love of God. A lot of us, a lot of whatever we've learned in life has come from conferences like this, and I can well remember hearing I don't know how many times.
Brother Harry Hayhoe, make this comment. Never try to love the Lord more than you do.
Be occupied with His love for you.
I'll repeat it. It's incredibly important statement really. And that's what this verse is saying. When it says keep yourselves in the love of God, it isn't saying love God, increase your love for God, show him how much you love him by what you say to him and so on, but rather it is keep yourself.
In the enjoyment.
Of his love to you.
What's the result?
What's the encouragement to go back to chapter of Revelation? We'll read verse 7 again.
He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him this is an individual exhortation. To him that overcometh. How do I overcome if I've lost my first love?
Get occupied with God's love and the love of the Lord Jesus, not your own love.
Not your own things, but focus on himself and the revelation.
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Of his love.
And then what's the promise?
We get back into the garden, it says in verse 7.
To him that ever cometh.
I will.
Lost my place already.
I will give to eat of the tree of life.
If you do that.
God says.
You will eat, you will feed on the tree of life.
The Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior.
And all that He is, and all His glory will be your food.
And where is it in the midst?
And he goes beyond garden now, in the midst of the paradise of God.
Adam lost the garden that God prepared for him in innocence, but when God replaces it with something and he has to replace something with something else.
What he replaces with is always better and more wonderful.
And so God's desire for you and I is to enter into paradise.
Is this something about the future?
This is the important thing, and maybe the most important.
This isn't a picture of glory.
This is not a statement about what it's going to be like in the wonderful and indescribably wonderful Father's house that is ahead of us and is part of our hope. No, this is for.
July.
2023 Aberdeen, Idaho, This room Saints.
You are invited of God to lift up your eyes and see.
And in this garden, what is only one thing in the garden that is described to be occupied with?
The Tree of Life. There is only one activity that is described here.
It's feeding on that tree.
There's no distractions in this paradise.
We have already had it and it's already true, and it's a different line of thought that we have to deal with the complexity of the world and the increasing difficulties and the troubles and so on. But I would suggest to you that this afternoon God is saying to you.
Come on into the garden.
And you'll have a time to feast.
And feed on the tree of life.
And find.
A joy and a satisfaction that will bring to your heart. I've been to paradise.
The Apostle Paul had the wonderful privilege of being taken up into the 3rd heaven and when he came back he didn't couldn't even describe his experience in any physical way. He didn't even talk about it for I think 14 years at least after he had the experience. It was a very personal and private thing to him until there was a reason for him to have to share even the fact that he had done it.
I suggest to your brethren that you can go in the paradise.
Then enjoy the Lord alone.
In a way that you don't even have to talk about it. You don't have to try to describe it to someone else. It is something that you're enjoying in your own soul.
With the Lord, one last thought in connection with it. Turn with me to the Song of Solomon.
Song of Solomon in chapter 4.
There are other gardens in Scripture and another one of the gardens is seen in.
The Song of Solomon, your life is looked at here as a garden and we could get into that side of it as to how the in chapter one we find the garden of the life of the person that's talking. She says my garden have I not kept? She had allowed other things into the garden of her life because she wasn't telling it, she wasn't guarding it, and she goes through an experience. We could talk about it as as it is.
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A picture of the remnant of Israel and what they're going to go through and with respect to the Lord Jesus and being.
Brought into the realization of the relationship with him and the tribulation and other things, but the application at this moment, at this hour is this.
Think of yourself as you've just gone into paradise.
And are going to feed upon the tree of life.
Don't think of the next words that are going to be read as just words read out of a verse of the Bible. Allow these words to be the words of the Tree of Life speaking this afternoon directly to you.
Behold.
Thou art fair, my love.
Behold, thou art fair.
Thou hast dove's eyes.
Everything 46 in the appendix.
Oh, teach me.
To be.
73.