Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

Couched inside every soul is an appreciation of a beautiful garden. A well-ordered, well maintained and designed garden is appreciated by all. But not all have the wherewithal to plant and maintain a garden but yet a beautiful garden is endearing to the human sense. Kings have spent time and wealth to secure a beautiful garden. Solomon and Cyrus built many gardens so they would have a place to enjoy and retire. The famous gardens of Babylon which king Nebuchadnezzar enjoyed were remarkable. Weddings and special occasions are held in gardens. But I don’t want to spend time in talking of earthly gardens but the garden of the King of Kings. I would like to dwell on a garden that the great potentate retires in the cool of the day.

Genesis 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. 9 And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The first Sabbath on this planet was spent admiring this beauty of this garden, the work of creation in six days and the joy of beauty that came from the creator. This is what the first Sabbath was like. A garden where Adam and Eve and the creator were there and they enjoyed the experience. In this garden there was no winter chilling breeze or summer heat burning the flowers and there was a beautiful transition of turning the day into night. There were no beasts of prey that you had to be fearful of. On the brow of Adam was no sweat. Adam was happy to keep this garden.

Genesis 2:15 And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

God made Adam with senses that could appreciate these things. He put two trees in the midst of the garden. These trees served two purposes. One was the tree of life and one was of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In these thousands of trees he could enjoy the fruit of it, maintaining and keeping it. We know the story that the tree they were not allowed to eat the fruit of caught Eve’s curiosity. There are two trees sitting there. As Eve was standing there, she was looking at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the more she looked the more it started growing. It became bigger in her mind. She took of the fruit. This week I asked my children if they would pick of the tree and they said no we wouldn’t. I asked what you would do and my daughter said I would look and look at it but I wouldn’t take it. I smiled to myself because that is humanity. There is the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we look and look at the wrong tree which wasn’t for them.

The Result of Looking At the Wrong Tree

There were thousands of trees but the one they were not to have they spent their time pondering at.

Genesis 3:17 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; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 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.

The garden changed. The ground was cursed. Man came out of the ground and as a symbol of a typology Christ cursed the ground because man was now cursed. Man came from the ground and what we see in the ground is what we are as things grow out of it.

What the Heart of Man is Like

Proverbs 4:20 My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. 21 Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. 22 For they [are] life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. 23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.

Your heart and mind is earthen. What comes out of the earth? Plants and trees and vegetation. The thing that sustains our life comes from the ground. According to Proverbs out of your heart comes out those things which pertain unto life just as surely the ground brings forth that which pertains to our physical life. Christ’s Word is the seed and that Word is placed into your mind. Do not stop looking at the plant that will turn into everlasting life. Do not look at that other plant that is growing. Adam and Eve were fascinated with the plant that wasn’t theirs. In the garden of our brain God’s Word has been dropped in our mouth. We are to look at that until we eat thereof because the fruit of the tree of life we are to not let depart from our eyes. The fruit that came from Eden was for their health of Adam and Eve. The tree of life in heaven is also for the health of the nations. Keep thy heart. Adam and Eve were to keep the garden and the question is, did they keep it? Did they keep the garden that God created? No, thorns and briars sprung up.

There are two trees in the garden of Eden, two primary trees. There was just one tree of knowledge and good and evil and the tree of life and the other tress to minister to their happiness. That was the garden God created, a beautiful paradise God created with one door, an exit door. Man also made another garden. In this garden the Lord also comes in the cool of the day to resort in this garden. This is the garden of Gethsemane where there were thorns and a winter chill and the burning heat of the Arab country. There was not a beautiful transition of night into day, there was hot and cold. There were thieves and robbers and those that were coming to arrest him at night. Much different than Eden. There was a bloody brow of sorrow. This is the garden which the Lord came to. In that garden with those olive groves and those trees, Jesus was taken from that garden and the thorns of the curse were pressed into his holy temple and he was nailed on a tree. A tree that grew in the vicinity at one time. Our Lord resorted in this garden. He died in this garden but he planted a tree. We have thousands in this garden of ours, thousands of wicked plants growing but we still have two trees – the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. There are thousands of thorns and briars but there is now one exit door back out of that garden. God proposes to do something.

Matthew 15:13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

Jesus Christ the dresser of this thorny garden has come to keep and dress it. In this dressing he is going to do some serious horticulture. Every plant that my father hasn’t planted will be rooted up. You all know in the garden the tender plant of value can’t thrive amongst the thorns. This tender plant is written of in Isaiah.

Isaiah 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, [there is] no beauty that we should desire him. 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 5 But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

Our Saviour has born this curse not just in the physical but those things that grow in your own mind have pressed in your own soul to the point of death. As he has borne that, he has claimed the right to do his horticulture. This tender planet needs to grow and anyone that has any sense of growing plants knows that the tender plant needs space. It can’t grow in a divided garden. You as a being, what sort of plant are you? What sort of plants grow inside your brain? What sort of thoughts do you cherish and love because in the cool of the day the Lord is walking in the garden and like Eden of old we hidden ourselves in the thorn bushes and the things we love that which we have grown up to appreciate. But it is nothing but a disgusting disordered mess.

The End of the World in Which We Live

Jesus is giving the parable of the wheat and the tares. He is proposing to do something with these plants.

Matthew 13:39 The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. 40 As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. 41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;

This is the proposal of the gardener today that there is to be some rooting up and weeding of your garden. His messengers, the angels are to come and present the message that is to uproot these weeds in your soul. Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he is talking to them of their traditions and the things they do and he offends these Pharisees and he speaks of the garden of the heart under a different similitude.

Matthew 15:10 And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: 11 Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

It’s not what goes into the garden bed is the problem, it’s what comes out of your heart.

Proverbs 4:23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life.

His loving disciples have a concern of what he has told them.

Matthew 15:12 Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

The disciples were worried that was a little hard, these people will be offended.

The Proverbial Saying of Jesus Christ

Matthew 15:13 But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. 14 Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Jesus Christ was uprooting this false religion that they had established, the false religion that they thought and claimed was the proper religion. That which is planted not of God, whatever the religion, whatever the method, if God hasn’t planted it, it shall be rooted up. There is no care for God upon weeds. He doesn’t care for them. Humanity in itself is a full disaster, it’s only value is that it can house the divine nature. God cares for the tender plant of Jesus Christ which he is planting in the souls of men. If God did not plant a form of religion, it will be rooted up. Whatever the creed or denomination, if God hasn’t planted it, it will be rooted up. So it was when one of the Pharisees saw one of the disciples start growing and they counselled what they should do and one said leave it alone, if it is of God you will not stop it but if it is of men it will stop. A false religion however well it seems, prophets may have planted it with their deceptive revelations, martyrs may have watered it with their blood, confessors may have confessed it but if our heavenly Father hasn’t planted it, it will be rooted up and cast into the fire.

Ezekiel 21:27 I will overturn, overturn, overturn, it: and it shall be no [more], until he come whose right it is; and I will give it [him].

Offended by the Truth

God will plow the garden of this planet and will destroy any form of worship that is not his. Any plant or individual that has not the seed of the gospel in them shall be burnt in the fire. In these sayings is what Jesus was saying of the Pharisees. There are some things that people get offended about. The Pharisees were offended of the truth. Some people are worried as some will be offended of the truth. The offence will come. If we are not offending people by the truth then we are not presenting the truth as the truth offends the carnal heart. If we as a ministry are pleasing man then we shall never please God. We shall not offend people by our rudeness of noxious behaviour, but if the truth offends, then what sort of plant is it offending? Our ministry is to kill every false plant, trust and notion. It needs to be damaged by the word of God at the same time the true plant needs to be cared for. If you have thoughts not according to Gods planting, they shall be offended. Expect nothing else. Every plant that my heavenly father did not plant will be rooted up. Perilous times have come, we have all kinds of noxious weeds and we will address them today. Have you received the seed of the gospel?

John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

There are different methods of planting here. Perhaps some of you have been planted by the will of the flesh. Maybe you have some wild plants growing in your mind. The drunkard, the swearer, the adulterer and those that live by cheating their neighbours, all this, God did not plant. Jealously and envy, God did not plant this. If this is part of your religious experience to be amongst the church for your own fleshly gain, it shall be uprooted. These noxious bitter weeds, the communication that comes from your mouth, is it a plant that comes from the garden of God? There are many professors that go to church but yet were never planted by God. They come but they continue to maintain their thorns and continue to maintain their weeds growing. There are some weeds with beautiful flowers. God didn’t plant them. Some of the most admirable things about yourself will be rooted up. There is also another way of being planted and being born, a true Christian is not born by any of these but is only born by God which is born not of blood but by the will of man.

Many Christians who profess are only where they are because of men, not of God. They have a favourite or a place they like to be but if that place be gone then they will be gone. A little bit like what the waves bring. It brings it in and goes again. I have been in churches where when the minister leaves and half the congregation goes as God didn’t plant him. Self-sown plants are always the most hideous. There is also the possibility to be planted by blood. I’m religious because my father is religious. That is to be admired but if we do not get planted by the Lord, following our parent’s steps blindly, it will not achieve anything. Every plant that God didn’t plant will be uprooted. There are some plants that have such a vigorous root system that you can chop it down and it will shoot up the next day. Have you had a desire to change your life and in a meeting you think God is speaking to me, I am doing wrong but the next day you don’t take heed to what you heard the night before and during the night the thing sprung up again. I was in a garden and we were digging out a thorn and they grew so fast that he had chipped them down before but they grew again and grew taller than the human height and have the most sharpest thorns that you can imagine. Every part is covered with sharp blades. I asked, why have they grown again? We chopped and dug the plants as much as we could but if there was one slither of the plant behind, it would grow again. This is what God proposes to dig.

The Fig Tree

There was a fig tree not producing and the dresser of the garden proposes to do something to these trees.

Luke 13:8 And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung [it]:

He proposed to weed and turn the soil and the Lord is working on many souls and he is uprooting their lives and turning the soil. He is digging you and he is chopping those roots until your heart bleeds. He is causing circumstances to come about so you are suffering and in pain all because he is trying to uproot a nasty plant. What would happen if you didn’t let the roots go? What would happen if you hung onto a cherished thought and said Lord you can have everything but this? The plant will grow again. Unless every skerrick is gone it will grow again. There is a plant plucked twice, rooted up and burnt also. God is drawing us out of the world by all sorts of suffering and turning things upside down. We are hanging on to things tenaciously and the Christians who don’t let it go will have twice the punishment. These people came to the feasts of charity.

Jude 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves. 11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Within the Christian assembly there are these types of people dwelling and at the end of the world God is willing to take out everything that offends and to sift his people and also people within themselves.

Ezekiel 20:38 And I will purge out from among you the rebels, and them that transgress against me: I will bring them forth out of the country where they sojourn, and they shall not enter into the land of Israel: and ye shall know that I [am] the LORD. 39 As for you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord GOD; Go ye, serve ye every one his idols, and hereafter [also], if ye will not hearken unto me: but pollute ye my holy name no more with your gifts, and with your idols.

If you love sin, if you love certain things that you do and have grown up with that God doesn’t want, have them, have them all and forever if that is what you want but if you will surrender your garden bed to the great horticulturist he will overturn and overturn so every single thing of reserve is taken away.

Ezekiel 20:43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed.

We are to become offended at ourselves, not offended at God’s word. The Pharisees were not offended of themselves but of het words of Jesus. We are to take offense of who we are and to loathe ourselves and say I hate these thorns growing in me and these circumstances of my life. I want it gone, I don’t want any reserve left.

Ezekiel 20:44 And ye shall know that I [am] the LORD, when I have wrought with you for my name’s sake, not according to your wicked ways, nor according to your corrupt doings, O ye house of Israel, saith the Lord GOD.

God is going to wrought a work not with the thorns we have planted but he wants to restore Eden again, he wants to plant his own garden with pleasant plants that tend to health and life. He is not coming to garden in our way but his way.

Ezekiel 20:45 Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, 46 Son of man, set thy face toward the south, and drop [thy word] toward the south, and prophesy against the forest of the south field; 47 And say to the forest of the south, Hear the word of the LORD; Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will kindle a fire in thee, and it shall devour every green tree in thee, and every dry tree: the flaming flame shall not be quenched, and all faces from the south to the north shall be burned therein. 48 And all flesh shall see that I the LORD have kindled it: it shall not be quenched. 49 Then said I, Ah Lord GOD! they say of me, Doth he not speak parables?

Here our gardener is not just proposing to turn the soil but to burn the plants and if you will receive the word of the Lord, he can burn those weeds but if you don’t do it now, it will happen in that great fire around the city. He will burn every tree in you. Are you harbouring thoughts of your own desire? The bible says we should live by every word that proceeds out of his mouth. It’s not just believing doctrines correctly, it’s what God wants for you in your sphere. We say, I don’t want that circumstance, I don’t want the Lords will, and I want my own. It may not have to do with church doctrine but opinion of what you want in your life. It maybe to do with going to a city, but did God plant it.

Every action that we do that is not God’s perfect will, will be plucked up whether by my permission now or later. The question is, does your soul long to be loosed from the sins that are in you? Do you long to change your life? Have you experienced the tilling of the garden in your life in your circumstances where everything was turned upside down? The prayer of the Psalmist was cleanse though me from secret faults. Give God permission to take every skerrick of weed out of your life. If that is your desire then we have reason to thank God. Do you long to be in the image of Jesus Christ? Do you see Jesus Christ and long to be like him? Long to have his disposition of character, sympathy and love? Do you long for that? Do you thoroughly mourn over who you are? If this is what is coming, the ground is getting soft and this is good soil. If this is the good soil that is being ploughed over, all the weeds are passed away and behold all things are new, the garden bed is clean. If we receive that seed into good ground, it will spring forth and grow. I believe that many here have received Jesus Christ because the fruits thereof are manifest but although the garden bed has been cleaned and the plant is growing, we must not become at rest because weeds can come up again. A believer has received God’s word and the truth as it is in Jesus and received it into his soul.

Hebrews 6:1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, 2 Of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. 3 And this will we do, if God permit.

It is good to have every doctrine correct because that is the planting of the seed but the seed must grow. Those beliefs must come into action in your daily life. They must become manifest in what you do. Let’s not keep talking about the seed, lets plant it. Let’s keep that which God has created.

Hebrews 6:4 For [it is] impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, 5 And have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, 6 If they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put [him] to an open shame.

Christ may be planted in your heart, you may have tasted and become enlightened of the heavenly gift. You may have been partakers of the Holy Ghost and tasted of the good word of God and the powers of the world to come, you may have eaten of the tree of life but if you should fall away, you crucify the Son of God afresh. Jesus Christ died in order that the seed of what he created would be multiplied to spread in the hearts of men. When Jesus Christ died he said it is finished. The harvest had come. The grain was ripe. Perfection had come and that seed dies in the earth and comes forth to bring new life. If you have partaken of that and the seed has grown inside of you, be sure not to kill the plant.

Do you have another seed to plant? If you do not keep that tree this time then it is too late. We may have the most amazing experiences, but be not deceived, this side of glory, we need to keep our heart diligently for out of it are the issues of life. These two plants that are in the garden, one has to be kept to grow and one needs to be killed. If we pay all our attention in the favoured sins we have, we are not keeping the garden or seed that God has planted in us. We are killing it. If we kill it, there is no hope. We are not to trust our own thoughts or what is generated from our own being but that which comes from revelation by Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 55:6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.

God is calling us to forsake those noxious weeds, forsake them. As beautiful as they maybe, forsake it.

Isaiah 55:8 For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts, neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For [as] the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the thing] whereto I sent it. 12 For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap [their] hands. 13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the LORD for a name, for an everlasting sign [that] shall not be cut off.

God is proposing to renovate your garden but in this renovation comes much offense. Be offended at yourself. Forsake those weeds and say Lord have them all, I don’t’ want any of them. Keep his perfect will and word ever before you. Not mine own will but thine be done. That is how he planted that seed in Gethsemane. This needs to be the song of our day. This needs to be the sign post of everywhere we go. When his will is done, instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, instead of the briar. If Gods will is done, he will create Eden again. That plant will flourish into everlasting life. Let the weeds die.

1 Peter 1:24 For all flesh [is] as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

If your plant will die why wait till then and why not die today? Let his will preside in your life today. Come to Jesus and say I want you to take everything away from me. Some may say I’m not fit to come to Jesus that is no excuse. When you have a messy garden go to the gardener. There is no need to wait when everything is perfect, come to him now. Let him allow every slither of root be taken out of your life. God can change circumstances and propose a reformation in your heart. As you view your own life, is your life a tangle? Is it a real mess? Don’t despair.

The Lord is acquainted with us individually. Every one born into the world is given his or her work to do for the purpose of making the world better. . . . Each one has his sphere, and if the human agent makes God his counselor then there will be no working at cross purposes with God. {HP 228.2}

Your life may be so confusing and you don’t know where you are going or doing and may beseem a tangle, if you will submit to God and say plant me in your garden where you want me, if the gardener is trying to plant plants to make a well ordered garden and all the plants are doing their own thing, it won’t work. God wants a pliable plant so it will stay where he puts it.

He allots to every one a place and a work, and if we individually submit ourselves to be worked by the Lord, however confused and tangled life may seem to our eyes, God has a purpose in it all, and the human machinery, obedient under the hand of divine wisdom, will accomplish the purposes of God. As in a well-disciplined army every soldier has his allotted position and is required to act his part in contributing to the strength and perfection of the whole, so the worker for God must do his allotted part in the great work of God. {HP 228.2}

Isaiah 61:1 The spirit of the Lord GOD [is] upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to [them that are] bound; 2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; 3 To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.

Where do ashes come from? Fire. Have you been burnt? If not be burnt. Allow God to plant your garden. This garden that will spring forth is much more beautiful than that which was there before. The Sabbath day in Eden was all about the glory of God and what he had done in the garden. Do we propose to come to church on Sabbath and let him renovate our garden? Sabbath keeping can only be kept when our garden has been renovated.

Isaiah 61:11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations.

I invite you to yield your life to God 100% today. You may have done it in the past, do it again today. Say Lord take my life I give it to you and he will turn it into something you have not had before and will only be recognised in the great hereafter.

Amen.