The King’s Garden

THE KING’S GARDEN

KEY TEXT

Nehemiah 3:15 (ESV) – And Shallum the son of Col-hozeh, ruler of the district of Mizpah, repaired the Fountain Gate. He rebuilt it and covered it and set its doors, its bolts, and its bars. And he built the wall of the Pool of Shelah of the king’s garden, as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David.

                              INTRODUCTION

1. Famous ancient king’s garden

In the ancient days, kings built beautiful gardens apart from the grand palaces they built for themselves. The beauties of the gardens were a thing to celebrate and enjoy by the royalties at that time.

There have been many very famous king’s gardens, such as those “hanging gardens” in Nineveh (Babylon), where Sardanapalus delighted himself.

Hanging Garden

And there was that remarkable garden of King Cyrus, in which he took such great interest in, because, as he said, every tree and every plant in it had been both planted and tended by his own royal hands.

The Persian Garden

(2) The Modern Beautiful King’s Garden

Today, there are also many beautiful king’s gardens in this world worth our admiration and visit. We have the King’s Garden in Stockholm, Sweden.

King’s Garden in Stockholm

Also, there is this King’s Garden in Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen.

  King’s Garden in Copenhagen

Then there is the king’s garden in a world-famed resort named exactly as the KING’S GARDEN.

   The King’s Garden Resort

But today, I would like to call your attention to the one GARDEN where we can find far more beautiful flowers and rarer fruits. It is the GARDEN of the King of Kings, the Resort of His Son, the Prince Immanuel.

                  (3) Background of our Key Text

Nehemiah tells us that there was this literal place called the King’s Garden in Nehemiah 3:15 and he even mentions that there was a pool called the Pool of Shelah in the King’s Garden. We know this was one of the gardens built by King David or even King Solomon as Nehemiah describes that repair were made to the walls of the Pool of Shelah as far as the stairs that go down from the city of David. The city of David was built after David took over the throne as the King of Judah.

Studying the theme of the King’s Garden in the Bible, you will discover that there are six King’s Garden and each carries important spiritual truth and lessons for us.

                              (4) Title

This morning, I would like to share a sermon entitled, ‘THE KING’S GARDEN’.

Outline:

1. The Six King’s Garden in the Bible
2. Jesus – The Trampled Garden and Rose of Sharon

                              MAIN POINTS

• THE SIX KING’S GARDEN IN THE BIBLE

1. THE GARDEN OF PARADISE

This is the first of the six King’s Garden and it was located in Eden.

Genesis 2:8-10 – And the LORD God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers.

The Garden of Eden was doubtless a more beautiful garden than any gardens that are on this earth today.

Garden of Eden

It was also a fruitful garden where the man who was assigned to keep it, would have no need to toil. The man did not sweat as he cultivated the virgin soil in this garden. The man also did not have to worry about hunger as the garden bore abundance of luscious fruits to meet his physical needs. There was also no worry about the weeds, pest and bad weather as there was no winter’s wind to scatter the leaves of Eden; no summer’s heat to burn up its flowers. There were sweet alternations of day and night. The day brought no sorrow, and the night no danger. The beasts were there but they were not beasts of prey, but as the obedient servants of that happy man whom God had made to have dominion over all the works of his hands(Genesis 1:28-30).

But in the middle of the garden was that mysterious TREE OF LIFE which we know so little of LITERALLY, though we know so much in its SPIRITUAL meaning, because we have fed upon its fruits, and we have been healed by its leaves.

Then there was this TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL, placed there as the test of obedience(Genesis 2:16-17).

Adam was given the FREE WILL OF CHOICE. Yes! God left him to the freedom of his will, giving this as the test of his loyalty, that, if he was obedient, he would never touch the fruit of that one tree. Why should he? There were tens of thousands of trees, all with many low hanging fruits to satisfy Adam’s hunger. Adam really did not need that one solitary tree which God had forbidden.

But, in an evil hour, at the serpent’s evil suggestion, Adam put forth his hand and plucked the fruit from the forbidden tree! The mere plucking of the fruit seems nothing serious to us today, but the BREAKING OF THE MAKER’S LAW was a GREAT OFFENSE TO HEAVEN, for it was man’s DEFIANCE AGAINST HIS CREATOR, and BREAKING HIS ALLEGIANCE to his Lord and Master. This was a serious sin with fatal consequences because Adam fell that day, and he was driven out of Eden to till the thorn-bearing soil, and you and I fell in him, and were also banished with him. We were in his loins. He was “the father of us all,” and ON us he has brought the curse of toil, and IN us all he has sown the seeds of iniquity.

Let us never forget that the disobedience and rebellion of Adam and Eve that took place in the Garden of Eden has resulted in a sinful and fallen human race. Men are born no longer with perfection, but a heavy weight of original sin in our nature. We are averse to that which is good. We are always bent towards that which is evil, and we always go astray from God.

Let’s not be like the liberal thinkers who belittle the FALL because such kind of mindset is at the root of false theologies. The sin we inherited from the fall of Adam and Eve is not a trifling matter, but a thing to be trembled at. Only the divine hand can reclaim us.

“The house of manhood has been shaken to its foundations; each timber is decayed; the leprosy is in the tottering wall. Man must be made new by the same creating hand that first made him, or he never can be a dwelling place fit for God.”

Application: Today, if any of you are boasting of your natural goodness, look to the garden of Eden and be ashamed of your PRIDE. How can any of us who are born of woman be pure? “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing? Not one.” As our mothers were sinful, so are we, and so will our children be. As long as men are born of woman, we shall be “born in sin and sharpen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5)and, if we are to be accepted by God, we must be born again, and made new creation in Christ Jesus.

What a great tragedy for that first king’s garden! The flowers are gone; the birds have ceased to sing! The winter’s winds howl through it, and the summer’s sun scorches it! The beasts of prey are there. Perhaps the very garden is now “the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches” (Isaiah 34:13) – a place of desolation.

2. THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE

This is also known as the GARDEN OF THE OLIVE-PRESS, where the Lord Jesus Christ was the OLIVE, and God’s anger against sin was the PRESS.

Garden of Gethsemane

This is the garden where the Son of God was often found with his inner circle. Just as God walked in the first garden in Eden, so the Son of God walked in the second garden. Just as God in the first garden communed with man, so the Son of God also communed with his inner circle. Notice he had dismissed eight of his disciples and he brought only three of them – Peter, and James, and John — the chosen out of the eleven—with him to the Garden of Gethsemane. There, he bade them to watch and pray while he went further away to agonize before God in prayer.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the Son of God in prayer. As he prayed, his anguish intensified. He was striving with an unseen enemy— struggling like a man who would overcome an adversary, wrestling so vigorously that “His sweat was, as it were great drops of blood, falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44). He knew soon He was to drink the cup of Jehovah’s wrath, which was due to our sins, a cup which we could not have drunk ourselves even through eternity. Every drop of it had been HELL. Christ struggled so much at the thought of drinking that bitter cup of God’s wrath that He cried, “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Matthew 26:39).But He surrendered to God, and His prayer was, “Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39). Backwards and forwards you see Him go like a man in distress. Three times He looked to the disciples for comfort, but they were slumbering, and then again, He returned to His God and cast himself upon His face, with strong crying and tears, pouring out His soul in blood before heaven. Such is the anguish of His tortured heart.

And here lies the beginning of our redemption. It was here that Jesus began to suffer in our place, atoning for our iniquity. The sin of Eden fell upon Gethsemane.

When you look at Christ in the garden, He was all alone travailing in prayer with great anguish and despair. His inner circle was asleep. This is one wine press which Christ had to tread alone. And still He surrendered to that agony of aloneness so that today, He can redeem all the fallen human race back to His Father.

Application: What is your anguish today? What is your struggle of sin today? In your struggle against sin, have you resisted to the point of shedding your blood (Hebrew 12:4)? Christ did. He not only struggled in His prayer till He sweat drops of blood but He drank this cup of God’s wrath for you on the cross so that today, if you are struggling with sin, you will not die spiritually but God will turn this struggle as His discipline upon you as His children so that you will not be condemned along with the world. Today, if you are struggling in any sin, you are also not alone. Christ had been alone in the Garden of Gethsemane so that today in any of your struggle and anguish, you have his companionship and comfort.

As we remember the Garden of Gethsemane, let us repent that we have made Jesus suffer so, and yet with gladness, let’s be grateful that He has redeemed us from the ruins of the Fall.

     3.THE GARDEN OF THE BURIAL AND THE RESURRECTION

In Joseph’s Garden, in the new tomb, the Beloved of our souls slept for awhile, and then arose to His glory-life. Christ could not be detained in hell because He was no longer a lawful Captive. He had finished His work and earned His reward, and therefore the imprisoning stone was rolled away.

The tomb in the garden with stone rolled away

“He is not here, for he is risen” (Matthew 28:6) – the angel declared to the women who visited his tomb. The seal was broken, the guardswere dispersed, the stone was removed, the Captive was free.

As Jesus rose, so all his slumbering saints shall likewise leave the tomb. His resurrection is the resurrection of all the saints.  Just surely as the Lord came forth from the grave to glory and immortality, all His saints are justified and clean. None can accuse us now that the Lord has risen indeed and no more to die. “His one offering hath perfected for ever all the chosen ones”(Hebrews 10:14), and His glorious resurrection is the guarantee of their acceptance. Faith delights in the garden where Magdalene found her unknown, yet well-knownLord. Henceforth this Garden of Burial and Resurrection to us today has become a king’s garden, abounding with pleasant fruitsand fragrant flowers of hope and power.

4. THE GARDEN OF THE HUMAN HEART

The heart is a little garden. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; WHO CAN UNDERSTAND IT? (Jeremiah 17:9).

Our heart is “not a mere feeling but it is the seat of our deepest trusts, commitments and loves from which everything flows.” – Tim Keller.

Now, this human heart, is meant to be a garden for God.

A heart like a beautiful garden

Yet it is far from being one today. Look into our hearts today…….it is overgrown with weeds; thistle and brier and nettles.

    A heart with weeds and thorns

There are even trees in our heart but they drop with POISON, like the deadly upas [one of the deadliest vegetable products of creation], whose drip is death.

The poisonous upas tree

There are no luscious fruits, but instead there are grapes of Gomorrah and apples of Sodom. This loathsome den of festering evils is what should have been God’s Garden, but lo! it is a TANGLED WILDERNESS of all kinds of sins, perversion and iniquity.

What must be done to this neglected garden? What heavenly horticulture can be used to reclaim it from its desert state?

God, the GREAT GARDENER/VINEDRESSER, must come and break up the fallow ground and plough it again according to His perfect will. Our heart needs the ROUGH PLOW OF CONVICTION to drag through it.

A plough

The spade of trouble must break up the surface and smash in pieces the hard clays, and kill the weeds.

A spade

And fire must burn up the rubbish.

Fire burning up dead leaves

Application: Has that ever been done in the garden of your heart? Have you ever had your heart ploughed and cross ploughed and harrowed with SORROW till you are driven to despair? Have you seen your sweet sins killed, so that you could not take pleasure in them any longer, but desire to be totally free from them? That must be done if the garden is to be reclaimed and made worthy of the Divine Owner.

Then when the soil is broken up, and the clays are turned, there must be seed-sowing, and the planting of seeds from the Tree of Life, seeds from the nurseries of heaven, seeds that shall turn to flowers with sweet aroma, acceptable to Christ. The seeds of faith, and love, and hope, and patience, and perseverance, and zeal, must be carefully sown into the prepared soil by the Holy Spirit’s hand, and fostered by the same kindly care.

Before the heart can be called a garden fit for the King of kings, these must bud, and blossom and fruit-bearing.

Process of bud, blossom and fruit-bearing

You cannot sow and plant new seeds into your heart if it is covered with weeds -the weed of sins, carnality, worldly cares and pride. You have first to drain the soil. And nothing drains the wrong soil of our heart better than AFFLICTION. Affliction drains us. We do not like to have our money or our friends taken from us, and yet the love of these might ruin us for all fruit-bearing if God does not remove them.

Besides the draining, there must also be constant hoeing, and raking, and digging.

                  Pic of a hoe, rake, digging

After a garden is made, the flower-beds are never left long alone, the gardener must keep TENDINGit because if they are left to themselves, they would soon breed weeds again and return to the old sin. So, the hoe must be constantly kept going, if the garden is to be clean.

Application: So, with the garden of the heart; cleansing and pruning must be done every day, and God must do it through ourselves, and we must do it by constant self- examination and repentance, striving in the power of the Holy Spirit to keep ourselves free from the sins which do so easily beset us

The heart is the King’s Garden. Jesus bought it with His precious blood, and He has now by His grace come into it and claimed it to be His own.

Application: Have you opened up your heart to allow Jesus to come in? If you have not given your heart to him, I hope you may be led to do so by his gracious Spirit. If you have given your heart to Jesus, keep it solely for your Beloved! Do not give the keys to anyone else. The love of husband, wife, and child, each of these is to have its proper place, but the heart’s core is the King’s Garden. Mark you, it is not the husband’s garden, nor the wife’s garden, nor the child’s garden; the dearest idols we have known must not be set up there; it is the King’s Garden. May we pray this prayer, “O king, come into my garden, and eat my pleasant fruit! Awake, O heavenly wind, and blow upon the garden of my soul, and let all the plants of my new nature give forth their sweetness, that my Beloved may be charmed with my company, and that I may be filled with his sweet love.”

5. THE GARDEN OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH

The church of God is a garden.  It is called a garden in the book of Solomon’s Song.

But WHAT does a garden mean? What is a church?

• IT IMPLIES SEPARATION

A garden is not an open space; it is not a wilderness; it is walled around; it is hedged in. When you join the church as the member of His body, you are hedged in for King Jesus.

There should a wall of separation between the church and the world. The gap of this separation between the church and the world must be wide. If the Church compromises with the world by saying, “Well, there is no harm in LGBT, there is no harm in abortion; there is no harm in sex outside marriage; there is no harm in drunkenness; there is no harm in pornography; there is no harm in tattoos”, then that means the church’s gap with the world is getting smaller and if we are not careful, the church one day may look like the world. When a church becomes worldly in its world view and practices, that means there is great conformity of the church to the world and not to Christ and it points to one glaring truth -grace is at a low ebb in soul of the church leaders and members.

Application: As the Church of Christ, we are to avoid the very appearance of evil (1 Thessalonians 5:22). We must be a separated one or be lost. If you want to share a common ground with the world, you cannot be the garden. Keep the hedges up; keep the gates well bolted the king’s gardens must not be left open to thieves and robbers. “Be not conformed to the world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind” (Romans 12:2). The King’s Garden is a separated place— keep it so.

• IT IS A PLACE OF ORDER

The king’s garden is a place of order. You do not, when you go into your garden, find the flowers all put in anyhow, but the wise gardener arranges them according to their tints and hues, so that in the midst of summer the garden shall look like a rainbow that has been broken to pieces and let down upon the earth, delightful to gaze upon. All the path walks are well paved and the flower beds are all in proportion; the plants are well arranged.

The Butchart Gardens, Victoria, Canada

Application: So, shall the Christian Church be — pastors, elders, deacons and members, all in their proper places. The church is not a mere heap, but it is to be a palace built for God, a temple in which He manifests Himself. Let us all try to maintain order in the household of Christ, and above all things hate discord and confusion. Let us as leaders and members of the church know how to keep rank, maintaining a decent order and consistency in all things. May we never become a disorderly, disunited, irregular church. May there be order in the garden, preserved by the power of love and grace.

• IT IS A PLACE OF BEAUTY

 A garden is a place of beauty. Such should the Christian Church be.

You gather together all the beautiful flowers from all world, and put them in your garden. So, if there are no holiness, no love, no zeal, no prayerfulness outside in the world, we should be able to find these things in the church. We are not to take the world to be our guide, but we are to excel it. We must do more than others. The Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples that their “righteousness must exceed that of even the Scribes and Pharisees, or they could not enter the kingdom” (Matthew 5:20). So, any genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life than the best moralist, because Christ’s Garden ought to have the best flowers in all the world. Let us not put Christ off with withered and dying plants. The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls His own.

• IT IS A PLACE OF GROWTH

The king’s garden is a place of growth, too. No gardener would use soil that is not fit for the plants to grow.

Application: So, in the church of God, we are not introduced into fellowship to be always the same, always little children and babes in grace. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ(2 Peter 3:18).  All ministries in the church should be like a school of practical education for all our members. Growth is rapid where Jesus is the Gardener, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above.

• IT IS A PLACE OF REST

 A garden is a place of rest. When a man is in his garden, he does not expect to see all his customers walking down between the flower beds to do business with him. A garden is a place where you can be in solitude. So, the Lord Jesus Christ want us to reserve the church as a a place in which He can manifest Himself to us.

Application: The church is the king’s garden where we can quiet our heart before the Lord, meditate upon Him and muse upon His goodness and not let our hearts be overwhelmed with worry and trouble, like Martha, with much serving. The church is a place where we make more room in our heart for Christ and His word, like Mary, sitting at His feet. May the Lord grant us grace to keep our hearts as closed gardens for Christ to walk in.

WHOSE garden is it? Whose church is it?

The church is a garden, but it is the King’s garden. The church is not mine, nor yours, but the King’s. It is the King’s Garden, because He chose it for himself.

“We are a garden walled around, Chosen, and made peculiar ground; A little spot enclosed by grace, out of the world’s wide wilderness.”

We are the King’s, because He bought us. Naboth said he would not give up his vineyard, because he inherited it (1 Kings 21:3). So, Christ also inherited us by an indomitable (invincible) title.

Application: We are His heritage, and He has so dearly bought us with His own blood that He will never give us up. Hallelujah. We are His, because He has conquered us. He won us in fair fight, and now we acknowledge the validity of His title-deed, and confess, every one of us, as the members of His church, that we are His, and that He is ours.

What a nobility this gives to Christ’s church! Whenever the church meets, either as a whole or in small group, there is a solemn dignity cast upon that assembly which is not found in a parliament of state dignitaries like the recent G7 meeting in Europe. In all the world congress or international parliamentary meeting, Christ is not with them but He is with the poor and despised of His people who meet together as a church in Jesus Christ’s name. “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 20:20). The church is the King’s garden.

If the church be a garden, WHAT DOES IT NEED?

• LABOR

The church requires LABOR. In every Church, there should be:

1. Planters

You cannot keep a garden in proper order without work. The King’s Garden which is the Church needs many laborers, specifically planters. Planters here refer to real, hardworking soul-winners who are willing to gather all the young lambs just as they are born and carry them in their bosom a little while. They are those who take care of the new-comers and the young converts. They are known as FTV or follow-up workers in this church. Planters are like spiritual nurses who will give comfort to the broken-hearted and heal the souls of the wounded.

1. Overseers

In every church, there ought to be some to watch over those who are planted. When we receive members, we ought to look after them like a mature believer taking care of the younger ones. This will refer to the DJCG and mentors and spiritual leaders of every department.

1. Helpers of the straying

There should also be a little group in every church to help the straying or straggling.

Our vines will grow out of order and we must deal wisely with them and fasten them up in their places. We must be on the alert where we see backsliding begin. This refers to the ZP and the LAT.

1. Burners of rubbish

We need workers to burn up the rubbish and sweep up the leaves. In the best churches, there will always be some falling leaves. Somebody getting into conflict with another member. There will be members who are sinning secretly and when they confide in you, we need people who know how to keep things in confidence while you secretly counsel and help the sinning brother, rather than gossip about him behind his back and cause jealousies and suspicion. We need workers who can pick up the fallen leaf and destroy it. When a brother has offended you, causing you so angry, forgive him.  This is known as the peacemakers of this church. They do not accumulate the falling and dead leaves of discord but they clear it with forgiveness and peace, sweeping the garden of the king clean and tidy so that king Jesus delights in walking in his garden.

• NEW PLANTS

The king’s garden needs new plants too. Our King finds plants for His garden outside the wall. He then takes the wild olive branches and grafts them into the good olive and then the sap changes the nature. Jesus transplants weeds from the dunghill and makes them grow as lilies in the midst of his fair garden.

• RAIN AND SUNSHINE

Every garden needs sunshine. This church, if it has so many laborers, could never prosper without the dew of the Holy Spirit, and the sunshine of the Divine Favor. The King’s Garden wants rain and sunshine, and we cannot expect to have it without prayer. We need to pray that His Church will flourish and for His kingdom to come.

What does the King’s Garden produce?

• FRUITS

John 15:8- “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.”

Let our prayer be, not for fruit only, but for much fruit, and may God send it. Remember, if there be any fruit at all, it all belongs to the King. If a soul be saved, He shall have the glory of it. If there be any advance made in the great cause of truth and righteousness, the crown shall be put upon His head. The keepers of the vineyard shall have their hundreds, but the King himself shall have His ten thousand times ten thousand, for He deserves it all.

     6.THE GARDEN OF THE PARADISE ABOVE

Revelation 22:1-5- “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. In the midst of the street’ of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him: and they shall see his face; and his name shall be in their foreheads. And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.”

This is the ultimate garden that all of you should be in and that is the ultimate purpose of why Christ came – to restore the first Garden of Eden to be that ultimate garden where all the redeemed of the Lord shall be in one day. May we all be found at the last in this Garden of the Paradise above. Amen.

• JESUS – THE TRAMPLED GARDEN AND ROSE OF SHARON

Human history begins with the first king’s garden that was defiled by the rebellion and disobedience of Adam and Eve. But a second Adam, Jesus came 2000 years ago. His goal is to redeemed this fallen human race, whose natural heart’s instinct is sin. He travailed in the Garden of Gethsemane and finally He became THE GARDEN, plowed and harrowed by the hoes and spade of God’s wrath.  He took upon His own body all our accursed hearts ridden with weeds, brittles and briers. He was that ROSE OF SHARON trampled on the ground. He took Adam and Eve’s fall. He took our fall by allowing His perfect garden to be ravaged by the evil designs of the devil and evil world. Remember, He was crucified with the fruits of the fallen garden – the THORNS as His crown, the cross made from TREES by which He was crucified upon so that today He could plant in us a new seed – a new heart and a new nature in a new spiritual garden called THE CHURCH– His manifested presence in this world. In this new spiritual garden called THE CHURCH, He has transplanted us from the evil world to His new garden bought by His blood so that we can grow, love and commune with Him and also to be His co-laborers in this garden. But the church is a foreshadow of the ultimate garden – the Garden of Paradise.

CONCLUSION

Just as Nehemiah made repairs in the King’s Garden, let us allow the Holy Spirit to make that same repair in our human hearts and even in this church. Let’s recognize that Jesus is our ultimate Vinedresser or the Gardener. He is the king of our new heart. His ultimate goal is to make us into the King’s Garden. In order to do so, we need to be willing to let Him break up our fallow heart, plow, drain and plant, prune and tend our heart so that we can be like Him radiating with the beauty and fruits of Christ. We will be the sweet-smelling flowers in the king’s garden, exuding the sweet aroma of life and bearing the fruits of Christ’s character and above all, carrying the fruitfulness- the blessing of Christ in us and around us.