The Lord's Garden ...
The Lord Jesus Christ has a garden. It is the company of all who are true believers in Him. They are His garden and the obedience of His children is a refreshing sweet aroma to Him.
Jesus calls His people a garden because they are sweet and beautiful to His mind and altogether different from the world.
He calls His people a garden because He delights to walk among them and sup with them and they with Him. He calls His people a garden because they are useful and bear fruit and flowers.
The Lord's garden has a distinctive peculiarity about it. It is a garden enclosed. They are enclosed by the special love of God the Son. The Lord Jesus is the Savior of all men but He is specially the Savior of those who believe. He has power over all flesh but He gives eternal life to those who put their trust in Him. He shed His blood on the cross for all but He only washes those who have part in Him. He puts in them new hearts, new minds, new tastes, new desires, new sorrows, new joys, new wishes, new pleasures, new longings. He gives them new eyes, new ears, new affections, new opinions. He makes them new creatures. They are born again and with a new birth they begin a new existence.
Mighty indeed is the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. The believer and the world are completely and everlastingly separated. One is part of the garden enclosed, and the other is not. Blessed be God for this, that we are a garden enclosed.
The Lord's flowers all grow. True believers are never the same for long. It is their desire to go on from grace to grace, strength to strength, knowledge to knowledge, faith to faith, holiness to holiness.
Believers have many things in common, one Lord, one faith, one baptism of the Spirit, one hope, one foundation, one reverence for the Word, one delight in prayer, one newness of heart. All His flowers are useful, none must be despised. And yet His garden contains widely different sorts.
There is one thing about the Lord's garden, which is nothing like the world's flowers. The flowers of this world all die and come to nothing at last. It is not so with the Lord's flowers. The children of grace can never die. The Lord is continually coming down to His garden and gathering His lillies, laying flowers to rest in His bosom, one after the other. The Lord’s flowers may sleep for a season but they shall all rise again.
When the Lord comes again the second time, He shall bring His people with Him. His flowers shall live once more—more bright, more sweet, more lovely, more beautiful, more glorious, more pure, more shining, more fair. They shall have a glorious body like their Lord's and shall flourish forever in the courts of our God.
The Lord Jesus would gladly transplant you. He would gladly add you to the number of His beloved ones. He knocks at the door of your heart. He whispers to your conscience, "Awake, arise, repent, be converted, and come away."
Do not turn away from Him who speaks. Resist not the Holy Spirit. Do not choose your place in the wilderness but in the garden. Awake, arise, and turn away from the world.
The wilderness or the garden. Which will you have?
If the wilderness, you will have your own way, run wild, grow to waste, bring forth fruit and flowers to yourself, become a barren, unprofitable, useless plant, live unloved and unlovable to yourself, and at last be gathered in the bundle with the tares and burned in hell.
If His garden, you will not have your own way. But you will have what is far better. You will have God and Christ for your own. You will be cultivated, watered, tended, moved, pruned, trained by the Lord Jesus Himself and at the last, your name shall be found in the eternal paradise, garden of the Lord.
You are my private garden, My treasure, My bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain. (Song of Solomon 4:12)
No comments:
Post a Comment