THE GARDEN OF GOD
[p. 458] THE GARDEN OF GOD
Genesis 3:8 - 10; Song of Songs 4:12 - 16; Song of Songs 5:1
It has often occurred to me that whatever God introduces in the way of testimony, He never relinquishes; although it may disappear for a time, it comes to view in the end. He has His own way of recovering it. Generally it is, that the thing is introduced in a material way, and as such it disappears; and then it is restored in a spiritual way. I say that, so that we may have before us that if we are recovered for God, we are recovered in a spiritual way. We are not recovered to be re-established on earth in a material way; we are recovered to have part in what is spiritual. A christian may be blessed in temporal things, or he may not be; that is entirely a matter of God’s governmental dealings, but there is no doubt as regards his being blessed spiritually. If God has been pleased to work in our souls, it is that we might be blessed spiritually, and there is no uncertainty about that. The blessing which God has in store for us is, one may say, illimitable. He takes us up for the very greatest things. That is what is peculiar to this present dispensation. There will be a gospel after this present dispensation, but it will not be characterised as the gospel of the glory, 1 Timothy 1:11.
The “everlasting gospel” (Revelation 14:6) and the “gospel of the kingdom” (Matthew 4:23) are spoken of, but the gospel of the glory is the present gospel; it includes all the others, for no saint, whether in the past or future, will have anything in the way of spiritual blessing that God does not propose for us now. Of christians it is written, “Blessed us with every spiritual blessing”, Ephesians 1:3. That was a letter written to believers in Christ in [p. 459] the city of Ephesus; and it was said of them that God had blessed them with every spiritual blessing. Where? On earth? No; material blessings belong to the earth; there are those who will be blessed with material blessings in a future day on earth. Christians are blessed, not with those, but with spiritual blessings in the heavenlies. Now, that is part of the gospel. So that, if God has begun to work in you, He has in view that you should have part in what is spiritual; and that you should have part in that, not on the earth, but in heaven. That is the full height of the glad tidings.
So that, as I was saying, recovery is in a spiritual way; and if God reverts to the idea of a garden, it is in a spiritual sense. Now you can all understand what a garden is. If there is anything that marks Scripture, it is the simplicity of its similes. Everybody, from a child up, may form some idea of a garden; it is a distinct part set aside by the farmer, or the landed proprietor, for his special use. Now God was pleased to introduce that idea. God has rights over all men. We must not limit the rights of God to believers; the Lord Jesus Christ has established His indisputable right to all, even though a man be an infidel. Do not forget that. He may not have put His mark on you yet; He would never claim you as His special property as an unbeliever; but He has a right to claim you. It is one thing to have a right, and it is another thing to assert it.
Now the believer has a mark put upon him. It is very important to determine whether you have that mark or seal. The gift of the Holy Spirit is referred to in three distinct ways by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:21; he says, “he that ... has anointed us, is God”; that is to say, oil is poured on your head; you are distinguished; an anointed man is a distinguished man. The believer gets the Holy Spirit from Christ, and the possession of this Spirit [p. 460] distinguishes him from all others who have not the Spirit; he is anointed. Anointing is not an internal thing; it is an external thing; it is on the head.
Now, the next thing is that God has sealed us. He has sealed believers. He marks them off as His own; it is for us to determine whether it is so. You remember how Paul raised the question with the Ephesian saints. There were twelve believers there. He says, “Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye had believed?”, Acts 19:2. It was for them to answer. It is a very pertinent question. You are a believer; or you are a professed believer. Where is the seal? God’s thought is that you should be sealed as one who is redeemed. It is a wonderful thought that God would put a distinct stamp upon you, and that stamp is the testimony that you are His. He has bought you; you are His. What is the price? The blood of Jesus. That is current money, speaking reverently; that is, the currency of the sanctuary. You are purchased by the blood of God’s own Son; you belong, in that sense, to God, and you have the seal; but, as I said, it is for you to answer to that.
Then the next thing in regard to the Spirit is, that He is given as the earnest in our hearts. That is not the external mark; that is something for our hearts. Do you not need something in your heart? The Spirit in us is the earnest of coming good things; things which “eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him”, 1 Corinthians 2:9. Thus you have means spiritually. There are many people who have nothing to live on; and they turn to the world. What is the earnest for? That is something to live on. Is it not a handsome income? The Spirit is life, says the apostle writing to the Romans. ‘Oh well’, you say,
‘[p. 461] I want to see a bit of life’. You want to taste a little of the world; you want to prove it for yourself. Ah! but you will not see life. You will see death there; “the dead are there”, Proverbs 9:18.
Well now, recovery is on this principle; and if God returns to the idea of a garden, He recovers it in a spiritual way. You may ask, ‘What is the garden?’ Your heart is the garden; that is the garden that God is looking for now. I will come to that presently. He had a garden in Eden; planted eastward in Eden. He made it in every way suited for the satisfaction of the man; it offered every possible means of satisfaction for man; it was a place of delights. But then it was not only to be for man. God was to have something to say in it. I have thought of the river that flowed into it. You remember that a river rose in Eden; the river did not have its rise in the garden; it rose in Eden, and it flowed into the garden. Now what that signifies is that God intended to influence the garden; a river is a source of influence; it flowed into the garden as one river, or stream, and it flowed out as four. Thus God indicated that the antitype, the gift of the Holy Spirit from heaven flowing into the hearts of believers, should be universal in its influence. Four is a symbol of what is universal.
As to the river in Eden, God intended to have a hold on the garden; He was to influence it; His river flowed into it, and flowed out of it; and, moreover, as the verse I read stated, God came into it Himself. Now I want you to dwell on that. The general idea is that God would have a special place for man, and He would influence the place for good. Think of the continuous stream flowing into it, influencing it with its refreshing power. Everything in the garden would benefit by that river; and then God Himself came into the garden. What I want to show you is this, that He found no response [p. 462] to Himself in it. The trees ministered nothing to God, Adam was so constituted that they could minister to him; but they could minister nothing to God. God is a Spirit, and material things do not minister to Him; they are all to disappear. But there was something that God had placed in Adam that was not material; something that could respond to Him.
There is something in you, and in me, and in every one, that is not material; there is something that is in its nature spiritual. God had breathed into Adam; that was not material; He had breathed into Him His own breath. You remember how Solomon tells us later that the spirit returns to God who gave it. The question is not raised as to what God may do with it; but the wicked are limited to the lake of punishment. The spirit returns to God who gave it, and the body to dust. But God had breathed into Adam, and it was the answer to this that God sought in Adam, but He did not find it; Adam had become corrupted. Man has become corrupted in his spirit, his soul, and his body. The spirit, that which was nearest to God, became corrupted. It is a terrible thing to think of it; and when it became corrupted, and the link cut between God and man, the whole being is lost. Adam said, “I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid”. Adam and Eve heard the voice of God, but their spirits had become corrupted. Is it so with you? Have you any appreciation of Christ, or of the things of Christ? If you have not, your spirit is corrupted. It is so with every unconverted man: he is corrupted in that part of him which is nearest to God, and thus the whole man is lost to God. We think very little about what it was to God to come into the garden in which He had placed Adam, and to find no response. The voice heard indicated God’s authority in the garden. He was stepping into His own [p. 463] garden. God never gave up the idea of a garden. He has it now in those who love Him. I need not dwell here on Adam’s sin. You are all acquainted with the history of the fall, as we speak of it. All I wish to dwell upon is, that God reserves His right to come into the garden with His voice looking for response, and He found none.
Now, when you come to Solomon’s Song, you find the simile of the garden again. It refers to the last days, as no doubt many of you here know; and the song is a celebration of Christ’s victory over His earthly people, His triumph over their affections in the future. In the course of the interchange of expression in the book, we arrive at the garden. Now I want you to consider this garden. I believe that most of you here are professed believers. You have heard the gospel, and most of you have professed to have accepted it. Now let me ask, What are you in the Lord’s eye? He speaks of His spouse as His sister; a remarkable way to speak of her. A man’s spouse is not usually his sister, but in this connection it must be so. You get the principle of it in Abraham, in Isaac, and in Jacob.
The speaker in the Song of Songs says, “A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed”, Song of Songs 4:12. There is no invitation in verse 12, but when you come to verse 16 there is an invitation to the Beloved, “Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits”. God has reached His end; there is a garden now into which He can come on invitation. God loves that. He has a right to the garden, but He loves an invitation to it. Now where is your heart? Where are your affections, dear young believer? Are you a garden inclosed, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed? No one can go into a barred garden; nor is a spring shut up or a fountain sealed available to others. [p. 464] You have the water, and the fruits; you have the principles of these things in you, but who gets the benefit of them?
I have been raising the question whether you have the Holy Spirit. If you have the Holy Spirit, as a believer, you have all these things in principle; but are you shut up? Now the Lord proceeds to say, “Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices”, Song of Songs 4:13,14. How He honours you! He speaks well of you. Your neighbour could scarcely speak to you like that, if the garden is barred up; He would say, perhaps, that you were selfish. The Lord honours you. He tells you how much you have that pleases Him. “Pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard, spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices”. Everything that is delightful is there, but see to it, beloved friends, that after you have the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit is not grieved. As possessing the Spirit, you have all these things in principle; you have all that God delights in, all that Christ delights in. He encourages your heart by telling you that you have them. I am saying that for the encouragement of the Lord’s people, and for all, for everyone here present.
Well now, if it is shut up, or barred, if the fountain is sealed, what will the Lord do? Be on the watch; there is the “north wind”; and the north wind is the piercing wind. It says, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden”. Look out; the north wind is coming. Do you think, that the Lord Jesus, having put all that there,
[p. 465] is going to allow it to remain stagnant? Oh no. He knows what He has put there. If there is anything I cherish it is that the Lord knows all about me; if He has put anything in my heart, He knows where He has put it; and He knows how to value it. Peter recognised that; he said, “thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee”, John 21:17. The Lord indicates that here; but He will not reserve all that enjoyment to Himself; He wants others to share it. You may say, ‘The Lord knows what is in my heart’. Does He? Well, if He does, He will see to it that others shall know what is there also. Do not call upon the Lord too quickly in that way.
If you say the Lord knows there is something in your heart, the Lord may bring the winds upon you that others may know it as well. He has put it there for that purpose. Everybody knew afterwards that Peter loved Jesus. But though Jesus knew it already He would have it made manifest to others; and before Peter passed out of the world, others knew he loved Jesus. The Lord passed him through the discipline; He caused the north wind to blow that others should know it. One of the most common expressions amongst christians is, ‘The Lord knows all about me’. Well, if He has placed something within you for Himself, He would have others know it also. The word is, “Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out”. The spices; not the flesh, the back-biting, the sarcasm — no, the spices. The north wind does not bring out the flesh; the north wind brings out what God has put there, the spices; that is, love, sympathy, consideration for others, care for others; these are the spices that the Lord will bring out. How often one has seen in the discipline of christians that the north wind, the wind of affliction, blows, and the hardened spirit becomes soft, and there comes respect for God, and [p. 466] the things of God, and respect for His people, appreciation of their sympathy, and response to it.
Now, when all that has taken place there is an invitation. You are prepared for the Lord to come into His garden. The invitation is to the Beloved. The One who has brought the north wind into activity is your friend. “Let my beloved come into his garden”, she says, “and eat his pleasant fruits”. Do you say how does that work out practically? Well, you have a place in your heart for the saints. If you do not want the Lord’s people, you do not want the Lord. We were saying a few nights ago, that Simon the Pharisee invited the Lord, but he did not invite His disciples. If you want the Lord in your garden, you will want His disciples in your garden; they are bound up with Him; that is the principle. And the next thing you get in chapter 5:1, is that the Lord can invite His friends. He says, “Eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved”. The Lord can invite now.
Speaking in a general way, the garden really has reference to the saints. The Lord has a special spot here upon earth that He cherishes; and He desires to have a place in it. I would ask each of you before the Lord to look to it, as to whether your heart is open for the Lord, as to whether you have a place in it for Him, and for His people. If you have, you are answering to God’s garden in the spiritual way. You are the Lord’s property, and you give Him an opportunity, as it were, to invite others.
May the Lord help us in the apprehension of these things.