Garden of YOUR Heart

I. Intro

II. Cool of the Day

III. SANCTIFICATION {Sola Scriptura}

IV. JUSTIFICATION {Sola Scriptura}

V. Think on These Things in Your Garden

VI. Love in Your Garden

VII. Cry of the Garden

VIII. Prayer in the Garden

IX.  Lesson for YOUR Garden from the Garden of Eden

X. Question in the Garden

XI. Quit Focusing on Self

XII. Lesson from the Gardener

XIII. Cornerstone Commandment to Hedge in YOUR Garden

XIV. Fruits that should Grow in YOUR Garden

XV. Alone in YOUR Garden

XVI. Stillness in YOUR Garden via Sola Scriptura

XVII. Only 2 Garden Options

I. Intro

In Scripture, the Lord compares your heart to a garden: 

Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: 

and their soul shall be as a watered garden; 

and they shall not sorrow any more at all. 

Jeremiah 31:12

II. Cool of the Day

Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.
Revelation 3:20

"My soul, now that the cool of the day has come,
retire awhile and hearken to the voice of thy God.

If there be any slowness to commune it is not on His part, but

altogether on thine own, for He stands at the door and knocks,
and if His people will but open He rejoices to enter.
Q: But in what state is my heart, which is my Lord's garden? 

O Jesus, my well-beloved, plant fresh flowers in my garden, such as I see blooming in such perfection in Thy matchless character!
Sweet is the cool twilight, when every star seems like the eye of heaven, and the cool wind is as the breath of celestial love."
Charles Spurgeon

III. SANCTIFICATION {Sola Scriptura}

Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, 

--but with the Spirit of the living God; 

--not in tables of stone, 

--but in fleshy tables of the heart.

--through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience....

If ye love Me, keep My commandments. 

He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, 

he it is that loveth Me: 

--He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar....

When I was a child, 

I spake as a child, 

I understood as a child, 

I thought as a child: 

--but when I became a man, 

--I put away childish things.

2 Corinthians 3:3/1 Peter 1:2/John 14:15,21/1 John 2:4/1 Corinthians 13:11

IV. JUSTIFICATION {Sola Scriptura}

If we confess our sins, 

--He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, 

--and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Not by works of righteousness which we have done, 

but according to His mercy He saved us, 

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.

--For ye are bought with a price:

by the washing of regeneration....And from Jesus Christ, ... the first begotten of the dead, ....Unto Him that loved us, 

--and washed us from our sins in His own blood.

1 John 1:9/Titus 3:5/Isaiah 53:5/1 Corinthians 6:20/Revelation 1:5

V. Think on These Things in Your Garden

Finally, brethren, 

--whatsoever things are true, 

--whatsoever things are honest, 

--whatsoever things are just, 

--whatsoever things are pure, 

--whatsoever things are lovely, 

--whatever is admirable,

if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, 

think on these things.
Philippians 4:8 NIV

"We should carefully study the Bible, asking God for the aid of the Holy Spirit, that we may understand His word.
--We should take one verse, and concentrate the mind on the task of ascertaining the thought which God has put in that verse for us." E.G.W.

VI. Love in Your Garden

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have

not LOVE, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.

And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not LOVE, I am nothing. 

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not LOVE, it profiteth me nothing.
LOVE suffereth long, and is kind; 

LOVE envieth not; 

LOVE vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 

Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, 

is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 

Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 

LOVE never faileth: 

--but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; 

--whether there be tongues, they shall cease; 

--whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

And now abideth faith, hope, LOVE, these three; 

but the greatest of these is LOVE.

1 Corinthians 13:1-8.13

VII. Cry of the Garden

For I delight in the law of God.....But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind...
Q: Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
A: God forbid.

O wretched man that I am! 

who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

But as for me, my feet were almost gone; 

my steps had well nigh slipped.

For I was envious at the foolish, 

when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

*Until I went into the sanctuary of God; 

then understood I their end.

--Have mercy upon me--

O God, according to thy lovingkindness:

 according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies 

blot out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

Create in me a clean heart, O God; 

and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from Thy presence; 

and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.

Then will I teach transgressors Thy ways; 

and sinners shall be converted unto Thee.

Romans 7:22,23/Psalm 73:2,3,17/Psalm 51:1,2,10,11,13

VIII. Prayer in the Garden

"Keep your wants,
your joys,
your sorrows,
your cares,
and your fears before God.
You cannot burden Him;
you cannot weary Him.
He who numbers the hairs of your head is not indifferent to the wants of His children. "The Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." James 5:11.

His heart of love is touched by our sorrows 

and even by our utterances of them.

--Take to Him everything that perplexes the mind.

--Nothing is too great for Him to bear, for He holds up worlds, He rules over all the affairs of the universe.
--Nothing that in any way concerns our peace is too small for Him to notice.
--There is no chapter in our experience too dark for Him to read; there is no perplexity too difficult for Him to unravel.

--no sincere prayer escape the lips, of which our heavenly Father is unobservant, or in which He takes no immediate interest.
......He knows the sorrows that we feel to the depths of our being, but which we cannot express."
E.G.W.

IX. Lesson for YOUR Garden 

from the Garden of Eden

"THE history of the human appetite is indeed a sad one.
*The Creator designed that the appetite should be man’s servant, not his master.
*It was to be subordinate to the moral and intellectual faculties.
This truth is seen in God’s first prohibitory declaration to man: 

Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat:
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die.

Genesis 2:16,17
--God made man upright, and endowed him with powers of mind far

above those of any other creature living upon the earth.
--He placed him upon probation, that he might form a character for the glory of the Creator, and for his own happiness.
The first great moral lesson which the innocent pair of Eden were to learn, was self-control.
God appeals to man’s nobler powers. 

He graciously gives him all he needs for the delights of taste, and for the support of life.
And it was for man’s moral good, to say the least, that his eating from the tree of knowledge was prohibited.
Of all the trees of the garden he might freely eat, save one.
In this prohibition, the Creator places the appetite under the watchcare and guardianship of the moral and intellectual powers.

Man alone is responsible for the moral and physical wretchedness under which the race suffers. 

There was no necessity for Eve to yield to the tempter; and Adam is quite as inexcusable."
James White

X. Question in the Garden

"When we sin,
we sin with an emphasis;

ours is a crying offence, 

because we are so peculiarly indulged.

If an angel should lay his hand upon us when we are doing evil,
he need not use any other rebuke than the question,

"What thou? 

What dost thou here?"

Be honest with thine own soul, and make sure that thou art a new creature in Christ Jesus; but when this is sure, walk jealously, lest any should again be able to say, "Even thou wast as one of them." Obadiah 1:11
Thou wouldst not desire to share their doom,
Q:  why then be like them here?"
Charles Spurgeon

XI. Quit Focusing on Self

"When the mind dwells upon self,

it is turned away from Christ,

the source of strength and life.

Hence it is Satan's constant effort to keep the attention diverted from the Savior and thus prevent the union and communion of the soul with Christ.
*The pleasures of the world,
*life's cares and perplexities and sorrows,
*the faults of others,
*or your own faults and imperfections--to any or all of these he will seek to divert the mind.
Do not be misled by his devices. 

Many who are really conscientious, 

and who desire to live for God,
he too often leads to dwell upon their own faults and weaknesses, 

and thus by separating them from Christ he hopes to gain the victory.
*We should not make self the center and indulge anxiety and fear as to whether we shall be saved. 

All this turns the soul away from the Source of our strength. 

Commit the keeping of your soul to God, and trust in Him. 

Talk and think of Jesus. 

Let self be lost in Him. 

Put away all doubt; dismiss your fears. 

Say with the apostle Paul, "I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, *who loved me, *and gave Himself for me." Galatians 2:20. Rest in God."

E.G.W.

XII. Lesson from the Gardener

Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? 

She, supposing Him to be the gardener, .....And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed.
John 20:15/Genesis 2:8
"Take a lesson from the gardener.
If he wishes a plant to grow he cultivates and trims it; 

he gives water, 

he digs about its roots, 

plants it where the sunshine will fall upon it, 

and day by day he works about it; 

and not by violent efforts, but by acts constantly repeated, he trains the shrub until its form is perfect and its bloom is full.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ

works upon the heart and mind as an educator.

The continued influence of His Spirit
upon the soul trains and molds and fashions
the character after the divine model.
Let the youth bear in mind that
--a repetition of acts, forms habits,
--and habit, character...." 

E.G.W.

XIII. Cornerstone Commandment 

to Hedge in YOUR Garden

"Thou shalt not covet,"(Exodus 20:17/the 10th Commandment) forbids the cherishing of the first germ of the desire that leads to all evil and all misery."
George Fifield

XIV. Fruits that should Grow in YOUR Garden 

But the fruit of the Spirit is 

love, joy, peace, longsuffering, 

gentleness, goodness, faith, 

Meekness, temperance: 

against such there is no law.

Galatians 5:22,23

XV. Alone in YOUR Garden

Where Were They?

Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, 

being bound in affliction and iron;

Why?

Because they rebelled against the words of God, 

and contemned the counsel of the most High:

Then............

...they fell down, and there was none to help.

Then What?

Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, 

and He saved them out of their distresses. 

He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, 

and brake their bands in sunder.

The Result:

Oh that men would praise the LORD for His goodness, 

and for His wonderful works to the children of men!

They that go down to the sea in ships, 

that do business in great waters; 

These see the works of the LORD,

and His wonders in the deep. 

For He commandeth, 

and raiseth the stormy wind, 

which lifteth up the waves thereof. 

They reel to and fro, 

and stagger like a drunken man, 

and are at their wits' end. 

 Then they cry unto the LORD

in their trouble,

and He bringeth them

out of their distresses.

He maketh the storm a calm,

so that the waves thereof are still. 

Psalm 107:10-15,22,23

XVI. Stillness in YOUR Garden 

via Sola Scriptura

Be still, and know that I am God:.......

--For I am persuaded,

that neither death, nor life,

nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,

nor things present, nor things to come,

Nor height, nor depth,

nor any other creature,

shall be able to separate us from the love of God,

which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Psalm 46:10/Romans 8:38,39

XVII. Only 2 Garden Options

My doctrine shall drop as the rain, 

My speech shall distil as the dew, 

as the small rain upon the tender herb, 

and as the showers upon the grass:

*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: 

For the earth which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessing from God: 

*But that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected, and is nigh unto cursing; whose end is to be burned.
Deuteronomy 32:2/Isaiah 55:10/Hebrews 6:7,8