The Tale of Three Gardens

I want to tell you what the greatest law is the greatest law is the Christianity is just a religion among other religions is that Jesus Christ is a savior, and he may be my Savior. Some people claim but is not the Savior of the world that all roads lead to God and into the light that Christ is a mere founder of a religion. I wanted to hear because that's important in many ways that a lot of ways I can show you how to refute this but the aim is not to refute the greatest live for the sake of refuting because you can often win the argument and lose the person and that is not our desired our love for them compels us to help deliver them from the judgment that's coming upon the world but make no mistake about it, believing this greatest lie will not get people into eternity in heaven. It will get them into eternity in a place that Jesus calls hell and by the way, I never joke about hell. An old man told me to use in years and years ago when I began my ministry.

So don't ever joke about hell because real people going there and that is why our love compels us to tell them the truth to explain the truth patiently, lovingly and in this message and the next I'm going to give you indisputable truth. That is why Jesus and Jesus alone is the truth, and the only giver of eternal life. I want to show you how that anyone who would say to you, Jesus is my Savior, but is not every body is Savior, the already knee-deep in the greatest lie and they need to discover the truth if they are to have it on the life in heaven and the first proof about the Christian faith to be the truth, and the only life-giving faith is found in the unity of the Scripture and the unity of the Bible and I want to talk to you about this today. Most of the other religions called the sacred books of the sacred Scriptures that a hodgepodge of moral and ethical rules by which you how to live and how to do this and including every detail of your life and even then they tell you you really have absolutely no way of connecting with God personally. So far removed our Bible is a compendium that has a beginning and an end and the end reflects the beginning and the beginning reflects the end in the opening chapters of the Bible there is a garden and 1600 years later the last writer in the Bible concludes the Bible was another garden in the beginning, the first garden. The garden of Eden.

It was a place of peace and a place of protection. It was a place where our first parents received their life.

It was a place where Adam and Eve came together in marriage.

It was a place where they experience intimacy and fellowship with the Almighty God, the creator of the universe and at the end of time. There were also be another garden but not final garden will not be entered into by everybody all what I long that would be the case but that is not the case and when explained to because that final garden is the new Jerusalem that is coming down from heaven, and Revelation 22, 103 describes the beautiful gardens. This way the river of the water of life as clearest crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city on each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing 12 crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations no longer were overly bitter and a curse.

I can't wait to get there in the beginning, the first garden.

The garden of Eden curses came into that garden death came into the garden by humanity wide simply because they disobeyed God they distrusted the only plan of God. They distrusted the word of God and all of us followed suit in the last garden. There is a tree of life in all of this tree of life river of life. It's all basically explanation that it would be yielding life eternal. For everyone who will enter into that final garden in the first garden or curses and death came to the world in the last garden is going to be healing and no death, no more. The Bible said all authors are going to be wiped out, there will be no diseases and no illnesses, no separation, no pain, no death. The first garden, Adam and Eve bought into Satan's greatest lie and we followed suit, but in the last garden, Jesus who is the truth, and the only giver of eternal life will be there in the garden, physically eliminating it and giving it a slight from the first garden we all inherited the curse of sin and this is a key beloved, listen carefully, and that is why God said that you cannot get to the final garden until you have gone through the middle garden you started with a garden ended with the garden but in the middle. There is another garden in that middle garden is of vital important. See that's where the unity of the Bible comes in the middle garden is the garden of Gethsemane and no one can enter into the final last garden without going through the garden of Gethsemane. How by following the one who went through the garden of Gethsemane him a lot of this one that middle garden is the only way to the final garden. The middle garden is halfway between Genesis and Revelation there in the middle garden, Jesus prayed before the crucifixion and he prayed with such intensity until he was sweating blood in the first garden. The first human beings fell into Satan's temptation in the first garden. Our first parents disobeyed God, all but in the middle garden. The last Adam. Jesus Christ faced more intense temptation.

Then Adam has ever faced, and yet he was victorious over Satan's temptation, he didn't fall for. He had victory and he is willing to share that victory with everyone who would come to him in the first garden, Adam and Eve rejected God's only plan for salvation, but in the middle garden, the perfect son of God was tempted to reject God's only plan of salvation Satan tempted him throughout his earthly life to find some shortcuts some other way other than the cross because Satan knew that that middle garden is the only way to heaven, but Jesus won the victory over Satan. The last Adam. Jesus resisted the temptation of the devil, and he paid the price on a tree for everyone who would come to him in humility and repentance and faith in the first garden, Adam and Eve took from the tree in the middle garden. The last Adam. Jesus Christ hung on a tree in the first garden, Adam rejected the will of God. But in the middle garden. The last Adam. Jesus said God will be done, not my will but yours. And he said I will drink the cup if that is your will, for the salvation of everyone who would come to me and in that very submission to the will of the father.

He crushed Satan's head.

Just as God said in Genesis 315. Jesus is not the founder of Christianity.

Christianity was founded in Genesis 315. That's the whole purpose of God's plan.

From the very beginning when Adam and he fell.

He said URC is going to crush Satan's head and there in that middle garden, Jesus crushed Satan's head by going into the tree by going into the cross and hang in there and dying there when he did this he did not only arrest the deeds that Adam lost to Satan by his disobedience, but he opened the door for everyone who would come to him and only those who come to him to enter in the final garden. See only way there is no other way. There is no way otherwise for bullish. There's no other way for Hindus. There is no other way for Muslims. There's no other way for religious people in our church going people. There's only one way and that is through Jesus Christ in the first garden, Adam and Eve yield to Satan, and they believe the greatest lie but in the middle garden.

Jesus obeyed the father drink the cup of judgment on behalf of everyone who would believe in him in Adam all of humanity, received the curse of sin and disobedience and death made in Christ, the last Adam, and only in Christ we can receive the gift and the blessings of eternal life that we would have peace here on earth in our hearts with him and relating to him, but please for eternity is the key to the people think it's cute to say well your Jesus is my Savior, but is not the world savings are told in the last message they basically saying that my Savior is a liar is my Savior, but is not a residence or when he said I am the truth, and the only way that only give a lot, but he was lying and yet that's preach from thousands of pulpits across the length because in the middle garden when Jesus obeyed the father he undid for everyone who believes in him.

What's Adam and Eve did in the garden of Eden, and you seem those who buy into the greatest lie that all paths will lead to heaven and all paths will lead to God's they going to spend eternity not in that final garden but in a place the Bible calls health and everything we know about hell just about came from the lips of Jesus.

You see why beloved. They don't want his name in public life. Don't pray in Jesus name. It's a controversial name. Don't mention that name you want to get rid of the crosses you want to get rid of Jesus name from public life because they don't want to hear the one who said there is hell. They don't want to know about their destiny, but we are out of love in our hearts must tell them that there is a way to escape from that horrible place because Jesus is the one who warned us about hell in Matthew 1028, Matthew 2546. In Matthew 1340 and Luke 16 put it. I could go one of the references are too many to number. The Bible said something very important about hell that God originally designed hell for Satan and his demons were rebelling against God. That's the purpose for which hell is hell and why it's there, but sadly it is a place for everyone who buys into Satan's greatest lie and I know probably some of you are sitting here saying Michael Michael Michael why do you have to get and talk about hell man. All the preachers have given up preaching on hell, what why use is just the last man standing because when I see Jesus. I don't want telling that I preached half-truths to make people feel good denying the full truth is a lie, but I know some are safe to me many times I've heard it from even wonderful friends, nobody preachers on hell anymore is such a negative subject to know what is somebody citizen, turn off the phone with one people honestly about a place that is awaiting them if they buy into Satan's lie and refuse to believe the truth, there is a sub lie that Satan is spreading around and there are many people who are easily bought into it.

He had successfully sold to a lot of preachers, and that some lie is that the hell is just a metaphor that hell is just a concept that that there is no such place as health or that all how can a loving God send anybody to hell. That is the truth.

Listen carefully, God is not going to send anybody to hell.

You must understand that God is not going to send anybody to hell is not going to take people to heaven against her will either people take themselves to hell.

Those who reject God's only son is the only Savior over everyone in the world.

Those who reject God's only plan of salvation for everyone in the globe as those who reject all of the evidence of the truth in the scope of the Scripture. Those who refuse to believe God's word. Those who choose the do-it-yourself religion of those who doubt what God has made very clear in the Scripture. Sadly and painfully, the Bible said there will end up in a place in the Greek at the spa paths.

It is a place. It is a little in physical place called hell. This amendment is why we spend millions of dollars every year and untold hours of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth to 200 countries hundreds of times every week why telling people to escape from hell urging people to accept God's all only way of salvation, warning people of the consequences of their choices. And the most amazing thing is that God never for 2000 years never left himself without a witness from the time the disciples traveled the globe where Thomas went to India and there he was martyred and Mark went to Egypt and there he was martyred from that time on missionaries throughout 2000 years have gone into the remote parts of the world. They lost her limited life that buried their children in foreign lands. Why in order to warn people to escape from hell because no one in the end is going to be accusing God of giving them a rodeo they did not leave himself without witness, beloved, listen to me. I tell you with a severe pain in my heart and a prayer on my lips that no one at the sound of my voice would end up in the place. So what do we know about hell everything we know about hell comes from the lips of Jesus. The first thing about hell. Jesus tells us that it is a lake of fire and telling the story of Lazarus and the rich man Jesus who was there before the foundation of the earth. Jesus, who knows all about hell he tells us that it is a literal place, not a state of mind. It's a place of intense suffering.

It's a place from which there is no return. It is a place of eternal separation from all that is good and holy and righteous. It is a place of separation from God himself. Jesus, who experience the very hell itself.

When he was separated from the father carrying your sin on my he is the one who paid the price for you and for me Jesus to experience its very agony. He did so. So the anyone with common believe in him escape from it and he alone is able to talk about hell with authority 21 times in the New Testament, hell, and all of the revelation of the word is described as a place of unquenchable fire. But that's not all like I want to come back to that again. But is it is a place of confinement in Matthew 1821 in the story of the unforgiving servant, Jesus described as a prison, but earthly prisons confine only a person's body.

Earthly prisons cannot confine the spirit and the soul, but hell is earthly, prisons cannot chain down the spirits. Regardless of what happens to the body because of spirit even in the physical prison is free to worship. It's free to create.

It's free to imagine is free to anticipate and is free to hope.

Paul and Silas were beaten so severely there will bleeding from every part of their body and they were thrown into the Philippian jail, but in the midst of the prison they were able to sing praises to the Lord. Earthly prisons could not repress the joy I will never forget. Back in 1986 I had the distinct honor of sitting with a man who was taken hostage in Beirut. Remember back then a bunch of Americans were taken hostage is what he was one of them, a prominent man and was there for over three years.

He told me unimaginable horror stories about his captivity, and yet he told her he survived by nurturing his inner spirit with hope and anticipation. But in how a person is so locked up that imagination locked up their thoughts their creativity. All the hall is locked up. Not only that but the Bible said that it is a place of utter darkness. Those who belong to Jesus. Those who refused to believe the greatest lie will be in that final garden that is already described two from the book of Revelation, where Jesus himself physically is present and where he is illuminating and light up that place. But, in contrast, hell is a place of perpetual darkness. Matthew 2530 Jesus said it is out the darkness, meaning that there will be no morning nor evening. No twilight's are no sunrises, no sunsets will be no more light the moral and spiritual darkness all the time, only dullness and ignorance. There is no light, no light to read not like to see anything or anybody but not only it is a lake of fire and it's a place of torment in itself, a place of confinement in place of darkness. The Bible also tells us Jesus said is a place of suffering continuous perpetual suffering. He said it's a place of gnashing of teeth. There is no relief not even for a nanosecond and that is why in the story of Lazarus and the rich man and by the way, that is not a parable with the real story and only the eternal Jesus would know what was taking place on the other side of this curtain we call life.

Jesus said that the place called hell where that selfish and self-centered man was in torment Jesus that he looked up and he saw father Abraham far far away and Lazarus was his next room, the man whom ignored all his life. The manually reviewed mistreated all of his life.

The godly unrighteous man was right there, but Abraham sighed and so he called to him. Jesus said father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue because I and agony in this fire continuous confinement, continuous darkness, continuous suffering in the Bible also said it's a place of continuous loneliness, complete loneliness was George Bernard Shaw, who was quoted to have said there a lot of interesting people in hell a media mogul here in America several years ago made the statement is around.

Looking forward to hell because I get to spend time with Hitler and Mussolini the material a little bit of what the Bible said about those interesting people. So Revelation 21 eight cowardly, unbelieving vial, immoral, idolatrous liars, just a small list, but the most important thing is not only that this kind of dubious crew is going to be in hell but is no fellowship is not companionship and hell because it's a place of absolute isolation, solitude, confinement. Once there, all feelings of friendship and love will be gone forever. Beloved.

No wonder Satan is waging and relentless war a brutal war right now, again, is the very souls, even of people who are churchgoers. He's frantically trying to persuade men and women Boys and Girls Club to follow his greatest lie is preached by former Christian schools and and former Christian churches. I often think that all of my pleading would save one person to be worth it. But I know I know from the Scripture that ultimately it is God who opens our spiritual eyes to see the horrors of sin and are desperate need to escape from it.

That is why all of my pleading is with him.

We need to plead with God for salvation of souls me tell you something if you have an unbelieving family member and you're praying for that person.

Don't ever give up.

Did you get that.

Don't ever give up. That is one prayer, God promised to hear and I know I've seen people come to Christ within a matter of a few years and I'm still praying for some people still have not come to Christ.

But I don't give up.

Intercede plead with God is patient, but he will not tarry forever before I conclude this message. I know that some people always asked the question what about those who haven't heard, is a simple answer really is much simpler than you think they are not your problem there. God's problem there. God's problem, not yours.

Yours is that you've heard. Did you respond, what did you do with the truth. Did you accept it and obey it or not in the Bible said that God desires. Not one person not one we lost Sue's deep desire and believers that ought to be your desire to mark even our enemies. We need to pray that they will be saved. But he also not going to take people to heaven against their will. I was talking to one of those people who says see not everybody is going to make it to heaven, everybody, and I said beloved Jesus is of no I can't stand his name as it heaven is all about Jesus. What you gonna do them or if you wind up in heaven. What you do everything in heaven is about Jesus. Your job in line is to tell them. But you know what would be the tragic thing today. Somebody here in this place who have bought into either the greatest lie of one of the sub lies and walk out of here with the same belief, false belief, and so if the Holy Spirit are spoken to you want to give up whatever false belief you have fallen into common surrender. Any false belief system. You might have learned in a church you I have rented from a preacher but you need to surrender to hear in order to receive the full truth and know for sure the Jesus will take you with whatever he goes in the final garden. Thanks for listening to this message from Dr. Michael. You sat recently featured on leading the way.

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