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Please open your Bibles
to the Song of Solomon.
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Right before the prophet Isaiah.
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Chapter 5.
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Lord, please help
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as we handle the Word of God.
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Do we not read that it's like a hammer?
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The Word of God.
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Do we not read that it is living?
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There's activity in this Word.
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There's power to be unleashed.
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It's living.
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It's abiding.
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It's active.
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It's cleansing. It's sanctifying.
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But oh, Lord, if You make it to not be
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a dead letter -
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we know that the words
on the pages of our Bibles
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are just ink
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unless You allow the thoughts
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captured in these sentences
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and these paragraphs
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to enter through our eyeballs,
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through our ears
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into our minds and to process them
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to where our faith clings
and lays hold, adheres.
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Lord, give us ears to hear at this time.
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I pray in Christ's name.
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Song of Solomon.
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Look there at chapter 5 and verse 9.
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You'll notice if you have the ESV -
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and I know that depending
on the Bible that you have
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is going to depend on whether this is
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actually identified to you or not,
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but in the ESV, you'll notice
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that verse 9 has that caption above it:
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"Others."
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The primary individuals
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that we find in the Song of Solomon
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are Solomon and his love.
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The Shulammite.
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But right here, "others" interject.
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In 5:8, you'll notice from v. 2 to 8 -
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again, the ESV, it says "she."
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The bride.
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And in v. 8, "I adjure you,
O daughters of Jerusalem..."
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So we see who's being addressed.
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And that's who answers in v. 9.
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It's the others.
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It's the daughters of Jerusalem.
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"If you find my Beloved,
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tell Him I am sick with love."
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And then they come back here:
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"What is your Beloved
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more than another beloved,
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O most beautiful among women?
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What is your Beloved
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more than another beloved?"
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Now, lest we forget where we're at,
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I would remind you that we have come
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to the Song of Solomon
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in the midst of a series in Ephesians.
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Ephesians 3 - now you
don't need to turn there,
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but listen to this.
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The words that we were
dealing with are these:
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Paul praying for the Ephesians.
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That according to the
riches of God's glory
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He might grant the Ephesians
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to be strengthened with power
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through the Holy Spirit in their inner man
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that they being rooted
and grounded in love;
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they might have this ability to comprehend
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the dimensions - what is the breadth,
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and length, and height, and depth;
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to know this love of Christ
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that passes knowledge.
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And what I find interesting is this:
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I have dug up Hudson Taylor's little book
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on the Song of Solomon.
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I've pulled off my shelf Richard Sibbes,
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the Puritan, "The Love of Christ,"
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that deals with mainly chapter 5.
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I have dug up John Gill,
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the old Particular Baptist -
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the work that he did
on the Song of Solomon.
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Actually, when I was out in Portland,
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a brother there brought me a book
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by James Kennedy DD -
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this is not D. James Kennedy,
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this is somebody that lived back
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in the 19th century.
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I have looked at various things
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concerning the Song of Solomon
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and you know what's interesting to me?
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Every book, every sermon,
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every commentary that I have referred to -
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many of them, most of them, or all of them
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that deal with the Song of Solomon,
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they reference these
verses in Ephesians 3.
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Why would they do that?
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See, that's what led me there.
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And it wasn't so much that I was reading
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all these things that
make that connection.
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It was that I felt resonating in me
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that if we want to capture something
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of the dimensions of the love of Christ,
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I honestly couldn't
think of a better place
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to go in Scripture than
the Song of Solomon.
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And what I'm finding is these preachers
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that have gone before me -
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they made the same connection
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over and over and over again.
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They made that connection.
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So let's think about our
two main characters.
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Solomon. That's the first one.
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You can see that if you
go to chapter 3:11.
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"Go out, O daughters of Zion,
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and look upon King Solomon."
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As I've told you before,
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"Solomon" shows up - that word -
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shows up 7 times in the book
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of the Song of Solomon
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which is significant.
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The number 7 is a significant one.
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The other main character
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is the Shulammite,
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and you see that in Song of Solomon 6:13.
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You can look there.
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"Return, return, O Shulammite.
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Return, return, that
we may look upon you.
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Why should you look upon the Shulammite?"
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Now, let's think about that a second.
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Solomon is the idea of peace.
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This Solomon is the peace-giver.
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What is Shulammite?
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Now you might say Shulammite -
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isn't that somebody from Shulam?
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That's what that sounds like.
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It describes a female inhabitant
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of a place called Shulam.
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You know what's interesting?
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Shulam is basically "Salem."
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Do you know what Salem means?
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It's basically "Shalom,"
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which is basically "Solomon."
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What Shulammite is is simply the feminine
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of Solomon.
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That's the issue.
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Melchizedek was called
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"the king of Salem."
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And most assume that that is Jerusalem.
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What we have is a picture of somebody
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who is a citizen of Salem or of Jerusalem.
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And again, perfectly describes us.
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We are fellow citizens with the saints.
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We are the true Jerusalem.
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Jerusalem comes down
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in the book of Revelation.
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This new Jerusalem.
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A bride prepared for Christ.
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The word "Solomon" - peace giver.
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He's the prince of peace.
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She is the daughter of peace.
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The idea is it's the feminine -
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she's peace-laden.
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She's peace-crowned.
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I just talked to Craig's boss on Friday.
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One thing he kept saying to me
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is I envy Craig's peace.
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We are a peace-laden; a peace-crowned -
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if there's anything that's true
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about the children of God,
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it is that Christ comes
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and He whispers peace.
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Peace.
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We are a people no longer at war with God.
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And even on your worst day,
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you're not at war with God anymore.
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There is peace between He and you.
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Now, I want you to think about this.
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If all you see here in the Song of Solomon
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is the literal King Solomon;
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if you don't see Christ in this
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and you see the Shulammite is simply
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one of his thousand wives or concubines,
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you've got a problem.
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Here's one of the problems
that I see that you have.
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Notice Song of Solomon 5:16.
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He is altogether - altogether desirable.
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Look back a little ways
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at Song of Solomon 5:9.
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This is where we started.
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"What is your Beloved more
than another beloved?"
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Well, you know what? That's easy
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if we're talking about King Solomon.
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Diego brought up David.
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Think about the question.
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"What is your Beloved
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more than another beloved?"
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Well, if all we're talking
about here is Solomon,
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I would say Solomon
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is no more than his father David.
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In fact, I would say David
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was a much greater man than Solomon.
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Would you not agree?
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I mean listen, since I've been a Christian
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more debate has come up
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over the salvation of three
men in the Scripture
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more than any others.
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Adam,
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King Saul,
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and King Solomon -
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as to whether they were
genuinely saved or not.
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Now maybe you've got
your theories on those,
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but all I'm saying is King Solomon
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falls in the ranks of men
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that often the question gets raised:
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was he even saved?
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If we want to go around saying
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that King Solomon was altogether desirable
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and who is comparable to that beloved,
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then we run into some issues.
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Have you ever noticed this?
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That those who do not see Christ
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and the church in this Song -
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this Song of all songs -
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have you ever noticed they
never preach on this book?
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They don't go there.
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Even though it's holy Scripture,
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they don't preach from it.
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Isn't all Scripture profitable
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for the man of God?
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Well, you would think that they
would go there and preach then,
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but they don't preach on it. Why?
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Because who wants to spend sermon time
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on trying to proclaim Solomon
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as being altogether desirable
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and more than all other beloved's?
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Nobody wants to do that!
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Because you feel kind of foolish doing it.
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Over the years,
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questions come up about whether
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Solomon even came to the end of his life.
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You know, even his wives -
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he mutliplied wives and they led him away
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into all manner of idolatry.
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Now look, I believe he was Jedidiah.
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He was loved of the Lord.
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I believe that what you have
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is a man who drifted away
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and God brought him back.
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I very much believe he was saved,
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but like I say, who wants to preach
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on a book that presents
us with the question:
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Why is our Beloved more
than all other beloveds
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if the beloved being
referred to is Solomon?
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But the reality is if it's Christ,
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then this book explodes
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with all manner of light and love
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and power and beauty and glory.
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And it does!
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Think about it.
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Think about if I was up
here trying to convince you
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that Solomon is altogether lovely.
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I mean, it's not going
to inspire much in us
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because you're going to
be thinking all the time:
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yeah, but this guy, I mean,
he was an idolater.
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He did what God told him not to do.
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The question of the hour is this:
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We're talking about Christ here.
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Christ is the true Solomon.
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And if we're talking about Christ,
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then the question comes up:
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What is your Beloved more
than another beloved?
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That is a worthy matter of contemplation.
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Just thinking...
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what a profitable thing to
consume your mind with.
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What is Christ more
than all other beloved's?
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What is He more than all others?
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And we can answer.
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What is our Beloved more
than all other beloved's?
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And I would just say this:
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Has anyone ever loved
us like He has loved us?
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That's the question.
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And where I would have you take your eyes
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is just look at Song of Solomon 4.
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This is really what I want
to spend some time with.
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What is our Beloved more
than all other beloveds?
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And the thing is, I'm going to take you
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to some verses that actually describe us.
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And that might seem odd.
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I mean, what's our Beloved
more than others?
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Well, why would we look at the bride?
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But I just want you to think with me.
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When you look at the bride here,
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what we're seeing is the love of Christ
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expressed to us just in
what He's making us into.
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Feel this. I love the imagery.
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I parked right here
for this whole message.
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The idea of a garden.
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Many of you know I have a garden.
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You know, Kevin Williams.
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We stayed in a room on
the back side of his house
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and there's a big window there
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and you look out and his backyard
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goes straight out and then
there's a fence across there.
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And then across is a house
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that his house backs up to
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that's over on the other street.
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They have a backyard.
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Their backyard is full
of trees and plants.
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In fact, it's become so overgrown
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the people there don't go out there.
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And they actually told Kevin
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that he could buy it if he wanted to.
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It's like this paradise garden.
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And I thought how can
we help Kevin get this?
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I mean, what a place
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if he just put a door right there
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and the whole thing is walled around
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and a place where you go into
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and you just disappear in there
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because it's all full of trees and plants
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and bushes... it's just a paradise,
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at least in my estimation.
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So when I think of gardens -
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especially gardens like that;
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especially gardens like in Manchester,
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not where you go out
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and the sun sizzles you.
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But this idea of a garden.
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Look at Solomon's Song here,
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chapter 4:12.
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This is Christ speaking to His people.
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"A garden locked is My sister, My bride,
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a spring locked,
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a fountain sealed.
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Your shoots are an orchard
of pomegranates
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with all choicest fruits, henna with nard,
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nard and saffron,
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calamus and cinnamon,
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and all trees of frankincense,
myrrh, and aloes
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with all choice spices.
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A garden fountain,
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a well of living water,
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and flowing streams from Lebanon."
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And I would just ask you again,
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what is our Beloved more
than another beloved?
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Do you realize how much He is loving you?
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Do you realize what He's doing to you?
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Do you realize this is not a
fictitious description here?
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This is actual.
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This is from Christ's perspective.
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This is what He sees.
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This is how He views us.
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We need that to sink in: A garden.
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What is a garden?
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I put a garden in my backyard.
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What did I do?
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I went into that backyard
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and I partitioned a part of my yard off.
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It's a piece of my yard
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that I separated.
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That's the idea.
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It's a piece of ground
that's distinguished.
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It's set aside. It's separated.
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And so we are.
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We are a people that have been
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specifically hand-chosen by God
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and set apart.
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Electing, distinguishing grace
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has set us aside.
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You think about a garden.
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This garden -
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there are such things
come out of this garden
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as are impossible to come
out of any of our gardens.
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But just think: myrrh, aloes,
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choice spices, trees of frankincense,
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calamus, cinnamon, nard, saffron.
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He goes on and on about this.
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Such flowers and herbs and plants.
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And have you ever noticed this?
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They don't grow naturally by themselves.
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Any of you had a garden
spring up in your backyard?
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It just happened to happen?
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You know, you forgot to
mow a part of the yard
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and it just turned into a garden?
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Anybody have that happen?
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Have you ever noticed that doesn't happen?
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Have you ever noticed flowers don't
grow up naturally by themselves?
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Listen, look at Song of Solomon 5:1.
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You know what captures me in this verse
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is the number of times He says, "My."
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Look at this.
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"I came to My garden."
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Who's the garden?
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It's this woman.
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It's the bride.
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It's His sister.
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I gathered My myrrh, My spice,
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My honeycomb, My honey.
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I drank My wine and My milk.
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That's what I'm saying - it's impossible
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for you to get out of your garden
what He gets out of His garden.
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I never got wine out of my garden.
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I never got milk out of my garden.
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I never got honey out of my garden.
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Now, I guess some bees could be in there
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and I could throw a cow in there
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and I could raise grapes.
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But He gets such things out of His.
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Mine! You notice how He says Mine.
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It's His garden. My garden.
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How does Christ find
such things in a garden?
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Myrrh, honey, wine, milk.
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What a garden it must be
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to have those kind of things!
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But I guarantee you this,
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our hearts, our selves,
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what we are naturally -
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you know what springs up in us naturally.
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Even as Christians, give
yourself to the flesh.
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What did Paul have to tell the Galatians
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when they gave themselves to try to be
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perfected by the flesh?
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He had to tell them,
"don't bite, don't devour." Why?
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Because the flesh breeds
corruption in sin.
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Naturally, that's what comes
forth from our hearts.
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Only weeds grow by themselves.
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If I just let my garden go -
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I was gone for two weeks.
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I go out there and look at it.
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It shriveled and there's weeds.
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That's what happens.
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To keep a garden, it requires help.
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If Christ finds all such
things in His garden,
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you know what we have to do?
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This is where His love comes in.
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We have to stand back and say:
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what have You done, Lord?
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What have You done that those
weeds aren't there anymore,
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but there's milk, there's wine,
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there's honey, there's honeycomb,
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there's all manner of frankincense?
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Listen, you know what Scripture says?
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Christ loved the church
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and He gave Himself for her
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that she might be sanctified.
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Isn't that what Scripture says?
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That by the washing of
the water of the Word
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He might cleanse her.
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And the thing is it's for the sake
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of making the church
a splendor to Himself.
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Without spot. Without blemish.
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Without wrinkle.
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Holy.
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Isn't that what Scripture says?
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Splendor.
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That's what we have here.
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We have Christ tending His garden.
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It takes a massive amount
of labor and care,
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weeding, watering, fertilizing,
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pest control, pruning, thinning.
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All this and much more
Christ does to His church.
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He watches over us night and day.
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Again, what I'm wanting you to recognize
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is for starters, you have to
realize this about yourself.
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I am such a garden to Christ.
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And He's not just making this up.
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He actually finds such spices and fruit
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and milk and wine in His garden
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which is me.
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And He's the one responsible for this.
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Brothers and sisters, we don't
tend to view ourselves this way.
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You know what happens?
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We tend to get engaged in life.
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Life.
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Life happens. Trials happen.
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We get distracted.
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There's difficulties.
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We get weary. We get worn.
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There's challenges of life.
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There's monotony of life.
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We forget just what it is
that His love is doing for us;
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what He's making us into.
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This beauty He finds in her
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is beauty that He brings forth
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by washing of the water of the Word,
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but by trials.
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Have you ever read in Scripture
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the sons of Levi - we are the preisthood.
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He purifies them.
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They're put in the fire.
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The fruit.
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Think about the fruit.
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Flowers.
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The beauty.
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What is this?
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We read in the New Testament about fruit.
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The fruit of the Spirit.
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Love.
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We talked about peace.
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There's joy.
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And there's gentleness
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and there's goodness.
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Do you recognize what's happening?
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He's doing this that He
might present the church
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to Himself in splendor.
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Like a garden.
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But you know what? We doubt it.
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We tend to doubt it. Why?
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We can tend to feel dirty.
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Or we feel unworthy.
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Yet, there's Christ at work.
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Think about this.
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A trial comes into your life.
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And you recognize you
don't have the strength.
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This is one of the such
good things about trials.
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They show us we're weak.
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We don't have strength.
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So what happens?
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We become more dependent on Him,
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more trusting of Him.
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Our pride is broken.
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Do you know what that is?
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Your pride gets broken.
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It's replaced by humility.
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That's like a bush of roses over there.
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You ever go walk by a bush of roses
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when they're all in bloom?
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I mean, the aroma...
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That's what He's likening this to.
-
Your self-sufficiency gets broken
-
and you're dependent.
-
As Diego was talking about, you pray.
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You pray.
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Not hypocritically; not to be seen by men.
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You pray because you want God
-
and you need God.
-
And that's like this shrub -
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I'm growing goji berries and they are red.
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I pick them and throw
them in the smoothie.
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It's like that.
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It's like you look in this garden
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and the trees - my trees in my yard,
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sometimes the boughs bend over so far
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they're so heavy-laden with peaches
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that they break.
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I just clipped one off yesterday.
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It was broken because of the weight.
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He comes into His garden.
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These trials, these things that we fear,
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these things that we dread,
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these things that we
don't like in our life.
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What's happening?
-
The outer man wasting away,
-
but He's doing such things
-
through the washing of
the water of the Word.
-
This is why getting in the
Word every single day -
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not just five minutes -
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How fast can I get though it? Check mark!
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No, it's meditating on it
-
and it's washing.
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Sanctify them with Thy Word.
-
Thy Word is truth.
-
And it's washing. It's cleansing.
-
And it's like the vine heavy with grapes.
-
It's like herbs are being talked about.
-
I've got a rosemary plant in my garden.
-
I just threw a seed in -
it was just a little seedling.
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It was just this little thing
-
and now it's grown into
this monstrous thing.
-
I'm going to have to hack it back.
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But it's these herbs and these spices
-
and these fruits and the frankincense
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and the trees.
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It's like every one of
our lives is like that.
-
It's like He's working such things
-
that sometimes it's hard.
-
Has He not promised to cleanse
us of every one of our idols?
-
And He pulls those out.
-
And to cleanse us from the idol
-
means that our affections to other things
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are shifted towards Him more and more.
-
And that is just this fruit.
-
And our love for one another is increased.
-
And it's just like apples heavy,
-
hanging on the tree.
-
That's what He likens all of this to.
-
The new man -
-
true righteousness and holiness.
-
And all of this is like
vegetables and fruit.
-
And I don't know, there must be a cow.
-
How is He getting milk?
-
I guess you could get almond milk maybe.
-
Isn't that a strange thing
to bring out of the garden?
-
And yet, it's there.
-
It's like the riches.
-
This is us!
-
And this is what He's doing to us.
-
We don't feel it.
-
We feel like: ah, I go out in this world
-
and I feel like I'm trying to walk upright
-
and I'm trying to be what I should be.
-
But such things, such things
-
Christ is doing in us.
-
And He finds us garden-esque.
-
I mean, that's what this is all about.
-
Garden.
-
Do you look at yourself
like that, believer?
-
You find meekness.
-
You find love.
-
You find in Scripture it says
-
I shouldn't just give myself
-
to my own things;
-
I ought to give myself
to the things of others.
-
Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ.
-
You find in Scripture all thanksgiving.
-
Have you ever read how often
-
the evil - those in Romans 1 -
-
they didn't give God thanks.
-
Thankfulness.
-
What fruit of the lips!
-
Do you recognize when you're thankful,
-
when you're loving others,
-
living for others,
-
depending on the Lord,
-
going to the Lord often in prayer,
-
just eating His Word,
-
finding Christ,
-
studying His person,
-
seeking to imitate Him,
-
that meekness is in your life,
-
that humility is in your life,
-
that gentleness is in your life,
-
even a sternness or a boldness -
-
even cleansing the temple
kind of boldness;
-
when you stand for the name of the Lord,
-
you stand for Christ.
-
You proclaim the Gospel
-
in the midst of this darkness.
-
That is like a garden that is just like
-
that behind Kevin's house.
-
It's just beautiful.
-
And brethren, this really happens to us.
-
We don't often feel like it's happening.
-
Often, the more like Christ we become,
-
the more remaining defilements
-
and failures and flaws and rough edges -
-
the reality is the more they haunt us.
-
The more we feel them a lot of times
-
and the more it stinks in our nostrils.
-
The more there's a sting and we sigh
-
and we groan.
-
The more unworthy and dirty
-
and unbeautiful we feel.
-
But really, the truth is
-
we are being beautified.
-
This is what Christ is doing.
-
Splendor.
-
Don't you love that word?
-
You may not feel that, because like I say
-
the old man is wasting away.
-
You go look in the mirror and it's like,
-
splendor? My wife was
just telling me yesterday
-
how to comb my hair so
that the baldness can't be seen.
-
You know, I was talking
to Charles Leiter one day
-
and we were both saying
we both imagine ourselves
-
to still be 25 years old.
-
And he said my dad was the same way.
-
And Papa, I hear Papa talk.
-
He thinks he's 25.
-
But you go look in the mirror
-
and it's almost like sometimes -
does this ever happen to anybody?
-
You're like who are you?
-
I don't even recognize you anymore.
-
But that's what's happening
on the outside,
-
but on the inside,
-
we are being loved to perfection.
-
Christ is loving us beautiful.
-
He's loving us perfect.
-
He's loving the blemishes out of us.
-
What is our Beloved more
than other beloveds?
-
Gardens.
-
Gardens are places that
people delight to walk in.
-
I do.
-
And notice, Song of Solomon 6:2.
-
This is the church.
-
She says, "My Beloved (Christ)
-
has gone down to His garden,
-
to the beds of spices to graze."
-
Don't you like that?
-
You go into a garden to graze.
-
"To gather lilies..."
-
Now the thing is, usually a garden
-
is comparatively a small space.
-
And that's the way it is with the church.
-
In comparison to the vast wilderness
-
and wasteland out there.
-
We're but a small flock.
-
We're a small place.
-
Do you realize what
Christ is doing for you?
-
He has chosen you out of this world
-
to be such a garden.
-
Where is He at?
-
He goes down to His garden to graze.
-
To gather lilies.
-
What is it in your life that is lily?
-
What is it in your life
that is for Him to graze?
-
That's what He's doing in our lives.
-
Notice this.
-
Look at 4:12.
-
"A garden locked is My sister, My bride."
-
His love has not only made us a garden -
-
His love has not only
made us into a garden,
-
but you want to notice those words:
-
Locked. Locked.
-
You know my children when they were young,
-
they would listen to an audio series,
-
an audio story called "The Secret Garden."
-
Probably some of your children
have listened to that.
-
It was a garden that was walled in.
-
And it had a door
-
and I think the door was hidden
behind some ivy that had grown.
-
And a key was found.
-
Do you recognize what this is saying?
-
When you have a garden that's locked,
-
that means it's got a wall.
-
It doesn't mean there's just a door there
-
with a keyhole in it
-
and the rest is wide open all around.
-
It's the idea that this
thing is walled in.
-
It's walled.
-
It's protected.
-
And it's got a door with a keyhole.
-
And that door is locked.
-
That door is shut.
-
What's that?
-
What is that?
-
Locked.
-
You know what that means?
-
What a thing for Him to say:
-
you are a garden locked.
-
That means you're for Him only.
-
No one else gets in.
-
No one else has a key.
-
We're for Him.
-
We're reserved for Him.
-
Locked.
-
No one else gets in.
-
It's His garden.
-
He has the key.
-
And I'll tell you what this ought to do -
-
this is what He's speaking to you:
-
You are a garden locked.
-
Don't give yourself to anyone else.
-
Don't share yourself
with the world or idols.
-
Give yourselves entirely to Him.
-
Entirely to Him.
-
To be a garden locked
-
means you're walled in.
-
What's that? It means we're protected.
-
We're protected by God's power.
-
Have you ever read there in Zechariah?
-
"I will be a wall of fire to her."
-
God protects. You know
what jumped out at me?
-
I was just recently reading John 17.
-
Christ said this - the high
priestly prayer in John 17.
-
Jesus praying to His Father
-
about the 11 disciples.
-
He says this,
-
"I have guarded them."
-
Those words jumped out at me.
-
I have guarded them.
-
You know what? The church may seem weak.
-
In the eyes of the world, we're despised.
-
We may seem like we're
open to all manner of attack -
-
doctrine, enemies,
-
false brethren,
-
anti-Christs who were among us
-
and they went out from us.
-
There's all sorts of things -
false teachers,
-
false prophets, false
apostles, false christ's,
-
the devil himself.
-
But Christian, never forget this.
-
We have an invisible hedge around us.
-
You may not see it,
-
but we are walled.
-
We are protected.
-
A wall of fire. I have guarded them.
-
You better believe there are such walls
-
around us right now.
-
We read in Hebrews 1
-
the angels are ministering spirits.
-
But you know, there are times in Scripture
-
when God Himself shows up
-
and you're not shown any
mediating activity by angels.
-
God shows up.
-
He comes.
-
He's there. He protects.
-
(coughing)
-
It was said of Canaan
back in Deuteronomy -
-
and I take Canaan as a type of the church,
-
a shadow of the church.
-
But it was said of Canaan,
-
you know, God was bringing
His people into this land.
-
He said,
-
"It's a land that the
Lord your God cares for.
-
The eyes of the Lord your
God are always upon it
-
from the beginning of the year
-
to the end of the year."
-
That's what the church is.
-
His eyes are on us.
-
All the time.
-
And I brought up that story,
"The Secret Garden,"
-
because I think of the secrecy of it.
-
You know, as I think of that area
-
out behind Kevin Williams' house,
-
you go in there and you just disappear.
-
It's secret.
-
It's a private place.
-
The wall around it keeps all the eyes out.
-
This is being described of us.
-
We're a garden that's walled in.
-
We're a garden that's secret.
-
A garden that's locked.
-
That's what locked means.
-
It's secret.
-
We're like this garden that's walled in,
-
closely locked, protected,
-
and inside all manner of flowers
-
with their fragrance,
-
and trees heavy-laden with fruit.
-
Secret.
-
We're not known to the world.
-
Just thinking about that,
-
the text in 1 John occurred to me.
-
I preached on that several years back
-
and that text that says to us
-
the reason why the world does not know us
-
is that it did not know Him.
-
But what I'm pulling
on right there is this:
-
The world doesn't know us.
-
That's what John recognized.
-
We're hid.
-
The world doesn't know what's going on.
-
Not until this coming day
-
of the resurrection of the just.
-
Do you read about that in Romans 8?
-
It says the sons of God will be revealed.
-
The world doesn't know. They don't know!
-
These people out here - they don't know.
-
Wow, there's people
-
who the living God has taken out
-
from among their ranks
-
and made into these
vastly fruitful gardens.
-
They don't know that.
-
They don't know that we're the elect.
-
They don't know that
we're the chosen ones.
-
They don't know that God is
doing such things in us
-
and beautifying us this way.
-
They don't know what true
Christianity is all about.
-
They don't recognize it.
-
It's not known. We're not known.
-
And they don't know us
because they don't know Him.
-
The Christ we know about,
they don't know about.
-
They know the name Christ,
-
but in their minds,
He's altogether different
-
than what He's portrayed in Scripture
-
and the way we know Him.
-
Hidden.
-
The secrecy and hiddenness of it all.
-
Now look at this.
-
Song of Solomon 4:16.
-
"Let my Beloved come to His garden
-
and eat its choicest fruit."
-
Listen. Listen.
-
This is the church.
-
"Let my Beloved come to His garden."
-
She is saying let Him come to me.
-
You know, from the very beginning
-
of this little diversion,
-
the thing I've desired as much as anything
-
is that according to the
riches of God's glory -
-
like I talked about in the past -
-
that God would put a hunger and ache
-
in our hearts for this.
-
Recognize what's happening!
-
See, hear, feel it.
-
The desire of her heart is:
-
Christ, come to Your garden. Come!
-
Let my Beloved come to His garden.
-
Let Him eat.
-
That's the ache.
-
That's what I've wanted
to stir up in your hearts.
-
That is the kind of garden.
-
And what you have is
what He is doing in her,
-
what He's making her,
-
the kind of garden that we are.
-
We're a garden locked.
-
But we're a garden from
which Christ can come
-
and He can gather myrrh
-
and there's aloes and there's milk
-
and there's wine and there's frankincense
-
and all manner of these spices
-
and these fruits.
-
Think about this.
-
The imagery doesn't end here.
-
Notice 4:12.
-
"A garden locked is
My sister, My bride..."
-
but then He goes even further.
-
"A spring locked, a fountain sealed."
-
My grandmother up in Decatur, Michigan
-
when I was growing up as a kid,
-
we went way back - she had 80 acres.
-
If we went way back,
-
there was a place in the woods
-
where the spring bubbled
up out of the ground.
-
And there was a cup hanging on the tree.
-
I guess rumor had it my great-grandfather
-
put that thing there.
-
And he would use it to
drink from that spring.
-
The water tasted wonderful.
-
When you think of a spring -
-
spring water.
-
Typically, if somebody bottles water,
-
somewhere on there -
-
if you go to the grocery store
-
and look at the water on their shelves,
-
somewhere on the packaging it says
-
"spring water."
-
Why? Because that conjures
in the mind something.
-
Purity.
-
Refreshing.
-
But then He doesn't stop at spring.
-
Then you go to a fountain.
-
What do you think of with a fountain?
-
Not so much purity, but what?
-
Maybe just the amount of water.
-
A lot of water.
-
The idea that this thing is gushing.
-
Christ's garden is well-watered.
-
That's one of the things that we
could definitely say about that.
-
There's no danger that the herbs
-
and flowers and plants and fruit
-
are going to wither or perish.
-
What does the first psalm say?
-
It says that we're like trees
-
planted by the streams of water
-
that yield the fruit in its season.
-
What imagery!
-
And the thing about it is, again,
-
the natural man knows nothing
-
of these things.
-
He's a stranger
-
to what's really happening in the world.
-
The athiest.
-
I think about the athiest.
-
There's all these people that want to
-
continue to sell us on evolution.
-
Athiest.
-
A-thiest.
-
They're against the doctrine of God.
-
Agnostics.
-
Against the idea that
it's possible to know God.
-
But the reality is -
-
the reality is that we know something
-
about Christ walking in His garden.
-
And this is the cry,
-
this is the cry of the church here.
-
Let Him come walk.
-
Let my Beloved come to His garden.
-
And the truth is we know He's there
-
and we know what it is
-
to have Him walk in the garden.
-
And we are that garden.
-
And the truth is it's real and we know it.
-
This is true Christianity.
-
This is no dead religion.
-
It's real.
-
We're walled. We're locked.
-
We're safe. We're secure.
-
The grace of God has shut us in.
-
We're protected.
-
Christ can say it of us:
-
I have guarded them.
-
No one can ever get in.
-
We're hid with Christ in God in this.
-
And you know what? The imagery here
-
gets dangerous actually.
-
Let me just tell you this.
-
That the same author,
-
when he wrote the Proverbs,
-
he said this:
-
he's wanting to instill in young men
-
purity,
-
being devoted to a single wife,
-
not giving yourself to
the forbidden woman.
-
He says "drink water
from your own cistern."
-
He doesn't really mean water.
-
He means confine your
intimacy to your wife.
-
"Should your springs be scattered abroad?
-
Streams of water in the streets?
-
Let them be for yourself alone
-
and not for strangers with you.
-
Let your fountain be blessed
-
and rejoice in the wife of your youth."
-
And he goes on.
-
But you see, the idea here
-
of springs and fountains.
-
You know what?
-
We are locked when it comes
-
to being a spring and
a fountain in this sense.
-
We're virgins.
-
That's what Paul says to the Corinthians.
-
We are virgins reserved for Him.
-
We're a spring locked,
-
a fountain sealed.
-
Brethren, our purity and our chasteness
-
is for Him.
-
Our devotion to Him.
-
Our spotlessness is for Him.
-
When He talks about making us
-
into this splendorous thing,
-
it's as His bride.
-
He's beautifying us not for others,
-
but to present us to Himself in splendor,
-
in beauty.
-
She's Christ's garden.
-
And none but His.
-
She is Christ's spring,
-
Christ's fountain.
-
None have a right to her but Him.
-
She is sister and bride to Him alone.
-
What I'm getting at is this,
-
we dare not share ourselves
-
with other lovers.
-
You, Christian, are a locked garden.
-
Little children, keep
yourselves from idols.
-
One lover.
-
You are locked.
-
You are His.
-
You are private. You are secret.
-
You are for Him.
-
Brothers and sisters,
-
this is the heart of Christianity.
-
It is having Christ come to His garden.
-
This is the reality.
-
This is what true
Christianity is all about.
-
It's to have Him.
-
It's to know God and His Christ.
-
It's this:
-
you are reserved for Him.
-
Listen, if your Christianity
is mechanical;
-
if it's simply duty,
-
if it's simply the checklist,
-
if it's simply that which
you don't like to do
-
but you know you've got to do it
-
because you're trying to miss hell,
-
then it's not this.
-
If it's not this, it's not the real thing.
-
It's not the true Christianity.
-
And look what He does.
-
Look what He does in 4:16.
-
I want you to hear the voice of Christ.
-
Comprehend the love of Christ.
-
Because as His garden,
this is what He's saying:
-
"Awake..." Christ speaking.
-
"Awake, O north wind,
-
come, O south wind, blow upon..."
-
again, "My garden."
-
This is Mine.
-
He's calling to the winds
-
to come and blow upon His garden.
-
So as to do what to it?
-
Make it even more fruitful.
-
"Let its spices flow."
-
Christ calls forth the wind.
-
I love this imagery.
-
Almost always when I think of the Spirit,
-
when I think of revival,
-
don't we talk about the winds of revival?
-
When I think about revival,
-
I think about wind.
-
I often imagine like a
17th, 18th, 19th century ship
-
with those big masts.
-
We just saw the U.S.S. Constitution
-
when we were in Boston.
-
This great big war ship,
-
but it's got all these main masts on it
-
and multitude of sails.
-
That's what I think of: a ship.
-
We're like a ship with all these sails
-
and the wind blows
-
and it sends us mightily
through the water, rushing.
-
That's how I view it.
-
The Scriptures capture this idea
-
of the Spirit of God being like the wind.
-
Can you think of where?
-
Where do you get that
idea of wind in Scripture?
-
John 3 would be one.
-
"Like the wind that blows where it wishes,
-
you hear its sound, but you do not know
-
where it comes from or where it goes."
-
But can you think of another time
-
where the Spirit is associated with wind?
-
Yeah, the day of Pentecost.
-
A sound like a mighty, rushing wind.
-
These winds.
-
Christ speaks to the winds.
-
And they're at His service.
-
Come and do My garden good.
-
I see this as the Spirit of God.
-
Now you say, yeah, but those winds
-
are contrary to each other.
-
One's a north wind. One's a south wind.
-
I say that's just the Spirit's operations
-
coming at us from different directions.
-
Now, depending on where you live,
-
like up in Michigan if you thought
-
about a north wind, you think brrr...
-
Here in Texas, the idea of a north wind,
-
or a cool front -
-
you know when they first start coming
-
in late September,
-
that's a happy thing.
-
It depends on where you live.
-
Obviously, what part of the hemisphere,
-
(incomplete thought).
-
But we get the idea.
-
Some winds - they bring rain.
-
Some winds are destructive.
-
Some bring bitter cold.
-
Some bring pleasant
spring-like conditions.
-
Some winds are very favorable.
-
And some winds are bitter.
-
This is the idea.
-
I mean, sometimes God
blows upon us with comforts.
-
They're joyful times.
-
I mean, we should rejoice
in the Lord always,
-
but the truth is there are
some circumstances in life
-
that are just happy times.
-
And there are situations
that are bitter trials.
-
And the idea is this,
-
these winds - however you take them,
-
it's Christ using different means
-
to perfect His garden,
-
even though they may seem contrary,
-
blows upon us with the warm winds,
-
blows upon us with refreshing winds.
-
Sometimes, blows upon us with winds
-
that seem to be damaging,
-
but you know, they never really damage us.
-
They damage our pride.
-
They damage our false securities.
-
They damage our false hopes.
-
But they're never really damaging to us.
-
Because all things work
together for our good
-
if we're truly loving God.
-
And He brings these winds.
-
It's key to emphasize these difficulties.
-
You have difficulties.
-
Some of you, I know, family difficulties,
-
difficulties with lost children,
-
financial difficulties,
-
health issue difficulties.
-
You get these things.
-
They're struggles. They're trials.
-
Marriage situations.
-
You know what that is?
-
That may be like the north wind.
-
It blows. It hurts. It's uncomfortable.
-
We don't like it.
-
But if we have eyes to see,
-
it's like through these things,
-
He's just spreading the seeds.
-
You can imagine, He spreads the seeds
-
and up grows these
beautiful trees in the garden.
-
And He spreads the seeds,
-
and up grows just heavy-
laden with fruit, bushes;
-
and He spreads these seeds
-
and plants and herbs
-
and all manner of flowers
-
and the bees must be in there
-
because there's honey and honeycombs.
-
This is what He's doing.
-
We look at it and we get so encased
-
in our surroundings and what we see.
-
But we live by faith, not by sight.
-
But sometimes we're
such creatures of sight.
-
Life is difficult.
-
What I'm wanting you
to do is just step back
-
in this message today
-
and just comprehend.
-
If you're a child of God,
-
Jesus Christ Himself is doing
such things in you
-
to make you this absolutely beautiful,
-
fruitful garden.
-
And where do you find Christ?
-
Grazing in the garden.
-
He likes to be there
and gather the lilies.
-
And then you hear the heart of the bride.
-
Have you ever noticed?
-
The Spirit and the bride say what?
-
Come.
-
And the Spirit in the bride
-
is never satisfied.
-
Come to Your garden!
-
I mean, that's the cry.
-
Don't you love that
-
when that's true of you?
-
That is such a healthy condition to be in
-
as a Christian.
-
When we are just so unsatisifed;
-
when we ache,
-
because when He comes,
-
there's such a release;
-
there's such satisfaction;
-
there's such joy.
-
Aching for something.
-
When the heart longs after;
-
when the soul is thirsty:
-
Come, Lord, come to Your garden!
-
Come! Come graze!
-
Come gather the flowers.
-
And isn't it such the
desire of the Christian
-
that you desire that when He comes,
-
He finds you to be a place
that He greatly delights
-
to walk in that place;
-
to commune in that place.
-
That He finds it a place
where He really is
-
gathering in the spices and the wine.
-
Remember, this wine,
this honey, this milk -
-
it's coming from us!
-
You've got to personalize
this. This is you!
-
And that ache for this.
-
So let us take fresh encouragement
-
from all of this.
-
Brethren, how daily we're
prone to offend Him.
-
Let's take special encouragement
-
that what we do be pleasing to Him.
-
We could say church of God arise.
-
Desire that Christ would cause
-
the north wind and the south wind -
-
pray that way!
-
Lord, cause the north wind to awake.
-
Why? I want spice.
-
Spice - but not for anyone.
You're a locked garden.
-
It's for Him.
-
But isn't that when we're most satisfied?
-
Isn't that when we take greatest joy?
-
I read those words.
-
Jesus said, "I guarded them."
-
Then He said, "they've kept Your Word."
-
I just want to cry when I read that.
-
I want to jump and shout when I read that.
-
"They kept Your Word."
-
Those guys, their faith teetered
and tottered at times,
-
and yet "they've kept Your Word."
-
To have Christ find you lovely,
-
desirable, beautiful,
-
a place where He wants to come
-
and graze -
-
what is that?
-
What love that He should
do such things to us!
-
And the thing is when our desire is:
-
let my Beloved come to His garden,
-
and He comes,
-
that's it.
-
What's all the world to
us when that happens?
-
This is it.
-
This is true Christianity.
-
And we should desire it.
-
That should be our prayer.
-
Lord, come.
-
Come to Your garden. Come.
-
Yes, and cause these winds to blow
-
from whichever direction
they need to blow,
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but make us a richly spice-bearing church.
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We're going to have the Lord's Supper now.
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Because we're thinking on this.
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Jesus has purchased this
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at great, great, great expense to Himself.
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He Himself has bore our sins
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in His own body on the tree,
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that we might live to righteousness.
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This true righteousness and holiness
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has come at great, great expense.
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We are not a cheap garden.
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We may feel ourselves unworthy,
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but we're not a cheap garden.
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The piece of ground that we're on
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is expensive ground.
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And we want to remember right now
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that which our Lord has done.
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Sister Jenny, could we get a song maybe?
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Could we sing
"Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted,"
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while they're handing out these elements?