-
You can open your Bibles once again
-
to the Song of Solomon.
-
Let's pray.
-
Father, we're coming to Your Word.
-
Your Word.
-
Speak, O Lord. Speak.
-
Speak.
-
May my brothers and sisters in this place
-
hear more than the voice of a man.
-
I pray in Christ's name, Amen.
-
The Song of Solomon.
-
I look forward to looking
at this Song with you
-
one last time.
-
Because, for one reason,
-
just looking at it this week,
-
two realities jumped out at me
-
that once again just assure me
-
and give me unwavering confidence
-
that this is speaking
of more than Solomon.
-
And I want you to see it as we look
-
at what we're going to look at today.
-
Really, all my messages
-
from the Song of Solomon
-
have been moving us and
directing us towards today.
-
We've been thinking
about the love of Christ.
-
The breadth, and length,
-
and the height, and depth.
-
To know the love of Christ
-
that surpasses knowledge.
-
That's why we've taken this trip
-
back into the Old Testament,
-
which I believe Spurgeon was right.
-
When it comes to the love of Christ,
-
this is the holy of holies.
-
Let's read in this Song in chapter 5.
-
Chapter 5:2.
-
"I slept, but my heart was awake.
-
A sound.
-
My Beloved is knocking.
-
'Open to Me, My sister, My love,
-
My dove, My perfect one,
-
for My head is wet with dew,
-
My locks with the drops of the night.'
-
I had put off my garment.
-
How could I put it on?
-
I'd bathed my feet.
-
How could I soil them?
-
My Beloved put His hand to the latch
-
and my heart was thrilled within me.
-
I arose to open to my Beloved
-
and my hands dripped with myrrh,
-
my fingers with liquid myrrh
-
on the handles of the bolt.
-
I opened to my Beloved,
-
but my Beloved had turned and gone.
-
My soul failed me when He spoke.
-
I sought Him, but found Him not.
-
I called Him, but He gave no answer."
-
I feel it's time to move on.
-
I feel Ephesians is calling.
-
I have one more sermon
-
from this Song of songs.
-
You know it was called that.
-
Look back in chapter 1:1,
-
right at the very beginning.
-
Look at the very first thing that's said.
-
"The Song of songs which is Solomon's."
-
What I want you to recognize
-
is we're holding in our hands a book
-
that is God-breathed.
-
All Scripture is God-breathed.
-
This is Scripture.
-
So whoever the author is,
-
you can clear that right out of your mind.
-
Whether it's Solomon or somebody else,
-
the reality is this,
-
this is the Word of God.
-
And so what we have in this title
-
is we have what God wants us to know
-
this letter by.
-
This is in God's estimation -
-
this is so important that you get this.
-
In God's estimation,
-
for God to identify any song
-
that has ever been sung by men,
-
for God to look down,
-
clear all the rest away,
-
and leave that one standing and say:
-
that is the Song of all songs.
-
And it can only be
because in God's estimation
-
this is a song about the
greatest imaginable thing
-
that a song could ever be written about.
-
That fact alone should lift us
-
above the physical, above the worldly,
-
above the mundane,
-
above Solomon,
-
up into the heavenlies
-
to behold something beyond this.
-
Something beyond Solomon
-
and one of his thousand wives.
-
Listen, when it comes to relationships -
-
and there's a relationship
-
that's being put on display for us here -
-
Christ and Christians
-
are the greatest persons
if you think about it -
-
they're the greatest persons
-
who have ever, ever partaken of humanity.
-
And the truth is that
in every relationship,
-
anything that's good,
anything that's excellent,
-
anything that's desirable,
anything that's beautiful,
-
and all the relationships out there
-
whether it be between a man and a woman -
-
you know what Paul did.
-
Paul looked at that and he said
-
you may see a man and a woman,
-
and that's maybe what
you see here in this book,
-
but he says what's behind
all this is a mystery.
-
The mystery of mysteries.
-
Christ and the church.
-
That's what we're supposed to see.
-
The two greatest lovers of them all.
-
You just never forget this.
-
God Himself says this is the Song
-
above every other song,
-
which must mean it's about a topic
-
that is above every other topic.
-
So we turn our attention
here one more time,
-
not to find Solomon,
-
but something greater than Solomon
-
and to behold once again
-
His - He that is greater than Solomon -
-
His love that He has for His bride,
-
the church.
-
Now, what I want to do
-
is we're going to end up in these verses
-
in chapter 5.
-
But I want you to see,
-
because you know what I've been doing
-
over the last couple of months?
-
I read this. I pore over this.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
I'll tell you what I'm watching
-
is I'm watching fluctuation.
-
You say: what do you mean?
-
(incomplete thought)
-
I mean, it's very interesting.
-
Right here is one of the reasons
-
why I know this is not
speaking about Solomon.
-
Solomon the man had
all manner of imperfections.
-
But you know what's interesting?
-
As you watch this letter,
-
and you go through from the beginning,
-
it's 8 chapters and you
go all the way through,
-
you know what you see?
-
You see in her fluctuations -
-
spiritual alterations.
-
But you know what?
-
When you look at Him,
-
there's no movement.
-
Oh, yes, there's movement as far as
-
His proximity to her.
-
But in His attitude towards her;
-
in His responses to her,
-
what you find is He's steady.
-
She's the one that's given to fluctuation.
-
And what I want you to see right now -
-
what I want you to do is come with me
-
and just walk through the up's and down's,
-
the back and forth's of her.
-
Look right at the beginning of the letter.
-
Chapter 1:2. We're just going to do
-
a quick survey,
-
because I want you to see this.
-
"Let Him kiss me..." v. 2 of chapter 1.
-
"Let Him kiss me with
the kisses of His mouth,
-
for Your love is better than wine."
-
Now, what do you see there?
-
What I see there is desire.
-
You know what I see there?
-
A woman who wants a man to kiss her,
-
but she is not at that moment
-
experiencing his kisses.
-
But she desires it to be so.
-
Right? You see that.
-
Desire.
-
And then, look at v. 4.
-
"Draw me after You and we will run."
-
You know what I see there?
-
A desire for desire.
-
You know, having desire is one thing.
-
Having a desire to have desire
-
is another thing.
-
I mean, do you feel that?
-
I mean, you feel the desire in v. 2,
-
but then in v. 4,
-
she's sensible of some need to be drawn.
-
She's sensible of some sort of coldness
-
or deadness in her spirit,
-
and she secretly desires
further quickening.
-
Now, brethren, what I
want you to see in all of this
-
is I want you to see something
-
that every single Christian in
this room can identify with.
-
Every one of us.
-
I want you to feel the movement
-
and the fluctuations
-
in our relationship with Christ.
-
That's what I want you to feel here.
-
She has desire.
-
We are like that.
-
We desire Him.
-
But then, there are other times
-
we're asking Him to draw us.
-
There are times we recognize
-
we don't long for Him like we should.
-
We want Him to operate on us
-
and make us want what is good
-
more than we want it.
-
There's a desire for desire.
-
You go to chapter 2:3-4.
-
Look with me here.
-
Song of Solomon 2:3-4;
-
she says, "With great delight
-
I sat in His shadow and
His fruit was sweet."
-
Now see, again, as Christians we can say
-
we know these seasons
-
of delight and sweetness.
-
We know that.
-
Christ came along and He upbraided
-
that church at Ephesus
-
because they had lost their first love.
-
But there is some reality as first love.
-
There's that sweetness to that love.
-
That's what you see
-
being put on exhibition for us there.
-
Now, look, I'm going to tell you
-
that the next thing I see here
-
is a decline.
-
Now you may have question
about that at first,
-
but stay with me.
-
I see a decline in the affection.
-
Because what I see here is a distance.
-
You see, last we heard, she was
-
in His shadow.
-
That's close.
-
You're close when you're
in someone's shadow.
-
Later on, we're going to see,
she's leaning on Him.
-
There's actual contact there.
-
She's close.
-
But notice what happens in chapter 2:9.
-
Just go down a little bit
from v. 3-4 to v. 9.
-
Now follow me.
-
"Behold, there He stands..."
-
But where is He?
-
He's behind our wall.
-
Now, I probably should have done more
-
with just this possessive pronoun "our."
-
It shows up in every translation.
-
I'm just not going to take
the time to go there,
-
but I find that - it's "our wall."
-
Maybe because it's "our" house.
-
But notice this,
-
He stands behind it.
-
What does that mean?
-
He's behind the wall.
-
Does that mean He's on the inside?
-
Or does that mean He's on the outside?
-
And where is she at?
-
Look at the position.
-
He's behind the wall.
-
He's gazing through the windows
-
looking through the lattice.
-
Who knows what a lattice is?
-
What's a lattice?
-
(unintelligible)
-
It's an opening of some sort
-
that you look through.
-
Which direction is He facing?
-
He's looking through it.
-
Is He on the outside looking in?
-
Is He on the inside looking out?
-
What's He looking at?
-
I'll tell you what He's looking at.
-
He's looking at you, Christian.
-
You say: how do you know that?
-
I know that from v. 10.
-
You see what He's saying?
-
"Arise My love, My beautiful
one, come away."
-
He's speaking to her.
-
This basically is a picture of Him
-
standing there at a distance.
-
He's on the other side of the wall.
-
He's behind the lattice.
-
He's gazing through the window.
-
What is this wall that
has come between them?
-
Between Him and us.
-
What's happened? She was
in the shadow before.
-
Now He's looking through the window.
-
Some sort of distance has taken place.
-
And you know what you
find all the way through?
-
He's calling to her.
-
He's constantly calling to her.
-
No matter how far away she gets;
-
no matter what walls come up,
-
He's just always calling.
-
That is the steadiness of Him.
-
What's happened to us?
-
See, we can enter in here.
-
We realize some distance has come
-
between us and Christ.
-
And you know what, the
devil's right there to say
-
He doesn't want anything to do with you.
-
And yet, if you'll open your
eyes and ears to Scripture,
-
He's constantly bidding us,
-
"Come. Come. Come."
-
He's speaking.
-
Whatever coldness has crept in,
-
He's not silent.
-
Look at v. 10.
-
From the other side of
the window, He's saying,
-
"My Beloved speaks..." that's her.
-
She's recognizing this.
-
She's recognizing that He speaks.
-
Oh, it is so good when
we recognize He's calling us.
-
Don't be deceived, brothers and sisters.
-
He's calling.
-
But watch.
-
"He says to me,
-
'Arise, My love, My beautiful one
-
and come away.'"
-
And you see this in v. 13-14.
-
And again, "Arise,
My love, My beautiful one..."
-
You see, it's repetitive.
-
Why? What's repetition in Scripture?
-
You know what it is. It's emphasis.
-
What's the emphasis?
-
The emphasis isn't on
the other side of the wall.
-
The emphasis is: Come away.
-
Come away.
-
Why? Because that's what
God wants you to get.
-
That's what He really wants you to hear.
-
Open your ears, brethren. Come away.
-
Come away.
-
"Arise, My love, My beautiful
one and come away.
-
Let Me see your face.
Let Me hear your voice.
-
Your voice is sweet. Your face is lovely."
-
And then you see - look at v. 1
-
of chapter 3.
-
Go to chapter 3:1.
-
Now you see, she's not with Him.
-
At one time, she's in His shadow.
-
Another time, He's on the
other side of the window.
-
He's calling to her.
-
Where is He now?
-
I know this. He's not with her.
-
Or maybe I should put it like this,
-
she's not with Him.
-
"On my bed by night, I sought Him
-
whom my soul loves."
-
There's a stirring of
desire here on her part.
-
"I sought Him but found Him not."
-
He's not with her. She's not with Him.
-
And you know what?
-
She can't find Him.
-
Again, the Christian life.
-
There are times when it's
like some cloud has come.
-
And you look and you can't find.
-
Where is He?
-
He hides His face.
-
We all know that.
-
That's reality to the Christian.
-
But... look at v. 4.
-
And you know what happens.
-
See, He departs for those seasons,
-
but it's not to be cruel.
-
And it's not because
He lacks desire to us,
-
because every time He comes
popping back up in this story,
-
it's with such desire for her.
-
But He doesn't depart to be cruel.
-
He departs so that she might
-
think on Him and muse about Him
-
and have her passions
stirred up about Him.
-
And see what happens
-
when there's those seasons of departure?
-
When she finds Him after that -
-
after you seek and you don't find
-
for a season and you can't find Him
-
and you can't find Him,
-
there's this darkness; there's this wall;
-
there's this distance;
there's this coldness,
-
and you search for Him
and you search for Him
-
and then He comes.
-
Oh how you value that!
-
And look at it. Look what she says.
-
She says, "Scarcely had I passed them
-
when I found Him.
-
I found Him whom my soul loves."
-
And look, she's not casual now.
-
"I held Him and I would not let Him go."
-
But you know the problem is
-
we're such vacillating creatures.
-
We know that. He's come back again.
-
And we're like I'm holding on to Him.
-
I'm not letting Him go.
-
I'm not going back down in that valley.
-
I'm not going back out in the desert.
-
I'm not going back to where
I don't know where He is.
-
I am not going to let sin creep in.
-
I am not going to grieve the Spirit.
-
We make these resolutions.
-
We plead - you ever been there?
-
Pleading with the Lord:
-
Please Lord, don't ever let
me go back to the way it was.
-
Keep me here on this
mountaintop always.
-
You ever been there?
-
I've been there.
-
Because the pitiful thing about this -
-
it's the reality.
-
Now we go to chapter 5.
-
And in v. 2, she says -
-
and the interesting thing is,
-
she's not with Him anymore.
-
In fact, she's sleeping.
-
She's fallen asleep.
-
She's not with Him again.
-
She's allowed separation - again.
-
She's not dead
-
like those who know not the Lord.
-
There's still reality in her heart.
-
Still His voice resonates with her.
-
Her heart is awake.
-
And we know this.
-
Christ's sheep hear His voice.
-
There's still, though we can become
-
cold and calloused in seasons.
-
And He's speaking to her,
-
and like always here, what's He saying?
-
What does He say to her?
-
"Open to Me."
-
Oh, if we only had ears to hear that.
-
He's saying it all the time to His people.
-
"Open to Me."
-
"My sister, My love,
My dove, My perfect one."
-
And notice the excuses.
-
Yes, this is us as well.
-
Again, you know what I
want to emphasize to you?
-
You will never find Him making excuses.
-
He is always saying, "open."
-
He is always calling to her.
-
He doesn't make excuses.
-
Only she does.
-
Now look, if you went back
-
to the earthly Solomon
-
and one of his brides,
-
you would not find
such perfections in him.
-
He was not a perfect man.
-
We know that.
-
But here, we're dealing with a Solomon
-
who is perfect.
-
We're dealing with One who is constantly
-
in the right frame;
-
constantly expressing His love;
-
constantly loving -
-
no matter how He's treated,
-
He's constantly expressing His desire.
-
It's unwavering.
-
It's unchanging.
-
She's the one that vacillates.
-
She makes excuses. He never does.
-
That's not real to life.
-
That's not real to a man and a woman
-
in any marriage here.
-
The man and the woman
both have their problems.
-
What's interesting is in
the Song of Solomon
-
only she has problems.
-
He never does.
-
He's perfect.
-
He's altogether blameless,
-
altogether beautiful,
altogether desirable,
-
the chief among ten thousand.
-
You find that.
-
And notice: "I put off my garment.
-
How could I put it on?
-
I bathed my feet. How could I soil them?"
-
And brethren, I'll just say this,
-
do these verses not agree
-
to the experience of us all?
-
Our Lord is bidding us to come.
-
This is such a cheap excuse.
-
But does it not resonate with us?
-
And then you see what happens.
-
She moves, but she moves too late.
-
And He's gone.
-
Look at v. 4 and following.
-
"My Beloved put His hand to the latch.
-
My heart was thrilled within me.
-
I arose to open to my Beloved,
-
and my hands dripped with myrrh,
my fingers with liquid myrrh
-
on the handles of the bolt.
-
I opened to my Beloved,
-
and my Beloved had turned and gone."
-
He was gone.
-
"My soul failed me when He spoke.
-
I sought Him but found Him not.
-
I called Him but He gave no answer."
-
How did she get back here again?
-
By her own excuses and by her own sleep.
-
She delayed and now He's gone.
-
And she can't find Him.
-
And then you look what happens in v. 7.
-
She gets a thrashing.
-
"The watchmen found me as
they went about in the city.
-
They beat me. They bruised me.
-
They took away my veil."
-
These watchmen of the walls.
-
And the reality is, with His departure,
-
she becomes exposed to such things
-
as she would have never been exposed to
-
if she had gotten up in time.
-
She's suffering this for
her own consequences.
-
If she'd gotten up
in time, He'd be with her
-
and none of this would have ever happened.
-
And the thing about it is,
-
it just makes me think,
-
as a Christian, we can bear trials
-
as long as He's with us.
-
Have you been in the midst of a trial
-
and you can't find Him? He's gone?
-
And there's no answer?
-
Yeah, that's where Job was.
-
Job in the midst of all of his trials,
-
you don't see him bemoaning too much
-
the loss of his children
-
or the loss of his riches.
-
The thing he really bemoaned
-
was the loss of the face of God.
-
And that makes any trial most miserable.
-
And you know what's interesting?
-
From this point to the end of this Song,
-
it's not apparent when
she finds Him again.
-
You will find no specific verse that says,
-
"I found Him."
-
Not after this.
-
But, we only know that she does find Him.
-
How do we know that?
-
Well, look at chapter 8:5.
-
What we find after this
-
through the rest of this Song
-
is just enormous amounts
of mutual adoration.
-
She overflows about Him.
-
He overflows about her.
-
But when exactly she finds Him,
-
we're not made overly aware.
-
We just know that she does find Him
-
because in chapter 8:5,
-
"Who is that coming
up from the wilderness
-
leaning on her Beloved?"
-
Well, she's at His side now.
-
And you know what's
interesting for all that?
-
There's never any indication
of separation after that.
-
And yet, when you get
to the very last verse
-
of this Song of Solomon,
-
notice what it says.
-
Chapter 8:14,
-
she ends with these last words.
-
Looking to Christ,
-
she says, "Make haste."
-
"Make haste, my Beloved,
and be like a gazelle."
-
Gazelles are fast.
-
"...Or a young stag on the
mountains of spices."
-
Make haste.
-
To me, that's a perfect finale.
-
Because it resonates
with that finale we find
-
in Revelation, does it not?
-
The Spirit and the bride -
-
what are their words
as you end the Scripture?
-
"Come."
-
Make haste, Lord. Come.
-
Because the reality is -
-
the reality of all this is
-
that no matter how much you have here,
-
you want Him to make haste to come
-
so that we might have
something even better,
-
even fuller, even deeper, even richer.
-
So, you have these separations.
-
You have excuses.
-
You have her finding Him.
You have her close.
-
You have Him departing.
-
What makes this so wonderful
-
and so practical is that every one of us
-
true Christians in this room -
-
we know this. We feel this.
-
This is reality. This is reality.
-
Seasons where we can't find Him.
-
Seasons where He's silent.
-
Seasons when we're close.
-
Seasons when we desire more desire.
-
Lord, draw me.
-
Seasons when, ah, we want. We desire.
-
Seasons when we have Him.
-
Seasons when our souls
are ravished by Him.
-
But this is our experience - fluctuation.
-
Spiritual fluctuation are all part of it.
-
In heaven, there is going to be a sense -
-
I want to be careful how I say this.
-
In heaven, there's going to be this
glorious unchangeableness.
-
But by that, I don't mean static.
-
I just mean this:
-
I think everything increases,
-
because I think Edwards was right.
-
Because the longer we're in heaven,
-
the more we're going to come to know Him
-
and to know Him is to love Him,
-
so with the increase of knowledge
-
will come the increase of love.
-
But I see it unchangeable in the sense
-
that it's this unchangeable increase.
-
There will never be the decrease
-
that we experience here
-
because here it's spirit and flesh.
-
The spirit is willing, and...
-
the flesh is weak.
-
That's where we find ourselves.
-
In heaven, there's going to be
-
this increasing consistency
-
in our love, in our communion,
-
intimacy, fellowship.
-
But how given to change we are here!
-
And it's not just us.
-
You know what?
-
Don't you love that Scripture is real?
-
I mean, you go to it and what do you find?
-
Abraham - a friend of God.
-
Certainly here is a pillar of faith.
-
Certainly here in
Romans 4, he's set forth.
-
His faith didn't waver.
-
Well, what's this with Pharaoh?
-
Abraham, you couldn't trust the Lord
-
well enough to protect you and Sarah
-
to not be letting Pharaoh snatch
-
your wife away?
-
Or, Elijah - I mean, bold!
-
400 prophets of Baal.
-
Where is Baal?
-
Maybe he's gone on a vacation?
-
In the literal, it's:
maybe he's in the bathroom.
-
But then he's running away from Jezebel.
-
David - you see David -
-
he makes expression,
-
surely, one of these days,
-
Saul is just going to catch me.
-
Yet, he can hear the threats of Goliath
-
and he is bold as a lion.
-
There are fluctuations, fluctuations.
-
We see it.
-
I mean, sometimes,
-
Samson looked like a champion.
-
We know he was one of the people of God.
-
And there's other days,
he didn't look so good.
-
Solomon himself -
-
what wavering, what vacillating!
-
We see that. We're vacillating.
-
We're unsteady. We waver.
-
But you know what's beautiful
-
about the Song of Solomon?
-
Is He, our Beloved,
-
there's no fluctuation with Him.
-
There's steadiness.
-
Steadiness.
-
You know what I find?
-
She made her excuses.
-
He still addresses her as "My love."
-
She's been asleep.
-
He still addresses her as "My love."
-
There's been separation.
-
He still addresses her as His love.
-
He still is inviting her to come close.
-
He still calls her.
-
Just look at it.
-
Look at chapter 2:13.
-
Notice. He says,
-
"Arise, My love, My beautiful
one, and come away."
-
But then when we get to chapter 3,
-
He's gone. He's not with her.
-
There's been some separation.
-
She's thinking about Him.
-
She pursues Him - can't find Him.
-
But notice, when He shows up again,
-
Song of Solomon 4:1.
-
"Behold, you are beautiful, My love.
-
Behold, you are beautiful."
-
She's been asleep. She's fallen asleep.
-
Take this as spiritual sleep.
-
We slumber sometimes.
-
We fall into some spiritual sleep
-
and what happens?
-
There He is again.
-
"Open to Me, My sister, My love,
-
My dove, My perfect one."
-
Even when she's been sleeping.
-
And then beyond that,
-
she makes the excuses.
-
Well, I can't get up and let Him in.
-
My feet are clean.
-
And you know what, even after that,
-
after that account, when you go
-
to Song of Solomon 6:4-5 -
-
see, there's no movement on His part.
-
There's no excuse-making.
-
He simply says,
-
"You are beautiful as Tirzah, My love,
-
lovely as Jerusalem,
-
awesome as an army with banners.
-
Turn away your eyes from Me,
for they overwhelm Me."
-
This is what you need to grasp.
-
On your worst day, you're still His love.
-
His sister, His friend, His bride.
-
None of that ever changes.
-
Do you see that?
-
Do you feel that?
-
In this state of grace in which we stand,
-
oh, how many fluctuations and alterations
-
and changes do we experience,
-
and yet the reality of all this is,
-
Christ's love to us remains unmoved,
-
it remains the same.
-
Once loved, forever loved.
-
That's the reality of all this.
-
No inconsistency on His part.
-
Yes, flesh and blood, united to us -
-
or flesh and spirit.
-
The spirit willing...
-
we feel weighed down by the flesh.
-
We feel its tug.
-
I'll tell you this, consistent
-
uninterrupted communion with Christ -
-
greatly to be desired,
-
greatly to be sought.
-
And I'll tell you, we should
be moving towards that.
-
We should be longing towards that.
-
But the realities in this life
-
is it does get interrupted.
-
There's yet unsubdued corruption
-
and it gets the best of us.
-
And we've all been there as Christians.
-
And yet His voice - it's like
through all of it though,
-
even on our worst day,
-
even when we fall into temptation,
-
even when we're discouraged
and we're cast down,
-
and yet the thing about His voice,
-
His voice all the way through this song -
-
it's a Song!
-
He's singing over His bride.
-
He sings to us constantly this voice.
-
Chapter 5:2, "Open to Me,
-
My sister, My love,
My dove, My perfect one,
-
for My head is wet with dew,
-
My locks with the drops of the night."
-
The causes of sleep -
let's think about this.
-
She's sleeping.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
Oh, that's another thing.
-
You'll notice this.
-
She sleeps.
-
You'll find her on her bed.
-
He never sleeps.
-
You'll never find Him sleeping
-
one time in this whole Song.
-
He doesn't sleep.
-
And I was thinking,
-
what are some of the reasons
-
that we go to sleep?
-
Spiritual sleep. Spiritual slumber.
-
You remember this?
-
"When Christ arose from prayer,
-
He came to the disciples
-
and found them sleeping for sorrow.
-
And He said to them,
-
'Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray,
-
that you may not enter into temptation.'"
-
You know one of the
reasons we can go to sleep?
-
Sorrow.
-
Trials.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
You know, if anyone in here
-
says the Christian life is easy,
-
you haven't lived it that long.
-
Through many tribulations -
-
and be sure, that's no exaggeration.
-
Momentary light affliction,
-
but affliction nevertheless.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
Not every season's the same.
-
I'll grant you that.
-
And we're all in different seasons.
-
There may be some
commonalities that overlap
-
with some of us here,
-
but we're all in different seasons.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
We're all at a different
place in the race.
-
Some more near the beginning,
-
some more near the end.
-
We're at different places of maturity.
-
We're in different forms and shapes
-
of trials in our life.
-
But you know,
-
we can get to places where we're
-
just barraged by temptations.
-
We're barraged by emotions
-
like sorrow and grief.
-
And then there's this,
-
sometimes just discouragement.
-
We get discouraged.
-
Discouraged with our own growth,
-
discouraged by our own
lack of sanctification,
-
discouraged by God not doing everything
-
that we desire God to do.
-
We can just get discouraged.
-
And you know what? We can get weary.
-
Just with striving,
-
just with the spiritual exertion required
-
especially in some seasons.
-
The truth is, why do you think
-
there are texts that say
-
not to get weary in well-doing,
-
and we should pray and not faint?
-
Because the reality is we get worn down.
-
I feel that.
-
Oh, there are some seasons
-
that are a breath of fresh air.
-
There's these reviving winds.
-
But there are times when it's difficult
-
and we get worn out.
-
And that can put us to sleep.
-
We can sleep for sorrow.
-
You can want to sleep
when things get difficult.
-
Because you know what,
when they get difficult,
-
you want to turn aside.
-
You want to lay down.
-
You want to withdraw.
-
You want the trial to stop.
-
Or there's this, and it comes
out of this letter too.
-
Another way we fall to sleep
-
is by neglect of prayer.
-
And you see that in the same text.
-
"Watch and pray that you may
not enter into temptation..."
-
is what Scripture says.
-
Watch and pray that you may not...
-
you see, it's not "sleep and pray,"
-
because you don't pray when you're asleep.
-
Neglect of prayer.
-
Staying awake.
-
You know, in Scripture,
-
being alert, being awake,
-
goes hand-in-hand with praying.
-
Oh, Christian, we can very foolishly
-
get to the place where we lay
-
a small priority;
-
we give little creedance to prayer.
-
We can get to the place where:
-
Oh, I can miss the prayer meeting.
-
It won't affect my life.
-
I won't go to sleep.
-
And yet, Jesus is specifically saying
-
watch and pray.
-
And these two things:
-
an alertness, an aliveness,
-
an awareness -
-
it goes hand-in-hand with prayer.
-
Oh, it's okay that I didn't get
into the secret place today.
-
I did it three days ago.
-
It's okay that I don't go to the
prayer meeting this week,
-
because after all, it won't matter.
-
It won't matter.
-
I won't be more asleep for
not having been there.
-
That's not true.
-
Be very careful.
-
Be very careful.
-
Not praying is not being watchful
-
and you go to sleep.
-
And that's exactly what
he is describing here.
-
Sleep takes you.
-
The individual who sleeps -
you think about it -
-
they're not cognizant.
-
They're not aware.
-
When you're sleeping,
-
you're not really aware
that you're asleep.
-
You're aware of dreams,
-
but you're not really aware of reality.
-
You're disconnected from reality.
-
That's the reality with sleep.
-
While you sleep, you can't discuss sleep.
-
You can't contemplate how you sleep.
-
Why? Because you're asleep.
-
Or besides these two things -
-
we get weary,
-
we get negligent of prayer.
-
How about this?
-
(incomplete thought)
-
Have you ever been around
somebody that yawns?
-
You're in a group of people
-
and you watch somebody yawn over here
-
and then, something happens in our brain.
-
You get around yawning persons
-
and it's contagious.
-
There's something to that.
-
So it is spiritually speaking.
-
If you want to fall asleep,
-
truthfully, you want to fall asleep?
-
Surround yourself with
spiritual sluggards.
-
It will put you down.
-
I'll tell you, there is nothing like,
-
if you're in biography
-
or you're in the church,
-
there is nothing like surrounding yourself
-
with people who run faster than you do.
-
People who are all out.
-
You want to fall asleep?
-
I'm talking about professing believers
-
who are just content
with the way their life is.
-
They're just an example of
slumbering Christianity.
-
The contented - you know the kind.
-
They're just coasting. Contented coasters.
-
Or worse, the complainers.
-
The cold.
-
Those who are just cold water
-
on any sort of heat in the church,
-
alertness, any sort of fire
-
to live for Christ and run for Christ
-
and have intimacy with Christ.
-
Surround yourself with
those kind of people.
-
They're just a wet blanket,
-
a cold bucket of water.
-
That'll put you down.
-
Get around people who, you know,
-
you want to talk about something spiritual
-
but it always goes carnal.
-
That'll put you to sleep.
-
That's a sleep-inducer.
-
What's the hallmark of sleepers?
-
(incomplete thought)
-
You know what it's like.
-
Somebody wants to sleep?
-
They often want to be alone.
-
You know, if one of my children gets sick
-
and they want to sleep, where do they go?
-
They go to be alone.
-
Scripture actually says
something about being alone.
-
"Whoever isolates himself
seeks his own desire."
-
It says that in Proverbs.
That's not such a good thing.
-
People who want to sleep
-
typically don't want to be around those
-
that are on fire.
-
Men who want to sleep -
what do they like to do too?
-
I mean, oftentimes,
-
my wife closes the blinds.
-
Why are you closing the blinds?
-
People can see us in here.
-
Well, we're on the second story
-
and we've got trees all the way around
-
and I like to see the light come through.
-
But typically, people when they sleep,
-
they close the blinds.
-
They draw the curtains.
-
Why? They want dark.
-
Or they don't want people to see them.
-
That's true of people that want to sleep.
-
They don't want to be in the light.
-
You know, there's something about light.
-
Guys that have to work third shift,
-
to me, that would be extremely difficult
-
because there's something about light.
-
In fact, they say that about people
-
who live like up in Alaska,
-
and the closer you
get to the Arctic Circle
-
where in the summertime -
-
our sister was up there working
-
way up in Canada.
-
You can ask her what that
was like in the summertime.
-
You know, where your days
are 18 or 20 hours long.
-
Very difficult to sleep
when there's light.
-
You want to not sleep? Come in the light.
-
Come where the light is.
-
Get away from the slumbering life
-
and example of some professing Christians.
-
Those who sleep sleep at night.
-
How do you discern your own sleep?
-
Well, there's a couple good rulers.
-
Are you running as well as you did before?
-
I mean, that's where Jesus goes
-
with the church at Ephesus.
-
You know, you have this coming
-
from the mouth of Paul:
-
You did run well.
-
That was said of the Galatians.
-
You did run well.
-
In other words, he's implying,
-
you're not running well now.
-
But you did run well.
-
That's often a good marker.
-
Did I run better in the past?
-
Did I have a greater love in the past?
-
What's another way?
-
Another way is compare yourself.
-
Example is powerful in Scripture.
-
But compare yourself to people
who you know are godly
-
and who do run well.
-
If you're sadly lacking,
-
that can be a good way
to discern your own sleep.
-
But you just have to ask.
-
Joy.
-
Joy in the singing.
-
Has that diminished?
-
You know, you can tell.
-
You can kind of feel if you've
grieved the Spirit in your life.
-
Because part of the fruit -
-
that so desirable fruit
-
that comes from the Spirit,
-
a certain aspect of that is joy.
-
And you know when you
begin to lose joy in prayer
-
and you lose joy going to the Word
-
and you lose joy in the singing,
-
that can be a real wake up call.
-
Something is lacking.
-
Something isn't here.
-
You can tell that something is diminished.
-
There's this fluctuation.
-
You're kind of on the down side of things.
-
Coming into the presence of Christ
-
is just not so thrilling to your soul,
-
not so exciting.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
We get sloppy.
-
You get sleepy. You get sloppy.
-
Somebody was just telling me recently
-
about being in class and taking notes.
-
And I remember,
-
being in college myself,
-
and you're so tired and
you're taking the notes
-
and the prof is writing
on the board up there
-
or on the overhead,
-
and you're taking these notes
-
and you just fall asleep.
-
That's what happens when you sleep.
-
You get sloppy.
-
And remember what it's like in Malachi?
-
What kind of offerings
are you bringing Me?
-
Blind?
-
You go offer that to your governor.
-
We can get sloppy in what
we're offering to the Lord.
-
That's what happens when you go to sleep.
-
Brethren, before we wrap this up,
-
what I want you to see
-
is the greatest offense in all of this.
-
Notice Song of Solomon 5:2,
-
"I slept, but my heart was awake.
-
A sound, my Beloved is knocking."
-
Oh, I want you to see something here
-
that you probably have missed up till now.
-
"Open to Me, My sister, My love,
-
My dove, My perfect one.
-
For My head is wet with dew,
-
My locks with the drops of the night."
-
And she responds:
Well, I'd put off my garment,
-
"how could I put it on?
-
I bathed my feet. How could I soil them?"
-
And yet, here is Christ saying,
-
"My head is wet..."
-
and she's saying,
"I've put off my garment."
-
"My locks drip..."
-
She's saying, "I've bathed my feet."
-
May God give us eyes to
see what's happening here.
-
When the Lord calls to His love
-
and He says these words:
-
"My head is wet with dew,"
-
that may not strike
you at first as it ought,
-
but here's the thing,
-
don't imagine that prior to Him
-
coming to her door,
-
He was out in the middle of the fields
-
sitting there getting wet
-
and now He's wet and He says,
-
I know what I'm going to do,
-
I'm going to go to My
love's bedroom and knock.
-
That's not the picture.
-
Rather, the picture you
probably want to see here
-
is He was dry and He came to the door.
-
And He began knocking.
-
And He knocked so long
-
and He called so long
-
that the dew settled on Him.
-
I think that's the picture
-
that you want to see.
-
He was wet.
-
He was wet due to the time
-
he stood outside that door knocking.
-
Not because of what He was doing
-
before He came knocking.
-
And I would just say this: what love!
-
And what patience!
-
Oh, have you not found it so?
-
Has Christ not been
abundantly patient with us?
-
Have you not repeatedly said,
-
oh, what a fool I am!
-
And He still says, "Come to Me, My love."
-
He continues knocking.
-
He continues calling
-
until His head is wet with the dew.
-
And what does she do?
-
What do we do?
-
Well, you know what we do?
-
We miss His heart.
-
(incomplete thought)
-
Get the picture!
-
This is a bedroom.
-
Christ comes.
-
Excuse me if you have tender ears,
-
but He wants to make love to your soul.
-
And we have excuses.
-
I can't go to prayer.
-
I can't go walk with Him.
-
I can't go meditate on what He says to me.
-
I don't have time for this.
-
Because after all, I have social media.
-
We are fools.
-
And I'll tell you this,
-
what this says to every one
of us is we could have more.
-
And He wants more.
-
And He calls to us to give us more.
-
Oh, what excuse making on our part!
-
What hesitations!
-
I won't put my garment on
-
and risk soiling my feet.
-
Oh brethren, that sounds silly.
-
It's almost like to write that in here,
-
what silliness!
-
Oh yeah, but if we're honest,
-
we've probably missed
-
intimacies with Christ
-
for even more silly excuses.
-
Isn't that the way we live our lives?
-
We're constantly measuring.
-
Should I do this? Should I do this?
-
We're constantly making these decisions.
-
Should I sit down and do this?
-
Should I do this? Should I do this?
-
And in these decisions that we make,
-
oh, on a regular basis, every one of us
-
would confess we've made decisions.
-
We've hesitated.
-
That's the thing. Hesitations.
-
He's come to His bride at night
-
to her bedroom ready for intimacy.
-
He calls to her. He knocks.
-
He beckons until His head is wet with dew.
-
And what's she doing?
She's making excuses.
-
And I would just say this,
-
brethren, look, sometimes we can take
-
this idea from Scripture about hastiness.
-
Whoa, I'm not going to be hasty.
-
I'll tell you this, you should be hasty
-
to run into the arms of Christ.
-
You should be hasty
to spend time with Him.
-
We deliberate too much.
-
We're too cautious.
-
Too much calculation.
-
Too much carefulness on our part
-
when it comes to living all out for Christ
-
and being for Christ
and being with Christ.
-
Right here, His unimaginable love
-
is put on display.
-
He endures such indignities from us
-
as to sit outside that door and knock
-
and call to us until His head is wet
-
with the dew.
-
Christ endures indignities
from His church.
-
And we all have to raise our hand -
-
this is true to our experience.
-
We all know it. We feel it.
-
Still, after this insult, in chapter 6:4,
-
"You are beautiful as Tirzah, My love."
-
He's making us beautiful.
-
And we just can never get away from that.
-
"Lovely as Jerusalem."
-
He says, "Turn away your eyes from Me,
-
for they overwhelm Me."
-
Yes, when she delayed,
-
He turned and He left.
-
But again, I'll tell you,
it's not to be cruel.
-
And if you look right there,
-
if you've got your Bibles
open to chapter 5,
-
you'll see that when He left,
-
"my Beloved had turned and gone,"
-
when you get over to v. 10,
-
you know what it produces in her?
-
It produces her thinking about Him.
-
Her longing for Him just erupts.
-
"My Beloved is radiant and ruddy,
-
distinguished among ten thousand..."
-
See what His departure did?
-
It causes a yearning. It's a good thing.
-
It's a good thing.
-
And He's withdrawn,
but it's only for a season.
-
It always is for His children.
-
Because His heart really is like this.
-
It's yearning for His people.
-
What you need to see here is Christ
-
never has enough of
you and your affections.
-
You'll remember back there in Ephesians 3
-
where we came from.
-
It's that Christ might dwell
in your hearts through faith.
-
It's Christ coming close.
-
He desires that.
-
He will have more and more of you.
-
That's why He says to
a church like Ephesus:
-
Repent! I will remove candlesticks
-
if I do not have your love.
-
It means that much to Me.
-
He will have our love.
-
And He still greatly desires her.
-
He will have your love more and more.
-
He will have your hearts more and more.
-
He desires further
entrance into your heart,
-
into your affections,
-
that He might dwell there more deeply
-
all the time.
-
I'll tell you, He is not content
-
with any of this until
we're all in heaven.
-
And you see it in that
high priestly prayer.
-
I mean, when He's praying to His Father
-
there in John 17, He says:
-
"My desire is that they be
with Me where I am."
-
And that's where we're all headed.
-
He's not content. His desire is that we
-
would be with Him.
-
You answer me, Christian.
-
When there's any separation,
-
when there's any coldness or strangeness
-
between your soul and Christ,
-
are you going to blame Christ?
-
Will you blame Him?
-
Not when He's the one who
is portrayed in Scripture
-
as standing at the door and knocking -
-
even knocking until the
very locks of His head
-
are dripping with dew.
-
This speaks loudly to the fact
-
that He takes no delight or desire
-
in separation or distance between us.
-
And look, when we don't prize Him
-
as we ought to,
-
and we make our excuses against
-
drawing close to Him,
-
it's no wonder that
He draws away at times.
-
He knocks. Oh, He knocks.
-
Therefore, we should lay
the blame on ourselves.
-
If we don't know more of revival,
-
more of the ravishing of the soul,
-
more of filling, more of glory,
-
typically, we can blame
ourselves for that
-
because of choices that we've made.
-
Look, what you have to gather from this
-
is nothing contents Him
about saving a people
-
but intimacy.
-
Eternal life is that we might know Him.
-
Intimacy.
-
That's it.
-
What condescension on His part!
-
I mean, you think about this.
-
You think about this.
-
He's in heaven.
-
I mean, He asked His Father to restore Him
-
to the glory that He had with the Father
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before the world began. That's happened.
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He's in the glory.
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Surrounded by angels.
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He's got His Father at His right hand.
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And seriously? For all that,
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He comes to us down here?
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And He asks us to open to Him?
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And He speaks such sweet
things to our souls?
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And He even stands outside
and gets His head wet?
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And we make excuses?
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What is this?
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Look, what has all this been about?
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It's been about the love of Christ.
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Is there any such love
like this for anybody?
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He laid down His life.
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He comes. He knocks.
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Look, He comes out of love for us.
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He knocks out of love for us.
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He lets His head grow wet for love for us.
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He waits for us. He calls to us.
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I would just say this, for any of you
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believers out here, you've relapsed.
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Oh, we don't like "backsliding"
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in our circles.
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It's too much of the carnal Christian.
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Yeah, but there are seasons
where Christians get carnal,
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and you can call them carnal Christians
-
just like the Corinthians were
called carnal Christians
-
and the reality is this,
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we do backslide.
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We do have fluctuations.
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And I would just say to any
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who have relapsed in any way,
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don't be discouraged to
return to Him but at once!
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Go to Him!
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Don't stay away. Don't stay at a distance.
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The church here was drowsy, sleepy,
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treated Christ unkindly, made excuses,
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yet He's so patient and He waits for her,
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like at her leisure, you could say.
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Constantly saying,
"open to Me, open to Me."
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You just remember times like Thomas,
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how condescending Christ was.
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He didn't just blast him for his unbelief.
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Come. Come.
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Put your finger in here.
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Or Peter after the rejection.
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He comes to him.
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Be encouraged.
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Christ never has enough of His church.
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And He's calling, calling, calling.
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"Come closer. Come, My love."
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Just let this grab you
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through this whole thing,
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He never ever stops calling her His love.
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She may mistreat Him.
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He doesn't stop calling her His love.
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"Father, I desire that they may
be with Me where I am."
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You hear His voice in this.
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"Come away. Come away.
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I desire to see your face."
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If you've got eyes to see,
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if you've got ears to hear,
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something greater than Solomon is here.
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Father, I pray that Your Word
would speak to Your people.
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I pray it in Christ's name, Amen.