I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles, turn with me to the book of Song of Solomon. Psalms and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes
and Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon chapter 4. Song of Solomon chapter 4. Solomon, by the grace of God,
was, as men born in Adam, the wisest
of all men. God gave him wisdom above all
men born in Adam. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
wisdom of God. And Solomon wrote Proverbs. God gave him Proverbs, taught
him Proverbs. He wrote the book of Ecclesiastes. And he wrote this song. This
is a song, and when you first read it, it's a song that is
speaking of Solomon, and his bride. But it's a picture, it's
a type. You cannot read Psalm of Solomon
and see merely Solomon. But you see the Lord Jesus Christ
and his precious bride. The Lord has a bride. He has always had a bride. She was given to Him before the
foundation of the world. In electing grace, God, Ephesians
1, the Father, chose a bride, a people, an elect, and gave
them to the Son before the foundation of the world settled. settled. And the Lord Jesus Christ betrothed
himself to her. Hosea 2.19, betrothed to him
in righteousness, that means without hypocrisy, in judgment,
that is no condemnation to her, in loving kindness and in mercies,
that is by no merit found in them. There was nothing in the
bride that God the Father chose from before the foundation of
the world. There was nothing in her that made her worthy to
be chosen. Ephesians 1 declares that she
was predestinated from before the foundation of the world.
to the adoption of children to Jesus Christ, the bride. Hosea 2.20, the Lord speaking,
He said, I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness,
never failing faithfulness. And He said, and thou shalt know
the Lord. That is, you're going to know
that He's God. You're going to know who He is. You're going
to know He's sovereign. He's God. The Lord praying in John
17 3 said, this is life eternal. This is the evidence of life
eternal. This is it, right here. That
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. That's life eternal. Now, as
the surety of the sheep. never failing in his faithfulness
to her. This is every believer's hope. This is all my hope right here.
This is all of my hope. This is all my comfort. He has
made with me a never lasting covenant ordered in all things
and sure. David said that's all my salvation
and all my desire. Although he make it not to grow,
although it may not be made obvious in its completion yet. But David
said, I know it so. The Lord said so. Now in Song
of Solomon, Chapter 4. I want us to just look at the
last few verses starting in verse 12. And then Lord willing, the
next service I'm going to go and pick up in verse 5, chapter
5, verse 1 and go from there. But listen to the words of our
Lord as He describes His garden, His bride. He says, verse 12,
a garden. My bride's a garden. A garden according to his purpose,
according to his planting, according to his cultivating and care,
and finally, in the harvesting of his garden, all according
to his goodwill. A garden. A garden. You know, every year, you know,
we didn't last year, but almost every year for us. Glenn and
I would go out and we'd plant a garden and we'd just make the
rows and plant them. And she would tell me exactly
how far apart they got to be, just exactly how deep they got
to be. And I planted them just exactly that way. I know better. And I'm telling you, it's amazing. You come out, and after a while,
the plants are sticking up. Somebody say, come over here
and look at my garden. You want to see my garden? Yeah. Go see my garden. This is the
way we plant it. We plant it just exactly what
we like. We planted tomatoes. I like tomatoes,
and cucumbers, and bell peppers, and stuff. I plant what I like.
Here the Lord says, it's my bride. She's a garden. But she's a garden,
secondly, enclosed. Enclosed. Hedged about, set apart
for His pleasure. Job 1.8. The Lord was asking
Satan, He said, has thou considered My servant Job? And Satan answers
in verse 10, has not thou made and hedged about him? Look at
Isaiah 43. I'll read this. I'll read it
here. I've got it right here. Isaiah 43. You know why he was
hedged about? You know why that Job was hedged
about? Isaiah 43, 1. But now thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I've called thee by thy
name. Here's the reason that all of
God's people are hedged about. He said, thou art mine. You're mine. A garden. A garden of his planting. I got to thinking about three
or four years ago. It's out there where we live.
Almost, almost, not always, but almost all the land is somewhere
between, you know, 35 and 45 degrees. That's just about, you
know, Glenn's the only one I know that can handle it. But I decided,
and it was because I was lazy. I'm just lazy. I didn't want
to weed eat it. I just can't weed eat. Glen can,
I can't. And so I decided a few years
ago I was going to make a garden out of that bank. And I stepped
back across the creek and I looked at it and I started planning
this thing. I'm going to do this and I hauled
rocks up there and I took black plastic and laid it down, chicken
wire. And I'd look back and I'd think,
if I take that, I'm looking at a hundred yards away. And I'd take spray paint, I'd
look at it and I'd go over and spray paint on that and I'd make
a pattern and I'd haul rocks up that bank. I'd laid a ladder down and I'd
carry rocks out of the creek and I'd walk up that ladder.
extension ladder. And I'd lay those rocks and I'd
place them, I'd cut that chicken wire and I'd lay a rock down
in there and hold it. And after I got all that and
I put my plants, I'd put ornamental grass and I'd put this, that
and the other in it and I'd put mulch all around it. Oh man,
that looks a lot better. That's looked a lot better. And
then the winter came. And one day I was sitting in
the house and I was looking up there and there comes a deer
walking on my garden, walking on my garden. And I'm telling
you, when all that snow melted and stuff like that, my rocks
were messed up and he stepped all over my plants and stuff
like that. That was my garden. It was a
garden that pleased me. It was a garden of my effort.
And so I got Chuck. Chuck and I went over there.
And we put up an electric fence. It was a garden enclosed. And
I bought the most powerful electric fence, transmitter, or whatever
you call those things. And we hooked it up. Chuck put
a meter on it. It was right at 10,000 volts. I said, what it was? And I'm
telling you, I thought, you know what? You know why I put that
fence up? That's my garden. That's a garden
of my making. And I didn't want any deer. Well,
I didn't want predators on it. I didn't want it messed up. My
garden. She's a garden in closing. Scripture
says she's my sister. My sister. A sister according to His incarnation. He was made of a woman, made
under the law. The Word made flesh. It behooved
Him to be made like unto His brethren. But also a sister according
to adoption. Ephesians 1.5, I quoted this
a while ago, predestinated us into the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
But listen here, verse 12 again. A garden enclosed is my sister,
but listen to what he says. He said, this is my spouse. Ephesians chapter 5. Ephesians
5, verse 29 to 32. The scripture says, for no man
ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth
it, even as the Lord the church. For we're members of his body,
of his flesh, of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. But
I speak concerning Christ and the church. The Lord, speaking
of his bride, he said, this is my spouse. She was chosen in
me before the foundation of the world, and she shall be holy. She shall be, without blame, the bride that he everlastingly
loved. gave Himself for it, that He
might present it to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle
or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. He says in the latter part of
verse 12, He said, A spring shut up, a fountain sealed. A spring shut up, the same word
is enclosed. and a fountain sealed, that is
marked as mine. He's got my name on her, she
belongs to me. She's my spouse. Reserved for
him alone. She is his property. The bride
who from her union with him has rivers of living water flowing
from her belly, from her heart. Rivers of living water, immeasurable
grace from the Lord Jesus Christ for her comfort, for the blessing
to others, and for the glory of God. She said, he said, this
is my bride. She's a garden enclosed, she's
my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Then
he says, just reading in verses 13 to 15, and then I'm going
to look at verse 16 for a moment longer. He says, of her thy plants. Now these plants right here,
a garden's got plants in it. This is the fruit of God's Spirit
that has been imparted to her. But listen how they're described.
Thy plants are as an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant
fruits, camphor with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus,
cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the
chief spices, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams
from Lebanon, fruit that Almighty God has given unto her. And to her He exposes that which
the Holy Spirit has imparted to her. He's going to let her
know and sense and experience the fruit within. He's going
to savor it. He's going to smell it. He's
going to feast on it. That love and joy and peace and
long-suffering and gentleness and goodness and faith and meekness
and temperance. How is she going to know? How
is it going to be exposed? It's there. Every believer has
within them the fruit of God's Spirit. It's there. But how is it exposed? He says
to the Spirit of God, the Lord speaking to the wind. He says,
Awake, stir up, verse 16, O north wind, and come thou south. Blow
upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out. You know, just down the driveway
there's a bush. I'm trying to think what
it is right now. It's got little bitty white flowers.
And there's times when those blossoms are out and the wind
will blow and you can smell it. That smells good. I like the smell of that. You
ladies, you have flowers and stuff and you go into your garden
and you smell the fragrance. of those flowers. The Lord said,
I'm going to show how that fragrance of God's Spirit comes out. He says, awake, stir up the whole
north wind. The Holy Spirit of God, the north
wind and the south wind, same wind, there's only one wind.
The wind that blows where it listeth. You hear the sound thereof,
but you don't know where it's coming, you don't know where
it's going, but I can tell you who directs it. The Holy Spirit, as the north
wind, blows upon the garden of the Lord, and exposes the garden
to herself. That north wind in chastening
mercy, the cold, the coldness, showing
me what I am. and showing me my need of Him. And then He says, blow, O north
wind, and come thou south. That south wind of comfort, that
south wind that assures, shows, you know, I'm never going to
leave you. I'm never going to forsake you.
He says, come thou south. Blow upon my garden. That right there. Fan. Fan. Blow. Fan the flames. Years ago when I was in Louisiana,
whenever we'd go to bed, I'd bank the coal. I know all y'all
know what that means. But you just, you know, you've
had a fire and there's all your coals and you push them up in
the corner and take the ashes and cover them over, you know.
Cover them over and put them in there. Because the next morning,
when you get up, you're going to, you'd like all the help you
can get, you know. And you take it to shovel and
I'd rake it back and there'd be the coals and I'd kind of
bring them over and put a little kindling in there right there. Come, O North Wind, and blow
upon my garden, thou South. Fan the flames that the fragrance
of that imparted fruit will be brought out. God Almighty knows
how to rekindle the fragrance of what He's done in His people. He must enliven. I don't have
the ability to. I don't have the ability to kindle
that he would put love and joy and peace and comfort in my heart. I don't have the ability to kindle
it. Lamentations 5.21 says, Turn
thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned. Renew our
days of old. And as the Lord, by His Holy
Spirit, blows upon His garden, He causes her heart to burn within
her. And she says, the latter part
of verse 16, let my beloved come into His garden and eat His pleasant
fruits. Lord, come and blow upon me. Cause me, Lord, to be rekindled. Lord, renew within me a right
spirit. I find myself so cold, so indifferent. Lord, you blow upon your garden. Every believer knows something
about this. Lord, you must do something for
me. Lord, I know that that north wind must blow upon me because
I know that in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. I know
that. I know that. But then she knows by the comforting
assurance of His Spirit. taught her by the grace of God
through the glorious gospel of God's grace. I know that when
he speaks to me and blows upon this garden by the north wind
of conviction and chastisement that I need, that I need, I need
it. I know this. His assurance by
the south wind of his comfort through the preaching of the
truth I'm not going to leave you. I'm not going to leave you. You promised me, Lord, you've
given me life eternal, that I'm never going to perish. And I
know I am what I am by the grace of God. Let my beloved come into
his garden. There's truly a longing for his
presence. I'm yours by grace. The Father
gave me to you. You purchased me from the slave
market of sin and bondage and made me willing in the day of
your power. These are words of comfort. Lord,
come into your garden. Come into your garden and eat
of your pleasant fruits. that which you have bestowed
upon me is mine by grace, mine by your choice. You made me,
Lord now, fan me today and caused me to burn within for you. And let me truly say, as those
two on the road to Emmaus said, As the Lord walked by him, beginning
with Moses, all the scriptures. He expounded through the word
all the things concerning himself. That's what I want. I want to
hear of him. Him. He who is in the presence
right now of his bride. That's what we looked at last
week, last Wednesday. where two or three are gathered
together in my name, in my name. According to his character, as
he's revealed in the scripture, according to his character, he
said, I'm in the midst of you. Oh, precious Lord, you who we
are convinced are in this place, blow upon your garden today for
your honor and for our good. Amen. Let's take about a 10 minute
break.