Song of Solomon 4. I'd like to look at a few verses
beginning in verse 12. This morning I was talking to
my daughter who attends where Brother Paul Mahan pastors. And
we were talking about a message that he brought last Lord's Day
on the people that were on this earth and how many billions there could
have been on the earth at that time. And out of all the people that
were on the earth, there is recorded in Scriptures that eight souls
were saved. Eight. I want you to just stop for a
moment and think how blessed you are if Almighty God has been
pleased to reveal Himself to you. There is no difference and
you and anybody else, it is the grace of God Almighty that has been bestowed upon any that believe. Psalm of Solomon chapter 4, beginning in verse 12, is where we are going to be reading.
And the passage tonight describes the bride as the personal property
of the Lord Jesus Christ. She belongs to Him. Bought with
the price of His precious blood. She is the gift of the Father
to the Son, given to Him, betrothed eternally, eternally betrothed
to the Lord Jesus Christ, chosen in Him from the foundation of
the world, or before the foundation of the world. He has always been her surety. Always been her surety. We read last Lord's Day that
we were not appointed to wrath, but to salvation. He has always
stood as the surety of the sheep. And this evening, we want to
begin looking at some particulars, things that describe her. And
the amazing thing, and I do pray tonight that the Lord bless this
message. Number one, to me, to my understanding,
that I say those things that are honoring to Him. I ask for
His direction, guidance, to not say anything that would be dishonoring
to Him or a discouragement to you, but to say those things
that the Scripture sets forth. But in the description that is
set forth of the bride, there are certain things that are said
of her that can only be said of her as being found in Him.
never of her of herself, but only as she is being found in
the person of her husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. There are
four particular descriptions given of her which manifest the
Lord's glory and her blessing. And Lord willing, I'd like to
look at three of them tonight, and the Lord wills the other
part. next Wednesday. Number one, a
description of her is found in verse 12, and she is said to
be a garden enclosed, is my sister, my spouse. A garden is an area
whose ground has been prepared, made good to receive the seed
of the Word, that seed that the sower sows, that Word of the
living God whereby fruit, some 30 and some 60 and some 100. I've got some thoughts on that. I won't go into the depth of
it right now, but I will say just this much about that some
30, some 60, some 100. I know that Almighty God has
revealed in His Word that fruit is produced, some thirtyfold,
some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. And that fruit which is produced
is the fruit of Almighty God. It's good fruit. And only God
is good. So therefore, it is the fruit
of the Spirit of Almighty God that is produced. We don't produce
anything. He said, without me you can do
nothing. But some 30, some 60, some 100. And I know in our little fickle
minds, we see that and it appears as though that he is saying,
these things are mightier and mightier and mightier beheld,
that is, in me. I am a 30-fold producer. Or I am a 60-fold producer. I'm
a hundredfold producer. These are only seen by Almighty
God. These fruits that are produced
by God Himself, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred. Now,
no man can set forth exactly what that means because we don't
have the capability of setting a standard on what that is. But I will tell you this. unto
whom much is given, much is required." I know that. I know that Paul
the Apostle said, this one that was caught up into the third
heaven, this man was a man that saw things and heard things that
were unspeakable. Either couldn't say them or didn't
know how to say them. Unspeakable things. Here was
a man that was used by God Almighty to pin, under the inspiration
of the Spirit of God, to pin the majority of the New Testament.
That man right there. And that man, under the inspiration
of God's Spirit, said, I'm the chief of sinners. Oh, wretched
man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I can tell you this. Whatever
the groundwork is, whatever is being set forth in some 30, some
60, some 100-fold, I can tell you this, it comes with a high
cost. And there is a price that is
paid by that believer. But God is sufficient. That's what he told Paul. He
said, My grace is sufficient. Those men, those women that God
Almighty has used through the Scriptures, you look at them,
men and women, the Rahabs, the Pauls, the Jacobs, and you look
at them. Many times we look in Hebrews
chapter 11, on a roll of faith or whatever, that terminology.
You know what I'm talking about. But I want you to look and see
how they appeared to themselves in their own eyes and the struggles
that they went through. and the suffering and the trials
and the tribulations. And the Scripture says that these
men and women suffered. This world wasn't even worthy
of them. Thrown asunder. Crucified upside
down. Boiled in oil. This garden that the Lord is
setting forth is a garden that is enclosed. A garden is for
fruit, for pleasure. My dad, I can remember when I
was growing up, he loved the garden. He used to tell me, he
said, I just love to watch it grow. He said, I love the smell
of dirt. You know what? I do too. It worked
the dirt. You know what it smells like?
It smells good. I like the smell of dirt. This bride, this garden enclosed,
is said of her, I've loved you, Jeremiah 31, 3. I've loved you
with an everlasting love. With loving kindness I've drawn
you. My dad would say, I love to see
things grow. Almighty God is pleased. He said,
I've loved you everlastingly. Care for this garden. is taken
for that garden's good. And everything that that garden
needs, the gardener supplies. That garden does not provide
its own fertilizer, doesn't remove its own weeds, doesn't water
itself, doesn't prune itself, doesn't stake itself, doesn't
harvest itself. It's a garden. It's preservation. is for the owner's exclusive
enjoyment. What do we think of a man that
laid a bunch of seed and a couple of sacks of fertilizer, you know,
at the end of the garden right there and just left or never
turned it? Didn't do anything to it. Just
a piece of ground out there. Just grass is all it is. Just
piled up some seed and piled up some fertilizer Put fourteen
buckets of water out there and said, now, exercise your own
free will. See what you can do. I'll be
back. Just offered it. No, this is
an enclosed garden. Enclosed. Separated by distinguishing
grace. Electing grace. Set apart by
God Almighty's choice. Psalm 4-3 says, But know that
the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself. Not that God looked and found
one godly and then set him apart. No, if a man be found godly,
that is, with the presence of God, know this, God set him apart,
hedged him about, That's the reason Satan couldn't get to
Job. He said, you've hedged him to buy. I can't get to him. You
considered my servant Job? Oh yeah, but what can I do? You've got him enclosed. Zechariah
2.5 says, For I say that the Lord will be unto her a wall
of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of
her. God Almighty! is the fence of
the bride's borders. She is a garden enclosed. He is her protection and nothing
happens to her without His permission. Nothing! I was thinking a moment
ago when Brother Scott was reading that about how we vacillate back
and forth. I was thinking about that Scripture
I just quoted when Paul said, and we looked at it last Sunday,
when Paul said, I see in my mind I serve the law of God. In my
flesh though, with the law of sin, I see two natures in me. And they strive one against the
other, fighting one against the other. And we are constantly
doing that. Constantly doing it. Let me give
you an example. We'll stand right here and we'll
say, I believe that God Almighty is sovereign. Do you believe
that? Do you believe that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are called according to His
purpose? I believe that. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. I believe that. I believe that. Did you hear that clatter in
my car? Eight hundred dollars? What? You know what I just did? I just disputed the providence
of Almighty God. It just falls right again. In my mind, I just thought, how
can that be happening to me? I just got that car fixed and
now something Oh, if it were not for His protecting grace
and mercy that keeps us a garden enclosed, hedged about, nothing
happens to her without His permission. I need to be reminded of that
often. Kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. And who is this garden? He said,
you're my sister. My spouse, we looked at that
last time. His sister by incarnation. He said, I am your brother, your
elder brother, your friend. His sister by obedience, made
obedient by the imparting of a new nature that loves Him. His spouse by electing grace. She is number one. She's a garden
enclosed. Hedged about. Not just anybody
can come into this garden, infringe in this garden. This is a closed
up garden. Private property. No trespassing. No trespassing. Does that mean
that what we're saying is that nobody's welcome? No. Whosoever
will, let him come. Let him take of the water of
life freely, but no entrance is made here by man's free will,
by man's choice, by man's works, works of the law. She is an enclosed
garden, hemmed up, closed up by God Himself. Secondly, in
verse 12, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, a spring that is barred. Guarded. Protection over. Under lock and key. That word
shut up there, a spring shut up. The same word is enclosed. Shut up. A garden enclosed is
my sister, my spouse. A spring shut up. But there is
a particular word that is set forth in those words right there,
enclosed and shut up. And those two words also mean
shod, S-H-O-D, shod. And it gives an example in Strong's
Concordance and it says, with slippers. She is a garden enclosed, shut up, closed up, shod, furnished. Like when the prodigal son came
back, came to himself, spent all of his money on righteous
living, rehearsed his story, came to his father. I'm going
to go to my father and I'm going to tell him, I've sinned before
you and against heaven Not worthy to be called your son anymore."
The father saw him a long way off, ran, fell on his neck, and
kissed him. The boy began to rehearse his
story, and he said, bring the best robe. Bring the shoes and
put some shoes on this boy's feet. We're shod, the Scripture
says, with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Turn with
me to 2 Chronicles. Look at this Scripture. 2 Chronicles
28 and verse 15. Now that word, enclosed, and
that word, shut up, is the same word, same exact word, and it's
found right here in verse 14. The men which were expressed
by name rose up and took the captives, and with the spoil,
clothed all that were naked among them, and arrayed them, and shod
them." See that word, shod, right there? That's the same word as
enclosed. "...And gave them to eat and
to drink, and anointed them, and carried all the feeble of
them unto Asses, and brought them to Jericho, the city of
palm trees, to their brethren. Then they returned to Samaria."
I'm going to tell you something, the gospel is there. You can
preach the message right out of that verse right there. But
that word, shod. Who is my spouse, my sister? She's an enclosed garden, shut
up fountain, shod. The bride is a spring, ever flowing,
a spring shut up, fountain sealed, ever flowing from the source.
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is her delight. A spring of water
that comes from a greater source than itself. A secret. Just watching,
just looking. I'll be driving down the road.
You've seen this, just driving down the road, the interstate.
And all of a sudden, there's just water just coming out of
the rocks. Coming out. Where does it come from? Somewhere
else. I don't know. Sometimes you're
just hundreds and hundreds of miles before it comes out. But she's a, Scripture says,
is a spring that's shut up, sealed. No one enjoys her but the Lord
Jesus Christ. She's not of this world, though
she's in the world. She doesn't think like the world.
She's not of this world, doesn't think Like the world thinks concerning
salvation, God's providence, God's glory, she's in this world,
but she's not of this world. And sealed for the exclusive
use of the Lord Himself. Out of her belly, the Scripture
says, flows rivers of living water. And then thirdly, in verse
13 and 14, She is described here as an orchard. An orchard of
fruit trees and spices. Verse 13 says, Thy plants, that
is, the branches, is what that word is interpreted. Thy plants,
the branch. We are the branch, He is the
vine. Or an orchard, a park or a forest with pleasant fruit. Pleasant fruits. That is, distinguished
and valuable fruits or rewards. Precious things. Deuteronomy
33. Turn with me there. Deuteronomy
33. Precious things. She is, the Scripture says, pleasant
fruits. Precious things. Deuteronomy
33, verse 13, And of Joseph he said, Blessed of the Lord be
his land, for the precious things of heaven, for the dew and for
the deep that coucheth beneath, and for the precious fruits brought
forth by the sun, and for the precious things put forth by
the moon, And for the chief things of the ancient mountains, and
for the precious things of the lasting hills, and for the precious
things of the earth and fullness thereof, and for the goodwill
of him that dwelt in the bush, let the blessing come upon the
head of Joseph on the top of the head of him that was separated
from his brethren." This is who we are. This is who He says we
are. And that by His grace and His
choice and His goodness and His grace, We are plants. Thy plants are an orchard of
pomegranates with pleasant fruits. The fruit that is of the Spirit
produced within that believer are precious things. And how
precious they are, I'll be the first to admit, I don't know. But I will tell you this, they
are precious. You that believe He is precious,
and unto Him He says we are precious in His sight. The Lord's garden
is an orchard, He said, of pomegranates. I started reading this a day
or so ago, and as I began to read, I began to make the mistake
of just reading over. those fruits real quickly. And
I'd read them. They're pomegranates with pleasant
fruits and campfire and spikenard. Spikenard and saffron and calamus
and cinnamon with all trees of frankincense and myrrh and aloes
with all the chief spices. Well, I'll tell you, after reading
over those things a couple of times, I began to realize as
I went back and started looking at what was being set forth and
described, I was missing a real blessing. And so I began to look
at those fruits and those spices that were set forth by the Lord
here in this particular chapter. And we will just look at a few
of them. And time will be up and we'll just stop for the evening,
but I don't want to rush it. I want to tell you as much as
I understand about what's set forth, because there's some precious
truths here. He said, first of all, he says,
thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates. Now, the pomegranate
is that fruit that when laid open, reveals individual seeds. You know what a pomegranate is.
It's got a fleshy meatiness around every seed. Rich, juicy fruit. And every seed tightly bound
together and protected by that outer skin. We are in Christ. We're one with Him. He is our
enclosure. She's an enclosed garden. And
that skin of that pomegranate is a picture of Christ Himself. And we in Him, He is the fire. He is our hedge. So we are first
of all an orchard of pomegranates. And then secondly, with these
pleasant fruits, this word here, A campfire. Well, in your margin,
you may see the word cypress, but it's not as I think of cypress. I'm from South Louisiana. When
I think of cypress, I think of a water cypress. I think of something
with cypress knees coming up. But this word here, campfire,
I believe I'm pronouncing it right, campfire, is a substance
from the laurel tree which is used to make mothballs with. Mothballs. Capernaum. It's a substance from this tree.
It keeps pests away. That's what it does. Now, Isaiah,
turn with me. Isaiah 50, verse 9. Capernaum. That's what it is. It's a fragrance Isaiah 50, verse 9, Behold, the
Lord God will help me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment. The moth shall
eat them up. This word, camphor, is made from
that tree, that laurel tree. But the word camphor In its description,
this is the word, and it's described, and this is the meaning. A covered
village. Kepfer is what it means. A covered
village. Redemption, ransom, satisfaction. His garden is described as enclosed
and shut up and sealed by the Holy Ghost. atoned for, redeemed
by His blood. Ransom from the penalty of the
law and satisfaction has been made for her." She is camphor. Protected from the maws of sin
that would devour her. Camphor. That's who she is. Pleasant
fruits. Camphor. with spikenard. Spikenard. I looked up that word spikenard
and I found that spikenard is made from a spike. The plant is called a spike.
And it is a single-stemmed plant that has little flowers that
come off of it. It's a long flowery cluster with
the flowers attached directly to the stalk. Nard is an ointment
made from the roots of this spike plant. Now we are the branches,
we are the flowers attached to him and this fragrant ointment
produced from crushing the roots makes what's called nard. That nard, and that speaks of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the root out of dry ground. And the crushing
of Him was to the satisfaction of Almighty
God in the redemption of His people. This is the sweet savor
of His obedience to the law, His obedience to God's justice,
to God's wrath, He endured the wrath of God for us. Spikenard. This was the ointment
poured upon the Lord Jesus Christ by the woman with the alabaster
box who broke the vessel and anointed the Lord Jesus Christ. His anointing, the Scripture
says, was to preach good tidings unto the meek and to bind up
the brokenhearted and to proclaim liberty to the captives. Now we have the savor of that
anointing mentioned when we see that we are set forth as being
camped for with Spike Nard. He is the bind, we are the branch.
The Nard The root crushes it. And that ointment is called spikenard. Spikenard. Now, let's look at
one other part right here. I'm going to look in verse 14,
and Lord willing, then afterwards we'll stop for the evening. And
then it says in verse... Now, it just said in verse 13,
it's campfire with spikenard. And then it says in verse 14,
spikenard and saffron. It mentions spikenard again,
but it's not exactly the same. It's saying now spikenard and
saffron, putting them together. Now saffron, I found out, was
a plant, purple, little purple flowery plant, and it's used
for seasoning. Matthew 5.13 says, Ye are the
salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith
shall it be salted? It is henceforth good for nothing
but to be cast out, to be trodden underfoot of men. Leviticus 2.13
sets forth that the Lord Jesus Christ is the salt of the covenant. He is the salt of the covenant.
Therefore, if the Scripture, and it does set forth, that we
are, that is, believers, are the salt of the earth, where
then do we get our savor? Do you think it emanates from
us? We are the preservation. Salt is a preservative. We are
the salt of the earth. Do you think we are preserving
this thing? If we are referred to as being
salt, we are spikenard and saffron together, it says in verse 14. Therefore, our being found in
Him and having Himself within, we are described as the salt
of the earth. Believers in this world, considered
in their Redeemer and in their surety, is that which keeps this
world at this moment from a state of putrefaction, that is, rotting. That is what it means, rotting. Not because of our ability to
keep it, not of our ability to maintain it, are we the souls
of the earth, but it is by God's pleasure to order all things
for His glory and for the elect's sake. You are the salt of the
earth, the preserving, the savor of life in this earth. But we are saffron because we
are connected with Spikenard. He's the branch. I mean, he's
the bind. We're the branch, the root that's
crushed to produce that ointment, that savory ointment. That's
the savor of life to us because of His sufferings. You're the
salt of the earth because we're connected with Him. He's the
salt of the covenant. Well, I'm going to stop right
there. There's the calamus and the cinnamon
and all the trees of frankincense and myrrh and aloes and the chief
spices and the fountain Lord willing. We'll go from here into
those Scriptures. next evening. Okay, Gary, why
don't you come lead us in song.