If you turn in your Bibles to
the Song of Solomon, what a wonderful chapter of Scripture John 15
is. What a remarkable way our Lord
finished his time with those disciples, bringing them comfort,
bringing them promises. bringing them the truth of what
their lives would continue to be like in this world until they
meet Him in glory. What a glorious Saviour, what
a great Saviour. Psalm of Solomon chapter 6 verse
11 says, I went down, the Lord has spoken to His bride, and he talks about how beautiful
she is, as fair as the moon, as clear as the sun, as terrible
as an army with banners. I went down, this is where he
was, I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of
the valley and to see whether the vine flourished and the pomegranate
budded. or ever I was aware my soul made
me like the chariots of Aminadib. Return, return, O Shulamite,
return, return, that we may look upon thee. What will you see
in the Shulamite as it were the company of two armies? This is a glorious description
of his activities, glorious description of what he does, and remarkably
continues the glorious description of his bride. He went down. Isn't it wonderful
that our God comes down. He comes down to us. He comes down to where we are. He knows our frame. He knows that we are but dust. He knows that to lift us up to
heaven and take us to be with Him in glory, He had to come
down, down where in That robe of humanity. Down to
that birth in a humble stable. Down to that persecution that
followed his birth when Satan was stirred up and stirred up
men against him and his parents had to take him to Egypt. Down to that despised part of
God's land. Can anything good come out of
Galilee? down and down, down he came,
down to be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, down to be
tempted in every way as you are, yesterday, today and tomorrow,
touched with the feeling of our infirmities, down in the esteem
of men, despised and rejected of men. Down and down he came. Down into that garden. Down into
that garden. Down into that judgment of men. An innocent man worthy of death. Down to that cross. Down, not
just to become one with us in our humanity, down to the point
where he bore the sin. What did he say of himself in
Psalm 22? I am a worm and no man. Down to that cross, to be hung
naked, to be mocked by people. bearing the sins of his own,
bearing the infinite, eternal wrath of God, until God said,
it's enough. Down, dead and buried in that
tomb. He came down. He comes down now,
doesn't he? He comes down to his people. That's where he'd been, hadn't
he? He'd gone down, in the Garden of Nuts, when she couldn't find
him, when she was longing and looking for him, she comes to
see that he's where he always is when he's on this earth. He's in his garden. He's amongst the plantings of
his own grace. He's in where his people meet. That's why church is so precious,
brothers and sisters. Not because of what I do, not
because of what others do, but because in places like this,
scattered throughout time, scattered throughout this world, God gathers
his people together. He gathers them together and
he comes to a garden of nuts. It's a pruned garden. It's a
garden of pruning. But what a great description. What a great description of man. What a great description of saved
man. What does a nut have? What does
a nut have? What is it on the outside? It's
just shell. What is it? It is just dead. And inside, inside, hidden from
the world until the shell is broken, is what? Is life. It's remarkable, isn't
it? What a wonderful picture. And
that life, that life that's inside there, is the life that's surrounded
by another skin. Isn't it? What a beautiful picture. The outward shell, isn't it?
It's hard, it's dead, it's enduring. The inner skin is like that seal
of the Holy Spirit, sealed unto the day of redemption, sealed
by God, protected. And then that kernel within,
that life, is hidden within, isn't it? This is the hope of
glory, brothers and sisters. It's Christ living in you. And what we have in a seed, what
we have in a nut, is so unlike what the life is inside it, isn't
it? Isn't it an amazing picture,
isn't it? that when you plant a grain of wheat or plant a pistachio,
what comes out of it is so unlike that little thing, isn't it?
But so glorious. Brothers and sisters, when God's
children are planted, when they are planted and its outer shell
is gone, what will be the new life, that hidden life? What does John say of it? 1 John
3, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. has gifted us with, that we should
be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not, because it didn't know Him. Beloved, now we are the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. We shall be like Him because
we shall see Him as He is. Every man that has this hope
in Him purifies himself even as he is pure. The Lord Jesus goes down into
this garden, this garden of nuts, and He goes there into this garden,
this pruned garden. He goes to see the fruits of
the valley. The best fruits grow in the valleys. The best fruits grow in afflictions. See the Shulamite had been for
a time in a valley. But what a wonderful valley it
was for the Shulamite. What a wonderful valley. See
the valleys The afflictions that we have are there, ordained and
sent by a gracious and good God, that we would know our dependence. What a great place to be, brothers
and sisters, a dependent. a dependent who needs everything
of life from the Lord Jesus. Someone who knows they cannot
solve their problems. She couldn't find him. We cannot
solve spiritual human problems unless the God of all grace comes
and comes in saving mercy." You see, He had come, He had drawn
her to Himself. He had drawn from her that amazing
confession. And He had drawn her to search
for Him despite the woundings, despite the discouragements. She had been like an army. She
was not going to let anything stop her until she and her Beloved
were back together again. And then what a wonderful thing.
He who had watched over her through all of this and had ordained
all of that perfectly for His glory and for her good. When
she returns, What's he say of her? Thou art beautiful. It's remarkable, isn't it? You
are beautiful. I owe my love to her. As comely as Jerusalem. You see, the sufferings that
we have in this world, if they were seen through God's eyes,
we would see the hand of an infinitely loving father, caressing and
caring for his child. A good doctor, wielding that
knife and wielding that medicine with the greatest of love and
the greatest of care. Simon read it to us a little
while ago. It's remarkable, isn't it? Every branch in me, John
15, 2, that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch
that bears fruit he prunes. Every batch that bears fruit,
he prunes. If you are feeling as if you
are being pruned at the moment, two things are evident from that
verse of scripture, isn't it? That you have borne fruit in
the past and that you will bear fruit, more fruit, abundant fruit,
in the future. How very, very different it is. from the diagnosis and from the
medicine that so much of religion gives us. You see we need pruning,
don't we? Pruning is good for us. so that
the vine does not get entangled in others. To keep the growth
young and vibrant, we chopped down that rosebush that you have
all probably seen that grows on Lucy's mum's little house
and we took a ute load of rosebush away and there it was just a
few sticks and you keep thinking, dear oh dear have we killed it.
Have we killed it? Is this the end of it? You should
see it now, brothers and sisters. It is just remarkable, and I
look out there every day thinking, when they steam flowers, it's
going to have so many flowers that you'll probably be struggling
to see the leaves on it. It's been pruned, but it's come
back to be even more productive. Pruning removes the dead wood,
it removes encumbrances. Pruning removes the disease spots,
the infested part. Pruning reminds us again, doesn't
it, that life, true spiritual life, comes from God. It comes from the root. It's
the root that nourishes, the root that establishes us, the
root that produces. So much of religion, and you
have a wonderful article about it in your bulletin, but so much
of religion is continually trying to get people to polish the fruit,
to polish the things on the ends of the vines. True biblical Christianity
causes us to look to the root. Where does it all come from?
Where is the foundation? Where is the foundation of all
blessing? Where is the foundation of all
pruning? It's in the hands of a good and
gracious and absolutely sovereign God. And he goes down into this
garden, into this garden of nuts, to see the fruits of the valley. all the fruits of his planting. You see in the Garden of Eden
that word garden can easily and safely be translated as an orchard.
It wasn't a disorganised garden. God's garden is an ordered garden. His whole church is an ordered
garden. His individual gardens are ordered
gardens and there are fruits in all of those. the fruits of
the valley, the fruits of His producing, the fruits that bring
glory to Him. We read it, isn't it, in John
15.8. Herein is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit. And He's already told us that
without Him we can do nothing. So what's the fruit that God
the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have glorified
Him? Their fruit is of Me. It's the fruit of His work of
grace in the lives of His people. Where does love come from? It
comes from Him who is love. Where does faithfulness come
from? It comes from Him who is faithfulness. Look unto Jesus,
just fix your eyes on the Lord Jesus, the author and perfecter
of faith. So often in scripture he likens
himself to a vine. He came down to see whether the
vine flourished. The Lord Jesus comes to see the
work of his hand, to see that vine that flourishes." Turn with
me to Psalm 92. There are so many beautiful pictures
in the scriptures of the Lord being a vine and the Lord planting
a vineyard and then coming to see whether that vineyard bears
fruit. But in Psalm 92 it says, shall flourish like the palm
tree, shall grow like the cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted
in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our
God. They shall bring forth fruit
in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing. to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock. There is no unrighteousness
in Him. See vines are going to produce
fruit of some sort, don't they? Israel was likened to a vine
again and again. It's the vine of his planting
and then he came to see Israel, to see if there was fruitfulness
in Israel. Chapter 5 of Isaiah, he says,
Now I will sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching
his vineyard. My beloved has a vineyard in
a very fruitful hill and he fenced it and he gathered out the stones
thereof and he planted it with a choice of vine and he built
a tower in the midst of it and also made a winepress therein.
You can read the parable the Lord Jesus uses this to speak
words of judgment to his people. Built a tower in the midst of
it. It also made a winepress therein, and he looked that it
should bring forth grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem,
and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard. What could have been done more
to my vineyard that I have not done in it? Wherefore when I
looked that it should bring forth grapes, it brought it forth wild
grapes. And now go to, I will tell you
what I will do to my vineyard, I will take away the heads thereof,
it shall be eaten up, and break down the wall thereof, and it
shall be trodden down, and I will lay it waste. It shall not be
pruned nor digged, but there shall come up rice and thorns.
And I will also command the clouds that they shall rain on it, and
they shall rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord
is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant
plant. And He looked for judgment, and
behold, oppression, for righteousness, but a cry." He comes to His vineyard. He
comes to his vineyard and he tells this parable again in Matthew
21, speaking these similar words. And what did he find? What was
he looking for and what did he not find? He didn't find faith
in Israel. He didn't find these people trusting
him. He didn't find them attached
to the root. He saw them going their own way
and in judgment he didn't prune them. And they brought forth
grapes. They brought forth things that
looked like the real things. They brought forth religion.
They brought forth wild grapes. So there will be something that's
produced. But in the Lord's good providence,
in the hearts and lives of those he calls his beloved, the ones
he calls his doves, his undefiled, in the lives of them he is as
a gardener who comes and he prunes and he nourishes and he cares
for and he doesn't leave it to its own devices. It's a glorious
branch. He'll be a glorious branch in
that day. The branch of the Lord shall
be beautiful and glorious, just in chapter 4 verse 2 of Isaiah. And the fruit of the earth shall
be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. and it shall come to pass, that
he that is left in Zion, that he that remaineth in Jerusalem,
shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the
living of Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the
filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood
of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by a spirit of judgment and the
spirit of burning." The Lord's garden is a nurtured garden and
a pruned garden. It's a garden that is a flourishing
garden. The church, the true church,
is joined to that vine. It gets its life from that vine. It gets its sustenance from that
vine, and it's nurtured by Him. He's called that glorious branch. He's called the branch in so
many places in scripture. In fact, even when the angels
sang in Luke 1.78, the word that they really used was, the branch
has come. The branch has come. The day
spring on high has visited us. The branch has visited us. So all of the springs of God's
Church come from Him coming down. All of life comes from the sap,
all of moisture, all of fruitfulness, all of what the vine is comes
from its being joined to Him. Jesus, in His own divine nature,
was deeply rooted in who he was as God. He was one with the Father
and one with the Holy Spirit, and Jesus in his home, in his
human nature, is a branch growing from the root of Jesse. In both,
he is the source of all fruitfulness. from me is thy fruit found."
So he wants to see whether the vine is flourishing, he wants
to see whether the pomegranates are budding. You see he cares
for the little things of faith and life. The buds come out of
something that appears to be dead. He comes to check on those
small things. He cares for the little things
of your life. He comes to see. He comes to
see. He takes notice of small beginnings. He takes pleasure in small things. And then he says these remarkable
words, "...forever I was aware my soul made me like the chariots
of Aminadab." And like me, you've probably wondered for some time,
what on earth does Aminadab mean? Aminadab is just two Hebrew words
put together. It's the only time it's used
in the scriptures. And it just means, my people
willing. night people willing. Forever I was aware, before I
knew or I knew not, my soul set me on the chariots of my willing
people. Having watched her ache for himself,
he now says, I'll hide myself no longer. He says, My love for
you moved me to draw you to Myself. And then He comes. He comes to
His willing people. He comes, as it were, on the
chariot of His willing people. My soul set me on the chariot
of My willing people. My people shall be willing in
the day of My power, willing in faith, willing in love, willing
in hope, willing in desire for Him. He can't bear to be separated
from her for too long. He can't bear to be separated
from the delights he finds in her presence. He speedily comes,
like war chariots to his bride, carrying her through difficulties,
protecting and defending. She had for that little time
felt as if she was worthily abandoned. So much of this is like that
amazing story of the prodigal son, isn't it? Someone was watching
that son through all of that journey, wasn't he, in that parable. The father knew. The father knew
that journey's end before that journey began. The father knew
that sin that scene with the sunlight, the scene in the garden,
where he said to his father, I wish you were dead. I will be master of my own life. I wish you were dead. And the
prodigal went on a journey. The prodigal went on a journey
with the father watching every step of the way. And down and
down and down the prodigal went to the point where he was just
living amongst the cursed swine, living like an animal amongst
the animals. And he, like the Shulamite, when
she was in her luxury and she was enjoying the pleasures of
the fruits of her own activities. And she says, I have, I have. He, like she, was brought down. But then he comes back, doesn't
he? He comes back drawn by the knowledge of the Father's love
and character and forgiveness. But drawn, really drawn by God
Himself back. And in that wonderful parable
we have the only picture in all of the scriptures of God hurrying. God runs to His Son. And like the Shulamite, when
the son comes back, he's got his little speech prepared and
the son, the father. really doesn't want to hear it.
And what does he do? He takes his rags off and he
robes him in that special robe. He puts a ring on his finger,
the sign of the Eternal Covenant. He's shod with those beautiful
shoes. You see, he's returned and he's
as he was before, but he's better, isn't he? He's better for his
trials. He's better for his wandering. He knows his father better than
he did before. This great God calls her back. He says, return, return, O Shulamite,
return. Return for a purpose that we
may look upon you. He wants to see her. He wants
to be in her presence. This verse is the only verse
in scripture where the word Shulamite is mentioned. It really does
mean Solomon, S-O-L-Y-M-A. It's actually just the feminine
of Solomon. She bears his name, as happens
in marriage. as we know from Jeremiah, isn't
it? He is called the Lord, Our Righteousness. She is called
the Lord, Our Righteousness. The Lord Jesus has made His people,
made His bride so thoroughly one with Him that He gives her
and He delights to give her His name. Solomon, Shulamite means
perfection. She's perfect in Christ, there
is no spot or blemish in you. She is complete in Him. She's washed in His blood, spotless,
robed in His righteousness, glorious, holy, and pure. Solomon, of course,
Shulamite, means peace. Peace. That wonderful word that
we read in 1 Peter 5, at ease, at peace. Therefore being justified,
justified in eternity, justified by the Lord Jesus on the cross
in Romans 5.1. Therefore being justified by
faith. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. It's a wonderful thing, isn't
it? What a remarkable word. What a remarkable concept peace
is. What a remarkable name to bear,
brothers and sisters. Perfect with God, at peace with
God. I can go into the courts of heaven. I can go to the throne of grace
at peace with God because I've been made to be perfectly one
with Him, as holy as He is holy, as welcomed into the courts of
heaven as the Lord Jesus is himself. We are one with him, brothers
and sisters. Return, return. Return, return. Return to your first love. Return to your simple faith. Return to where we first met. Come to that garden where He
is, where you met Him the first time, where you met Him at the
cross. God opened up the wonders of
redeeming love to your souls. Return. What a word we have from
God. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave Thy courts above. Take my heart, O take and seal
it. Seal it, my father. See all of,
like these gardens, aren't they? Gardens don't exist by themselves
and by accident. They are planted and and prepared,
and protected, and pruned, and nourished, and fertilized, and
cared for in so many ways. All of our springings, he says,
all of our springs are in me. So grace is no self-acting principle,
says Robert Hawker. Grace is no self-acting principle. Grace is the most amazing thing
in all of this world, isn't it? Grace reveals who God is. Grace reveals who we are. And grace carries us and grace
protects us. And grace sustains us. And what
does the Apostle say of the Lord Jesus? From His fullness, from
His fullness, have all we received, grace for grace. If grace has been received, then
grace will come again and again and again, and it will come in
the form of pruning, and then it will come again in the form
of healing. He wounds and he heals. and he does it all to make himself
to be seen to be more glorious and more faithful and more amazing
in the eyes of his people. So he comes back and he says,
that we may look upon you that we, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
may look upon you, may look upon you in love. What a look that
father must have had when he saw his son. What things were
in his heart when his son, who he was on the hill looking for,
came over that horizon and was in his sight. What joy in his
heart. Why stay away? Come back that
we may look upon you, look upon you in love, look upon you in
forgiveness, look upon you and say that nothing has changed.
You were beautiful in His sight before you went away, you're
beautiful in His sight when you come back. Sin has not tarnished
our relationship. God knows what you were before
the foundation of the world and God knows what circumstances
would happen to you in all of history and all of time. And
then she speaks, what will you see in the Shulamite? What are
you going to see when you look in the There's no point hiding
from what we are. I'm black, she says. In me, that
is in my flesh, dwells no good thing. Whenever I wish to do
good, sin is right there with me. I see no beauty in myself
at all. I see no merit in the things
that I have done." That's why she calls to him, doesn't she?
Draw me and I will run after you." She calls and says, where
do you feed? And he's the one who brings her
into his banqueting house. And he's the one who puts a banner
over her that was love. And he's the one that comforts
her. He's the one who stands and he
looks and he shows himself and he speaks and he calls and he
calls her to come away. She's the one who is like, as she describes
herself here, she is like it were the company of two armies. In the one and the same person
there is a body of flesh that does nothing but sin. all of
the time, and can do nothing but sin all of the time. There is this conflict, and Lord
willing, I'd like to devote most of next week's time to it. flesh and spirit, sin and grace. The two armies, it means like
a dance or a chorus, as if there's just this ongoing movement of
one against the other, so that we cannot do what we would want
to do. It's our daily experience. And she knows that the Lord sees. What will you see? When He looks,
when He looks with the eyes of love, when He looks with those
pure eyes of a dove washed with milk, when He looks with those
eyes that are fitly set, He sees all. He sees everything about
you, brothers and sisters. There's nothing hidden from Him.
He sees with 20-20 vision. And it's good that she owns what
she is, because he knows what she is and it doesn't diminish
his love at all. That's the sort of love that
I want to bask in, brothers and sisters. That's the sort of peace
that only the Lord Jesus can bring. That's the sort of relationship
that sinners like me need. That's the love, wherewith the
Lord God has loved us and his dear and darling Son. What amazing
love. Let's pray.