Let us turn to God's Word, and
I want to direct you for a while tonight to words that we find
in the Song of Solomon. In the Song of Solomon, in chapter
4, and the last verse, verse 16, Awake, O north wind, and
come thou south. Blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. Here in the Song of Solomon chapter
4 and verse 16 and according to the punctuation as we have
it here in our authorized version the verse is made up of two sentences
and really I want us to concentrate this evening on that first sentence
Awake, O north winds, and come thou south, blow upon my garden,
that the spices thereof may flow out. Prayer is being made here
to the Holy Ghost. It's a remarkable book, I'm sure
you were tempted to read it, read it through and wondered
at some of the imagery that's employed. It's a The Song of Songs, we're told,
in the opening words. Elsewhere we read of Solomon,
that his songs were a thousand and five. Why this one is called the Song
of Songs, of course, is because of all those thousand plus songs,
this one is not just the song of Solomon is the son of the
Lord. Isn't Solomon in many ways a
typical character? He's the son of David, but David's
greatest son is the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, in that
sense we are to recognize this man as being the type of him
that was to come, greater than Solomon. The very name Solomon
means peace. And isn't that true of the Lord
Jesus? He's the Prince of Peace. And
we have that promise in Isaiah 9 concerning the Incarnation.
Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. The government
shall be upon his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Oh, he is truly Solomon. And in this song, Solomon speaks
of his love. It's a love song. And it speaks of the intimacy
of that love between Solomon and his bride. And it's all imagery
of the relationship really between Christ and his bride. I'm sure
we're familiar with those words in Ephesians chapter 5 where
Paul is speaking of the relative duties of parents and children,
of masters and servants or slaves, and of husbands and wives. And remember the language that
we have there at the end of chapter 5 in Ephesians, where he speaks
of the man and his wife, and he says, This is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless,
let every one of you, in particular, so love his wife, even as himself,
and the wife see that she reverence her husband. And so that intimate
relationship of man and his wife is taken up and applied to the
intimacy of the relationship between the Lord Jesus and his
bride, his church. And when we come to the very
last book of Scripture, almost in the last chapter, all leads
up to that great marriage supper of the Lamb at the end of the
consummation of all things. And so we have many figures being
used here in this particular part of the Old Testament, the
Song of Solomon. And we see the church also here
under the figure of a garden. And that's certainly the case
with regards to the context where the verse that we're considering
is found. If we go back here in chapter
4 to what's said at verse 12, A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. My plants
are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, campfire
with spikenard, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon
with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes with all the
chief spices, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams
from Lebanon. Remarkable language and it's
the Lord Jesus as it were describing something of the of the beauties
and the fruitfulness of his church how he commends his church and
it's not the only part of the song where we have that figure
we see it further in chapter 6 and there at verse 2 My Beloved is gone down into
his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to
gather lilies. I am my Beloved's. My Beloved
is mine. He feedeth among the lilies.
Again at verse 11, I went down into the garden of nuts to see
the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished
and the pomegranates budded. Oh, it's rich in imagery, what
we have here, but it's descriptive of the church, the people of
God, and it's not the only part of Scripture. In Isaiah, Isaiah
58 and verse 11, God describes Israel, that typical people,
the type of the church, the true spiritual Israel. They shall
be like a watered garden. and so they are described God's
people in Isaiah 58 11 they shall be like a watered garden and
here as I say in the verses previous to the text from verse 12 following
we have this description of the church it's likened unto the
garden and those are the words of Christ and then we come to
the words of verse 16, and it's as if the words that have been
spoken previously describing something of the beauties of
the church are now turned to prayer. Here is the response
of the church. Away go north winds, and come
thou south. Blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. And here we have prayer,
as I said. And first of all, in the first
sentence, we have prayer that's being addressed to God, the Holy
Ghost, as it were. And then in that last sentence,
we have a prayer that's really addressed to God the Son. Let
my Beloved come into his garden. Who is the Beloved? Remember
what was said at the baptising of the Lord Jesus, and then again
upon the Mount of Transfiguration when those favoured disciples
saw something of His glories, they saw through the veil of
His humanity, the veil of His humility, they discerned His
deity, and the Father on those two occasions uttered those words
from heaven, This is my Beloved Son. This is my Beloved Son. in whom I am well pleased. Oh, He is the Son of the Father,
in truth and in love. Let my beloved come into His
garden and eat His pleasant fruits." But, as I said, tonight I want
us to look really at the first part of the verse, where we have
this prayer that's really addressed to the Spirit, to the Holy Ghost. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south, blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow
out. Now, the word that's used here
and rendered as wind is a word that is used many times in the
Old Testament, and it is often translated as wind, sometimes
it's translated as breath, and sometimes it's also rendered
as spirit. And of course, we saw it in that
other portion that we were reading just now, we read part of Ezekiel
37, the vision of the valley of dry bones and the bones coming
together at the prophetic words, bone to bone and covered in sinews
and flesh, but there was no breath in them. There was no spirit
in them. We are told at the end of verse
8 in that chapter. Then said they unto me, prophesy
unto the wind. The margin gives breath or spirit. It's the word Ruach. And that's
the way it's rendered, three different ways, wind, breath,
spirit. The context indicates what's
the right rendering in our English version. But it is the command
of the Lord God to the prophet, prophesy unto the wind, prophesy,
son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come
from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain
that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood
up upon their feet and exceeded in great armour." It is the gracious
work of the Spirit to bring life where there is nothing but death
and deadness. And again when we come to the
New Testament and the teaching of the Lord Jesus there in the
familiar language of John chapter 3, the new birth, the doctrine of
regeneration. He likens the spirit to the wind. The wind bloweth where it blisters,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the spirit. And there we have the wind at
the beginning of that 8th verse, and the spirit at the end of
that verse. But really, in the original,
it's the same word. It's the same word, just as in
the Old Testament, you see. These words, or this word, is
so rich in its meaning, and it might refer to the wind or the
breath, or it might refer to the Holy Spirit. Well, as we
come to look at the text tonight, and to consider something of
this prayer to the Spirit, Do we not see that here we are
to recognize the personality of the Holy Spirit? He can be
spoken to. He hears. But more especially
I want us to think of His deity, how He is God. We confess that
great truth of the Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit. As we come then to look at these
words, I just want to deal with two points really to say something
with regards to the nature of the work of the Spirit and then
secondly the necessity of that work of the Spirit. First of all, the nature of His
work Now remember he is God, and so we see that there's a
sense in which his works are always sovereign and mysterious,
past finding out. The three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and John
says these three are one. And we know that he is there
at the beginning, of creation. We have the words of the Psalmist
in Psalm 33, "...by the word of the Lord were the heavens
made, and all the host of them by the breath or the spirit of
his mouth." Surely there we are to recognize there's some reference
to the Lord Jesus as God the Son, by the word of the Lord. were the heavens made. It's true
that God's creation was simply by that fiat He spoke, and it
was done, He commanded, and it stood fast, but surely there,
there's reference to God, the Son, in the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the same
was in the beginning with God, and by Him all things were made.
We're familiar with the opening words there in John's Gospel. All things were made by him.
He is the Creator, by the word of the Lord. Then also, in that verse in Psalm 33, we read
of God making all things by the breath or by the spirit of his
mouth. the Holy Spirit is also there
and we see that in the account as we have it in the opening
chapter of the book of Genesis the Spirit of God moving upon
the face of the waters and so forth He is God, He is Sovereign
but isn't the wind such an appropriate way of speaking of Him and His
sovereignty in Ecclesiastes the previous book we read of those
circuits of the wind chapter 1 verse 6 the wind goeth toward
the south turneth about onto the north it whirleth about continually
and the wind returneth again according to his circuits the
sovereignty of the spirit and that's what the Lord is saying
in that verse we've already referred to in John 3 verse 8 the wind
bloweth where it listeth Thou hear'st a sound thereof, but
canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit. It's a sovereign work. He is
a sovereign. And he works mightily and effectually. And again, think of the teachings
of the Lord Jesus concerning those who are brought into his
kingdom. The Kingdom of God, He says,
cometh not by observation, neither shall one say, Lo here, or Lo
there. Behold, the Kingdom of God is
within you, says the Lord Jesus. It is there, mysteriously, in
the hearts of men that the Spirit does His work. He comes sovereignly,
He quickens. Where there is nothing but death
and deadness, He brings life. The great doctrine, as we say,
of of regeneration, the new birth, the sin of born again, born from
above, born by the Spirit of God. And so here we read of the
wind. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south. Blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out. And interestingly, we have some
diversity here. We have the the north winds and
we have the south winds and we're told aren't we in the in the
new testament in first corinthians 12 something of the working of
the spirit how in that portion paul is having to deal with so
much abuse of the ministry of the Spirit in that church. It
was so gifted. It had remarkable gifts in the
church at Corinth, but there was much disorder. And I'm sure
you've read through those chapters, chapter 12 through 13 and 14. And what do we read there? Chapter
12, verse 4, now there are diversities diversities of gifts, but the
same Spirit. And then he goes on, but all
these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to
every man severally as he will. Oh, it's the sovereignty of the
Spirit who gives a gift to one and a gift to another. He is
sovereign. He is God. And he's not only
that one who, as God, is sovereign and mysterious in all his workings,
but also we are reminded in the figure that the work of the Spirit
is a searching work, even a purifying work. We read of the north winds. And what is the wind when we
think of the realm of nature? It's nature's fan. how necessary
the winds are and those circuits that we have seen spoken of there
in Ecclesiastes chapter 1. In the book of Job, that remarkable
character Eli who speaks of the winds out of the south come as
the whirlwind, he says, and cold out of the north. When we think of the directions
of the wind, we have some idea as to what sort of weather we're
likely to have. If the wind is in the East, we
know in this country that it's going to be a cold wind. When
we have the wind in the South, we know that that's going to
be a very different sort of wind, a warming and a softening wind. But there is the north wind. And that is that wind that is
so cutting and so biting. It reminds us of the ministry
of the Spirit. He has a work to do in the way
of conviction and reproof. And when the Lord is speaking
of the coming of the Spirit, in John 16 at verse 8 following,
when he is come he will reprove the world, says Christ, of sin,
righteousness, of judgment. That's the work of the spirits,
to bring conviction into the soul, to show the sinner what
he is. And of course when we think of
the ministry of the Lord Jesus, that was a ministry under a remarkable
unction of the Holy Ghost. We've said before it's a profitable
study to go through the Gospels and to read of Christ in the
state of his humiliation as a man and and we lived his life in
dependence upon the Holy Spirit time and again. We know he is
the Christ, he's the Anointed One, and God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. There was such an outpouring
of the Spirit upon him, and we see it in the nature of his ministry
when we turn to John chapter 4 and his dealings with the Samaritan
woman. and as he speaks to her and questions
her and ministers to her, how there is that penetrating work
of the Spirit taking place in her heart and she goes back to
her home and she tells the citizens here, come see a man, she says,
which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? why the spirit doesn't work and
convinces the sinner shows the sinner the error of his wife
but the wonderful thing with the spirit is that his dealings
are so measured and we have it here we have the north wind we
have the south wind And again, think of the language of another
text, Isaiah 27, 8, concerning God and His ways. He stayeth
His rough wind, it says, in the day of His east wind. How God's
ways are so equitable. How He deals with His people
in a kind way. Yes, He'll bring conviction.
And that's what the Spirit will do when He comes into the soul
of a man. but also there's a soothing ministry, a comforting ministry.
And here is a prayer, away go northwind and come thou south. Oh, he quieteth the earth by
the south wind, says that man Elihu there in Job 37. That's what God does, he quietens
the earth by the south wind. the words of the Lord Jesus in
the gospel when you see the south wind blow you say there will
be heat and he cometh to pass all these things ordered and
appointed and ordained by God himself and so when the Lord
Jesus is speaking of that blessed ministry of the Spirit in those
chapters in John what does he say in chapter 14 and there at
verse verses 16 and 17 I will pray the father and he shall
give you another comforter that he may abide with you forever
even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because
it seeth him not neither knoweth him but ye know him for he dwelleth
with you and shall be in you and the Lord goes on not just
to speak of how he will come to do his work of reproving and
convincing but he'll also come to reveal Christ. He'll come
to bring those comforting words in which
he reveals Christ in the soul of the sinner. He doesn't draw
any attention to himself. He's so self-effacing in his
ministry. He's God. He's equal with the
Son. He's equal with the Father. But
the Lord says, O be it when he, the Spirit of truth, is come,
he will guide you into all truth, for he shall not speak of himself.
But whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. Again, the Lord
says, When the comfort of his comfort whom I will send unto
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth
from the Father, he shall testify of myrrh. That is his ministry. He is the Spirit of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He comes to reveal the Lord Jesus
Christ. Or the comforts of the Gospel.
That's his ministry. And so we need to remind ourselves
of the nature of what he does. He's sovereign. His work is mysterious
in so many ways. And he comes as that one who
will work conviction in the soul. It's a searching ministry. It's
a purifying ministry. But it's also a ministry of comfort. He is the comforter. and he comes
to apply that soothing palm of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ but then turning secondly from the nature of what he works
to the necessity the necessity of his work how necessary it
is if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his No
man can say that Jesus Christ is Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Scripture is plain enough. If
we have not the Spirit, we can know nothing of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And what do we have here in the
text? Well, we have a prayer. We have a request for Him to
come awake. Come. Blow. It's the language of importunity. It's prayer. Well, we know that
the Spirit is present and active everywhere. He is God. He's omniscient. All-knowing. He's omnipresent.
He's in all places. But isn't the believer one who
desires to know and feel something of that ministry of the Spirit. He wants to know in his own soul
those gracious workings and those sovereign operations, those quickenings. And now we see the Church, as
it were, pleading with the Spirit to come. And there's a passage
in Isaiah, in Isaiah 51, and there's a reminding, as it were,
of the Spirit in the sense of asking in terms of things that
he has done previously. He has worked in the past, will
he not work in the present? In chapter 51 verse 9, Awake! Awake! Put on strength, O arm
of the Lord, awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations
of old, art thou not it that hath cut Rahab? Egypt, and wounded
the dragonite, thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters
of the great deep, that hath made the depths of the sea away
for the ransom to pass over? Therefore the redeemed of the
Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting
joy shall be upon their heads, and they shall obtain gladness
and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. I am He that
comforteth you." It's the ministry of the Spirit. Now, what is the
language here? Well, in the context, of course,
it's to do with the Babylonian captivity. They're going to be
taken into exile, but they were previously in bondage in Egypt,
and the Lord God came and delivered them, and delivered them mightily
by the work of His Spirit. And so Isaiah, as he were, puts
these words into the mouths of God's people. Awake, awake, put
on thy strength. He's a mighty spirit. He's able
to do great works. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south. Blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out. Again, the strength of the language
that Isaiah uses or that thou wouldest wring the heavens and
come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.
If only God would be pleased in our day to grant such an outpouring
of the Spirit, that glorious coming in state of the Spirit
that we witness on the day of Pentecost. Oh, He was there in
the Old Testament, of course He was. But there, that was His
coming in state, the glory of His coming. and the mighty works
that he accomplished. Well, can we not plead that he
would come again? As I said, he was so much there
in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. How did Christ perform miracles?
Well, he performs miracles. He speaks, doesn't he, of the
finger of God. If I by the finger of God cast
out demons, then is the kingdom of God come
amongst you. That's how it reads in in Luke 11, but the parallel
passage in Matthew 12, 28, he says, if I by the Spirit cast
out demons, the Spirit is likened to the finger of God. Oh, but
if God should grant such an outpouring of the Spirit, not just his finger,
his hand, his arm. And isn't that really what the
Prophet is praying for, and he's praying at the direction of the
Lord God. God says in the previous chapter
there, Ezekiel 36, I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase
them with men like a flock. And then of course, in the following
chapter we have this this vision of the valley full of dry bones and it's Israel as it were in
exile here is the battle and the battle has resulted in in
death and destruction desolation but God is going to bring his
people back he's going to restore them And so, as we see in the
portion we read, the bones come together, they're all covered
with the flesh, the sinews, the muscle and everything. But then
prophesy unto the winds. Prophesy, son of man, and say
to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God, Come from the four winds
and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied
as he commanded me. And the breath came into them,
and they lived and stood up upon their feet in exceeding great
amen. I remember many years ago at
a Banner of Truth conference at Leicester University. At the
end of the conference there was a sermon, the conference sermon,
and that year it was preached by a Scottish minister. He's
long since gone to glory, Douglas Macmillan. And he preached on
this passage. It was remarkable preaching because
it was just as if you were there. So graphic the way he opened
up the words and applied the word by the Spirit. It was just
as if you were there and you began to realize what the Lord
God is able to do by His Spirit. Lord, that we might have faith
to believe that He could do it even yet. We're not to shy from
addressing the Spirit Himself in our prayers. I know that the
normal pattern of prayer, of course, is that we address the
first person, I suppose. We address God. We call upon
Him as our Father. We come through the mediation
of God the Son, the Lord Jesus. He is the mediator, one God,
one mediator between God and man. We come by that gracious
ministry of the Spirit. We want Him to indict our prayers.
the language of Ephesians 2.18, through him, that is through
Christ, we have access by one Spirit onto the Father. There's the ministry, the mediation
of the Son, the ministry of the Spirit, the meeting with the
Father, the calling upon his name. Well, that's the normal
pattern, but it doesn't mean that we must never address our
prayers to God the Son or to God the
Holy Ghost. Don't people in the Gospels address
prayers to God the Son, even in the state of his humiliation?
Think of the Canaanitish woman when she comes. And what do we
read concerning that woman? She worshipped him, saying, Lord,
help me. She prays. She prays to God. She addresses Christ as her God. It's not wrong to address our
prayers sometimes to the Lord Jesus himself. And it is not
wrong, therefore, to address our prayers to God the Holy Ghost. He is God. And that's what we
have here. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south. Blow upon my garden that the
spices thereof may flow out. And don't we need to make that
our own personal prayer in a sense? Now we need that work of the
Spirit. There's a reason, you see, why
we must have the Spirit, that the spices thereof may flow out. Oh, what of the garden? What
of the garden that we read of in the previous verses here? Thy plants are an orchard of
pomegranates, with pleasant fruits, campfire, with spikenard, spikenard
and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense,
myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices." Oh, we need that ministry of
the Spirit. What does God say through another
of His prophets, Hosea? Hosea 14a, from me is thy fruit
found. If we would be fruitful, where
is that fruit found? Well, Christ himself is the vine. His people... My father, he says,
is the vine. And his people, you see, all
their fruit comes from him. No fruit can come without that
union with the vine, with the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And
then we have that mentioned, don't we, in Galatians? In Galatians
5 of the fruit, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace. Every grace of the Spirit is
mentioned there in that closing part of Galatians chapter 5. the fruit of the Spirit, love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law.
They that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lust. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. And we need that gracious ministry,
that continual ministry of the Spirit. And the Lord Jesus encourages
us, doesn't He? To even come and ask the Father
that we might have that ministry. If ye, being evil, know how to
give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? Oh, ask, and
it shall be given you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock,
it shall be opened unto you. You have not because you ask
not. Oh, it is the Spirit who first works grace, and He must
continually quicken that grace and bring it into exercise, that
blessed unction of the Spirit. He hath an unction, says John,
from the Holy One, and ye know all things. That unction, that
anointing which ye have received of Him, He says, abideth in you. And ye need not that any man
teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and
is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye
shall abide in him. O God, grant that we might know
then more and more of that blessed ministry, those gracious workings,
those sovereign operations, those revivings, and renewings, and
refreshings, Awake, O north wind, and come thou south, blow upon
my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden, and eat his pleasant fruits. May the Lord bless his
word. Amen. Let us now, before we pray, Sing
the hymn number 25, bears his title, Breathing After the Holy
Spirit. Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening powers, kindle a flame of sacred love
in these cold hearts of ours. Number 25, the tune is Eagly,
132.