Alright, if you'll take your
Bibles now and turn with me to Song of Solomon. Solomon's Song. We'll be studying from chapter
4 this evening. We'll begin our reading in verse
8. Here the bridegroom calls to
the bride, and he says, Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse,
with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Ammanah,
from the top of Shinar and Hermon, from the lion's den and from
the mountains of the leopards. Thou hast ravished my heart,
my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes. with one chain of thy neck. How
fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse! How much better is
thy love than wine, the smell of thine ointments, than all
spices! Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as
the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under thy
tongue. and the smell of thy garments
is like the smell of Lebanon. A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants
are an orchard of pomegranates with pleasant fruits, camphor
and 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." And now then the response of the bride after hearing
what He has called her, after what He has said of her love,
of what He has said of her garden, Listen, she says this to him,
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. Now, as we look at this
We always need to be reminded that this book is speaking of
a bride and a bridegroom, but it is not speaking of an earthly
marriage. It's not speaking of the intimacy
of an earthly man and a woman. But we know the intent of the
Spirit here is to show the affection the intimacy and the marriage
union between Christ and His Church. This is the intent of
the Spirit. If you were to take every illustration,
everything that's in Scripture, it is always pointing us where? To Christ. To Christ. This book is no different. You
remember Paul talks about marriage in Ephesians and he says that
Husbands should love their wives, that marriage is honorable. A
husband should love his wife as Christ loved the church. That
the wife should be subject to her husband. And he is the head,
even as Christ is the head of the church. And Paul says it's
a mystery. Now, I'll tell you this, that's not a mystery. The
mystery is this, that that is a picture of Jesus and His church. It's a mystery. Christ would
use marriage as a picture of His union between Him and His
church. So as we see the bridegroom and
the bride here, we must, as God intends, point Christ out as
the bridegroom. And everything that is mentioned
of the bride is speaking about His church. Now with that in
view, Christ, the bridegroom, He declares of His church, you
who are believers in Christ, you who believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ tonight, you are His bride. You are His chosen bride. You
are His redeemed bride. You are His called bride. You was called by the Holy Spirit
to faith in Him alone. And so what He says here, you
need to take this to heart. What He says here of the bride,
He says about you and me. Now this is going to go against
every fiber that you feel. It's going to go against everything
you see and experience. Look what He says about you in
chapter 4 and verse 1, look at this. Thou art fair. Behold, thou art fair. And just in case you missed it,
look at verse 7. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. Now every believer in Christ,
we know what we are by nature. Matter of fact, when I hear that,
every fiber of my being cries out, how can that be? How can that be? We know what
we are by nature. When the Spirit has quickened
us, the first thing He showed us, the first thing we were revealed
is this. We are sinners. We are sinners. That's what He revealed. He exposed
our sin, our guilt, our shame. We were as that woman taken in
the very act of adultery, stripped and cast at His feet. No excuse. Full of iniquity. But then, the
Word of God came to us. A sweet Word. A precious Word. It was the Word of the Holy Spirit
that Jesus alone had come to wash away our sins. He came to wash away our sins. You know what the redeemed say
in heaven? This is the song of the redeemed in Revelation 1.
It says, And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness and
the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of kings of the
earth unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in
his own blood. That's the word of God, the gospel
that came to us. Do you know who needs the blood
of Christ? Sinners. Only sinners. need the blood of Christ. And
that's good because the blood of Christ only washes away sin. We heard the gospel of His cleansing
power. Therefore, seeing God was satisfied
with his obedience, hearing that God was satisfied with his offering. Then we were moved by the free
grace of God, by the power of God. We were moved to flee to
Christ, to run to Christ as a refuge. We fled to Christ by faith and
we have taken Him as our refuge. We by faith now abide in Him. We trust Him that He has already
purged our sins. That His blood has forever washed
away our stains and He has given us This glorious dress of His
own righteousness. This is what we believe. This
is what we have received by faith. Over in Romans 3, I don't want
to misquote it. My mind is not working correctly.
Over in Romans 3, it says, now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifest. Good. Isn't that great? The righteousness without the
law. I couldn't obtain it by the law. So I need righteousness
without the law. It's manifest. And listen, it
was witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God, which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Good. The righteousness of God was
merited by the faithfulness of another, Jesus Christ. And then
that righteousness is unto all and upon all them that believe. So the righteousness of Christ
is now imputed to us. His one offering has satisfied
God's justice. This is the foundation of our
faith. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is all our hope. He is all our righteousness.
Yet how do you still feel about yourself? What do you still know about
yourself? From our eyes, we can only see
these things by faith. Our experience is this, the same
as the Apostle Paul. He said, In my flesh dwelleth
no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not." Anybody
like that? Any believer can identify with
that. We can. We do identify with that. Oh, wretched man that I am. Who's
going to deliver me from this rotten corpse? Does that not
cause you great pain and sorrow? this corpse that hangs about
your neck. I long to be rid of it, that I may be and experience
exactly what Christ says about me. Thou art fair, my love, thou
art all fair, and there is no spot in thee So then let us forsake our thoughts. Let us forsake our view of things. Let us forsake our feeling of
things and see how He describes us. What He says about us is
really the only thing that matters. He says, Thou art fair. And in
case you missed it, He said it again. Thou art fair. And in
case you missed it again, He said, Thou art all fair. Now
we say something's fair, we say it's fair, right? Is that what
He's saying? He said, maybe you're fair. That's
not what it means. He tells you the definition when
He says this. There is no spot. no spot of sin or stain of sin
whatsoever, no matter how you feel or what you think. He says,
thou art all fair. In those days and at that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for,
and there shall be none, the sins of Judah, and they shall
not be found. Why? There's none there. You
can't find something that ain't there. You ever look for something
that ain't there? You ain't gonna find it. Because
it ain't there. This is how God sees it. There
is no spot in thee. Therefore, He calls now, in verse
8, He calls His bride away with Himself. Come unto Me from Lebanon,
My spouse, with Me. From Lebanon. Look from the top
of Ammanah, from the top of Shanar and Hermon, from the lion's den
and from the mountains of leopards. He calls us away to be with Him. He calls us to escape the leopards
and the lions. He calls us away from all the
fair mountains of the world. He calls us to Himself. You see, the only way He could
call you to Himself is He had to make you fair. And when He
made you fair, He gave you every right to come to Him. He said, Come away with me. Oh, that every
poor, distressed, fearful, and fretful soul that they would
think on this calling when they question His love or they question
their faith, listen to what He said, Thou art fair. Come away
with me. Come away with me. He calls us
to Himself. And then in verse 9 through verse
15, our Lord is so captivated, He's so captivated, He says this,
He said, Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse. Thou hast ravished my heart with
one of thine eyes, with one chain of thine neck. How fair is thy
love! my sister, my spouse, how much
better is thy love than wine and the smell of thine ointments
than all the spices." Now we know this, our Lord, our
God is not a God of passion. Passion, when we think of passion,
what is that? That's fluctuation, isn't it?
A man is in the heat of passion. It goes up and then eventually,
It comes down. But God condescends here to use
language that we understand that we're men of passion. We're people
of passion. So we understand this language. It is as if a man has first laid
eyes on his bride. When a man first lays eyes on
the woman that he loves, One wink. One gesture. He waits for one wink of the
eye. Any gesture she makes ravishes
his heart. She makes his heart to swell
and with one gesture she conquers him. and his heart now then belongs
to her so that he puts forth all of his might, all of his
power to have her, to care for her, to embrace her. He would
do anything to kiss her. Why? He's ravished. This is the
language our Master is using when He talks of His church,
when He talks of you. How much higher then and immutable
and unchangeable is His love. One minute, we're ravished. Five years later, we're not so
ravished. But our Lord's not like that.
He is just as ravished with you as He's always been. And notice this, He says, Your
love. He says, Your love. How fair
is Thy love? How much do you love Him? I know you love Him as much as
you can, but it's not as much as you want. But yet He says
it's sufficient. It's sufficient. The love you
have for Him, He says it's sufficient. Is that not amazing to you? Again,
doesn't that go against every fiber of your being that calls
out and says, My love is nothing! But He says it's fair. It's fair. And so all His saints have set their eyes a faith that
is fixed on Him. The chain here that He speaks
of is a chain of grace and salvation that is fashioned by Christ Himself,
that now we adorn by the gifts of the Holy Spirit. And by these,
our Savior is ravished. And so then, all of His heart,
all of the heart of Christ is set to save you. You understand
that? All God, all of His being, all
of His power has one will and purpose and that is to bring
you to Himself. Isn't that what Christ said? He said, Thou hast given Him
power over all flesh. Now why? That He should give
eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him. Therefore for
us, He endured the cross, despising the shame. His great love, wherewith
He loved us, Jesus our Savior, bore our sins in His own body
on the tree so that you and I might be fair, all fair and without
sin. He bore our sins. In His flesh, God condemns sin
that the righteousness of the law, Paul says, might be fulfilled
in us. And so with this in view of our
union with Christ, seeing He has blotted out our sins. I like
that text in Isaiah 44, 22. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud. As a thick cloud. When they used
to have a ledger, you know. We have whiteout. You know, a
lot of you know what whiteout is. Now they just got a delete
button. Back then, they didn't have that. What they had was
a ledger of debt. And when the debt was paid, they
would take an ink blot and they would blot it out so it would
never be seen again. You couldn't see it. Impossible
to see through. God says, I blot it out. All
your transgressions. as a cloud thy sins." How did
He blot them out? With what ink did He use? It was the blood of Christ. The
only sufficient thing to pay the debt was the blood of Christ. And by His blood, He has blotted
it out so that He cannot and will not ever see sin in His
people. This is how You can come to Him,
therefore return unto Me, for I have redeemed thee." So Jesus,
beholding our beauty, our righteousness, our sinless perfection that He
purchased, He purchased it. And now He has adorned us in
the inner man so that we are without sin. In the inner man,
you and I are without sin. So Jesus now in verses 10 through
15, in His ravished heart, He begins now to describe His bride. He describes His bride as beautiful
and a fragrant garden. That's how He describes us, as
a garden. A garden that appeals to all
the senses. A garden that appeals to the
sight, the smell, the taste, the touch. He uses all the senses
of a garden to describe His church. And in each of the saints of
God, according to His grace, He has given us the fruit of
the Spirit, which fruit is a sweet-smelling savor unto Christ. He says this, Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as
a honeycomb. Honey and milk are under thy
tongue, and the smell of thy garments is like the smell of
Lebanon. He's talking about the word that
comes from the mouth of God's people, praise. Your praise unto
God is as sweet as honey dripping from a honeycomb. Is there anything
sweeter? He describes the most nourishing
and sweetest thing he could think of. And milk! Milk speaks of
the purity, the whiteness of it. That when we praise God,
it is pure! Alright, raise your hand if you
think your praise tonight is pure. Why didn't you raise your hand?
He just said it was. He said, what comes out of your
mouth is sweet as honey. I love you. He said, that's sweet
to me. Sweet as honey. He said, it's
like milk under your tongue. It's pure. It's white. It's nourishing. It's good. Your praise. That's what He says of your praise,
of your confession. When you confess your sins, He
said, I am faithful and just to forgive you your sins and
cleanse you of all your unrighteousness. In verse 12, He says, A garden
enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up, a fountain
sealed. I don't see this true. You know,
the kings of old, gardens were very, very valuable. I mean,
I don't think they're valuable to us today, but in those days,
I'm telling you, a king could measure his wealth by the gardens
that he produced, and Solomon was one of the wealthiest kings
that ever lived, and his garden was one of great value. And what they would do is they
would enclose these gardens. They would seal them up. No one
was allowed inside of this garden but the husband and the king. It was his garden to enjoy. And
they would seal this up and they would dig a well. A fountain
of water would come in and they would seal it off and no one
was allowed to access that water. It was only for the garden. And behold, you who are the bride
of Christ, you are the garden of God. You are enclosed. Don't you know
He enclosed you in sovereign election? Don't you know He already
plotted out the ground in which His garden would be? Marked it
off? divided it, separated it for
Himself. Then He tilled it, He planted
it, He nurtures it, He waters it, He refreshes it. It's His
garden. You are His garden. You were
chosen by the free grace of God, you were redeemed by the blood
of Christ, and you were planted in this garden by the Holy Spirit. See now how He Christ, after He had opened then
the spring of this fountain. What is the fountain sealed?
What is this fountain? It is the fountain of His blood.
It's the fountain promised in Zechariah chapter 13, in that
day there shall be a fountain open. Not for everyone. It says a fountain open to the
house of David. to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
Only the elect. Only the garden. This fountain
belongs only to the garden. It's sealed off for them. What
fountain? What comes out of it? It says,
this fountain shall be open for sin and uncleanness. And what kind of people had He
enclosed? He had enclosed sinners. No different
than the people on the outside. But He had opened this fountain
for sin and uncleanness. And it is this fountain of His
blood, listen, this fountain of grace, it is sealed off, but
it constantly flows into the garden. Don't you know that you
are constantly and perpetually cleansed? How many sins have we sinned
today? Have you thought on Him all day
long? Set your affection only on Him
and not been distracted? And yet this fountain still cleanses
you from all your sin, even now, if we confess our sin is faithful
and just. to forgive us our sin because
of this thou? You know, He told that woman
at the well, over in John chapter 4, He said, If thou knewest the
gift of God, and knew it was to save thee, give me the drink
that I would ask of Him, and He would give thee living water. And Jesus answered her, and she
said, Well, give me that water. I don't want to come back here.
I don't want to drink from this well again. answered her and said
unto her, Whosoever drinketh this water shall thirst again,
but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting
life. And so see this bride, Therefore
enjoy in verse 16. She hears of what he said, a
fountain of gardens of living waters and hearing this. What
does she say? What does she say? She says,
awake, oh, north wind and come now south. Blow upon my garden
that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into
his garden and eat his pleasant fruit. This is always the response. When you hear such wonderful
things, as the bride of Christ, that you are fair. That your
love ravishes His heart. When you hear things like that,
when you hear, you are His enclosed garden. That there's a well of His blood
springing up, cleansing you. What do you want? You want Him!
She wants Him to come to her. She wants to be pleasing to Him. And so I've got three things
now. Three things from this text. First of all, the garden of our
heart. She said, My garden. Come to
My garden. Flow upon My garden. Secondly,
what is this wind that she's calling on? The wind here of
God. And thirdly, I want to see the
presence of Christ in joy. Okay, first of all, believer behold how pleasant
we are, how precious we are in the sight of Christ. See how our fruit, our worship,
our praise and our love are sweet to Him. How the very sight of
you fills His heart with joy. As a matter of fact, he told
us this in Zephaniah 3, if you want to read that later. He said,
the Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, is mighty, He will save.
Listen, He will rejoice over you with joy. He will rest in
His love. He will joy over you with sin. Do you know God sings for you? I wouldn't say it. I didn't say
it. He rejoices over you with joy. But we confess that this is not
us by nature, is it? This is not how it was by nature.
By nature we were no garden. We were no sweet smell, no beautiful
flowers here. We were a barren wasteland. We only had the stench of death
and the only flower that grew was the weed of sin. That's the
only thing we knew. We were a desert wasteland. But when God by mercy came to
us, I want you to know what He had made. He has made you as
the garden of Eden. He has made you who were barren
and desolate to be as Eden. Isaiah 51 and verse 3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion.
He will comfort all her waste places. And He will make her
wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the
Lord. This is what He does in the new
birth. He makes you who were barren
as the garden of the Lord. Our barren, desolate garden has
now turned into the garden of God. Now we are enclosed, we
are sealed and well watered by the grace of God. We are like trees planted by
the river of living water. How did this take place? How
did this take place? This is clearly seeing that parable.
You remember the parable of the sower. The sower went forth to
sow and some fell on the wayside, the hard ground. A bird came
and took it away. Another fell on stony places.
It sprang up. It didn't have any root. And
the sun came out and it withered away. The third, when it fell
on thorny grounds, it grew up. But the thorns choked it. There
was no fruit in it. What is all this? This is the
Gospel as it is preached to the law. This has no life in them. There's no fruit in them. They're
not part of the garden. But he says, there's some seed
fell on good ground. Now, how did that ground become
good? You that have been farmers, go
ahead, you're a farmer, right? Okay, you try, you try. I don't think you just threw
a seed on top of the earth. You had to dig it up. You had
to plow it. Every farmer knows if you want
to plant something, you got to plow it up. You got to dig up
the rocks. You got to dig up the weeds. You got to get all of that out
so the soil becomes able to receive the seed. This is what God did
to that barren heart of yours. He plowed it up. He broke up
the clods of sin and exposed your rocks of self-righteousness,
your weeds of self-sufficiency. And what did He do? He rooted
them out! so that there was nothing left.
God plowed our hearts, preparing it for the Word. And then He
preached the Word to us. The Word came and we received
it as good soil receives the seed. That's how our hearts received
Him. We were ready. We were ready
to receive Him. As many as received Him. You
receive Him? How did you receive Him while
others have not and will not? There's plenty of people who
don't have any need of Christ. How foolish is Christ to them
of any need of Him? You know why? The heart is hard.
There's no light. There's no preparation there.
God's not touched their heart. It's just natural like ours.
And when God rooted out all of the weeds and sin and self-righteousness. He prepared in the Spirit, planted
the Word of God in our heart. I like that picture of the river
in Ezekiel. I believe, I can't remember,
I think it's Ezekiel 47. He said the river flowed out
of the temple and it went down the east side and went out. And
if you look at his ankles and his knees and his waist, he got
out. You know, he went over his head. And the Lord dragged him
out of there, and He showed him that exceeding great river. And
it says this, wherever the river went, there was life. Wherever the Spirit of God goes
with this word, there's life. And it says this, but the marshlands,
they were not healed. You see, if you got a little
puddle of water, you got a little self-righteousness of your own,
river don't go there. River don't go there. Your self-righteousness
has to be dried up. And when you've got nothing,
the Spirit comes and gives life. And that's what happened to us.
Has God plowed your heart? Has He plowed up the rebellion
and stripped you of all your stones and objections? Have you seen the vanity of this
world and the things of it? Have you believed on Him? Have
you believed on Him? Then listen to me, you are the
garden enclosed. You are redeemed, you are quickened
of God, so that you should bear fruit that is pleasing unto Him. Now what is this fruit? She says,
Come, O north wind, and blow, O south wind, upon my garden,
that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into
his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. What are the fruits of
this garden? The bride calls upon Christ to
eat of a fruit. Now the fruit is not our good
character. It's not our moral values. That's not the fruit. That's
the fruit of false religion. You know, false religion is always
trying to work outside trying to get you to do this, stop doing
this, start doing this, be good to others. I got notes of a message
from somebody on Facebook and it's all about what you got to
do. You've got to stop doing this. You've got to be kind to
people and you've got to be good to people. And then it works
inwardly. You start doing it, you pick
up these habits, right? And then when you keep doing
these habits over and over again, being kind is going to be a habit.
You know, that's just well-pleasing to God. No. No. That's your fruit. She doesn't
say, come and eat my fruit. She said, come and eat your own
fruit. That's what's pleasing to Him
is His fruit. It is the fruit of the Spirit.
Our Lord said, I am the vine and you are the branches. And
only those that are in union with the vine, He says, they
will produce fruit. Now what's the source? Is the
source of the fruit the branch or the vine? Where does it come
from? The fruit of the Spirit. Does
it come by your outward actions or by the inner working of the
Spirit of God? You know it comes by the inner
working of the Spirit of God and it surely manifests itself
out. It will manifest itself outwardly,
sure. But we know this, it doesn't
come outward in, it comes in out. Because it is His fruit. And so then, every plant that
is planted of God in this garden, they will bear fruit. You remember
Jesus in that parable said some 30, some 60, some 100, but listen,
every one of them bore fruit. Maybe not all the same measure.
You know, I see some men that bear great fruit. And I would
long to bear more fruit. But we should be content with
the measure that He's given us. And so now, go to Galatians.
Go to Galatians because this is the best way to look at this
is what Paul says in Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 verse 22. He said, But the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering. Gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance against such, there is no law. Verse
3, love, joy, and peace. These clusters of fruit describe
our relationship with God. Love. Who loved who? Who loved first? Who loved most? Who loved best? You or God? It was God. We were loved of
God. We by nature were at enmity God,
but now by the love of God, we now love him. You see, it was
the source of that love is God. He loved you. He chose you. He
redeemed you. He called you. Then he put that
love in you. Therefore, that love comes out
of you. And where does it go? It goes
to God. We were at enmity with God, but
now we love God. We love the world. Now we don't. Now we don't. We love His person. We love His
work. We love His salvation. We love
His election of grace. We love His perfect redemption.
We love His effectual calling. We love His effectual keeping.
We love God. And the source of that love is
God's love. God's love. So then, we behold the love of God by
faith, and then this love surely is manifest by our love of the
brethren. You know, John says this, don't
tell me you love God if you don't love the brethren. You're a liar. You're a liar. I like John's
plain language. It's refreshing, isn't it? He
doesn't mince words. You do not love the brethren. You do not love God. I don't
want to hear you tell me how much you love God if you don't
love the brethren. Anyone who is loved of God loves the brethren. Joy! We rejoice in the person
of Christ. We find joy at His presence. Is there anything else you want
more? Is there anything more joyful than the presence of Christ?
How tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I
see. Sweet birds, sweet prospects,
sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. The midsummer
sun shines but dim. Fields strive in vain to look
gay. But when I am happy in Him, December
is pleasant to me." When He's near. You see, joy describes
our relationship with Him. Do you find anything joyful in
this world that lasts? He's our joy. Rejoice in the
Lord always, and again I say, peace! Peace. Peace describes
our relationship with Him, doesn't it? He hath made peace with God
by the blood of His cross. We are at constant, perpetual,
eternal peace with God. There is no warfare between us
and God. Christ has settled the warfare.
He's settled it. We're at peace. And you know
this? Did you make your peace with
God? Why do you tell me that and I just want to spit? That's
just the most offensive thing you can say to someone. Make
your peace with God. You idiot. You can't make peace
with God. There's only one who made peace
with God. Christ made peace with God for
us. And listen, you're at peace with
God. Therefore, we are at peace with
everything around us. If we have peace with God, what
else do we need? Okay, look at these. Long-suffering,
gentleness, and goodness. These describe our attitude and
our relationship to those around us. Because of the love of God
that He's given us, because of the joy that is in our heart,
because of the peace, we now are long-suffering, gentle, and
good to those around us. This is the fruit. This fruit pleases God that we are gentle and tender
and kind to those around us. How can we possibly be gentle
and kind and tender to all those who offend us, who persecute
us, who hate us? How can we do this? The only
way is by seeing what grace He has put upon you. How gentle
is He to you? How kind is He to you? How longsuffering
is God to you? If we can answer that question,
surely then we can be longsuffering, gentle, and good to those around
us. This is the fruit that the Spirit
yields. And so then, if our brethren
offend us, He says later in Galatians 6, if a man be overtaken in a
fault, you that are spiritual, restore such in one. In the spirit
of meekness. Meekness. What? Considering your
own self. That you are just as prone to
that as He was. Look at these next three. Faith,
meekness, temperance. Temperance. Faith. describes
the inward nature that God has made in us. Now faith is the
chief evidence of our spiritual life. For by grace you are saved
through faith. Never apart from faith, for without
faith it is impossible to please God. You are saved by grace through
faith, and that faith, how did you get it? Not of yourself.
It is a gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast. Faith
is the work of God to set all our hope of salvation upon Christ,
and this faith always yields meekness. Because our Savior was meek. He said, learn of me, take up
your cross, but learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find wrath unto your soul. Meek. I tell you,
if you have faith in Christ, there's nothing that will make
you more meek. If you really see what He has condescended
to take upon Himself, all His people should be meek and temperate. They should be
modest. Use everything in moderation.
God's given us everything that we have. The only thing you've
got that you have isn't given of God. What do you have that's
not been given to you of God? Some of us may have more. Some
of us may have less, but whatever you have to enjoy, you can enjoy
it. God gives it to you. So long as it does not take precedent
over Christ. So long as it does not take preeminence
over Christ, or offend God's people, or mar the gospel of
Christ. We may take all of these things
in moderation. God's people are moderate people.
You know why? We're not going to keep any of
this. We're not going to keep any of
this. We use all things in moderation
seeking the glory of God. And so these are the fruits of
the Spirit that God works in us. Is this fruit, now let me
ask you this, is this fruit fully grown in you? Alright, who has
enough fruit? Anybody have enough fruit? Are
you done? You think God, I think, well,
you know, Christ, I think I've got enough. No, thank you for
more faith. No, thank you for more love and
meekness. I'm pretty meek and I'm sure
impatient. I'm patient. This is why the bride now says
this. She's calling now upon the wind. She wants him to come and enjoy
this fruit, but she realizes something about herself. She
realizes she is stagnant. She realizes that the fruit is
not growing. It's not yielding as it should. And so what does she ask? She
says, Awake, O north wind! Come thou, south wind, and blow
upon my garden, so that the spices may flow out. I know this. You have faith.
You have love. You have joy, you have peace,
meekness, temperance. How much of that is flowing out? The Spirit here gives us an inclination
as to what we need so as this fruit should be manifest out. You need the wind. What is the
wind in Scripture? What did Jesus say the wind was
in John chapter 3. It's the Spirit. The wind bloweth
where it listens. You can hear the sound, but you
can't tell when it's coming. So is everyone that is born in
the Spirit of God. The wind is the Spirit. What do you need
so as to stir these graces in you, so as to pour them out? What good is it to keep these
graces in? You say you have faith. What
good is it to say you have faith? John says, show me your faith
without your works, I'll show you my faith by my works. Well,
John says, my faith's going to go out. Faith worketh by love,
doesn't it? The manifestation of faith is
what? Love. And so these fruits she desires
to manifest. But it's only the Spirit that
can do this. And what is this wind? Awake,
O north wind, and blow, O south wind. What she's talking about is the
providence of God. I do not know what I need in
order for this grace to grow. I don't know if I need tribulation
or I need prosperity. The wind of the north, what do
you think of when you hear north wind? Winter. You think of the cold wind, the
bitter wind of winter. This is the affliction. She's
praying for affliction. Oh Lord, send affliction that
my fruit, the fruit of the garden, should be poured out of me. Maybe we need affliction. Isn't
this often what the Spirit of God uses to manifest to us the
fruits of the Spirit? How often do you question if
you have faith? What manifests it more than tribulation
and trials and difficulties? Isn't this what God swears? He
says, I will purify you. I would refine you as gold is
tried in the fires of affliction. When gold is tried, it comes
out more valuable. That's what happens to us. We
don't know we have faith. Guess what? He sends affliction.
And in the affliction, where do you go? To whom do you go? You flee in chastisement and
affliction. Come, O north wind. South wind,
what does that make you think of? The pleasant wind, the warm
breeze, the refreshing rains of the spring. What's she saying? She's saying, come, O south wind. Come and restore me." You know,
after the trials and tribulations, after the north wind, what makes
you appreciate the south wind better is after the trials. He sends the trials of affliction
so that you may grow in the grace and knowledge that this fruit
may grow. But He also sends those refreshing times of His presence
of His grace and His love. And the bride here, she just
said, look, send what you need to see. Are you there? Do you need to
grow? Then call the wind. Send me what
I need. Affliction or prosperity. Whatever. Whatever. Do whatever. It takes. And therefore, we should learn
this lesson to resign to the hand of God. That's what she's
doing. She's resigning to Him. He is the husband of this garden.
He's enclosed it. He's purchased it. He's planted
it. He waters it. He prunes it. He keeps it fruitful. And He alone controls the wind
of divine providence so as to know what is best. He says, My
counsel shall stand and I will do all My pleasure. Resign to that. That's a lesson
we should learn. Resign to His will and His providence. And lastly, the desire of the
bride is the presence of the bridegroom. Go back to your text,
see this last thing. She says, let my beloved come
to his garden and eat his pleasant fruit. See, then the north wind
blows. Jesus is our rock, our refuge.
He is our present help in trouble when the south wind of prosperity
comes. He is our brother. He is our
friend. He is our husband and our king.
So, no matter what wind blows, listen, He is still my Beloved. Nothing can change that. He is still my Beloved. And I desire nothing more than
His presence. The desire then is that all the
fruits of the Spirit that He has given should please Him. Let Him come and eat His fruit.
Our heart of love is set upon Him. We seek only to please Him. Is this the desire of your heart?
Are you His garden? Are you His spouse? Listen to
what He says about you. You're fair. You are the garden
enclosed. You are the garden planted. The blood of Christ is constantly
flowing in this garden to keep us, sustain us, cleanse us. And this fruit that He gives
us, the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, meekness, temperance,
faith, all of these things are His fruits. And the desire of
the bride is this, that His fruit should grow no matter what. That He should determine what
is best to grow our faith, our love. And that we should resign
to Him seeking His presence, His grace. to sustain us. I pray God will bless this to
you. I pray He'll encourage you, strengthen you. Read again these
words of His. These are His words to you. If I write a love letter to my
wife, it's not to you. This is only to His bride, His
church, to you. Don't listen to how you think
or how you feel. Believe what He says. What He
says is true. What He says is true. Thou art
fair, and all this fruit, thank God caused it to grow. Let's
stand and be dismissed in prayer.