Song of Solomon, chapter 4. Song of Solomon, chapter 4. Our
text will be found in verse 16. And the title of the message
is, The Bride's Plea to the Beloved. The Bride's Plea. to the Beloved. 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
precious book, and friends, this is a precious book. It is a book
full of love. That's what this is. It is a
book full of love. This book of the Song of Solomon
that is between a bride and the bridegroom, a man and his beloved
bride. It is a love story. But we must
not mistake this, as the world does, as some carnal, physical
relationship between a man and a woman. But rather, it far exceeds
this. It speaks of Christ and His Church. If you miss, if they miss that,
if you miss that, you've missed the whole point of the book.
You remember the Apostle talked about marriage in Ephesians.
He said this, that the wives submit yourselves unto your husbands. Boy, that really gets a hearing
today, wouldn't it? I don't care. Wives, submit yourselves
unto your husbands. Husbands, love your wives. How much as Christ loved the
church and gave himself for it. But what is he really talking
about? He says, but I'm talking about something bigger, something
greater. I speak of the mystery of the
union between Christ and His church. Christ is the bridegroom
and His church is His bride. His bride. And so as the wives
submit themselves to the husband, why? It's a picture of the church.
The church is submitting itself to Christ. And the husband is
a picture of Christ as he loved the church and gave himself for
it. Why do you think there's an emphasis
on why is marriage important? Because it's a picture. It's
a picture of Christ and His church. It's a picture, the instituted
by God, that is endured through time. And so then this book is of the
bridegroom and the bride. It is Christ and His church.
And it's with this view we should look at this, that Christ in
our text is the bridegroom, the husband, and the bride is the
church. The church. The church is all
the elect of God, all who are redeemed by the blood of Christ,
all who are robed in His righteousness, all who are called by the Holy
Spirit to faith. Now then, can you place yourself
here? Are you the church? If you are a believer in Christ,
you listen, you are the bride of the Son of God. And everything
the bridegroom says in this book has reference to you. And everything
the bride says in this book, you can identify with her. You
can identify with her. Now, I'm going to take us through
quickly before we get to our text. I want to take us through
this and see the... First of all, it's the bridegroom
speaking through most of this passage here. He's speaking through
most all of this passage. Look how he begins us in verse
one. He tells the church, his bride, he says, Behold, thou
art fair, my love, thou art fair. Thou hast dove's eyes within
thy locks, Thy hair is as a flock of goats that appeareth at Gilead.
Now look down to verse 7. Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. No spot in thee. Now listen. Believer, Jesus Christ is plainly
telling you of your righteousness of your spotless holy perfection. Yet every believer knows his
own sin. He knows his own sin. We are
very aware of our abiding nature. It was a quickening power of
the Holy Ghost that exposed our sin. But yet the sweetest voice in
all the world came to our souls and told us of a great love,
the love of Jesus Christ, who could wash away every stain,
every sin. We heard of His blood that satisfied
the justice of God. We heard that He died. He died
as He was made sin for us, and God's justice poured out on Him. And He suffered the wrath of
God for the sins of His people. And God was so pleased with His
one offering that God raised Him from the dead, seeing He
had no more sin. He raised Him from the dead and
sat Him on the throne of glory. And by faith we have embraced
Him. By faith we have received Him.
By faith we love Him. By faith we as His bride serve
Him. We believe on Him and we have
His righteousness both imputed to us and imparted to us in the
new nature. But listen, we can't see this
from our own eyes. Can we? When he says things like
this, thou art fair. Joanne, thou art fair. Thou art fair. There is no spot
in you. Now go look in the mirror. Not just at the flesh. Look in
the mirror of the law and see what you see. You see spots.
You see blemish. You see wrinkles. You see your
sin. That's what you see. How then
can we know this to be true? Only by faith. I believe His
Word who cannot lie. And He says, I am fair. He said,
you're fair. You have no spot in you. No sin in you. No sin. You can only see this by faith.
The Apostle says, I know in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
How do you know, Paul? For the will is present with
me, but how to perform that which is good I find not, O wretched
man, that I am. Not that I was, that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ.
There's how in Spotless. There's therefore now no condemnation
to those who were in Christ Jesus. So, how am I fair? I am fair
because He made me fair. I am without spot because He
cleansed me of every spot. This abiding nature is constantly
failing in unbelief and despair. I tell you what, you need to
forsake what you see and believe what He said. How often must you do that? Every
day of your life, every minute of your life, you must forsake
what you see and believe what He said. Thou art fair. Thou have no spot. Notice He said it twice. I like
it. Why? You need to hear it twice. You need to hear it over and
You know, the Holy Spirit never tries to take up space in the
Word of God. It's important that He said it
twice. Thou art fair, my love. Thou
art fair. Thou art fair. There is no spot
in thee. And so now then, He says this
in verse 9 through 15. The Lord is so captivated with
His saints. Look at what He says in verse
9. He says, Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse. with one of thine eyes with one
chain of thine neck now the Lord here when he says thou hast ravished
me you know i it's really important that that word in that uh... context the way that word is
used not used anywhere else in that way in all of scripture
you have unhearted me you have conquered my heart That's amazing
language, isn't it? You have ravished me with one
of your eyes. You've ravished my heart. As when a man first spots that
bride, a woman is there and she turns and with one wink of her
eye, that man's gone. He's gone. and he does everything
in his power he pursues after her until he has this is the
idea This is the idea that Christ gives to us of His love. Now we know this, Christ is not
a passionate, a passion, does not have passion like we have
passion, right? Because that man, he'll pursue
after her until he gets her, and then sure enough, later on
he'll just kind of, oh well, his passion dies. Christ is nothing
like that. Do you realize that you ravish
Him in His heart every day the same? You are ravishing to Him. And this one eye that ravishes
Him is this, faith. One eye that ravishes Him is
faith. And the chain that is about our
neck is the Spirit of God. It is the new nature. It is the
righteous nature obtained by Him and put into us by His Holy
Spirit. This ravishes His heart. Therefore, He endured the cross, despising
the shame. For His great love, wherewith
He loved us, Jesus our Savior bore our sins in His own body
on the tree and suffered the vengeance of God. That's how
much we ravished His heart. That's how much you ravished
His heart that He was willing to go to Calvary for you. He said, I have set my face like
a flint, like steel. Who shall stop Him from doing
His work? For His great love He endured
this, for His great love He accomplished all the righteousness of the
law and fulfilled it, and then gave it to us. And so then, with this in view
of our union with Christ, seeing He has blotted out our transgressions,
He says, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgression,
and as a cloud thy sin, return unto Me, for I have redeemed
thee. Why? You've ravished Him. You've
ravished His heart. And so then Jesus, beholding
our beauty, our righteousness, our sinless perfection that he
has purchased, he now anoints us with the inner man, with thy holy garments on, I
am as holy as God's Son. Jesus, now in His ravished heart,
He begins to describe His bride. And look how He describes His
bride. Look in verse... Let's read just
verse 10 and on. 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!
Isn't that something? How weak is your love! And yet
what does he say? Oh, your love, it's better to
me than wine. It joys his heart better than
wine would joy a man's heart. He says it's better. He said,
Thy lips, my spouse, drop as in honeycomb. Honey and milk
are under thy tongue. The smell of thy garments are
like the smell of Lebanon. He's talking about your prayers,
your praise, your worship of Him are sweet. are sweet to him,
sweet to his smell. Listen how he describes it. He
says, You are a garden enclosed, is my sister, my spouse, a spring
shut up, a fountain sealed. Thy plants are not orchards of
pomegranates with pleasant fruits, camphor and spikenard, spikenard
and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense
and myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices, a fountain
of gardens, a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon."
Now, in these days, when a king would, as he ruled, he would
plant a garden. It would be a special garden
for himself only. It would be a garden deliberately
planted and enclosed so that no one else would be able to
defile it or steal it. These plants that these kings
would, they would ship these plants from over long distances,
and they would bring them in, and they would nurture the soil
just right, and then they would dig a well. And that water could
not be tapped, but only for that garden. And that garden would
be as flush and green, and it was what? For the pleasure of
the king. The king did it for his own pleasure.
He planted these gardens. Behold, the bride of Christ,
you are the garden enclosed. You were enclosed because you
were chosen. Just as a king would choose the
most precious plants for his garden, he chose you for his
garden. He chose us for His garden and
He enclosed us with the free, sovereign election of grace.
And you were purchased, you were a plant purchased by the precious
blood of Christ. And then you were planted by
the Holy Spirit so that now He has opened the spring of the
fountain of His blood that cleanses us continually, perpetually,
constantly from all our sins. This is the fountain of living
water. He said, in that day shall be a fountain open for cleansing. For cleansing of sin and unrighteousness. You see, this fountain is His
blood. And we are the planted seed of Christ in His garden. We are His garden. And see then that this well is
a well of living water springing up in us. It is the Holy Spirit
that continually refreshes our faith and produces the fruits
of the Spirit in us. And so then, this bride, in joy
and love, This bridegroom in joy and love, he desires to reveal
what he has done for us. You are a fountain of gardens,
a well of living water, streams from Lebanon. And so seeing this,
what does this cause you to feel toward him? As the bride of Christ, seeing
what he sees you, how he sees you, Thou art fair, my love. Thou art without spot. Why? He
took away your sin. Now then, he says, look, you
are my garden, a garden enclosed, a garden protected, a garden
well watered by the Holy Spirit, constantly cleansed of your sins
and unrighteousness. Always my pleasure. Always my
pleasure. What does this stir up the bride
to say? Look at this in your text. It moves the bride and
she says, O awake, awake, O north wind and come thou south, blow
upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out, let my
beloved come to his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. So three things, a garden, the
garden, what is that? It's the heart. This is where
all this is planted. In the heart. Second of all,
what is the wind? The wind is the Holy Spirit. We know this. As the wind bloweth
where it listeth. But what does it blow? It blows
from the north and it blows from the south. This is talking about
providence. The providence of the Spirit
of God. As it blows, what does the wind
do? It stirs the smells. the fruit so as to allure the
bridegroom. And then lastly, what is the
chief desire of the bride? That her beloved come and eat
of his fruit. Of his fruit. So first, the garden
of our heart. Believer, behold how pleasant
and how precious we are in the sight of Christ. how that the fruit of our worship
think about this the fruit of your worship today is accepted is that not astounding to you
saying that we have how many times our minds have wondered
how often we have been engaged in our thoughts not being in
even myself I'm standing here preaching I know what it's like
to move your mind moves you can't stop that Yet, He says, you are
accepted. Your fruit is accepted. He accepts our praise, our love
is sweet, and we are without spot before Him. How the very Spirit fills our
hearts with love and joy when we hear of these things. But
we confess And we were not always this way
by nature, we were not always a pleasant garden, were we? We
were a barren wilderness, a desert without fruit, twice plucked
up from the roots, dead. Yet now, by the grace and power
of God, we are a garden. We are as the Garden of Eden
in the sight of our God. Our barren desert is now turned
to a garden of God, it is enclosed, it is sealed, and it is well
supplied by the grace of God. This took place like the Lord
told us in that parable of the sower. He sowed the seed and
some fell by the wayside, some fell on stony ground, some fell
on thorny ground. Today, the same, the seed's going
out today, right now at this place, it's falling somewhere.
Your heart, your heart, that's where it's falling on. Those
who would dismiss it, it's because your heart is hard and will not
receive it. Some of you might receive it and then because of
temptations, you go away. Because of the cares of the world,
it just flourishes away. That's what we talked about earlier,
about apostasy. But, some fell on good ground. Now listen, how
did the ground become good? Was it just naturally that way?
Do farmers just kind of throw seed out there and say, ah, well,
the ground's pretty good out there. Leave it. No, he works. He teels. He prepares the ground
before the seed. It must be prepared. And so it
was with this garden of this heart. The soil must be tilled. The hard soil must be broken.
The stones must be cast out. The weeds must be pulled. Is
that done by you? No. That's done by God. God prepares
the hard. God prepares that soil of our
heart. And at that time of love, the
seed is planted by God Himself. And it springs forth life and
fruit. Fruit of the Spirit. All of God's
saints then will be fruitful. Isn't that what he said about
that? He said some 30, some 60, some 100 fold. But listen, all
bear fruit. All bear fruit. This garden is
fruitful. The heart of a true believer
is always fruitful. Fruitful. And see then, this garden, prepared
by the Spirit, planted into our hearts, it springs up to life
and faith in Christ, and this garden has been enclosed, and
we are purchased, planted, and He gives us life, and from Him
comes all the strength of life to bear this fruit. Now I'm going
to ask you, is this your heart? Have you been exposed? Has a
sin been rooted up and turned up to know who you are? So that
you should find a need of Christ? Is this why men don't come to
Christ? Because they don't have a need of Him? Why? Because the soil
has not been tilled. The heart has not been exposed.
When it is, we come to Christ because we have no place to go
but to Christ. And we see that Christ is all
we need. All we need. We find in Him sufficient
for salvation. So then you by faith have you
believed. Then listen, you are a garden
enclosed, chosen, redeemed, and quickened, and planted for the
pleasure of the Lord. Now what is the fruit? What is
this fruit that the believer is to bear, to produce this garden? She says, Awake, O north wind,
and blow south on my garden, and that the spices thereof may
flow out. Let my beloved come in his garden
and eat his pleasant fruits. The bride calls upon Christ to
eat of his fruits, the fruits of his garden. That's important,
isn't it? Because this fruit is not something
we produce. It is something produced by Him. By Him. It is His garden, and
you pay attention, it is His fruit. So this fruit that we're
talking about is not moral virtue. That's not the fruit He eats
of. People think that. People think, I've been good,
so therefore Jesus is going to like me. No, no, you've not been
good. Name one thing you've done good.
The scripture says, none doeth good. No, not one. So where then is our goodness?
Our goodness comes from Him. Comes from Him. And so then does
all our fruits. This fruit is rightly said by
the Apostle to be the fruit, singular, fruit of the Spirit. Just like a grape We say the
grapes, you see how the grape, they come from one vine and yet
they're clusters. It's one fruit, but it's clustered
into multiple grapes. So it is with the fruit of the
Spirit, it is singular. It has a singular source, a singular
nourishment. Jesus said, I am the vine, and
you are the branches. Except you abide in Me, you can
do nothing. But he that abideth in Me shall
bear fruit. Why? Because it comes from Him.
It comes from Him. And this fruit of the Spirit,
Paul talks about this. I want you to see this fruit
that the garden of the heart of believers bear. The fruit
of the Spirit. Go to Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5 and verse
22. But the fruit of the Spirit, here they are, love, joy, peace. Love, joy, peace. These clusters of fruit describe
our relationship with God. Once we were at enmity against
God, but now what? We love God because He first
loved us. So what's the fruit of the Spirit?
Love to God. Love to the saints. Don't tell
me you love God if you don't love His people. John says you're
a liar. You're a liar. You're not bearing
the fruit of the Spirit. Love. We once loved the world,
now we love His person. His work of salvation we love.
We love His election of grace. We love His perfect redemption.
We love the Holy Spirit that gives us life and grace in every
fruit. Joy! This is a fruit. We rejoice in the person of Christ. And with great joy, we love His
presence. Isn't that what we love the most?
Isn't that what causes us the most joy? Is His presence. There is nothing greater for
the believer than to have the presence of Christ manifest to
them. Now, He's always with us, isn't He? He's always there,
when you feel it or when you don't. But what joy does it bring
you to have Him near? To know that He is near me always
brings me joy, peace. Oh, this peace. How do we get
this peace? The peace came from the blood
of the cross. Jesus has made peace by the blood of His cross.
This is my relationship with Him. Love, joy, and peace. It was anger, misery, and warfare. Now it's love, joy,
and peace. That's our relationship with
God. This is the fruit of the Spirit. The second is, listen
to this, long-suffering, gentleness, and goodness. These describe
our attitude and relationship toward those around us. These plants of God are not hard,
but they're tender herbs. This fruit that God yields is
not a hard fruit. It's not a bitter fruit. It is
a pleasant, sweet, and comforting fruit. You ever been into a bad fruit?
I mean, it sends chills all the way down you and you just want
to throw it away. But you bite into a sweet fruit.
And how do you feel? You feel good. You feel wonderful. And that's the fruit of the Spirit,
love. It's long-suffering, gentleness. How do you feel when some believer
comes along you and is patient with you? Is that not a pleasant
fruit? pleasant to those around us,
isn't it? To be long-suffering with one another, patient with
one another, gentle with one another, good and kind toward
one another. This is the fruit of the Spirit
that God's people produce. Why? Because we know He was long-suffering
with us, that He was patient and kind. We know that He is
gentle with us. We know that He is good with
us. Therefore, this fruit abounds toward others. And the third
branch is faith, meekness, and temperance. These fruits describe
the inward nature that God has made in us. You see, faith is
not something we produce, but something God gave us inside
of us. Faith is a gift of God, created
by God. It is the work of God. and is by the grace of God, and
the second is meekness of heart. We know that we belong to Christ
and therefore in great meekness and humility we desire others
to come. Others to come. You know Moses
was a meek man. Meekest man. Now was Moses a
weak man? No. No. But he sure had a heart
for Israel, didn't he? How many times did he intercede
for those people? That's a heart of meekness, that
we intercede for one another. Why? Because we have the great
intercessor interceding for us. These are the fruits of the Spirit
that grow in God's garden. Temperance, which is moderation. This is something that believers
desire is moderation. We enjoy the things God gives
us, but we never let them excel above Christ our Lord. They're
always put in the back, and Christ is always exalted. This is the
fruit of the Spirit. So do you love God? Do you have
joy in God's person and presence? Do you have peace with God? Do
you believe God? Are you gentle? Are you meek?
Are you kind toward others? What fruit is this? This is the
fruit of the Spirit. This is the fruit that God enjoys,
that Christ has produced and enjoys to eat. Do you have these
fruits? Is your fruit fully grown? Let
me ask you that. Are you fully grown in these
fruits? Or do you desire to grow more? You smile because you know
it's a rhetorical question. We all need to grow in the grace
and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now the bride here in
our text, go back to your text. I want you to see this. Listen
to her words. Awake. Awake. What is she noticing about her
garden? It's stagnant. Our Lord said all of these wonderful
things, and what does she realize? I don't see any of them. Awake. She realizes she's asleep, and
that her fruits have grown stagnant, and she feels she does not know
the presence of her bridegroom. She cannot feel his presence.
The bride here sees our need of growth. that her garden is
stagnant, her fruit is small, and that she longs for it to
yield a rich crop. And see her cry in the text,
awake, O north wind, and come thou south. What then stirs up
the heart to growth? You see, you are His garden. You have the fruit of the Spirit.
You now realize your need of growing. What then do you need
to grow? You need the Spirit of God to
grow. You need the Spirit of God. Awake,
O north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my garden for this
purpose, that he might smell and come and allure the bridegroom. Now notice the bride feels her
state and knows her need, her slumber, is aware of it. You remember those virgins, the
ten virgins, the Lord spoke of in that parable? What was the
only difference? The oil, wasn't it? The wise
had the oil, but both of them slept, right? Both of them were
prone to sleep in waiting for the Master. But the difference
was the oil of the Holy Spirit. And in this parable, in this
thing here, you know, she's aware that she has the garden His garden
in her heart. But she's also aware of her need
that this garden be stirred up. That she cannot produce any of
these spiritual fruits except the Spirit of God produce them. And so then she calls upon the
Spirit of God, the wind, to stir her garden. But how does He do
it? How is it best to be done? I
don't know. What's best? How does he best
cause his fruit to grow? North wind. What is that speaking
of? That's speaking of hard trials
and cold difficulties. The winter. What is the south
wind? The south wind is that wind that
brings that spring rain of refreshment. That cool breeze that blows off,
the warm sun that beats down upon the plants. And so then, which one would
cause us to grow? I don't know. So she says, send
whatever is best. Either the cold wind of affliction
or the southern gentle breeze of your mercies. I don't know,
send whatever you need. I know my need, but I don't know
what's best. I don't know what's best. What
a lesson for us. that we should then resign to
the hand of God. He is the husbandman of this
garden. He's enclosed it. He's purchased it. He's planted
it. He waters it. And He alone knows
best how to produce that fruit in us. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me. declaring the end from the beginning,
from ancient times, the things that were not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand. Our God is in the heavens, and
hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. Remember, the north
winds of chastisement are just as loving as the south winds
of refreshment." Both are necessary, aren't they? What happens if you have sunshine
all the time? You become complacent and it
is mundane, it's expected. You're not thankful. I tell you,
probably out in California, they're probably the least thankful people
about weather. Why? They have sunshine all the
time. They don't really know what it's like. But you let somebody
who have a hard winter and then experience the breeze of the
southern wind and they're thankful, aren't they? So these winds are
necessary. And so then we say as the bridegroom,
whatever you need, do that. God help us to resign. to His
will of providence. It's His garden. He knows what's
best. Let Him do what seems good and right unto Him. The third
thing is this, the desire of the bride. What is it? She desires
this fruit to be stirred up for one reason, not for herself, but for Him. She wants Him to
come. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. See, when the north wind blows,
Jesus is our rock, our fortress, our refuge, our protection. And when the south wind blows,
he is our friend, our loving and gracious husband and king.
You see how each wind produces a different view of him? But
all are necessary views of Him, aren't they? So blow then upon
us the graces of the Holy Spirit or the hard winds of chastisement. Either way, it points us to Christ
and shows us His person. It shows us our need and His
perfect provisions. These spices of His grace flow
out of us and they allure Him to take care of us. Let Him come and eat of His fruit. The heart of one in love with
Christ does not seek our own pleasure, but simply His presence
will suffice us regardless of our condition. Isn't that right?
Have you not found that to be so? Regardless of our condition,
as long as He is present, everything's alright. If I know He is here,
everything is well. I think of that woman who lost
her son. Remember Elisha? He besought the Lord and gave
that woman that child, and then that child died. And when she
came to Him, what was her first thing she said? All is well. All is well. She was hurting,
but all is well. And so it is with us. As long
as my beloved is near, all is well. It is our hearts and prayer desire,
Lord, come. Where? Come into the garden you
planted, you enclosed, you made. Bear in us the fruit of thy spirit. How? Whatever way you seem best. North wind or south. Lord, please,
give us a heart resigned to your will. so that our fruit may be
stirred up so that we may enjoy your presence with us whether
as a refuge or as a friend whether as a father chasing us or as
a brother consoling us whatever you desire come this is the heart of every bride
is my beloved What does He say about you? You're
fair. You're my garden. I planted you,
purchased you, and enclosed you. And what do we say? Awake, O
north wind, come thou south, whatever it takes, blow upon
this garden, produce the fruits of thy spirit, so that you may
receive all the glory and praise and honor for our salvation. What love has the Father for
us. What love has Christ for His
Church? Scripture says that His love
passeth knowledge. May He stir up that love in us.
Give us a heart for others. There's a heart to preach this
Word. I pray God will bless this. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.