Eat of the tree of life, my friend. Blessing that my Father sent,
Your taste shall all my deities prove, And drink abundance of
my love. Lord Jesus, we will frequent
Thy board, And sing the bounty of our Lord. The rich food on
which we live demands more praise than tongue can give. If you had played close attention
to that, I wouldn't have to preach this message. He preached this
whole text in that song. What a gift. with Isaac Watts. I hope you were entered into
that. The Lord has gifted men such
as Isaac Watts and Toplady and so many others to put Scriptures
to music and to verse. So that was very good. Song of Solomon, Chapter 4. It's
amazing. how the Lord speaks of His people. This chapter, the Lord is speaking
of His people, His church, each one individually. He calls her
by terms of endearment, like we saw last week, that someone
you love, your spouse especially, or your children, those you love,
Special names, don't you? And he calls his people his spouse. That's his wife. That's his mate. That's the one he's united to. He's one with. And no husband
has ever loved his wife as Christ did. No wife has ever loved her
husband. Like this, he calls her his spouse,
and when he says that, he means it. He cannot lie. He calls her
his spouse, she is his love. That's what he calls her, my
love, the one I truly love. The one that he takes all her
debts, he gives her his name. He provides for her. All of her provisions come from
Him and He delights. He is her protection. He has
taken her into His house forever, His spouse. He calls her His
sister. His sister. He begins to call
her that first and the rest of it. My sister and my spouse. She is his father's child. She is his sister. She is the one who comes from
his family. She has the same traits. She
speaks the same language. She has the same loves as he
loves. He knows that. Weak though she may be, she is
his sister. He calls her his dove. And we
looked at her as the bed, the place of rest. Well, here tonight,
beginning with verse 12, he calls her, he calls his people, he
calls his church, he calls you, if you're a believer, his garden. A garden enclosed is my sister,
my spouse. And in verse 1 of chapter 5 he
says, it is my garden. My garden. He calls His people
a garden. My garden. It's His creation.
We are His workmanship. When God made the heavens and
the earth, He made it. It was His creation. And He made
it for His glory and His honor. The church is people of His planting,
His creation. Every plant which the Heavenly
Father plants, It's planted forever. Everyone who is not shall be
rooted up. They're His creation. They're
planted for His glory and His enjoyment. His enjoyment, His
delight. Go back to Genesis 2 with me.
Genesis chapter 2. We have to go back to the first
garden when we talk about a garden. Genesis chapter 2. And when God
created the heavens and the earth, He said it was good. Created
the animals and the plants and so forth. He said it was good.
But he saved his greatest creation for last. And he said, let us,
Father, Son, Holy Spirit, said, let us make man in our own image. In the image of God, created
he, him, them, male and female. God saved His greatest creation
for last, man, in the image of His blessed Son. God's creation. And He put him, look at verse
7, the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, breathed
into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living
soul. And then the Lord God planted,
He made a special place, He planted a garden. I believe,
you know, if you'll notice reading this, God's name is used in chapter
1, just God, God, God. And then in chapter 2, it begins
when man is created and said, the Lord God. And then from then
on, he's called the Lord God, formed man. I am certain because
of Colossians 2, it says, He made all things, John 1, that
the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who, with his own hands,
with that dust of the earth, actually formed man. He's the
master sculptor. And he created man with his own
hands. The Lord God formed man. In verse
8, he planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the
man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the
Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food, a tree of life in the midst of the garden, a
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, a river went out of
the Eden to water the garden from which it parted. So the
Lord made a garden, oh my, and we cannot speak of that garden
because no one has seen it. What a glorious garden it must
have been. But the Lord made it full of
delights to the senses. It was a pleasure to the eyes.
It was a pleasure to the flesh. and a pleasure just to live there,
of life. There was no lust of the eyes,
no lust of the flesh, no pride of life until sin. Senses, the
senses. He made all this for man's enjoyment
and the Lord Jesus Christ came into that garden Himself and
enjoyed it with His creatures. Then sin entered. Man rebelled. Man rebelled. In chapter 3, over
in chapter 3, verse 7, it says, "...the eyes of them both were
opened, they knew they were naked, they sowed fig leaves together."
There's no mention of a fig tree in this garden tonight that we're
looking at. The only tree, the only plant,
the only fruit the Lord ever cursed was a fig tree. That's by design. because a man
tried to cover himself. Verse 8, And they heard the voice
of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day.
The first sinners sinned, rebelled against God, so ungrateful, so
rebellious, so undeserving of God's favor, but God, rich in
mercy. The Lord God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the voice, the word of God came walking and preached
the gospel to the very first sinners. Reckon they were saved?
There's been argument over the years by various theologians
whether or not Adam and Eve were saved or not. Oh, hogwash. Of course they were. He spared
them. He preached the gospel to them.
He covered them, didn't he? He slew an animal, shed its blood,
and covered them with the skin and made the promise of the coming
sea. They're safe. They're safe. But here it is,
verse 24 in chapter 3. It says, He drove out the man
and placed at the east of the Garden of Eden cherubim a flaming
sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life. In other words, the Lord barred
man from that garden. He cast him out of that garden
and barred the way where he could not come back in. Four thousand
years later, the voice came walking again. And he loved to dwell
in a garden. He was always found in the garden
of Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives. He was always found in
a garden. He always was. His delights were
with the sons of men. His friends were publicans and
sinners. This man receiveth sinners and
eateth with them. and his delights were with his
people, and his voice was heard in the garden of Gethsemane praying
for his sinful people, and by his sacrifice he opened the way
for you and me to come into his garden." In other words, man
once cast out and barred from getting in, now in Christ. He's freely let in and he's barred
away from getting out. He said, this is a garden, look
at it, go back to our text, a garden enclosed. Barred. Barred. No stranger can get in
and the beloved, the loved one cannot get out. Barred. A garden. His people, his church is likened
here unto a garden. A garden as opposed to a wilderness.
A garden is a place full of life. A garden is a place full of beauty,
full of glory, fragrant flowers, tasteful fruit, pleasant, pleasant,
useful to the Lord and to man. But the world is called a wilderness. Throughout the Scriptures, the
world is called a wilderness. In fact, he said, I found Jacob
in a waste-howling wilderness. The Lord brings His people out
of this wilderness. And waste howling wilderness. Wilderness is a barren place.
Wilderness is full of thorns and thistle and pain. The Lord makes His people come into
His garden. He makes them as a garden. Fruit
thorn. Blessed and beautiful. Beauty of holiness. Man has ruined
everything. Man ruined a perfect garden.
Man has ruined this world. Mindy and I went for a walk on
our old farm place yesterday and hadn't been there in years.
And it was a place that I particularly loved down by the river, by the
water stream. It was, I took care of it. I
manicured it and fertilized it and the grass was beautiful.
The place we would often go down there and just frolic. And it was full of bluebells
and trilliums and flowers everywhere. And I mowed it well and there
was a place, a little incline going down into the water where
you could walk down there and a fishing hole and all that.
We went back. And four wheelers and all this
stuff had just tore it up. There was no grass. There were
no flowers. There was nothing. It looked
like it was ugly. No place to get to the water. It was all brush and all of that.
That's what man has done to this world. That's what man has done. The Lord takes us out of a waste,
howling wilderness, unprofitable, worthless and makes us into a
garden of delight to Him. Delightful to the Lord. The Lord
looks at this world with a mixture of anger and grief. Do you know
that? It is not like religion says, that God looks down on
this world with love and compassion. He looks at it like He did in
the days of Noah. He said He looked down to see
if there were any. He said, altogether become unprofitable. He said He repented the Lord
that He had made man. He said, I'm going to destroy
man. All the earth, he said, is corrupted my way and is full
of violence. The Lord looks at it with a mixture
of anger and grief. So he made a garden. He made
a special place for his redeemed. It's called the church. The church. in the midst of a waste, howling
wilderness. He sets a table in the midst
of His enemies. And His church, our Lord called
it, a place that the world is not worthy of. Salt of the earth,
a garden in the midst of the wilderness. And it is daily His
delight. The Lord delights in His people. It's a place where He loves to
walk, a place where He loves to abide, a place where He loves
to dwell, a people He loves to be with. He gets great delight
in them. Their poor, as Isaac Watts said,
their poor perfume is sweet to Him. Their lips, he said, your
lips, my spouse, drop as a honeycomb. Anything you say about me, the
Lord said, is sweet to me. Any song you sing is music to
His ears. That's His church. We don't feel
ourselves to be that way, do we? Well, the Lord does. Don't
you? We said that last time, that
don't you just delight in the least little bit of affection
and gifts and things that your loved ones give you? You're just
delighted. So does the Lord. And so He calls us a garden.
Verse 12, He said this is a garden enclosed. Verse 12, a garden
enclosed. And it says, my spouse is a spring
shut up, a fountain sealed. Sounds like a safe place to be.
A garden enclosed. You know the name garden, the
word garden by definition means a fenced place. It's not a garden if there's
not a fence around it. It's a field. You have a farm, and you have
farmers that sow corn. They don't put a fence around
it. They can't, generally. But that's not a garden. That's
a field. But a garden, by definition,
is a place that's enclosed, that's fenced in. And every plant, every
plant in the Lord's garden is chosen, selected, don't you? We've been
planting our garden. And by the way, I know what Min
is thinking, fence garden. She's been after me to fence
our garden for years. I'll get to it. Maybe. But anyway, you go to the nursery
or wherever it is, or maybe you raise the seed, but you choose
the plant, don't you? If something comes up you didn't
plant, what do you do? Pull it up. And mostly what are
those? Weeds. These plants are chosen
by the Lord. They're His elect people. They're
brought in and transplanted. Planted into His garden, or they
wouldn't be there. If He hadn't planted them, they
wouldn't be there. You wouldn't be here if the Lord didn't put
you here. And they're shut up. God's people
are shut up and shut in, fenced, hedged about, enclosed, kept
by the power of God. You remember the bed? It says,
three score valiant men went around that bed, all hold swords,
expert in war. Nobody's going to touch her.
Nobody's going to come in and pull up these plants. Shut up,
shut in, fenced, hedged about, enclosed, kept by the power of
God, and sealed till the day of redemption. And I can hear
somebody now, somebody, maybe, hopefully not anybody, but somebody
will say, there you go again talking about election. I can't imagine one of God's
people saying that. But the fact of the matter is
there wouldn't be a garden if the Lord hadn't chosen to plant
one. And there wouldn't be a plant in it if he didn't plant it.
You and I wouldn't be here tonight if he hadn't chosen it. We wouldn't
want to be here. We'd be out in a waste howling
wilderness and loving every minute of it. Wouldn't we? That's where he found me. Did
he find you there? He finds all the sons of Jacob
in a waste towel, out in the wilderness. He says, come with
me from Lebanon, my spouse. He takes her out of the world.
Come with me. Get out of Lebanon. You're coming
into my garden. There wouldn't be a church, there
wouldn't be a people if God hadn't chosen them. And we won't remain
in that garden if we're not His elect. This is our safety. This is our security, that if
He chose us, gave us to Christ, put us in Christ for safekeeping,
hedged us about, kept by the power of God, the Spirit of God,
this is our salvation. If it's not so, we're going to
leave. If you can leave, you will. If you can leave God's
church, you will. It's just a matter of time. But
if you're one of His elect, You can't. You won't. You won't. Our Lord said, I have
them in my hand, and the Father has them in my hand. That's why
we keep saying that, because it's true, and it's God's glory,
and it's our salvation. She's called a spring in a fountain.
There's a spring. 12, a spring, verse 15, a fountain
of gardens, a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon. A garden has to have what? To
grow. One principal thing. Well, two. Sun and water. Christ is both of those. A garden
lives by the water of life. That's the source of life. Christ
is our life. Fountain of all blessings. He's
a fountain. Here is a fountain filled with
blood. Drawn from Emmanuel's veins and
sinners plunged beneath that blood. Lose all their guilty
stains. A spring. David said this in
one of the Psalms. All my springs are in thee. Anybody
ever have a spring? You've seen a spring? You've
had a spring when you're growing up somewhere? We had a little
spring on our property. It's just pure water coming out
of the ground. It's a constant source of pure
water in the spring. David said, All my springs are
in thee. All mercy, all grace, all love,
all provision, everything springs from thee. from them, all my
strength. Streams, it says a stream, verse
15, from Lebanon. Stream of mercy never ceasing. Call for songs of loudest prayer.
Verse 13 gives these plants in the garden, and I was just amazed. We'll not stay here too long,
but I'll tell you in a minute. But verse 13, thy plants are
as an orchard of pomegranates, an orchard. You know, we plant
an orchard of trees. That's what an orchard is, trees,
apples, peach, pear, pomegranate. This is the tree of choice of
the Lord. Why that is? Huh? Well, we've looked at that before.
That's what's on the hem of the garment of the great high priest. And the pomegranate is the reddest
of all fruits, isn't it? And it's so luscious. And what's
in a pomegranate perhaps more than any other fruit? Have you
ever broken one open? Have you ever tried to eat one?
What's in it so much it's just densely thick full of what? Seed. It's so full of seed. It's just
bursting. It's red and full of seed. Now you know why I chose it.
But the garden is an orchard. All of his people. You see an
orchard and all the trees. We drove by, Ron and John and
I went casting the other day. Not fishing. Casting. Not catching. Casting. But anyway, we drove by 220,
the orchard up there, Daleville. And all those trees, they all
look alike. They're individual trees. It's
an orchard. And you look at them, they all
look alike. They're individuals in all their limbs, but they're
of the same root, same fruit. They're all individuals, but
they're just alike. Orchard of pomegranates, red
fruit, full of seed. Camphor, verse 13, pleasant fruits. What I hope we're getting out
of this, as much as anything, is how the Lord takes great pleasure
in His people. This is what struck me more than
anything in this study, how the Lord takes great delight He's
just well pleased and takes great pleasure in his people, weak,
sinful though they be. Pleasant fruits. Kemper is a
cypress tree. It's an evergreen tree. That's
fitting in. All of God's people are like that evergreen tree,
like Christ. A leaf will not wither and a
cypress fragrant, by the way, The oldest tree in
North America is a cypress tree. Brother Greg Ilkus took me to
see that tree. It's down in Orlando, outside
of Orlando. It's 3,500 years old. He was here when Moses was on
earth. It's still there. There were
two of them. And man, somebody vandalized and killed the other
one. So that's man. That's what he did in the garden.
And I say, he would have killed that tree alive if he could have.
Two trees. One the tree of life, one the
tree of knowledge of good and evil. What did man choose? Tree
of life, live forever. Tree of evil, what did he choose?
But that's what everybody will choose by nature. Do you see
why we have to be chosen? It's God's glory. It's our salvation.
At any rate, camphor and evergreen with all the sweet smell of a
cypress tree. Camphor with spikenard. Spikenard
is the most costly of all ointments. And how fitting that Solomon
spoke of this. All these spices are in the Exodus
30 and other chapters that speak of the holy anointing oil and
the incense, the sweet perfume of the apothecary. It's nothing
new. It's all been ordained. But spikenard
was the most costly of all these ointments. Do you remember the
story? Mary. Mary. took an alabaster box of costly. It cost her a great deal. But
to lavish it on her Lord's feet, mind you. Feet. She put it on His feet. Oh, that's no waste. Those are
the most beautiful feet. The most worthy feet of the most
costly ointment. And she could buy it. It says,
the odor filled the room. And our Lord just laid there and loved every minute of it.
And somebody says, it should have been sold and given to the
poor. Yeah, He didn't care a thing
about the poor. That was delightful to the Lord. Poured it out on her. Saffron. Saffron is a very rare
spice, aromatic spice. It's very rare. It's used especially
in food. Rice, over in the Middle East,
they use it a great deal in rice. It's a very flavorful spice. Oh my. Calamus, I said I wasn't
going to dwell here. Calamus is a reed that grows
by the water. And I would imagine he had some
bruised reeds that he wasn't going to break. Calamine. Cinnamon. You know cinnamon. Aromatic,
pungent, medicinal. Frankincense. Frankincense is
a very sticky resin. It enhances other I don't have time to get into
all of these. It has a binding quality. This frankincense is a sticky
resin that kind of holds the others together. I thought this
is perhaps love. It's a binding. Binds all these
other spices, holds them together. Myrrh. We've already looked at that.
That is the balm of Gilead. Myrrh. The tree wounded and the
sap covers its wound. Healing. Aloe. You ladies know
aloe. You've been using it for years.
Soothing. Soothing, healing, oil, quality. With all the chief spices. And all of these speak of our
Lord Jesus Christ. She is going to talk about Him
in our next and our last study. She is going to talk about Him.
And she said, just His cheeks are all of these. All spices
come from just His cheeks. Just kissing Him on the cheek.
And it all speaks of Him. It all comes from Him. It's where
He is found. And He imparts it to His people. These are all the graces of the
Lord. This is the fruit of the Spirit. By the way, if you'll
count these, do you know how many there are? Nine. Do you know how many fruit of
the Spirit are found in Galatians 5.22? Nine. I thought, you know, I thought,
I knew there were nine in Galatians 5, but I started counting, one,
two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. That maybe didn't amaze you,
did it? So all of these have to be love,
joy, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, meekness, temperance,
all of these things, long-suffering. Have to be these things. Frankincense
being love that binds it all together. The chief spices. With
all the chief spices. Didn't mention those. What are
those? I don't know. But I know this. The chief spices
of whom the Lord is made unto us are three. Wisdom. Four. Wisdom. Righteousness. Sanctification. And redemption. Those are the
chief spices. That all come from Him. Emanate
from Him. Imparted to us. Verse 15. She is a fountain of
gardens, a well of living waters, streamed from Lebanon. Verse
16, and she prays. Here's her prayer to her 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 fruit." She prayed for her garden. She prayed for his garden. Do
you pray for this garden? Do you pray for this gardener?
You know, the Lord put a man in the Garden of Eden to dress
it, and He put a man in this garden to dress it. Do you pray
for this? Man, this gardener at home, do
you pray for him, for this garden, this church at home? Do you pray
always, before every service, that the spices may flow out? They always do. The Lord has
promised that where two or three are gathered, I'm going to be
there and I'm going to send my Holy Spirit And the spices that
are Christ's, and the chief's spices, and the graces are going
to flow out. Somebody's going to get them.
And I'll tell you who it is, those that ask for them. Like
her. Come into your garden, eat your
pleasant fruits, sup with me. The last chapter, well, I'll
tell you in a minute. Do you pray for this garden?
Someone does because someone is blessed. Someone smells the
spices. God does. God does. Paul said that. He always causes
us to triumph and makes manifest the savor of his knowledge by
us in every place. A sweet-smelling Savior of life
to life, somebody that has life, asks for the north wind and the
south wind to blow, and those spices flow out, and our Lord
Jesus Christ comes into His garden, comes into that person's soul,
and He heaps up with them, and they smell this sweet-smelling
sacrifice, and they go out satisfied. And the Lord is well pleased
with them. It takes great delight. She prayed for the north wind
and the south. Awake, O north wind. One of the
writers said, Awaken me, O north wind, and come thou south wind.
You know, north wind is a chilling wind. Northerly winds out of
the north are cold, chilling winds. What's this? Well, for
the spices that are Christ, for the gospel to be sweet to you,
you've got to be The Spirit's got to convince us of sin. Our Lord said to the church at
Laodicea, I would that you were cold or hot, but not lukewarm. If you're cold, that's good. You'll want to be warm. If you're
hot, that's even better. Oh, awake, O north wind, Spirit
of God, blow upon this garden, rebuke, reprove, correct, convict
me of my sins. Make me tremble for the Word. But then come, O south, the south
wind, southerly wind. What's that? That's the warm
winds. That's the trade winds. That's
the comfort. There is no comfort, people,
unless there's conviction. North wind blow. Send, Lord,
what You will. Oh, my. Oh, send comfort with
it. Send consolation with it. Blow
upon my garden. Blow upon Your garden that the
spices thereof may flow out. Oh, Lord. Holy Spirit, heavenly
dove, come. And she says, let my beloved
come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits. My beloved. She calls Him, My Beloved. And so He calls her, My Beloved. If you own Him, He will own you. If you call on Him, He'll answer
you. If you want Him, He'll desire
you. Come, My Beloved. And he says, how quickly, that's
why I say this is a bad division, a bad chapter division. She said,
come, let my beloved come into his garden and eat his present
fruit. And she no sooner said it that he said, I am come. I'm
here. There's a verse in Isaiah that
says, before they speak, I'll answer. I am come. Verse 1 of chapter
5, I am come. I am. Come into my garden. The great I am. Great is the
mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. They said, I am come that they
might have life. I am come into my garden. And he says, he calls her my
sister and my spouse. My garden, my sister, and my
spouse. Here I am. You've called for
me and I've come. And here he says, I have gathered
my myrrh with my spice, I've eaten my honeycomb with my honey,
I've drunk my wine with my milk. In other words, he says, I've
gathered from my garden all of these fruits and spices, and
I've enjoyed every bit of it. Brother John read from 1 Chronicles
tonight, 29, where David, And the people brought gifts to build
the temple. And in the end, David said, of
thine own hand have we brought thee. He said, we didn't bring
anything that was ours. He said, you gave it to us and
here we bring it. It's just yours anyway. So what
this is, is our Lord accepts what He gives. What He provides,
He accepts. The offering that He gives, He
accepts. It takes great delight in it.
And it's like, you know, when your children are real, real
small. You would give them money at Christmas time or somebody's
birthday is coming up. And, well, your husband or wife,
your birthday was coming up and you'd give your children money
to buy them a present. And they knew it. Your spouse
knew it. And then the child comes, buys
a gift, and brings it to them, and you just make over it. Oh,
thank you. Thank you, honey. Thank you for
that so much. And you mean it, don't you? And
they meant it, but they didn't have anything. They didn't have
anything to give. But you give it to them, and
they take it right back and thank you for it. That's love. Once I saved up
my money, saved up my allowance money that they gave me and bought
my mom, remember Ronco? It was on TV. I saw it on Ronco. They sold every kind of device
known to man. It was a Ronco tomato slicer,
battery operated. I thought, Mama loved that. And
I had mailed off and got it in. I surprised her with that and
gave her two of those, just butchered tomatoes. But she just, oh, she
went on and on about that. Do you remember that? Went on
and on and on about me giving her that Ronco tomato masher. But whatever the Lord provides,
He accepts. Well, you know, it doesn't grow
naturally. None of these spices, none of these plants grow out
of our hearts, but he puts it all there and he accepts what
he gives. And he delights in it. And look
at this, he comes into his garden and he says, I've eaten my honeycomb. What was the first thing our
Lord, when he arose from the grave, to prove to them that
he was alive? He said, it's me. Look at my
hands, my feet. Touch my hands, my feet. He said,
do you have anything to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled
fish and a honeycomb, a greater than Solomon. And he ate this. And he delighted in it, what
they had given him, what he provided them they gave to him. And he
says, I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, O friends. In other words, he brought some
people with him. As I said, the Lord is rarely with, like Solomon
had many wives, rarely with one alone, but always with many. Because the old saying is, the
more the merrier. Isn't it so? So it is with God's
people. I preached to a couple of people
before, one or two people in a home. And it was wonderful. But the more the merrier. Don't
you want more people to get in on it? And the Lord brings His
friends. And so will He. His friends. This is for His
friends. He said, I call you friends because
I reveal unto you everything. This is for His friends. Friends
of grace. Friends of Christ. And He says,
drink. I love this. It says, drink, yea, drink abundantly. And the margin says, be drunken
with love. This is one drink the Lord says,
just drink until you're drunk. The disciples were filled with
the Spirit of God at Pentecost, and they said, they're drunk
with through wine. They have wine and drink that you know
not of. Holy Spirit. This is not talking about being
inebriated with anything, but the Lord says this is something
that you need to drink to your full and just overcome by the
Lord's great grace and mercy and love to you, O Beloved. When Joseph's brothers came,
he hadn't seen them in a year, and sat down before him, by age,
Benjamin the last, with five messes. And it says, they drank
and drank largely. And so shall we. When Christ
said, I'll drink with you anew in the kingdom of God. But beware. Beware. The next chapter we're
going to look at, not tonight, but the next, the last, this
is what made me want to deal with it. She's, after being just
satiated with His love and all the goodness that He provided
for her, she fell asleep. on her bed, and he came desiring
her company, and knocked on her door. She wouldn't get up. And he left. And he left. And she was afraid
that he wasn't coming back. If you lose your first love,
If you leave this sleep-sweetheart love, and these spices and these
things cease to be sweet to you, and if you don't ask for His
presence and enjoy His presence and bring gifts to Him, He'll
leave you. And you'll think He's gone forever. Oh my. So stay tuned for that
one. Alright. Come, O Lord, to Thy
garden. Stand with me. Our Lord, we thank You. Thank You, thank You for Your
Word. It is sweet indeed. It's sweeter, as the hymn writer
said, these things that in Christ You've done for us are more than
words can say. Sweeter than words can say. The
half has not been told. Poor attempts at preaching unsearchable
riches of Christ. Someday we'll know as we've been
known, and we'll rejoice greatly. Oh Lord, that we thank you for
that we do know, that we have received. A little foretaste
of glory divine. We do thank you. for a little
sweet savor and smell of Christ and His work. Thank you for your
church, Lord. Keep it hedged about, protected. Keep us, Lord. Keep us as the
apple of your eyes, your beloved, we pray. Bring others into your
garden, we pray. Bless the meeting coming up. Bring the men here. Give them
messages for your people, for your glory. Bring visitors to
hear it. Bless your church, we pray. For
Thy glory and honor, and for Thy great name's sake, in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.