The Song of Solomon, chapter four. Solomon's Song, chapter four. I'm reading verse sixteen. Awake, O north wind, and come
thou south wind, blow upon my garden. awake, O north wind, and come,
thou south wind, and blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof
may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. I am come into my garden, my
sister, my spouse, I have gathered my myrrh and my spice, I have
eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my wine with my
milk. Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved."
Now Solomon, next to the Lord Jesus, was the greatest son of wisdom
that the Church has ever known. next to the Lord Jesus Christ,
Solomon, had more wisdom. He was the greatest son of wisdom
the church has ever bred and has ever known. Let me show you
that in 1 Kings, chapter 4. 1 Kings, the fourth chapter,
I'm going to read beginning with verse 29. God blessed Solomon
with unusual, unusual wisdom. It says in chapter 4 of 1 Kings,
And God gave Solomon wisdom, an understanding exceeding much. Now let me skip the next line
and go to verse 30. I'm coming back to the next line.
And Solomon's wisdom, verse 30, excelled. Solomon's wisdom excelled
the wisdom of all the children of the East Country, and all
the wisdom of Egypt, for he was wiser than all men." That just
gives you some insight into his wisdom. But I want you to notice what
goes along with this unusual wisdom. I'm going to make several
statements tonight that I've seen in this. And this is the
first one, no question about Solomon being the wisest man
next to Christ the church has ever known. But here's something
that I saw in this passage and I see in his writings, and I
see by experience, that along with wisdom, there's
always largeness of heart and affection. Now listen, back here
to verse 29 again, and God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding
exceeding much, and largeness of heart, a depth of affection,
compassion, and love. Richard Seale said this, Solomon's
great love and affection is evidenced by his many wives, that's his
capacity to love. Now you're talking about a man
here with the most unusual gift of wisdom. And yet this was his
undoing. Yet he loved many women, the
scripture said. But these many wives give evidence
of his ability and capacity to love. He had a largeness of heart,
a largeness of heart, a generous heart, and a great capacity to
love people. Understanding and love will always
be found together. Always be found together. And
look over here at 1 Kings 4, verse 32. I mean true wisdom
now. True wisdom. True wisdom and
largeness of heart go together. True wisdom and generosity go
together. True wisdom and grace go together.
You see, true wisdom is to know Christ. How can a person know
Christ and not love? And the more you know Christ,
the more you love. You see what I'm saying? Christ is wisdom, and to know
Christ is to have a largeness of heart. Christ doesn't dwell
in a closet. He dwells in a great heart, and
the more of the presence of Christ, the greater, the larger the heart,
the greater capacity to love, the greater the generosity and
the understanding, this sort of thing. You see, as a person
comes to know Christ, and more of Christ, and grows in the grace
and knowledge of Christ, he doesn't become smaller in his thinking. He doesn't become smaller in
his outreach of heart and capacity to love. That's what religion
will do to you, but not Christ. Religion will separate you and
isolate you. and make you selfish, and your
little circle, and me and my wife and my son John, his wife
and us four, and no more. And I said, I'm downhill. But
the wisdom of Christ gives you a largeness of heart, capacity
to love, a universal spirit. That's right. Look here at verse
32, And Solomon spake three thousand proverbs, and his songs were
fifteen hundred songs. Now here's the second thing I
want you to see. Though he spake 3,000 proverbs
and 1,500 songs, his greatest song is the Song of Solomon.
His greatest song. His most profound work. His most
beautiful work. In other words, God used, not
David, to write the Song of Solomon. And the Song of Solomon is a
love song. It's expression of a deep love
between Christ and His church. The church and Christ. That's
what it's all about. It's a man and his wife. Christ and His
church. And it's that intimate, personal,
real, sincere, heartfelt love that passes between them as one. And who did God use to write
that? The man of wisdom. The man of wisdom. He didn't
use a roaring Isaiah. He didn't even use the loving
David. He used the man of wisdom. The
man of wisdom. God Almighty used the man of
greatest wisdom to write on the greatest subject, love. How about
it? Faith, hope, and love. The greatest
of these is love. Now, other writings of Solomon,
you've got the Proverbs, and you've got Ecclesiastes. Other
writings of Solomon are more obvious. I can read the Proverbs. You can read the Proverbs. About
anybody can read the Proverbs. About anybody can read Ecclesiastes. He said he tried everything and
found out that everything was vanity, the preacher said. That's
pretty obvious. And other writings of Solomon
are open, generally, to common understanding. But this book,
Song of Solomon, like the Holy of Holies, is really Just as
none could enter into the Holy of Holies except the high priest,
so none can enter into the beauties of the Song of Solomon and the
mystery of the Song of Solomon and the intimacy of the Song
of Solomon except those who have a real communion with Christ.
They can't enter into it. That's the reason so few men
have written on it. That's the reason so few sermons
are preached on it, because so few understand it. That's right. But you know, to the pure, all
things are pure. This is what the Word says, Titus
115, to the pure, to the pure in heart, to those whose hearts
have been vested with the Spirit of God, and the heart that is
vested with the Spirit of God is a pure heart. He brings the
purity. He doesn't find it pure. He brings
the purity. To the pure, all things are pure.
All things that God has made and all things that God has used.
To the pure, all things are pure, but unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving, nothing is pure. They mess up everything, and
generally do. Defile it, confuse it, twist
it, Warp it. That's what homosexuality and
that trash is. The warping of God's goodness,
purity. That's right. No place for them
in the kingdom of God. To the pure, all things are pure.
And to them that are defiled and unbelieving, nothing's pure.
But even their minds and consciences are defiled. Well, look at our
text again. Let's look back at Song of Solomon.
Let's get to the text. Get to the task at hand. The
Savior speaks. How do you know this is the Savior
speaking? Because it's His garden. That's how I know it's Him that's
speaking. It's not my garden, it's His garden. And He says
in verse 16, Song of Solomon 4, verse 16, He says, Awake,
O north wind, and come, thou south wind, and blow upon my
garden that the spices thereof may flow out. Now he's speaking
of his garden, which is the church. He calls the church his love, his
beloved, his garden. Here, why is the church the bride
of Christ called a garden? His garden. Well, I'll give you
several reasons, the first of which is this. A garden is taken out of common
ground. When you find a garden spot,
the first person that ever makes it a garden, when he finds it,
he finds it a wilderness. He finds it wasteland. He finds
all kind of thorns and briars and weeds and pears and stumps
and trees and saplings and all these things. See, that waste
ground has been unattended all these years. And he chooses this
garden and makes it his own. And he prepares it. And he dresses
it. And he fits it to bear his fruit. He selects it. He chooses it.
And he takes that old waste ground, and he goes to work on it. Gets
the stumps out, and he gets the weeds out. And he digs out all
the briars and the thorns, and he breaks up the ground. Then
he plows it. Then he plants the seed. He dresses
the garden. He makes it all that it is. That's
what he's saying over here in Ezekiel. Would you turn over
there a moment to Ezekiel chapter 16? You see, this is the way
he found us. It wasn't a garden when he found
us. We weren't a garden. We were a wilderness. We had
nothing about us beautiful. We were an unattended wilderness.
And he chose us. And he made us what we are. And
that's what he's saying here in Ezekiel 16. He said, I passed
by you. Your father was a Hittite. Your
mama was an Amorite. You were cast into the open field
to the loathing of your person. of Ezekiel 16, I washed you with
water, I thoroughly washed away your blood from thee, I anointed
you with oil, I clothed you also with brodered work, shot thee
with badger skin, girded thee about with fine linen, covered
thee with silk, decked thee with ornaments, put bracelets on your
hands, a chain on your neck, a jewel on your forehead, earrings
in your ears, and a crown on your head. And you were decked
with gold and silver, and your raiment was of fine linen, silk
and brooded work, ye ate fine flour and honey and oil, ye were
exceeding beautiful. And thou didst prosper in their
kingdom, and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy
beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness." What you are,
I made you. What you have, I gave you. What
you know, I taught you. That's the reason he calls it
his garden. All right, secondly, there's another reason why he
calls his church a garden, first of all because it's taken out
of common ground to be put to his particular holy use. He makes
it what it is. Secondly, in a garden, nothing
good comes up of itself. You leave a garden alone. I can't
resist having a garden every year. I've got three little spots
over there where I live, and every year I say, I'm not going
to have a garden this year. I'm not going to work out there
and plow and plant and dig and weed and all, just not go, but
every year when spring rolls around, I got to get out there
in that garden. But you know something? In a
garden, nothing comes up good of itself. It's got to be planted. Now I can, it's out there now,
and I got leaves on it and all this, just leave it alone, you
know what'll come up? Nothing good. I won't harvest one thing
out of that garden. Nothing but those old weeds and
briars. It's got to be said. It's got
to be planned. So, in this human heart, in this
child of God, there is nothing good by nature. That's what Paul's
saying. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Nothing. Just as barren as a
garden in which you've never sowed any seed. Nothing good
will come up. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, ever
plant that my heavenly Father didn't plant, it's going to be
rooted up. He said, without me, you can
do nothing. In the flesh, no man can please
God. So when you talk about your loved
ones or friends or somebody else who do not know Christ and do
not have Christ, and you keep saying they're good people, you're
using the wrong words. They're not good. They're tires
and briars and thorns and plants that will be rooted up. because
there's nothing good of itself. Everything that's good in that
human heart or human life, God put it there. Now, here's the
third reason why he calls it a garden. Because his garden. Because everything that he sows
in the garden is good. Everything he puts there. Everything
that's of God is good. Now, let me tell you this. One
of the apostles said, Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm
tempted of God. Don't you, don't I, don't any
of us, don't any of us give God any credit for anything in us
that's not of perfect and pure, not of God. That's you. I like what that preacher told
one time Brother MacDoole. Brother MacDoole was pastor of
one of those old time Presbyterian churches in Scotland. And he
had in his congregation, as I have here, some well-read men. And
down on the front row, there were two or three of his elders,
and these were well-read men. They had read all the old writers,
you know. Brother MacDougall was up preaching.
He made a good statement. And one of the elders down front
said, Well, that's Watson. And Brother MacDougall frowned
at him, went on with his message, you know, and he made another
real good statement, and the same fellow said, that's John
Gill. Brother MacDougall frowned at him, and he went on with his
message and made another good statement, and the fellow said,
that's John Knox. And Brother MacDougall stopped
preaching. And he said, Elder Brown, while I'm preaching, keep
your mouth shut. And Elder Brown said, now that's
Brother MacDougall. And so anything, anything that
comes out of this mouth that's not holy and righteous, that's
Henry Mayan. And anything good, that's Christ.
Anything good I do, anything good I think, anything good I
give, that's Christ. But anything out of the way,
you say, that's Henry Mayan, that ain't Christ. It's not,
it's not Christ. He only plants good things. I
guarantee you that's something. Here's a garden. Back when he
got up that morning and went out and there were tares out
there and he said, an enemy did this. I didn't plant these, an
enemy did that. We've got some enemies. And I'm
not talking about flesh and blood, I'm talking about in us and about
us and around us. Strong enemies. All right, notice
this fourthly. He calls it a garden, fourthly,
because in a garden there are a variety of spices and flowers. You can have a corn field, nothing
but corn. You can have a cotton field,
nothing but cotton. You can have a wheat field, nothing
but wheat. You got a garden, a lot of good things. You see
what I'm saying? A garden, God's garden doesn't
just major on one thing. God's garden has a variety of
grace, a variety of grace. Many good things, all from Him.
And we'll show you that in a few moments about this variety of
spices. But that's what he said. Keep
using the plural here. He says, blow upon my garden
that the spices thereof may flow out. He said in verse 1 of chapter
5, I've come into my garden and gathered my myrrh with my spice,
my honeycomb with my honey, my wine. You see, there's the fruit
of the vine. All these many things in his garden has many good things
in it, which he's planted. Many graces. Then I'll tell you
something else about the garden. The owner delights in his garden.
I don't have much of a garden, but I'll tell you, before the
weeds take over, I sure enjoy it. I'll plant that garden and
go away for two or three meetings and come back, and it's not as
pretty as it was when I started. But when it first started, Herman,
you know, and the plants get up and The broccoli gets a head
on it, and the tomatoes start blooming, you know, and the different
things. You like to just walk out there and look at it, don't
you? Walk out there and enjoy your garden. When somebody comes
to visit, you want to see my garden? Every time anybody comes,
I go somewhere and say, you want to see my garden? Yeah, I'd like
to see your garden. Well, that's the way my Lord
is. He loves to walk among the pleasant plants of His garden,
and He enjoys showing them to His friends. Let your light so shine that
others may see your good works and glorify you and your pastor,
no, your Heavenly Father. That's what he said, glorify
your Heavenly Father. When a man walks in a garden,
he praises the garden. And I'll tell you, if we know
who planted us, we'll praise him. And when our friends, if
they know who planted us, they'll praise him. But you know another
reason why he called it a garden, number six, is this. that a garden
always is in need of watering, always needs the water of the
Word, it's always in need of pruning. You know, that's one
of the most difficult things for me to do is prune, or I don't
know the word I'm looking for, but I always plant plants too
close together. I plant okra, I plant different
things, and the little package I get it in says put them 18
inches apart. And I'll go out there and there's
18 inches, there's 17 plants. And I know the thing says they'll
grow better, they'll grow better if you pull up some of them.
And I'll tell you, it's the hardest thing in the world to take hold
of one of those healthy, vibrant plants and pull it up and throw
it away. It's hard to do. But I know it's best. I know
it's bad. I know it's bad. I know the one
next to it is not going to do any good if I don't pull that
one up. They're both going to be stunted. And my Lord is going
to prune his garden. He's going to prune his garden.
He's going to pull up some things and he's going to take out some
things. Sometimes he's pruning, sometimes
he's weeding. Sometimes he's watering, but
I'm in need of all these things. If he left me alone, you know
what happens? Sometimes I'll go away in a meeting, and I'll
come back, and I just cry, and I look at my garden. It has not
had any attention for seven or eight or nine or ten days. And
it's just, and I've had you there. I hear people say, well, you
know, I can go down to the church or fellowship with the people
once in a while. That's enough for me. I don't
know. I think your weeds are getting
kind of high, don't you? Your weeds are growing up. It's
obvious that you need pruning, and you need watering, and you
need planting, and you need God's dressing. We need a forsaken
off the assembling of yourselves together. And that doesn't necessarily
mean I've got to go to church to get my garden pruned. My garden
can be pruned at home. reading the Word, fellowshiping
with another believer, exhorting one another, encouraging, helping
one another. God uses the Word. He uses prayer. He uses exhortation. He uses
preaching. He uses all these things to dress
His garden. But it always needs dressing.
And you know something? I don't care how old the garden
is, it still needs dressing. Is that right, Herman? It doesn't
matter. Seventy, seventy-five. You can
never leave the garden alone. Never. You know, from the time,
from the time that garden starts, in the spring, in the early spring,
in the early years of tender plant, got to have hoeing and
care and dressing and pruning. And when that garden is bearing
its last tomato, it still needs the same attention. Still does. Because the weeds will take over.
They'll take over. All right, now watch this next
thing here quickly. He says, Awake, O north wind,
and come, O south wind, and blow on my garden, that the spices
thereof may flow, may mature, may give off their fragrance,
and their odor, and their sweet smell, and come to maturity. Well, the first thing I noticed
about this is food has command of the wind. The owner of the
garden has command of the wind. There's no wind going to blow
on his garden except by his command. And that wind will blow on that
garden at his command. And that wind will blow upon
that garden with the force that he pleases. The owner of the
garden, he has full command of the wind. One man said this,
the wind is nature's fan. The wind is nature's fan. And
what the wind is to a garden, the Holy Spirit is to believers. Did you notice here, though,
that these are contrary winds? North wind and south wind. These
are contrary winds. And both of them are under the
command of the Lord. Here's the north wind. Now, what
is the north wind? Well, the north wind comes in
and blows away the clouds. The north wind comes in and cools
the plant. Somebody said if we didn't have
the north wind, we couldn't grow anything but a cactus. A prickly,
sticky cactus. But we got that north wind that
comes in and blows away the clouds and tempers the heat and cools
the plant and holds in the moisture. So the Lord brings into his garden
the north wind of adversity. and trial and affliction to temper
the distemper of our nature. He brings in the north wind to
cool down the plant and curb its wildness. He brings in the
north wind to hold in the moisture of His grace. He brings in the
north wind to try the strength of the plant. As David said,
it's good for me that I've been afflicted. But therein I learned
our statutes. But you know, all affliction,
and I'd freeze and die. I couldn't take just north wind
all the time. It wouldn't be good for my garden.
It would be good for my plants. I need the cooling north wind,
and I need that north wind to hold in the grace and strengthen
the plant and hold in the moisture and temper, you know, the plant
and temper the heat But all north wind, I couldn't grow any beautiful
spices, any lovely flowers, nothing but old rootstock. But thank
God this owner of the wind doesn't just say, North wind, he says,
come thou south wind. What's the south wind? It's the
warm wind. It's the moist wind. And it brings
in the blessings of rain and stirs the growth of the plants. That's what God brings so often. And you know something? Only
God can make the wind blow at the right time. He's never had
a crop failure. Boy, I experienced that. But
He never has a crop failure. He brings in the north wind when
it's just right, and brings in the south wind when it's just
right. Only the Lord can make the contrary winds blow at the
right time, and sometimes at the same time. That's a trick
for you. But he can do it. He can do it. And I'll tell you sometimes that
north wind, I never will forget. One time I had a corn crop I
planted over here behind the house, about five rows of corn. Gold and something. But it got
up about that high. And I'm telling you those were
the greenest, strongest, healthiest, dark green cornstalk you've ever
seen, just beautiful. And it came a storm one night,
a north wind, and it blew them down flat. I'm telling you, you
just walk out there and look at that corn thing, at that little
crop of corn, and there's everyone laying flat down. And I thought,
she's gone. My corn crop is gone. But somebody
told me, don't worry, it'll straighten up. The sun will straighten it
up. And you know, a few days passed,
and that corn that the north wind whipped down so flat, just
went back up. And I know some of you, you say,
I've had all the north wind I can take for a while. I'm about flat. I'm just about deep down, and
I can't see up. But I'll tell you this, if you're
here, the sun will bring you back up. Yes, Owen, they will. They will. And you know we had
the best crop of corn that year we've ever had. Sure did. Sure did. Well, he says, North
wind blow on my garden that the spices, the spices thereof may
flow out. See, this is why he planted the
garden, that he might enjoy the spices. This is why he watered
the garden. This is why the north wind blew
and the south wind blew. The Lord just didn't plant the
garden for no reason at all. He planted the garden to enjoy
the spices thereof, that they may mature and ripen and flow
out, that he may go out and gather them and use them. You see, these
spices are the fruit of God's garden. They're rich and delicate
and precious and fragrant spices. What are they? They're in the
Galatians. Fine, I'm going to show you. Galatians 5. Here's
the fruit of his garden. Here are the spices that the
Lord has planted. This is all that he set out to
do. In Galatians 5.22, he says, the
fruit of the Spirit, the fruit of my garden is love. But that's not all joy, nor is
that all peace. long-suffering, patience, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. These are the graces. These are
the spices. This is the fruit of my garden.
And the flowing out is the ripening of them. It's the increase in
evidence of them. And as they flow out, he walks
through his garden. This is the time to walk in the
garden. This is to enjoy, this is the time to really enjoy the
fruits of your labor, is when the garden is mature, when the
garden is ripe, and when the spices begin to flow. And then
the Beloved says, here is the Beloved speaking, let my Beloved
come into his garden, into his garden, let him come into his
garden and eat his pleasant fruits. Now then, would you bear with
me a moment? This is the church speaking. The Lord says first, let the
north wind blow and come old south wind and blow on my garden.
Let the spices flow. Garden, see, for a long time,
takes, takes, takes. It takes the labor. It takes
the watering. It takes the planting. It takes
the fertilizer. It takes the weeding. It takes
the fruit. It takes, takes, takes. And then it begins to give. begins, the spices begin to flow
out. How long does that take? A long
time. A long time. And this is when
the beloved says, let my beloved come into his garden. She's not
talking about the first time he came, because the first time
he came, there wasn't anything there to enjoy. Who wants to
walk in a bunch of pine cones and weeds? Nobody. But he had
to come in his conviction. He had to come in his rooting
up. He had to come in his stripping
and breaking and humbling work. Break up the garden. Then he
had to come with a word and plant it. Then he came there with a
plow and turned it. And then he came there and weeded
it. Then he came there and watered.
And he spent much labor and time on this garden. Now, this is
not his first coming when he uprooted the trees and plowed
the ground, prepared the soil and planted the seed. This is
his continual presence. This is the enjoyment of his
fellowship. It's his garden, and the fruits
are to his praise, and the fruits have come to a maturity. And
he said to Peter, when you're converted, strengthen
your breath. Peter? How long has he been working
on that garden? Peter, one of God's elect. Peter, called the Rock. Peter,
called Blessed Simon Bar-Jonah. Peter, who had been with Christ.
Peter, a man of strength and dedication. Peter, a man of knowledge. Peter, a man of impulsiveness
and fight. And yet the Simon Peter that
I see at Pentecost is not the same fellow I saw down there
denying his Lord. Is he? But he said, when you're converted,
when you're converted, when the work of God is done on the garden,
then you're going to be a blessing to your brethren. You're going
to be a blessing. The spices are going to flow.
That garden that's been taking, taking, taking is what God gives
you when you're converted. What is conversion? Well, it's to Christ. Isaiah 60 says
that. What is conversion? It's the
forgiveness of sin. Mark 4 says that. What is conversion? You're converted and become as
a little child. It's humility and meekness. But conversion
is becoming a blessing. When thou art converted, strengthen
you brethren. You reckon the Lord, you reckon
by His grace that I'm His guardian. I certainly want to be. You reckon
by His grace that He's pleased that take this old wilderness
wasteland and make something for His glory out of it. I certainly
hope so. Do you reckon by His grace that
He would pay enough attention to me to sovereignly command
the north and south wind to blow on this garden and make something
out of it that in His good pleasure that I just might bear some spices
and fruit to the glory of my God? And I'll be able to say, come,
my beloved, into your garden and eat of the spices. And he
would say, I have come into my garden. I'm not pleased with
myself, not at any time, shape, form, or fashion, but I'm certainly
gratified and satisfied in him that what's been done, he's done
it. Give him the glory.