Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'm going to Solomon chapter chapter 4 and I'd like to read the 5th and a couple of verses in the sixth too.
Chapter 4 and verse 11. Verse 12.
A garden. Enclosed is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up. A fountain sealed.
By plants are an orchard of pomegranates and pleasant fruits, campfire with spikenard, spike, nard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, and all trees of frankincense, Burr and aloes with all the cheap spices, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and spring and streams from Lebanon a week. O North, wind and blow thou, and come thou S blow upon my garden at the spices thereof.
Flow out, let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.
I am coming to my garden, my sister, my spouse.
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk. Eat, old friends. Drink. Yeah, drink abundantly, O beloved.
I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my unbefiled.
For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I have washed my feet, how shall I defile them?
My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open my to my beloved.
And my hands dropped with myrrh, and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone.
My soul failed when he spake. I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer.
The watchman that went about the city found me. They smote me, they wounded me. The keepers of the wall took away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love.
What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Hold thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge us. My beloved is white and Ruddy, the chiefest among 10,000.
Then the last verse. His mouth is most sweet. Yeah, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem.
Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee? My beloved has gone down into his garden to the beds of spices, to feed among in the gardens, and to gather lilies.
I am my beloved, and my beloved is mine. He feedeth among the lilies.
Well, the book of the Song of Solomon has many lessons for us, and there are various ways in which it can be applied. Primarily, I believe it refers to the Lord's affection for Israel, because they and the Scripture are His earthly bride, and the Lord, as we know, loves them. In the coming day, He's going to bless them in a wonderful way. When?
He when they're clothed and seen as they are in the prophet Isaiah.
It says as bridegroom rejoiceth over his bride, so he'll rejoice over them. So there's a wonderful day coming of blessing.
But there's also an application to the Church, which is the heavenly bride.
And we know that we're going to occupy the nearest place to Christ in glory.
More wonderful than even Israel. Israel will be tremendously blessed on the earth, but you and I occupy the nearest possible place to share what's in His heart and in the nearness of His divine affections for all eternity.
But then there's also an individual application, because each one of us individually are members of the body of Christ.
I'd like to speak of it more in particular of the individual way. We know that there is an application in a collective way, as perhaps is brought before us in the letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3.
Where we have the churches in Asia Minor addressed and the different state of things that existed collectively in those assemblies. But as I said, I'd like to speak about an individual way because we are individuals. But as individuals we make a part of the assembly and we know how even one person enjoying the Lord can be a blessing to the whole assembly.
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We think of Mary when she anointed the feet of the Lord Jesus. That was personal affection. That was because she loved the Lord and wanted to pour out everything that she had at his feet. But it tells us the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. And isn't it true that when another is enjoying the Lord, we all get a blessing? And so we are individuals, and if each of our hearts individually gets stirred, it's going to have its effect upon the whole company.
Whether it's in the home or whether it's in the assembly or wherever we are. So how important that we apply the truth to ourselves individually?
Another thing in the Song of Solomon, I think all of us know it's a dialogue and there are three different people that are introduced in the book. That is, we have the bridegroom speaking, we have the bride speaking and then the daughters of Jerusalem.
We understand who the bridegroom is, Christ and who the bride is. It's the Church, and we're individual members of that one body.
But the daughters of Jerusalem, I believe, represent to us the world around us, because it says in Corinthians were a spectacle to the world and to angels and to man. The world is looking on, and if we are walking in the enjoyment of what we know, the world observes it. They make comments occasionally which shows whether they are impressed in a good way or otherwise.
We've all heard them. We've heard people say, well, I wouldn't want to be a Christian if that person is a Christian. So our testimony is so poor and that the world doesn't want what we have because they don't see that we're in the enjoyment of it. But when they see a Christian who's really walking in communion with the Lord, enjoying this portion, who can face problems and troubles in life in a happy fruit bearing spirit while there's a testimony to the world. And so the daughters of Jerusalem.
Speak occasionally in this epistle, in this book, and I think we can learn from some of the comments that they make because I quote the verse again where Paul said we're a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men. People like to get in the limelight, but there's no better way to get in the limelight than to confess the Lord as your Savior.
Everybody in the school will be watching you from the time you say you're a Christian.
The people in the shop will be watching you when you say you're a Christian. The community will be watching when you say that you're a Christian. Because, as I mentioned before, the world sets a very high standard for Christians. They seem to know how we should act, sometimes better than we ourselves.
And so I think there's a lot of practical lessons brought before us in this Song of Solomon. I just like to look at this little portion and notice that different ones.
Who are speaking?
It begins with this 12TH verse. A garden. Enclosed is my sister, my spouse. A spring shut up. A fountain sealed.
Makes me think of that little hymn that says.
Take down our hearts and let them be forever closed to all but thee.
Thy willing servants let us wear the seal of love forever there. And so it tells us here that.
Where a garden enclosed, that is, the Lord has picked us out of this world. This world is under judgment and He has set us. That's what the word sanctified means, set apart.
Sometimes the word sanctified is used in regard to our position, and sometimes it's used in a practical way.
What we might call positional sanctification and practical sanctification. Perhaps I could illustrate it like this. If you went into a store and there's some baskets of apples there and you pick out one and you pay the merchant and say I'll come back and pick it up in an hour, and then he writes your name in the handle. It belongs to you. Even though there may be a lot of others around it, it's not separated from them.
But because you have bought it.
Because you have paid the price, it belongs to you. But somebody comes in and looks over those apples on the floor and picks the same basket and says I'll take that one. He says no, I can't. I can't sell that one because it's already sold.
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And this happens a couple of times. So he takes the basket and he puts it out in the back of the shop. Why is it anymore yours in the back of the shop than when it was there? No, but it's not mixed up with the others. Now perhaps you can see that positionally we're sanctified. The price has been paid. We're sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
But the Lord said, Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. This is the practical side of it.
Paul, in writing to the Thessalonians, said.
I pray God that He will sanctify you, spirit, soul and body. Faithful is he that hath called you, who also will do it. And so the Lord wants us to be like it says here, a garden enclosed. We're not of the world because it says you're not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
He wants us to be separated from them. In the Bible reading this morning, reading a little about the wall in Jerusalem, it was to separate them from the nations round about them. And there is a practical separation.
Doesn't mean we we have to work with them and we have to go to school with them and everything, but there is a a separation in that the world recognizes that we're not one of them. They see that there's something different about us because we honor the name of the Lord Jesus. And so there might be.
Say a couple of armies together, They have the name of their country on them. They're they're mixed up, but still they're separated because they have the name of their country. They belong to that country. And you and I bear the name of Christ in this world. That's our place. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. I like what some persons said about Christian. It's Christ.
I am Christ.
I stands for IA stands for M&M stands for nothing.
And so that's what a definition of a Christian is. He's one who belongs to Christ, and he realizes that he's nothing. Nothing but a Sinner saved by grace, nothing but one who in boundless love has been purposed by God to have a place with Christ for all eternity.
So a garden and clothes is my sister, my spouse, a spring shut up. A fountain sealed.
Brethren have been considering Nehemiah and in those gates in Nehemiah there was the gate of the fountain, if I remember correctly, and it says about that particular gate, it was the only one that had a covering. That's interesting to me because.
It says all my springs are in me, and the Lord Jesus said the water that I shall give him shall be in him, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. You can have a wonderful spring, but if it gets defiled, it's spoiled.
And it may have once been very, very fine, but once there's pollution in it, you say, well, we can't use that anymore.
Our practical use in the world.
1St As to the enjoyment of the Lord, and as a testimony for Him. He is spoiled when we allow the pollutions of this world to get into our hearts and into our lives. And so notice how.
Garden and clothes.
A spring shut up, a fountain sealed. And whose care taken here? That defilement wouldn't get in. And we surely have to be careful. There's so much defilement in this world. I feel for young people today because there's far more defilement in the places of employment and in the world at large than there used to be. And so we need more care. What are you going to do when there's more defilement? Just use a little more care.
That it doesn't get into our lives, that we don't become, as the world might call it, polluted by allowing those things in our lives that rob us of fruit bearing, rob us of being effective witnesses for the Lord Jesus in this world.
Then we see in the next verse orchard of pomegranates and campfire and spark a spikenard.
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Seems to me that it brings before us two things here, fruit bearing and spices. They seem to be brought together here.
And so we know that there ought to be fruit bearing. That's what the Lord Jesus desired for his own. He said, herein is my Father glorified that she bear much fruit. I'm sure you all remember the 15th chapter of John. It mentions fruit.
And then it says much fruit, then it says more fruit, and then it says fruit that remains.
And so the Lord desires that there would be fruit bearing in our lives. And what is fruit bearing?
Rather than I believe it's the manifestation of the life of Christ in us because it says the fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, all those precious things that were seen in perfection in the Lord Jesus.
That people would see them in US in a practical way in our lives. And that's what we are in this world where a garden to bear fruit for him. And then there's spices too. And just so it says in the last verse, it speaks about the wind blowing and you know when.
You might have a very fragrant plant in your garden and you have to go up and kneel over to smell sweet fragrance, but if the wind is blowing, it carries it.
And you know God intends that the troubles of life, the north wind that blows in our lives.
Would bring the fragrance. If there's any bad smell, the wind will carry the bad smell just as it'll carry a fragrance smell. And so if you and I are going on for the Lord Jesus, when we're in trouble, there will be fragrance and it'll flow out. Others will see it as we have seen in.
Lives of others our dear brother recently taken from us, Phil. The waves of trouble, the winds of trouble only brought out the fragrance of what was there. And that's what the Lord allows these troubles in our lives.
So he says here, going on the 14th verse, spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, and all trees of frankincense, myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices.
There is a variation in our lives.
May pass through a different set of circumstances. I used to enjoy what my father said, and he said when you go to school, everybody in the class learns the same lesson. But he said it isn't that way in the school of God. He said we're individuals.
The Lord sees what I need. He sees what you need, He sees what your assembly needs and what my assembly needs. We're individuals in His sight. And so He passes us through different situations and different trials in order that the sweet savor of Christ might be seen. How do we act in difficulties that come in our home, sicknesses, problems that come in the assembly?
We're all tested about this and no two of us go through.
Exactly the same, but the Lord orders everything because he wants this fragrance to flow out.
You know the Lord Jesus he's spoken of as the fine flower. That means that with him everything was even.
With us, sometimes you might speak of a brother and say he's very kind, speak of a sister and say she's very thoughtful. And we see different graces in different people, but in the Lord Jesus every grace was perfect. And he's seeking to produce this in US, brethren. And sometimes we can take some things, but we find it harder to take others that the Lord knows just exactly what the sin.
Your life and mine, absolutely nothing happens by chance. Our circumstances are ordered by Him and to bring out of Christ.
So he says, a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters and streams from Lebanon.
Think about the Lord Jesus did on the last day of the feast. In John Chapter 7 it says the last day, That great day of the feast Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink.
He that he that believeth on me, as the Scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
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The reason it mentions the last day of the last feast is they had gone through all the ritual of those different feasts. There were 7 feasts of Jehovah and the feast of Tabernacles was the last one.
And it was, though, the Lord said. You've gone through all the ritual of those feasts.
But it's myself that you need. It's myself. And you know, we can come to beating. We can, shall I say, go on with an outward form of things. But what the Lord wants is our hearts.
And so he said out of his belly. That means when it says out of his belly, it means you've taken it in, you've made it your own, and it comes out as something that has been made your own.
So a lot of his belly shall flow rivers of living, living water. We may have little sayings that we've heard somebody else say that are easy to repeat.
But as the Lord passes us through situations in our lives, those things that perhaps we repeated, perhaps glibly at times, they become part of us. There's something we've experienced. There may be a verse. You say that verse means the world to me because I was in a special situation and that verse just came to me. And that verse from that time onward becomes.
A special verse to you because the Lord has made it good in your own.
Soul out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. When you speak to other people, it isn't just a verse that you've learned in the Bible study, but it's it's a verse that's been made good in your own soul, so it says.
A fountain of garden, the well of living waters and streams from Lebanon. And then as I mentioned before.
A Waco north wind and come now South.
Think the Lord knows how to mingle these things in our lives?
I think the north wind perhaps represents trouble and the South wind perhaps represents to us pleasant times in our lives. Things go badly sometimes, like the north wind, and then sometimes they go well.
We need the Lord, whether it's bad times or good times, you know, everything can go well and we can get away from the Lord.
Because we can be occupied with our circumstances, we can rest on our oars and say, well, at least that problem's over now. I can settle down. We never can settle down.
The Lord allows the different things to come in our lives, and it's how we act when things go well. God warned Israel that he might get prosperous in that good land he gave them, and they would forget him. And sometimes when things go well, the Lord sees that we're forgetting him, so he sends a wave of trouble, and then we get drawn nearer to Him in those troubles and trials.
So he says, awake thou north.
Oh, north wind, and come now S blow upon my garden that the spices are out, may flow out.
Let my beloved.
Come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits.
He's here now. We find that she's inviting her beloved, who for us represents Christ, to come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. And may I say, brethren, I believe when we come on, Lords of the morning, the Lord comes into his garden.
Into your garden and there's nice ripe fruit and there's nice things to pick. You just enjoy walking around that garden, enjoying what's there and enjoying the fragrance and perhaps picking what you need.
And when we come on Lord's Day morning, the Lord is at work, comes into his garden, and he values every little response of our hearts. He says in this book, Let me hear thy voice, let me see thy face.
For thy voice is sweet, and thy countenance is comely. Perhaps you say, Oh well, if I don't come, nobody LL miss me.
But who do you come for?
Maybe you won't be missed by your brethren, but the Lord will miss you.
Let's remember that. That's why we come. We come for him. And so she invites him to come and then he responds. He noticed the beginning of this 6th chapter.
I am coming to my garden. You can see why I say it's a dialogue. He's answering her now. She's asking him to come into this garden and he says I am coming to my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered myrrh with my spouse. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey.
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I have drunk my wine with my milk.
Shows how he appreciated what he could enjoy in that garden.
The Lord Jesus said, Who saw offereth, praise glorifieth me.
Every little thought that any of us had this morning as we sat in His presence about the Lord Jesus was precious to Him, whether it was said audibly or not.
Is still is precious to him because he knows. I always enjoy that verse in Malachi it says.
And a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and thought upon his name.
Makes me think of sometimes books that rather than have in their homes for visitors and I should write their name that you have been in the house and so they remember that you've been there.
But they don't know how often you think about them. They only know how often you visited there. But rather than the Lord knows how often we think about him. And he actually has a book of remembrance. He values those little thoughts that you have, whether it's young people at school or whether it's in the shop or whether it's in the meeting. They're all precious to him.
And so he answers her and says I have. And then he says, eat old friends, yay, drink a yay drink abundantly. Hold the love it there is. Perhaps we could call it a sharing because as I said before, when Mary brought that alabaster box of ointment.
Not only she got the blessing, not only the Lord valued it, but it says the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. So there was a lot of others.
It is not nice that the Lord calls us friends.
Do you know what it says in the little song that we sing?
What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. And it's wonderful to feel that the Lord Jesus is our friend. But is it not far more wonderful that he should call us his friends? He said in the 15th of John, Ye are my friends.
If you do whatsoever I command you.
The president of the United States said you're my friend.
You think, well, that's amazing that he would think about me calling his friend, but you know, the Lord of glory calls you his friend and he wants you to enjoy these things in common with him and with others.
The Communion of Saints, it's called. Well, how, how precious this is.
So she invited him to come, and he came, invited him, and he came and the Lord likes us.
When those two were walking on the road to Emmaus, it says, he made as though he would have gone further.
He didn't invite himself into their home.
But he made as though he would have gone further. And then they pressed him, and they said, abide with us. Not just come in, but stay with us. And so Lord wants you and me to invite him.
You say, well, he's promised to come, yes, but he likes us to invite him.
So it says.
Oh friends, drink a drink abundantly. Oh beloved.
Now the second verse is a new paragraph, as you probably see.
And this is the bride that's speaking here now. Perhaps this is a little later occasion that has taken place. And notice what she says.
I sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh saying open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.
For my head is filled with the dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
You know, I believe this brings before us when we we just settle down.
He wasn't doing anything very wrong, but shall I say she was seeking her ease and her comfort apart from his company. Isn't that quite possible for us?
When everything goes well, we can just be so thankful that someone has said we can enjoy the blessings and forget the blesser, and I think that's the little picture that's brought before us here.
And as I sleep, so the IT says, while the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept. Are you and I asleep? To the blessed hope that the Lord Jesus might come today.
Are we sort of trying to find our ease in a world that is so that at enmity with God and rejecting his Son?
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I think the Lord allows things that happen, even the problem that has come recently in Los Angeles and other cities. The Lord doesn't want us to find our rest here. He stirs up the nest. He lets us realize that this is not our home and that we haven't given him his rightful place.
Says about the eagle that she stirs the nest.
And I don't know very much about eagles, but I have heard that.
When the mother eagle makes the nest, she lines it nicely, but she has underneath it things that, when the nest is stirred up, make it an uncomfortable place for the little eagle.
And so when the time comes that she wants that little eagle to leave the nest, then she stirs it up in the little eagle that doesn't feel comfortable there anymore. So she she gets out of the nest and then she swoops down underneath. That's what it says. I think it's the 32nd of Deuteronomy. It says she goes below her and bears her on her wings. And once you go to the nest, she finds it difficult to fly because.
She hasn't been used to that, and so she swoops under it.
And helps her. And so that's what the Lord does with us, brethren. Sometimes we fall asleep just like the bride here.
But she heard the voice of her beloved, and her heart wakened.
And sometimes we come to the meeting. I'm sure I've experienced, and probably you have too. You come with your heart cold and you hear the voice of your beloved, the one who really loves you, the one who gave himself for you. And your heart is stirred and you know that you have left him out. You've tried to find your ease and comfort without him, as we all do at times. And she said, it's the voice of my beloved. It's the voice of my beloved. And so he's calling us. He wants us.
To enjoy his company and not to seek our ease.
Sing a little hymn, take to our hearts, and let them be forever closed to all but thee. This is not our rest, And so should my heart waketh. And he's speaking, he says, open to me. Make you think of the.
Our 3rd chapter of Revelation we sometimes use the verse in the gospel but I believe it's the Lord Jesus talking to his own. When it says behold I stand at the door and knock, if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will Sup with him and he with me. As I say, I think we can rightly apply that in the gospel, but I believe it applies to us as Christians.
Because the Lord is addressing a church there, church in Laodicea.
So he's saying, open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled.
Not a nice way that he addresses her, you know, that's that's one thing. If you read carefully through the Song of Solomon, you'll be impressed by this. He never reproaches her. He never reproaches her.
He always he says things that let her know he feels something, but she's always the best to him.
Julie, what a wonderful thing as far as our standing brethren is. We're always holy and without blame before him in love. Good lesson for us as husbands never to reproach our bride, always to speak the best of her. Maybe sometimes they might feel that we're not pleased with what's done, but don't reproach them. And so we see He never reproaches her. My love, my dove, my undefiled. What a beautiful way to address her when she.
Left gone to sleep but the door locked so we couldn't get in.
Yeah, he looked on her as very precious in his sight and he says.
My head is filled with you and my locks with the drops of the night. That's where he lets her know that he felt it, that the door was locked. But he doesn't reproach her. He just makes a little comment to let her know what he felt.
And justice. Think of her response in the third verse. I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I've washed my feet, how shall I defile them?
Excuses, we could call it, couldn't we? Don't we all make excuses sometimes? Oh, you don't know what I've gone through. You don't know how busy I am or you don't know how tired I was. And so I didn't bother getting out to remember the Lord or out to the meeting. And she starts to make excuses and said, I put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed my feet. How shall I defile them?
God's made provision that we can walk through a defiling world without getting our.
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Be defiled.
Bridegroom in another part of this Song of Solomon, says, How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O prince's daughter, you can walk through mine without getting your feet defiled. You have spiritual shoes on, feet shod for the preparation of the gospel of peace.
But she she makes excuses for what he what she had done.
And then what did he do? He didn't say anything. My beloved put in his hand by the whole of the door, and my bowels were moved for him.
Sometimes I.
Connect that with the 24th chapter of Luke. Because they didn't know who this person was who was walking with them on the road to a mess. Their eyes were holding that they should not know him. They were complaining. They weren't understanding the scriptures.
And so when they invited him in, he went in.
And it says then he, he broke the bread. And it says he was known to them in the breaking of bread. You know, that was just, I believe, an ordinary meal in their house. But I believe that when the Lord put up his hands to break the bread, they saw those marks in his hands. They knew that it was their Redeemer because that was the way He revealed himself to them later.
And so whatever you and I grow cold, let us think.
Like we sing a little hymn. I shall know him. I shall know him as redeemed by his side. I shall stand, I shall know him by the print of the nails in his hands.
So he put in his hand by the hole of the door and it says she was moved. She jumped up to open the door. And so, you know, we need to think and think many times of what the Lord went through for us. If we feel rejected, if we feel hurt, think of how the Lord must have been.
Not only by the world, but his disciples for succumbing. We feel hurt that people do things sometimes to us, but who was so hurt by the Lord as the Lord?
Ones that he had done so much for forsook him and fled.
Very few cared to even stand by the cross where he was.
So it says he put in his hand by the door. My bowels were moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved.
My hands dropped with myrrh and my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh upon thee noticed this little expression on the handles of the lock. We knew the door was closed before, but now we find us locked. I said. She's actually locked the door with her husband outside her bridegroom, her beloved outside. And sometimes, you know, we can get so engrossed and taken up with things.
That we do, that we're locked the door. We don't want the Lord to intrude on the things that we're doing.
And so her heart is stirred now she gets up and she opens the door. Seems to me she put on a little pretense here by this, my hands dropped with myrrh in my fingers, the sweet smelling myrrh. Perhaps she thought putting a little perfume on her hand would change the situation. And we may be when we get wakened up, we, we sometimes think we, we don't want others to know how far away we've got.
In our souls. But the Lord knows. The Lord knows. He knows the secrets of our hearts. He knows when we're real and when we're not. We may deceive one another, may deceive our brethren, but we can never deceive Him. He knows the secrets of the heart.
And so when she rose up to open the door, it says in the sixth verse, I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone.
He didn't forsake her brethren, no, but He didn't allow her to feel that. What had come in. You remember when the disciples went up to Jerusalem, at least when the Lord went up to Jerusalem with his parents.
It says they were there in the temple and the Lord was talking to the doctors of the law and then.
The time was, I suppose, over. The feast was ended and it says they started for home and they didn't even notice that the Lord wasn't there.
And they went a day's journey before they realized that, you know, we can go a day's journey with Christian fellowship, but it won't carry us all away. Christian fellowship is wonderful, but.
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And all our Christian fellowship, we mustn't forget the Lord, We mustn't forget the Lord. And so here they were returning from the place. The Lord had chosen the right place, and up there to keep the feast according to His word. But they went a day's journey without Him.
And then they noticed he was messing and they went back, but it took three days to find him.
You know, when we get away from the Lord, sometimes it's a little while before we get back. There's a lot of things that have happened that have to be straightened out sometimes before we can get back into communion with him. And so he withdrew himself, that is.
She needed to feel what had come in. Sometimes the Lord lets us feel.
That we are not walking near Him. Situations may arise that we can't handle, and then we realize that we have we're not walking close to him. And so it tells us here.
That.
My soul failed when he spake. I sought him, but I could not find him. I called him, but he gave me no answer.
It's a sad thing when.
Communion with the Lord is interrupted. What is communion? It's common thoughts, and it's easy enough for us to get out of communion, brethren, to let little things creep into our lives.
And I want to say again that those little things that creep into our lives.
If we neglect them, if we go on, it may be easier to get away than it is to get back. Not that there isn't a way back, and we see her restored in the end here, but there was this distance that had come in between. But it's nice that she did desire to be restored. And so there's a verse in the 23rd Psalm. He restoreth my soul. Many of us have got away from the Lord the enemy would get.
Thought his courage that you might say it's no use.
There's been too many one brothers that I've burned too many bridges behind me. And so he, he found it hard to come back. But you, you, the Lord has provided a way. And who does the restoring? He restoreth my soul.
He's speaking to any one of us that have got away and he says I want your company. I'm going to have it for all eternity and I want your company now. Oh, rather than come between US and the Lord, let's get it right because his coming is near.
Tells us here, then others come into the story here now too.
But never failed. Well, a veil is what represented submission to Christ. That was what the veil represented. If you are you and I submissive to Christ in our lives, do we really own Him as Lord and seek to acknowledge His place as the one who should be our guide in all that we do?
So isn't it sad here?
She couldn't open the door. Then when she does open it, he's gone. The Watchmen now get involved. They wounded me. They get hurt sometimes because things are said. And then the keepers, the walls, took away my veil from me.
Well, what a what a sad thing. But however we do see her restored.
I just Passover until the 11TH verse. I don't know the 10th verse to the 16th verse. What is it that restores her?
An occupation with her brethren, No.
Occupation with others blaming the person that smoker no what brings her back.
It's an occupation with the Lord. He's the same.
So she considers her beloved from head to foot.
And says he's altogether lovely, he's most sweet. And rather than that's what brings us back. We change. He changes not our Christ can never die. And if there's anyone here who's got away from the Lord, remember the Lord hasn't changed. He's the same and he loves his own to the end. But what'll bring you back? Think of what a wonderful path. Think of what it went through for us.
And as we consider his beauty.
She seems to She says my beloved is white and Ruddy, the chiefest among 10,000. But then in the 16th verse, his mouth is most sweet. That's getting close to him, so he can kiss her with the kisses of his mouth. He's altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is my friend.
00:45:02
What a wonderful.
Event this is it's restoration. Now the other two verses that.
Brought in the eighth and ninth verse.
It says in the eighth verse, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that she if ye find my beloved, that ye tell him that I am sick of love. And then they answer her and say, What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Thou, O thou fairest among women? What is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou dost so charge us?
They really rebuke her in saying this to her.
Because they didn't see that the Lord Jesus meant much to her.
I say that I mean her bridegroom, but in figure the Lord Jesus. Does the world see that Christ means everything to us?
They say, they say, well, what does the Lord Jesus mean to you? They say, what is thy beloved more than another beloved?
And it's the thought of this that brings her back.
And it's sad when the world has to say to us, well, I don't see that what you believe really means much to you.
Remember a girl that we knew quite well?
And she was getting away from the Lord and.
Someone said to her, said to her, Well, what does to use his expression? What does your religion really mean to you?
He saw that he was hankering after things of the world and he said, what does it really mean to you and friends? Our lives show how much Christ means to us. Our lives show it. We can say things with our lips, but the world is observing. I quote the verse again where a spectacle to the world and to angels and to man. But again I say we have her restoration and it's very simply brought before us, isn't it?
I think it's so beautiful that it just simply tells about her, telling about her beloved. She's talking about what he really is. And if anyone here has got away from the Lord, if you could just get a a fresh glimpse of the Lord.
What He went through for you and for me, what He is for us, is our great High priest and our advocate. How soon we're going to see Him face to face. He couldn't help but bring us back. It's the goodness of God that leads to repentance. The goodness of God seeing what we have in Him that leads us to repentance.
And now, the 6th chapter, these daughters of Jerusalem speak again.
It says, Whither is thy beloved gone, O thou fairest among women? Whither is thy beloved turned aside, that we may seek him with thee?
I think it's lovely here. She's restored now and now she can be used.
And these daughters of Jerusalem say, well, as your beloved, is that wonderful? We want him. We want to know him too.
Mr. Darby once made the comment. Our testimony to the world is our joy in the Lord.
And how often is true that we can say a lot, but when the world sees us in difficulties and they see us in trouble, when they see us really bubbling over with the joy that we have in the Lord, they say you have something that we don't have. Yes, friends, we not only have something, we have a person. We have the one who's altogether lovely. We have the one who is going to.
Receive us into the Father's house and spend.
All eternity serving us to make us happy. That's the one who is our beloved. That's the one is our friend. And I believe that we need to get, if any of us have got away from him, we need to get restored. And if we are seeking to go on in our feeble way for him.
Let's not lose sight of Him. We can't walk on the waters without our eyes upon Him.
You know, Peter might have thought that he could walk on smooth water with his eyes off the Lord, but not on rough.
But how could he walk on smooth water anymore than on rough with his eyes off the Lord? And you and I can handle the best days in our lives any more than we can handle the worst days in our lives without the Lord. We need him. Little song says I need thee every hour. Stay thou nearby. Temptations lose their power when thou art nigh.
And so.
00:50:00
She she says in the third verse, I am my beloved and my beloved is mine. I just like to get all these three expressions that are in the Song of Solomon, and I think they're progressive if you look in the second chapter.
Says my beloved is mine and I am his.
In the 6th chapter, the order is reversed. She says I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.
And then in the 7th chapter.
She says I am my beloved and his desire is toward me.
I think it's very lovely when we first find the Lord Jesus as our Savior, we say.
Oh, how wonderful. Christ is mine, and I am His.
That's wonderful to be able to say Christ is mine, my Savior, my Lord, my friend, my everything and I am his. But I believe when she comes to the 6th chapter after her restoration, she reverses the order and she said I am my beloved and my.
My beloved is mine, someone has said. It's more wonderful to be loved than to love.
More wonderful to be loved and, you know, to walk through life with a sense not just that I love Christ, but he loves me. To walk down the street here in Gresham and to feel that the Maker of the universe is looking down upon you and say I've chosen you out of this whole world because I love you and I'm not going to be satisfied until I can make you supremely happy in heaven.
So the order is reversed here. In the second instance, I am my beloved and my beloved is mine.
Then when you come to the 10th chapter.
It seems to me that she forgets all about.
Her own portion shall I say I am my beloved, and his desire is toward me.
She's all taken up with the fact that she's loved, that she's loved.
And that his desire is toward me, and the Lord's desire is toward you.
If you, if you or I have got away from the Lord, he's lost something. You know, if you love somebody and you don't get a response by how you feel, but how lovely it is when you get a response to the affections. And so she's just dwelling in the love that he has toward her. She almost forgetting herself in the fact that I am my beloved and his desire is toward me.
How, how wonderful it is to to enter into the good of this.
Well, brethren, we're walking in a very cold world. We're walking in a difficult world, and how can we be kept amid all the ups and downs and troubles, the north wind and the South wind, and the times that we forget the Lord? Why, It's just coming back to Him. And I trust that many of us have got away from Him, that we'll come back to Him, and that we'll live in the enjoyment of His love. Start the day by not thinking of how much.
Of the Lord, although He's certain we certainly should love him, but start the day with thinking of how much He loves you, and He's looking upon you with delight, and that His heart is not going to be satisfied until He has made you supremely happy in His presence. And that will fortify us to meet the difficulties of the pathway. It's not going to become more easy as the Lord's coming draws near in the world. Ye shall have tribulation. It's not going to be more easy.
But the path will grow brighter. Dear sister is going through a lot of trouble in her life, she said. My outlook never was darker, but my outlook never was brighter. And may the Lord grant that there will be that in our lives. That uplook at waiting for Him, if we've got away from Him, may bring us back to Himself.
It's more important to him than it even is to you because he died because he wanted your company, not just to save you and I from hell, but because he wanted to have our company with him for all eternity. May we give him more of his company, even here and now in this world.