Open—Don Rule
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285.
Oh Lord of mine, all for.
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Joyous day alone.
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With me and uh, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nsnoise our joy.
Stick.
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410 thigh and thumb.
What has changed my love to change?
I cried no more dreams gone and thine thou.
Our pepper.
'S face.
Turn with me to Matthew's Gospel chapter 13.
Matthew chapter 13 and verse 44.
Again, the Kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field.
The witch, when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth the field.
Over to Luke's Gospel, chapter 12.
Luke's Gospel, chapter 12.
Rich man in verse 18 in the parable says.
And he said this will I do. I will pull down my barns and build greater.
And there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thy knees, eat, drink, and be merry.
What God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself.
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And is not rich toward God.
Verse 32 Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's pleasure to give you the Kingdom.
Sell that ye have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which wax not old, but treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approaches, nor moth corrupt us.
Four, where your treasure is.
There will your heart be also.
Let your loins be gird about and your lights burning, and you yourselves like on demand that wait.
For their Lord.
First Peter, chapter 2.
First Peter chapter 2 and verse 6. Wherefore also it is contained in the Scripture. Behold, I lay in cyan a chief cornerstone elect precious, and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
Unto you therefore which believe He is precious, or the preciousness. But unto them which be disobedient the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner.
Its natural to mankind to treasure things.
Everyone.
Eventually find something that they're gonna use as a treasure or have a treasure.
Sometimes in this world it's such a significant thing that when a man has had a something he's acquired and it's his and it's his treasure and he loses it to himself, he's lost everything and he takes his own life.
The Lord Jesus.
As a treasure.
You're it.
You're it.
The Lord Jesus looks upon you.
As his treasure.
He went sold all that he had to acquire his treasure.
The rich man.
Had a treasure.
And there was a flaw for him.
Because he had it.
Without reference to God.
He had it, but God didn't have any place with him in His treasure.
If you have a treasure, any treasure, no matter what it is, if you have it without God, you're gonna lose it.
Doesn't matter what you've got that you treat as a treasure.
Some possession.
If you have it.
Without God, you're gonna lose it.
Guaranteed.
If you have a treasure that is without God, the point of reference for it will not go beyond this world in your life.
And so.
It'll get lost.
Just as the rich man was called a fool and God said tonight I'm taking your life.
What about his treasure? Could he take it with him?
Could you enjoy it anymore, or was it lost to him That was forever lost?
For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
Notice the order.
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Sometimes we hear the expression my heart's not in it.
Morally.
We set our mind, our thoughts on treasures, and then our heart follows.
And so each one of us makes choices in life, puts value on certain things that can to us become a treasure.
And.
Our hearts gonna follow.
If you've got some treasure.
In this world.
That you're going to leave behind when you leave the world, then your heart in that degree.
Is in the world.
God's treasure.
This is son.
God has given his to His Son, you to be His treasure.
And has set his heart upon you.
He will not rest as Boaz of this morning, he will not rest.
Until.
His treasure.
And he?
R1.
To put it the opposite direction.
God has presented the Lord Jesus to you to be your treasure.
And if you embrace him fully as your treasure.
Your heart will be there as well.
But I also want to say, and we're going to spend a little bit.
Of time seeing how.
The treasure that might be very small in US gradually grows.
Until he and we are one.
And his heart will not be satisfied until he and we are one.
With us, it's a lifelong learning experience.
And then as we pass through the process of life, we pass through a learning process.
With the objective on his part and God's part that we and he.
Our reciprocal treasure, that is, He is our treasure and can enjoy us as His treasure. If I could put it this way as being on the same page sharing.
What you value, he values.
What you care about, he cares about.
And the opposite, the reverse.
You care.
About what he cares about. You feel things as he feels them. You enter into them according to what's in his heart toward them.
It's a challenging thing because we don't learn it instantly.
I've said it many times, but I remember a conference where there was a whole lot of speaking about love and divine love.
And one brother rather, after lots had been said, made this comment. He said the measure of divine love operative in your soul is the measure of love you bear toward the most cantankerous and cross grained brother within the sphere of your acquaintance.
Many of you have heard that comment many times, but in today's application of it.
Someday, maybe it's not true this afternoon, but someday every one of us is going to love every other member of the body of Christ.
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As Christ loves them.
In the same character.
There won't be any more attitude of our soul as to cantankerous and cross grained spirited brothers or sisters or whatever.
With those remarks in mind, turn with me to the Song of Solomon.
I freely acknowledge that.
I'm very conscious.
That I can't give expression.
To what's in my heart.
But at least I can have the comfort in what I'm going to say of the trust that what comes from the heart will go to the heart.
It's a hard matter.
And in the Song of Solomon we see how the relationship between ourselves.
And the Lord Jesus develops and grows.
Over the course of our lives.
We'll just be able to.
Look at a few bits and pieces of it, honestly.
If if it could be the way I would wish it to be.
I'd ask you to.
For the next seven days, each morning get up and read the whole of the Song of Solomon, and then the next morning get up and read the Song of Solomon from the beginning to the end. And then seven days later we'll get together and consider it together.
There's such depth in the practical learning process.
Of two people.
Who love each other and yet they don't fully start out understanding each other. They don't Co either will uh, at least she her love doesn't measure up to the one that loves her.
Just as in the picture here we have the Lord Jesus the Bridegroom, and we have her is the one he loves.
We won't be able to read too much, but I will say as a help when you go through it.
He normally refers to her as love.
She normally refers to him as beloved. I say that because there's a lot of back and forth conversation between them. Sometimes he's speaking and she interrupts with a comment.
Part of the time they're together. Part of the time they're separated from each other, they're not together.
And so it is often in the experiences of our lives. Sometimes we have a very conscious sense of the one who.
Loves us.
Is enjoyed in our souls and sometimes we get separated in our daily lives from the enjoyment of His love to us as it develops in US.
Chapter one just to pick a few points.
Verse two let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.
For thy love is better than wine.
Verse 3 Draw me, we will run after thee.
We all have some measure of love.
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As his children for the Lord.
There's not a single person in this room who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior, that it couldn't be said that they love Him.
And so there is within each sole a need to be loved.
Man was so created, so designed of God according to God's purpose for man, that he has the need to be loved.
And further than that, only God, through the Lord Jesus himself, can fully satisfy that need.
And from the very beginning of Christian life, there is that sense of need of his love and some measure of appreciation of it.
So draw me.
Verse the end of verse 4 the upright love thee. There's a sense of the it's the right thing.
And if we have a right sense of something, we love them.
We also from the beginning of our relationship in verse five, I'm black but come late.
Verse six. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the Son hath looked upon me, and so on. End of the verse my vineyard have I not kept. There's a certain sense here in her heart that she doesn't deserve.
To be loved even though she wants the love. And so it is with us. There is that need to be loved. But even in the beginning of a Christian, a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
Uh, there's a certain sense of coming short.
I'm black. I haven't kept my own vineyard. I should, but I haven't. And so she feels that.
Verse 7 Tell me.
O thou whom my soul loveth.
Where thou feedest.
Where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon.
Verse eight. If thou know not, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock.
And feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tents.
The heart wants him. The heart has a certain love for him.
But in the practical experiences of life.
Sometimes it's hard to find them.
Scripture says he's always near.
You'll never leave us nor forsake us, but at the same time, in the living of it, out in the experiences of the life, we hear the expression, Lord, where are you when I need you?
I need to feel your presence with me. I need to feel your love. Where are you, Lord?
And that's often.
The experience as life starts out, someone puts their trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and for a little while there's, I'll say euphoria, happiness, joy.
Until something comes, not always understood what, but something comes into the life and the Lord seems to be lost.
So that's.
At that point.
He draws her, she said. Draw me, verse 15.
Behold thou art fair, my love, Behold thou art fair.
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Now it's dove size.
You speak sewer.
He's starting to draw to himself.
The Lord does that in the process of our lives.
He, I think, speaks quite a bit more than she does directly to her.
In their conversations of her learning, she in turn tends to speak more about him than to him.
And that tends to be the character of how we grow.
The Lord speaks directly to our hearts.
And when he does, sometimes, when we don't have the same sense of nearness to himself, we tend to speak more about him.
Then consciously to him.
So he says.
Thou art fair, my love, Behold thou art fair.
And.
There's an immediate response.
She plays back. Behold, thou art fair, my beloved.
There's a response in us as we gradually find our treasure in His love.
And so he speaks to us and then?
We.
Often, or at least sometimes.
Respond to it.
And say, as it were in response, Thou art fair, my beloved.
As we respond to his love.
Chapter 2.
Voice of verse 8.
The voice of my beloved. Behold, he cometh.
Well, we'll read verse four to get more context.
Verse 3 Even as the apple among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me into the banqueting house. In his banner over me was love.
His left verse six His left hand is under my head.
And then?
Verse nine, she says, the voice of my beloved, Behold, he cometh.
There's.
A fellowship.
Between the two.
But it's important to recognize that fellowship with the Lord Jesus can be instantly lost.
If we have treasure other than himself.
That attracts us.
It's also important to recognize that he is light, and the moment we introduce anything into our relationship with himself and our personal communion with him that is inconsistent with himself as light, we break communion.
And our lives ultimately, gradually show.
How much we value?
Fellowship.
How important or not?
His companionship and his fellowship is to us.
MMM, so it says in verse 15.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.
It's the little things.
Spoil our fellowship with the one that we love. It's the little things, the little foxes. It's not always the big events, the major issues. It's the little everyday things that we experience in life that sometimes spoil.
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The Vine.
In the picture here again, we don't have time except to kind of introduce it a little bit, but.
In a certain way.
She is his garden.
And he is.
Creating her to be fruit for his pleasure.
When life is over and the Lord Jesus.
Enjoys you?
He will enjoy you as the fruit.
Of the travail of his soul, the travail in its most significant first aspect at the cross.
But also the travail of your life's experience in which he has so patiently worked with you to bring you into a full grown love relationship with himself. And so very often he may come into his garden and see that the fox.
ES have been at work to hinder the growth.
Of the fruit.
But at this point, there's progress. And verse 16 of chapter 2, it says my beloved is mine.
And I am his.
Defeat us among the lilies.
It's wonderful here.
She says.
My beloved is mine.
There's a lot of growth to be done yet, but at this point, it's the fact that she has been brought to realize.
He belongs to her.
He's the one that has met her need.
We come first to the realization that the one who loved us and gave himself for us is for us. We like the verse. If God is for us, who can be against us? And we have that sense that.
He's ours.
We also have a sense, but it's secondary.
That we're his.
What comes in as first is the log side, that he's met our need and he's ours and we're his too.
He feed us among the lilies. He is one that comes into the relationship.
And confined some joy in it too.
Lilies were beautiful flowers grown in gardens and valued.
And uh.
Appreciate.
When someone else.
Wants to be in our company.
Cares to be with us because of shared affection and relationship. We feel it when there isn't that, when something hinders that.
Chapter 3 Verse one by night on my bed I saw him.
Whom I soul loveth, I sought him.
But I found him not.
She's lost him.
We're not talking about salvation here, I'm sure you understand. But in the personal relationship, she lost them.
How was she seeking him?
On her bed.
Place of rest and ease.
Do we get up?
Have a quick little time with the Lord, rush off to the daily affairs, go through the life for the day, and sometimes when things don't go right, turn to the Lord and say, Lord help me, I need some help here, Things aren't going right today. And then when the day is done and we're ready to relax, we've got a little time.
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For him.
She lost them that way.
You didn't have first place. He kind of had the end of the day place with her.
She recognized she loved them. That's never lost in the book or in the experience. And so she seeks him.
But he's not to be found sometimes.
We have to seek the Lord, and we may find is not to be found in the way we seek Him.
You know.
You have to value something.
Really value something to be sure you keep it.
She hadn't learned to really value him yet.
So she goes after she goes out and starts looking. I will seek him, she says in verse two. And in verse 3, the Watchmen go about the city found me.
And, uh, I said, have you seen him whom I sold out of?
Verse four. It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found them. She had to go out looking. Sometimes we have to, as it were, go out looking.
Give it a first place.
To find him.
We'll pass on in the interest of time.
Not sure what to skip but.
First, we'll start in verse chapter 5. Now. Well, we'll go go to No. We're gonna pick up a verse at the end of chapter 4 Awake.
O North wind, and come thou S blow upon my garden.
That's the spices thereof may flow out.
Let my beloved come into his garden and eat.
His pleasant fruits.
Hold your finger here.
For a moment, turn over to Romans chapter 5.
Romans, chapter 5.
And verse 2.
By whom also we have access, by faith into this grace wherein we stand.
In our reading meeting and rejoice in hope.
Of the glory of God.
Something we look forward to. We rejoice then.
We give thanks for.
Verse three. And not only so.
But we glory in tribulations.
Also.
Knowing that tribulation worketh patience, patience, experience, experience hope. Hope maketh not ashamed.
By those tribulations, verse five, what's one of the results through those trials of life, through those experiences of unfinished products that we are?
Because the love of God.
Is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
If we all made a list of the 10 first things we think of to thank the Lord for for His goodness to us.
Would Romans 5 three be on the list?
Tribulations.
If we had a better sense.
Of the full value of it, it'd be on our top ten list.
In the relationship back to Song of Solomon.
Where it says that Waco north wind and blow.
There was a realization.
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That the Tribulation.
Was doing its work.
That the times when she was separated from himself were being used to deepen.
Our sense of need of him and a sense of his value to her soul, to her being.
Chapter 5.
Verse 3.
He comes.
Umm, verse two. I'm sleep. My heart's awake. I hear the voice of my beloved knocking open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. For my head is filled with dew, and my locks with the drops of the night.
She says I put off my coat.
How can I put it on?
I've washed my feet.
How shall I defile them?
My beloved put his hand by the hole of the door. Verse 5I rose up to open.
Verse six I opened.
But my beloved had withdrawn himself.
We have to experience that in our relationship of growth with the Lord Jesus.
Oh Lord, I'm kind of busy right now.
I, I, I, I, I've got certain things that and I'm in home and, and, you know, I'm kinda tired and I've taken my coat off and he's knocking at the heart's door, but I'm not really don't have time right then. Could you call me back later? We sometimes say when someone calls us on the phone. I'm busy right now.
But he calls his love for never changes.
And ultimately triumphs. And so she opens.
She has to go through the same process we just read in the previous chapter. In verse seven, she goes out looking for him. The Watchmen that went about the city found me.
They did this time they smoked me.
The learning is a little more severe and a little more painful because.
The Watchmen, uh, as it says here, uh, they smite me, wound me.
Sometimes.
Trials, there are trials to develop a relationship between ourselves and Lord get in more intensified if we don't respond to them and we have to have them repeated. And we all tend to have to have them repeated. And she had to have them repeated, but it was more painful and it was more costly to her.
Umm.
She does.
Yet you might say restored to him.
She finds in chapter 6 and verse two, my beloved has gone down into his garden to the beds of spices to feed, to gather lilies and at this point her relationship has grown and she says.
In verse uh, three, I, my beloved.
And my beloved is mine.
That is, he's first.
She takes the second place.
It's not her need now so much as.
Her sense of who she belongs to, that's growth. When we gradually start to appreciate he's first in the relationship and what he feels and cares is what we should ask to feel and care.
Lord, you enter into how I feel. Comfort me, help me.
And gradually in the relationship, it turns around and we can say, Lord, how do you think about this? How do you feel about this? What's your thought about this matter?
And he gets in that way. We start to care about his thoughts first before our own.
He says to her, as he constantly does, as the Lord does to us in verse 4, Thou art beautiful, O my love, that there is for him a growing enjoyment.
Of her responses to himself. And those responses came in some cases through trial, through the difficult, painful experiences of life that gave her to respond in a way that increased his own joy and his own pleasure.
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Well, I think it's time to give place to another, so I'm just gonna make a couple of more remarks and stop.
Verse Chapter 6. Verse 10.
She stops talking about her love. She grows one more step here, she says. I'm my beloved and his desire.
Is toward me.
But verse 11 is wonderful.
Fantastic.
Where this relationship has gotten to?
You might say he's brought her on to the same page with himself to such an extent that he is now the full treasure of her heart, as she was the full treasure of his heart from the beginning of the relationship. And so in verse 11, it says she says.
Come.
My beloved, and let us go forth.
We looked to the Lord and we say, Lord, what do you want me to do?
What's your thought? What's your thought? What's your feeling? What's your heart in the matter?
She's now entered into such a relationship with himself of commonness, of feeling and heart that she says to him, Come, let us. She initiates the very thought of doing something.
I think most of us wouldn't say we've completely arrived. Or if I could put it this way, when is the last time you said to the Lord?
Lord, come, let us.
Through thus himself.
In other words, there's such a commonness of joy and heart, understanding and relationship that she's not afraid to say to him, let's do this.
Their hearts 1 treasure.
Who's the most satisfied when it gets there? Can you imagine the heart of him when she said that to him?
Can you imagine the heart of the Lord when you say to him, Come, let us?