Address—Josh Stewart
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Pin #170.
I just like this in the first core versus #170 and just in the last, last. So he comes from.
Saturday burns in the World is Lines.
Telling him about.
Thank you.
Joy, right now I have taken.
Number of times we just pray it would be something tonight that would be reached heart and each consciously and we just confess our our weakness and our need of dependence on the Lord Jesus. We know that.
Know that we don't know what's best for the audience but for Jesus we know that by heart and heart of love and it has a desire for us and we know that just what we need down to every last part so we just pray that I'm going to be something and brought up to him and very.
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Now we just ask this and pray for him. Am I working on his name or please?
Just like to walk around here to the meeting tonight. I'm also you cannot tell me my name is Josh Stewart and I like Andy and I have some Jack through the rest of New York and so why don't be here.
Just like to bring out something tonight that I really enjoyed.
You will enjoy it and it'll be incredible. I'd like to start with one verse in the Romans chapter 15 and the very wrong numbers, Romans chapter 15 and verse 4.
It says for whatsoever things were written full time were written for our written that lead through visions and comfort other scriptures. My husband.
Have to look at the Old Testament we don't often read and it's sort of like to go through and give an outline of the book. And I think there's a lot in there for our learning. There's a lot in there that will encourage us with a lot in there about the Lord himself and something too that will revoke her stir up on consciousness.
So before I come to the book, I'd just like to mention that one of the books I'm going to look at this evening for all the focus one of the poetical So you know, the Old Testament can be broken down into something 55 different sessions and the first time looks at Moses Tennessee.
Joshua through pastor was indeed a historical book. They did a history of people died of Israel and the boy meeting with Joe is on Tom and then after that comes of the major prophets. They have the Daniel and then the minor prophets, Joseph so some more they folks are very interested because they're poetic needed. He's been looking.
Paragraph highway. You can see that.
The the songs for example are into the song. The problems are written in the poetic media or something like the wise man does this, but who is man does that?
Song.
The reason I bring that out is because I know for myself, I often reflects, but they're really important. And and the reason is in the Old Testament we have the history of Israel and we had a lot of prophecy in the Old Testament in connection with Israel.
And in a timeline of events is laid out, but the poetic books give us the thoughts and the feelings of the people that are in those competitiveness, whether it be the Lord or these people. And so it's kind of like like a picture, like a color with lines, and you're supposed to fill in the lines of colors.
So the prophetic folks sort of give us those lines, right? The events. It's really nice that it would go back in to the the what it looks and, and, and here what these people are doing.
So now you're not calling in those lines. So they're they're really helpful.
So with that, we could turn back to the Song of Solomon.
This is a book that I really know what to do. And so maybe six months ago and I started to read through it and I wasn't really ordered up to me and really, really jokes.
So.
I wonder how many years you can do the raise your hands. I've read this book and come across in verse.
Quite a few. It is really helpful to have an outline of the book because once you sort of understand the flow of the book and what the subject is that it really helps you understand the verses that are that are kind of confusing them are to understand what they are. So the workshop will do that.
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So I'm going to.
Have a poster board here that has an outline.
It would be helpful for us to have this so we can refer to, so I'm just going to take this here.
I know I'd be hard for some people that are sitting on the sides to see. I hope. I'm sorry about that. Hopefully I can explain it almost to you if it's just a SO. As you can see here, I have 3 columns.
Two are part of, so we're going to uncover those details.
I'd just like to mention that the Song of Solomon, as we mentioned, is a song. It's really a dialogue between a slide group and a bride to a man and a woman. And as we go through the song, we hear their voices back and forth.
Once, weeks ago.
And it's really hard to know what's going on unless you know when the riser is speaking when the rising. So if you can sometimes go through this on the column, the reduced translation that has both paragraphs broken out and follow through and determine from who's keeping at this time, it's really helpful thing to do.
There's a couple other voices that you hear. This is a, this is a song sort of meant to be somewhere on stage almost where you have a man playing Solomon and a woman playing the bride, who's named, I believe she's called the Shoe Light. And of course, and the chorus is the daughters of the school. They're also called the virgins, in other words. So they're the course and you hear them at various times.
So. So this is a dialogue that goes back and forth between the bride and the bridegroom and tells a story of their love for each other, starting with the very first stage, which would be what we would call a dating relationship or as they used to call a courtship.
Maybe some people still have that from portrait and it goes right on through their their map, through their wedding.
And these are very one and it kind of needs them.
I don't try to recommend My wife lost.
We've been going off into the sun. It's just a beautiful.
So with the Lord's help, we'll just sort of trace this this through this column.
So as you can see.
We have broken down your progression from chapter one, verse two, through chapter 3, verse five, and down the fortune and the fortune.
The man and woman, what do you call him? A boy? The boyfriend and girlfriend? And he thinks what? Tell each other?
They tell each other how little communities are. They actually do want to be, and they do various things in support so we will feel what we can learn. That's not the primary thing I want to focus on, but that's that.
And then there comes a time when there's actual marriage already and there's wedding succession marriage. And then they they have.
I'm not going to go under too much detail under because I want to keep the family.
But then there's something that I have called post fighting period.
And this is something that.
And I don't want to get you getting marriage advice here. So I don't have a lot of experience. There's, there's something that I've heard, which is where after a honeymoon, it might be a month, it might be six months, it might be a year or two years that something comes into the marriage.
Into marriage, into marriage. And it's it's a really wonderful happy thing.
So after that, we have a deeper state of marriage that comes in the life of this couple.
So we see in the Song of Solomon.
The one who wrote it and by the Spirit of God really knew a lot about marriage. So a lot of things in here that might be helpful for you if you're married or about to get married, but but there's more than this and I'd like to mention that.
There's something in Scripture that we call inspiration and.
And it's this fact that the Spirit of God used the writers that wrote the Bible, and he had a message that he wanted them to confray. And there's something called an interpretation, which is when we understand what the Spirit of God was trying to say. And it's not always right on the surface. The Lord used parables where he tell a story, but he was really trying to say something. There was a message underneath, right?
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And this is one of those examples. This story is not just.
About a man and a woman and they're getting married and going into married life. So I think, I hope you can all understand that there's this is an allegory and there's something deeper than this.
So I'd like to, with the Lords, help talk about what that is, what that interpretation is.
And, and, and many have thought of the interpretation of the Song of Solomon is about the love of Christ for his church, for us as his heavenly bride. And, and I think that that's, that's a nice thought, but it's not the, it's really not the interpretation of this book, but it's a it's a nice application. And we'll talk about an application in a minute. I believe that the interpretation of this and, and we'll, we'll see it. And I think that you'll come to the same conclusion yourself. And if you don't tonight, maybe as you as.
On your own, it's really speaking about the love of Christ for his earthly bride, the Jews.
So we're going to have to talk a little bit about prophecy in order to understand this. If you don't, and I'm, I'm, I wish it could be, it could be simpler, but I'll try not to lose you. And I know that when we hear words like the remnant, sometimes we just turn off our minds and, and go to sleep. But see, it's really important to understand that first of all, this bride is, is, is the Lord's earthly people, but it's not all of his earthly people. It's not as earthly people in the Old Testament.
It's not as earthly people now, it's as earthly people in a future day, OK, sort of during the tribulation events and the peering of the Lord and the Millennium during that time that's coming in the future. And it's not all of his people. It's it's this group that we call the faithful Jewish remnant. So I know, resist the temptation to turn off your minds. What what is a remnant? Do we have any carpet layers in this room?
Anyone that deals with carpet. Anyone. No one. Oh, OK, Steve. All right. We got a few.
So a remnant, if I'm not wrong, is what you have when you get to the end of a roll and you need to cut it off.
Correct. It's a leftover piece, right? So it means you had a big piece and you cut a piece off. So that's what that's what this group of people is. They're a piece that's cut off from the rest. That's what I think of em. It's when you want to put carpet in your basement and you don't want to spend a lot of money, you buy remnants and you throw them on the floor.
So that's what these people are. They're a group that separated off from the rest. What happens to the rest of those people? Well, they're going to actually be judged and they're going to be killed, many of them, and punished. But there's a small group that's cut off. Usually we cut off the piece and throw it out, but this time they're going to be that piece is going to be separated off and they're going to be preserved. And they're the one that's pictured by this bride.
And I know that it's sometimes that can be hard to understand, but really?
A huge amount of the Old Testament, and even some parts of the New Testament are written with those people in mind.
And I believe that there's going to come a day when they're going to pick up this book, this the Bible, and they're going to read through it. And they're going to read in places like Matthew where it says he that hath an ear, let him hear. And they're going to understand this is for me, right? So I think a huge portion of the Bible, the book of Ruth is another example. There's another.
Marriage kind of story, Ruth. There is also a picture of of the Jewish remnant. Sometimes we apply it to the church, but that's really what the picture is of.
So I don't know if that helps you at all, but it really was a big help to me to understand that.
Umm. And so I'd like to, with that uncovered the second column.
Which I believe will sort of layout for you the what the interpretation might be and and this is sort of again is to the exact details of this.
You know, I'd appreciate others thoughts. This is what I've enjoyed as I've gone through it. And and there may be other ways to look at this, but this kind of weighs out for you sort of the breakdown of it. So the courtship phase that we talked about where the man and the woman are getting to know each other and they're they're growing in their love for each other. What that's really a picture of is the Jewish people in the Tribulation. So we know there's going to be a seven-year period of judgment.
That's going to come on this earth and the Jews are going to be back in their land. Some of them are already there.
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They're going to be back in their land and the Lord is going to start waking them up. It's going to start waking them up. And for those of you who are prophecy buffs, this corresponds to the Feast of Trumpets in Leviticus 23. But that aside, he's going to start waking them up and it's pictured by this bridegroom and his love, and he's drawing them, drawing them towards himself, and their affection is to start to ramp up, up and up as you see through these first couple chapters.
And they get to the point where they.
They can't live without each other anymore. And then we have the wedding. And so that's really what this is a picture of. And and then once we, when we have the wedding, the wedding procession and marriage, this really is a picture of the, of the Lord's appearing. Just like when the woman in this, in the Song of Solomon sees Solomon coming with his, his huge wedding procession that he has. That's like the Jewish people looking up and seeing the Lord come down and he's united with them.
And then there's this post honeymoon phase. That might seem kind of strange to you, but it'll make sense when we talk about there's going to have to be a time when the Jewish people come to full repentance for crucifying their Messiah. Although it's not the same literal people that were alive 2000 years ago. The Jewish people as a nation have crucified their Messiah. They rejected him and they don't.
Believe that he was there, that Jesus was their Messiah. But when they see him, they're going to realize.
We crucified our Messiah and they're going to have to repent from that. And that has to happen before they can go into the Millennium, right? That's got to happen 1St. And, and so that will happen and there's going to be a process of restoration and, and then they're going to be restored. And you know, they're going to be stronger in the relationship with the Lord after that than they were before that. And, and that's a really wonderful, wonderful truth.
And then and lastly, what corresponds to marriage deepening?
Is is the Jews are going to get even closer to the Lord than they were before, and you're going to see them do things like they're going to. They're going to view their relationship with the Lord in a different way. Instead of focusing on how much they love the Lord, they're going to focus on how much he loves them. That's a big difference, isn't it?
And they're going to start to do things like care about other people, which they hadn't done previously.
And you're going to see things that show us that their marriage is actually deeper than it was before.
And so with that, we're, I'd like to talk now about an application. And this is really, and I have it written in red because I feel like it's the most important thing. This is really my burden is that we would understand this, this application, okay. And, and really what it is, is instead of instead of the bride being the Jews, the bride is us as individuals. Now the Lord loves us as individuals and he works with us.
Sometimes in similar ways to the way he works with, he's working with the Jews.
And there's a lot of really important lessons that we can get from the Song of Solomon.
So the Lord in the face that corresponds now back again to the courtship.
He doesn't work of warming up our hearts, and he does that in many ways.
But he does it through his word. I think primarily he tells us about himself. He tells us about his love for us, what he's done for us. And you know, if we have the new life from God, then we're going to, we're going to respond to that and we're going to hear those things about the Lord and his love for us. And it's going to do something to our hearts and our affections for the Lord are going to ramp up just like the bride in the Song of Solomon.
And then there's these times that correspond, I think, to marriage where we have these.
These times of communion with the Lord, He's been drawing us. He's been drawing us, and then we come into His presence and we just sit with Him in His presence. And you know what? There's no higher experience than that on this earth for the believer than communion with the Lord. We're not there with Him yet, but we're there with Him now, and that's wonderful.
And then unfortunately, this doesn't have to happen, but coldness sometimes comes into our hearts. That corresponds to the post honeymoon Phase I was talking about. Coldness comes into our hearts through various reasons. And we're going to talk about those a little bit if we have time. And you know, it might just be spiritual laziness, but we.
For some reason, when the Lord knocks on our door, we don't answer, we say.
You know, I'm, I'm just, I'm happy doing the things I want to do, enjoying the things of the world, whatever it is, or just earthly things. And I don't want to answer. And that makes the Lord very sad. But he has something called restoration in 23rd Psalm. One of the things David said was the Lord restores my soul and the Lord will restore our souls too. And, and the interesting thing is.
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After we're restored, we're closer to the Lord than we ever were before. And you know, it's like when you break a bone, when you break your your wrist or your arm.
Now, can you ever break your arm in the same place again? No. Why? Why, Savannah? Do you know why?
It's stronger there, right? It's stronger in the place where you broke it after it's healed than it ever was before. And so once we're restored to the Lord.
Our relationship with him grows even deeper and, and, and that last phase corresponds to just just a happy life of the believer walking in communion with the Lord. And that's what he wants for each one of us. But oftentimes we have to go through this process.
So with that, with that aside, I'd sort of like to go through each of these, these four sections of the book. And and it's it's 830 almost. And so I'm just going to touch on a few things. I'm not going to go through every verse. I'm not going to go and tell you every time where the voice changes from the from the masculine to the feminine, but just touch on a few things.
By the way, I added up all the number of verses in the masculine voice in the man's voice and the number of verses in the in the woman's voice. Can you guess who talked more?
It was it was 60 to 40 for the woman.
Well, I think it's nice because the Lord wants to hear our voice. He wants to hear our voice and.
I don't think there's any sense in which that's improper. Sometimes women are more commutative than than we are as men.
And I think in the picture, the Lord wants to hear our voice, and we do hear her voice a lot in the Song of Solomon.
OK, so with that, let's go to chapter one, Song of Solomon.
In this courtship phase that we talk about here, you could kind of look at it in in two sections, subsections. I'm not going to get too much into detail with this outline, but the first one would be chapter one through chapter 2, verse 7.
And then the second one will be chapter 2, verse eight through chapter 3, verse 5.
And then the first one there, it's what you would call the assurance of love. They're assuring one another. They're kind of saying I love you, do you love me? Oh yes, I love you. So we hear that from couples that are engaged a lot.
And and that's normal, I think.
And then in the third section, it's really their affections are waking up. She actually has a dream in the third in that section. And she's she's looking for her husband. She doesn't find him. She and she goes out to look for him. And when she finds him, she doesn't let him go. And it's like she's she's at the point where it's time for us. It's time for them to be married there. And you know, there's such a thing as pacing yourself and.
Some of us didn't do such a good job with that, but.
It's important, you know, in a, in a relationship to to pace yourselves. But anyways, they get to that point and I don't want to, I don't want to go down that path into giving advice, but.
But they get to a point where their hearts are just knit together and it's at that time that the wedding occurs so.
Let's just let's just jump into.
Verse 2.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine, because the savour of thy good ointments, thy name is his ointment poured forth. Verse 4 Draw me, we will run after thee. So here he's this is the this is the bride speaking and she's saying she's talking about the love of her bridegroom. And I think you know, as the Jews read about the Lord's love for them.
They're just going to be amazed at it.
As they start to wake up, this is real, he loves us and they're going to read their history in the Old Testament and they're going to see that the Lord loves them. And I think that the first sign of life, you know, if I'm looking around at these, all these young people here and I remember.
We had this, this, this reading at a Palmyra conference a long time ago and there was a young brother there and I wasn't really sure if he had made a decision to go on for the Lord.
And then we were reading and just sharing what each one had enjoyed. And he said, the Lord just loves us so much. And he said, I can't wait till the day when I see his face. And I, I knew right then that this this person had decided to go on for the Lord. And I'm not saying that that's that there can never be, you know, backsliding. I'm not saying that, but it's a good sign when someone is occupied with.
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Lord's love for them.
Verse 5. This is one of these verses that sometimes we wonder about.
I am black, but commonly, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon, looked not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me.
So the word black here should really be translated dark. So what she's really saying is, I've been in the sun for a long time and I've gotten a tin. That's really what she's saying. Now. It's kind of funny because in the day that this was written, having a tan was not a good thing. It didn't make you look better.
It was considered an ugly thing to be to have a 10. Now women pay to get a 10. So it just shows you how much things have changed. But the reason the reason it was considered bad was because it has the thought of exposure. You know, you're out there and you know, it has the thought of of the exposure to the rays of the sun. We know it's not good for our skin to be in the sun for a long time. And and she's saying, I know, I, I know, you know, I'm a little darker than I should be because she.
With these details, right, she's, I know I'm not, you know, as fair skinned as I should be, you know, but she says, but I'm comely and she knows that despite, you know, these imperfections that she has, she's still beautiful in the eyes of her bridegroom and.
You know, that's really nice when a woman can be secure in a love of her, of her future husband. But what is this talking about? You know, the Jews can look back and they can say the sun hath looked upon me. That is through their own self will and their, their, their, their rebellion and refusal to obey God's word. They have experienced so much persecution.
It's hard to imagine that they're going to experience more, but the sad thing is, is what they're going to see is going to be worse than they've ever seen.
You know, I was reading recently the population of Jews in the world today has still not reached that, that the population was before the Holocaust, 2014, and the population is still not recovered to the point where it was before the Holocaust.
We can say that the Sun has looked upon them, but you know, in an application to us, can't we say the same thing?
That the sun has looked upon us. Do you have stars and your life? Do I have scars in my life that are a result of me not obeying the word of the Lord? He's told me the way to walk and I've disobeyed and as a result something has has happened and I have scars and it's true and and humility is a big part of this first section and yet.
We're still beautiful in his eyes, and to me that is just a wonderful truth.
And his eyes were beautiful.
Well, let's jump down verse 11. Here's another one that that you might not have understood before. This is the chorus. This is the Daughters of Jerusalem speaking. We will make the borders of gold with studs of silver. So in a wedding, oftentimes you have the bridegroom and the bride, and then you have these bridesmaids. And that's sort of what these are like in this chapter. And they're offering to make her jewelry for her wedding. This is fairly normal, we would say.
As you know.
If we if we take this as an application to us, there are those times of communion with the Lord, but then there is.
That preparation for that. And we have friends. We ought to have friends that are going to help us. They're going to make jewelry for us for that time when we're in the presence of the Lord. And I hope that today you have friends, young people that are sharing the word with you and sharing thoughts that they've enjoyed. That's sort of like filling the role of these daughters of Jerusalem. And, you know, and the Jews also are going to have friends of the Gentiles, I think that are going to encourage them.
And seeking the Lord and they're going to, as it were, make jewelry for her wedding. So again, I'm just skipping down here, but jumping touching on a couple things. Chapter 2 and verse 2.
This is this is an interesting portion. Song of Solomon 2, verse 2. As the Lily among the thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
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So this is the man speaking 1St and he's comparing his wife to be to all the other girls and he's saying basically she's the best looking girl on the block. And then the next verse as the apple trees, apple tree among the trees of the woods. So is my beloved among the sons. And then she says about her her husband that he's the best looking guy on the block. So.
We hear this too, right? From those who are hopefully still from those who are married, but especially from those that are engaged and and and so on.
It's interesting though, that he initiates it. He says it first and she follows. It's kind of a nice a nice order to things I.
And it's also interesting that.
When it's talking about him, it's more his stability and his character that I brought out and so much his looks. And I know as as guys, we, we do appreciate good looks and I think I'm sure girls do as well, but especially, you know, stability and, and character. So I think that's interesting, you know, and prophetically speaking, the Lord looks down on his people, the Jews.
And compared to all the other daughters, all the other nations.
He says.
As a Willy among thorns. And to him there's nobody like them. And I think the Lord looks down at us as individuals and he says, you know, to each one of you, He says, you know Caleb, you know, and Scott, there's nobody like you. I won't take anyone else. I won't take another one to substitute for you. It's got to be you. He wants you. He wants your fellowship. No substitute will do.
And then she turns and says to him, This apple tree among the trees of the woods, so is my beloved among the sons.
And we have to, we have to compare the Ward to all those other things in the world that could have our attention, all the idols, all the attractions, and there's nobody like him.
And we find one of the things of this book is.
Her telling others how much she thinks of her bridegroom, and that's something that we can do too, is tell others how much we think of the Lord.
Umm so now down in verse 10, my beloved spake chapter 2, verse 10 and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo the the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of a turtle is heard in our land. So on.
So this is what you would call a date. You know, he's coming to her house and he's saying, arise, come with me, let's go for, you know, a drive or whatever. Much more poetic and elegant. But that's that's the essence of what he's saying here.
And it's the Lord's invitation to love.
And I think this really brings out the Lord's deepest desire is to have us with him more than anything. And we know as as his heavenly bride, there's going to come a time when we're going to be called out, raptured out. And and that is his greatest desire. But you know, it's looking forward to the wedding too. You know, if if you were, if you're going on a date with your, you know, fiance.
It's a happy thing, right? But if you, if you didn't know that it would eventually ended marriage, it would be kind of sad, right? Well, it's looking forward.
We see this here, looking forward to the day of marriage. And, you know, and the Jews, you know, as they experience the Lord's love, are looking forward to that time when he's going to come and he will come too. And we're going to get to that. And I want to keep moving here.
Verse 14.
This is the bridegroom speaking. Oh, my dove, that art in the clefts of the rock, and in the secret places of the stairs. Let me hear thy countenance, let me hear thy voice, for sweet is thy voice, and my countenance is comely.
Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes. The Lord, you know, is saying here, come aside into this little crack in the rock, you know, out of the traffic. Come aside and let me hear your voice.
He says take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines so.
As we know, if any of you here have studied prophecy at all, you'll know that the the vine is a picture of Israel in the Old Testament, right? And we're going to see a beautiful ending to the story because in chapter one, she said, I have not kept my own vineyard. I've been keeping the vineyards of my neighbors. I haven't kept my own vineyard here. He has to say, you know, let's catch these little foxes that are running around because they're spoiling the vines.
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And.
A vine speaks of fruit because grapes grow on vines and these foxes have to be caught. We have to come into the, into the crack in the rock just this, this, this place out of the busyness of the world and catch these little foxes that are going to spoil the grapes. You know, there's, there are lots of little things in our life that if we don't judge them, we'll, we'll steal that joy of the Lord and will rob us and rob the Lord of the fruit that he's looking for.
So we need to, we need to catch those little foxes. And you know, the Jews as well, they have a lot of baggage, don't they? And we know that today. There's a lot of things that have gone on over a long period of time. And they're going to have to, they're going to have to judge those things.
Well, let's jump down to chapter 3, verse one. By night on my bed I sought him whom my soul loveth. I saw it in, but I found him not. I will rise now and go about the city and the streets, and in the broadways. I will seek him whom my soul loveth.
I saw him, but I found him not.
The Watchmen that go about the city family, to whom I said, saw ye, him whom my soul loveth. It was but a little that I passed from them, but I found him.
Who my soul loveth. I held him and would not let him go. So she she wakes up and you know, in a cold sweat, where is he?
You know, there are times when we're in the world and, and we wake up and we say, where is the Lord? And I was at a conference this past week and for work and it was, you know, all this stuff where they're trying to teach, teach you how to be a better leader. And, and it's just man's wisdom, you know.
And you know, it sounds pretty good, doesn't it?
But there are times when you wake up and you say, where's the Lord? I need the Lord, I need his presence. And we're so happy to be here this, this, this weekend and this week, however long we can be here because the Lord is here and we can enjoy his presence and enjoy his word together.
But she realizes that she can't live without him. She risks an expedition in the streets. You know, the Jews are going to risk persecution to find their their Lord. And you know, we're going to risk something too, to find the Lord. We're going to have to step out in the streets to, to seek him and to find him. And, and sometimes that might just be speaking up, you know, at at school or at work and saying, you know, I don't agree with what you just said.
Or, or when someone uses the Lord's name and a swear word, we we just say, you know.
I don't, I don't, I don't accept that. You know you don't. You would be. It wouldn't be OK if I use your name in a swear word. Why are you OK? I'm not OK with you using my Lords name on a swear word. It might be as simple as that. But sometimes when seeking the Lord we need to we have to risk an expedition in the streets.
Well, let's let's move on here. So now we're coming to the wedding, the second section here and.
It's interesting that.
Let's start with verse six. Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the powders of the merchant? Behold his bed, which is Solomon's 3 score. Valiant men are about it, The valiant of Israel. Stop there. I.
What is the Speaking of? We see. Who is this that's coming out of the wilderness with clouds of smoke around them? Who? What is the Speaking of? Well, Speaking of the Lord, what does it say? Behold, He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him speaking about the Lord's appearing. And and his bed is there, which is the place of fellowship for those who are married. And around this bed are valiant men.
And these men are there to make sure that Solomon gets what he's coming to get and the Lord.
Is he wants the fellowship of his people and nobody is going to get in his way. And what does it say when the Lord comes out of heaven in Revelation 1911? That's his appearing, it says. And all the armies which are in heaven follow him. Isn't that beautiful? The Lord's coming to have fellowship with with his people is coming to rescue them. He's coming in fellowship with them and nobody is going to get in his way. I don't care if it's the largest army that the world has ever seen and I think.
Probably will be. They're not going to be able to stop him. And you know, the word wants fellowship with you and with me. And if we want it too, we know he wants it. But if we want it too, I think that there's nothing that can stop that. That's a wonderful thing. That's a wonderful truth. If you want it, he'll have it.
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So let's let's go on now to.
Well, I won't, I won't talk much about it, but chapter 4 is really the consummation of the marriage. And I'm not going to go into detail about it, but each of each of them, the man or the woman, they have a garden in picture form and.
Really there's, there's, there's something in that garden which is reserved for the other one alone. And you know, you know, if someone else takes that, then the other one misses out on it. And it's very important that that be reserved for the other one.
And.
And I'll just say that you know at the end.
The spices flow out of her garden and and then she calls for for him to go into his garden and enjoy his pleasant fruits. And I think it's beautiful to see how the bridegroom puts the interests of his bride 1St. And I think that's a key. I think that's a key to marriage. But but how beautiful to think of the Lord here he is.
Enjoying this fellowship that he's been looking for for what, 3500 years?
And he's finally going to get it. But he puts the interests of his people first.
And then when he, when he has that that he is desired in verse in chapter 5 and verse one, 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, O friends, ye drink abundantly. O beloved, you know when the Lord is united with his people as earthly people, it's going to be like.
A curse is lifted from the world and he's going to say eat, O friends, and all the nations that love the Lord and his people are going to be blessed as a result. He's going to and socially sprinkle many nations. It says in Isaiah. And you know, I think this is illustrated too in the application to us.
That when we enjoy communion with the Lord.
That everyone around us is sprinkled with blessing, isn't that? Isn't that true? When we're in communion with the Lord, it's a blessing to everyone, and I think that's a very instructive thing for us.
In chapter 5, now we have this post honeymoon stage that we talked about. We're going to see how did this come about? How did it get so, so bad? Well, what happened was.
She was sleeping.
But her heart was awake, and there are times in our lives when we're asleep.
But we're we're conscious and the Lord knocks.
It is the voice of my beloved, that knock is saying, 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. And she says, I have put off my coat, how shall I put it on?
She's saying I've taken off my coat and it's just too much work for me to put it on again. And then she says I've washed my feet. How shall I defile them? I'm all, I'm all clean, you know, I don't want to get dirty just to go and answer the door.
And the Jews are going to have to look back, and sad to say, they're going to have to look back. And they're going to say that they let Luke warmness and ritualism keep them from answering to answering the Lord when he knocked the first time.
You know when he came, He was born in Bethlehem. He came into his own, and his own received him not.
And, and, you know, they should have answered, they should have recognized him, but they let these things get in the way. And as a result, he went away and he is gone now today he's not on this earth, but he's coming back again. And, and, and before that happens, they're going to have to seek him. OK, what happens, my beloved? Verse four put in his hand by the whole of the door and my bowels were moved for him. So he he drops his.
And there's a little opening where the string goes through the door to lift the latch. He put his hand right where that hole is. And she caught a glimpse of his hand and that touched her heart. And you know, this, this speaks to me of, of when we're, we're not, we're cold towards the Lord because of lukewarmness or whatever it is. And we see his hand.
You know, it says in Revelation, they shall look on him whom they pierced. And I think that when we see the Lord pierced for us, when we see what he suffered for us, so that he could have fellowship with us.
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That touches our hearts. There's no remedy like thinking on the Lord and His sufferings.
That will that will bring us to repentance and begin that process of restoration.
So she sees that and then she goes to the door and and my hand dropped with myrrh, my fingers. He he left us sent by the door. I mean, this is something that we, you know, don't do these days. This is something that they did. They would have a scent that they would leave and and, and her fingers are covered with this scent and she opened.
But my beloved in verse six had withdrawn himself and was gone.
And I'd just like to say that restoration is a process, you know, the moment that we say I'm sorry.
Things don't immediately get better again, do they? There, there is, there is a process and and the Lord wants to make sure that the work of repentance is deep. It's not just, you know, oh, I hurt you, I'm sorry. And then everything is better again right now on our part, when someone offends us, we need to be quick to to forgive and restore. But the Lord wants to make sure that it's deep and that it's real.
And so when she opens the door, he withdraws himself.
And so she goes out. Verse 7. The Watchmen that went about the city found me. They smoked me, they wounded me. The keepers of the walls took my veil away. In these days, if a woman was walking out in the street at night by herself, it was only for one reason. It's because she was up to no good. And so the watchman wound her. Their job is to protect the city, to keep it clean. And so they wound her.
You know, and that, I think is like when we go through the word of God after we've had a failure.
We go through it and we say, you know what, I'm taking away all the Shields and I'm just going to immerse myself in the scripture and it and if my conscience is pricked, then so be it.
And the Watchmen are like are like the word of God. They're to protect us. But if we get off the path, it will gently but but surely wound us and touch us and say no, He aggrieved the Lord. You know what you did wasn't all right and it cost the Lord something and we need that.
OK, so I really need to pick up the pace here. Let's jump down to.
Well, let's jump down to still in chapter 5, verse 9.
This is the daughters of Jerusalem saying, speaking again, and they questioned her, and they say, oh, you're repentant. What is thy beloved more than another beloved? What is so good about your husband? What's so special about him?
And you know, it's beautiful to see her response. What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Her response, my beloved is and she goes on to tell all these wonderful things about her beloved. And you know, there's nothing I think more beautiful to to see that repentance has been done when someone is just wants to talk about the Lord, you know, when repentance isn't really deep.
We kind of talked about ourselves, don't we? We just tend to talk about ourselves. But here this one just says, you want to know about my beloved? I'll tell you about them and she talks all about them. And this is this is beautiful. And and you know, there are hours and hours we could spend on all these pictures in the Song of Solomon, but they speak of Christ and all of his characteristics. But I just want to give an give an overview today.
Umm, so they, they're, they're confident the Jews are confessing Jesus as their Messiah. And that's important. We're, we're, we're willing to confess Jesus as our Lord. Well, beginning in chapter 6 and verse 13 through chapter 8 and verse 4.
We see an interesting characteristic.
We're we're down here now, we're after the the post honeymoon phase. We're down in this this section now where marriage is is deepening and we're going to see several things.
That are a result of this process one is that she views marriage differently than she did before and she views the love of her husband differently than she did before, earlier, she said.
I am, let's see, she said earlier, before I am my beloved. No, she said, my beloved is mine and I and I am his. So she started off by saying the Lord is mine and I am his. Let's jump down to verse. Let's see ten, she says. I am my beloved and his desire is toward me.
She doesn't even talk about her love. And I think that's that's the sign of growth, right? She's talking less about her love for the Lord and she's just thinking about him and the fact that his desire is toward her. So this really shows that she's growing.
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And then in chapter 8 and verse five, we see that starting in verse five down to verse 7:00, we we find that she has a, a deeper understanding of love. And this is something that we we grow to learn more and more about as we as we go on in, in life.
Verse six set me as a seal upon thine heart, and as a seal upon thine arm. For love as strong as death. Jealousy is cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of fire, which have the most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods ground it.
And.
When we understand what the Lord did for us.
I think that we understand, although we don't fully understand it. It passes knowledge, but we understand its character, and that's what she sees here. It's cruel, it's strong as death, and the Lord would go all the way to death for us.
As cruel as the grave, the Lord would go all the way to death and then down into the grave for us.
Many waters cannot quench love and we might apply that to the the waters of judgment on Calvary where the Lord suffered for sin and and that would not stop him.
And she realizes that all she wants is to have herself set as a seal upon his heart and upon his arm. She realizes that, you know, all she could really want is to be set as a seal upon his arm, which speaks of his strength, and on his heart, which speaks of his love.
And well, I wanted to touch briefly on the last couple of things.
Verse 8. This is another one of these things that you may have wondered about. What is this talking about?
We have a little sister. She had no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we will build on her palace of silver. If she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar. So what is this talking about?
Well, she's returned home and she has a little sister.
And her little sister has a problem. And you know the Jews when they are restored.
And the restoration, by the way, for prophecy buffs is corresponds to the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 23. But after she's restored, something happens, a major event in prophecy. What is it?
It's the 10 tribes that were scattered, returned to the land.
And that's her little sister, those 10 tribes. But they have a problem. They have matured the way she has. Why? Because they weren't in the land, they were scattered. They weren't there when the Lord was crucified. They were not the ones that said away with this, away with this man, although they are still guilty of idolatry, which is why they were, which was why they were scattered. So they still have repenting to do, but they they have not gone through this whole process that we've been talking about.
And so they're not matured yet.
But she says what will we done for her in the day? She said I want her to have the same relationship that I have And isn't this a nice thing when you see this in a in a young person or or anyone that's a believer that has enjoyed communion with the Lord when they say when they find another person that is younger in the faith.
And they say I want you to know and enjoy what I've experienced.
That is a really nice.
Sign that this person is is the Lords, they, they have a concern for others. She comes home and she says, wait a minute, I have a little sister. What will we do for her? And what does she do for her? She says if she'd be a wall, we'll build on her palace of silver. If she'd be a door wheel and close it with boards of cedar, we'll do whatever we can to help her.
And and, and you know what, your friend might be a wall, they might be a door. Do whatever you can to build them up spiritually. That's something you can do for the Lord. And I think it's a really nice, really nice work for for those of us who are believers, we all have those that were friends with some younger in the faith and we can do what we can to encourage them.
And lastly, in verse 12, this is talking now about what Israel will be to the Lord and the Millennium. My vineyard, which is mine is before me, O Solomon must have 1000. So this is talking about the Millennium. We hear the the word 1000. You know it's talking about the Millennium. Thou that dwellest in the gardens. The companions hearken to thy voice caused me to hear it.
And finally, sorry, skip verse 11.
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Is talking about the fruit of her vineyard was to bring 1000 pieces of silver. Finally Israel is a fruitful vineyard after all this time and and in the millennia of Israel finally after 3500 years, it's going to produce fruit and be fruitful to the Lord and that's going to go on into the Millennium.
And lastly.
Now that dwells in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy voice. Cause me to hear it now. Is it any surprise to us that the wife has the last word?
But you know, it's, I think this is really special because.
The Lord wants us to have the last word, and I think in a way, throughout all eternity, our praise.
Is going to as brother Darby put in that him throughout creations vault. It's going to echo those praises are going to echo and and in a sense we do have the last word and what it what is it? It's our voice being heard by the Lord. And I think this is this really summarizes his desire is to have fellowship with us to enjoy communion with us and to hear our voice.
And praise and worship, that's what he wants to hear.
You know that Him says the Bride is not her garment, but her dear bridegrooms face. I will not gaze that glory, but on my King of grace, not at the crown he giveth, but on His pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory of Emmanuel Lamb.
Another hymn says we'll see thee soon, Lord Jesus, amid the ransom throng, His glory, joy and beauty.
His never ending song, Oh day of wondrous promise. The Bridegroom and the Bride.
Are seen in glory ever. Forever satisfied. You know we're going to be with him forever.
And we're going to be satisfied forever. And it's just a really wonderful way that this book closes.
And so maybe we could sing the last two verses.
Of #170.
Verses 5 and six of 170.
Tis thy heavenly bright and spirit.
Jesus, Lord.
Thunder Beyond.
All thy glory to inherent and to take home.
Oh, Christian. All Christian.
Travels till I shall come.
Travel mills Groves Hill downstairs Come.
Here, all men's let's all our joy.
Well, maybe there's someone here tonight that, you know, has had difficulty understanding some of this. But, you know, really, it's, it's the story of two hearts.
And we've seen it in picturing the Lord and his earthly people, Israel.
But it's really the story of your heart and the Lord's heart and his efforts.
To draw you to himself.
And my burden tonight is if there's someone here that's had a coldness that's come in due to whatever it might be, that we would follow this story through. We see his hands pierced for us, our hearts should be drawn out with love, and that we could be restored to happy communion with him.
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We're going to, we're going to be with him forever, to enjoy his presence forever.
Let's close in prayer.
Our loving God and our Father, we thank thee for thy word. We thank thee for the fullness of thy word. All these pictures that we.
So feebly understand, but we just pray that we would take something away from this, maybe not the whole thing, but just something to encourage our hearts. And especially think of many young people and young families here. Just pray that if there's something that's come into our hearts.
Some coldness where we haven't risen to answer the knock that tonight we would just.
Put whatever that is aside and get up from our beds and see His hands Pierce for us and that we would be restored to happy communion with our blessed Lord Jesus. We just pray for a blessing on my word, and we ask this in the worthy and precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.