Mike Bickle emphasizes God's loving discipline and safe leadership in the context of the Song of Solomon, illustrating how the bride's journey reflects our own spiritual growth. He explains that God's discipline is not rejection but a call to maturity, urging believers to rise from their comfort zones and engage in a deeper relationship with Him. Bickle highlights the importance of obedience and partnership with God, reassuring that even in moments of spiritual dryness, God desires to help us grow. The sermon encourages believers to seek God's presence actively and to understand that His leadership is ultimately safe and filled with love. The message concludes with the reminder that our love for God crowns Him with joy, reflecting the intimate relationship He desires with His people.

Solomon chapter 3, Song of Solomon chapter 3. We're on session 7 and a 12 part series of the Song of Solomon. Now in 12 sessions you can only just kind of abbreviate what this book is about but it's enough to get you started and if the Lord touches your heart then you can go deeper and again the truths of this natural love song, the only truths that we're focusing on are truths that that can be established in the New Testament. And so some people wonder does that symbolic thing really mean this and I go well maybe it doesn't but as long as it's a New Testament principle you're on solid ground if that's what you're laying hold of. So Father I ask for the spirit of revelation even now I ask for impartation of your heart and we thank you in Jesus name, Amen. Well just a quick review of our last session chapter 2 verse 8 to 17. The bride or sometimes I refer to her as the young maiden, she received a new revelation, a new insight into the king and she saw him as the Lord of all who has power over every obstacle. This was a new insight because she had grown to know him as the one that sits with her under the shade tree at the table behind the wall and just interacting with her in a private way as she's discovering the beauty of God, discovering her identity in the beauty of God, discovering the delightfulness of the presence of God and the last thing that said to her in that section was nobody disturb her. That's in chapter 2 verse 1 to 7. Then in verse 8 some time passes he disturbs her. He says now that you're established in this beginning revelation of the beauty of God, the love of God, your identity, the presence of God, now I want you to rise up and partner with me. Don't forsake that interaction with me at the table. You're going to maintain that grace all your days but I want you to add to it. I want you to partner with me and go forth with me in the mandate the Father gave me to disciple the nations. That's the general flow of what's going on. So here in chapter 2 verse 8 she sees him. Behold it's a brand new revelation, a brand new insight. He's not sitting at a table under a shade tree. He's leaping on mountains. She goes I don't like heights. I don't like mountains. This is remarkable. She's like a gazelle, a young deer leaping on the mountains and then in verse 10 he looks and he says I want you to rise up and come with me. She goes rise up. No, no, no. I want to stay here at the table. I don't want to rise up and go on mountains. He called her out of the comfort zone. She called her out of that place of familiarity, the comfort zone to join him on the mountains of risk. And again we looked at that with a little bit of detail to it in the last session. Paragraph B in verse 17 she refuses him. She says no I can't. I can't. She tells him in verse 17 turn and you go jump on the mountains without me. He goes no, no. I want you with me. Now the Lord doesn't need us in order to manifest his power in the earth. He wants us. He desires partnership. It's his desire to use us. Not that he can't display his power without us. He just doesn't want to. He goes I want you with me when I conquer the mountains. Well she draws back because of fear. And this fear is an expression of her spiritual immaturity. It's spiritual immaturity which is very different from rebellion. And sometimes when we wrestle and struggle the enemy comes and says you're just a rebel and we draw back in shame. We give up in despair. It's not worth it. It's not going to work anyway. I'm just a rebellious sinful person and the Lord whispers and he says no, no, no, no. You're struggling. Ask me to help you. Let me stand with you. You're immature. You're afraid. You're hesitating in fear. You're not rebellious. I love you my beloved. I will help you. And that's what he's doing here in chapter 3. He's helping her. He's breaking in to help her. So paragraph C. What happens in chapter 3 verse 1 is that he does respond to her but he responds in loving discipline. That's actually his help on the front end. He's not angry at all at her. But she says by night on my bed I sought the one I love. I sought him but I did not find him. Well she's still under her bed. He says I want you on the mountains. What are you doing back at the camp? I don't want you at the base camp. I want you with me. Not in the garden. On the mountain. She goes well I'm going to keep seeking you like I've always done it. And he says well that's good but you're not going to find me because I'm trying to wake you up. So I'm going to withdraw some of my manifest sense of my presence on your heart to disturb you, to trouble you, to make you ask questions. And the very hunger for my presence will cause you to discover the place of obedience. That that's the only place of safety. So she's seeking him like the former months. You know those previous months. But this time she's not finding his delightful presence. Something is different. How come I'm doing the same thing? I'm talking to you. My Bible's open. And he says because I am charging you. I'm wooing you to a greater place of obedience. And I want to get your attention. This is his loving discipline. But he's not angry. That's not what's going on all through even chapter three. He's communicating his love. He's jealous that she would rise up in maturity. And I tell you when the Lord is jealous for us to mature, there's no argument we're going to have with him that's going to cause him to let go of that. He's going to stay with it. And I've seen people try to wrestle with the Lord. But I want you to know he's state champion wrestler. Plus some. He's going to win every wrestling match because of love. Not because of power. Because he could easily pin us. That's not the point. Because he loves us. He goes I'm going to keep wrestling with you until you wake up and you rise up and believe me. And you will see that I really will be there to help you. And I will show you more of myself. Roman numeral two. The Lord's discipline is not the same as his rejection. When the Lord disciplines her, he's not rejecting her. He's not angry at all. Matter of fact, he's disciplined because he is so committed to her. In God's paragraph A, in God's jealousy for us, he requires us to obey light as he gives us more light. Scale of one to ten, we start off at level one and we have the light. And we go wow, we're obeying all the light we have. And then level two, he's just like the magnifying glass. He turns up the microscope, so to speak. And oh, we thought everything was clean. Now we have more light. We see more areas or we see greater challenges. And then it disturbs us and we say yes. And then we get to level two. Then he gives us more light. He keeps giving us more light. But in that greater light, we have a greater capacity to experience him as well. So somebody says, well, more light means more response. Why don't I just stay dumb and unconnected and just not, you know, have to respond more. Well, if you get more light, you experience more too. Your capacity increases, not just the requirement of partnership with him at a deeper level. Jesus said in Matthew 4, he says, if you respond, I'll give you more. If you use what I give you, I will give you more. You walk in the light you have, you'll get more light and you'll experience more of my heart. James chapter 4, this is such a important passage for Song of Solomon chapter 3. It says in James chapter 4 verse 5, the spirit who lives in us, he yearns jealously for us. The Holy Spirit in you is jealous. He goes, I'm not letting you go until you rise up on my terms. Because I love you. I see the glory that God has planned for you. I see the relationship the Lord wants with you. And I'm going to help you, beloved, when the spirit jealously yearns for you to respond more. And you love him. Now, if you don't love him, that's one thing. But if you love him, which, I mean, the vast majority, if not everyone in this room does, that jealous yearning is going to prevail. And he'll give more grace. Look at verse 6. He gives more. In verse 8, if we draw near, he will respond and draw near. We say, yes, he will release more and more to us and through us. Paragraph B, one of the key messages in the Song of Solomon is that God enjoys his relationship with us, even in our weakness. He actually enjoys the relationship, his relationship with us, even in our weakness. That's one of the profound messages of this book. Of course, that's the doctrine of grace. He doesn't only enjoy us after we mature. He enjoys us while we're in the process of maturing. That's what gives us courage to keep moving forward. He enjoys us. Now, because he enjoys us doesn't mean he approves of everything we're doing. Some people get confused. Because God enjoys them, they think he approves of them in everything they're doing. He can disapprove of an area, but enjoy you. He can enjoy the person. There's areas in my life over the years, he says, I don't approve of that, but I do enjoy you. And because I jealously yearn for you, I'm not letting you go. I'm gonna hem you in. I'm gonna get your attention. And there's times he even withdraws the sense of his presence from our heart. His presence is always there, but that discernible feeling, and we go, oh my gosh, oh God, I can't live without it. He goes, now we're talking, because I knew you loved me. I'll do anything now. He goes, okay, now we're talking, because I want you, and I know you want me. Now, come on, rise up. That's what's going on. The end of paragraph B, the Lord can disapprove of an area of our life without being displeased with us as a person. He can be displeased with an area, but he enjoys the person. And beloved, when you feel enjoyed, you run to him. You don't run from him in your struggle. This was a one of the most significant life-changing points of understanding the Lord helped me with some years ago when I understood, began to understand, he actually likes me. Then I didn't want to run from him and hide from him and come up with Bible verses to validate carnality. I wanted to run to him, because I had this understanding he really liked me. And I really like people who like me. How about you? There's just something about someone who likes you that warms your heart. I tell you, nobody likes you more than he does. He actually likes you. He didn't just stamp your passport. He actually enjoys the relationship. That is one of the most difficult things for some people to grasp. They just can't go there. They just, they restrain, they hold back, they hold back, and it hinders their spiritual growth until this truth really gets anchored in their heart. Paragraph D, top of page 2. Jesus loves his people. Paragraph D, he loves his people even as he rebukes them. Even as he calls them to repent. Did you know he can rebuke you and call you to repent, but have feelings of love and enjoy the relationship. Look what he says right here in Revelation 3. He goes, it's to the people I love that I rebuke. He goes, I chasten you, I discipline you because I love you so much. I'm so committed to you. That's why I rebuke you. Because in the, our human experience, typically a correction means a rejection. But not so with God. Correction does not mean rejection. It's opposite. It means he's committed to the relationship. I tell you when we, when you need to get nervous is when you're living in sin and you don't feel any correction. Then you're in trouble. When he's silent, that's trouble. When he's intervening, you're on safe ground. There's a time though when the Lord says, okay, I'll let you have your way. Go forward. That's a disaster. That's when a person's in trouble spiritually. When he quit, when the Lord quits talking. And I don't mean when you can't discern his voice because in our spiritual, in the early days of our spiritual life, there's all kinds of reasons we can't connect with that. I'm not talking to a new believer, first couple years in the Lord, and you're having a hard time discerning his presence. I'm talking about something different than that. I'm talking about a believer that's been walking with him for years, and they're living in persistent sin consistently, and they go, I don't feel any rebuke. I go, that is an absolutely dangerous place to live. That's a sign of danger when you're there. Look at paragraph E. The Lord feels the pain of the people he disciplines them, I mean the people he disciplines. He still considers them his dearly beloved. Look what he says in Jeremiah 12. I mean this is fantastic. What God, about God's heart. He calls Israel as he's, I mean he is bringing the most severe judgment on Israel in the Old Testament. The Babylonian captivity in the time of Jeremiah. I mean there was nothing more severe when the nation of Babylon came in and destroyed the city of Jerusalem. But here's what God says about this most horrific judgment on the city of Jerusalem. I have given the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of the Babylonian army to her enemy, only to wake her up. But she is ever, forever the dearly beloved of my soul. I mean what a statement. Then look at Isaiah 63. He was afflicted when they were afflicted. His heart was pained when they were in this pain. He says my heart hurts that you're hurting, but I love you and I'm not backing away. I'm not backing away. Paragraph F. We neglect to confront sin in our life. We're not loved less by God, but we do suffer loss. Beloved, you live in a season of sin where you just, I mean I'm not talking about immaturity. I'm talking about you just, you know there's an area and you're just not concerned with obeying the Lord in it. He doesn't love you less. You're not earning his love by obeying him. But I want to assure you, you will suffer loss. There are things that you could have experienced and could have had in God that you will not have had in that season of your life. Paul talks about on the last day. I mean standing before Jesus. Talking about believers with resurrected bodies. On the day of the judgment seat of Christ, he talks about they'll be saved, but they will suffer loss of that which was within their reach, even in their weakness. Beloved, I don't want to live in any sense of regret. I mean Jesus has such grace. He's not talking about immaturity. He's talking about these believers that take a year or two or three or four and they just camp maybe in their immorality for a while. Or they just camp in resistance against him. And they know what they're doing and he says, man you will suffer loss from those years. Now the relationship can fully recover, but you'll never gain the years that you lost. I've heard preachers say many times, and you'll recover everything that's lost. In terms of his love, you never lost it. You can't recover three years of sin as a believer. There is no recovery of those three years. They're lost. Now you can learn from it and take the next three years and go harder, but there really is loss. And some people don't like that idea because it bothers them, and it's supposed to bother them. That's the point of why it's in the Bible. Roman numeral three. Well here she is, verse one. It's a brand new experience for her. On my bed I sought the one I love. Here's the new experience. I sought him. I'm reading my Bible. I'm talking to him. Doing all the things I've done the last few years, but now I can't find him. Why? He told her in the last passage, rise up and come with me. Look at verse two. She begins the process. I will arise. There you go. She says, okay, okay, I'll rise. I'll go to the city. I'm not ready for the mountain, but I'll go to the city. I'll come out of the garden, and I will take the first steps. So here in chapter three is her beginning of obedience to this new challenge. It's partial obedience. I mean, she's moving forward. It's real. It's going to bring change in her life. It's not until chapter four that she goes all the way to the mountain. But here in chapter three, look, I will arise now. I love that word now. I will go. I'll leave the garden. I'll go to the city. I'll interact in the midst of the purpose of God and the people of God, and I'll get involved in serving and believing and take the risks. Man, you know what the risks of ministry are about. When you endeavor to serve people, you'll disappoint them. People get a sense of failure. They say, what if I start and serve, and I get the disapproval of the people I'm trying to serve? If you do serve, you will get criticized. I know not a lot of believers. I mean, it's near 40 years now of pastoring. A lot of believers, they say, no, I'm not doing that no more. I tried that serving, and the thanks I got for it. Beloved, that's part of what the risk is about. In the midst of serving, we get overlooked. We get unappreciated. We get passed by. Things go wrong. Things don't work out the way we think. It's harder than we thought. We get criticized like, you know what, I'm going back to the garden and just pushing the lead on everything and just going to watch some TV and read my Bible a little bit and just be in the Lord. That's what the Lord's saying, don't do. Don't do that. I want you to rise up and bear the rigors and the risks of being involved in the midst of what I'm doing because there'll be pain. There'll be difficulty. There'll be sacrifice because we're in a fallen world interacting and ministering with fallen people to fallen people, and there's all kinds of struggles in that. Well, she, paragraph C, she goes, I didn't find him. Sometimes he withdraws a measure of his manifest presence on our heart. Just a measure. He never leaves us. Never. Ever. But I'm talking about that discernible feeling of his presence. I can't live without that feeling of his presence. I don't always have it in an intense way. And in my early years, I loved the Lord and I had a sense of his presence and then I remember I lost that sense of his presence. I was really panicked. Really panicked. And it went a few months and I just couldn't have any sense that he was even real. And here I'm preaching Bible studies and witnessing to people and I couldn't. And then a season came and it recovered again. I went, oh, that was, I was so afraid. That was so horrible. Then some time passed. I don't know how much time, some months or a year or two. And then it happened again. That sense of, oh, I was, I felt that dark hole again. Like, and dark holes may be a little exaggerated, but I, where I couldn't feel him. I couldn't, it didn't make sense of his heart. Reading the word didn't touch me at all. And worshiping didn't move me. And I got panicked again and then it recovered again. And since that time, I have learned that when there's those times of darkness, of staleness and barrenness, I search out my relationship with the Lord. I stay with it because it always returns. But the first time or two, it freaked me out. I mean, I thought it was, I don't even know if I believe this anymore, you know? And then the Lord's sweetness came back. I go, oh, what was all that about? Lord, I don't like that feeling. I know that most of you have had that feeling a time or two, but I want to tell you as having stayed with it for some years, that sense of his presence will return. If you stay with it, he wants us to experience that, but on his terms. He says, I want you to relate to me on my terms. And when I, when I give you new challenges of obedience, I want you to take hold of them and not to draw back on your own terms. So sometimes he withdraws a measure of his presence to get our attention. She's now learning that prayer is no substitute for full obedience. Some people think if they pray more, they throw in a fasting day, they can, you know, dabble in their immorality and they can cast off humility. If they go to some prayer meetings and lead on a worship team, they can disobey on some areas and just stay with it. And hey, I'm going to pray a little bit more. I'll just read the Bible more. Beloved prayer is no substitute for saying yes to him in your heart. And some folks, it takes him a while to figure that out. He wants partnership. Prayer is not just an activity. Once you do prayers about partnership, he loves the relationship. That's what he's into. Let's go to a paragraph F. She says, I will arise now. The bride added obedience to her prayer, the spirit of obedience. And again, it's, it's only, he didn't say rise up to the city. He says, come to the mountain. She doesn't do that till the next chapter, but she's moving in the right direction. I mean her, she's conquering your fear. She's willing to bear the risks and the rigors of these new challenges of obedience and this new involvement with people where there's pain and there's times of rejection and misunderstanding and people say wrong things about you. And again, over the years, I've just seen so many people retreat from an active involvement in the body because they didn't get the reception they thought they should have received. And they spend years just on the sidelines in their spiritual life instead of being engaged. And the Lord says, I want you rising up, get in the city, go on the mountain, which are these different word pictures of get involved with what I'm doing and don't draw back because it's difficult and there's rigors to it and there's risk to it and there's those kinds of things. The pain of losing a little bit of the sense of His presence moves her to get off her bed. I mean the Lord has you. He has me because I love Him. So if there's a lifting of His presence, I have no option. What is going on? He goes, I knew you loved me. I knew you would press through because you love Him more than you love staying in the comfort zone. You love Him more than the comfort. On the front end, our fear makes us hesitate. Little wrestling match, we do break through when we press in. And you want to be one of those people that you're resolved. I am going to press in. I am not going to settle and camp out in a spirit of compromise and lethargy and just kind of living on the outer edges of obedience or less than that. I'm being generous. No, we're not going to be that way. We're going to press in and we're going to go to the city, go to the mountain and we're going to be involved in what He's doing, no matter if we don't get the kind of responses from God or from people that we think that we should get. Let's look at the top of page 3. Now the bride found the king. After the bride arose to the city, then she asked for the watchmen, the shepherds, to help her. And I got a bit more of this on the additional notes. On most of these messages, I have a longer document of 10 or 12 pages where I break down a lot more detail than I'm giving you in this shorter, these teaching notes here. Verse 3, the watchmen who go about the city. The watchmen speak of the leaders in the city, the spiritual leaders. They found me and I said, hey, have you seen the one I love? Can you help me connect with the Lord? She's talking to the spiritual leaders. Can you help me connect with the Lord? In New Testament language, that's what she's saying. And scarcely had I passed by them. I found Him. And when I found Him, I would not let Him go until I brought Him into the house of my mother. So there's two things that's happened here. Number one, she's arisen off of her bed. She's in the city and she's interacting with the spiritual authorities instead of neglecting them and living in isolation. And immediately after she takes a few steps in the right direction, it's like I tell people that if you take one step towards the Lord, He'll take 10 steps towards you. She rises up. She casts off this spirit of independence from the spiritual leaders and she goes, I'm going to be involved. I'm going to be in a spirit of connectedness. I'm going to go in the right direction because back in chapter one, he talked about that she needed, and I got this on the additional notes or back in chapter one, you can review it. Chapter one, verse eight, when she said, where will you feed me? He says, I'll feed you in the place where you're feeding other people. You're following in the footsteps of the flock. You're involved in the body of Christ. You're by the shepherd's tent. You're in a spirit of right relationship with spiritual leadership. All these things are necessary in order for us to be fed and to go forward in a right way. Well, she's rising up and she's connecting with the watchman with a right attitude and a right response and immediately says in verse four, scarcely had any time went by and I found him. She goes, it's working. Again, you take one step in the right direction. The Lord will take 10. He'll meet you. And she goes, I held on. I love this verse. I held him. I wouldn't let him go. She goes, I held on to him tenaciously and I was not going to let him go till I brought him to the house of my mother. Paragraph C, the watchman speak of the spiritual leaders who guard the wall, who protect the city, the people, et cetera, et cetera. Paragraph D. She said, I would not let him go. She had this new resolution or you could put the word determination. She goes, I'm never ever going to go back and camp out in compromise. I'm never going there again. I don't like the way my, uh, my spiritual life was when I was having, when I was drawing back from what he was telling me, I don't want to live that way. Then she says, I'm never going to let go of him. I'm never ever going to, to be half hearted in my response. Paragraph E, the house of my mother. Now the mother, you can read the notes here and more on the additional notes. The mother speaks of the church and the body of Christ. And she's saying, I'm going to hold on to him and I'm going to even bring him into the house of my mother, into the most familiar relationships because in the most familiar relationships, it can be sometimes the most difficult to be a faithful witness to the Lord. I mean, sometimes if you know the folks a little bit, you can kind of, you know, as you can say what you believe and take a stand. But sometimes in those most familiar relationships, they roll their eyes and they go, Hey, you don't really know all this stuff about God. And what are you acting like? You know what you're doing. And it's really easy to draw back in that context. She goes, I am so tenacious. I'm going to even bring him in the most difficult situation, the most familiar relationships in the, in the negative sense where I would be to have a tendency to draw back on my convictions. I'm going to take a stand even in the house of my mother. I'm going to bring him where I typically have not brought or ministered or took a stand for his name. Let's turn to page four. Well, now we're going on to verse six to 11. So now the Lord is, she's awakened in her, in her obedience and she's connecting to the watchman. She's moving in the right direction. She's involved in the body. She's serving people is the idea. She has a right relationship to spiritual authority. And I tell you, spiritual authority is an important reality. The whole kingdom of God has a principle of honoring authority, whether it's honoring the authority in the home, the authority in the marketplace, the authority in the church, the authority, uh, in, in, in the society and the government, God is a God of Thor of authority. And what the enemy strategy is for lawlessness to fill the earth. That's what he wants to do. And God wants us to honor delegated authority. He delegates it in numbers of ways. Again, in the family, in the marketplace, in society, through government, in the church, there are recognizable delegated authority. It's important that our spirit is right and not resistant and independent with a rebellious attitude. Now that's not a, a, a, a, a, a, a truth that a lot of folks focus on, but it's a powerful New Testament truth. It's not real popular today. It's easier just to throw off the government. Even though we challenge government, we do it in respect to authority. Even though things might not be right in the home, we can honor authority even while we challenge things in a right way. Same in the marketplace. Your, your employer is looking one way, no one sees you, and you cast off the, the things you've committed to under his authority pertaining to the job I'm talking about. And as long as it's not calling you to any area of compromise, we honor authority in all the different spheres of life and society. Well paragraph A, the next section of the book, chapter 3, verse 6 to 11, now she sees Jesus, King Jesus is revealed to the bride as a safe savior. See, he was Lord of the nations. He was the one leaping on, on mountains, the last section. Now he's revealing himself as the safe savior, meaning the one, his leadership is good. His leadership is safe. If you obey him, she's going to find out that's the only place of safety is the place of obedience. There isn't another place of safety. And again, I'm not talking about our immaturity and struggling, because even then we're reaching for obedience, we have a spirit of obedience, even though we're wrestling through that still, from the Lord's point of view, is that spirit of obedience. I still am considering that in the vein of a spirit of obedience. Well she gains new insight into his safe leadership. Now when I mean that his leadership is safe, I don't mean you won't have difficulties. Some people think that safety means everything goes their way. No, no, it doesn't go your way. But it will be safe for your heart spiritually. Meaning in the place of submission to his leadership, your heart will be safe. You won't draw back in bitterness. You won't fall into a spirit of compromise as a lifestyle. Your heart will thrive and be vigorous in the things of God. That's what I mean by safety. It doesn't mean everything will go right, and all the money will come in just like you want it, and everybody honors you, and everybody treats you right. That's not the safety I'm talking about. I'm talking about spiritual safety. And of course the Lord does give safety in other ways as well, but there really are martyrs who really die physically in a full obedience to the Lord, but their heart is completely safe. There's no trace of compromise in them. And when they stand before the Lord, their testimony is so glorious, that's what I mean by safety. Paragraph B in this next section, verse 6 to 11, first the Holy Spirit asks a question, then there's a two-part answer to the question, and then there's an exhortation. So there's really three different things going on here. There's a question, there's a two-part answer, and then there's an exhortation. Let's look at middle of page 4. The Holy Spirit asks a searching question, verse 6. And I believe this to be the Holy Spirit through this poetic language, and I got a little bit as to why here and a little bit more on the additional notes. Three times in the book this person that's unnamed asks a question representing the King and wooing the bride to obedience to the King, but it's an unnamed person. Nobody knows who's asking the question. And all through the Scripture the Holy Spirit is this invisible one that's always representing the King, wooing us and reasoning with us to obey Him and showing us His beauty. So the question is asked, and the answer is, it's all about the King, it's about the Lord Himself. Who is this coming out of the wilderness? I mean, who is this one that, well, He was on the mountain, now He's coming down, He's through the wilderness. Who is this one? It's the safe leader is the answer, who's going to walk us through the wilderness of this fallen world without us having compromise and defilement in our life. And again, there's those stumbling moments, but that's not the same as the spirit of compromise, you know, for years in your life. Who is this coming out of the wilderness? He looks like pillars of smoke, it's like the idea is that there's this entourage coming in the wilderness, it's the King being escorted and leading the pack through the wilderness and there's this big pillar of smoke and who is this? He's perfumed with myrrh and frankincense. Matter of fact, He has all the fragrant powders of the merchant, of the one that sells the perfume in the marketplace. Who is this one? Verse 7 gives the answer. It's the King! It's Solomon, it's the King on His couch, His palaquin, it goes on to say, with 60 valiant men around Him. Paragraph B, the question is asked, who is this one coming up out of the wilderness? Jesus came up victorious out of the wilderness of this fallen age. When we look at who He is, He's the one that came up out of the wilderness in total victory. That's the one that's going to lead us through the wilderness is the idea, using this picture language with this agricultural grid of this poetry. Paragraph C, it's Solomon's couch. Now we know that Solomon is a type of King Jesus, King Solomon is, in this love song. Solomon's couch was, or the chariot, the couch that's on His chariot is the idea. This was the chariot that was used in His royal wedding processions. What He's doing is He's coming on His couch, on His chariot, His palaquin, to get the bride. He's coming through the wilderness, He's already gone through the wilderness for 33 years, and He comes and gets her from her little hometown, the Shulamite, and brings her back to His palace in Jerusalem, and He journeys with her back through the wilderness, protecting her at every angle from all the schemes of the enemy is the idea. That's the word picture. Paragraph D, like pillars of smoke, Solomon's couch went to and from the bride's city of Shulam. So the, first all the townspeople, they see this whole procession coming through the wilderness to get her. And they're thinking, what is this? It's this big, you know, cloud of smoke and perfume, and all these soldiers, and this King on His chariot, and like, wow! Well beloved, the King on His chariot has already come to you and beckoned you. And He says, come with Me. Then He brings her back through the wilderness to His palace in Jerusalem, and that's where you are right now. You're going back through the wilderness. You're with Him. You're connected with Him. You're in partnership with Him. You're seated with Him in heavenly places. The Holy Spirit is in our midst, helping us. The enemy's trying to take us out, but the Lord says, I will protect you as I journey back with you through the wilderness on the way to My palace in Jerusalem. That's the word picture, and it's pretty obvious how that would apply to us as believers. Paragraph F. He's perfumed, this man, this King is perfumed with myrrh. Well, myrrh speaks of death. We've seen that several times all the way through this song. And myrrh was a costly, fragrant burial spice. And it's in this poetic language, the Father sees Jesus as perfumed with myrrh. He embraced death, and the fragrance of His obedience pleased the Father, and He accomplished the salvation for you and for I. Top of page 5. Well, He's not just perfumed with myrrh. He's perfumed with frankincense. Frankincense speaks of Jesus' intercession. He has the perfume of myrrh. He's embraced death because He loves us so much, but it's more than He embraced death. He also continues to intercede for us before the Father. It says in Hebrews 7, verse 25, that He lives forever to make intercession for us. Frankincense speaks of His intercession. As the high priest in the Old Testament went into the Holy of Holies with the censer of frankincense, or a censer of incense, but it was frankincense. So Jesus, He enters into the Holy of Holies with this censer of frankincense of incense. Jesus is involved in the prayer ministry of His church. Jesus is not just leading the great commission, the great missions effort. He's leading the prayer movement and the worship movement for the Father as well. So He has the perfume of intercession as well. Paragraph H. But He has more than that. He has the merchant's fragrant powders. The idea is that the merchant's hands, when he sells the fragrant perfumes, by handling them in the marketplace, his hands are scented with this perfume. And so this speaks of Jesus' commitments to us. His hands are scented with perfume. Everything He does, He does for our love. I mean, His death was a fragrant perfume. His intercession is fragrant perfume. The way He extends His hand to touch us is fragrant perfume. It speaks of His commitment. Matthew chapter 13. The kingdom of God, Jesus said, is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls. And when the merchant found one pearl of great price, he sold everything and bought the pearl. Beloved, He's the merchant. You're the pearl. He sold everything to buy you. He's the merchant with that fragrant incense and perfume and all that He does. Now of course this parable, you can go the other way as well. Where you're the merchant and He's the pearl of great value and you sell all, not to gain Him because you get Him freely, because you love Him in gratitude, you sell all because you want more of Him. So you could take that parable both directions and I believe fulfill what Jesus meant by it. Roman numeral 8. Behold, verse 7. Behold, this merchant, I mean this one perfumed with myrrh and perfumed with frankincense, this one with perfume on His hands coming up from the wilderness, the king on his chariot with all these valiant soldiers around him. Verse 7, the one speaking again, I think it's the Holy Spirit using the New Testament language of it. It's the one magnifying the king, revealing what He's like, wooing the bride to Him. So it's that kind of position of chapter 3, verse 6 to 11, this passage that we're in right now. Behold, it's Solomon. He's on his couch again and the seat of his chariot is the idea. But notice, he has 60 valiant soldiers around him. These are the valiant soldiers of Israel. These are not the mercenaries who are soldiers for hire. These are loyal, native-born, loyal to the king is the idea. Because the king had the mercenaries which they paid and they would have certain kind of battles, but only the native-born ones would you have closest to you guarding your own chariot because of loyalty is the idea. Well, all of verse 8, all of these valiant men, they were experts in war. Every man had his sword on his thigh. Now when you had your sword on your thigh, what that means is it was girded for action. The sword was fixed in a way, you know, and strapped in and tied in where you could pull the sword and be in battle and you would gird your sword at the time of battle. That means you're ready for action. And we know that famous verse in Psalm 45 when the Lord, it says, gird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one. That means it's all strapped in, the sword is, and you're ready to pull it out and to go into war. You're in a posture of war is the idea. Well, Solomon's couch in the New Testament language, it speaks of the gospel couch or the wedding chariot. In paragraph C, we're seated on that couch with him during our journey through the wilderness back to the palace in Jerusalem. Paragraph D, 60 valiant men. Solomon had these warriors surrounding the couch or the chariot to guard it. Now the bride's on the couch with him going back to Jerusalem and he has these valiant soldiers to guard or to protect the bride as she makes her way through the journey back to Jerusalem. This speaks of the Holy Spirit's extravagant protection. Because only a king could afford 60 expert soldiers. I mean, these aren't 60 boy scouts, these are the expert soldiers. I mean, only a king could have that kind of extravagant protection because of the sheer price it would take to get the best warriors in the nation to serve you in that way. Paragraph E, they were seasoned, skilled warriors. They were not novices. They were skilled warriors. The idea is, using the military language, the Holy Spirit is an expert in war. He's with us. He's leading us through the wilderness. He knows every scheme of the enemy. He says, you talk to me. You stay close to me. You won't be surprised by the enemy's schemes. I will unveil them. I will empower you. Yes, you might have difficulty and circumstances, but your heart will be safe. You'll live with a spirit, with a vibrant spirit, with a heart growing in love. I will protect you through the journey if you trust my leadership and you say yes to me and come near me. I have written here in Paragraph E, he has many agencies in the grace of God that he uses. At the end of Paragraph E here, 1 Corinthians 10, he's faithful. He won't allow you to be tempted beyond anything that you can't find a way of escape. That he will deliver you from any major stumbling or falling if you're paying attention to him. Top of page 6. We'll just end this in the next moment because I'm out of time here and you can read the rest of the notes. Of the wood of Lebanon, Solomon the king made for himself a palaquin. A palaquin is the chariot. It's the same thing as the couch and the chariot. It's the bride, it's the wedding chariot. But verse 10, you want to read the notes on this. Verse 10 is so delicious. It is so wonderful. That gospel couch, that gospel palaquin, it's made, it's pillars of silver. It's the port of gold. Silver speaks of redemption. Gold speaks of deity. It's seed of purple, the authority of Christ. But listen, the whole gospel, its interior is paved by love. Everything he does, he does for love and he does from love. The whole gospel administration is paved with love. That chariot that you sit on with him, called the gospel, seated with him, is filled with love in every single dimension of it. And then let's go all the way to Roman Numeral 10 and the final verse 11, which is so wonderful as well. Verse 11, and so the spirit says to the daughters of Zion, see the king crowned with, see the king Solomon with the crown with which his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding, the day of the gladness of his heart. And you can read a little bit of the details here, more in the extended notes if you want, that what the exhortation is, we are to see the king Jesus crowned by the love of his people. Beloved, the father crowns him and he gains many crowns as he's victorious over the nations, but there's that one sense of which the mother crowns him. You crown him with your love. By the way you give him your love in that most personal subjective way, you're crowning him as king in your life, in that personal sense, by giving him your voluntary love. And what the scripture is saying is see the gladness of his heart when he's crowned or when he's greeted and responded to and celebrated by the love of his people. And that's a crown, beloved, that is one of the, in this again, this picture language, his favorite crown, I mean you say that quote unquote favorite crown, but it's the crown he receives when you crown him with the love that you give him voluntarily because you see the gladness of his heart. He loves his people and that's the day he's longing for and that's the day that you were created for. Beloved, this is our story, this is our testimony, this is why we rise to go to the mountain, because he has this kind of leadership, he's worth it, he can keep us through the journey and we can live this way before him. Amen, amen and amen. Let's stand. Let's stand.