Mike Bickle emphasizes the revelation of Jesus as a safe leader, drawing from Song of Solomon 3:6-11. He describes Jesus emerging from the wilderness, symbolizing His victory over sin and death, and highlights the protective nature of the gospel, likening it to a royal chariot surrounded by valiant soldiers. Bickle urges believers to see Jesus not only as a savior but also as a king and bridegroom, who desires to be crowned with our love. He stresses that true safety and victory come from being in relationship with Jesus, who understands our struggles and intercedes for us. The sermon calls the church to rise up and recognize the authority and love of Christ as we navigate the challenges of life.

...are biblical and both of them are necessary. Of course, in this class, we're focusing on the spiritual interpretation, but I really appreciate and value the natural interpretation of this book. Well, let's just read it, chapter 3, verse 6 to 11, to get you a little familiar with a highly symbolic passage of Scripture. And as you go through the notes, we won't go through it all in this class. That's why I leave you with a note so you can read it on your own. You'll find out it's not that difficult at all. It's actually quite straightforward if you allow the Bible to interpret the Bible and interpret the symbolism that is in the Scripture itself. Here's the question that's being asked by the Holy Spirit. And the question is about Jesus. The question is, who is this one coming up out of the wilderness? Now he's talking about Jesus ascending from the wilderness of this fallen world at the time of the resurrection. He has, he is like pillars of smoke. He is like one that's perfumed with myrrh and frankincense. He has all the merchant's fragrant powders on him. So those are four descriptions of Jesus we'll look at in a moment. Each one of them, I have emotion just reading that because I have a little understanding of it. It's like, wow, that's the Jesus I want to follow. Now if you're new with this chapter, you may not be convinced just yet, but just hang on. Verse 7, she says, Behold, who is this one coming up out of the wilderness? It's Solomon on his couch or his wedding chariot. His palaquin is what it calls it in verse 9, a chariot. A, the king's couch, as the new king James calls it, or the palaquin in verse 9. It's that enclosed, you know, chariot where the, the bride and the bridegroom would sit and they would carry it by, the guards would carry it. You've seen that in, in different movies, in different documentaries and things like that. It's a palaquin or a chariot that the king had. So the king is coming up in his chariot in the wilderness. And he has 60 valiant men protecting this chariot because this chariot speaks of the gospel. Because we are in the gospel chariot right now. And there's a divine protection that Jesus has promised that the powers of hell will not prevail against us because all the power to defeat hell, it's in his right hand. And he says, when you sit with me and my gospel chariot, the king's couch, King Solomon's, it is surrounded by valiant soldiers. Verse 8, they all hold swords. They're all experts in war. This is describing the protection of the Holy Spirit against, in spiritual warfare, against the onslaught of the enemy that attacks our life. And every one of these soldiers around Solomon's couch, which is a picture in the natural of the power around the gospel, Jesus's couch, every one of these soldiers has a sword on his thigh. And he has a sword because of fear in the night that speaks of the power of darkness. For of the wood of Lebanon, Solomon the king has made himself a palaquin or a couch or a chariot. The couch of verse 7 and the palaquin of verse 9 is the same thing. It speaks of the gospel. It's where we sit with Jesus together as we're carried by the power of the gospel and the Holy Spirit through the wilderness of this fallen world. This chariot, this palaquin, it's made, he made it, Solomon made it, or Jesus made the gospel. Its pillars are of silver. Its support is of gold. Its seat is of purple. And the gospel chariot is, its interior is paved with the love of God. Again, every one of these phrases is filled with meaning. And I realize it's symbolic and if you're new, it's a little out there. But it's really clear in the Bible what the Bible symbolism means. And this love song is written as a love song so that only lovers of God pursue the meaning. The Lord wrote it in love, in the, in the language of love, in the, in poetic love language, so that only somebody in love would be hungry enough to discover it. And I have found that in discovering these truths of Song of Solomon, this is one of the really symbolic passages of the book. Some of it's really straightforward and quite easy to understand. Of course, I think this is as well. But it's written in the language of love so that a lover will pursue it because they refuse to be denied of understanding of the great love song of all the age, of all the ages. Verse 10. This gospel chariot, this gospel couch or peloquin, at the end of verse 10, its interior, the interior design of the gospel couch is paved with love. I mean, God designed the gospel with love at every single part of its design. It's woven, the very fabric of the gospel is woven in the love of God. Not only does it reveal the love of God, it awakens love in us for God. Then it goes on and here's the key, here's the key verse of this passage. The Holy Spirit says, go forth and see the king with his crown. That's what the Holy Spirit is saying to the church today. Rise up, O body of Christ, and see king Jesus with his crown, with his authority as a king. See the power and understand the authority Jesus has right now over the powers of darkness. That's not the whole message. Not only are we to rise up and see the king with his crown, we're to see it with the crown that his mother crowned him on the day of his wedding. And the day of Jesus' wedding, this is really a profound statement, it's called the day of the gladness of his heart. A wedding day is coming. It's associated with the second coming of Christ. The wedding day is more than a 24-hour period, but the wedding day begins at the second coming. And the Holy Spirit says that the wedding day is the day of the gladness of God's heart. There's one great day that's yet in the future that Jesus is so glad about, it's called the day of his wedding. Now here's what verse 11 says. Tells the, the church in essence, the daughters of Zion. He says, here's what you want to do. You want to see Jesus with a crown and you want to see him as one that's rejoicing over his wedding. And so it's the revelation, I mean it's the exhortation to see Jesus as the bridegroom king. Many see Jesus only as a savior. So after they receive the forgiveness for their sins and they come back regularly for forgiveness, they mostly talk about Jesus pertaining to how bad they are and how much they need forgiveness. All they see in Jesus as a savior and one who provides them eternal life when they die. Now beloved, the revelation of Jesus as a savior who forgives us is really important. I mean I would be absolutely a mess without the revelation of Jesus as a savior and eternal life afterwards. But there's many more things Jesus wants to reveal to us than only the fact that he forgives us for our sins. He wants to reveal himself as a king with a crown that has all authority. But he wants to reveal himself as the God who is rejoicing over his wedding day. A God who has planned a wedding. He's fully God, fully man. And Jesus is looking forward to his wedding day where we are one with him, where we are close to him. Now in verse 11, Jesus, it says in the book of Revelation chapter 19 verse 15 that Jesus has many crowns, many crowns. Revelation chapter 19 verse 15. Many crowns on his head but there's one crown that's particularly important to him. I mean all the crowns are important to him. Normally a king would wear a crown when he would conquer another nation or he would attain, accomplish a great feat. The nation would give him a different crown. It was not an unusual thing for a king to have several different crowns and several different types of robes. Well the crown that we're looking at here in verse 11, it's the crown of a king. Yes, no question about that. He's called King Solomon. But it's the wedding crown. It's the crown that the church gives Jesus when we voluntarily give him our love. We crown him with our love. That's a crown he cannot take himself. Beloved, when you voluntarily obey him and love him in your personal way, you are crowning him as the one you love by giving him your love and God will never take that crown from you by force. All of those that end up in hell, God desired that they would have crowned Jesus with their love but they refused to. That crown is wasted forever. Jesus will never receive it. That's a crown he won't take by force. There are aspects of his kingdom that he will take by force. But he will not take our hearts by force and you are the only one that can give him all of your love. The person next to you cannot give him all of your love. Only you can crown him with your love. And what the Holy Spirit is saying here in verse 11, saying go forth, rise up, shake off the dust, set yourself to action, exert energy to see Jesus as a king, to see King Solomon, to see him as his king, as the king with all power over the kingdom. And it's a very important study to understand Jesus's authority in his kingship. But it's another thing to see him as a bridegroom king and the crown that he delights in most is the crown that we voluntarily crown him with by our love. It's the crown that his mother crowned him with and the mother, as you'll see in the notes, we won't see why. The Bible makes it clear that that's what the symbolism means. And only you and I can crown him with our love. Only you can with your love. Only I can with our love. But collectively, throughout church history or throughout redemptive history, on the last day all the saints from all of history will come forth and we will show forth, it will be obvious and clear in that day, the way that we loved him while we were on the earth. Now we crown him with our love in this age, but that crown is openly manifest in the age to come. Beloved, this is what defines our life more than anything. My life is not defined by how big my ministry is. The thing that makes my life great and the thing that gives me dignity is the same, is the same thing that makes your life great and gives you dignity is that you have the ability to crown Jesus with your love. That's what he wants most. He's not as interested in what you accomplish with your hands, though he is interested in that. He wants me to fulfill my ministry because it's a assignment that he gave me and he wants me to be faithful to the end and to believe him for the fullness. But that's not the main thing that I'm doing in this age, trying to build a ministry. I want to be faithful to my ministry because it's an aspect of my love for him. But some people get caught up in the ministry rather than the fact it's an assignment that he gives us and they get so lost in the ministry, they forget that the ministry is an extension of a love relationship with a king. When I stand before the Lord, he's not going to say, Mike how big were your conferences? He's not going to say how many books did you write and how many did they sell and how big was your database? He's going to say, Mike what is the measure of the crown in which you crown me with your love? Because my wedding day or our wedding day with him is called the day of the gladness of Jesus's heart. Well I gave a little of the overview of the of the passage. Now let's go down and break it down, break it down just for the next few moments here. We won't look at it at all. But at least those of you that are hungry to know this love song, my part, my goal in this session is to get you hungry for this passage. So though you might, it might be new to you, you say I'm going to go dig this thing out. I'm going to understand every phrase. I want to feel the power of this exhilaration of believing in Jesus's leadership at this level. Let's go to Roman numeral one on the notes. And again those of you that want the notes, the notes are on the website. They're available to anybody that wants them. Let's give a review of what's going on before this passage because the the two classes that we covered before this are essential in understanding this passage. Back in chapter 2 verse 8 to 3 verse 5 here's what's happening. Paragraph 8 look at chapter 2 verse 8. The maiden or the bride, she's not technically married till about halfway in the middle of the book. He's he's wooing her. She's the maiden who becomes the bride. So you can refer to her as either one the Shulamite. She's from the city of Shunem. That's why she's called the Shulamite. The maiden, paragraph a, received a new revelation of Jesus. Chapter 2 verse 8. Here Jesus is leaping and skipping on mountains and hills. Now she's used to the Jesus under the apple tree, under the shade tree, at the banqueting table, leaning her head on his breast, singing love songs to him. He's singing love songs to her and it's just her and Jesus and nobody else is going to disturb them and it's perfect and then suddenly in chapter 2 verse 8 Jesus comes leaping on mountains and hills you know bounding over them effortlessly with all power as a king with authority over all the nations and she's a little disturbed she goes you know what's going on and he says in paragraph b verse 10 rise up come with me to the mountains and she goes i don't want to go the mountains i don't like heights jesus challenges the comfort zone in her life he goes it's good that you enjoy me under the apple tree and at the banqueting table with the love songs that's good but now use the love songs to empower you to obey me in conquering the nations in other words doing the will of god that takes faith and obedience beloved you know people start off in their real ministry oriented and then they get converted typically they start off ministry oriented they want to do stuff then a few weeks or months or years go by and they get the revelation that god loves them and they go wow i don't want to do stuff i want to be with him i want to feel his power then they get into the i want to feel his presence mode which is a great mode to get into and some of them don't want to ever leave that the feel his presence mode is so that we're energized by love to do the will of god in a hostile world and bring the gospel in partnership with jesus to other places and you don't have to get on an airplane to go somewhere else the gospel the reaching out to all nations begins in your home and in your neighborhood and in your classroom the people in africa don't have to come to america the people america go to africa in order to you know reach the nations the nations are living in your house and in your dorm and they're in your classroom and they're in the place where you work that's where the nations are and god might call you to get on an airplane but don't wait to reach the nations till you get on an airplane well anyway he says to her in chapter 2 verse 10 rise up come on mountains and she goes you know you converted me from being overly active to loving your presence now i love your presence i'm so kind of uncomfortable i so love the good feeling i love your presence i don't want to be bothered by mean people and devils how many of you know that some of the folks out there are mean they're not going to treat you right and some of them are christians in their mean and devils when we begin to bring the love of god to other people whether we're breaking to believers or unbelievers the devils get stirred up and there is warfare and she goes i don't want to go i don't want to go to the mountains he goes no come come with me verse 17 of chapter 2 we've already gone through this several times but it's important to understand the revelation of chapter 3 verse 6 to 11 which is the passage for tonight she tells him no i'm not going to go to the mountains turn and go on the mountains without me she says no to him now she doesn't say no out of rebellion she says no out of immaturity and there's a big difference she's afraid she's not saying jesus i don't want you she's saying jesus i'm afraid of leaving the comfort zone what if things go bad and my heart gets hurt and he's the message she's learning in the passage we're focused on tonight is if you obey me your heart won't be hurt if you obey me i mean there will be pains of rejection if we hold to the truth there's pain in that way but our heart will be vibrant and alive in that sense is what i mean that our heart won't be hurt it's not that there won't be pains and rejections and difficulties even at the heart level but our heart will be alive in the presence of god we will have the knowledge of his pleasure and we will have the power of his spirit radiating in our being and in our heart so then what happens in paragraph e chapter 3 verse 1 and 2 the lord leaves her his presence leaves her he says i'm not going to let you reject me because you will know me much better if you go with me to the mountaintop and in this case the mountaintop isn't like the traditional let's go to the mountaintop and enjoy the glory of god the mountaintop here is the place of risk and difficulty going to the mountains leaving the safety zone so jesus withdraws his presence from her not because he's mad at her because he knows if she rises up to obey him she will experience more of him and so she experiences loving discipline she is not rebellious finally it works she rises up says i will obey i will obey i will obey that was our last session now we're here in paragraph 2 top of page 2 the overview of song of solomon chapter 3 verse 6 to 11 i've already kind of given you a quick overview what's going to happen is that the holy spirit is going to reveal that being with jesus is the place of safety not being without jesus at the table beloved if we're in a storm and we're in a boat and jesus says get out of the boat peter and walk on the water we're safer on the water with jesus than we are in the boat without him now i'm gonna stay in the boat there's a storm out there if jesus is on the water the place of safety for your heart is in the is on the water so the lord has told me several times over the years giving me uh what seemed to me at that time in my life a huge challenge to do something hard that i didn't necessarily want to do i kind of want to do but didn't totally want to do it that's happened to me a handful of times in 30 years of ministry and he goes if you do it you will connect with me at the place of risk and you will see that that is the place of safety outside of the boat on the water staying in the boat seems safe but if i'm not in the boat that's not the place of safety that's the message of this chapter 3 verse 6 to 11 and i define that a little bit more on the notes here now the essential revelation is chapter 3 verse 11 that we would see that the thing that jesus wants most is to be crowned with our love when we see that he is a king and he desires our love more than anything it gives us courage to get out of the boat and to get on the water or to go to the mountaintop the place of risk now what the holy spirit who i believe is speaking in this passage is going to explain to the bride is that jesus also walked in this fallen wilderness of this world and as a man he had victory so he is sympathetic he knows how hard this wilderness is chapter 3 verse 6 who is this coming up out of the wilderness now the good news is this jesus understands with sympathy it says in hebrews chapter 2 verse 15 he's a sympathetic high priest in hebrews 4 verse 15 and 16 he is a sympathetic priest he understands how difficult the wilderness is so he's been there ahead of time he was there before we were and he's our leader he knows how to get victory in the wilderness and he's sympathetic he's kind towards us so we can trust whatever he tells us to do you know he's calling us to live lives of prayer and fasting and giving our money away and serving people and blessing our enemies it's like wait a second he goes no i know that's the place of victory i was in the wilderness and i prayed and i fasted and i blessed my enemies and i served people who didn't deserve it and they were ungrateful when i served them and i only blessed them anyway in humility that is the place of victory in the wilderness i did it i know the way i can lead you and i'm sympathetic because i had a physical fleshly body and i know what you're going through it's what it says in hebrews 2 and and hebrews 4 anyway jesus is the one coming out of the wilderness he's ascending out of the wilderness this is at the time of his resurrection he's entering back to the gates of heaven and the angels are receiving him back in glory and they're having a huge celebration he's ascending like pillars of smoke it says in verse 6 and you will see where are we at uh roman numeral three let me see roman numeral three just to catch up with my notes here paragraph e top of page three that when jesus is described as ascending out of the wilderness of this fallen world with the pillars of smoke that speaks of ascending over death in the glory of god the pillars of smoke throughout the bible speak of the glory of god beloved he defeated death he had victory over the wilderness he ascended he knows the place in victory and how to walk in the favor of god to walk in victory over death and sin it says here that he's perfumed with myrrh and frankincense now myrrh in the ancient world was a burial spice matter of fact when jesus died they put myrrh around him so when jesus ascended with myrrh this is symbolically speaking it means that he paid the price of costly obedience he lived the life of death to himself he knows what it means to embrace myrrh and throughout the song of solomon myrrh always means it speaks of the burial spice you know in our modern day it would be the embalming fluid but it was fragrant everybody that was wealthy that was buried was buried with myrrh it was a fragrant smell and jesus ascended he understands what it means to walk in disobedience but he also is perfumed with frankincense and in the bible frankincense paragraph g speaks of his intercession beloved there is one that's at the right hand of the father intercession that means that jesus is praying for us hebrews 7 25 jesus is at the right hand of the father right now with frankincense the beauty of the perfume frankincense he's crying out for you by name person by person he's bringing you before the father he ascended and the perfume of frankincense he's before the holy of holies right now and he's praying for the saints continually it says that he will never stop day and night praying for the saints beloved you and i have confidence that we can have victory in this fallen wilderness because there's one who went before us who understands he knows the way of victory he's sympathetic and he's going to help us experience victory and he's praying for us verse 7 we're going to skip a few things verse 7 roman numeral 4 now the holy spirit is going to describe the protection of the holy spirit in the gospel dispensation in this age this time in history before the second coming of christ where the gospel is being preached and we're living in a hostile world with demons and with enemies and the gospel is presented in verse 7 as solomon's couch and the reason because this is the couch this is the palaquin this is the chariot that he sits on and the bride sits on it with him and they're carried along by the others we're carried along by the winds of the holy spirit we are in the gospel couch right now in this age well we'll be in the gospel couch forever but once we are born again we're in that couch with him we're seated with him and if we will communicate with him if we will sit next to him and communicate and talk to him and live the life of one seated next to him on this couch we will find that the holy spirit will release tremendous amount of protection in our life against the works of the evil one now this protection of the holy spirit again it's spoken in the love language of the wedding ceremony when understood and it's meant to be understood in the natural in the love song but it's also meant to be understood in a spiritual application this is talking about jesus and here's how the the authority of the gospel with angels and the power of the holy spirit and the leadership of jesus here's what is this is what describes our situation before god behold it's we're reading song of solomon chapter 3 verse 7 and 8 behold it's solomon's couch it's the wedding chariot it's the gospel the place where we're seated with jesus there are 60 valiant soldiers surrounding us now nobody had 60 valiant soldiers we're talking about the elite of the elite because nobody could afford them this means extravagant protection to have 60 bodyguards of the elite most trained soldiers in the nation what that would cost nobody could afford it except for a king that's how it's been it's meant to be understood here's what the lord's saying the very best that a king can provide is the protection that i have made available to you these are the very valiant ones of israel they all hold swords meaning they're skillful with swords they know how to operate with swords they're experts in war and every one of these soldiers has his sword girded on his thigh meaning a sword girded on the thigh is a sword ready to draw into action because some soldiers they got tired during the day or they went to bed at night they took their sword off and they laid it aside but solomon says those that protect my bride the king's bride they always gird their sword they're always ready for action they never set their sword aside this is describing the ministry of the holy spirit in the terminology of king solomon at his wedding procession the holy spirit provides us with the greatest care imaginable let's move on let's go on to roman at the top of page five paragraph l and again i i know this is because it's a number of you are new it's your first class here and this symbolism is difficult for you but don't disconnect don't say ah this is not for me there is a sweet place where the holy spirit will connect your heart to these realities it just take a little bit of time it doesn't take hours and hours to get a hold of this and when i meditate on jesus and his care for me through the wilderness of this fallen world he says mike you're seated next to me you're on the wedding chariot with me and i will protect you there is authority there's power surrounding you but you've got to see it i am a king it says in verse 11 you have to see my authority and that authority is being revealed here in verse 7 and verse 8 in military terms says in paragraph l here first corinthians chapter 10 verse 13 there's no temptation that will over ever that will overtake you except one that is common to everybody god is faithful he will not allow you to be tempted above what you're able now this is a very practical new testament principle that backs up what solomon is saying in love language to his bride and what the spirit is saying to the bride of christ through the love language of solomon's wedding procession here it is there is no temptation and that's either a temptation to sin or a trial or a difficulty the word temptation means both things in some places in scripture and this is one of them it means a temptation to do something wrong but it also means a trial that is really heavy upon your heart there is no temptation that you have confronted that has overtaken you that it seems to be sinking you there is no temptation that is special to only you what's all of what paul is saying here it's common to everyone maybe it's a different application but the temptation and the trials you're facing are in essence the same one everyone is facing the same basic categories they hurt our pride they disrupt our comfort they make us afraid it's the same basic temptations that everybody faces he says this god will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able to handle i promise you says the lord and that's the essence of what this passage in song of solomon is saying i have the most skilled warriors the holy spirit is an expert warrior the devil can't trick him the devil can't outsmart him and if we will relate to the holy spirit he will take us through the wilderness of this fallen world with safety in our heart will not be injured in the sense where we lose life before god again we might have some difficulties by hold standing uh hold uh fast with the truth but we will have the anointing of joy and we'll have the power of the holy spirit touching our heart let's go verse 9 and verse 10 now verse 9 and verse 10 instead of describing the gospel through the military language of protecting us from enemies on our journey in this wilderness he's going to now solomon is now going to look at the love language of the wedding chariot right so now the illustration i mean the point that solomon's making is a bit different here he's wanting to emphasize how jesus and we're not going to go through this but i have it on the notes how jesus manifested the love of god to us in the wedding chariot by providing the gospel chariot for us to enter in to sit with him right now in this age we can be close to him and we can feel the love of god during our time in the journey that's verse 9 and 10 and we can have safety that's verse 7 and 8 so i'm not going to break down the symbolism but you could read it on the notes if you want it now let's go to the top of page 6 just this final moment or two we'll be uh bringing this to an end in just a minute here verse 11 we're going to look at the passage we already looked at for a moment now he says go forth oh daughters of zion that would be the redeemed and see king jesus with a crown well see he's a king he has all authority he can protect you verse 7 and 8 jesus the king with with authority over his army can protect you but he also has a crown on his head and we already discussed this crown it's the crown which you will crown him with your love it's the crown that only you can give him and it goes on to say when you see jesus this way as a king number one and again that relates to verse 7 and 8 with an army at his disposal but also he's a bridegroom king he not only has an army at his disposal verse 7 and 8 he has a bride next to him verse 9 and 10 and he's given himself to this bride now here's what this exhortation is telling us it's not enough to see jesus only as our savior and jesus only as our provider we have to see him as a king with authority who can protect us against the enemy he has a vast army at his disposal but we also have to see jesus as a bridegroom king not only a king with power but a king who is a bridegroom who's in love with us and we see the focal point of our life is that the day of the gladness of his heart is the day when you and him meet eyes that's the day of gladness related to your life the day of the gladness of his heart in the general sense is the second coming of christ when we all stand before him and it's now manifest how we loved him and the great wedding day begins and then our life only makes sense related to how we crowned him with our love by the way we lived in this life and so he tells he tells the bride in verse 11 he goes and all that will pay attention he says go forth and see jesus this way if all you see is the jesus of the traditional church you will never ever have confidence through the wilderness of this difficult world you will never have confidence because you won't have the love awakened in your heart to see through all the confusion the devil's throwing at you amen let's stand so i'm going to really challenge you as the worship team is coming forward to take this passage and don't be