Song of Solomon - the Third Stage, Rest and Fruit

...and unveil His Son. And so we need to trust Him. Let me give you a Bible verse from Song itself to introduce this principle.

Now, I'm taking it out of the context of Song, but I am leaving it in the context of Scripture. In other words, by isolating it from this particular passage, maybe I've done a little violence to the particular context of Song. But it is true in the balance of Scripture.

It's from chapter 5 and verse 6. Remember, yesterday we discussed when the groom came knocking on the bride's door and how perhaps at that time she was resting more in her rest than in her groom. In any way, the Lord had revealed to her that she was His garden and He would never leave His garden and He was there. But for a season she lost the sense of His presence.

She learned later she had not lost His presence, but only the sense of His presence. And when she ran out in the dews and the damps to show that He was still there, He called to her. Chapter 5, verse 6. She's outside now.

She's out seeking Him. My heart went out to Him as He spoke. That expression.

And it's our prayer this morning as we trust the Lord to clinch the message of His heart that our hearts would go out to Him as He speaks. And even though at that time she lost the sense of His presence, He was still there. He was still speaking.

He was still calling. And something was in her heart moving. My heart went out to Him as He spoke.

So with that in mind, let's pray and ask God to make that so real in us. Our Father, we thank You so much for Your Word and we have sensed so often how our heart goes out as You speak. And so we would ask You to speak again.

Continue to draw us. Suddenly come to Your temple in a life-changing way. We desire once again to behold the beautiful face of our groom.

We ask You, Lord, this morning as we meditate again in Your Word that You would clinch in our hearts the message that You have for us. We know if we see the Lord, we'll be like Him. And so show us, we pray, that transforming vision of our Savior.

We thank You. We can count on You for that. And we just pray as we touch on these wonderful verses in the third stage, verses that are so precious and that we know so little about.

Will You please speak? And we thank You. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, brothers, once again, I know we've been together session after session, and it's not like I'm in Newport and have to give a big review.

I'm so used to meeting a week apart and reviewing. That's a big part of my teaching. But I do think it's important to get back into the flow.

And so though you've heard it, let me stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance. And let me just go over again the thrust of what we've been looking at. The Song of Songs is the final book in the poetry section.

And it brings us, I believe, to experience or to see God's heart on the climactic redemptive experience. This is where He wants us, each one of us. The climax of the redemptive experience is your love affair with Jesus.

Is my love affair with Jesus. It's intimate union with the bridegroom-lover of your soul. It's relationship to Him.

That's what God is working in our hearts, and that's where He's bringing us. And in this marvelous book, that is the climax of the experience. And as I suggested, this is a love story on two levels.

It's a love story of two worlds. It's heavenly love illustrated by earthly love. And although we have been focusing on the heavenly side, I pray that God in His grace would allow us to embrace these great things.

You're the groom in your relationship with your life partner. You're the initiator. You're the one that draws her.

She's your garden. You're to enjoy her just as she is. In all of these wonderful truths, God desires not only that they're true in our union with Him, but that they're true on the level of earth.

The song begins with chapter 1, verse 2. That sigh, that desire, that longing of the bride. May He kiss me with the kisses of His mouth. Your love is better than wine.

She experienced this great desire. She had tasted the world. She had tasted the love of the Lord.

And she had chosen the love of the Lord. And now she just desires that He would continually express His love over and over again. She knew to enter into that union that it was not in her.

If she was to taste of that love, she had to be drawn into it. Do you realize, brothers, that our running is contingent on His drawing? That's not just some pious phrase. That is a blessed reality.

What is my hope for a victorious Christian life and intimate union with Him? What is your hope for a victorious Christian life and intimate union with the Lord Jesus Christ? And I think the answer is this. I have a wooing Savior. And you have a wooing Savior.

He's always wooing. He's always drawing. He never stops.

Don't you love a love affair on the level of earth where the husband never stops wooing his wife? Even as that marriage gets on in years and turns gray. Even then, the husband is to draw and to woo the wife. At any moment in your life, at any moment in my life, when you feel like your love for the Lord is growing stale or growing cold, in that moment, you can look into the face of your groom and say, draw me and we'll run after thee.

He never stops wooing. He never stops drawing. And the bride began to experience this.

Now, in our look at this book, I've tried to point out what many commentators have seen. This is not my bright idea. God's people through the years have seen these three stages.

Chapter 2, verse 16. My Beloved is mine and I am His. And in the beginning of the drawing as we enter into union, it seems to be so self-centered in a sense.

It's my interest in Him. She claims Him. She seeks Him.

She finds Him. She clings to Him. She holds on to Him.

She wants to eat in His pasture. She wants to rest. It seems like it's all about her.

And she's constantly cutting herself down in this first section. She has low thoughts of herself. Now, she thought that she must be beautiful to be loved.

She had to learn. She had to be loved to be beautiful. It's not the same thing.

God began to teach her as He drew her this groom. That first characteristic, as I suggested in the first stage, is light. It's revelation.

It's discovery. It's understanding. It's illumination.

Kiss me with the kisses of Your mouth. And every time He kissed her, her eyes opened wider in amazement. And her mouth opened wider in amazement.

And she found a world she never dreamed was there. And God kept showing her and showing her and showing her, kissing her over and over again. We won't review the ten ways her eyes were open.

Stage 2, chapter 6, verse 3. It's not now He's mine, I'm His. It's now I am His and He is mine. It's His interest in me.

It's no more about her interest in Him. There's a little bit there. But now it's His interest in her.

I am my Beloved's. As the revelation, as insight, as light was characteristic of the first section, I tried to show you that I thought with the light I have presently that surrender was the great characteristic of stage 2. When we closed last evening, we were looking at the chief story in this section, which is the groom and his garden. Chapter 3.6 to 6.10. Glance again at these verses.

Chapter 4.12 A garden locked is my sister, my bride, a rock garden locked, a spring sealed up. Verse 15 You're a garden spring, a well of fresh water, springs flowing from Lebanon. He calls her his garden, his private garden.

I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. Before this, all through stage 1, as her eyes were being opened, her thought seemed to be, I'm His gardener. But now she discovers the reality because of His drawing, because of His wooing, by turning her away from her need to try to make herself something attractive and lovely and beautiful, she has learned I'm not His gardener, I'm His garden.

And that revelation, in the record, that changed her life. When that finally dawned on her, when God finally made that so real, it wasn't just something she knew up here, but it suddenly hit her, I'm His garden. He loves me.

He really does. And you remember the changes in her heart. And so she prays this wonderful prayer, chapter 4.16 Awake, O north wind, and come wind of the south, make my garden breathe out fragrance, let its spices be wafted abroad, may my beloved come into His garden and eat its choice fruits.

She could only respond to such a revelation by this utter and total submission. Come north wind, come south wind, it doesn't matter anymore whatever wind blows into my life, as long as He's pleased, as long as He's happy. When we closed last evening, I was showing you how He had taken her to a new level.

He wanted her to know that He was there by faith. She had clung earlier by sight. But now He's teaching her, I'm there when it doesn't look like I'm there.

And when she lost Him, you remember the story, I won't get into that, she began to meditate on Him. And all of a sudden she recalled, He's not lost at all. I know where He is.

He's in His garden. The New Testament expression of that is temple. And that's why when Jesus, as a little boy, was missing, where do you find Him? He's in His temple.

He's always in His temple. He's always in His garden. Chapter 6, verse 1, Where has your Beloved gone, most beautiful among women? Verse 2, My Beloved has gone down to His garden.

I know where He is. Alright, that brings us then, brothers, to the last stage of this climactic, redemptive experience. Chapter 6, verse 11, to the end of the book.

The key verse is chapter 7, verse 10, I am My Beloved's, and His desires toward me. With the light I have now, I see this as the highest cry of the book. It's all about Him.

It's all about His interest in her. His desire is for me. I told you when we began, this is a very personal, it's the bride and the groom.

But she is going to learn now, in this section, that the me is plural. Hold on to that, and we'll develop it as we go along. She has seen afresh how little their union actually depended on her.

All she is, He has made her. All she's come to see, He has shown her. All the beauty that He was commending in her was His beauty.

He had given her His beauty. Her running was because of His drawing. Her love toward Him and her grip on Him and her desire for Him all seemed to fade away in stage 3 when she says, I am My Beloved's, His desires for me.

In this third stage, I told you there were two words that I thought summarized God's heart. Just as in stage 1, it was revelation, and in stage 2, it was surrender, submission, I'm suggesting stage 3 are these two words, rest and fruit. Let me see if we can illustrate that for you.

The first section, her heart was set on her satisfaction in Him. In the second, His satisfaction in her. But all of a sudden, when you come to section 3 here, there's this mutual fellowship.

There's so one in this section. Glance at these verses, please. We start reading, and we didn't read this earlier.

This all of a sudden comes up now. Chapter 7-11, let us go into the country. Let us spend the night in the villages.

12, let us rise early. Let us see if the vine has budded. 8-8, we have a little sister.

What shall we do for our sister? 8-9, we will build her a battlement of silver. We will barricade her, and so on. In this section, there's a wonderful security.

The bride is at rest in the groom. And it's all we now. It's our.

It's we. It's union. Let me give an illustration of this.

I mentioned it earlier in passing, but let me pound it home now. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes that the preacher who preaches pure words must have goads, and they must come home like well-driven nails, and they must be given by one shepherd. That's how to teach.

You've got to make sure you have a point, a goad. You've got to drive it home, and you've got to make sure it comes from one shepherd. Well, let me drive it home.

I've got a couple of nails here to drive home. In chapter 3, verse 4, Scarcely had I left them when I found Him whom my soul loves. I held on to Him, would not let Him go until I had brought Him into my mother's house, into the room of her who conceived me.

I want to compare 3.4 with 8.5. In 3.4, she's clinging to Him. And I pointed out that that clinging was not necessarily all that healthy. It was a clinging of desperation.

Now, I know there's a right way to cling to the Lord, and God created His people, ask Jeremiah, for clinging. There's a Bible passage on that. But she was certain at this point in her experience with the groom that if she let go of Him, He would run away.

In other words, their union depended on her grip. She was holding everything together. And I suggest there's a right way to cling to the Lord, but there's also a wrong way.

Have you ever said this? Or have you ever heard this? I've got to have devotions every day or He'll be gone. If I don't have devotions every day, then my whole day is going to mess up and I'm not going to have sweet union with the Lord. That's clinging in the wrong way.

Because that's saying that your union with Him depends on your grip on Him. Depends on your hold on Him. I've got to be faithful in my stewardship.

If I fail to tithe or to be generous, I might just be cold toward the Lord. That's gripping in the wrong way. I must not neglect the fellowship of the saints and the gathering together.

I must not miss the bread breaking or the Sunday assembly or the midweek prayer meeting or any conference or any gathering of the saints. Or it will interfere with my relationship with Christ. Am I speaking against morning devotions? Am I speaking against stewardship? Am I speaking against meeting together with the people of God, the body of Christ? I am not.

I'm only saying that those things do not secure our relationship with Him. My fellowship with Him does not depend on my hold on Him. It depends on His hold on me.

I remember hearing a wonderful illustration one time. I may have even passed it on, so if this is redundant. It was an illustration about swimming.

And it explained to me why I can't swim and why I'll probably never be a good swimmer. Now, my son just bought me because he thinks I'm getting fat. So he bought me a membership into the YMCA so that I could swim.

And so we go to the Y and we've been trying to swim. I can't breathe. I'm trying to learn how to breathe and the lifeguard there is trying to teach me how natural it is, how easy it is.

I'm having an awful time swimming. And I'll tell you the reason I am. One of the main reasons.

And that is because I have a lot of strokes. I have strokes with my arms and I kick like crazy. But I'm using my strokes to hold me up.

They're not designed to hold me up. I'm supposed to trust God's finished work of creation, the water, to hold me up. The water holds me up.

The strokes are designed to take me forward. But because I'm using the strokes to hold me up, I'm drowning. Because it's not designed.

I've got to learn to trust the water to hold me up. And the illustration is just this. Brothers, the finished work of Christ will hold you up.

The strokes are designed to take you forward. Don't neglect devotions, but don't trust it to hold you up. May God use it to take you forward.

Don't neglect the fellowship of God's people, but don't trust that to hold you up. The finished work of Christ holds you up. Trust that or use that.

May God help us use that to take us forward in the Lord. Well, in this first section, the bride was clinging in an unhealthy way, causing the union to depend on her grip. But notice how the book ends in section 3, chapter 8, verse 5. Who is this coming up from the wilderness? Leaning on her beloved.

Oh, what a picture that is. Leaning on her beloved. Leaning is better than clinging because she's not the least bit afraid anymore that He's going to slip away and be gone.

She's at rest. She's just leaning on her beloved. She's at ease.

I love the way it's worded. Who's this coming up out of the wilderness? Leaning on her beloved. Now, I would expect, I speak as a fool, I would expect if it said, Who is this coming out of the palace? Who's this coming out of the banquet hall? Who's this coming out of the garden? Leaning on her beloved.

But it doesn't say that. Who's this coming up from the wilderness? Leaning on her beloved. I think it's one of the most beautiful sights in the world to see a believer who has been in the wilderness and to watch that believer come out leaning on His beloved.

What a testimony that is! Sometimes you see a person coming out of the wilderness that hasn't entered stage three. They're still in stage one. And they're connected to the beloved, but they're sort of hanging on His foot as He drags them out of the wilderness.

That's probably how I would do it. The Lord has shown you brothers at family ministries recently. I don't know about the rest of you and the assemblies that you represent, but I know at family ministries there's been some wilderness.

And you've seen this. This is not just song. You have seen.

You've seen the testimony of a brother. Tears running down the cheeks because of a painful loss coming up out of the wilderness, leaning on the beloved. The whole family going through what can only be called a wilderness experience.

Amazing to see what the Lord has done. The composure and the rest. And as a whole family comes leaning on the beloved.

They've been through the furnace and there's no smell of smoke on them anywhere. Glorious testimony! There's a dear brother in Newport that I have the privilege of meeting with every day for many months now. Every day.

Very few exceptions. For 37 years he has lived in agony because of a disease. How he trusts the Lord! I can't tell you what his family and him, what they have meant in my life and in the life of our family.

As we have watched him come out of the wilderness leaning on his beloved. What a way this book ends! Because this is safety and this is security and this is rest. And the bride is not anxious and she's not fretting and she's not fearful and everything's ok.

And she's out leaning on her beloved. In chapter 8, verses 6 and 7, because she has learned it's dawned on her on His garden, He really loves me. She is able to give this marvelous commentators love, these verses because it talks about love.

It describes love. This is the love she came to rest in. Chapter 8, verse 6, Set me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal on thy arm.

Love is as strong as death. Jealousy is as cruel as the grave. The coals are coals of fire, most vehement flame.

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it. If a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would be utterly condemned. Verse 6, the seal on the arm is sort of like our wedding band.

And this woman has said, thank you for the symbol of your love. Not the ring. Make me a ring.

Not on your finger. On your heart. Glorious picture of love here.

And in verse 6, she remembers the day when she was clinging in desperation. If I let go, He's out of here. He's gone.

Now she thinks about His love. And he said, oh, now I know you have a hold on me. And her illustration? As strong as death.

Death won't let go. Once death has, and she says, His love is as strong as death. It has held me, and I know that there's no way I can ever be released.

Now, chapter 8, verse 7, many waters cannot quench love. You know how we use the expression, boy, they've been through some deep waters. Or what a flood has come into their lives.

And so on. And she just realizes there are no deep waters. There is no flood that can disturb the love that He has expressed to her.

And she just feels so safe. It's all about rest and trusting. Now, remember, brothers, I don't want to keep coming downstairs, but this is a love story of two worlds.

Your bride needs to know that she is a seal on your heart. She needs to know that your hold on her is as strong as death. She needs to know that.

You need to tell her that. She needs to know whatever floods come in, however deep the waters get, it's not going to change anything. Waters cannot overflow it.

It's not enough to think she knows that. Tell her! The groom has to communicate these things. She needs to know that she's your one and only and you love her with a jealous love.

But you know, on the level of earth, pictures always break down, don't they? I mean, we can only go so far on earth, but God's love is beyond that. There is no picture, there is no poetic expression, not even in this book of Song, that can accurately picture God's love for us, the true groom for His bride. And the reason is because human love, even at best, is finite.

He loves you with an infinite love. There's nothing on earth can picture that. So she scraps around and she tries to find the strongest expression, as strong as death, fires of jealousy.

Nothing can describe infinite love. Jesus loves me with an infinite love and only infinity can measure the intensity of that love. Take all the loves that you can think of on the earth and put them in a pile until you have a mountain of love.

Husband loves his wife. Take all the love that husbands have for wives, and then all the love that wives have for husbands, and then all the love that parents have for children, and all the love that children have for parents, and all the love that brothers have for sisters, and all the love that sisters have for brothers, and all the love that neighbors have for neighbors, and all the love that Christians have for Christians. Find all the loves you can find, and put them in one pile, and what kind of love would that be? God loves you more this moment than every human being has ever loved every other human being in all the ages of history that have come, and in all the ages of history that will follow, all added together.

And I'm sorry for not telling you the full truth. I had to be weak in that illustration because He's got an infinite love for you. John 17, 23 comes as close as anything I know where He says that He loves you as much as God the Father loves God the Son.

What a love! What a love! Doubtless we'll go forward in the intensity of His love, but the intensity of His love can never increase. It's an absolute intensity. And what I mean by that is God can never love you any more than He loves you this moment.

Even when you get to heaven and been there for a billion years, He won't love you one drop more than He loves you right now. See, only God can communicate that. You start believing that, and you let God start dawning that on your heart, and it'll change you.

Many waters cannot quench love, and I don't want to be presumptuous. I speak as a fool, but His love is so intense that you can't mess it up even with your sin. I tell you, amazing love that He has for us.

Let me ask you this, brothers. Can you lean on Him? With a love like that, can you trust Him? In the wilderness, can you lean on Him coming out of the wilderness? I suggest that that's the picture you have. Rest.

She is settled in His love. Let me ask this. Can your wife lean on you? May God work it in us.

She's at rest. She's at peace. Look at how the third section begins, please.

Chapter 6, verse 4. It's the garden conversation of the groom and the bride. After she discovered that he's in the garden, he begins to talk to her. And this is where he says that his heart flips over her and skips a beat and all that.

He's just praising her and praising her and praising her, but something is recorded right in the middle of that praise. Chapter 6, verse 9. My dove, my perfect one is unique. She's her mother's only daughter.

She's the pure child of the one who bore her. The maiden saw her and called her blessed. The queens and the concubines also.

And they praised her, saying, Who's this that grows like the dawn, as beautiful as the full moon, as pure as the sun, as awesome as an army with banners? I went down to the orchard of nut trees to see the blossoms of the valley, to see whether the vine had budded or the pomegranates had bloomed. Before I was aware, my soul sent me over the chariots of my noble people. Come back! Come back, O Shulamite! Come back! Come back, that we may gaze on you.

Why should you gaze at the Shulamite, as at the dance of the two companies? In the middle of his praising her, You're my garden, you're lovely, you're fair. In the middle of that praising, all of a sudden people start looking at her. And they start, look at verse 9. The maidens begin to look at her.

And the queens begin to look at her. And all the concubines begin to look at her. And so do the chariots of his people.

And all of a sudden, he's just praising her because she's his garden, and everybody starts looking. And their mouths drop open wide and their eyes get wide. She's not trying to witness.

She's not trying to tell anybody to look at her. She's not trying to be a blessing. She's not trying to have an influence on anybody.

This is what I mean when I call the key word of this section, fruit. When the groom praises her, tells her she's beautiful, don't forget, this is not flattery, this is true. She's fair because she's fair.

He's not saying to her, I know you're ugly, but I can endure it. He's not saying that. He's not saying, I know you're swarthy and sin-stained, but I can be gracious to you.

He's not saying that. He says, you're beautiful. And even though her beauty is a borrowed beauty, even though it's a reflected beauty, it's actual, it's real, it's there.

What a rich parable you have in verse 10. Who is this who grows as beautiful as the dawn, as beautiful as the full moon? You know, the moon does not have its own light. It's reflected light.

It's borrowed light. It's light from the sun. In and of itself, the moon is just the wilderness.

It's barren. It's nothing. It's cold.

But the groom has transformed the bride. When the bride was describing the groom, I jotted down all of, everything the bride said about the groom. And I came to one conclusion.

So many of the descriptions have to do with his face. So amazing. She could not have described him that way if she had been not looking full in his beautiful face.

And we know where her focus is. That's why she has dove's eyes. You've got to read Watchman Nee on the dove's eyes.

That marvelous section he has. The bride is not here. She's not hanging jewelry all over herself.

She's not being pierced in strange places and covering her flesh with fragrances. She's not doing that. She's just listening to the groom as he says, You are so beautiful.

You are so fair. You are so lovely. And everybody goes, Wow, look at her.

She is really something. And they start looking at her. Amazing.

Now what is she doing? Verse 11. She went down to the orchard of nut trees. Now I know there's different views of this.

This is Frederick Krumacher. I enjoy reading him. But I think he missed it here.

He thinks that's a bad thing. She's backsliding now, according to Mr. Krumacher. I think it's a normal thing.

I think on the level of earth as we look at it, it's very unspiritual. If the record said she had been fasting for 40 days and just finished her fast, or she had spent one night a week for three weeks in a row in an all-night prayer meeting, or if the record had said she had just come back from her third missionary tour, or if the record said she had just finished writing a devotional book, or if the record had said she had been faithful for a year and a half in mentoring somebody who needed mentoring, then I would say, Let me gaze at you, Shulamite. You are some person.

Wow! What a spiritual person to be able to do all that. But it doesn't say that. It says she went down to gather nuts.

And it's so everyday. That is so natural. She's just living.

And everybody's eyes are open wide and amazed at what they see. Chapter 6, please. Verse 12.

Before I was aware. She wasn't even aware of it. She didn't even know it.

Everybody's looking at her. Everybody's got their eyes open wide. She doesn't even know it.

Before I was aware, my soul sent me over the chariots of my noble people. Come back, come back, O Shulamite. Come back, come back, that we may gaze at you.

She's just living. She's just gathering nuts. She's just His garden.

She's just getting His compliments. She's just entering into their union. Everybody's looking at her.

This is so beautiful. Pure as the sun. This is like the full moon.

No programs. No gimmicks. No how-to tapes.

No how-to books. No devices. Everything spontaneous.

She's just living. And all of a sudden, because of her union with the groom, she has become attracted to everyone. Now, I believe it's on purpose that God has saved verse 13 to stage 3. You say, well, the Song of Solomon is about the king and the Shulamite woman.

This is the only time she's called Shulamite. You don't find that in the early chapters. Not until the end, she's called Shulamite.

And I told you that Shulamite is the feminine form for the same name. In chapter 1, verse 3, she cried out for His name. His name was like oil poured out.

She wanted His name. And now she's got it. And she's like Him.

And she has His name and she has His nature and she has His character. And now she is Solomon. She's become like Him.

She's like the moon. The full moon. There's no eclipse here where the earth gets in the way.

This is the full moon. Glance please at chapter 6, verse 13. Come back, come back, Shulamite, come back, that we may gaze at you.

Why should you gaze at the Shulamite as at the dance of the two companies? What does that mean? At the dance of the two companies? I have a footnote in my Bible and it says, I can't pronounce the word, but Mahanaim. Do you have that in your Bible? Mahanaim. Well, I'm glad it's there because now I have a reference.

I can go back in my Bible to Genesis 32. I'll just tell you the story. You'll remember it.

Jacob has run from the Lord and from his brother for many years. He's about to meet Esau on the next day. He sends his family away.

He's going to be alone and while he's alone, the Lord's going to wrestle him. You remember the story? Well, before the wrestling match, he camps his tent because he wants to be alone. And he opens his eyes all around him.

He can't smack dab in the middle of another camp. And he can't believe it. He rubs his eyes.

And there are angels. Angels every place, all around him. And so he named the place, Mahanaim or however you pronounce it.

Two camps. There's the camp you can see with these eyes. And there is a spiritual camp as well.

Come back, come back, O Shulamite. Let us gaze at you. She's so human.

She's so divine. There's two camps. And they look at her and she's just another person.

But they keep looking. There's something about you that is so different. It's a glorious thing, brothers.

When you just lived in such a union with the Lord that everybody begins to look at you and gaze at you and say there's something about you that's as pure as the sun. I know it's borrowed light, but you're like the full moon. And when somebody can look at you and have no other explanation for your life than God, there's something divine about you.

And that's what happened to her. She has done nothing but relate to the groom. And she's been changed.

She's been transformed. She's become Shulamite. She's become Solomon.

She's become Him. She's become the moon. She's become reflected light, reflected beauty, reflected glory.

Now everybody's attracted and everybody is looking at the mystery. And they see the two camps. They see the human side and they see a divine side.

This is the fruit of the third stage. You're in the garden. You're enjoying the garden.

And all of a sudden, you become an attraction. Before you're aware of it, without you knowing of it, unconsciously you're on display. People are watching you.

She's at rest, leaning on her beloved, coming out of the wilderness. She's so relaxed now. She's so beautiful now with His beauty.

She's not trying to put herself forward. She's out of the picture. It's all Him and His desire toward her.

And all of a sudden, something happens in terms of testimony. And everybody begins to gaze at her. I want you to hold those two thoughts, rest on one side and fruit on the other, being transformed into His likeness so that everybody is attracted.

I want you to notice how the book comes to an end. And may God help us as we look at chapter 8. There's so much in this chapter that I'm not qualified to set before you. I'm only beginning to see a few things here.

But I'm quite sure of this, that the entire chapter is about the church. The entire chapter is about the body. The entire chapter is about the whole body of Christians.

Chapter 8, verse 1, she talks about, my mother, like a brother to me. Verse 2, I would bring you to the house of my mother who used to instruct me. She's so anxious.

You know, I told you at the beginning that the mother's house is just a picture of the church. She's so anxious to bring the groom to the mother's house. It's not the first time she's mentioned it.

She's enjoyed such a union with the groom, she now desires it for the whole body. The sister book in the New Testament to Song of Solomon, I believe, is 1 John. The New Testament ends the same way with the redemptive experience, the climax, the book of fellowship, the book of union with the Lord.

And that same burden is expressed in 1 John 1.3, What we have seen and heard, we declare unto you, so that you may have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things I have written that our joy might be full.

And it's this person who is so united to the Lord that he looks around and he says, oh, I wish everybody could experience this. That would be the fullness of my joy. The climax of the redemptive experience is not only the book of Song, but the last chapter of the book of Song is what brings it to a climax.

Commentators as a rule, evangelical commentators, agree that the church is very prominent in this last chapter. Probably even up to the very end where you have those vineyards and some are serving by duty, but she has a vineyard all her own and she's serving out of a union and so on. But I want you to focus please on verses 8 and 9. We have a little sister and she has no breasts.

What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for? If she be a wall, we'll build upon her a palace of silver. If a door, we'll enclose her with boards of cedar. As the book, as the poem, as the song, as the message of God draws to a close, you start off with all this development and drawing and union and getting closer to the Lord and entering in and finally leaning upon Him and just becoming a testimony by doing nothing except going down to the orchard of nuts.

And all of a sudden, it can't stop there. Now she looks around and she says, you've got to come to my mother's house. You've got to come to the church.

You've got to come to the body. There's a little sister. She has no breasts.

She's not mature. She's undeveloped. She hasn't come to know what I've come to know.

Now she's living in complete union with the Lord. And she begins to get burdened for those all around her. And she doesn't say, I have a little sister.

But she looks in the eyes of her groom and she says, we have a little sister. And her burden now is for those who haven't entered in and who haven't experienced what she experienced. She wants to help and so she says to the groom, what can we do? I've tasted so much.

I've seen so much. I've experienced so much. You've done such wonders.

I am now clothed with Your beauty. I'm radiating You. But what about she has no breasts? She hasn't entered in.

She's not developed. They're immature. What can we do, Lord? How can we help? Now, no matter how you interpret the wall and the door, I'm not going to get into that because godly men differ.

And when godly men differ, I don't know what to do. I try to find common denominator ground. If she's a wall, if she's a door, some say it's a good thing, some say it's a bad thing.

Godly men on both sides. Forget the controversy because the answer is the same. However you look at if she's a wall or if she's a door, good or bad, what can we do for those who are immature? And I believe the answer is this.

The only thing you can do. You can't make an immature person mature. A program is not going to help.

You can't set up another program. You can't do what only growth can do. You can't mature the immature.

The cure for immaturity is maturity. As the book closes, the bride who has come into intimate union asks the groom, what can we do? And he gives a double answer. I want us to look at the answer because that's how the book closes.

And I'm suggesting that is the climax of the redemptive experience. So now let's try to answer the question. What can I do? We do.

I don't mean I. What can we do? Me and the Lord. You and the Lord. We and the Lord.

What can we do for that sister that has no breasts? And he gives a double answer. The first answer is in verse 8. I mean verse 9. If she's a wall, we'll build on her a battlement of silver. If she's a door, we'll barricade her with planks of silver.

Now don't get lost in the word pictures. Don't try to figure out every little word. Get the principle.

And I think what he's saying is this. The only thing you can do for an immature person is protect them. Protect them.

You can guard them. You can watch over them. You can surround them.

You can set up stations. You can help them. Guard them.

But until they seek the Lord themselves, they're not going to get mature. That's the first part of the answer. What's the second part of the answer? Verse 13 and 14.

Thou that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to Thy voice. Cause me to hear it. Make haste, my beloved.

Be thou like a roe or a young heart upon the mountain of spices. Brothers, we're coming right to the end now. And I think this is God's final answer.

Please pray in your heart that God will communicate this to you. This is so fresh to my heart. Some of this is as fresh as this morning to my heart.

But here's what I think it's saying. I know there are differences in those who say who's speaking. Is it the groom? Is it the bride? Is it partly the groom, partly the bride? Everybody seems to guess at that, so I have a right to guess.

I think the groom speaks in verse 13. I think the bride speaks in verse 14. What does the groom say in verse 13? And don't forget, it's an answer to the question, what shall we do for our little sister who has no breast? That's what he's answering.

The first part of the answer is you've got to support her. You've got to protect her. You've got to be there.

You've got to watch over her. You've got to guard her. That's the first part.

The second part is this. Now, I'm going to speak, and I pray that it won't dishonor the Lord, but I'm going to speak as if I were the Lord. This is what I think He's saying.

He's saying, My dear bride, you made a discovery because I drew you into it, and you discovered that you were My garden. Do you remember that, dear bride? Well, now, you must learn that even though that was personal and I said, you are My garden sealed, you are My garden, My private garden, My rock garden, My only garden, My unique garden, My one garden, My one and only garden, I've got to tell you something. I have many gardens.

Look at the text. I have many gardens. It's plural.

You've longed to bring Me to the Mother's house. Alright, I'll go to the Mother's house in your person. You, My garden, you're concerned about those bad brothers who treated you so poorly and made you work in the vineyard.

You're so concerned about those companion shepherds that were man-centered and they didn't feed you. You're so concerned about those watchmen that misunderstood you and mistreated you and persecuted you. So concerned about those daughters of Jerusalem that kept disturbing your rest.

So concerned about that little sister that has no breast. So concerned about the caretakers of the vineyard who are working out of duty instead of out of union. You've got a burden for the Mother's house and you're inviting Me to come to the Mother's house.

You've got to come here. You've got to help these people. Some of them have not entered into this.

Well, I want you to know first of all, we have many titles in song for the church. There are the companions and there are the shepherds and there are the guardsmen and there are the watchmen and there are the caretakers and there are the daughters of Jerusalem and the daughters of Zion. There are so many names for God's people.

But the last name for God's people in this book, the body, they're all My gardens, but they haven't come to see it yet. They're all My gardens. And so My garden, I'm placing you in My gardens.

And the groom tells his bride, you want to know how they can be helped? I'm placing you in My gardens. That's their hope for maturity that you're going to be there because you've become like Me and they're now attracted to you and they see two companies and they don't understand it and they know that it's human, but they know it's divine. And you have become a radiant picture of Me, a reflection.

You're as pure as the full moon. You are My representative in the gardens. Verse 13, the groom says, My companions are listening for your voice.

You want to know what you can do? You've got to protect them or they'll self-destruct. You've got to watch over them. You can't mature them.

You can't do what that little kid did with the flower. Grow! It doesn't work that way. That's what we try to do.

Sometimes I see some Christian and I want to shake them. I want to shake them. I say, what is wrong with you? Start seeking the Lord, but it doesn't work.

So you've got to protect them. You've got to watch over them. You've got to be there.

You've got to love them. And then He says, You're My garden and here's My solution. I will put My garden in My gardens and you will stand there as a radiant testimony and they'll see two camps, two companies.

You will be the attraction. They're listening for your voice. And then He says, Let Me hear it.

Let Me hear it. Let Me hear your voice as you talk to My gardens. And then the bride speaks.

Now I know some have looked at this last verse and said, this is the verse that predicts the second coming of Christ. Make haste. Be like a gazelle on the mountains.

I don't have a problem with those who say that's the second coming. It wouldn't surprise me if this book on the climactic redemptive experience ended with, Even so, come Lord Jesus. Maybe that's in there.

But in the context, I don't think that's what this is about. I think He says, you've got a burden for those who are not mature. Well, My solution is you and your relationship with Me.

And now it's become so radiant, I'm going to put My garden in My gardens. And they're listening for your voice. And you can tell them how you got there.

Remember the tract? Tell them. I'm listening for you to tell them. And then she remembers.

I remember when I was in a box. I remember when I was behind a lattice enclosure. I remember when I was, I didn't know I was your garden.

And I remember what you did then. You came like a gazelle, leapt over the mountains, came up to my little box, made a proposal, arise my darling, my beautiful one. And I think the bride is saying this.

I'll do it. I'll be your garden in your gardens. I know they're your gardens.

I've looked at them harshly. I've been so angry at the daughters of Jerusalem and the brothers. They were angry at me.

I was looking at them wrong. I never saw this motley crew as your gardens. But I know they are.

And I know how you got to me. I know they're listening for my voice and I'll tell them whatever I can tell them. But that won't bring maturity.

Make haste. Come, my beloved. Come to them like you came to me.

I think that's how it ends. I think it's this great burden for the body that they would all come into this relationship. And He says, I'm going to leave you there as a living witness of what relationship can do.

And she says, You do it. I'll be there. Listen for my voice.

I'll tell them. But oh, make haste, my beloved. Come like a gazelle.

Do for them what you have done for me. And as I understand it, that's God's heart and soul. Father, thank You for drawing us into union with You.

We know the frustration in our hearts. We look around and just long that everybody would know You as You've been so gracious to allow us to know You. Thank You for putting us in Your gardens.

Thank You that every individual Christian in Your mind and heart is Your garden. Make haste, beloved. Come as a gazelle.

Come swiftly. Come surely. Draw them as You've drawn us.

Draw me. And we will run after Thee. We pray in Jesus' name.

Thank you, brothers.