A Consoling Dream
A Lord Worth Loving • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 33:50
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· 2 viewsMorning 24 September 23
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9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing praises to you among the nations. 10 For your steadfast love is great to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. 11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens! Let your glory be over all the earth!
1 On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not. 2 I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not. 3 The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” 4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me. 5 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
Introduction
The Shulamite has come to the glorious assurance saying ‘My beloved is mine, and I am his’. The wedding is very close and she goes bed with her mind full of thoughts about the wedding and her beloved. As she sleeps she dreams. Initially the dream is disturbing but as it unfolds so it brings much consolation. The dream covers the whole section with, perhaps, the exception of verse 5.
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1. Troubled v1
1. Troubled v1
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1 On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.
We should not automatically assume that all is lost the moment things start going wrong. Pray for strong marriages in the churches and in society, locally and nationally. Pray against all that would weaken the institution of marriage. Do nothing to undermine anyone’s marriage in any way—either your own or that of anyone else. When storms come, do all you can to weather them and to help those who need help to get back on track. Gary Brady
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2. Searching v2
2. Searching v2
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2 I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not.
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3. Seeking Help v3
3. Seeking Help v3
3 The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
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4. Finding v4
4. Finding v4
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4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
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5. Admonition v5
5. Admonition v5
5 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
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Certainly the whole process of becoming one—living under the same roof, sharing the same bed—is a major undertaking. You cannot assume that just any person who happens to take your fancy can become your husband or wife as easily as that. People who entertain that belief are bound to run into heartache. Difficulty and disaster, sorrow and sadness loom. No, it is important to take care not to ‘arouse or awaken love until it so desires’. Love is a tender plant. It needs to develop at its own pace. When people try to rush things it is a little like the boy who decided to help the butterfly out of the chrysalis—it does not work. Gary Brady
We turn now to what we see of Christ’s love for us
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6. Troubled v1
6. Troubled v1
1 On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not.
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1 How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
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1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? 2 O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.
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1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
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There can be times in a believer’s life when Christ seems very distant, when he seems very far from us. True union with Christ can never be severed, but there may be loss of fellowship. Communion can be interrupted; the relationship can falter. Gary Brady
Where is the blessedness I knew,
When first I saw the Lord?
Where is the soul refreshing view
Of Jesus and His Word? William Cowper
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7. Searching v2
7. Searching v2
2 I will rise now and go about the city, in the streets and in the squares; I will seek him whom my soul loves. I sought him, but found him not.
The City = The Church
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22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering,
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8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.
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16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared for them a city.
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14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.
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8. Seeking Help v3
8. Seeking Help v3
3 The watchmen found me as they went about in the city. “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?”
Watchmen = church ministry
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7 How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.” 8 The voice of your watchmen—they lift up their voice; together they sing for joy; for eye to eye they see the return of the Lord to Zion.
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16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
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17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you.
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28 Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
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9. Finding v4
9. Finding v4
4 Scarcely had I passed them when I found him whom my soul loves. I held him, and would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother’s house, and into the chamber of her who conceived me.
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8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—
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7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
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6 “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near;
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10. Admonition v5
10. Admonition v5
Song of Solomon 3:5 (ESV)
5 I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
Michael Scott Horton (born May 11, 1964) has been the J. Gresham Machen Professor of Theology and Apologetics at Westminster Seminary California since 1998,[1] Editor-in-Chief of Modern Reformation (MR) magazine, and President and host of the nationally syndicated radio broadcast, The White Horse Inn.[1] Both Modern Reformation magazine and The White Horse Inn radio broadcast are now entities under the umbrella of White Horse Media
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The gospel is not something that wells up within us. It is not a dictate of moral conscience or a universal doctrine of reason....” The good news has to be told, and to the extent that it is assimilated to what we think we already know and experience, it will not be good news at all: perhaps pious advice, good instruction, and practical suggestions, but not good news. M. Horton
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Speculation will not help us find God but will only lead us to some idol that we have created in our own image. We may feel more secure in our autonomy when we pretend that our own inner voice of reason, spirituality, or experience is the voice of the Spirit. We may be excited about a new program for updating our churches and transforming our nation, our families, and our lives, but there is no power of God unto salvation in our own agendas and efforts. We can find all sorts of practical advice for our daily lives outside the Bible. M Horton
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The broad tendency in modern faith and practice ...is not that revelation, inspiration, and authority are denied but that the surprising, disorienting, and external voice of God is finally transformed into the “relevant,” uplifting, and empowering inner voice of our own reason, morality, and experience. M Horton
Conclusion
5 But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. 6 I will sing to the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me.
[1]Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (p. 114). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
[2]Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (p. 89). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
[3]Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (pp. 111–112). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
[4]Horton, M. (2017). Prologue: What Are We Celebrating? Taking Stock after Five Centuries. In M. Barrett (Ed.), Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary (p. 31). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
[5]Horton, M. (2017). Prologue: What Are We Celebrating? Taking Stock after Five Centuries. In M. Barrett (Ed.), Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary (pp. 29–30). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.
[6]Horton, M. (2017). Prologue: What Are We Celebrating? Taking Stock after Five Centuries. In M. Barrett (Ed.), Reformation Theology: A Systematic Summary (p. 28). Wheaton, IL: Crossway.