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"Preach The Word"

THE CHURCH GOD’S GARDEN

 Text: Song of Solomon 4:12-16

"12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,

14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:

15 ¶ A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.

16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits."

Song of Solomon 5:1

"I am come into my garden, my sister, [my] spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved."

Introduction:

The Song of Solomon is often called the Song of Songs. It is a collection of love poems between a husband and wife, with occasional sections attributed to friends or relative who shared in the couple’s happiness. The poems describe the couple’s courtship and marriage, though we do not know at what point the marriage took place. I beautiful imagery, the Song of Solomon celebrates the emotional and physical aspects of marriage.

Though Solomon eventually had a thousand wives, he could have written this Song of Songs early in his life, before his sinful polygamy began.

Some interprets merely see this as the love that ought to exist between a husband and his wife, but it gives some wonderful lessons about Christ and His church.

The purpose of the book is at least two fold:

1. To honor marriage and the joys of wedded love. The key word is "lover" which is found 32 times in the book. The theme of the book is "the love of the bridegroom for the bride."

2. Also, it is a picture of the Lord’s love for His church, when applied as an allegory, proclaiming the Lord’s love for Israel and Christ’s love for the church.

In 2 Cor. 11:2 Paul states, " For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present [you as] a chaste virgin to Christ." As a wife is to be faithful to her one husband, so the church is to be faithful to Christ in everything.

OUTLINE OF THE BOOK

There is the musings of the bride in the bridegrooms palace:

1:1 - 3:5

The bride accepts the bridegroom’s invitation: 3:6 - 5:1.

The bride dreams of separation from the bridegroom but finds him: 5:2-6:3

The bride and bridegroom express their ardent love for one another: 6:4 - 8:14.

What we are going to look at is the church viewed as a garden.

I. THE PICKING OF A GARDEN

Eph. 2:3 says we, "Were by nature the children of wrath, as well as others."

Some tips:

Find rich soil.

Put it in a place that will not be too dry nor too wet.

Have in a place that is easily accessible.

Have a spot that you can irrigate if possible.

Get a spot away from groundhogs and deer if possible.

B. Where did God take the materials for His garden? Out of the common mass of humanity. We were blind, barren, sinful and enemies to God. We were vile, wretched and rebellious.

It looked like God didn’t have much a spot at all with which to make a garden but it is amazing what the grace of God can do.

He can take that which looks like it would never amount to anything and do wonders with it.

All you have to do is to look at yourself and look around, and you know what I am saying is so.

II. THE PLANTING OF A GARDEN

A good garden does not come up by accident. You do not have a good stand of crops by just taking a few seeds and scattering them into the air.

A. How do you plant a garden?

You start out with a plan as to how many rows you are going to have, how many seeds you are going to plant, and how far apart you are going to plant them. Also you have to lay your rows off properly if you are going to be able to cultivate them as you should without harming or destroying the plant.

Occasionally you may have some "volunteers" that come up from last years seeds, but normally that does not amount to much. I have a spot at the corner of the house that "cherry tomatoes" come up every year after winter has passed. That is different. That isn’t a whole garden but just one spot. There has to be a sowing or planting to have a good garden.

He has preachers and teachers to sow the seed of the Word of God in the hearts of men. Actually no good thing can come out of our lives until the seed of the grace of God is sown in our hearts and the Divine Life of an Eternal God is planted in our hearts. The sowing of grace works along with sowing the Word.

Illustration:

Jesus gave the Parable of the Sower.

In Matthew 4 Jesus in this parable shows a sower sowing seeds.

They fell on various kinds of ground. Some came up, birds took some of the seed, and other was on ground in which it could not grow. But, the idea is this, there has to be sowing for there to be growing.

Nothing spiritual can come out of us until we have divine life present and flowing into our lives. You can grit your teeth, try harder, and seek to do better, but regeneration and salvation precedes you ever becoming a fruitful garden. Someone has said: "No root, no fruit." To have good fruit, you have to have some roots that tap into the good grace of God.

Picking of

Planting of

III. THE PLOWING OR PREPERATION OF A GARDEN

A. Agriculturally-

Before you plant a garden the ground must be plowed or tilled thoroughly. It must be well prepared if anything is going to be grown. The ground must be soft and able to take in moisture very well if the plants are going to come up and do well at all.

B. Spiritually-

Our hearts must be taken care of like you deal with "fallow" ground. It is land left idle for a seasons after plowing and harrowing, so that weeds and insects are killed while the soil has an opportunity to regain its fertility. Fallow ground is ground that is left for a while. The law of the sabbatical year prescribes letting ground rest for one year out of seven.

Hard ground will not start a good crop. It must be plowed and ground up where it will be soft and the roots will expand. If we are going to be part of God’s garden, we have to prepare the soil and get it in good shape to receive the seed. We are not to try to sow among the thorns and the briars. We need to clean some BRIAR PATCHES out of our lives that the seed of God might find good ground upon which to grow and develop.

A "hard heart" like Pharoah of old possessed, is not the kind of heart we need. We need to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts.

Sin will harden your heart.

Bitterness will harden your heart.

Satan will try to harden your heart.

If we are wise we will take every measure to protect our gardens. The are bugs that will try to take over, so we have to use malathion or sevin. We have to seek to keep animals out that will seek to eat the tops off our plants. It is good to have a fence around a small one if possible so dogs and animals cannot run through it. Many ancient gardens had fences.

The church, God’s garden is "hedged in" by a Thrice Holy and Mighty God.

Illustration:

Satan to God about Job: "Hast thou not made a hedge about him and about all he hath, on every side?" (Job. 1:11). God loves the church so much He has her hedged about with walls of protection. Just as Satan could not touch Job without permission, so hell cannot touch the church unless God permits it for some reason.

In Zech. 2:5 God is said to be a "wall of fire about Jerusalem."

A. Agriculturally-

A very good garden has in it many plants, herbs, and flowers that are of great worth and value. I knew a man years ago that paid huge sums for bulbs or rare plants, and then of course turned around and sold them for great profit as well. A well planned garden will produces a variety of things that will make it of much worth.

Note:

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a row of tomatoes now? In the store the other week they were $2.99 a pound. That is too much like Sirloin Steak prices.   Isn’t it nice to be able to go out to the garden and bring in fresh peppers, tomatoes, corn, okra, green beans and a host of other things?

Jer. 2:21 speaks of "pleasant plants." Weeds try to come up in the church, but thank God there are beautiful and profitable plants for the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ. Satan tries to plant people in a church, but what a blessing when we see plants that God has put in the church of the Living God. God puts gifts in His garden–the gifts of the Spirit to make her more beautiful.

VI. THE PAMPERING OF A GARDEN

A garden must have a great deal of tender loving care. You have to sweat a lot to take care of it. A church has to make sure and not let weeds spring up that will choke the growth of the plants that are trying to come on.

Note: I would take care of this church for the sake of the young plants in God’s Garden that are coming on behind us.

Note:

Thorns and briars spring up in a garden. So it is in the church.Weeds should not be allowed to grow and flourish in God’s garden. Some weeds look so much like a real plant.Weeds will hinder the growth of the right kind of plants.

Once in a while, while weeding God’s garden, a good plant may come up with a weed. There is nothing we can to prevent that all of the time.

The worst weed can spring up right in your own heart, that being the root of bitterness. The Bible says that it "defiles."

It costs to have a garden. Seeds, fertilizer, gasoline, equipment. Could probably buy much of it cheaper than we could grow it.

Jesus purchased His garden at a great price.

See Rom 5:8.

We are His inheritance, His jewels, His special treasure.

Isa 43:4 Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee: therefore will I give men for thee, and people for thy life.

Note:

I have tried to produces gardens and at the end of the year, after looking back over the cost, and what little I got out of them, said, "I wasted my money. Why did I spend so much to get so little."

God’s Son, the Lord Jesus will never say that. He does not regret the price He paid, because look at what He purchase. He bought a church that one day He will present without spot or wrinkle.

VIII. POURING AND THE GARDEN

A garden must have water. The plants will wilt and fade away. Choice beautiful flowers will hang down their heads if they do not get water.

In Deut. God said, "My doctrine shall drop as the rain." The church must have water coming down from above to refresh us that we might not wilt and fade away. Word of God is likened to water.

 VIII. THE PROPRIETOR AND THE GARDEN

One who plants a garden likes to take walks through it. There is a sense of personal satisfaction in the work he has done.

Cant. 5:1 "I am come into my garden."

In Rev. He is "walking in the midst of the golden candlesticks."

He walks with us. He wants to walk in the midst of his garden.

The one who owns the garden can cup tops off plants and take them into the house any time he or she wishes.

A godly man dies when He is ripe for death.

God takes his garden home to the Big House.

What A joy to be in God’s garden.

Conclusion:

Let’s grow

Let’s sow

Let’s know that He knows how to keep His garden

Look to Him

Sermon From Dr. Tom Walker

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