1 00:00:00,000 –> 00:00:06,200 We’re continuing our series, loving and being loved by Christ. We’ve been 2 00:00:06,200 –> 00:00:10,840 focusing on the love that Christ has for us, and today we’re going to reflect 3 00:00:10,840 –> 00:00:17,459 more on our love for Jesus Christ in return and particularly, in those 4 00:00:17,459 –> 00:00:23,400 experiences where God seems to be far away. For those of you who may not have 5 00:00:23,400 –> 00:00:28,320 been able to be here over these last weeks, we have seen together that Christ 6 00:00:28,340 –> 00:00:34,279 presents Himself to us as the heavenly Bridegroom. There is great significance 7 00:00:34,279 –> 00:00:39,439 in that He is communicating to us His great love for all of His people, and 8 00:00:39,439 –> 00:00:45,119 we’ve looked at the strength of Christ’s love for us. We have seen that human love 9 00:00:45,119 –> 00:00:49,860 sometimes diminishes and even comes to an end because of difficulty or 10 00:00:49,860 –> 00:00:54,240 deficiency or disloyalty. We’ve seen that Christ’s love for us is stronger than 11 00:00:54,240 –> 00:00:58,279 any of these and stronger than all of them put together. Indeed the love of 12 00:00:58,580 –> 00:01:04,680 Christ for His people is stronger even than death itself. That is why He’s able 13 00:01:04,680 –> 00:01:09,779 to say to us, I will never leave you, I will never forsake you. He does not say 14 00:01:09,779 –> 00:01:15,279 to us until death us do part, because He loves us in life, he loves us through 15 00:01:15,279 –> 00:01:19,839 death, he loves us into eternity. That is the unbreakable bond of the love of 16 00:01:19,839 –> 00:01:25,440 Jesus Christ for His people. I have loved you, He says, with an everlasting 17 00:01:26,099 –> 00:01:31,879 love. And this is His unique and His marvelous and glorious gift to us, and 18 00:01:31,879 –> 00:01:37,160 that is why in Romans, chapter eight when Paul is speaking about all the 19 00:01:37,160 –> 00:01:41,919 dangers that Christians face, for your sake we are being killed all day long. 20 00:01:41,919 –> 00:01:46,279 He says, even there we are going to be conquerors, why? Because we 21 00:01:46,480 –> 00:01:53,480 know that nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus 22 00:01:57,139 –> 00:02:01,680 our Lord. Well that’s where we’ve been over these last weeks, the strength of 23 00:02:01,680 –> 00:02:04,959 the love of Christ for us, it’s the fountain of everything else we love 24 00:02:04,959 –> 00:02:11,960 because He first loved us. But now here’s the question that obviously arises from 25 00:02:12,940 –> 00:02:18,559 what we’ve been learning from the scriptures together. Why is it in the 26 00:02:18,559 –> 00:02:23,080 light of these great promises of the love of God that God sometimes seems to 27 00:02:23,080 –> 00:02:30,580 be far away from me. Why is it that I know experiences as a Christian where I 28 00:02:30,580 –> 00:02:36,360 try to pray and I feel I’m not getting anywhere and God is removed from me 29 00:02:36,360 –> 00:02:42,639 there’s a sense of his absence Why is it that it seems that that can happen at 30 00:02:42,639 –> 00:02:49,279 precisely the times when I feel that I need him most and I am most trying to 31 00:02:49,279 –> 00:02:55,639 find the sense of his presence and the sense of his love and somehow it eludes 32 00:02:55,639 –> 00:03:02,380 me. Most Christians know what it is to grapple with these questions and, that is 33 00:03:02,800 –> 00:03:09,839 much our focus today. So please turn with me to the book of Song of Solomon I hope 34 00:03:09,839 –> 00:03:14,020 you’re familiar with this book but just one or two comments to set the scene 35 00:03:14,020 –> 00:03:18,740 before we learn from it together. This remarkable book of the Bible is of 36 00:03:18,740 –> 00:03:26,500 course a love story. It is the story of the love of a man for a woman a husband 37 00:03:26,740 –> 00:03:33,539 for his wife and the wife for the husband. It therefore charts the course 38 00:03:33,539 –> 00:03:38,580 of love and marriage. It has much to say to us about love and 39 00:03:38,580 –> 00:03:44,160 about intimacy and certainly it makes clear to us that the path of true love 40 00:03:44,160 –> 00:03:51,419 rarely runs smoothly. But there is of course a much larger reason for this 41 00:03:51,460 –> 00:03:57,139 book being in the Bible. The story is more than the love of a man for a woman, 42 00:03:57,139 –> 00:04:04,300 the story is particularly the love of a king for his bride. It is the Song of 43 00:04:04,300 –> 00:04:09,580 Solomon and Solomon you remember was the king. And the whole story therefore 44 00:04:09,580 –> 00:04:15,179 points forward to Christ, the great King of Kings, and his great love for his 45 00:04:15,500 –> 00:04:21,640 bride, the church. You remember in one of the great hymns of the church we speak 46 00:04:21,640 –> 00:04:30,540 about this. From heaven he came and sought her to be his holy bride. With his 47 00:04:30,540 –> 00:04:39,420 own blood he bought her and for her life he died. So today we’re looking then at 48 00:04:39,820 –> 00:04:45,720 the love story of a king who loves his bride and we’re going to use that as a 49 00:04:45,720 –> 00:04:52,660 lens through which to look at the love of Christ for his own people and 50 00:04:52,660 –> 00:05:00,260 particularly the experiences that we have when he seems to be far away. Now 51 00:05:00,260 –> 00:05:04,720 you’ll notice that this is written in the form of a poem. It is the song of 52 00:05:04,720 –> 00:05:09,160 Solomon and it is a song that is sung in different parts so that in your Bible 53 00:05:09,200 –> 00:05:14,820 there you’ll see the sections are headed up he and then from verse 2 she and then 54 00:05:14,820 –> 00:05:18,700 later on in verse nine others and so there are different voices that are 55 00:05:18,700 –> 00:05:24,320 contributing to the outworking of this great story. We’re looking at verse two 56 00:05:24,320 –> 00:05:30,920 so we’re looking here at the song that is sung by the bride, by the queen and 57 00:05:30,920 –> 00:05:43,480 she begins to say I slept but my heart was awake. Now some commentators take 58 00:05:43,480 –> 00:05:49,980 this to mean that she is describing a dream and I think that that is exactly 59 00:05:50,459 –> 00:06:00,799 right. I slept. I was asleep. That’s very clear but my heart was awake 60 00:06:00,799 –> 00:06:05,940 so she’s saying my mind was still going even when I was asleep. Well what’s that 61 00:06:05,940 –> 00:06:10,160 when your mind’s still going when you’re asleep that’s what happens when we dream 62 00:06:10,160 –> 00:06:15,679 and understanding that what she is describing here in this song is her 63 00:06:15,679 –> 00:06:21,820 recollection of a dream helps us to understand these verses because later 64 00:06:21,820 –> 00:06:28,920 the dream turns into a kind of nightmare in which the Queen gets beaten up by the 65 00:06:28,920 –> 00:06:33,820 watchmen on the city walls and it is hard to imagine how this would have 66 00:06:33,820 –> 00:06:38,899 happened to the Queen in real life but it’s very very easy to imagine how this 67 00:06:38,899 –> 00:06:45,239 could have happened in her dream so I hope you see the picture and that you’re 68 00:06:45,239 –> 00:06:50,619 able therefore to follow this story the Queen has retired to her private room 69 00:06:50,619 –> 00:06:59,040 she has fallen asleep and she starts to dream about the love of her life I slept 70 00:06:59,040 –> 00:07:08,440 but my heart was awake and now in the dream she hears the sound of knocking on 71 00:07:08,440 –> 00:07:13,700 the door verse 2 my beloved is knocking the King has come to her private 72 00:07:13,799 –> 00:07:18,720 quarters in this dream and I try and picture this now his hair is dripping 73 00:07:18,720 –> 00:07:23,859 from the rain that is evidently pouring down outside and he stands knocking at 74 00:07:23,859 –> 00:07:28,820 the door open to me my love let me in it’s like something out of a movie 75 00:07:28,820 –> 00:07:32,980 you know when the guy’s hair is just sort of absolutely soaked and and the 76 00:07:32,980 –> 00:07:38,059 rain’s pouring down outside and there he is standing and he’s knocking at the 77 00:07:38,059 –> 00:07:47,079 door now what is she to do because she feels that she’s not prepared I don’t 78 00:07:47,079 –> 00:07:51,880 know if you ever have dreams like this in which you know someone arrives and 79 00:07:51,880 –> 00:07:55,519 it’s at the wrong time and you’re not organized and and you’re thrown into a 80 00:07:55,519 –> 00:08:01,859 panic for some years when I was serving as a young pastor in London I had a 81 00:08:02,679 –> 00:08:09,859 dream and it was always the same I was running down the road between our house 82 00:08:09,859 –> 00:08:13,600 and the church I always walked to church in those days it was about 10 minutes 83 00:08:13,600 –> 00:08:19,619 walk but I was running and it was 15 minutes after the service started and I 84 00:08:19,619 –> 00:08:25,140 had not a single thought in my head with regards anything to say didn’t even 85 00:08:25,140 –> 00:08:29,079 know what was to be the first him and you know and then you sort of waken up 86 00:08:29,339 –> 00:08:34,940 I’m so glad that was only a dream you you know this kind of an experience and 87 00:08:34,940 –> 00:08:40,840 it seems to me that this is exactly what was happening here in her dream the king 88 00:08:40,840 –> 00:08:46,840 arrives she’s all flustered she’s not ready to receive him and what in the 89 00:08:46,840 –> 00:08:53,059 world is she to do now if you look at verse three with me it does seem that 90 00:08:53,159 –> 00:08:58,700 that her reasons for not coming to the door are 91 00:08:59,700 –> 00:09:05,539 somewhat lacking in substance I’m kind of feeling at this point you know what 92 00:09:05,539 –> 00:09:08,820 do I know about this a mere man and all the rest of it but I did check with my 93 00:09:08,820 –> 00:09:13,979 wife as to what her feelings would be about her ability to come under these 94 00:09:13,979 –> 00:09:17,099 circumstances and actually open the door for me if I was standing outside 95 00:09:17,099 –> 00:09:20,859 dripping wet pouring rain all the rest of it and she seemed to think that she 96 00:09:20,900 –> 00:09:29,059 could manage it but evidently this lady in the dream is having greater problems 97 00:09:29,059 –> 00:09:35,900 so look at verse three here she says I have put off my garment how could I put 98 00:09:35,900 –> 00:09:40,900 it on that seems to me not the hardest question in the world well dear it’s 99 00:09:40,900 –> 00:09:43,940 really quite simple you just take it off the hanger near Apot around you and you 100 00:09:43,940 –> 00:09:47,219 get up and you open the door the poor man’s outside and is pouring rain 101 00:09:47,700 –> 00:09:55,700 is it really that big a problem then she says I have bathed my feet how could I 102 00:09:55,700 –> 00:10:00,299 soil them. well again this is not the hardest question that was ever asked in 103 00:10:00,299 –> 00:10:04,719 the history of the world is it I mean look dear if you had to wash your feet a 104 00:10:04,719 –> 00:10:08,059 second time because you got them a little dusty walking over the floor in 105 00:10:08,059 –> 00:10:12,900 order to open the door to the king who you love so much is outside standing in 106 00:10:12,900 –> 00:10:16,179 the pouring rain that would not be the end of the word it is the King is 107 00:10:16,280 –> 00:10:22,539 standing at the door. But it is a dream and all of this is going through her head 108 00:10:22,539 –> 00:10:27,559 and she’s in a fluster. And then you know how it is with dreams they sort of 109 00:10:27,559 –> 00:10:32,039 change direction as this one does on at least a couple of occasions, she doesn’t 110 00:10:32,039 –> 00:10:37,780 move but then in verse four she suddenly is a change of heart my beloved put his 111 00:10:37,799 –> 00:10:46,940 hand to the latch and my heart was thrilled within me this is highly 112 00:10:46,940 –> 00:10:52,400 charged stuff folks I’m telling you it seems in the dream that the king might 113 00:10:52,400 –> 00:10:56,820 actually break through the door and her heart is pounding in this dream now and 114 00:10:56,820 –> 00:11:00,979 so she forgets all these self-absorbed excuses about it all being too difficult 115 00:11:00,979 –> 00:11:06,820 to get up and all the rest of it and she goes to the door. Verse five I arose to 116 00:11:06,820 –> 00:11:11,539 open to my beloved so now she gets up she puts on her dressing-gown notice she 117 00:11:11,539 –> 00:11:17,380 rubs a quick splash of myrrh on her hands, just coming dear I’m going to be 118 00:11:17,380 –> 00:11:22,900 there in just a moment just getting my hands sorted out with the myrrh here and 119 00:11:22,900 –> 00:11:32,619 then comes the shock moment in the dream when she finally gets to the door 120 00:11:32,659 –> 00:11:39,739 the loved one isn’t there I opened verse six to my beloved 121 00:11:39,739 –> 00:11:49,640 but my beloved had turned and gone… And so now in the dream she goes running out 122 00:11:49,640 –> 00:11:53,239 into the street right out of the palace into the city she’s looking for her 123 00:11:53,239 –> 00:11:58,179 beloved she cannot find him I sought him verse 6 but found him not I called him 124 00:11:58,179 –> 00:12:03,960 but he gave no answer and she runs through the street she remembers his 125 00:12:03,960 –> 00:12:08,700 voice verse 6, she hears this would have been in her head the sound of him 126 00:12:08,700 –> 00:12:13,979 knocking and saying open to me open to me my love he was there he wanted to 127 00:12:13,979 –> 00:12:21,020 come in I could have opened the door now he’s gone. And then the dream it seems 128 00:12:21,020 –> 00:12:25,880 turns into a nightmare the watchman found me as they went about the city 129 00:12:26,039 –> 00:12:34,400 they beat me they bruised me they took away my veil. Those watchman of the 130 00:12:34,400 –> 00:12:38,440 walls now I can imagine her at this moment 131 00:12:38,440 –> 00:12:43,880 just sitting up bolt upright in bed saying oh I’m so glad it was only a 132 00:12:43,880 –> 00:12:53,599 dream but you know when you have a very very vivid dream it stays with you and 133 00:12:53,599 –> 00:12:57,619 you find yourself looking back on it because you know it came out of some 134 00:12:57,619 –> 00:13:03,599 recess in your mind of your heart and you say what was that all about? 135 00:13:03,599 –> 00:13:11,119 Why was they dreaming that? What’s its significance for me? And indeed because 136 00:13:11,119 –> 00:13:15,520 God saw fit to put this in the scripture we’re obviously going to be asking the 137 00:13:15,520 –> 00:13:19,559 question today as this part of the Bible is open before us. Well now what are we 138 00:13:19,619 –> 00:13:27,799 to learn from this and what is God saying to us through this lady’s dream? 139 00:13:27,799 –> 00:13:32,140 And I won’t suggest that we learn here two things about ourselves and then two 140 00:13:32,140 –> 00:13:37,059 very important things about God. The first thing that we learn about 141 00:13:37,059 –> 00:13:46,400 ourselves is how selfish we really are. Surely this is the first thing that the 142 00:13:46,400 –> 00:13:52,460 bride would have taken from her dream. Wakes up the following morning and the 143 00:13:52,460 –> 00:13:57,239 question obviously is would I really have left the King that I professed to 144 00:13:57,239 –> 00:14:01,960 love standing in the rain because it didn’t suit me to get up and open the 145 00:14:01,960 –> 00:14:10,400 door? Am i really that selfish? And I love this King and yet I would have found it 146 00:14:10,400 –> 00:14:16,479 difficult to do that for him. Is that really me? Am i really so 147 00:14:16,479 –> 00:14:23,039 self-absorbed? Am I really so convenience oriented that I would behave in such a 148 00:14:23,039 –> 00:14:32,520 way towards the King that I profess to love? The reality is that among us who 149 00:14:32,520 –> 00:14:40,520 love Christ even our love for Christ is shot through with self-absorption 150 00:14:40,520 –> 00:14:47,119 our own convenience. What we want him to go on and go on and go and go on doing 151 00:14:47,119 –> 00:14:54,179 for us and how difficult when it seems inconvenient when he calls upon us and 152 00:14:54,179 –> 00:14:59,679 calls us to something that we are to do for him. How slow we are in our nature to 153 00:14:59,780 –> 00:15:03,280 respond even to the King that we love. 154 00:15:03,380 –> 00:15:12,020 A. W. Tozer makes a very telling comment in one of his books He says present day 155 00:15:12,020 –> 00:15:19,700 evangelical Christianity is not producing saints . The very striking 156 00:15:19,700 –> 00:15:24,299 comment what he means by that of course is people who are showing an abundance 157 00:15:24,299 –> 00:15:31,219 of God like character and he says present day evangelical Christianity is 158 00:15:31,219 –> 00:15:39,159 not producing an abundance of saints . And the question is why is that and here’s 159 00:15:39,159 –> 00:15:49,900 his answer he says because God is valued as being useful and Christ appreciated 160 00:15:50,000 –> 00:15:56,000 because of the predicaments He gets us out of. He can deliver us from the 161 00:15:56,000 –> 00:16:01,039 consequences of our past, relax our nerves give us peace of mind and make 162 00:16:01,039 –> 00:16:08,479 our business a success but the all-consuming love for him that burns is 163 00:16:08,479 –> 00:16:16,619 foreign to today’s religious spirit. You see what he’s saying that we’ve come to 164 00:16:17,619 –> 00:16:23,559 is a means to an end to give us what we want in our lives and the people of God 165 00:16:23,559 –> 00:16:29,020 love Him but our love is shot through too much with our own selfishness, our 166 00:16:29,020 –> 00:16:36,460 own convenience, what we want how we want our lives to be. And the bride surely 167 00:16:36,460 –> 00:16:38,979 would have wakened up the following morning and said am I really that 168 00:16:38,979 –> 00:16:50,140 selfish you read the story of a King who knocks on the door to speak to his 169 00:16:50,140 –> 00:16:56,619 bride. What Christian could read that without thinking about Revelation 170 00:16:56,619 –> 00:17:02,099 chapter 3 in verse 20 where you remember the king of kings knocks on the door of 171 00:17:02,419 –> 00:17:10,479 the church the bride of Christ to the church of Laodicea write to my bride 172 00:17:10,479 –> 00:17:21,280 write this behold I stand at the door and knock here’s Christ outside the door 173 00:17:21,280 –> 00:17:26,859 of his own church knocking on the door and here are all of these people inside 174 00:17:26,859 –> 00:17:31,099 whose lives are very fool and and and they love him and and but they’re not 175 00:17:31,099 –> 00:17:36,479 responsive to him they say if you read the passage there they say we don’t 176 00:17:36,479 –> 00:17:41,520 really need anything don’t call us we’ll call you we need something we’ll come 177 00:17:41,520 –> 00:17:47,959 and we’ll ask Christ says behold I stand at the door not surely that is taken 178 00:17:47,959 –> 00:17:53,680 directly from the book of song of Solomon that’s open before us right 179 00:17:53,699 –> 00:17:57,880 here here’s the first thing that we learn and I tried to take this into 180 00:17:57,880 –> 00:18:02,640 myself this weekend to say now this is where this passage of Scripture needs to 181 00:18:02,640 –> 00:18:08,079 search my heart I love Christ but I know that it’s shot through with all kinds of 182 00:18:08,079 –> 00:18:12,439 selfishness and my own convenience and all the rest of it I want to love him 183 00:18:12,439 –> 00:18:18,339 better than that I really do and the Scripture is given as a kind of mirror 184 00:18:18,339 –> 00:18:25,640 that we may be drawn in a fresh way to love him in a way that is more like the 185 00:18:25,640 –> 00:18:33,199 way in which he has first loved us and then I think there must have been this 186 00:18:33,199 –> 00:18:40,180 reminder to the bride of just how vulnerable she really was particularly 187 00:18:40,180 –> 00:18:47,079 the latter part of that dream speaks of the absolute dependence that we have on 188 00:18:47,719 –> 00:18:52,079 God. She sees herself going out into the streets and without the protection of 189 00:18:52,079 –> 00:18:59,239 the King. Where is she? I have to take this into my heart that I cannot sustain 190 00:18:59,239 –> 00:19:06,560 faith in Christ as a Christian believer apart from him. I cannot sustain 191 00:19:06,560 –> 00:19:12,920 ministry from Christ apart from him. The him that says I need you every hour 192 00:19:13,040 –> 00:19:20,319 really gets this. If we believed that we would be more responsive to 193 00:19:20,319 –> 00:19:25,280 Christ than we are and we would walk with Jesus Christ more closely than we 194 00:19:25,280 –> 00:19:35,060 do. I can’t do this on my own apart from my king. I am weak and vulnerable and 195 00:19:35,060 –> 00:19:43,819 helpless. I need Thee every hour. That is why Christ says to us. You must abide in 196 00:19:43,819 –> 00:19:54,060 me and I will abide in you because apart from Me you can do nothing. So we 197 00:19:54,060 –> 00:19:59,099 learn about ourselves. It will help us to come humbly before the Lord in 198 00:19:59,099 –> 00:20:04,160 their Communion service in just a few moments time. Here’s what we learn 199 00:20:04,319 –> 00:20:09,760 about God this is very, very important, and again just two things. Number One God 200 00:20:09,760 –> 00:20:16,939 sometimes hides himself even from the people he loves. That’s a very important 201 00:20:16,939 –> 00:20:23,579 thing to know about God that he does sometimes hide himself even from the 202 00:20:23,579 –> 00:20:29,520 people he loves. Obviously that comes right out of the scripture here 203 00:20:29,579 –> 00:20:34,599 where the king is hidden and the bride who loves him cannot find him he loves 204 00:20:34,599 –> 00:20:38,979 her but for some reason he’s hidden and it’s never quite fully explained but 205 00:20:38,979 –> 00:20:44,599 it’s pointing to a reality that is stated most clearly in the Bible by 206 00:20:44,599 –> 00:20:50,540 Isaiah the Prophet. Isaiah 45 and verse 15 Isaiah says truly you are a God who 207 00:20:50,540 –> 00:20:55,640 hides himself and it’s very important to know this is part of a Christians 208 00:20:56,439 –> 00:20:59,680 experience that you may come to places where you you try to pray and you feel 209 00:20:59,680 –> 00:21:03,420 you’re not getting anywhere and and it feels that God is far from you and it’s 210 00:21:03,420 –> 00:21:10,479 as if he’s hidden his face from you. Job said on one occasion oh that I knew 211 00:21:10,479 –> 00:21:15,880 where to find him and Job was the most righteous man at that time on the face 212 00:21:15,880 –> 00:21:21,959 of the earth God said that so here’s a righteous man and he says I wish I knew 213 00:21:22,439 –> 00:21:28,020 where to find God. I just see that he’s so distant from me right now. Can’t get 214 00:21:28,020 –> 00:21:32,420 through to him so if that should happen to you you should say well now this is 215 00:21:32,420 –> 00:21:37,660 not an unusual thing it seems that God’s hiding in in some way from me truly you 216 00:21:37,660 –> 00:21:42,099 are a God who who hides himself. David said my tears have been my food day and 217 00:21:42,099 –> 00:21:49,479 night while they said to me all day long where is your God now when God hides 218 00:21:50,319 –> 00:21:58,280 One of two things will happen, either you will become very, very distressed like 219 00:21:58,280 –> 00:22:09,280 David or Job or the bride here in the song of Solomon or you’ll just let it 220 00:22:09,280 –> 00:22:16,180 go and I think it is very very striking here that when the bride comes to the 221 00:22:16,300 –> 00:22:23,839 door and finds that he is gone she does not having opened the door say, oh he’s 222 00:22:23,839 –> 00:22:32,839 not there. Too bad for him. I’m off to bed. Why does she not say that? Because 223 00:22:32,839 –> 00:22:38,000 she loves him. Oh that love may be shot through with way too much selfishness 224 00:22:38,000 –> 00:22:43,420 but she loves him. That’s why she goes and she seeks him and she 225 00:22:43,579 –> 00:22:51,160 cannot rest until she finds him and that’s the distinguishing mark of a true 226 00:22:51,160 –> 00:22:56,579 believer. The very distress that a believer has when it seems that God is 227 00:22:56,579 –> 00:23:00,439 distant is evidence of the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart. That is 228 00:23:00,439 –> 00:23:04,239 something that is not known to someone who doesn’t love Christ. Or a person who 229 00:23:04,239 –> 00:23:09,900 has never received the Holy Spirit. They may say, oh yes I believe in God. They may 230 00:23:09,939 –> 00:23:14,599 say a prayer in times of need and all the rest of it. But because they do not 231 00:23:14,599 –> 00:23:21,180 love God there is not this sense of needing the nearness of God that a 232 00:23:21,180 –> 00:23:30,780 believer experiences. When God seems far away, the problem of the felt absence of 233 00:23:30,780 –> 00:23:36,699 God is only a problem to those who really love Him. And so when a believer 234 00:23:36,699 –> 00:23:40,619 comes to me and may say, we sit down, we talk together and that person may say, 235 00:23:40,619 –> 00:23:49,000 you know, God seems to be so far from me right now. This can’t seem to reach Him. 236 00:23:49,000 –> 00:23:57,500 Well, then I will say, does that bother you? Does that bother you? And the person 237 00:23:57,500 –> 00:24:02,959 will say, oh boy it bothers me. That really bothers me. And then I’ll say, well 238 00:24:03,180 –> 00:24:07,959 that says something wonderful about you. Because what that says is that the Holy 239 00:24:07,959 –> 00:24:14,000 Spirit lives in you. It wouldn’t bother you at all if that were not the case. The 240 00:24:14,000 –> 00:24:19,520 Holy Spirit lives in you. That’s why it bothers you when God has hidden His face 241 00:24:19,520 –> 00:24:25,500 for you for this time. And therefore, because the Spirit lives in you actually 242 00:24:25,500 –> 00:24:32,339 God is much nearer to you even then you feel. And then, the set, the last thing 243 00:24:32,359 –> 00:24:36,300 that I want you to notice here today and it’s very wonderful, is that that God can 244 00:24:36,300 –> 00:24:46,859 use these times when He seems far away to ignite a whole new spiritual passion 245 00:24:46,859 –> 00:24:53,380 in your life. And my prayer for this week and has been particularly that for 246 00:24:53,380 –> 00:24:58,800 someone here who feels. You know. I’ve really been struggling just to pray and 247 00:24:59,060 –> 00:25:04,180 it feels God so far away and I need him most right now. And this is exactly the 248 00:25:04,180 –> 00:25:09,640 experience that you’re going through. My prayer is that this will be the 249 00:25:09,640 –> 00:25:15,780 introduction to something very fresh, something very wonderful, and something 250 00:25:15,780 –> 00:25:20,599 abundantly fruitful that he’s going to do in you and that he’s going to do 251 00:25:20,599 –> 00:25:27,260 through you. Think about this what would have been the outcome of this dream. 252 00:25:27,260 –> 00:25:32,479 Think about this journey that the woman has been through in her dream. She’s seen 253 00:25:32,479 –> 00:25:37,880 herself, complacent and unresponsive, loving the King and yet way too absorbed 254 00:25:37,880 –> 00:25:43,219 with her own convenience and her own self and she has experienced the shock 255 00:25:43,219 –> 00:25:47,699 of what it would be if the King was not there for her. Without him, without my 256 00:25:47,699 –> 00:25:50,819 King, I’d be lost. I’d be so vulnerable. I 257 00:25:50,859 –> 00:25:57,660 couldn’t stand if it was not for him. If I was without him and suddenly she wakes 258 00:25:57,660 –> 00:26:10,040 up. Oh, so glad that was only a dream. Now, suppose, five minutes after she wakes up 259 00:26:10,040 –> 00:26:17,959 she actually hears a knock on the door and she actually hears the voice of the 260 00:26:17,959 –> 00:26:27,900 king say, open up, my love. Do you think for one minute that she 261 00:26:27,900 –> 00:26:34,699 is going to say oh I’ve just wakened up and I’ve still got sleep in my eyes and 262 00:26:34,699 –> 00:26:40,040 I’ve had a very bad dream, I really can’t come and open the door. Do you think for 263 00:26:40,040 –> 00:26:44,540 one minute that she’d say that after that dream? What do you think? Not a 264 00:26:44,540 –> 00:26:50,160 chance. She’s going to run to that door and she’s gonna fling her arms around 265 00:26:50,160 –> 00:26:54,839 him and she’s gonna say I don’t think I have ever told you before how much I 266 00:26:54,839 –> 00:26:58,020 love you. Isn’t that what she’s going to do? 267 00:26:58,020 –> 00:27:03,880 Because she’s got a new grasp of the value of the King, she’s got a 268 00:27:03,880 –> 00:27:10,959 new sense of what it is to love the King. And that’s why I’m saying to you from 269 00:27:11,180 –> 00:27:20,599 the Scripture that God can use times when he seems so far away to ignite a 270 00:27:20,599 –> 00:27:26,479 new spiritual passion in your life. Ask God for that if that’s where you are 271 00:27:26,479 –> 00:27:33,099 right now. The experience of going through what it 272 00:27:33,099 –> 00:27:38,339 feels like when God seems to be far from you may turn out to be a turning point 273 00:27:38,400 –> 00:27:42,760 in your life. It was for her. We’re going to look, God willing, next week at how 274 00:27:42,760 –> 00:27:46,839 the two of them are now pictured in chapter 6 together. She says I am 275 00:27:46,839 –> 00:27:51,319 my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. There they are. There’s no holding 276 00:27:51,319 –> 00:27:57,660 back and there’s a new level of beauty in her relationship with 277 00:27:57,660 –> 00:28:01,680 the King. Isn’t that what you want in your walk with Christ? Done with this 278 00:28:01,680 –> 00:28:06,040 selfishness, always wanting the next thing that He’s going to do for me 279 00:28:06,239 –> 00:28:13,819 and so slow to be responsive to anything that He asks of me. We’re 280 00:28:13,819 –> 00:28:20,420 coming around the Lord’s table today and I want you to remember this when 281 00:28:20,420 –> 00:28:31,699 you think about God hiding His face. Jesus knew about that and it was on the 282 00:28:31,699 –> 00:28:38,219 the day that God had His face that He did His greatest, greatest work. 283 00:28:38,219 –> 00:28:44,160 For all eternity the Father loving the son, delighting in the son, the son loving the 284 00:28:44,160 –> 00:28:48,780 father delighting in the father, then the son comes into the world and then we 285 00:28:48,780 –> 00:28:55,900 have the cross. And Christ stands in our place and He bears our sins and what 286 00:28:56,020 –> 00:29:06,060 happens, darkness covers the land and God turns His face away and Jesus cries out 287 00:29:06,060 –> 00:29:16,619 in a loud voice, oh my God, my God why have you forsaken me. And it was there 288 00:29:16,619 –> 00:29:24,400 that God accomplished his greatest work. Doesn’t that stagger you? The day He 289 00:29:24,439 –> 00:29:32,040 turned his face away was the day he redeemed the world. 290 00:29:32,040 –> 00:29:41,060 Father, we are wanting now to come to the Communion table and to tell you that we 291 00:29:41,060 –> 00:29:47,560 love you. To confess that our love is shot through with way too much 292 00:29:47,560 –> 00:29:52,959 selfishness. Way too much of our own convenience. Way too much with what we 293 00:29:52,979 –> 00:29:59,900 want, and yet you know that we love you. And we could not live without you. We 294 00:29:59,900 –> 00:30:07,800 could not stand without you and you are all to us. And we want to love you in a 295 00:30:07,800 –> 00:30:11,599 fresh way that reflects the way in which you have loved us and for our own 296 00:30:11,599 –> 00:30:20,199 self-giving to you to be far, far greater than the hesitant and restraining way in 297 00:30:20,380 –> 00:30:26,219 which we so characteristically respond to you. So help us. And whether there are 298 00:30:26,219 –> 00:30:31,579 folks in the congregation who have felt that you were hiding your face for them 299 00:30:31,579 –> 00:30:37,660 from a time, may it be that out of that will come your great work in their lives. 300 00:30:37,660 –> 00:30:44,099 An amazing work in which a new love for you is ignited and ministry for you is 301 00:30:44,199 –> 00:30:50,599 launched that will be for your eternal glory and for the good of many people. 302 00:30:50,599 –> 00:30:58,280 And all these things we ask in the Savior’s name and everyone together say amen.