Loving Fellowship
A Lord Worth Loving • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 33:40
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· 6 viewsMorning 21 May 2023
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1 If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves. 16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green; 17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine. 1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys. 2 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.
Introduction
Loving Fellowship - Come to the third part of the dialogue between the Shulamite and Solomon.[There are three sections, Loving Care 1:9-11; Loving Devotion 1:12-14 and Loving Fellowship 1:15 to 2:2.]. In this we see an intimate conversation between Solomon and the Shulamite.
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1. Solomon - Beautiful Eyes
1. Solomon - Beautiful Eyes
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15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.
17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
The dove, a clean bird in terms of the law of Moses, symbolises several things. In this book it stands particularly for gentleness, purity, chastity and faithfulness. The exact reference here is unclear. What is in mind? Is it the whiteness of her eyes, their beauty, their softness, or their tranquillity? Is it possibly the way that her eyes dart about, looking in different directions, or that her eyelashes flutter like doves’ wings? We cannot be sure. Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (p. 72). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
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2. The Shulamite - Pleasing
2. The Shulamite - Pleasing
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16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green; 17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.
a. Delightful
a. Delightful
Song of Solomon 1:16 (ESV)
16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;
b. Company
b. Company
Song of Solomon 1:16 (ESV)
16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;
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This is how it should be, to a growing and developing extent, between an engaged couple, and indeed between a man and his wife. There should be mutual praise—adoration and answer, regard and response. It should be sincerely spoken. It is not enough simply to feel it deep down inside and say nothing. Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (pp. 75–76). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
c. Security
c. Security
Song of Solomon 1:17 (ESV)
17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.
1 Solomon was building his own house thirteen years, and he finished his entire house. 2 He built the House of the Forest of Lebanon. Its length was a hundred cubits and its breadth fifty cubits and its height thirty cubits, and it was built on four rows of cedar pillars, with cedar beams on the pillars.
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3. Shulamite - Assurance
3. Shulamite - Assurance
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Song of Solomon 2:1 (ESV)
1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
The ‘rose of Sharon’ is not a rose, but a beautiful flower from the fertile coastal Plain of Sharon, or the Sharon (the word means ‘plain’). This is a low plain on the shoreline south of the sandy hills leading up to Mount Carmel. Once swampland, the whole area came to be marked by its fecundity and luscious greenery. Some associate the flower with the sweet-smelling narcissus, others with the crimson anemone. Iris, crocus, daffodil and other flowers have all been suggested. We should note, however, that it is a flower, emphasising a general description. The woman is still modest, but her self-image has improved, in the light of her lover’s words. Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (p. 76). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
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4. Solomon - Confirmation
4. Solomon - Confirmation
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2 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.
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Compared with the other maidens, Solomon has eyes only for this one. She stands out. The others are thorns in comparison, nothing but briers and thistles. That is how it should be between a prospective husband and wife or a married couple. For the man, his intended, or his wife, should be not only a lily, but also an outstanding lily. The charms of others must hold no real allure for him. For him they are to be mere thorns in comparison. She must always have the highest place in his affections and in his thinking. Brady, G. (2006). Heavenly Love: The Song of Songs Simply Explained (p. 77). Darlington, England: Evangelical Press.
We turn now to what we see of Christ’s love for us
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5. The Lord - Beautiful Eyes
5. The Lord - Beautiful Eyes
15 Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves.
17 Leah’s eyes were weak, but Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.
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3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
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1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. 2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
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6. The Believer - Pleasing
6. The Believer - Pleasing
16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green; 17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.
a. Delightful
a. Delightful
16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
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14 In the way of your testimonies I delight as much as in all riches.
47 for I find my delight in your commandments, which I love.
b. Company
b. Company
16 Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, truly delightful. Our couch is green;
3 For your steadfast love is before my eyes, and I walk in your faithfulness.
21 And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.
2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
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1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; 2 but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.
Hymn by Charles Charles Austin Miles 1868-1946 wrote Wide. Wide as the Ocean
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses,
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
And He tells me I am His own,
And the joy we share as we tarry there,
None other has ever known.
He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me,
Within my heart is ringing.
c. Security
c. Security
17 the beams of our house are cedar; our rafters are pine.
5 No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life. Just as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you or forsake you.
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1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. 2 I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”
Isaiah 32:18 (ESV)
18 My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.
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4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me.
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7. The Believer - Assurance
7. The Believer - Assurance
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1 I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
12 which is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to me.
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38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
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8. The Lord - Confirmation
8. The Lord - Confirmation
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2 As a lily among brambles, so is my love among the young women.
6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
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16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
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2 Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.
Conclusion
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3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love