Devoted to Christ
A Lord Worth Loving • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 38:30
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· 11 viewsMorning 16 June 24
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1 God shall arise, his enemies shall be scattered; and those who hate him shall flee before him! 2 As smoke is driven away, so you shall drive them away; as wax melts before fire, so the wicked shall perish before God! 3 But the righteous shall be glad; they shall exult before God; they shall be jubilant with joy!
7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. 13 By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14 And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 17 By this is love perfected with us, so that we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because as he is so also are we in this world. 18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. 19 We love because he first loved us. 20 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother.
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Song of Solomon 7:10–13 (ESV)
10 I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me. 11 Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and lodge in the villages; 12 let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. 13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.
Introduction
We have an abrupt change of speaker from Solomon to the Shulamite. It is not a rude interjection but the compelling expression of deep love.
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1. Overwhelmed by Love v10
1. Overwhelmed by Love v10
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10 I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me.
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7 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
16 My beloved is mine, and I am his; he grazes among the lilies.
3 I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine; he grazes among the lilies.
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20 I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
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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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24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
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1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
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2. Loving Togetherness v11-13
2. Loving Togetherness v11-13
11 Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and lodge in the villages; 12 let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love. 13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.
a. Alone With the Beloved v11
a. Alone With the Beloved v11
11 Come, my beloved, let us go out into the fields and lodge in the villages;
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.
Refrain:
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.
1 For God alone my soul waits in silence; from him comes my salvation. 2 He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress; I shall not be greatly shaken.
The love of Christ which the church enjoys, the gospel of Christ which she proclaims, the walk with Christ which she lives, the presence of Christ which she savours—these and many other such things cause sleepy ones to stir, to consider, to be revived, to seek the Lord and begin to receive a taste for spiritual things. Love to Christ leads to love for souls, and love for souls points needy ones to the love of Christ. Out of the abundance of the heart which is filled with the love of Christ, the mouth will speak his praises. [5]
b. Assurance
b. Assurance
I. Assurance of Hope
I. Assurance of Hope
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11 And we desire each one of you to show the same earnestness to have the full assurance of hope until the end,
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II. Assurance of Faith
II. Assurance of Faith
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
III. Assurance of Understanding
III. Assurance of Understanding
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1 For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all who have not seen me face to face, 2 that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God’s mystery, which is Christ,
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3. Examination v12
3. Examination v12
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12 let us go out early to the vineyards and see whether the vines have budded, whether the grape blossoms have opened and the pomegranates are in bloom. There I will give you my love.
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5 Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test!
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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4. Enjoyment v13
4. Enjoyment v13
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13 The mandrakes give forth fragrance, and beside our doors are all choice fruits, new as well as old, which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.
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Making salvation attractive is a high calling, but we will fail in that endeavour unless we can demonstrate that we have indeed been delivered from sin. Rebuke of sin in others without an accompanying lifestyle of righteousness is the greatest hypocrisy. But lives characterised by purity, power, and joy reflect the order, beauty, and power of a saving God. When we make salvation beautiful, we make God attractive. John MacArthur - Different By design
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9 And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, 10 so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
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9 But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”— 10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
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8 Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory,
Conclusion
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24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.
[1] Brooks, R. (1999). Song of Songs(p. 184). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.
[2] Brooks, R. (1999). Song of Songs(p. 186). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.
[3] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). Mandrake. In Baker encyclopaedia of the Bible (Vol. 2, p. 1391). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.
[4] Brooks, R. (1999). Song of Songs(p. 184). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.
[5] Brooks, R. (1999). Song of Songs(p. 185). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications.
[6] MacArthur, J. (1996). Different by design(pp. 172–173). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.
