[0:00] Let us read the Song of Solomon chapter 2. Let us read again from verse 10 to verse 13.
[0:12] My beloved King says unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For though the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers are near and near, the time of the seeing of birds is come, and the voice of the curfew is heard in Olam.
[0:33] If they dream for the porter green things in the vines with the tender drink, give a good shout. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.
[0:44] Now this Song of Solomon was written by Solomon, and it says that the relationship that exists between Christ and his church.
[0:55] And the times there's a three-way conversation going on of Christ speaking to his church, and his church speaking to Christ. And in the verse that we have read, in the verse that we have read, we see a mention made of the seasons of the year.
[1:12] And the Bible often uses the seasons of the year to show what goes on in a man's life. We have different seasons in our own lives, and particularly in the lives of believers.
[1:26] We know about the winter in our lives, when the heart is frozen hard, and there's darkness over our whole existence, as it were.
[1:38] The believer feels that he is completely shut out from the things of God. And the non-believer is not aware of this hardness of his heart, but he has the doors bolted shut, and no entrance available for the gospel message.
[1:55] But the believer often worries about the fact that he is going through a hard time. And the gospel message doesn't seem to have any exception, things that you expect in the poor, emotional things that he is to think about in the Bible and hear, that he is sometimes, he is going through a section in any way at all.
[2:14] And he hears that he is away from the Lord. And yet, the Bible tells us that there are times, the times of winter in our lives, when the message appears home to us.
[2:29] And we find that the law seems to tumble around us with its demands. And particularly the non-believer sees that as well. The times when he knows that there are worrying things about him.
[2:45] He is not aware of the winter in his heart, but yet he knows justice, he knows something about condemnation, and something about everlasting punishment. And things like that, worrying so that there is a winter in his heart.
[3:00] And he finds that this winter time in his heart drives him everywhere further away from God. Because he hears of things like the doctrines of election, and the doctrines of predestination.
[3:13] And all combines it to nip as it were any young tender plants or soaps, but maybe in his heart. And he finds that this winter time in his heart needs to stop things from growing.
[3:25] And when there is a long time in some hearts, there is a long time in some hearts that they think it is normal. And that they don't look for any other results, they don't look for the spring time coming at all in their hearts.
[3:40] But God in his message, there is ten spring times. A time when the gospel message becomes lovely and warm again. And the warm, lovely message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[3:51] Gently blows of love, of mercy, of sympathy and concern. A message found within the love of God blows gently into the hearts and into the lives of the people.
[4:03] And they see the love of God. All is found within the love of God. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He thought I would believe an infinite hurry of everlasting hearts.
[4:18] Everlasting eyes. In the hearts, then things begin to grow again. The flowers of hope begin to grow. And the trees of faith support that tender shoot.
[4:30] And a time of sin comes into our lives. That is, the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Tearing things up. And making things good and enjoyable and exciting again.
[4:41] And the non-believer suddenly finds that he begins to understand the gospel message. And that there are things there that are for him. And the things that he takes in, they are not nipped in the bud at all. They just have susceptiveness of person.
[4:54] Is that what he was there before. And all of this is symbolized here for us by the time that the purple dove was to be seen.
[5:05] A time of peace and joy in the land that we read about here. And then after the spring time, it comes to summer. Where the graces grow.
[5:16] The things that began in the heart begin to grow. And what for Jesus goes on. And self-sacrifice comes in and grows within our hearts. And we find that they are putting ourselves second and putting others first.
[5:30] And material things fade away into the background. And things that used to hold our attention and draw us to them. Suddenly become not so important like music and the patterns and truth belong.
[5:42] All these go into the right position in their lives. So that they are not as important as they used to be. And suddenly we find that there are tender blossoms like love and compassion for our fellow man.
[5:55] Where we begin to be concerned about others. Where our love reaches out to others. Where suddenly the unconverted man becomes a burden to us. In our prayers and in everything else.
[6:07] And we begin, maybe to our own surprise, to cultivate humility. And we have a cheerful manner. And we seek to encourage for ways to tell the Lord Jesus Christ.
[6:18] All of this because it is summer in our lives. The summer sun of the love of Christ. The mercy of Christ shines upon us. And as we grow older, then comes the autumn in our lives.
[6:31] And the good inner lives is right. The mature Christians. And we harvest this year. And we see that all of the harvest will gather and store the fruit in what we have brought food.
[6:45] So we see as we just have a brief lens of those seasons. That every season has a purpose in our lives. Every season has its own time. To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven.
[6:58] It is yet. The time in the text prepared to hear is the springtime. We read that the winter is past. The rain is over and gone. And the rain falls in Palestine in the middle.
[7:11] Where the writer is talking about falls in the winter. On the springtime in the light of our heart. Or in the light of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ comes.
[7:24] Then Christ calls for activity. And that is the basis of old text. So Christ speaks to his loved one. He speaks to his church. He speaks to everybody. And he says it twice.
[7:36] Arise my love, my fair one, and come away. He says to the beginning verse 10. Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. And the end verse 13. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.
[7:49] So we see that in the life of the church there are seasons as well. History tells of the different seasons in the church. Remember a cold winter.
[8:01] And the Lord Jesus Christ himself came. And there was the cold frozen religion of the Jews. Tiled tightly by their own formal acts of worship.
[8:14] Where they had a special section for each person. Where there were certain people not even alone in the work of God. Where they looked and placed people in classes.
[8:28] And made a cross distinction between men, women, and children. Where the Pharisees and the Sadducees were unyieldy in their religiosity.
[8:42] Where the synagogues were just frozen palaces of ice. No love, no compassion, no care to melt the frost. Nothing there to war on the place for the arrival of the Messiah.
[8:58] And when he did come, the dark clouds of unbelief. Hidden from all that were seen. And the winter of that time reached its peak surely.
[9:12] When the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on Calvary Hill. And the thunder and the storm broke on the Saviour's head.
[9:23] And there was darkness over the face of the earth. But his cry on the cross of Calvary of it is finished. Was it not saying the same as he is saying here? The winter is past, the rain is over and gone.
[9:36] Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. His work was finished. Heaven's door was opened. Let the gospel loose of the people. And he tells his church, rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.
[9:51] And the early bit of springtime did come. And his church did rise up. And there were three hundred people, three thousand people, convert in one day. And seeing the beautiful message of Christ.
[10:05] The beautiful message of Christ's sacrifice for sinners. Blooms and blossoms throughout the whole of the Medina. The singing of praise is heard.
[10:16] The power of the Holy Spirit descends on the apostles in tongues of fire. And every man hears the gospel in his own time. The Medina spreads and grows in different places.
[10:28] Paul, Barnum, Mack, Silas, Timothy. They go spreading and sowing the seed and the seeds grow. The sweet savour rises to heaven itself.
[10:39] And it looked as if the whole wide world was to be encompassed and overgrown by this new gospel message. It looked as if an eternal summer to follow the springtime of Pentecost had come.
[10:54] But traveling these steps that was not quite so. The church fell asleep again. It blessed the pure teaching of the gospel. It took on man-made form.
[11:07] Leaning of money rank and state. The darkness of the day. And again the darkness of winter took over. And that went on for some time. But again the Lord in his mercy sent springtime.
[11:21] A time of awakening. It began probably in Switzerland. Went on to Germany, France, Holland, England and Scotland. And then that Calvin, Leder, Melanchthon and Knox answered Christ's call to rise up and come away.
[11:38] And the church of Christ shook itself free from the wintry grass of Rome. And entered into a springtime of hope. Founded on faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
[11:49] And faith in Christ alone. As the mercy of the church. But in our own lives, in our own lives we find peace in the world. Finds of hardness.
[12:01] Wint there in our bones. Hearts frozen hard. The gospel seems to bounce off us. It's an effort to go to church. It's an effort to go to the prayer meeting. It's an effort to open the Bible.
[12:13] It's as if we have been frozen absolutely growing numb. And worldly matters take priority and push themselves in on us in spite of ourselves. And more and more time is spent with the world.
[12:24] And the church becomes as it were a call for morality. If at all. Closen solid against the urgency of the message. We treat it as if it was going to go on from day to day.
[12:36] We don't hear the call that Jesus said eternity, eternity, eternity. We don't hear it now. So that we are absolutely all at least under the gospel message.
[12:48] But we've had times like after our lives that we've also felt an experience to get warm, for spite. Once we are cold, far.
[13:00] When we can say he said to us then, Arise my love, my fair one, and come away. And some did. But sadly others didn't.
[13:12] So for all your experiences up in our lives, Jesus is saying to us all here tonight. Saying to the church in God's King. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.
[13:25] He's calling you to waken up. He's calling us to be more fervent in worship. He's telling us that church going must not be a cold, formal exercise.
[13:37] He tells us that the gathering of the family of God. To hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to them. We have business with God himself.
[13:49] Business with the Lord of our immortal souls. It is not a cold, informal exercise. You're coming to deal with God about your soul.
[14:01] About eternity. The most important business you've ever had in your life. And Christ tells us, Be aware of what your business is.
[14:12] Rise up, my love, my fair one. Come away. Waken up for your sleep. He's calling you to be more earnest and concerned in your face. Have we just been going through the formality of prayer?
[14:26] Have we just been attending the prayer meeting? Have we just been giving the minimum time to speaking to God throughout each day? Do we cry out for mercy for ourselves, for our neighbors?
[14:38] Do we plead with tears for the unconverted? Has the church gone dry? I can tell you, yes it has. Because the truth that seems it. But the church is going dry, is going to become formal in its act of prayer.
[14:54] There are no tears. There are no crying to heaven. And yet there are souls that are on the way to hell. So join about us. And yet we can pray with dry eyes.
[15:07] We can go through the formalities of cleaning. And Christ is telling us, Waken up, rise up, He says. And in His mercy, did my love, my fair one, come away?
[15:20] He's calling you to be more alive. To be more diligent in His work. He wants you to exploit every situation for His glory. He wants us to be aware all the time.
[15:31] What can I say? What can I do for Christ? He calls us, my fair one. Don't let us be lacking in His fairness to Him. This is no time for complacency.
[15:44] No time to sit back and let others do the work. You are the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He tells you, rise up, my love, my fair one.
[15:57] Remember Christ's own words to the church of Laodicea. I know thy work, that thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou art cold or hot.
[16:09] So then, because thou art neither cold nor hot, I will steal thee out of my mind. Can anything be more often than that? The Lord Jesus Christ himself, stealing His church out of His mouth, because He finds it without either deep or cold.
[16:27] Apathetic. A church that's trapped back. A church that began with all the great blessings. And just because it was still going through the form of cold acts of wisdom, Christ says, I see you.
[16:41] I know you. I will steal you out of my mind. That's what He says. Please say, my friends, that our church here in Rothschild, there's not no complacent on lukewarm.
[16:53] Because you know the next step to being so blatant and lukewarm is to be cold and dead. He calls Christians here personally.
[17:04] He says to them, rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Rise up and come away from their best and misgivings. Jesus is calling, enter them.
[17:18] The spring is here. He calls you to action. Leave the idleness, the slothless, the lukewarmness. Rise up and come away. The kingdom of Christ is there. Let us go in and possess it.
[17:30] That's what He's telling us to do. Let us go up and possess it. Come away and leave our half-hearted witness behind. Let us to Christ first and foremost in our life.
[17:42] So many of us have Christ in our hearts, but there is not some talk before. He's not the king. He's got a wee corner pushed away from us and only brought to the surface on special occasions.
[17:54] He is not king of the heart. And he doesn't want to be there. Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Let us rise up and come away for real, live service.
[18:08] For you people of God, be available for the service. Where God demands what is. And He's calling you, my friends, who are still outside His flock.
[18:19] Don't shut off your ears and say this is only for the church. This is only for the people of God. To you He is speaking as well. He says, why, oh, why do you remain frozen and cold?
[18:32] Some the spring is here, the winter is gone. Open your hearts from the sea. Rise up and come away from your selfishness, your self-centeredness, your arguments.
[18:43] Let this day be the beginning of your spiritual life. Come away and sing, Lord, I am thine, O Savior of me. Because all of the glorious invitations of the gospel are you.
[18:56] Christ is knocking at the door. He's knocking at the door of your heart and He says, rise up and follow me. And He's calling you young people, all the young people here this evening.
[19:10] And He's saying to you, remember now thy Creator in the days of Christ. All evil days come up, let the years draw nines. And thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them.
[19:21] It is surely the best time to trust in these in from your young. Rise up, my love, my fair ones, and come away. And all you who are in the vagina to hear, how many old fish and springs have passed by with your heart cold and unhealing still.
[19:40] In all the vows I've worked in the midst of years, in the midst of years, in the midst of years, make known. He's asked to remember, my dear. And He's calling you who are in the evening of your days.
[19:53] What can He say that you haven't heard already? One thing I can tell you, the dear judgment is nearer now than it ever was. Hear the voice of Jesus before the cellar called his roof, or the door in the door be broken, or the picture be broken at the fountain, or the wheel be broken at the kitchen, before the dust be turned to the earth of his walls.
[20:16] And the spirit fly-head says, Arise, my love, my dear ones, and come away. Only this be a special evening for us all, as we hear and obtain this day-to-day voice, each and every one of us, not pushing it to somebody else.
[20:32] You and I, we are the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And He is speaking to every single one of us tonight. He says, Rise up, my love, my dear ones, and come away. Come away from our idleness.
[20:43] Come away from our liberty. Come away from our apathy. And let us do something. Are we going to win Scotland for Christ? Are we going to win this place for Christ? Where we are, my friends, we have to rise up and do it.
[21:00] Amen. Let us pray. Lord, we ask that Christ help us to hear thy voice.
[21:11] Help us to respond to thy call. We give thee thanks for the way that thou dost love us, and the way that thou dost constantly treat us as thy own loved one.
[21:22] So we ask that we would hear, and that we would rise up and serve thee. That we would not allow the winter in our hearts or in our lives to last any longer.
[21:33] But that we would let the gentle breeze of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ, master our hearts, and come into our lives with a warmth that will activate us to work for thee.
[21:44] Forgive us for the number of times that we have sat still, staying as it were in the warmth of idleness. Help us to strike out to do great things for thee.
[21:57] Make us available for thyself, we ask. Give us a spirit of willingness. Give us a spirit of service. Give us a spirit of service. That we may have as their souls of the unconverted heavy upon our hearts.
[22:11] That our prayers may be clothed in tears as we plead with thee and as we wrestle with thee before the souls of people around the bankers. O Lord, we ask that we would be motivated by love for thee.
[22:25] That we would be motivated by love for thee to have ears of compassion, ears of tears to the cry of the lust in eternity. Help us, O Lord God, to serve thee.
[22:38] The time is short. That we give thee thanks for thou hast enabled us to see another spring in our lives. May be a spring in the church, here in God's kingdom.
[22:49] May the souls be brought in for Christ's faith. Amen.