Luke 9:43-45

Luke chapter 9 in verses 37 through 45 text this morning. Our focus is going to be on verses 43 to 45 as we looked at the earlier part of this chapter last week. But let me begin reading in verse 37. It came to pass on the next day when they were come down here from the Mount of Transfiguration is what he’s talking about. from the hill. Much people met him. And behold a man of the company cried out saying, Master, I beseech thee, look upon my son, for he is mine only child, and lo a spirit taketh him, and suddenly cryeth out, and it tareth him, and he fometh again, and bruising him, hardly departeth from him. And I besought thy disciples to cast him out. And they could not, in Jesus answering, said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you and suffer you? Bring thy son hither. And as he was yet a coming, the devil threw him down. and tear him. Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the child and delivered him again to his father. And they were all amazed at the mighty power of God. But while they wondered everyone at all things which Jesus did, he said to his disciples, let these sayings sink down into your ears. For the son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. But they understood not this saying, and it was hid from them, and they perceived it not, and they feared to ask him of that saying. God blessed to us the reading of his sacred and holy word this morning. We think of mountains as something. substantial in size and easily seen. And normally they are. However, there are times when huge clouds will cover mountains so you can’t see them. And we know that in the past, the planes have flown into mountains. You know, they didn’t see the cloud cover hid them and they crashed into them. They didn’t realize that the clouds cover. pilots didn’t realize they were there. Hopefully now with the new equipment that we have, they can at least observe there’s something out there. Many things in scripture are plainly stated. Sometimes, however, people still miss the truth. Spiritual ignorance clouds over what should be clear and obvious. And yet it happens all the time. indicates how spiritually ignorant Christ’s disciples were about the kingdom of God. Not only were the people themselves ignorant about it, but the disciples were caught up in this ignorance as well. About Christ’s purpose in coming into this world. Disciples sat under Christ’s teaching. Now you couldn’t sit under better teaching than Christ. And yet, despite that, we find they had wrong ideas in their head. You need to pay careful attention to this from afraid that we may be like them in many ways ourselves. I want to talk about spiritual ignorance in this passage of Scripture. Now let me begin by saying this. You find mistaken ideas here about. an earthly kingdom. Verse 43 here, we read that they were all amazed at the mighty power of God, but while they wondered, they wondered everyone at all things which Jesus did, what does this mean? What is this all about? Jesus began to speak here to his disciples about what’s actually going to happen. Now people here were amazed. at the mighty power of God that had been exercised by Christ. You recall the magicians in Egypt, at first they were able to match all the plagues that Moses was performing by the command of God. Until they got to the lice. And they couldn’t do that. And here’s what they said. The magician said unto Pharaoh, This. is the finger of God. This is something we can’t duplicate. It had to be God that did this. In the same manner, everyone who witnessed Christ here, casting out this demon from this young child, this young boy, had to admit that this feat was done by the mighty power of God. They were all amazed by it. It astonished the disciples. Because they couldn’t cast out the demon. They failed. The parents of the child and their friends were amazed at how easily Jesus Christ could cast out the demon. For this devil hardly departed under normal circumstances as we read in verse 39. The multitude was deeply impressed at the authority Christ possessed to do this. His big. Their command that was all that was necessary. Now, the scribes and the Pharisees, as much as they didn’t like to admit it, were taken back by this as well. They were confounded. They were confused by it. They had disciples that cast out demons, but they couldn’t cast this one out. So all of this made Christ’s miracles cure here stand apart in a special ways of them. So the people had to say, this is the finger of God. Now, people wondered about the commencement of an earthly kingdom. The people who witnessed all the miracles here that Christ did were wondering, what does this all mean? And the scriptures indicate to us what they witnessed here was unprecedented. And Christ had a habit of doing unprecedented things. It was highly unusual. It made people think something big is going to happen. You recall that all men mused in their hearts about John the Baptist, whether he were the Christ. And then when Christ came on the scene, he said, I’m not the Christ. I’m a forerunner. But when Christ came on the scene, we found that people were wondering, is this not the Christ? In fact, in John’s gospel, we read in John 615, that the people, when they saw the miracles that Christ did, like the feeding of the 5,000 and so forth, when they saw what he was able to do, they were going to come by force and make him king, because they thought the kingdom of heaven is here. It’s finally arrived. But they were thinking in terms of an earthly kingdom. And you can imagine them wandering here, is this it? Is the kingdom going to start? The disciples who knew that Jesus was the Christ. Also had heard him teach that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so they expected the kingdom of heaven to begin, but they also were confused, thinking that some type of earthly carnal kingdom, like all the other kingdoms of the earth, of the earth, that it would be an outward kingdom with all kinds of splendor and earthly riches, external honors, worldly power, and so forth. That’s what they were thinking. Every time that Jesus was praised and applauded by the people, you can imagine them thinking, they’re going to receive him as the king. They’re going to accept them as the king, and the kingdom of them will. God is going to begin. It strengthened them in their belief. You can imagine how excited they were. So the people were wondering, is this something special? Is this something big? Is the kingdom of God going to begin? But you find wrong ideas here about an earthly kingdom. And we have wrong ideas today as well about an earthly kingdom. Both the dispensationalists and the post-millanialist hold to some type of coming carnal earthly kingdom. Similar to what I think the Jews expected. The dispensationalist believe that Jesus Christ will return. He’s going to set a glorious earthly kingdom and personally reign from Jerusalem over all the kingdoms of the earth. We’re told that we’re should expect the earth to be more fruitful, to bring forth in such abundance that it has never been seen before. We’re told that a lion and the lamb will get along and coexist peacefully. And any young child could actually play by a serpent’s hole or nest and not be bit and poisoned by the serpent. That peace will be a serpent. That peace will be established by the serpent. in all the earth that there were no more wars in fighting throughout all the earth because Jesus Christ and his so-called millennial kingdom has been established. The temple worship will be reestablished. They’ll start sacrificing again at the altar at Jerusalem. And all the kingdoms of the earth will come to Jerusalem to worship. Now, there are passages in the scripture that seem to indicate something like this. but this is a very carnal view of the messianic kingdom similar to what the jews taught but jesus christ strongly denounced when it was demanded of christ by the pharisees when the kingdom of god should come what did he say to them he said the kingdom of god does not come by observation you shouldn’t think that my kingdom is like every other kingdom of this earth, God is within you. And what does Paul write in the book of Romans chapter 15 or verse 14, verse 15? For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It’s not built on carnal things, external things, but he says it’s righteousness and peace and and the Holy Ghost. It’s a kingdom that God establishes in the hearts of man. That’s what the kingdom of God is. The post-millanialist also believe that through the preaching of the gospel, somehow or other, that the world is going to be Christianized. I won’t say it will be converted, it will be Christianized. The Christians will gain political power that the Christian values, will be imposed upon the world and the ungodly will be forced to comply with it. So they take the messianic prophecies such as in Isaiah 65 very literally about the lion and the lamb and let’s say about the serpent and the nest and so forth that we mentioned earlier. They expect a period of unprecedented, physical, and carnal blessings for mankind prior, however, to Christ come. In other words, this will usher in the time when Christ will come. However, if you look at passages like Isaiah 65 very carefully, they are to be understood spiritually. Yes, he is using figurative language there. And even though he uses earthly things, uses earthly things to talk about spiritual realities. Now how do we know this? Because in Isaiah 65, Jehovah declares that he is going to create new heavens and a new earth. And what does Peter tell us? In 2 Peter chapter 3, he looks for the coming of Christ, the dissolving of this world and the elements of this world, the changing of it will be renewed by fire, and then what does he say? We look for new heavens and new earth, wherein dwells righteousness. So this is talking about the eternal state and not about something prior to the eternal state. So instead of looking for Christ’s return and the earth’s renewal, the post-millennialists are looking for a carnal kingdom to be established. But my friend, the scripture says, Our blessed hope is not a carnal kingdom that’s going to be established. Our blessed hope is the second coming of Jesus Christ, according to Titus. And we look for a new heaven and new earth. We’re in the wealth of righteousness, not just at some type of external Christianity, but all sin and all wickedness is removed from it. So you find mistaken ideas about an earthly kingdom here. Now, secondly, this morning, you find Christ correcting these mistaken ideas about an earthly kingdom in verses 43, the second part in verse 44. We read, he said under his disciples, and then we jump down to verse 44, Let these saying sink down into your ears, for the son of man shall be delivered into the hands of men. You find here that God sent Jesus Christ. to suffer and to die. When Christ was alone with his disciples, as Matthew’s gospel tells us, when it relates the same story, he says he got alone with his disciples and they said to him, why can’t we cast out this demon? What’s the problem? And he talks to them about that. And then he tells them this. He checks their thinking about an earthly kingdom. These very people that admired him, that praised him, that praised him, that wondered about him, would crucify him. One day, very short. As Matthew says in Matthew 17, 22 to 23, the son of man shall be betrayed into the hands of men, and they shall kill him, and the third day he shall be raised. Again, so this is what it means in verse 44, and we talked about being delivered into the hands of men. Jesus wants to take the minds of his disciples off of this idea of an earthly and carnal kingdom. You are mistaken. Let these saying sink down into your ears. Please pay diligent attention to what I’m saying. Don’t miss this. You forget. What I’ve already told you. Look at verse 22 in this same chapter. The son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and raised the third day. Didn’t I tell you this before? Didn’t I previously explain this to you? You still don’t have it. You still don’t understand still about this. the Son of Man shall be delivered into the hands of men. You know what I find? I find people often forget what they don’t want to hear. If it doesn’t match up with their thinking, they say, well, I don’t want to, you know, they sort of let that slide, let that slip away. Now the word Son of Man here is a phrase that’s often used by Jesus Christ himself in the Gospels. He refers to himself. by that term. It’s a term it comes from Daniel chapter 7 by the way. It has to do with the Messiah. It has to do with Christ in his incarnate state when he would come to earth and so forth. It speaks of the God man. It is used in reference to the Son of God God then. As God manifested in the flesh. He shall be delivered, he says here. The other Gospels is interesting enough, only have the word betrayed. He shall be betrayed into the hands of men. Here we have the word delivered. It takes a little different look at the same idea. It seems that the Lord wants to make clear to us it’s part of God’s eternal plan and counsel that he be delivered into the hands of men to be crucified. It should be the understood then. This is delivered, means to be delivered up unto death. As we read in Romans 832, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all. Or as we read in the book of Hebrews, chapter 2 and verse 23, him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified. Christ’s death is part of God’s eternal plan. And what’s the next thing on God’s eternal plan? For Christ to go to the cross. Not for him to set up some eternal, external carnal kingdom on this earth. And it will occur because it’s a card of God’s determinate counsel. It will not be deterred into the hands of men. Now, when you think about it, there are many times people tried to kill Christ. And the Bible says his hour had not yet common so they couldn’t do it. What does that mean? It means it was not God’s time for Christ to be delivered into the hands of men to be crucified. There was a timetable to all of Christ’s life, every aspect of it just like ours. And so Christ could not be harmed until God said it’s time to deliver him up. Now the hands of men, according to the passage we read here in Acts 2.23, they are wicked hands. They’re wicked hands. Christ was given to these people that he might be put to death. The chief priest, the scribes, would turn them over to the Romans, and the people would cry out and agree with the leaders of the religious. religious group of heading the Jews that he would be delivered up. He’s delivered up in order to save his people from their sins. So you find God sent Christ to suffer and die. Lay this teaching up, Christ says, in your hearts. Let these sayings sink down into your ears. The disciples here are told, pay particular attention on what I’m saying now. They need not only to hear it, but they also needed to listen with interest and lay it up in their hearts. Their heads were filled with these grand ideas of this external kingdom that’s going to come. He says, you need to be focused on what I’m telling you. You’re not listening to me. You’re not getting it. How sad it is. that we can have such preconceived ideas, notions, that we won’t even hear what Christ is telling us in his word. It is a common problem. You hear Christ’s word, but you don’t really hear it. Remember when Jesus was 12 years old? He went with his family and relatives to Jerusalem for the Passover feast. And they stayed for the days of the feast, and the family all went back. with evidently their relatives and so forth in a group back to Nazareth. And they go a day’s journey back and they realize where’s Jesus? He’s not among us. He’s, where is he? And so they go to Jerusalem and they’re hunting for it. And they find him in the temple and he’s conversing with the religious leaders of the Jews. And his mother says to him, son why hast thou dealt with us thus? Behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. Why are you doing this? And Jesus says, how is it that you sought me? Wished you not that it must be about my father’s business? Now his parents did understand what he said. But you read this, and this is important. We studied this earlier in chapter. after 2, verse 52. But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart. That’s what Jesus is telling the disciples to do. You may not get the whole thing here, but you better lay up what I’m telling you, because this is exactly what is going to happen. You better meditate upon this. You better be thinking about this. Listen to Paul in Hebrews 2.1. Therefore, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, less at any time. time we should let them slip. The word slip here, if you could think of it in sailing terms, if you had a boat that was docked, and you didn’t tie it down, and the tide comes in. It will pull the ship away from shore, slowly, and the next thing you know, it’s drifting off out into the ocean again. it drifts away and he’s saying that’s what happens with my truth god’s truth happens this way you hear it you don’t put it in your heart so to speak and then it slowly drifts off and you lose it so we ought to give the more earnest heed that to what Jesus says don’t be dull of hearing but pay careful attention to the word of Christ so you find Christ you’re correcting the mistaken ideas about an earthly kingdom. And thirdly this morning we see this. You find the spiritual ignorance of the disciples, verse 45, but they understood not this saying. It was hid from them. And they perceived it not, and they feared to ask him of that saying. You see the slowness, slowness of people to understand spiritual things. And it may surprise you at times, how slow they are to grasp it. In Matthew and Mark, it is clear that Jesus even used more plain language than we have here in verse 44 about his death. And yet they still didn’t understand at all. He distinctly spoke in verse 22 of this chapter about being killed, about rising again. But they understood not this saying. it was hit from them. And here we have a reminder if we’re going to learn anything from the word of God the Holy Spirit must teach us. If God does not teach us, even the things that seem plain and obvious, we will miss. And we need the Spirit’s illumination. It can be hit from us so we don’t grasp it. Now sadly, the scripture says God speaketh once, yea twice, yet man perceiveth it not. Job 33, 14. Sometimes God speaks. He tells us plainly one way, and he tells us another way, and we still don’t get it. And so it was with the disciples. They couldn’t concede how these things could be, because they’re so focused on this carnal kingdom. And this explains the spiritual ignorance of some professing Christians who have sat under faithful teaching for years. And yet like the Hebrew Christians, it seems like they need to refresh a course on the first principles, the fundamentals of the gospel of Christ. How is it that I have to talk to you about the fundamentals? The Apostle says. What we need we have to pray that God would teach us by His Spirit, divine truth, because then we’ll know it. You can sit under preaching for many years. and still remain a baby in Christ in many ways. I think disciples here show this very quickly. So the slowness of people to understand spiritual things may surprise you. You should not be afraid to ask for Christ help. Here’s the sad part. They didn’t understand it, but they wouldn’t ask for help. Perhaps they were afraid because they were ignorant. Sometimes Christ did rebuke their ignorance. Maybe they were worried about that. maybe their dream of participating in this earthly glorious kingdom, the Messiah. They didn’t want it to be shattered. I don’t know. But whatever the case here is, they needed more enlightenment. And Christ was the one who could provide it, and yet they never asked him. Now think about this. Three of the disciples, Peter James and John, had just been on the Mount of Transfiguration. What were they talking about? What did Moses? Elijah talked with Christ about his decease at Jerusalem, his death. How could they, you know, they missed it? Even when they heard them speak about it. They still are missing it. Friends, let us never be afraid or any way disinclined. To go to the Lord and say, I don’t understand this. Open the eyes of my understanding to God’s truth. Anything that relates to your eternal well-being, to the person of Christ, to your comfort, to your duty as a Christian, don’t be afraid to ask the Lord about it. Seek more guidance. You read about the prophet Daniel when he received some of the visions that he was given. The Bible says that Daniel sought their meaning. What does it mean? I don’t understand this. And that’s the way we should be if we don’t understand. Yes, we should be persevering in our Bible study carefully pondering what God has to say in his word. But we should also be praying that the Lord would illuminate us with regard to the meaning of that word. Christ is patient. Christ is kind and Christ is gentle to his people, and he will not upbraid us if we go to him and ask for wisdom with regard to his work. Remember, you have not because you ask not. My third thought here under this third point is this. You must learn to bear with the ignorance of others. You’re going to run across professing believers who have areas in which they show great ignorance. It’s going to happen. Often this is true of new converts, and that’s quite understandable because they haven’t sat under teaching very long. So we have to be extra patient with them and work with them. Because just because you teach on something, and I found this in the ministry, you can teach on something 20 times, and only the 21st time, the light go off and someone says, oh, I got that now. I’m thinking, how many times did I talk on this? You mean you didn’t understand it up to this? Well, we, but that’s the way we are sometimes. But it’s also true that there are some Christians. After my mind. spiritual instruction like the disciples had still have the truth hidden from them. In some fashion, there’s something that they’re still having grasped. I’m not saying they don’t know the gospel, I’m just saying they may not understand all the things that are in the scriptures as they should have. Sometimes they haven’t been giving earnest heed to what they’ve heard. But let me say, this. It is also true, and sadly this is the case. The problem with many professing Christians is they sit in a church where they are not really taught the Word of God. They’re not taught in a systematic fashion through books of the Bible, the Word of God. Today, one of the most popular things to do is to take a verse of Scripture and just teach on it. The next week you’ll have, you know, you might teach from John one week and from Acts to Next and Revelation the third week. In other words, there is a sense in which there is a jumping around so you don’t get a consistent teaching through a book of a Bible. Now, if I could topically teach, then I could avoid a lot of areas that are really difficult to teach on. And I can understand why people may want to do that, but we need to know the whole council of God, and therefore I think it’s important that we teach through books of the Bible. See, you don’t miss anything. Another thing that’s a real problem today is an appalling lack of Bible reading in the lives of professing Christians. This never ceases to amaze me. Some people are satisfied. with a very simplistic devotional, but they don’t read their Bibles on a regular basis. They don’t take the time to read the scriptures. My friends, you need to be reading the scriptures all the time daily and studying. You need a systematic reading through the scriptures. Not so, well, I’ll read the 23rd Psalm today and tomorrow I’ll read, you know, John 14 about heaven and things of this nature. You need a systematic reading through the scriptures. This is very important. Because what happens is if we don’t do these things, if we don’t have systematic teaching, we don’t have systematic preaching, we have gaps in our understanding, and we don’t know enough. We read about Apollus. His problem was he only knew the teaching of John the Baptist and he didn’t have the fuller teaching that Christ brought when he came on the scene. And though Apollos is a Christian man who is able to declare from the Old Testament scriptures who Christ is, that he is the Messiah. He still is missing many things and Aquila and Priscilla have to take him aside and edify him a little bit further, but he was very helpful to the other people. So keep all this in mind. try to help those who perhaps have a defective understanding of the things of the Lord. Just as there are clouds that can hide huge mountains, we find that spiritual ignorance clouds over many times what should be clear and obvious to us. So expect to encounter spiritual ignorance, but patiently deal with it, just as Jesus does. Here, let us realize that there are people just need to be taught more. You have to take them aside. You have to work with them a little bit more. And we’re going to encounter this. As we have people come into the church and you deal with different groups of people. I’ve dealt with people in the past. I had Bible studies and things of this nature where you deal with people from different churches. You never know where there’s a gap that they may need help. And so let’s keep that in mind when we are dealing with others as well as realizing we ourselves can be guilty of a very similar thing. This morning, we are going to observe the Lord’s Supper. So if you would, I’d like to just take a minute or two to speak from Song of Solomon as we have in the past in chapter two. I want to read the first two verses, but we’re only going to look at verse one, morning. Jesus says here, I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorn, so is my love among the daughters. Now these verse teaches us first the loveliness of Christ your Savior, and then secondly, your loveliness as the bride of Christ in verse 2. Now there has been some controversy. over who’s speaking here. If you have a new King James Bible, you’ll notice that they have grouped, they have it actually broken down to who’s speaking in the King James Bible, at least mine does, and the new King James Bible. And if you have that, you’ll notice that they put this under the bride’s statement. But I think there are three good reasons for seeing this as Christ speaking here. And the first is this. He is the I. verse one because the bride is my love of verse two. Put those two verses together. They’re not separated. My love here that he speaks about are among the daughters here. Among the daughters of men is what he’s talking about here. Secondly, notice the majestic language here. I am the Rose of Sharon. Who could it be that says I am? Go to the New Testament. It’s pretty clear, isn’t it? Who says, I am the true vine? Who says, I am the bread of life? Who says, I am the door? Who says, I am the good shepherd? Who says, I am the way and the truth and the life? It’s Jesus Christ. That’s majestic language. I am the rose of Sheener. And the third thought is this. The bride’s duty is to commend Christ. not herself. As the writer of Proverbs put it, let another praise thee and not thine own mouth. So I’m going to talk about the loveliness of Christ, your Savior, briefly this morning. Now Christ’s presence is with his people. Where do flowers grow? They grow out of the ground, don’t they? This is expressive, then, of Christ’s humiliation and his manhood that he would be portraying himself here as a frail flower of the ground. Just as man is made out of dust of earth, Christ is portrayed as a flower growing out of the earth. He shall grow up before him as a tender plant as a root out of dry ground, Isaiah says. It’s interesting that man is portrayed as a flower. In Job 14 in verses 1 and 2, man that is born of a woman is of a few days and full of trouble. He’s like a flower that is cut down. The frailty of the flower. For as much then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he, Jesus Christ, likewise, partook of the same. You have a Savior then who is touched with the feelings of your infirmities. He’s like unto you. The second thing we see here, Christ’s ease of access for his people. In fact, for all people. We find here he’s a flower of the field. Now the field is open to everybody. Anyone who desires may come to Christ for life in salvation, there is liberty for all sorts of sinners to come to Christ and partake of his sweetness. It’s not a flower that’s enclosed in a private garden somewhere with a wall around it where you can’t get to it, you can’t see it? No, that’s not how Christ is portrayed. He’s a flower of the field, and therefore he is available. Every sinner who labors under a burden of sin. It’s heavy laden. Has access to Christ. Come on to me, all you that labor in heavy laden, I’ll give you rest. Let’s talk thirdly, briefly here now, about the third and last thing. Let’s look at Christ’s beauty and his sweetness. He is the rose of Sharon. He’s the lily. Of the valley. Now, the Bible tells us that the world sees no beauty in Christ that they should desire him. What do they see in Christ? Nothing. But the believer sees a wonderful beauty in Christ. A precious thing. about him, a sweetness that’s hidden from the ungod. Rose is a sweet-smelling flower. A rose, and so is a lily. Sharon and the valleys. Are places where these flowers would thrive. In other words, these were the best flowers that could be found. It’s interesting in Matthew chapter 6 when Jesus talks about considering the lilies of the field, how they grow and they toil not, neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. How beautiful and lovely these followers are. There’s something delightful about Christ for those who have the spiritual senses to detect it, or as the scriptures tell us, to you who believe he is precious. Now, why does Christ, compare himself to a rose and a lily. Now that’s interesting. Now think about this a minute. What color is a rose? It’s red. What does red make us think of when we think about Christ? When you go to the book of Revelation, what does the red horse talk about? Bloodshed. It speaks to us of the fact that Christ is precious and beautiful to us because he offered himself. He laid down his life. He shed his blood that we might have salvation. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. The lily is white. What does white represent to us? Does it not portray the perfect holiness and purity that we find about Christ? The white rose. of the glorified saints in heaven. Isn’t it the righteousness that Christ is given? Christ’s righteousness that is set forth to us in the lily, the whiteness of it. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. He has a perfect righteousness. So why do we find Christ’s beautiful? Why do we find him a sweet-smelling rose because his blood, and his righteousness provide a perfect salvation for us. What a segue to the communion table this morning. As we come to communion, let us think about this matter of Christ, being the rose, being the blood and righteousness, which provides a complete salvation from sin and eternal punishment. And the rose of Sharon. Rejoice also. In Christ’s revelation of himself to you as a red rose, in a white lily. I tell you this morning that flesh and blood doesn’t reveal this kind of truth to you. It has to be revealed to us from Christ himself. Why is he a rose? Why is he a lily? Because what he’s done for us and his elect people see this and grasp the truth about Christ. And thirdly, notice that the more you fellowship with Christ, and the Lord’s Supper is part of that fellowship. The more he reveals about himself. In chapter one, what do we find about Christ? Well, he’s a king. He’s the bridegroom. He’s the shepherd. But what do we find here in chapter two? He’s also the lily of the valley. He’s also the rose of Sharon. He’s unveiling more. And the more we fellowship with Christ, the more he tells us about. himself. Always expect more as you go to the scriptures. May God blessed to us this wonderful this morning.