Chapter 5. Song of Solomon, Chapter 5. The title of the message this morning
is, My Beloved Above All Others. My Beloved Above all others. The text will be found in verse
9, where the women ask this, the daughters of Jerusalem, What
is thy beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest among
women, what is thy beloved more than another beloved, that thou
dost so charge us? Now, I am going to go back to
the beginning because the context is vitally important. The context
in which this question was asked. And I have the purpose of this
morning as that God the Holy Spirit would cause us to draw
nearer to Him. Who among us does not desire
to draw near to Christ this morning, right now? Who? Among the believers,
who is it that does not desire to see the face of Thy Beloved? To know more of His mercy, to
know more of His character, more of His grace, more about Jesus
would I know. It's our desire to know this,
but in order to do this, we must see the whole context of this
and where this question was asked. So let us be reminded, first
of all, that this book of the Song of Solomon, remember, has
two people, the bridegroom and the bride. And these both picture
Christ and His Church. The whole purpose of this book
The whole purpose of this book is to show the relationship,
the intimate union of Jesus Christ and His Bride, His Church. Jesus is the Bridegroom, the
Son of God, who is betrothed to His Church. The Church is
the elect, those who are given to Christ, redeemed by Christ,
and are manifest to be His Bride by faith. You who believe, you
are the Bride. And who is your Beloved? It is
Christ. My Beloved. My Beloved. Now, at the end of chapter 4,
the Lord promises something. The Lord ordains something for
His Bride. He says in verse 16, "...Awake,
O north wind, and come thou south. Blow upon my garden, that the
spices thereof may flow out." This is the ordained purpose
of God, to blow upon the hearts of His people by His Spirit,
the wind of His Spirit, to blow on our hearts so as to stir up
the graces of God in us. Oh, what a wonderful promise,
isn't it? That He says, I will come, O north wind, and blow
upon My garden, and stir up those smells, the graces of God. Is this not always the heart
of the bride then? Let my beloved come to his garden and eat his...
let him do what he wants to. Please do what you want to. Please
stir up this heart. Please stir me up so that all
of the graces may flow out and that you may be pleased. Who
among us does not desire to please God, to please our Savior? And
so we cry unto Him, Come, blow upon thy garden. Come, stir up
our hope, our faith, our love, our zeal. And stir up our longing for Your
presence. But now see, the Lord fulfilling
what He purposed to do, to stir up these graces, to blow upon
the hearts of His people. So that they might know and enjoy
His presence. Listen, that's what chapter 5
is all about. Chapter 5 is all about Him performing that work
of stirring up the brides and her love. Now He does it in a
way that you and I would not expect. Do you suppose this is
the way you would have done it? This is the way you would have
stirred up the hearts of..." No, this is not how we would
have done it. He does it by, listen, exposing our sin. He exposes the sin of the bride
in her slumber, so as to know her great need
of Him. He does this by withdrawing himself
from her. And by this, he stirs up her
love for him. Her heart is cold. The condition
of the bride is seen early in chapter 5. in her slumber. But notice first how the Lord
comes to his bride and how he stirs her up first. Look at this.
He says this in verse 1, I am come to my garden. Isn't that
what he promised? He said, I'm going to come and I'm going to
blow on this garden. Now that he says, I'm come, I'm here.
I'm in the garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered my
myrrh, my spice. I have eaten my honey with my
honeycomb. I have drank my wine with my milk. Isn't this the
gospel? I, I, I have done it, and I am
satisfied. He comes to her longing for fellowship
by displaying his gospel. Behold, he comes with the gospel
message, all is ready. All is ready. All I require of
you, my bride, I myself have provided, and I myself am already
satisfied." I was talking to Cheryl about this, and I said,
you know, what if I came home one evening and said, sweetheart,
I don't want you to cook, I don't want you to clean, I don't want
you to do anything, everything's ready. All I want you to do is love
me. Isn't that amazing? That would be great. She'd say,
oh, that'd be wonderful. This is how Christ comes to you all
the time. I don't want anything from you. I've already done it. I've already eaten. I'm full. I'm satisfied. I'm already happy. I've drank my wine. I'm already
nourished. I've already had my milk. I'm
strong. I'm ready. I don't need anything
from you. All is ready. This is the message
of grace that comes to the sinner who can provide nothing to please
God. This is the message of His blood
to the poor, to the needy who cannot save themselves. And so
now, hear His message and look to Him, come to Him, open and
receive Him, you who are His bride. He has obtained all our
righteousness, who by himself satisfied the vengeance and justice
of God for our sins, who by himself took the book of the salvation
of God's grace from the hand of God, and hath the right to
open the book and loose the seals thereof. For he was slain and
is now risen and seated on the throne of God." It is by this
message of salvation without deeds of the flesh or works of
the law, but by the Spirit of God, He draws us with this message. Isn't this message the one that
drew you? Isn't this the message by which you were betrothed to
Him, by which you came to Him and said, that's my beloved,
I believe? That's a message of grace. And it's the same message that
grows sweeter to every believer every time we hear it. I love
to tell the story of unseen things above, of Jesus and His glory,
of Jesus and His love. I love to tell the story because
I know it is true. It satisfies my longing like
nothing else can do. I love to tell the story to those
that know it best. Seem hungering and thirsting
to hear it like the rest. But we must confess that we are still so easily prone
to sin. We still have this old corpse
of the flesh dragging us to the earth. And so when Christ seems to tarry He has His promises
given to us. He says, I'm going to stir up
your heart. I'm going to stir up the graces. But yet, if He
doesn't do it immediately, how prone are we to just forget? How much of the messages do we
remember? We're so prone to forget. And
so when He tarries, when He doesn't come immediately and stir up
our hearts, We are so prone to spiritual slumber, spiritual
sleep, when He doesn't come immediately and do it, we are soon found
like the bride, sleeping. Not in prayer, not
in waiting for the Beloved to come, but asleep. Listen, you bride, you sons of
God, see how He now calls you to eat with Him. He says this,
O friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. But listen, if our hearts are
cold, if we have left off worship, prayer, and waiting, it is because
we are spiritually in Christ. And we've grown comfortable.
We have wrapped ourselves in the covers of this world, and
we have neglected to hear and wait on Him. This is the cause
of our spiritual slumber. Look at verse 2. He says, I sleep,
but my heart awakes. It is the voice of my beloved
knocking, saying, Open unto me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled. My head is filled with the dew,
my locks with the drops of night." The bride here is comfortable
in her bed. She is uncovered. She says, I
have put off my coat. How can I put it on again? I've
washed my feet. How shall I defile them? How often do we hear the Word
of God, the Word of Christ, to call us to Him, to obey His voice,
to worship Him, to hear His Gospel where it is preached, where He
Himself is present? How often do we... He called
us to prayer, to read His Word, and yet we are so wrapped up
in our own business that we neglect Him. We neglect Him. We do. And we say, how can I do this?
How can I put off? You know when Christ comes, usually
it's the most inconvenient time, isn't it? It's usually when we're the busiest.
It's usually when we're wrapped up in something big, what we
think is big, and He says, come away with me. And we say, oh
no, I can't put on my coat again. I put it off. Too much trouble. Too much trouble! Say, we'll
wait till the kids are grown, then we'll come. We'll wait till
our business settles down a little bit. We're too busy right now.
We can't come. You know why? You're asleep.
You're asleep. But see, the grace of God toward
the bride is that He does not give up on her. Isn't that something? How many times does he call the
lost, and yet, pretty soon, the scripture says, my spirit shall
not always strive with men. And he never comes back to them.
But look what he does before he leaves her. He says this,
he said, my beloved put his hand to the hole of the door, and
my bowels were moved for him. He doesn't leave his bride without
his spirit. His spirit moves on us. Isn't this the beginning of what
He promised? To stir His garden? He put His hand to the hole of
the door. See how gently He touches the
cold heart. How sweet the smell of His grace
flows from His hand, so that it moves our hearts and stirs
us from our slumber. Moves us to go to Him. Do you long for Him right now?
Do you long for Him? Do you want Him? Is your heart
stirred? Do you need Him? Are you moved? Is that not because He put His
hand to the heart of your heart? Is that not the Holy Spirit?
The world is not moved after Him. The world cares nothing
for Him. Who does? His bride. Why? Because He put His hand on her
heart. He moved us to come to Him by
grace, didn't He? And He moves us to keep coming
to Him. So He doesn't leave us. You long for more faith, more
joy, more peace, more love? This is the work of the Holy
Spirit that the person of Christ should be endeared to our hearts. Do you long to know Him? Now,
I'm not talking about Him. I'm not talking about picking
up a book of systematic theology and academically learning a system,
I'm talking about Him. Do you want to know Him? Now the Apostle Paul did, didn't
he? He said, that I may know Him. I count all as done that I may
win Christ and be found in His righteousness, not mine, but
His, that I may know Him. Know Him. Oh, to know Him, you
have to count everything but done. You have to be moved of
the Spirit of God. When we are spiritually asleep,
we become indifferent and cold. We do not esteem Him or value
Him or know our great need of His abiding presence. So to stir
up our hearts, our desire for Him, what does He do? He leaves her. I rose up to my Beloved, and
my hands dropped with myrrh, my fingers with sweet-smelling
myrrh. Upon the handles of the lock I opened to my Beloved,
but my Beloved had withdrawn Himself. He was gone. My soul
failed when He spake. I sought Him, but I could not
find Him. I called Him, but He gave me
no answer. We are found in such a wicked
condition and moved by the words of Christ to find Him and He
is not there. We open to Him and He is not
there. You know why? Because you dipped your hands
in the mire of your works. Isn't that exactly what we try
to do when we find out we're asleep? Isn't that? We try to
find something then to please Him in ourselves. We take our
works, we go to work, and then we take that to the door, and
every time you'll find this, He won't be there. He will not
share His glory with you. He will not mix His myrrh with
yours. Won't do it. He will always leave
us. But He does not do this to punish
us. I want you to know that. If you... David had often felt this way.
He said this in Psalm 89. He says, "...How long, O Lord,
will thou hide thyself forever?" David understood what this is
like. When the Lord withdraws His presence from us, We all
understand what this is like. If you've been a believer for
any length of time, you understand what it's like. It is the worst
thing that could happen to a believer is when he hides his face. There's
nothing worse. There's nothing worse. When you seek Him and you cannot
find Him. When it seems that the doors
of heaven are barred and your prayers don't ascend higher than
the ceiling. There is nothing worse to the
bride. And so where does she go? Verse
7, the watchman. The watchman went about the city,
found me, they smote me, they wounded me, the keepers of the
wall took away my veil. What is this? When you find yourself
have sinned against God and you cannot find Him, where do you
go? You go back to where you found Him before. You go back
to hearing the Word of God. You go back to hearing the Gospel
of God's grace. These watchmen are preachers.
And you see, it's not the intent of God's preachers to whip people,
but I tell you this, what hurts worse? Somebody browbeating you
or somebody telling you of God's love? and you see your sin. That's like piercing, isn't it?
When you speak of His love, of His grace, of His mercy, and
yet you cannot enter into it. It is piercing to your soul.
The veil is stripped from you, and you're exposed. What happens
to us? Come back and hear the gospel
of free mercy, free love, and we can't enter in. Oh, the pain
it causes. The grief. And then you see the
Beloved, the Bride. She has come to the lowest point
in verse 8. I charge you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, if you find My Beloved, tell Him that I am sick of love.
I am lovesick. I miss Him so much. Have you
ever been there? If you've been so low as to ask
others, if you find Him, please tell Him. He's not listening
to me. He's not hearing me. If you would,
pray for me. Tell Him. Isn't that what Asaph experienced
of his own sin? He said, my foot in Nile well
slipped. My faith was gone. My hope was
lost. And she comes to this lowest
point. She cries out, I am lovesick for Him. We have abandoned Him. And so now, we abandon all the
joys of earth, all the amusements of the flesh, All of our friends,
all of the things that we were wrapped up in, what are they
now to us? In such a low place, what are they? They're ashes
in our mouth. They're no good. They don't satisfy. They're no comfort to us. Unless
we have Him, we have nothing. We have nothing. And so then all of those around
us, what's wrong with you? I remember when I was in the
military, and I was in such a low place, and I began to weep openly. I could not bear it anymore. And I remember all of my friends,
they, what's wrong with you? And they did not know, they did
not understand. Isn't this what the daughters
of Jerusalem are saying? What is your beloved above another?
Why do you charge us? Remember that poor publican weeping
and crying at the... Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner! I'm sure that one standing there
said, look at that publican over there crying and weeping. What
is he weeping for? Let me tell you about my beloved.
What is your beloved above another? Do you long to know the beloved
of our souls? Do you long to have his presence
restored? How then is the presence and
joy restored to the bride? Let me tell you. By her fixating
her eyes upon her beloved and telling the daughters of Jerusalem
about him. Telling the daughters of Jerusalem,
what is thy beloved above another? Do you long to know My Beloved?
Or are you as the bride who has sinned and needs to know more
of Him? The answer to this question,
what is thy Beloved above another, can both save the sinner and
lift the fallen saint. Do you desire to know the Lord
Jesus Christ and listen to the bride as she now comes up from
her pool of tears. She's at her lowest. She hears
this question, what is thy beloved above another? And what does
she do? She turns all of her mind, all of her heart is now
fixated on what he looks like. on His character, on who He is. And she describes Him, and then
there are ten things that she describes about Him, about her
Beloved that stirs her heart. Look at this first one, He is
white and ruddy. Verse 10, My Beloved is white
and ruddy. What is this? You listen, My
Jesus is both God and man. He is God and man. He is God, very God, maker of
the heavens and the earth, keeper and sustainer of all life. Yet
He is ruddy, which means He is man. He is made flesh. That God was made flesh so as
to be our mediator. The only mediator to stand between
us and God is my Beloved. My Beloved. See then the excellency
of his person, who alone can reconcile us to God, who alone
is our federal head, our high priest in things pertaining to
God. As Adam was our federal head,
even so we all fell in him. But in this, my beloved, are
sinners restored. in a federal head. By the offense
of one, many were made sinners. So by the righteousness of one
shall many be made righteous. The obedience of one shall many
be made righteous. And see now that He was white,
holy, without spot, without blemish, was made ruddy at the cross.
He was made red with His blood, wasn't He? He shed His blood. he offered himself to God and
in full vengeance God fell on him for our sins and all Adam's
race died under the justice of God we could never satisfy but
this one who is right white and ruddy listen she says he is the
cheapest among ten thousand what does this mean cheapest
among ten thousand One in all the earth. Do you realize that there's only
one Savior? Very narrow gospel, isn't it? One Savior. And who is He? My Beloved. He
is One, the only Mediator between God and man. Do you get that?
Only Mediator. Only Mediator. between God and men, the man,
Christ Jesus. Oh, my beloved is white. He is
God. He is man. He is white. He is
holy. He is red by His blood to redeem
us to God. He is our mediator. That is my
beloved. He is excellent. He is omnipotent
in power and full of grace and compassion. He is the foundation
upon which all the church is built. and he alone could reconcile
us to God not by merit but by grace and so then now would you hear
my beloved will you come to my beloved and what should you expect if
you do come he said all that the father giveth
me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will what? no
way cast him out and that goes for the sinner who has not yet
come and the saint who has already come I will never cast you out
secondly he said his head is his fine gold what does this
testify of? his sovereignty what did the king have on his head?
a crown! a crown! My Beloved is crowned with many
crowns. He is a sovereign Lord God over
all things. He had decreed all things from
the beginning, declaring the end from the beginning, from
ancient times of things not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all My pleasure. What is Your Beloved's pleasure?
What is His pleasure? What is His counsel? What is
His will? It is to save His people from their sins. That is His
counsel. That is His will. That's the
will of My Beloved. And I will do all my pleasure." And see then, as we begin to
see this, the sin of the bride was even for her good, wasn't
it? Had she not slept, she surely
would have not been stirred. And now that she's stirred, what
is she doing? Her eyes are fixed eight on Him
that is her Sovereign. The third thing is His hair.
His hair, it says is, let me see, in verse 11, His head is
most fine gold, His locks are bushy and black as a raven. What
is this? Eternal youth. Eternal strength. When you get old, your hair becomes
gray, not black. It falls out. It's not bushy.
But this one, my beloved, his hair is as eternal youth. Which means exactly what Jude
said, unto him who is able to keep you from falling. Is he not able? Is your sin too much? Have you fallen too far that
the arm of omnipotence cannot lift you up? He's eternally young and strong. Wherefore He is able to save
them to the uttermost that come to God by Him. Fourthly, His
eyes. Look at this. His eyes are as
the eyes of doves. By the rivers of water washed
with milk and fitly set. You know, a dove only has one
mate, and is always faithful. What she's saying, my beloved
is faithful. My beloved will never leave me, nor forsake me. Why? His eyes are as dove's eyes. He has one love, one bride, one
church, and His eyes are washed with milk. What is that? They're
pure, they're holy. His vision is perfect. He knows who you are. He knew
who you were before He saved you. Shall He not keep you after
He saved you? Why, His eyes are fitly set on
you. On you. Unmoved. Full of love. Do you fear Dove's
eyes? They're not harsh, are they? I know you. You think he looks
on you with hard looks. You think his eye and his brow
are as stone. No. They're dove's eyes. They're gentle and kind, always
kind. His cheeks, his cheeks are as
a bed of spices, sweet flowers, sweet flowers, his cheeks. This
speaks of his countenance. When you see someone's cheeks
and they're rosy, they're rosy because of their smile. They're
full of life and love. They're flush. They're flush.
When a young person's in love and they're overflowing, their
face becomes flush. Their cheeks are as spices, red
like flowers, like roses. His countenance is always the
same towards you. soft as a flower, gentle and
sweet as its smell. His lips drop with sweet-smelling
myrrh. These are His words. His words. Listen. Here's His word. I have loved thee. How long? With an everlasting
love. everlasting love. Does that not
drop as sweet as a sweet smell to you? His words, his lips,
let him kiss me with the kisses of his lips. Would it not be a great day to feel the kiss of my Savior
on my cheek. And yet He does it every day. His lips are sweet. His hands
are as rings set with a barrel. Large hands. Large hands, and
able to carry you. That's what he said over in Isaiah.
In Isaiah chapter 46, he said this. He said, I am God, I have borne
thee from the belly and carried thee from the womb, even to your
old age, I am He. And even to your gray hairs will
I carry you. I made you, I will bear you,
I will carry you, I will deliver you. Are not His hands strong? Strong to carry us. And you listen,
strong to defend us. Who shall stand against His hands? He will crush them, and He will
carry you. Is this not sweet to you who
know your Beloved? The next thing is His heart.
It says His belly, which is an inference to His heart. He says
His belly is His ivory, overlaid with sapphires. This reminds me of the high priest
as he went in with those names and those jewels upon his heart,
in before the God of heaven with the blood of another. Even so,
Christ has entered into heaven with our names upon His heart. And His heart is pure and strong
as ivory. His legs, His legs are His pillars. Legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold." What is this but the foundation
upon which the Church is built? His legs are His foundation. My Beloved is strong, not just
to carry me, but to carry all His elect. The whole Church of
God is built upon my Beloved, and my Beloved shall bear all
His Beloveds to glory, all His Church, all His Bride. His legs
are as marble, strong to endure. In Him we have righteousness
by God Himself approved. Our rock, our sure foundation,
this which never can be moved. Our ransom by His death was paid
for all His people given. The law He perfectly obeyed that
they might enter heaven. A ninth thing is His countenance. His countenances as Lebanon,
excellent as cedars. Lebanon was known for its highs,
mountains, its lofty grandeur, and its excellent wood, the incorruptible
wood. Who is my beloved but God Himself? Excellent as Lebanon, incorruptible
as the cedar. That's who my beloved is. My
beloved is God. Who's yours? If your beloved's
not God, he's not worth loving. My Beloved is God Himself, excellent
and worthy of all praise, honor, majesty, and dominion." I was talking to somebody this
week about Christ appearing to me and to Daniel and to John. You know what happened when He
appeared? They fell at His feet as dead. And I told the person,
I said, do you suppose they were wearing that shirt, Jesus is
my buddy? No! No! Oh, my friends, he is
much more excellent than a buddy. He is a friend. Oh, but he's
a high friend. God, very God. And the tenth thing is his mouth
is sweet. His mouth is sweet. His mouth
is most sweet, yea, it is altogether lovely." He's altogether lovely.
Again, His Word to us is sweet. Believer, is this not sweet?
How God stirs our hearts. He brings us to our lowest estate
so that we may know our great need of Him. We might know more. Anybody say, I want to know more
about Christ? Guess what? You're fixing to go low. he must bring you low so that
you might be able to look up and see his height his excellency
and what is the bride now say she says this he is all together
lovely this is my beloved this is my friend old daughters
of Jerusalem. Now let me ask you, was her heart
stirred? How was it stirred? By the remembrance
of Him. By the remembrance of Him. If
you are low, remember Him. Fix your eyes on the Son of God, and your heart will find all
the love and comfort it needs. What is my Beloved above another?
There is no other Beloved but Him. May God help us, strengthen us
by it. In Jesus' name I ask this. Let's
be dismissed in prayer.