invite your attention to the
Song of Solomon, chapter 1. The Song of Solomon, chapter
1. We will continue this morning
our exposition of this book of the Bible. We commenced this
series of expositions last Lord's Day morning. And we, on that
occasion, considered verse number one. We today will begin considering
verse number two. And I'm going to read verses
one through four. The song of Psalms, which is
Solomon's. Here is the Shulamite speaking. She says, let him kiss me with
the kisses of his mouth. For your love is better than
wine. Because of the fragrance of your
good ointments, your name is ointment poured forth. Therefore,
the virgins love you. Draw me away. And then the daughters
of Jerusalem say, we will run after you. And then the Shulamite
says, the king has brought me into his chambers. And the daughters
of Jerusalem say, we will be glad and rejoice in you. We will remember your love more
than wine. And the Shulamite concludes rightly,
do they love you? You have the synopsis inside
your bulletin, notes on the song of Solomon, chapter one, verses
two, three, four, so you can follow along with me today in
this exposition. Going to verse number two, we
read, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. And notice,
she does not identify him. She does not say who he is. Well, there's no need to. The
church of Christ desires the kiss of only him, her husband,
Jesus Christ. The church of Christ is not a
harlot, desiring the kiss of many men. When the church of
Christ says, let him kiss me, you know good and well that she
is talking only about her husband, Jesus Christ. Furthermore, consider
that she desires the kisses of his mouth. She uses the plural,
the kisses of his mouth. One kiss is not nearly enough. When my beloved and I were married,
43 years ago yesterday, we were pronounced man and wife,
and then the preacher said, you may now kiss your bride. And
I kissed her. And, but that was not the only
time I ever kissed her. No husband would say, well, I
kissed you on the day I married you, there's no need to kiss
you again. He desires to kiss and she desires to kiss. She
desires the kisses of his mouth because one is not nearly enough.
Now, every bit of our gospel duty is summed up Psalm number
two in these words kiss the son lest he be angry that is every
bit of our gospel duty and by that Requirement we are required
to Submit to him kiss the son in submission kiss the son in
obedience and that is the sum of all our gospel duty well All
his gospel grace is summed up to us in his kiss to us. His kiss to us is not a physical
kiss because this is not a physical relationship. It is all of his
goodness to her, all of his grace and all of his mercy to her.
And she desires to be kissed often by him. Then she continues
by saying, your love is better than wine. Now consider that
our English text says your love, but in the Hebrew, it's plural,
your loves. Your loves is better than wine,
meaning that his love cannot be described and confined to
just one love. His love is great and it is manifold. It is manifested in many ways. It is beyond our comprehension. She speaks of his loves in the
plurality. Now, she says it is better than
wine. In Psalm 104 verse 25, we read
that God gave wine to man to make his heart glad. And wine
does indeed make the heart glad. But here she says his love or
his loves is better than wine. I'll give you some reasons. Why
is Christ's love to his church better than wine? First of all,
his love is divine, for God is love. If God is love, then God's
love is divine and Christ is God. Furthermore, His love is
eternal. For Christ tells his church that
I have loved you with an everlasting or eternal love. Jeremiah 31
verse 3. When Jesus Christ comes to his
people, he tells them, I have loved you with an everlasting
love. Now, his love is everlasting
all the way into the past. His love to us goes back to before
the foundation of the world. when we were accepted in the
beloved and embraced by him. He said he is love on us before
the foundation of the world. His love is present throughout
all this age. He would say to Abraham, I have
loved you with an everlasting love. He says the same thing
to King David, I have loved you with an everlasting love. He
said the same to Solomon. He says the same to Elijah. He
said the same thing to all the New Testament apostles. He says
the same thing to you and me in this day. His love is everlasting
all the way into the past, all the way through the future, and
his love will be everlasting all the way into the future because
In heaven, we still will be in his embrace and accepted in the
beloved. Then consider furthermore that
number three, his love is immutable. Wine will do one of two things. It either will improve with age
or else it'll turn sour. It does not remain the same.
It either improves with age or it goes bad. But the love of
Christ is immutable for the simple reason that Jesus Christ is the
same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13, verse 8. Jesus will
never say, I love you more today than yesterday, but I do not
love you as much today as I will love you tomorrow. His love is
immutable. It never changes. When David
slew Goliath. God loved David. When David committed
sin with Bathsheba, God loved David just as much. The love
of Jesus Christ never fluctuated. It never grows one day and wanes
the next. It never changes and it never
goes sour. Furthermore, the love of Christ
is pure. The best wine may have dregs
and leaves. However, There are none in Christ's
love to his church. No dregs, no lees. When you pour
the wine of Christ or the love of Christ, you do not find lees
or dregs in the bottom of it. And for the simple reason that
he is pure, there is no uncleanness in him, no impurity in him, no
lees or dregs in him. His love is pure. Number five,
his love is immutable, pardon me, immeasurable. For the love
of Christ passes knowledge, Ephesians 3, 19. And he gives his love
to his church copiously because the love of God has been poured
out in our hearts, Romans 5, verse 5, and Christ is God. You cannot measure the love of
Jesus Christ. And in saying that he pours it
out, there is so much of it that he just pours it out copiously
upon his people. His love to them does not come
with measure. Number six, his love is free.
Men purchase wine. But Christ's love cannot be bought. Rather, he assures his people
that I will love them freely, Hosea 14 verse 4. The blessings
of his providence, many of them are quite free to us. The sunshine
that brightens our face, the breeze that blows, it's all free. He does not charge us for the
sunshine. He does not charge us for the
air we breathe. Aren't you glad? He does not
charge us for the rain that falls down upon our fields. He does
not charge us for the things that come through His providence
unto us. But here, His love is the same
way. He loves His people freely. He
does not charge them for His love to them. Furthermore, his
love is medicinal. You've read about the Good Samaritan
in Luke chapter 10. There was a man traveling along
a road and he was waylaid by highway men who beat him, left
him for dead. And he was beaten, he was bruised,
he was cut, he was mangled. And here came the Good Samaritan
and he poured in oil and wine. Those were the medicines they
had in that day. He poured in wine. Now you would
know that wine with the alcoholic content in it would help to purify. Wine is medicinal. Wine is medicinal
also in that Paul told Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach's
sake to ease your stomach pain. Wine is medicinal and so is the
love of Jesus Christ. When he says, I will love them
freely, he also says, I will heal their backsliding. This
love of Jesus Christ, God sends to us through Christ to heal
us of all our infirmities. And furthermore, we read that
love covers all sins. Whatever sins we have, the love
of Jesus Christ will heal them. Number eight, the love of Christ
is long-suffering, for love suffers long and is kind and bears all
things. Told you a moment ago that my
beloved and I celebrated our 43rd wedding anniversary yesterday. And I think it was the day before. when I told her, or maybe it
was yesterday, I said, babe, I said, we've been married 43
years. And she looked, you know, a little
struck by that thought, and she said, 43 years? Yes, and she repeated it, 43
years? Yes, 43 years. I texted a friend of mine, Told
him, I said, I celebrated my 43rd wedding anniversary today.
I'm not sure that Sandy celebrated it because she's a whole lot
easier to put up with than I am. But, but, notice, notice, she's still with me. You wanna
know why? Love suffers long and is kind
and bears all things. Am I right, babe? You can read that in 1 Corinthians
13, verses four and seven. Oh, I'll tell you what. How often do you and me who are
believers, how often do we try the patience of Jesus Christ? How often does his church try
his patience? Are we not glad that the love
of Jesus Christ to his church and to his people is long-suffering
and patient and kind and bears all things? Furthermore, the
love of Christ is unfailing. For love never fails, 1 Corinthians
13, verse 8. Christ will never cease to love
his church. We took a wedding vow 43 years
ago yesterday. And in that wedding vow, we vowed
to each other that We would love each other till death do us part. I suppose that's a part of just
about every wedding ceremony, is it not? The bride and the
groom say to each other, I will love you till death do us part. How many married couples, 20,
30, 40 years later, will be saying the same thing? The vows that
we make in our wedding ceremonies are often forgotten just a few
years later. Our love has failed. Many who fall in love with someone
and say, I will love you forever, will in just a few years say,
I've fallen out of love with you, and no longer love. Are
we not glad that Jesus Christ's love to his people is not like
that? Are you not glad that Jesus Christ
will never cease to love his people? I am glad, I am glad
that my Lord and Savior will never cease in his love to me. His love never fails, and I can
never be separated from his love. You can read it in Romans chapter
8 verses 35 through 39. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. Did you notice? There are seven
things mentioned. Seven is a number of completion
or completeness in the scriptures. Paul is saying, you can throw
the complete load against us and it will not separate us from
the love of Christ. As it is written in Psalm 44
verse 22, for your sake we are killed all day long. We are recounted
as sheep for the slaughter. Meaning that when When we live
in this life, we may be killed, we may be slaughtered, we may
be martyred, but even then the love of Christ will still be
upon us and even death itself will not separate us from the
love of Christ. Yet in all these things, we are
more than conquerors through him who loved us, meaning that
his love not only never fails, but it enables us to overcome
all the difficulties of life. Christians should never be quitters,
never be quitters. We are more than conquerors through
him who loved us. We have trials, we have tribulation,
We have persecution. We have troubles like everybody
else. In fact, we have more troubles and different kinds of troubles
than the world has. Many people in the world say,
I'm giving up. I can't put up with it anymore.
The child of God says, Jesus Christ loves me. Therefore, I'm
going to rise above the occasion and I will conquer. I will conquer. We are more than conquerors,
not through ourselves, but through him who loved us. For I am persuaded
that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The love of Christ to his people is unfailing. There is no sin
that we can commit that would separate us from his love. Not that we would want to do
so. And I would hope that none of us would ever do so. But I
want you to know that the love of Christ to his people never
fails. It's better than wine. Number
10. Christ's love to his church is
better than wine because it is sacrificial and saving. For Christ
also loved the church and gave himself for her that he might
sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word
that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not
having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should
be holy and without blemish, Ephesians 5, verses 25 through
27. Christ gave himself for his church. Christ loved his church so much that he gave his life so that
she could live. He shed his blood so that she
could be cleansed. If you want to know the greatest
love that a husband ever had, look at Christ in his love for
his church. Verse 3, because of the fragrance
of your good ointments. Now notice the plural again.
And I want you to be noticing this as we read through this
Song of Solomon repeatedly. His loves, his ointments, it's
the plurality. When the bride of Christ speaks
of Jesus Christ, she does not speak in singular terms. It's always in a plural. Because
of the fragrance of your good ointments, therefore consider
that Christ's ointments are many and great. indicated by the plurality
in your good ointments. How many are there? Well, let's
see. There is an anointing ointment.
When the Lord told Moses to build
a tabernacle, he also said, you need a priesthood in the tabernacle.
So Aaron and his sons were set apart to be the priests in the
tabernacle that God told Moses to build. Now, they had to be
put into office. How were they put into office?
Aaron was brought out on the day that Aaron was to be put
into office as a priest, and Moses took some olive oil. In
fact, it was not merely olive oil, but it was a special oil
that the Lord had given for the anointing of the tabernacle,
an oil that, and you can find the formula. There was a formula
for it. It was olive oil with perfumes
and spices in it. It was a precious oil, and he
poured it over his head. poured that oil, that sweet fragrance. And therefore, when Aaron walked
among the people, you could smell the sweetness of his office from
that fragrant oil that was poured upon him. And then later, when
a prophet was put into office, oil was poured over his head.
It was a sacred ceremony. And then when a king was put
into office, they poured oil over his head as well. It was
a joyous occasion. Nowadays, we put ministers into
the office. We ordain them by laying our
hands on his head. That's what the minister does.
They who ordain put their hands on his head, and it marks his
installation into that sacred office of the ministry. But in
the Old Testament, it was the pouring of the oil. Now, would
you not know And I suppose you probably would assume that Christ
has anointed you and me as well. because we read that you have
an anointing from the Holy One, 1 John 2, verses 20 and 27. You have an anointing. Jesus
Christ has taken oil and poured it on our heads when we became
his people. And by the way, when we became
his people, we were made to be priests. and we were made to
be kings and we were made to be prophets in the sense of speaking
His word to others and therefore He gives an anointing and it
is an anointing of His Holy Spirit. He pours His Holy Spirit upon
us. There was also the oil that was
used for brightening the countenance, Ecclesiastes 9, 8 and Matthew
6, verse 17. Jesus said, when some people
fast, they They mess up their hair, they tangle their hair
and then they take dust and ashes and they put it in their hair
and they put it on their face so that people will know that
they're fasting. People like to draw attention
to themselves when they do something in a religious way. We should
never be that sort. We should never make an open
show of our religion. Jesus said, no, no, no. He said,
when you fast, comb your hair and put oil on your face. Now
what does the oil do? Well, we understand something
of this oil, I think, living in what is very often a dry climate
here. We have times when it is quite
humid, but we have some dry seasons, too. And in the dry seasons,
you know how that your skin gets dry and scaly and cracks? And what do you do? Oil on it.
And it brightens your countenance. Well, there's an oil of Jesus
Christ that brightens our countenance as well because he said, I will
give them the joy, the oil of joy for mourning. And then there
was the oil that was used for healing wines. And I made mention
to it a moment ago that when that Good Samaritan came upon
that waylaid man who was beaten and he was cut and bruised. He
poured in wine and oil, oil, salve, would be used for healing
wounds. And so it was also with the gospel,
Jesus told those who needed help, needed healing, he said, anoint
your eyes with eye salve, which means to believe the gospel.
So Jesus Christ has many ointments for his people. The oil of joy
for mourning, and the oil of the Holy Spirit for anointing
us, and the oil of ourself so that we may see, but here notice
that she speaks of his fragrant ointment. She speaks of his perfuming
ointment. She says there is a fragrance
to this ointment. She repeatedly speaks of his
fragrance throughout this Song of Solomon. In chapter 1, verse
13, locate that passage if you will. Chapter 1, verse 13, she
says, A bundle of myrrh is my beloved
to me that lies all night between my breasts. Jesus is to her one
who is sweet-smelling and fragrant, and she wants him close beside
her when she sleeps. Look in chapter 3, verse 6. She
says, Who is this coming out of the
wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh and frankincense,
with all the merchant's fragrant powders? Look in chapter 5, verse 13. His cheeks are like a bed of
spices, like banks of scented herbs. His lips are lilies dripping
liquid myrrh. Here is one who does not put
cologne on his face. He already smells better than
cologne. This is Jesus Christ. He is fragrant. She furthermore says, your name
is ointment poured forth. Now Christ's name is whom and
what he is. We read in one place that the
name of Jehovah is a strong tower. Your name is who and what you
are. Well, the name of Christ is whom
and what he is, and his ointment is poured forth, it is copiously
as it were When Jesus Christ gives His wine, He pours it out. When He gives His love, He pours
it out. When He gives His oil, He pours
it out. When He perfumes His people,
He pours it out. Because He has an immeasurable
stock of it, and He pours it out copiously. Your name, you
yourself, are poured forth among his people, and he does this
through the preaching of the gospel. We, through the gospel,
believe in the gospel, receive the fragrance of his knowledge.
2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. Notice, the fragrance of his
knowledge. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 14. Oh, do you not find the knowledge
of Jesus Christ? to be a sweet fragrance to you. Living in this world that has
the stench of death all the way around it, are you not blessed
in knowing that when Christ is in your presence and you see
him, you know the sweetness of the fragrance of his knowledge?
If you believe Christ's gospel, you know him as the sweetest
fragrance you ever smelled. And furthermore, Christ's preachers
are the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and
among those who are perishing. To the one, we are the aroma
of death leading to death, and to the other, the aroma of life
leading to life. 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verse
15. Gospel preachers in preaching. When I preach to you, you're
going to smell one of two things. If you love the gospel that I
preach, it's going to be a sweet fragrance to you. You're going
to smell Christ, and He's going to smell sweet to you. But if
you despise the gospel, when I preach the gospel to you, you're
going to say, Smells like the stench of death, I'm going somewhere
else. Why do people not want to hear
the gospel of Jesus Christ? They perhaps have heard it once
and said, it stinks to me, and they want nothing of it. Why
do others, having heard the gospel, keep coming back to hear more?
They say, he smells good to me. and therefore the virgins love
you. These virgins are the individual
members of the church of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. She says, draw me away, draw
me away. Christ's people are not free
willers claiming the inherent inclination and ability to desert
sin and come to him if and when they will to do so. Rather, we
believe Christ when he says, you are not willing to come to
me. We believe Christ when he says,
no one can come to me unless my Father who has sent me draws
him. None can come unless the Father
draws, and therefore we look to Christ and we say, then draw
me, draw me. Draw me away from sin. Draw me away from Satan's prison. Draw me away from sin's bondage. Draw me away from worldly pleasures. Draw me away from everything
that is contrary to Christ. And when you say, draw me, he
will. For he will reply to you, yea,
I have loved you with an everlasting love. And therefore, how does
he express it? Therefore, I have drawn you with
gentle cords and bands of love. Gentle cords and bands of love. When a man wants to draw Someone that doesn't want to
come, what do you do? You tie him up, you put a chain
on him, you put a rope on him, and you drag him to where you
want him to be. Jesus Christ never uses a hard
chain. He never uses a harsh rope when
he draws his people. He takes, as it were, that lasso
of love. puts it on them, and then he
gently begins to draw. I drew you gently, I drew you
lovingly. And the daughters of Jerusalem
say, we will run after you. We will run after you. Five things
I want you to see in that text. This pursuits subjects. Who says
that? We will run after you. Now notice
that in the first part of that verse that the Shulamites said,
draw me away. And then immediately we read,
we will run after you. It is the church who says, draw
me, but it is also the church that says, and we will run after
you, because what is a church but a congregation of individuals? And Jesus Christ calls us as
individuals. He draws us away from sin and
all that is contrary to Himself. He draws us to Himself, and then
when we come to Him, We come into his church and then we say,
we will run after you. We begin coming to Christ as
individuals. We continue running after him
as a congregation, and we do not wish to run along. We say,
we will run after you. We, in declaring his gospel and
in witnessing to others, would say, why don't you come and go
with us? I'm running to Christ. Why not
run with me? We will run after you. Consider,
furthermore, this pursuit's object. We will run after Christ. All
who are drawn away to Christ, from all that is contrary to
Christ, pursue Christ alone. Then consider this pursuit's
action. We will run after you. No one ambles after Christ. Going
after Christ is not a leisurely stroll. We want him so badly,
we run with all our might. We will run after you. Even if
we know it is a long-distance run, we treat it as a dash. Then consider this pursuit's
determination. We will run after you. We will
not be deterred in our pursuit of Christ. Rather, we will run
with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto
Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. then notice also
this pursuit's direction. We've considered this pursuit's
subjects, we. This pursuit's object is Christ. This pursuit's action is run. This pursuit's determination
is found in the word will. And here is this pursuit's direction,
we. We will run after you. If Christ
draws us, we will not, nay, we cannot run from him. Well, I'm going to pause at that
point. Yes, it is in the middle of a verse, but we'll continue next week, God
willing. Oh God, our Father, And oh, our Lord Jesus Christ,
draw us. Draw us away from all that is
contrary to you. If you will, we will run after
you. For we have found that your love
is better than wine. Your ointments are sweet and
fragrant and we desire them. Draw us. We pray in Jesus' name,
amen. You are dismissed.