Well, it is the fifth verse that
I wanted to speak to you on. Of course, the Song of Solomon
is a love song, and it is between Christ and His Church. Sometimes
it's very hard to distinguish which one is speaking, whether
it is Christ or whether it is the Church, whether it is an
individual believer, and the Church is asking her what she
sees in her beloved, we have that in the Song of Solomon as
well. We also have references like
we have in verse 8, the little sister, not fully developed,
that is the Gentile church. We have the Old Testament church
that brought forth our Lord Jesus Christ. She came through that
line and presented to the church in the Old Testament and then
in the New of course. So, I want to speak of this question
that is set before us here. The whole verse is pointing to
raising up the Lord Jesus Christ, raising up the Beloved under
the ordinances of the Gospel, under the apple tree, and the
Mother, the Church of God, the Old Testament Church, bringing
Him forth. But is the first part, who is
this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her
beloved? We think of the children of Israel
that went into the wilderness, right through the wilderness,
and then up out of the wilderness and into the promised land. And
through the wilderness it was the burning, fiery, cloudy pillar
that went before them. The Lord went before them. He
gave them the manna, He gave them the water out of the rock. And so we have this question
here, who? Who and who is her beloved? So who is this that is coming
up? Well, this is the bride of Christ. And when Paul writes to the Ephesians,
he's very clear and he likens the great mystery of godliness
the same as a marriage, the husband and the wife. As the husband
is caring for the wife, so is Christ cares for his church. And so the analogy goes through. Here is this then, one of a child
of God, one that is called a believer, one that is to be with him forever
and ever in heaven, one for whom he has shed his precious blood,
redeemed them on Calvary's tree. This is the one that is spoken
of here as who is this and then what they are doing, what she
is actually doing. So the first thing what she's
doing is coming up from the wilderness. And really every believer, as
soon as the Lord begins with them, when he calls them by grace,
they come up out of the wilderness. This world is a wilderness and
in Hebrews 11 we are told as one of those evidences of faith
that they declare that they are strangers and pilgrims in the
earth that this is not their rest remember with the children
of Israel there was no food for them in the wilderness there
was no water for them there they had to have that which came from
heaven God supplied it and this is what we will find, as a Christian,
that here we need heavenly food, we need spiritual food, that
this is a wilderness world, and that we are looking for that
promised land, and that which is to come. But while we are
here below, really all our journey, we are coming up out of this
wilderness. This is not our home, the Lord
said, this is not your rest, it is polluted, and you are coming
through this wilderness, I feel, is one of the parallel or beautiful
evidences of a Christian, not just that they believe in Christ,
not just that they are seeking a heavenly country, but how they
feel concerning this world. The Lord has made it different. Come out from among them and
be ye separate. The Lord said, I have given them
thy word, and the world hath hated them. There's no place,
this world does not like the Word of God, but for the people
of God, the Lord said, man shall not live by bread only, but by
every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so this
difference will mark a reality, instead of a, shall we say, a
worldly Christian, or a person who's just taken the name of
Christ, and this hope, this world is still their rest, they still,
feel at home there and with the people there they can join with
them and meet with them but with the people of God being let go
they go onto their own company and they say this people shall
be my people thy God my God where thou dwellest there will I dwell
and there will I die and there will I be buried and there's
a cleaving like Ruth to the people of God and leaving the Moab and
going to Bethlehem going to where the people of God are May we
have that witness, may it perhaps be something that brings back
when the Lord first began with you, and where you change the
company from the company of the world to the company of God's
people, where instead of setting your sights upon things on this
world, you are like the Thessalonians that wait for his son from heaven,
and you have a heavenly home, a heavenly country. So this is
what is coming up. And that is in the first wave
like being born again and quickened. But each of you, and as we're
getting older, it's getting more and more evident, isn't it? We're
coming up out of this wilderness. This is not our rest. You might
say, and like I asked a dear brother here many years ago that
I hadn't seen before, was he coming in just for a respite
or was it for permanent. He said, no, no permanent. And
then his face just lit up and he said, but not permanent. He says, I have a heavenly home.
That's where I'm heading. And it's a lovely thought that,
and to think that this is not our last home. Our eternal home
is in heaven. And so with that, then there's
not only a coming up, but what's she doing? She's leaning. Now
many of you, You're not able to walk well on your own, are
you? I see walking frames here. When
you walk, you lean upon that frame. Or perhaps you take the
arm of one of the carers or another resident, and you're leaning
upon them. And what you're doing, you're
trusting on them. You know you cannot stand and
walk on your own, but the person that you're leaning upon, you're
trusting. that they will not let you down,
that you will be able to do what you couldn't do otherwise because
you are leaning upon them, because they are near you. You can't
lean on someone that's far away from you, they need to be right
close to you. So this is the picture here,
leaning, the Lord's people leaning upon their beloved, leaning upon
the Lord Jesus Christ, and he's leaning by faith. It is by faith
that we trust in Christ. We're not trusting to our own
perseverance, our own walk, our own strength, our own wisdom.
We're trusting on the Lord. He shall perfectly perform. He
shall bring us safely home. It is His grace. It is His mercy. This is what we are leaning upon. The foundation of God standeth
sure. The Lord knoweth them that are
His. He that endureth unto the end
shall be saved. And we read of this that those
of the people of God, they are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation, through trusting, through faith, through
the word of God, trusting in what the Lord has said and what
the Lord has done. Not my works, not my feelings,
not my efforts, but all the glory and all the honor is to be Christ
and so we're leaning in prayer we come before the Lord in prayer
how many times that we don't know how to continue how to go
on and we spread it before the Lord like Hezekiah did the letter
from the enemy spreads it before the Lord and the Lord intervenes
and Lord delivers them we like Paul with the grace Paul had
a thorn in the flesh a messenger of Satan to Buffet in many of
you have infirmities in the flesh, infirmities of mind. Well, the
Lord didn't take that away for Paul. And for you, the Lord may
not take it away, it may not be His will, but He gives you
grace to bear it, to bear that infirmity, that weakness, that
difficulty in walking, that weakness of mind, I can't remember what
has gone on or what, can't put these things in the right order,
The Lord knows our faith, He remembers we are but dust, and
He knows our need to lean on His grace, that is sufficient
for us. Then we think of His love, you
know Peter had denied his Lord three times, but what does Peter
lean on when the Lord met with him again? The Lord asks him,
lovest thou me? And he says this, Lord, Thou
knowest all things, Thou knowest that I love Thee." And that was
what he rested upon. Why did Peter love the Lord?
We told him, John, we love him because he first loved us. You
know, the Lord didn't say to Peter, Peter, I love you. He
didn't. He asked Peter, did he love him? And the way that we know that
God loves us is because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost. And the only way that that is
so is that God has first loved us. And that is what we lean
upon. It is love that first drew us,
love that will bring us right through, love will bring us safely
home, and that is crowned in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There may be like this, leaning
upon our beloved, coming up out of the wilderness. Now it may
be, there are some of you that struggle with assurance, you
think well others of the Lord's people have been blessed, they
seem to hear the Lord's voice, they have portions from the word
that are blessed to them, but I don't get these things. Well
there's one more verse in this chapter 13 Thou that dwellest in the gardens,
the companions hearken to thy voice, cause me to hear it. So if you think others are hearing
the voice of the Lord, remember the Lord says my sheep, they
hear my voice, they follow If you think others are and you're
not, make this your prayer. Acknowledge it. The companions,
my companions, my fellow pilgrims here are hearing thy voice. Cause
me to hear it. It's a good prayer, isn't it? So may we have this word, think
or meditate on several of the verses here. Many things in Song
of Solomon are hard to understand or grasp, but when we have verses
like we have, then we have these beautiful pictures, and ones
that I'm sure that you can relate to here. Go on, dear friends,
and lean hard upon the Lord, and whenever you see, dear friends,
leaning upon their friends, or leaning upon some another, think
of this text, think of this Word, and I encourage you to lean upon
the Lord, to trust in the Lord, Lord, at His blessing,