Okay, turn with me back in your
Bibles to Song of Solomon. What a precious, precious portion
of scripture we have before us. We looked some weeks ago at some
of the extraordinary declarations of the the love and the grace
of God in the relationships that are revealed between the Lord
and His Bride at the beginning. She speaks and asks Him to kiss
her with the kisses of His mouth, that His word would come to her. They would come to her as words
that come directly from Him and come personally. And she then
speaks of the saver of thy good ointments. Thy name is an ointment
poured forth. The very character of God is
an ointment that's poured forth. Every attribute of God is revealed
as glorious. Word becomes the words of love
and the words of conviction. But in Chapter 2 we begin this
conversation between the two and it's an amazing conversation
and once again it begins with the Lord as all things do. It
begins with Him declaring who He is. I am the Rose of Sharon. I am and the lily of the valleys,
the rose of Sharon speaks of his redeeming blood. The rose of Sharon is red and
gives off a a nectar, a sweet smell, a sweet ointment of redeeming
love, of grace, and as we saw earlier in our time together,
of the perfection of his finished work and the glory of his father.
And he calls himself the Lily of the Valleys. It means whiteness. So here, as he describes himself,
he describes himself in terms of his redeeming love and in
terms of his glorious, glorious righteousness. I love flowers. It's wonderful,
isn't it, that the softest and most delicate of plants in the most majestic terms, but
when he comes and deals with his people in love, he comes
in the simplest possible way. And you can walk through a valley
and tread on the flowers and ignore them, and yet he comes
as this. When we were in England some
years ago, a long time ago now, we went up into the Lake District
and they had those bluebills up there and we went to a couple
of valleys and they weren't huge valleys. Imagine walking over
the crest of the hill and there before you is a valley. Anyway, so let's read on. But
listen to what he then describes her as. He is the lily and she
is the lily. As the lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters. She is beauty amongst ugliness. She is beauty in the midst. Thorns are an emblem of the fall. In the midst of a fallen, broken
world, he comes and he finds his bride, beautiful as a lily. God's work of grace in the hearts
of his people. She's not only declared, but
in reality it becomes, isn't it? She is as a lily, do you
see? She's imputed to us in justification
and it's imparted to us and it becomes a living reality in the
lives of God's people. Where did she get her beauty
from? I'll just read some verses out of Ezekiel 16, but if you
have time, Ezekiel 16 is just a wonderful, wonderful declaration
of salvation in the Lord. If you have time to read the
whole chapter, you'll be amazed at the sin that's exposed, and
you'll be absolutely amazed at the end of it at covenant love. I'll start at verse 6 because
I wanted to read down a little bit further. But when I passed
by, I saw thee polluted in thine own blood. All of this is a symbol,
of course, of the fall of man in Adam. And I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live, and I have caused thee
to multiply as the bud of the field. And thou hast increased
and waxen great, and now art come to the excellent ornaments.
He goes on, I want to find the place, I think it is. He talks
about how he's washed her and he's clothed her and he's decked
her. He's put, in verse 12, he's put
a jewel on her head. In verse 14, he talks about her
beauty, this lily amongst all of this. And the renowned went
forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through
my comeliness. The beauty that the children
gives to them and brings them. You were perfect through my comeliness,
my beauty, which I had put upon you, not that you had earned
by yourself. She's robed in his righteousness. She's called the Lily, Jeremiah
32 and 23. What's he called? He's called
the Lord, our righteousness. And what's she called? The Lord,
our righteousness. All of her righteousness is in
him. As the lily among the thorns,
so is my love among the daughters. My love among the daughters.
Don't you love how he calls his own? He uses a possessive pronoun. It's mine. You're mine, he says. You are. You wear my name and
you display my properties. Peter says in 1 Peter 2 verse
9, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation,
a peculiar people. Peculiar doesn't mean that we
are peculiar. We seem to be peculiar by all
sorts of people. But the word peculiar means one's
own property earned by God Almighty. to cure you people. That, and
the purpose of all this is that you should show forth the praises
of him who hath called you out of darkness and into his marvelous
light. She's a lily among the thorns. Thorns, as I said earlier, are
a picture of the fall. That's where all the thorns come.
Every time you see a thistle, every time you are pricked by
a thorn, you have to think, that's from the fall. It's an emblem
of this cursed earth that we live and work in. the products of the earth to
God. He was bringing the products
of his own hands from a cursed earth. Abel brought what? Abel
brought the blood of a lamb. And I love what God says in Genesis
4. He says Abel and his sacrifice
were accepted. The only possible way he can
be accepted. is in him and in his sacrifice. So thorns. Thorns don't need any cultivation.
I've been a farmer for a long time. I never had to plant one
of them. And I never ever got rid of any of them. And you can
take an old piece of soil, like we've had some, you know, our
house has been here for 190 years, and you can dig up an old bit
of that soil that's never seemed to have had anything on it other
than grass for all of those years. And what do you find soon as
you dig it up? There they are. What a great picture, isn't it,
of the fall of man. What a great picture of our nature
in this world. They just spring up naturally. They don't need any cultivation.
They don't need any planting. They spring up and they choke
unless the Lord deals with them. The thorn. There is lots of thorns,
aren't there? There's a thorn in my flesh.
How wretched man that I am. There is a thorn of wicked and
ungodly men. We live in a world where the
wickedness of men is on display in the most extraordinary ways.
Millions of people are dying on account of the machinations
of people who care not for those who they are putting to death.
Someone said the other day that war is young men who don't know
each other, killing each other. because of the actions of old
men who do know each other it's interesting isn't it a million
have died in ukraine by the end of the year it may be close to
that in israel and gaza it's extraordinary isn't it this world
this world grieves the hearts of god's people over the trials and the tribulations
of others. It's appalling what people are
contemplating and it's appalling what so-called Christians are
considering regarding those people who are being killed. So there is the thorn of living
in this fallen world, there's the thorn of my flesh in the
midst of this, there's the thorn of all the reproaches and the
persecutions. Anyone who wants to live a godly
life in Christ Jesus in this world according to the promise
of God is going to be persecuted. There is the thorns of heretics
and heretical doctrine which pierce and wound the children
of God. May we be like lilies. May we
be the ones that receive the hurt like a lily and never give
it like a thorn. God makes his lilies soft and
vulnerable. They see themselves as the chief
of sinners and they are wounded. They are wounded easily, and
they are the first to blame themselves. I had an amazing illustration.
I'd been writing this out, and then I walked over to let Millie
off this morning. She was in her kennel, and it was dark. And as I let
her off, and she sort of ran around, and I trod on her front
paw, and she squealed. And she immediately
came to me and snuggled up as close as she possibly could and
apologized to me for me hurting her. Six hundred plus thousand people
came through the Red Sea and only two of the adult men went
into the Promised Land. into the banqueting house that
we'll read about soon. One of them's called Caleb, faithful
dog. The other one is Joshua, Jesus,
the saviour. The saviour and the faithful
dogs. As soon as he commends her, immediately
she turns and she commends him. She says, effectively, He is
worthy of it all. He's worthy of all the praise.
Now, under the psalmist says, not unto us, Psalm 115, verse
one. It's a lovely verse, isn't it? Not unto us, O Lord, not
unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy
truth's sake. He is the apple tree among the
trees of the wood. Apple. Apple was the symbol of
love. Apples were given in love in
those days. He is, among all the others,
he speaks of his man who, doesn't it, Christ, became a man. He's
the son of man and he's the son of God. But all other trees have
no fruit and are barren, but there is this one apple tree
standing in the midst of all the woods. Here's the fruitful
tree. From me thy fruit is found, he
says. to all of his children from me,
he suffered it found. And he's a shade tree, I sat
down under his shadow with great delight. We don't have much time
to talk about it now, but we might, Lord willing, in time
to come. But the shadow, of course, is the shadow of his wings. And
it's a glorious description that Ruth. Boaz, the kinsman redeemer,
the husband, gives of Ruth, doesn't it? He said, the Lord recompense
thy work and a full reward be given to thee of the Lord God
of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust. Where are his wings? Above the
mercy seat. That's where we rest, aren't
we? I sat down under his shadow with great delight. Delight, we talked about it earlier,
didn't we? Delight, the delight of being in his presence. He
can only have his shadow over you if he's so close to you that
he covers you. That's exactly what we need.
His fruit is sweet, eternal life, complete pardon, free forgiveness,
free justification, perfect righteousness, Peace, but most of all, sweet
communion. The culmination of his prayer
is that his people will be with him and they'll see him in all
of his glory. The blessings of grace and the blessings of glory. under his wings. Jesus Christ
is made to me all I need, all I need. He alone is all my plea. He is all I need. Wisdom, righteousness,
and power. Holiness forevermore. My redemption
full and sure. I've sat down. Verse 4, I just
want to finish with this amazing verse of scripture. And he brought
me to his banqueting house and his banner over me was love. The Lord rebukes the church in
Ephesus because they have what? Forsaken their first love. And for those of us who have
tasted that the Lord is good and gracious in that first love,
blossomed with joy unspeakable, me to his banqueting house. How do you get to the place?
How do you get to his place? It's called the House of Wines
and the House of Feasting. How do you get there? You get
there because you're brought just like Mephibosheth. How did
Mephibosheth, who couldn't walk a step, couldn't do a good thing,
couldn't work anything at all, how did Mephibosheth get to sit
at the king's table at the banqueting house in David's Palace? Every day, every meal, how did
he get there? Carried. He was, wasn't he? It's the only possible way. He
had to be picked up, he had to be fetched by David, and he had
to be brought to there, and then he had to be carried every day. What a saviour. If you're dependent,
if you've been, if you've tasted that the Lord is good, dear oh
dear, isn't it? Take me to your banqueting house
again. Take me to your place of revelation. Take me to your
place where there is feasting. Take me again to the place where
the Gospel is proclaimed, where the Lord Jesus Christ is seen
in all of his glory. A banqueting house. And in this
mountain, Isaiah 25.6, Shall the Lord of hosts make unto all
the people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the leaves,
of fat things full of marrow, wine on the leaves, well refined. All of the graces, all of that
finished work, all of that mercy that's given to his people in
eternity, unconditional election, all of his redemptive activities
is our substitute before God. He takes full responsibility
for us. His grace brings us again and again. His grace brought
us the first time and His grace continues to bring us. To bring
us back into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, bring
us back to the cross where we will see what we are as sinners
and we will see Him in all of His redeeming glory. He keeps
bringing us. The wine of this house, this
banqueting house, His fellowship with Him and communion with Him. And what's His banner? Don't
you love this? His banner over me was love. His banner over me was love. This world talks so much about
the love of God and knows so little about the God of love.
God's love is eternal love. God's love is special love. God's
love is redeeming love. God's love is persevering love.
God's love is irresistible love. God's love is infinite. God's
love is unchanging. God's love is everlasting. God's
love is sure. God's love is in Christ. And outside of Christ, no one
has any reason whatsoever to think that God loves him. His banner over me was love. Not that his banner over me was
law. Not that his banner over me was
rules and regulations. His banner over me was love. The banqueting house is the house
where the Lord Jesus Christ They find their rest. You sit down under his shadow. You don't work, you sit down
under his shadow. With great delight. If you're
under his shadow, his presence is so close that you can reach
out and touch him, and his shadow is there in communion, and his
fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me into his banqueting
house, and his banner over me was love. Lord willing, we're
going to have some baptism soon, and the two ordinances speak
so wonderfully of our union and our communion with the Lord Jesus
Christ. And communion speaks of Christ
in us. And that's what we do, don't
we? We eat and drink and we feast upon the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the wonder of his redeeming love. His banner over
us is love. When you look up, what do you
see? Love. Love. Then again, love. As a lily among the thorns, we
look up and we see Him and His wings over us and a banner of
love. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the wonder of
who our dear and precious Saviour is. And Heavenly Father, we pray
that You get great glory for Yourself and honour and glory
by granting us, Heavenly Father, the simplicity of trust, the
grace of coming, the wonder of being brought again and again
into His banqueting house, the wonder of knowing His love. Heavenly
Father, that love brought Him to this world, took Him to the
cross, and causes your people to turn again and again and again
to him. Lord have mercy upon us, for
we are sinners. May we, as sinners, as lilies
among the thorns of this world and our own selves, heavenly
Father, find his fruit sweet to our taste, and safe and secure for us now in
this world of troubles and when we come to meet him in glory
we pray we would drink and eat being reminded of who he is yet
again our father with thankfulness and