Well, I want us to go back to
the beginning of Song of Solomon. We looked some weeks ago at the
verse in chapter, at the end of Song of Solomon. And I love
the, I actually much prefer the title of it in verse 1, the Song
of Songs. It certainly was written by Solomon,
and I'm not disputing the title of it, but I love the fact that
it's a song of songs. This is the song above all songs. It's the song that encapsulates
all the other songs of redeeming love. It's the song by which
all the other songs are measured and loved and understood. As
I said earlier, Solomon wrote a thousand and five songs, and
this is the song of all songs. It's the song of songs. It's the heart of the matter
of eternities. It's the heart of the matter
of the glory of God. It's the heart. It's the song
which is on the lips of the bride of Christ when brought into his
presence to be made a partaker of his glory. God's people are
singing in heaven. And those who have the experience
of the Shulamite in the song Solomon will be rejoicing, and
our brothers and sisters who have gone before us are singing
these songs and loving these songs. So these are not just
songs for a time, they are songs for eternity. It's the song of
songs. It's the song that comes to us
in this life and then reaches back to eternity and goes forward
into eternity. I love to think of the Lord Jesus
Christ singing. What was his singing voice like?
For someone who cannot sing, I really, really appreciate other
people who can sing. And I've often told the story,
when I was in India we used to have 25 young girls in our dorm
and then four extras, I think we had 29 when we went away on
our little sort of Indian buses. And the buses were, you could
see the tar through the holes in the floor of the bus occasionally.
And then because they were girls we had mostly young ladies or
married women looking after them with us and so we'd hop on the
bus and they had all their songs and as soon as the bus started
and they'd sing and we went on long trips, often took an hour
or so and these girls would just sing and they'd sing in harmonies
and they knew the song and I printed out a song sheet for them of
all the really good hymns including that one that we just sang and
they would sing and wouldn't they, they were just amazing
weren't they and I couldn't help but join in When I joined in,
I knew here I am just spoiling this, but it was so sweet. There's
something captivating about singing, isn't it? Okay, let's get back
to our text of scripture. Let's read these first few verses. And may the Lord cause us to
sort of enter into something of the beauty of what he has
laid out before us here. The Song of Songs, which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine, because the
savour of thy good ointments, yet thy name is as ointment poured
forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. Draw me And we will run after
thee. The King has brought me into
his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in
thee. We will remember thy love more
than wine. The upright love thee. And the one singing says, I'm
black. What a great description of the fall of man and the sin
that we are. I'm black. I'm black, I blank,
she says, but comely. I'm black, but beautiful. I bear in my flesh the blackness
of Adam's fall and my participation in it. And yet in his sight,
I am beautiful. I am comely with the comeliness,
with the beauty that he places upon his people. So captivated
is he with his bride's beauty, he says to her in chapter 6 verse
5, turn your eyes away from me, for they have overcome, he's
overcome with love, your eyes have overcome me. And then he
goes on to describe her beauty. But this is a glorious, glorious
song. It's the joy of joys expressed. It's the charm of charms. It's
the delight of delights. It's the excellency of excellencies. It's the gospel song of love. An eternal, everlasting love. And those who are born from above,
Sing in harmony with these precious words which Solomon penned for
us and we can read them here today. Let us love one another,
says John. For love is of God. This love is from God. Everyone
that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. And this was manifested, in this
was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent
his only begotten son into the world that we might live through
him. Herein is love. Not that we loved Him, not that
we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins, the atoning sacrifice for our sins,
the covering, that which absorbed the wrath of God and left His
bride beautiful. This is a precious, precious
book, isn't it? And because it's written in such
graphic language, it is so readily misunderstood by so many people. And this religious world that
we live in, as I said much earlier, treats it as a book which is nothing but a a blasphemy about
something which is a glorious picture of a union between Christ
and his bride, and that's what this book is picturing. Spurgeon
said, this book stands like the tree of life in the midst of
the garden. No man shall ever be able to
pluck its fruit and eat thereof until first he has been brought
by Christ past the sword of the cherubim. Those ones in Genesis
chapter 3. and led to rejoice in the love
which hath delivered him from death." The Song of Solomon is
only to be comprehended by men whose standing is within the
veil, and you only get within the veil in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The outer court worshippers, even those who only enter the
courts of the priests, think the book as a very strange one. But they who come very near Christ
can often see in this Psalm Solomon the only expression which their
love to their Lord desires. I think they're very profound
words and in my experience that has been the case. So let's go
and look at some of these glorious, glorious words. This is a song,
it's a gospel. Song, isn't it? It's a gospel
song. And there's so much singing in
the scriptures, and I could give you dozens and dozens of verses
about singing, but there is a song to be sung in the land of Judah,
and there's a song of redemption sung by Moses and the children
of Israel, and it's a song unto the Lord. They're singing to
the Lord about how he has triumphed gloriously, Exodus chapter 15.
They sing and sing and sing, and the psalms are full of songs. And Zephaniah speaks of the Lord
God. Verse 17 of chapter three. The
Lord thy God is in the midst of thee, is mighty. He will save,
he will rejoice over thee with joy. He will rest in his love. He will joy over thee with singing. Sing and rejoice. sing and rejoice
in how our God loves his bride. This is a song of songs, a song
of heaven sung about the lamb, it's a song of heaven sung by
the lambs redeemed, and it's singing of Christ's love for
the church and him giving himself for her exclusively in how the
church loves Christ and gives herself to him. It's a song. It's a song. It's not a historical narrative. It's not a theological revelation
of divine truth, and they're important. And it's not a prophecy. There's not a display of moral
imperatives as needful as they are, and if you read the song
you'll see that she behaves quite appallingly at times in his very
presence, and yet he draws her again and again. But it's a song
that speaks of a love union between Christ and his bride. And it's
a great mystery according to Ephesians chapter 5. And it's
a mystery that's only unfolded by God the Holy Spirit showing
to His people the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. Love drawing
us to Him. Love forgiving. Love restoring. Love establishing. Love triumphing. The author is Solomon. His name
means peace. He was given that great description
by God when he was named. He said, you call his name Jedidiah.
David said we're gonna call him Solomon. Solomon, the Lord came
and said, you call his name Jedidiah. Jedidiah means beloved of the
Lord. He's the son of the King, I have
to God's own heart. He's the son of the King from
whom the King of glory would come. He's the song, he's the
object of this song. And the bride is the Beloved. She's called the Beloved throughout
this Beloved, Beloved, Beloved. And then in chapter six, she's
given the name. In chapter six, verse 13, says return return oh shulamite
shulamite is just a feminine phenomenon of solomon soloma
is her name return return she's given his name and she takes
his name as hers. So that's the song that we're
looking at here and it begins with this remarkable statement.
Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for thy love are what comes from his mouth.
All of his words are pure words. All of his words have love at
their base if you take all of biblical revelation and all of
salvation down to a solid rock. That foundation stone has love
written on it. God loved his people. He loved
them eternally. He loved them infinitely. He loved them immutably. He loved them effectually. He loved them eternally, from
everlasting to everlasting. And the cause of his love is
in himself. And when he loves his bride,
as he says he does here again and again and again, he loves
her because she's worthy of that love, because she's beautiful
in his sight. God must love that which is holy. And we're made holy in his sight.
God must love that which is pure. God must love that which is righteous. And that's exactly what he's
done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. To be found in him. When God the Father comes looking
for the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, he finds them in him.
In him, no spot, no blemish, no wrinkle. Even his words of rebuke in this
glorious song are words that are founded in love. But listen
to what she says. Let him kiss me. Let him kiss me. Let his words
be sweet kisses from him. from him who comes close, from
him who draws near to us in intimacy, from him who gave himself for
us. Only when his words come into
us in that sweet fellowship will they be sweet. Distant words
can appeal to the intellect. Clever and wise words can appeal
to our emotions. Deep words can appear to our
wisdom and our intelligence. But the child of God needs his
love personally, intimately. What's the first thing a mother
does? She kisses it. What's the first
thing you do when you see your babies again? You kiss them. You kiss them, and you keep kissing
them, and you keep kissing them. And when our beloved, those that
we have loved in this world are leaving this world, what goes? It's a kiss, isn't it? It's a sign of intimacy and it's
a sign of great affection. all gospel duty is summed up
in our kissing the sun. You read Psalm 2, you kiss the
sun. What an extraordinary command
and what an extraordinary privilege that so close is the Lord Jesus
Christ to his bride and to sinners that we can actually kiss him.
All gospel grace, all gospel duty is summed up in our kissing
the sun. All gospel grace is summed up
in the sun kissing us. You know the story of the prodigal
son. He basically told his father, I wish you were dead and I'd
get out of my life and I'll just want all that you have. I just
want all of your possessions, but you can get out of my life.
You're a dead man to me. And he went off and he wasted
all of his money and everything else. He ended up in a pig pen. You know the story, and in he
finally came to his senses in that pig pen, and he realized
that in his father's house, the servants, the servants are fed
better. And he has his little speech
organized all the way home. He rushes home, doesn't he? And
what happens? The father is there waiting to
greet him. The only time in all of the scriptures
do we hear of God doing something in a hurry. And what's he do
to him? He was a great way off. And the
father saw him. That's us, isn't it? We're a
great way off and the father saw us and had compassion and
ran and fell on his neck and he kissed him. Did the smell
of the pigs bother him? No way in the world he had his
son back again. Did all of the betrayal and all
of the sin cause him not to come? No way in the world. No wonder
the gospel command is come, isn't it? Come unto me, all you who
are weary and heavy laden. Come, come with all of your sin
and all of your defilement. Come with all the smell of your
involvement in this world and the husks that they're eating
on is the husks of man-made works religion. Do you reckon he just
kissed him once? Do you reckon that was just a
formal kiss? No, he kissed him and he kissed him and he held
him and he brought him home and gave him all of those tokens
of the eternal covenant of love. To be kissed is to be embraced. To be kissed is to want to be
kissed again. To have his words, the words
that come from his mouth, go deep into our hearts and cause
our hearts to respond in love for Him in return. We just get
more. We want more, don't we? We want
to do it more and more. It's like seeing my little grandchildren
yesterday. You just want to kiss them. You
want to pick them up and wrap them in your arms, and you want
to kiss them, and then you want to kiss them again, and then when
they go, you want to kiss them, and when you see them again,
you want to kiss them. That's a beautiful picture, isn't it?
It's a beautiful picture of the intimacy between the Lord and
his beloved. Let him kiss me. There is just
one whose kiss is the kiss of life and the one whose kiss is
the kiss of love. And this is what she says, isn't
it? This is the first prayer in the Song of Solomon. The first
prayer is, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth. Let
his words become so sweet. Let his words come to me with
a tender affection. Let his words, even his words
of chastising me, come to me in such a way that I am drawn
to go after him, which is exactly what she did. When she sinned
and he withdrew, She was just energized to go more and more. And what did she get when she
went back into his presence? She felt his embrace. So her first prayer is followed
by her speaking to him and giving the reason, isn't it? I would
to God that our prayers to him are turned by his grace into
communication with him. For thy love is better than wine. Here is the reason, here is the
basis for her desire. Thy love, not mine for him, but
his to me. Thy love communicated intimately,
yet thy love communicated effectually and powerfully. would echo these glorious words
in Ephesians chapter 3 by saying, I bow my knee before the Father
of whom, and he says, may God grant you according to the riches
of his glory to be strengthened by his might in the inner man
that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you, being
rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with
all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that
you might be filled with all the fullness of God. We are running out of time, but
I just pray that the Lord would add his blessing to these words
and that we would find our Lord Jesus Christ, as you revealed
in the scriptures, so glorious. Because that's what she goes
on to say. She goes on to talk about his character. Because
of the savour, because of the flavour, we are unto God a savour
of life unto life and death unto death. The very same gospel,
the very same words of God, which draw the people of God and bring
light from heaven into our hearts about who the glorious Saviour
is and what he's done on the cross and how gloriously the
work is finished. That very same light is darkness
to those who don't believe, for those who find his name offensive
to them. And they'll make up another Jesus
and another God and another gospel and another spirit. Listen to
what she says. The savour of thy good ointments, thy name
is as ointment poured forth. Therefore, do the virgins love
me? That's not a reference to sexual
virgins. You read in Revelation chapter
14, all of God's children are pure and white in his sight. The Lord Jesus Christ. I just
want to close by looking at John chapter 12 for a little minute. But I love the story of Martha,
of Mary I mean, in Bethany, in John chapter 12. They made him
a supper and here's a glorious picture of the children of God.
Mother served, Lord let me be a servant. Lazarus was one of
them that sat. Let me sit, let me sit at your
table. And Mary took a pound of ointment
of spikenard. Very costly, and she anointed
the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. And listen
to what it goes on to say, and the house was filled with the
odour of the ointment. And we have no doubt about what
the ointment was for. And then one of the disciples,
Judas Iscariot Simon said, Richard Barrett, why was this ointment
not sold for 300 pence and given to the poor? And Jesus said in verse 7, let
her alone. You leave my bride alone when
she's in my company. You leave my bride alone. You
leave my bride to enjoy the kisses of my mouth. You leave my bride
alone to rejoice in my presence with her and rejoice in my dying
for her. He said, let her alone against
the day of my burying has she kept it. The house was filled with the
odour of his ointment. May this house and may the house
of each of us indwelled by the spirit be filled with the odour
of his ointment. May it be us who call out to
him again and again, kiss me. And then she'll say in verse
four, you draw me to you. kiss me and draw me. If you've
drawn me, you'll kiss me. And may the house of this flesh
be filled with the odour of the ointment of the crucified Saviour,
his blood to wash us clean. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you that there is a glorious Saviour who loves a bride the
way Your sweet words describe the love of the Lord Jesus Christ
for his people. And we praise you, Heavenly Father,
that we have this Gospel to proclaim, this Gospel, this glorious Gospel
of the glory of our great God and Saviour, to rejoice in. Heavenly Father, that which cost
him so dearly, please make precious to us. May we be kissed by the
ointment of his good name, the glory of his character. be a
fragrance to us from him. And may we find ourselves drawn
and at rest in his arms of love. Oh our father, glorify your son
in us, amongst us, and through us. For the glory of his precious
name, and for our good and our comfort as we journey through
this wilderness world, Help us to long to be in his arms.