I've been so much encouraged
by the faithfulness of people around me in the midst of extraordinary
trials. You like me who love June and
Kay and their families have been made again and again aware of
how much we're dependent people and how glorious our sovereign
God is. I've been talking about it for
ages and I wanted to go back and spend a little bit of time
in Song of Solomon. For those of you who were with
us when we were doing Song of Solomon, it was just such a sweet
book of the Bible. Song of Solomon is just the book
before the Gospel of Isaiah, so it comes after the wisdom,
literature of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes that I was right about in the
middle of the Scriptures. But it's a glorious, glorious
picture. A glorious picture of the love
relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and His Bride in
this world. It speaks in the most extraordinary
ways that only God can speak of His love for His Bride. The extraordinary love of the
Lord Jesus Christ for His Bride. The extraordinary love that He
creates in her for Him, and how again and again and again she,
like us, even though she's experienced the most amazing things of the
Lord Jesus Christ and the most amazing things in His presence
and the most amazing things in His providence and in His promises,
and yet again and again and again She finds herself absent from
the Lord and wondering where he is. And in her sinfulness,
he leaves her and she goes looking for him. And it's just a glorious
picture. If you are given the grace to
see this book through spiritual eyes, you'll find it the most
delightful picture and the most real picture, the most real picture. And it begins with a wonderful
Prayer of the Church, isn't it? It says, the Song of Songs, which
is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth. Let him kiss me with his word.
What comes from his mouth is his word. For thy love is better
than wine because of the savour of thy good ointments. Thy name
is as ointment poured forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. And then this amazing prayer,
draw me, you draw me to yourself 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. Then she speaks of who she is,
she says, I'm black, I'm black in myself, I'm nothing but black,
but comely. In him, I'm nothing but beautiful. Nothing but beautiful. Then she
prays in verse 7 of chapter 1. Tell me, O thou whom my soul
loveth, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest
at noon. He makes his flock to rest. He
brings, verse 4 of chapter 2, he brings his bride into his
bank-renting house and his banner over me was love. His banner
over all of his church is love. And she misses him, and he comes
again, and she's caused to go searching for him, and then he
causes him to be found, and he causes her to utter the most
remarkable words. And even after, in chapter five,
the depth of her terrible wickedness, where she's just evil in the
most extraordinary way, rejecting him and rejecting his presence,
And she goes searching for him, she's made to say the most beautiful
words about him. Even when he's absent, it's a
glorious picture, isn't it? Even when he's absent, even when
he's absent because of our sin, she's still given opportunity
when she's asked that question, what is he to you? What is he
to you? What is this beloved more than
any other beloved? What is it? What is he to you? And then she speaks and she starts, at his head and goes to his feet
and he says, he's the cheapest among 10,000. This is my friend. She calls him her friend. And
when she finds him again, having suffered his absence because
of her sin, listen to the words. He says to her in chapter six,
verse four, thou art beautiful, my love. In verse 5 he says,
turn thine eyes from me for they have overcome me. He's overcome
by the beauty of his bride. But in chapter 8, I just want
to spend a little bit of time just looking at this glorious
verse when he's back in her company. And this is a description of
all of the Church of God. Who is, verse five of chapter
eight, who is this that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning
on her beloved? Leaning on her beloved. This world is a wilderness. This world without the presence
of the Lord Jesus Christ is a wilderness to all of his people. But I just
love that description of all of the children of God. This
is a picture of the Church of God. The Church of God is coming
up from the wilderness, leaning on the Beloved. Leaning on the
Beloved. On her Beloved. See, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the beloved of all of his people. That word, her, means possessive,
doesn't it? He's my beloved. He's my beloved. He's my beloved. There's no point
him being a beloved out there if he's not my beloved. God the
Father says, this is my beloved son, in him I'm well pleased. The Father describes him as such,
but so does his bride, my beloved. The Lord Jesus says you seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these
things will be added to you. Everything that you need in this
world will be added unto you. She now having had communion
disturbed is wanting to not have it disturbed again. That's what
leaning is about. He's the beloved isn't he? She
leans on a beloved. He's the beloved of his father.
He's the beloved of the angels. He's the beloved of his redeemed.
He's the beloved of his bride. He's the beloved to her. He's beloved. And she leans. She leans. There are several things about
leaning that are so important, aren't there? Leaning implies
a dependence. I'm leaning because I don't have
the strength to support myself. What keeps people from heaven? What keeps people from relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ? It's not your sin, but it's your
righteousness. People believe that they are
righteous. They believe that they have some
strength. in themselves and she's leaning. A vine that grows most
fruitful has to lean. But to lean there has to be a
nearness, there has to be a presence. And to lean there must be a sure
thing and a nearby thing. What was the greatest desire
of the church? I want to be with him. What was
Mary's great desire when he'd been absent and she saw him?
She clung to him. She clung to him. The Church
of the Lord Jesus Christ clings to the Lord Jesus Christ. But
we lean on a sure thing. And we lean on one that is nearby. And we lean by faith. I love what Hebrews 11 says,
that faith True living faith that's come from God as an object
in the true and living one is the substance. It's the substance
of things hoped for. That word substance means the
ground, means the confidence. True faith is a substance of
things hoped for. It is the evidence. It is the
evidence, the one evidence is faith, and faith leans. Faith
leans because faith is dependent. In the Song of Solomon we have
the wonder of the beauty of the intimacy of the bride with the
Lord Jesus Christ again and again and again. It's pictured in so
many ways and if the Blessed Holy Spirit would give you the
eyes to see that you would find that scripture interprets scripture
and you'll find again and again they're just pictures from throughout
the scriptures. of the beauty of the Lord Jesus
Christ and his closeness to him. To lean, to lean is to believe
his word of promise. What's his promise to his church
when he left and went to glory? He said, I am with you. How long? I am with you always. Until when? Until the end of
the world. Such is the glory of the incarnation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that the great I Am, the great I Am,
that God, the God who met and revealed himself to Moses at
the bush, the great I Am, I Am the way, the truth and the life,
I Am the resurrection and the life, I Am, I Am the only way
to the Father, I Am life itself, I Am eternal life. I am with
you. I am with you. And Solomon wants us to know
again and again and again that his desire is for us. He's a faithful husband. He's
a faithful lover of his bride. His desire is towards us. He loves his people. He loves
his bride. As we saw earlier, he loves her
everlastingly. He loves her eternally. He loves
her knowingly. He loves her providentially.
He works all things so that she will be in his arms. See, he
is so near that you can lean. You can't lean on someone who's
a long way away. You lean on him because he's
near. He's with you. You lean on someone
who can help. He's a living God. He's alive
now and he's here now. And his church is the body and
he's the head. You can't be separated from him. When you pass through the waters,
Messiah says, when you pass through the waters, you will pass through
many waters in this world, brothers and sisters in Christ. I say,
when you pass through the waters, you'll actually pass through
them. That doesn't mean the waters aren't going to affect you, but
I will be with you through the rivers. They shall not overflow
thee when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burnt,
neither shall the flame kindle upon thee, because I am the Lord
thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. I gave Egypt for
thy ranch, and Ethiopia and Cedar for thee. Since thou wast precious
in my sight, thou hast been honourable, and I have loved thee. I have loved thee. "'Therefore
will I give men for thee and people for the life. "'Fear not,
for I am with thee. "'I will bring thy seed from
the east "'and gather them from the west. "'I will say to the
north, give up, and to the south, "'keep not back. "'Bring my sons
from afar and my daughters "'from the end of the earth.'" And listen
to his description of his bride. "'And everyone that is called
by my name, "'for I have created him, for my glory, these ones
that he's loved. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. We can't be outside of the presence
of God. In Him we live and move and have
our being. To lean on Him is to have communion
with Him, isn't it? It's to talk to Him. It's to
lay our lives out before Him and say, this is who I am. This
is the circumstances of my life. I can't see the sun shining above
the darkness of the clouds. But you make the clouds, and
you make the sunshine, and you determine all the circumstances
of my life. We are in Him, and He is in us. You can lean. When He's so close,
when He's so close, brothers and sisters, you can lean. You
can lean. is to have the weight lifted
off you and put on another. To lean is to be in need. You have that amazing promise,
my friends, my brothers and sisters. Cast all your care upon him,
for he careth for you. He careth for you. Lean on him. There is a sacred union between
him and his bride. And so you lean, you lean on
him. To lean is to be in need. To lean is to implies a dependence. What a wilderness this world
is without the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a wilderness
this world is when our sin entangles us. What's the sin that so easily
entangles the children of God? What's the sin that easily entangles? It's unbelief, isn't it? We just
simply do not believe how glorious he is. We simply do not believe. who he is. We don't believe his
absolute sovereignty. We don't believe his word. What
a terrible, terrible entanglement of unbelief. We don't believe
that he's made a covenant. We don't believe that he declares
that we are perfect in him. We don't lean. We lean on his
person for acceptance with God by faith. We lean upon his righteousness
for justification. We lean upon his fullness for
our daily supply. Out of his fullness have we received
grace for grace. We lean upon his blood for pardon
and for cleansing. We lean upon him for the full
weight of all of my salvation. All of my eggs are in one basket.
Nowhere else I don't look to myself or anything I've done.
I can't even look to what I'm doing now. Faith looks away. Faith lays hold. Faith leans. Leaning implies a dependence. Leaning implies weakness. We are just weak. We are frail. We have no strength. He says
without me you can do nothing. Only the grace of God makes us
to be like children. When we're not like children,
we're conscious of our strength. I love how John says in John
13 that he was leaning on Jesus' breast at the Last Supper. At that supper that pictured
the death and the burial and the glorious resurrection of
the Lord Jesus Christ, John just leant Isn't it amazing that God
Almighty dines with his people, feeds with his people, rejoices
together with his people, and allows us to lean on him. I just
am captivated by the closeness and the intimacy of that. What
was John? A sinner. What was he going to do that
night? Run away. And yet the Lord Jesus Christ
shows us again and again that he came into this world to save
sinners. Brothers and sisters in Christ,
you cannot lean too hard. You cannot lean too often. In fact, if you lean totally,
all the way it's gone from you altogether isn't it and it's
all on him and that's how far God causes his people to lean
we lean on him This is what it is to be coming up out of the
wilderness. Coming up out of the wilderness. What a glorious description of
God's children. They're always coming up to Him. We're always coming to Him. We're
always coming to lean on Him. We're always coming up out of
this wilderness. We're coming up to a heavenly Jerusalem. We
are the children of God, just like the Hebrews. We are a people
from another place. We're coming up. We're coming
up, leaning. We're coming up, leaning. She was leaning because the way
had been revealed to her as perilous. If she was left to her own devices,
you can read about it in Chapter 5 and Chapter 3, if you're left
to her own devices, this world was perilous. The scriptures
describe this world in Deuteronomy 32 as a waste, howling wilderness. Sin is mighty, the flesh is weak. We have a fight and it's not
against flesh and blood. And when we are one with him,
we find ourselves in a war in this world. But we can come up,
we can come up leaning on her beloved. Just let me finish by reading
verse 6 and 7 of chapter 8. She says, as she's leaning, as
she's coming up, she says to the Lord Jesus Christ, set me
as a seal upon thine heart. A seal, a picture of a covenant,
set me as a seal upon thy heart, a seal upon thine arm, thine
arm of strength, thine arm of power, enlisted the description
of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. For love is strong as
death, Jealous. Jealousy is cruel as
a grave. The coals thereof are the coals
of fire, which has the most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench
love. Neither can the floods drown
it. If a man would give all the substance
of his house for love, it would be utterly content. You cannot
buy this love. This love comes as a grace gift. Our Lord Jesus Christ dwells
in the gardens of his church where his gospel is proclaimed
and he is raised up and his people are made to lean, his people
are made to rest in him. Like Lazarus they recline with
the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel comes to them not
as good advice about what they have to do, it says good news
about what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, it's good news about
who he is. And that's exactly what he declares. How do we lean? I'll finish with verse 13 in
Chapter 8 of Solomon. She lent because he was near. She lent because she had a need. She lent because the way was
perilous. She lent because she couldn't
trust in her own standing. And then she speaks of him, thou
that dwellest in the gardens, the companions hearken to thy
voice. This is a wonderful prayer. Pray
with me, cause me to hear it. Cause me to hear your voice. That's that voice, isn't it? Let him at the beginning, she
says, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth for thy love
is better than mine. Cause me to hear your voice.
Heavenly Father, make us dependent. Make us to know how dependable
the one we lean upon is. He'll carry you. He's promised. He's promised to carry his people. He's promised to rejoice over
them with singing. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with
his arms and carry them in his bosom. Isaiah 40, verse 11. And shall gently lead those who
are with young. Let's pray. Oh, Heavenly Father,
how much we are caused to rejoice in the wonders and the glories
of your dear and precious son. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for the glory of his presence with us, that he's so close that
we can lean. He makes us so dependent that
he causes us to lean. And he is so near that we can
lean all the time. Heavenly Father, we pray that
you would cause us to contemplate once again how much that love
cost our dear and precious Saviour, that He bore our sins in His
own body on the tree and went to Calvary's tree, scorned by
men, suffering your infinite wrath for all the sins that were
laid upon Him. Oh, our Father, He bled and died
was buried and yet heavenly father together with him we are raised
to newness of life we thank you heavenly father for the infinite
love of your dear and precious son that took him to all of that
into this wilderness world that he might find his bride in a
wilderness and bring her to himself and purify her and make her holy
in his holiness Cause her to be one without spot before him. Cause her to be one that is so
beautiful in his sight that his desire is toward her. Heavenly
Father, we do pray again that you would cause his blood to
be seen as precious. for his blood to be seen as efficacious,
for his blood to be seen as perfectly sufficient, Heavenly Father,
to wash us, wash all of his people from all of our sins, that we
stand before you, our Father. holy and spotless, unblameable
and unapprovable in your sight. Hallelujah, our Father. What
a glorious Saviour. We thank you and praise you,
our Father, in his precious name. Amen.