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Angus Fisher

Song of Songs 39

Song of Solomon
Angus Fisher October, 5 2014 Audio
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Angus Fisher
Angus Fisher October, 5 2014
Song of Songs

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We're in Song of Solomon, chapter
7. If you turn to chapter 7. You might begin with verse 1 and
read all of the chapter. This is the Lord Jesus words
to his bride as he continues to cause her to remember who
she is in his sight, overlooking, turning her sins to knout by
his death on the cross and so he can deal with her as a beloved
bride and he can say, How beautiful are thy feet with shoes, O Prince's
daughter! The joints of thy thighs are
like jewels, the work of the hands of a cunning workman, thy
navel is like a round goblet which wanteth not liquor, thy
belly is like a heap of wheat set about with lilies, thy two
breasts are like young rows that are twins, thy neck is as a tower
of ivory, thy eyes like the fish pools in Heshbon by the gate
of Bath-Rabbon, thy nose is as a tower of Lebanon which looketh
towards Damascus, thy head upon thee is like Carmel, the hair
of thine head like purple, the king is held in the galleries,
How fair and how pleasant are you made, O love for delights,
is how it is in the Hebrew. This thy stature is like to a
palm tree, thy breasts are clusters of grapes. I said, I will go
up to the palm tree. It means I'll go up into the
palm tree, up to the top of the palm tree to where the fruit
is. I'll take hold of the boughs thereof. Now also thy breasts
shall be as clusters of the vine, and the smell of thy nose like
apples. The roof of thy mouth like the
best wine for my beloved that goes down sweetly, causing the
lips of those that are asleep to speak. I am thy beloved's. and his desire is towards me."
As we saw a few weeks ago, it's a great... Her words are great
words of assurance after he has spoken to her, aren't they? And
then she prays, come my beloved, let's go forth into the field,
let us lodge in the villages, let us go early to the vineyards,
let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear
and the pomegranates bud forth. There I will give thee my loves. The mandrakes give a smell, and
at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old,
which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved. You might just
read on the next few verses. O that thou wert as my brother,
that sucked the breasts of my mother, when I should find thee
without, outside, I would kiss thee. that, yea, I should not
be despised. I would lead thee and bring thee
into my mother's house, who would instruct me, and I would cause
thee to drink the spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate. His left hand should be under
my head, and his right hand should embrace me. I charge you, O daughters
of Jerusalem, that you stir not up nor awake my love until he
please. Leave him there. His arm under
my head and His right hand embracing me. Don't stir Him until He wakes
of His own accord." She's just longing again for communion. As we saw last week, she has
a prayer that she wants Him to come with her. She doesn't want
to be on her own. She wants Him to travel with
her, to lodge, to go into the field, to lodge with her, to
get up early. and so that they can see the
vineyards, to see whether the vines flourish and the pomegranates. And then she talks about these
mandrakes, the mandrakes that give a smell. And at our gates are all manner
of pleasant fruit which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved. Just a few things I'd like us
to take away from our time this morning, if the Lord would allow.
The Church's priority, her priority, the priority of every true believer
is to have the presence of Christ, to be in the company of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You know the story well, but
just let me read you just a few verses from that remarkable incident
after the resurrection and the Lord Jesus came to these two
disciples who were walking along that road to Emmaus and then
he preached that marvellous sermon, if we've been there. He began
at Genesis 1.1, he began at Moses and all the prophets and he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself."
That's what preaching is, isn't it? Expounding unto them in all
the scriptures the things concerning Him. We take the scriptures,
they concern Him, they speak of Him and we just expound it. and they drew nigh unto the village
where they were going, and he made as if he'd go on further,
but they constrained him, saying, Abide with us. For it is toward
evening, and the day is fast bent, and he went in to tarry
with them. And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them,
he took bread, and blessed it, and broke, and gave to them. And their eyes were opened, and
they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight." And they
said one to another, did not our heart burn within us while
he talked with us by the way and while he opened to us the
scriptures. The Church's priority, the priority
of the Lord's people is they have met Him, they long for His
company. They know their sins so often
separate them from Him. They know that the cares of this
world separate them from Him and they just long for the company
of He who has never left them and nor can never leave them
nor forsake them. So the Church's priority Believers'
priority is to be in the presence, in the company of Christ. Their
desire is not to be entertained, to be amused, but their desire
is to have Him, to hear Him speak. to walk with Him, to know His
fellowship, to know His companionship, and to know the fellowship of
He who loves His people and holds them and carries them in His
arms. The second thing that these verses show is that the Church
and all true believers are bound with fruit, and that fruit, as
Ephesians 4 says, is the fruit of His work. They are His ascension
gifts. to the church. He gave. He came
down, he fulfilled his work and he finished and he gave some
apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors
and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of
the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. Till we
all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of
the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ, that henceforth that we be no more children tossed
to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by
the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lay in
wait to deceive. But speaking the truth in love
may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. And listen to this description
in Ephesians 4.16 of his church, from whom, he's the head, from
whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that
which every joint supplies according to the effectual working in the
measure of every part, makes increase of the body unto the
edifying of itself in love." There is a body, isn't there? A body that is guided and directed
and nourished and nurtured and watched over by the head. This idea that the Lord Jesus
has a body that's imperfect in any way, or will have a body
where there's one tiny little bit missing. It's just a nonsense,
isn't it? He is God. His body will be like
Him, perfect and holy and sovereignly guided and protected. The other
thing that these verses show us in this particular one is
that she desires for private communion with Him. The fruit
is for Him, you see down there at the end of verse 30, this
fruit which is laid up for Thee, O my Beloved. You see, it's private
and personally for Him. The sweetest treasures of a love
relationship between The Bride and Her Beloved are unseen from
the eyes of the world and they are most intimately and most
openly expressed in private. In private communion with Him,
public worship and public fellowship is incredibly important. You
cannot worship God in private if you do not worship Him in
the gathering of His people together. There is a reality of a personal
union with Him. You see, the fruit's laid up
for Him, our Beloved. So much of what has transpired
between the Shulamite and her Beloved in the Song of Solomon
is of a private nature, isn't it? Occasionally she has forays
into public, but her sin Her sin which is in chapter 5 so
grievous and caused her so much anguish and caused him to speak
such delightful words to bring her comfort was a private sin
away from public eyes in her bedroom. The reality is that
there is so much that transpires between us and the Lord which
is private. We do have public things that
are incredibly important. We have public activity and public
lives to lead. But so much of what Song of Solomon
is showing us is that those public things are generated and nurtured
and nourished by private times of fellowship with Him. It's
about Him. It's about Him and who He is
and what He does. And the beauty of these passages
in Song of Solomon is that there is this remarkable restoration
of fellowship. I love what the Lord Jesus said. in John 14, he says, let not
your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. In my father's house and many
mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I go to
prepare a place for you. It's interesting, our chapter
divisions so often cause us to miss the flow of the argument,
don't they, and the beauty of the expression. You see, just
prior to this, in chapter 13, the Lord has told them that they're
all going to fall away. And then Peter says to Him, Lord,
why can't I follow You now? I will lay down my life for Your
sake, so much for human free will. And Jesus answered him,
Will thou lay down thy life for my sake? Truly, truly, verily,
verily, I say unto you, the cock shall not crow till you have
denied me thrice, three times. And then the very next words.
Here's Peter, boasting of his activities, boasting of his free
will, boasting of his ability, above all others ultimately in
the other Gospels, to stand firm and to even die for the Lord
Jesus. And then the Lord says, you're
going to deny me three times. And then he says, let not your
heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. And see in his restoration, his
glorious restoration, he's taken for a walk on that shore of Galilee
with the Lord Jesus. What a marvelous picture it is
of restoration. And he's questioned, isn't he?
Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And Simon Peter turns to him
and he says to him, Lord, you know that I love you. You know. Not what Peter knows anymore,
not what Peter can do. You know. You know all things. You know. And then not only is he restored
to that fellowship, he's been given that task, isn't he? You're
restored. Feed my sheep. Let not your heart be troubled.
feed my sheep." What a dark, dark time Peter must have had
on those days after the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. Let not your
hearts be troubled is the word from him. So back to Song of
Solomon. There are the three things. The
church's priority is to have fellowship. The church are believers
who are bound with fruit. All through the Song of Solomon
we've had picture after picture of fruitfulness. And this fruit
is a fruit that's expressed privately so often to him. It's to be displayed
before Him alone. No doubt it's to be displayed
before the world. But if our purpose is to glorify
God in our flesh, we'll be more concerned about what's going
on in our hearts than we will about how the world sees us. We might just stop there and
sing a chorus while everyone settles. Norm, what do you think? Can you pick your favourite one? Number one. Number one. Oh, there's a counter. Praise him, God of the Almighty,
the King of creation! O my soul, praise him for peace,
and guilt, and salvation! For he will hear me, now that
Israel draw near, Praising in adoration. Praise to the Lord, O King, so
wondrous He reigneth! Shelters the arm in His wings,
so He so gently sustains us. Blessed are those seeing, how
the King's fire and earth gleam, Granted in what He ordained them. Praise to the Lord, who doth
prosper thy work and defend thee. Surely His goodness and mercy
daily are telling. Fonder on you what the Almighty
can do, If with His love He be spending. Praise to the Lord,
O little lamb, You see me adorning. O let that wise and good God
now in praises be calling. Okay. We come to this verse that we
spend a little time contemplating together and pray the Lord will
bless us this morning. The Mandrakes, verse 13, give
a smell, give a fragrance, and at our gates are all manner of
pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee,
O my beloved. Mandrake's one of those extraordinary
plants which are mentioned just twice in two passages of scripture. And the root word for the word
mandrake is the Hebrew word love. And so the fruit of the mandrake,
which is a beautiful golden or yellow colour, are called apples
of love because of the Hebrew root word for mandrake. It's a small sort of flat growing
plant with dark green leaves like a lettuce and purple flowers
and the roots divided into two. So it has a beautiful sweet fragrance
and it grows in wheat fields. That's where in Genesis the only
other picture we have of the Mandrakes is in Genesis 30 and
I can read you some of those verses. You may know the story
of Jacob and his love for Rachel and how her father tricked him
into taking Leah for his wife. So there was his love, and there
was Leah. And Leah had babies, had many
of them, and Rachel was barren, had none. And she struggled,
and you can imagine the tension that was in the household. Not
only did you have these two wives, but you had two other of their
servants who were Jacob's wives, and so a household of four women,
one who didn't have children and the others who did, one who
was loved openly and especially by Jacob. It would have been
a time of great tension. Leah, of course, is boasting,
as she says in verse 13 of chapter 30, she says, Happy am I, for
the daughters will call me blessed. Because she's had some children.
And Reuben, verse 14, went in the days of the wheat harvest
and found mandrakes in the field and brought them to his mother
Leah. Then Rachel said to Leah, Give me, I pray thee, of thy
son's mandrakes. And she said unto her, is it
a small matter that thou hast taken my husband? Wouldst thou
take my son's mandrakes as well? She acknowledged, didn't she,
that Rachel, in a sense, had taken Jacob's heart. And so she bargains. with Rachel
and she gives the mandrakes in return for her having Jacob spend
the evening in her tent. She's hired him, she says. I
have hired thee with my son's mandrakes and he lay with her
that night. And God hearkened to Leah and
she conceived and bare Jacob her fifth son. So part of the mythical understanding of Mandrakes
was that they actually promoted love, they were an aphrodisiac
and also they cured barrenness. But it's very interesting in
the text of Genesis, I don't think God wants his people to
be superstitious about things like that because it goes on
and Leah has a child and another child, another child and finally
in verse 22, and God remembered Rachel. and hearkened to her
and opened her womb." No mention of the Mandrakes being involved
in it. You might remember that when Rachel left her father's
home, she took his household gods with him. They still carried
the baggage of the idolatry that the Lord was bringing them out
of. So Mandrakes are mentioned there in the scriptures and they
are mentioned in this particular verse. She says she's come, been
in the field with him and she goes to see whether the vineyards
are flourishing and the pomegranates are budding forth. But here she
talks about these mandrakes that come from the field. They are
representative in so many ways, aren't they, of the Church of
God. They are the planting of God. They are a fragrant and a fruitful
planting of God. And as I said earlier, the fruits
are called apples of love and they are said to excite love.
And they are thought to help barrenness and to make fruitful. as the church is called to sing
in Isaiah 54. Sing, O barren. God has made
what was barren fruitful. Sing, O barren, thou that didst
not bear. Break forth into singing and
cry aloud. Thou that didst not travail with
child. More are the children of the
desolate than of the married wife, says the Lord. They are thought to help with
barrenness. We are barren, apart from the Lord's fruitfulness. And the fruit is delightful to
look upon. The flowers are purple. But what she notes here about
the mandrakes is that they give a smell, they give a sweet fragrance,
and it's remarkable how often in Song of Solomon things are
talked about in terms of fragrance. And when you read of sweet savour,
2 Corinthians says that we are a savour of life under life and
a savour of death under others. In the proclamation of the Gospel,
There is both these fragrances. And when the sacrifices are offered
in the Old Testament, over and over again we find that they
are a sweet savour unto the Lord. They are, of course, representative
of the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice, and it goes up to the Lord and
becomes that sweet savour. The prayers of the saints interceded
by the Lord Jesus, guided by the Holy Spirit. They are a sweet
savour, now a sweet smelling savour in Heaven right now. She
says in verse Chapter 3, verse 3 of chapter 1. She says, Because
the savour of thy good ointments, thy name, is as ointment poured
forth, therefore do the virgins love me. love thee. And she says, a bundle of myrrh
is my will, beloved, unto me, verse 13. He shall lie all night
between my breasts. Again and again we have these
pictures of the herbs and the pictures of the smell, this sweet
smell, this sweet savour unto God. Who is this that comes out
of the wilderness like pillars of smoke? Chapter 3, verse 6.
Perfumed with myrrh and frankincense, with all the powders of a merchant. And again and again it goes on
and on. We talked about how these are
This garden is a garden of spices and herbs, and they are a place
that brings a sweet-smelling savour. Of course, all of it
is picturing our Lord Jesus Christ. His cheeks, she says in Chapter
5, His cheeks are as a bed of spices and as sweet flowers. His lips like lilies, His words
his speech to her, dropping sweet smelling myrrh. And then just
in these previous verses he says, I will go up to the palm tree,
I will take hold of the boughs thereof. Also thy breath shall
be as clusters of vine, and the smell, the breath of thy nose,
like apples." He finds her fragrance delightful. It's the sweet savour
of his work in the lives of his people. They are a sweet savour
unto him. She's not only delightful to
look at, Her stature is not only delightful, her presence is delightful,
her love is delightful and she brings to him a sweet smelling
savour. No doubt you, like me, have found
times when the smell of things in this creation is just overwhelming
and it is beautiful and it's captivating. It's just remarkable
how we remember smells. You can remember the perfume
of your grandmother or your mother. You just remember these remarkable
things. That's why people have sense. Because they bring a remembrance
for the Lord Jesus in His work in the lives of His
people. When he is brought to remembrance,
there is that sweet savour unto the Lord. And that sweet savour
is a savour that goes up into the very courts of heaven. The
mandrakes give a smell, that's the fragrance of her. And at
our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits." At our gates. Part of
the Jewish tradition apparently at the time was that when people
were married they used to come and decorate the doorway of the
house of the new married couple with fruit. Fruit, a sign no
doubt of the blessing of fruitfulness upon their marriage, but a sign
too. that they are being provided
for. They had this decoration and
inside their doors, in those days they used to have a shelf
just inside the doors. You came in and then above the
door was a shelf and on that shelf you put fruit to ripen. And the sweet savour of that
fruit would go through the whole house. My daughter Kate sent
us down some mangoes from Cullinara with Jennifer just last week
and they're still ripening in our house. and occasionally you
get the sweet savour of these really beautiful mangoes. They
won't be ripe until next week, but the flavour, when we come
back from our little trip to see Alan, is going to be wonderful. Of course, these gates are a
reference to the gates of entry into the house of the Lord. We are born again. by the Word of God in the Gospel. It gives an interest, doesn't
it? Those words on this book and this description of God.
I've had four visitors here this morning. Three young fellows
and then an older fellow came and had a cup of coffee and we
chatted. And it was just so extraordinary to hear them speak of the Lord
in such blasphemous ways. Especially the young fellows
as they heard that I was here getting ready to worship the
Lord. And they cursed him and they
blasphemed him. And for so many people this book
is just a bunch of words on a piece of paper. And he is just someone
to be mocked and to be ridiculed. And until God's words come with
power, You see what he says in Psalm 119, verse 130. He says,
the entrance of thy words giveth light. It giveth understanding
to the simple. The entrance of thy words. And God's words cease to be something
that's external. They're actually something that
comes and brings life to us. All of a sudden, this book, and
especially the Lord of this book, the Lord Jesus, becomes different
altogether. And may the Lord have mercy on
these people. We are all blasphemers. outside of Christ and we cause
Him to be blasphemed by our activities. And what a shameful thing it
is to think of the blasphemies that have been uttered to Him,
who gives us the very breath to do it and then remarkably
saves us out of it and takes that sin, that horrible, grievous
sin, and puts it away. Let me read how Peter describes
this entrance at these gates. In chapter 1 of 1 Peter he says,
For as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things, the silver and gold from your vein, your empty conversation,
your empty way of life, life outside of the Lord Jesus is
empty. And how did you get that emptiness?
You received it by the tradition from your fathers. So you weren't
redeemed. with those corruptible things.
But you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as
of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was
foreordained before the foundation of the world, was manifest in
these last times for you, who by Him, by Him do believe in
God." God can raise the dead to life. who by Him believe in God, that
raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, that your faith
and hope might be in God." Look at the remarkable fruit of it,
seeing that you have purified your souls. What a remarkable
thing, to have a purified soul. Seeing you have purified your
soul in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love
of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart fervently, being born again. This is this entrance, isn't
it? these gates signify, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible
by the Word of God which lives and abides forever. For all flesh
is as grass and all the glory of man is as the flower of the
grass. The grass withereth and the flower
thereof falleth away. But the Word of the Lord Endureth
forever. This word is an eternal word,
it endures forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. You see, without the Gospel,
this Word is not preached unto you. If they bring another Gospel,
they're not preaching this Word. Is that what the verse says?
It's exactly what the verse says. The false gospel is not actually
bringing this word to people at all. It just remains some
words on a piece of paper. It remains a bunch of doctrines
and some history and some moral imperatives for people to do. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you." And no wonder in the next chapter and a few verses
on, he says this newborn babes Desire the sincere milk of the
word that you may grow thereby. See at our gates, at this entrance
is where the place that's near at hand, the place that is accessible
is this entrance. And at these gates are all manner
of pleasant fruits, all manner of pleasant fruits. What a great
word that word all is. What a great word. Anything missing
from all? Not much missing from all as
far as I'm concerned, from where I'm standing. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings. And where are they? I want my
blessings in a place that's secure and safe and untouched by anything
else. That's exactly where God's got
my blessings, hasn't he? That's exactly where my Lord
Jesus is. He's blessed us with all spiritual
blessing in heavenly places in Christ. All manner of pleasant
fruits. I love the picture the 2nd Corinthians
gives us of those who went out to gather the manna. It was remarkable,
isn't it? Some people were going out there
thinking, how am I going to survive the day? How am I going to get
through this day? I need to take a great big pot.
and get my family together and we'll go and collect as much
manna as we can get and we'll get kilos and kilos and kilos
of it. Another person gets up in the morning and doesn't feel
too hungry, doesn't feel too well and he goes out and collects
his manna and he probably just gets a couple of cups full and
things like that will just keep me going. It's remarkable, isn't
it? And they go out to gather manna.
Christ is our manna. And they go out to gather the
manna. He that had gathered much had exactly the right amount.
He had nothing left over, it says, 1 Corinthians 8, verse
15. They gathered much, took all
their buckets out, they had none left over. And he that had gathered
little, finished that day. What does the verse say? It says
he had no lack. I love the picture, isn't it
wonderful? Whatever is needed, all manner. It speaks of provision,
doesn't it? Ample and adequate and satisfactory
provision. It speaks of abundance. There's
more than enough, isn't there? Where sin abounded, grace does
much more abound. The promises are great and precious
promises. There's an abundance in our Lord
Jesus. Springs of living waters, fountains,
just an abundance, flowing and flowing and flowing. He who does
all things well provides an abundance. Also all manner speaks of of
a variety, doesn't it? We need a variety of graces. And we need a variety of graces
particularly and perfectly suited to the particular varieties of
our need. We have a whole lot that are
in common and we have a whole lot that is particularly special
just for us. We all need pardoning grace,
don't we? That pleasant fruit of pardoning
grace to remove the guilt of sin. to remind us that the sting
of death is gone. God's children cannot die. They cannot be killed. The law
is taken out of the way. It's done its best. It's got
death. It got the death of my Saviour
and it got my death in my Saviour. And there's no more effect upon
me than you going up to the cemetery and going to the dead people
up there and bringing out a list of the laws of the land and saying,
here you are, you're guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty. And the
law says death is the price. And the Lord Jesus We have paid
that price and we have pardoning grace. We have justifying grace
which removes the destroying power of sin. Blessed is the
man, says David, blessed is the man whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Justifying grace. We talked about
it a little while ago, we need that regenerating grace, don't
we? We need to be new creatures. We need new birth. And we need
grace that lives in us, implanted grace, to deal with the tyranny
of sin so that sin does not have dominion over us. Why? because we're not under law,
says Romans 6.14, but we're under grace. And who's doing it? He
will subdue our iniquities, says Micah 7.19. And one day soon, the spirit
of grace will transform these vile bodies at the resurrection
and sin will be gone forever. Zechariah puts so beautifully
in the last verse of his wonderful prophecies is, in that day there
shall no more be the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts. Nothing to defile, sing on, nothing
to interfere with that blissful communion that the Shulamite
longs for. All manner, abundance, variety, quality. All manner, everything
that grows in this garden of the Lord is perfect. What does he say to the Shulamite
when he's talked about this garden? He says, I've come into my garden,
I've gathered my spouse, I've gathered my myrrh with my spouse,
I've eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I've drunk my wine
with my milk. He says, eat, oh friends. It's abundant, it's
suitable for him, and he's eaten and found it delightful. Eat,
oh friends, drink, yes, drink abundantly, oh beloved. It's fit for him to feast upon,
and it's fit for his bride to enjoy with him. Which is why
it's called pleasant fruits, aren't they? All manner of pleasant
fruits. He says of her, thy plants are
an orchard of pomegranates, chapter 4, verse 13, with pleasant fruits,
campfire and spikenard. And he wants that north wind
to blow and that south wind to blow upon the garden that the
spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his
garden, she said, and eat of his pleasant fruits. these of His pleasant fruits.
And she describes these pleasant fruits as new and old. It's a great description of the
blessings of grace, aren't they? They are new and they are old. He puts the new first, as He
does in other places in the scriptures, because you must enjoy now His
grace to then appreciate and delight in the old. It speaks of something which
is eternal and yet a present reality. The eternal covenant
is the covenant of love and the covenant of grace, the covenant
whereby He has promised to take this bride and present her before
His Father, holy, spotless, and blameless. He's promised in the
old eternity, as we say, and yet it's as real now, and it
must be real now. You see, this is her prayer,
isn't it? This is her prayer that we looked
at last week. Her prayer is for His company, His communion, to
have her go with Him. She doesn't. She knows what it's
like. to be away from Him. And she calls upon Him to go
with her, to go with her, to come. Let's go together, together,
let us. New and old. He'll come with
her because of what He's done in eternity. He comes with her
because of who she is to Him in eternity. And she might know
all those things, but she wants right now She wants right now
to have His communion, His fellowship, to be one with Him as a bride
to her husband. The fact that they are, the old
is preserved, isn't it? It talks about abundance again,
doesn't it? And continuousness of supply. So the old is still good when
the new is harvested. The old hasn't wasted away and
the new is fresh. We need fresh supplies of grace. as the Lord Jesus talks about
a scribe. There's only one scribe, isn't
there? There's only one scribe who matches
these words. There's only one group of scribes
beyond us who match these words. Therefore every scribe which
is instructed into the Kingdom of Heaven, the very special group
of scribes, are they not? They're not the scribes that
the Lord Jesus was dealing with in His day. Every scribe which
is instructed into the Kingdom of Heaven, that's in Matthew
13.52. You can read it in the context
and it's fascinating to read around it and see where all this
comes from. The scribe which is instructed
into the kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is a householder
which brings forth out of his treasure things old and things
new." What a great teacher the Lord
Jesus is, isn't he? He brings out of his treasure
house. He brings things old and he brings
things new. He brings things, promises. from eternity, promises in time,
and then he brings perfect, complete fulfilment of every one of them
at God's particular appointed time in the life of Nation Israel
and in your lives, brothers and sisters. You are at this very
moment the recipient of promises from God. promises made in eternity,
promises signed and sealed with the blood of the Lord Jesus,
promises which are new every morning and fresh every morning,
promises made of old, promises fulfilled every morning. For those of us who have met
the Lord, you remember something of what it was like. As the dawn,
the shining light of the sun dispelled the darkness, the darkness
of our religious upbringing, the darkness of our pagan upbringings,
and we had those first fruits of love, those first fruits of
faith, as the light shone and we saw reality. We saw reality in the face of
the Lord Jesus and we saw this world around us as a reality
in a new and shining way. a frightening reality in terms
of its severity, sometimes an extraordinarily comforting reality
in the reality of the presence and the promises of the Lord.
Both joy came and the promises came and this Word, as we read
in 1 Peter, became alive. And then we saw that in that
freshness that we were delighting in in the moment was this reality
from eternity, that eternal covenant, the reality of who the Lord Jesus
is, God in human flesh, God, a man, tempted in all parts as
we are yet without sin, a man of sorrows and familiar with
suffering, knowing our frame, And yet, like the Shulamite,
find in great delight. And God's children find delight,
as she does, in His delight for her. That's why she says in the
next part of that verse, she says, These new and old which
I have laid up for thee, O Beloved, are for His use, as I said earlier
there, for His delight. Continually, she says in Song
of Solomon, he feeds among the lilies. They're at the door,
these fruits. They're near at hand. They're
not out in the field like the mandrakes. They're there at the
door, publicly displayed and not hidden. They are like the
beautiful doctrines of the Gospel which display the glory of the
Lord Jesus for the world to see. Inside there is beautiful fellowship,
outside there is this proclamation. As the Lord said, let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father in heaven. And as I've said to you before,
I don't have time to expound it deeply now, but if you think
about what works are done here which glorify God in heaven and
glorify Him alone, the works are the proclamation of the glory
of His Son. That's what gets into heaven
with delight. All of our other good deeds,
as good as they might be and as worthy as they might be and
as helpful as they might be, they can bring lots of praise
to men here on this earth. The one good work that brings
praise to God in heaven is lifting up His Son, beholding Him in
faith, clinging to Him in faith, displaying Him to this world, They're laid up. They are kept,
it means. They are guarded. They are watched
over. They are attended to carefully. They're taken care of. They're
all descriptions of faith, aren't they? We actually lay them up
by faith. We take the promises of God and
by faith we lay them up and by faith we see them fulfilled. Abraham had a promise from God,
didn't he? He had a word from God, a word
that spoke ultimately about the Lord Jesus Christ. It was the
fulfilment of an old promise in Genesis 3.15 about the seed
of the woman crushing the head of the serpent. And Abraham had
this word and he had to wait. He was told to look at the stars
in the sky And wait, and wait. For 25 years he has to wait. God made him wait until he was
an old man and an impotent man. He had no hope of having a baby,
producing a son. And his wife was just as dead. Listen to what Romans 4.18 says
of him, who against hope believed in hope. He believed, he trusted,
he had faith in hope that he might become the father of many
nations according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed
be. He had a word from God. and not
being weak in faith. He considered not his own body
now dead when he was about a hundred years old, neither the deadness
of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise
of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory
to God. Two great prayers for God's children,
isn't it? Is make me faithful, cause me
to trust you, and cause me in trusting you for you to get all
the glory. That's fruit, isn't it, brothers
and sisters? Cause me to trust. cause me to trust in such a way
that you get glory." He was strong in faith, giving glory to God,
being fully persuaded that what he had promised, what God had
promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was
imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, to whom
it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised Jesus, our
Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences and was raised
again for our justification. Therefore, being justified through
faith, Through believing, through trusting, we have peace with
God. That's fruit. It's new fruit,
and it's old fruit, and it's laid up at the doors of God's
people. Faith sees the promises of God. and looks to them as a word from
He who creates by speaking. And faith holds on to the old
and experiences the new, the fulfilment of them. And the result
of the fulfilment of them is that the old promises get better
and better and better. Just before I close, I'd like
us to think just for a moment or two about the extraordinary
flow we have in Song of Solomon. when it comes to this particular
passage. You know the context of her fall and his restoring
of her. And then in chapter 10, verse
10 of chapter 7, she actually makes the most remarkable statement
about assurance of salvation. And then in the very next words,
She's actually talking about the one thing that when I was
in religion we were most active in doing. that most undid any
sense of assurance. Isn't it extraordinary? You have
assurance and fruit-checking, all side by side. And when you
read the commentators again and again, you find that they take
this passage of Song of Solomon and they talk about fruit-checking.
So here's assurance and fruit all put next to each other so
beautifully by the Lord, I think with intent. I don't know if
you remember, but our job, so much of our job was to be fruit
checking, and part of the fruit checking was that we'd actually
be talking about our own fruit, and then we'd be saying, well,
how's your fruit going? And then when we met with people,
we were encouraged to sort of hit them up or to give them both
barrels or something like that, and our job was to actually go
around and say, well, you know, how much of your Bible are you
reading, and how is your prayer life going, and what's this,
and all this other stuff. And we did it all the time, and
we got very good at it. We got very good. We actually
went around and paraded our righteousness in the face of other people and we continued to think that
that was what fruit was about. I just want to read some scriptures. I want to make a statement briefly
and then I just want to read a few scriptures and then we
will close. The statement is, it's not mine, the very essence
of the covenant of grace, the very essence of the covenant
of grace is God giving us what he requires of us. The very essence of the covenant
of grace, the eternal covenant that God's children are saved
by, that God's children are sanctified by, that God's children are preserved
by, that God's children will enter into heaven by, the very
essence of the covenant of grace is God giving us in the Lord
Jesus what He requires of us. The decoration of the Gospel
is the decoration of the covenant of grace confirmed. We'll talk some more about those
things in future. And I'd just like to read some verses about
fruit and let you go home and ponder them afresh. Lord, you
will ordain peace for us. On what basis will you give us
peace? If we are humbled and contrite and behave, Lord you
will ordain peace for us. Why? Because you have wrought
all our works in us or you have wrought all our works for us. Both of those are true linguistically. I will cry, Psalm 57.2, I will
cry. That first one was Isaiah 26.12. I will cry unto God most high,
unto God that performeth all things for me. I will cry unto God who performs
all things for me. As well as the singers, And the
players on instruments shall they be, all my springs are in
thee. All the spring of faith, all
the spring of repentance, all the spring of anything else you
wish to name that God demands and requires of us. Psalm 87
verse 7. Isaiah 14, verse 8, Ephraim shall
say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him
and observed him. I am like a green fir tree. From me, the Lord Jesus, from
me is thy fruit found. He restores my soul. He leads
me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Ephesians
2.10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk
in them. We give thanks to the Father,
Colossians 1.12, who has made us meet. The word is to be qualified,
to be perfectly fitted. It's a carpentry term of shaving
a piece of wood down so it exactly fits in the hole that you've
cut through. Perfectly fit to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. The fruit is the fruit of lips
that give prize to his name. You see, worship is only worship
when it's not working. Worship is worship when it is
looking and adoring someone who is remarkable, isn't it? You
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a
peculiar people, a particular people. You should show forth
the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his
marvellous light. And the writer of the book is,
in a sense, wraps up his glorious letter to us. He says, by Him
therefore, by Him, by the Lord Jesus therefore, let us offer
the sacrifice of praise to God continually. That is the fruit
of our lips giving thanks to His Name. giving thanks to Him
for His character, giving thanks to Him for all that is to Him,
to have that glorious name of God Almighty. Let's pray.
Angus Fisher
About Angus Fisher
Angus Fisher is Pastor of Shoalhaven Gospel Church in Nowra, NSW Australia. They meet at the Supper Room adjacent to the Nowra School of Arts Berry Street, Nowra. Services begin at 10:30am. Visit our web page located at http://www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au -- Our postal address is P.O. Box 1160 Nowra, NSW 2541 and by telephone on 0412176567.

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