We looked last week at the statue,
how she appears, how she stands, the statue like the palm trees.
We looked at the fruitfulness of that and we finished by looking
at the Lord Jesus coming and saying, I will go. I will go
to her and I will take hold. I will hold her to myself. And we talked about the breasts
shall be clusters of the vine. And then there is this last phrase
there that we'll just look at briefly this morning where it
says, the smell of your nose is like apples. Of course, our noses are emblematic
of many things, aren't they? They're emblematic of things
that we smell and find delightful and find refreshing. And when
we read those passages, those amazing passages of scriptures,
we find the word of God delightful and refreshing. And it has an
aroma. We read in 2 Corinthians about
that aroma. There is an aroma of the truth. There is an aroma which is delightful. A word fitly spoken is like apples
of gold in settings of silver. And in the proclamation of the
gospel, there is an aroma, isn't it? There is a savour that goes
out. We are, to one, the savour of
death, unto death. To the other, the savour of life,
unto life. Paul acknowledges, like anyone
who stands before people in God's name and speaking to them about
their souls and about eternity, who is sufficient for these things.
Thank God the sufficiency of these things is His sufficiency,
it is His job. Our task is to faithfully proclaim
the Gospel, to faithfully bear witness to who God is and who
we are as God describes us. and to diffuse that sweet savour
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The nose, if you go back to verse
4, is likened to that tower of Lebanon which looks out towards
Damascus towards Syria. It can be a reference to the
fame of the church. That tower was impregnable and
was on a high hill and it looked out to the pagan world from Israel. It speaks of courage and of defending
the faith. It speaks of impregnable truths
that are proclaimed and they cannot be undone. God's church
is lifted up by Him in this world and His truths are lifted up. And it might as well describe
the things that she smelt, especially as He came back to her in her
fallen state and in her darkness and in her lostness because of
her activities. They were delightful to her. He brought himself and his presence
to her. He brought again fresh discoveries
of his love to her, fresh descriptions of how she was to him, how pleasant
and fair, how beautiful she was. He brought again He brought again
the gospel, the sweet, consoling promises. He brings refreshment. And apples are a sweet-smelling
fruit, aren't they? They smell beautifully. And it might also just be a reference
to the fragrance of her breath, that God's children the beauties of the Lord Jesus
in the words that they say. And then he goes on to say, the roof
of your mouth is like the best wine for my beloved. It goes
down sweetly, causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak. The roof of the mouth is a reference
to the palate, isn't it? The roof of our mouths is where
taste comes from. It's where speech and sound and
kisses, in a sense, come from. have tasted." When Paul is writing
to those Ephesians, he's saying that the eyes of their hearts,
having been enlightened, a sovereign, gracious, unchangeable activity
of God enlightens the eyes of your understanding. We've tasted
and seen that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts
in Him. You see, the unbeliever, there
is no beauty in him. They can acknowledge so many
things about him. They can acknowledge the reality
of his coming into this world. They can acknowledge the reality
of his death and his resurrection. They can acknowledge so much
of what the scriptures say about him. And all of that is meaningless
unless it is something that has become life to us. There must be something more
than just an intellectual understanding. They've tasted and seen. The unbelievers see no beauty
in Him, for Him to them It's a take it or leave it option,
isn't it? For God's children. They hate
the fact that this world, they call good evil and evil good
and they put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. They have
no taste of divine things. In fact, in Romans 3, Paul describes
all of mankind unregenerate. He says the poison of asps is
under their lips. Just as she could smell, she
could smell the sweet things. She's now talking about tasting
those sweet things. She can discern truth. In chapter 4 verse 11 she talks
of this honey and milk are under her tongue. Those gospels, those
doctrines of that everlasting gospel are honey and milk to
her. So it can be describing what
she tastes. And we'll look at some more of
that in a little while longer. But also it might be what she
tastes of. In the context, he's describing
what he has made her to be. How fair, how beautiful. and pleasant are you made to
me." It's remarkable how often he describes her as beautiful. Fair means beautiful. He begins,
he says, in chapter 1 verse 15, you are fair. You are fair, you
are beautiful. And again, 11 times, he says,
you are beautiful. You're beautiful as the moon.
He says, how beautiful is your love, my sister, my spouse. All
fair are you, my love. There's no spot in her. You are fair. And then he describes
her in 2013. He says, she is my fair one.
She is my, Beautiful one. Chapter 2 verse
10. My love, my fair one. She brings the aroma of Christ
to Christ and he finds her delightful. She's black. She's frail. She's fickle. She's so often
wayward in her activities, and he draws her to himself with
those bonds of everlasting love. And she tastes of his person. She tastes of his graces that
he's put on her. He finds the words that come
from her mouth are words that describe him in his beauty, but
they're words that he has inspired her to say. Remember in chapter
5, she has that remarkable tenfold description of Him. She can't
see Him, she can't experience Him. He doesn't respond to her. And she describes Him from head
to foot. That's beautiful. The cheapest
among 10,000. And then to wrap it all up, she
says His mouth is most sweet. Yes, He is altogether lovely. and what he says of her is what
she tastes of, and the fruit that drops from him, the fruit
of his grace in the lives of his believers, of his children,
of his bride, are sweeter to her taste than honey. Jeremiah
describes the words of God. It says, your words were found,
and I did eat them, And your word was unto me the joy and
rejoicing of my heart. Jeremiah may be referring at
that time in history to the fact that there was this nation Israel
with all of that remarkable history and that magnificent temple that
Solomon had built. And they'd lost the words of
God. Isn't that remarkable? And they
were doing some renovations in the temple. And they found the
book of God. And they read it and they are
stunned. And then they bring it to King
Josiah. And Josiah reads this book and
is absolutely stunned. that God in perfect justice had
not destroyed them for their wicked rebellion. And he brings
about a great revival in the land of Israel. But thy words
were found, says Jeremiah. Thy words were found by his people
and I did eat them and thy word unto me was the joy and rejoicing
of my heart. She tastes things that are beautiful
and finds them delightful. She is, she tastes of to Him
what is beautiful and delightful by His making. And it may, of
course, the roof of the mouth may refer to her speech, the
things that she says. These remarkable things, as we've
said, she says, her prayers and her praises, her longing and
her looking after, looking out for him even in the midst of
her distresses. And these words, these things
are described as being like the best wine, the best wine for
my beloved. What's the best? What's the best wine? Wine's
a remarkable thing, isn't it? To get the best of wine, you've
got to have good grapes on good soil with good weather. You've got to pick them just
at the right time. You've got to press them just
right. Some of you know far more about wine than I do. and you
have to put them and you have to store it perfectly and you
have to do things with it while you're storing. Cole, you probably
know far more about all this than I do. You have to care for
it. And then it has to be aged. Good wine has to be aged. All of this, of course, is reference
to the gospel, isn't it? The old paths, ask for the old
paths. It is that banner that's in heaven
now, isn't it? That everlasting gospel is the
banner. The only gospel that saves is
the gospel that was proclaimed in eternity. It was proclaimed
in the garden. that was proclaimed and is proclaimed
throughout time. It's a gospel in all of our time
that's been proclaimed in heaven. And it's a gospel that will be
proclaimed in the new creation. It's an everlasting gospel. It needs to be aged properly.
Because there is a time, isn't there? For the best wine, there
is a time when it reaches its best. to have it too early is to spoil
the beauty of what might be. So this wine, this good wine
comes at a right time and it has to be separated. The wine
needs to be separated from the dregs. Separated from that which will
cause it to be anything other than the best. It has to be pure
and unmixed. The good wine, the best wine,
is unmixed. The gospel that is the best is
unmixed with anything of human imagination or human inventions
or human traditions or human wisdom. It's just pure. And of course, it has a beautiful
flavour. The best wine has a beautiful
flavour. As the psalmist says, how sweet
are thy words unto my taste, yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. It has a beautiful flavour. It
has a beautiful colour. It has the ability, as the scriptures
say, to bring cheering and reviving. It has the ability to lift the
spirits of the weary and the broken hearted. The best wine,
the best wine. The best wine is the wine of
the gospel. The best wine, if you go back
in Song of Solomon to chapter five, verse one, you'll find
out what the best wine is. It's very simple, isn't it? Chapter
five, verse one. I have drunk my wine. My wine he has drunk. And because he has drunk, my
wine, he can then say to his friends, drink, yes, drink abundantly,
oh beloved. It's the wine of his creating. It is the wine that's fit for
him to drink. It's a wine that's suitable for
His Beloved. None but the best for His Beloved
will do. And of course, there are... Before we go to look at the Lord
Jesus on the cross, just turn with me briefly to John 2. in the beautiful picture of the
Lord Jesus at the marriage feast in Cana of Galilee, and in verse
3, they wanted wine. They'd run out of wine. And in
that situation, it was hugely embarrassing, wasn't it? There
were all the people being gathered for this celebration, and the
bridegroom, it seems, was responsible for the wine, and there was It
was the Master of the Feast, the Governor of the Feast, in Jesus' matter, said to him,
They have no wine. Jesus said to her, Woman, what
have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. His mother said unto the servants,
Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set six
waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the
Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece." About 40 or
50 gallons, I think it was, were huge. jars. He said unto them,
Fill the waterpots with water, and they filled them to the brim. And he said unto them, Draw out
now, and bear unto the governor of the feast, and they bear it.
when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water, tasted the
water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was. But the
servants which drew the water knew. The governor of the feast
called the bridegroom, and he said unto him, every man at the
beginning doth set forth the good wine, and when men have
well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the
good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did
Jesus in Cana of Galilee. Two wonderful things happened
in His revelation of Himself, His manifestation of Himself.
Manifested forth His glory and His disciples believed in Him. Manifested His glory. and they believed in Him. What
a remarkable picture we have of the Lord Jesus. There are
so many pictures in it. And one of them is, of course,
that these jars are for the purification of the Jews and they ceremonially
washed themselves. And the Lord Jesus had them filled
to the brim so that the water of that Jewish cleansing was
full. And then when those people go
to draw out that water, what a remarkable thing. You go and
draw, you've just put the water in as a servant, and you go and
you draw water out, as it were, and take to the master of the
feast. See, when the Lord Jesus commands
people to do things, the power comes with it, and the power
overrules common sense. If you were to take to the governor
of the feasts some more water instead of wine, it would have
been intensely embarrassing, wouldn't it really? But he speaks,
and they now take the very, very best wine. For all of those sacrifices of
the Jews, All of them pointed forward to that one great sacrifice. That one great sacrifice of our
precious Saviour. It's remarkable, isn't it? Coming up to the cross, it's
blood. Blood in the garden, blood outside
of the garden, blood, blood, without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. And the Lord Jesus comes and
he sheds that blood. And now, what do we do? To remember that blood, we drink
wine. It's a remarkable picture, isn't
it? When we think of what wine means. But this blood is precious blood,
isn't it? It's the blood of the very Son
of God Himself. So it's precious, isn't it? It's
precious according to 1 Peter 1.19. It's precious because of
where it comes from. It's precious because of what
caused it to be shed. And we must remember that it
was shed in the garden of Gethsemane, as well as in those halls of
those men who wounded him so badly. And it was shed to the
uttermost on the cross. It's precious because of whose
blood it is. It's precious because of how
it came to be shed. And it's precious because of
what it does in the lives of His people. See, it's sprinkled before the
throne of God in heaven. It gives right of access to heaven. It's applied to the hearts of
people and it heals and it softens. And it's applied to the consciences
of God's people. and it cleanses His people from
blood, from guilt. Cleansed from guilt by His shed
blood. It is precious blood. It is blood that causes His people
to triumph in Revelation 12. I think it's verse 11. They overcome. His people in this day, in this
world, they overcome Him by the blood of the Lamb. They overcome
that old serpent called the devil and Satan which deceived the
whole world. He's cast out into the earth
and His angels were cast out with Him. And I heard a loud
voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation and strength and
the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. For the
accuser of the brethren is cast down which accused them before
our God night and day. That blood means he has no access
to heaven. He has no law to bring against
the children of God. The Lord Jesus took it away by
dying under its penalty. And they overcame him by the
blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, that
they loved not their lives unto death. Therefore rejoice, you
heavens and you that dwell in them, and woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto
you having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short
time. That's the world we live in,
brothers and sisters. but they can overcome him by
the blood of the Lamb. It's purifying blood, isn't it? It cleanses our consciences,
it purifies us. The blood of the Lord Jesus cleanses
us from all sin. It cleanses and it keeps on cleansing. Pardon, complete and perfect
pardon for sin. It's the blood that he purchased. He purchased his church with
this blood. It was the redemption price that
she owed. And he paid and he bought her. Acts 20, 28. Take heed, therefore
unto yourselves and all the flock. over which the Holy Ghost has
made you overseas, and feed the church of God, which he has purchased
with his own blood. It's pardoning blood. And it's
blood that brings peace. Peace. Continually, if you are like
me. You're in need of peace. And He has made peace, Colossians
1.20. Made peace through the blood
of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him,
I say, with the things in earth and heaven. He reconciles all
things, and it speaks peace. It's blood that speaks peace. To Jesus, the mediator of the
new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaks better
things than the things than that of Abel. It brings peace. It speaks peace. That's wine. That's the wine. The best wine. And he describes it, doesn't
he, in those gospel accounts as they looked to what was going
to, as he looked to what was going to happen to him that evening. And they were then caused to
look afterwards. And what a cup it was, this new
covenant. But it was a cup, isn't it? And
he says in the garden, he says, Father, if you'd be willing,
remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thine be done. And an angel appeared to him
to strengthen him. And being in agony, he prayed
more earnestly and he sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood
falling to the ground. That cup, that cup that he refers
to is the cup of the infinite wrath of God upon the sin of
all of God's people. That infinitely grotesque cup. That infinitely necessary cup
that must be drunk. And if it's not been drunk... then there is no salvation. He took the cup and gave thanks,
and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it, for this
is my blood of the new testament, the new covenant, which is shed
for many for the remission of sins. That cup he had to drink and
he drank it to the full. See this, I believe, is the best
wine. The best wine is his wine. The wine of his making, the wine
of his drinking, the wine by which she can be called fair
and beautiful and pleasant, and by which, as we see in the next
verse, it was shed because of his desire. This is love, isn't
it? That a man lay down his life
for his friends. And for God's children, it goes
down sweetly. The great doctrines of the cross,
the great truths about the Lord Jesus, they go down sweetly. You see, they actually go down
and they become part of us, don't they? Actually, so much of what
is said So much of what I say is superficial in the lives of
so many people. But this is a wine that goes
down sweetly. See, it goes down. It goes down
into the hearts. It goes down and it becomes life. The Lord Jesus said in John 6,
unless you eat the flesh of the blood of the Son of Man, and
unless you drink his blood, You have no life in you. To eat His
flesh and to drink His blood is to live upon Him and Him only. It goes down sweetly. It's Christ in us which is the
hope of glory. God's children are the hungry
and the thirsty, and they've tasted the sweetness of the gospel,
and they have known the bitterness of the false. They have been
lost. They have been found. They have been strays, and they
have been brought near. It becomes just life to us, doesn't
it? The Gospel of the Lord Jesus
is life. And outside of it, and apart
from that, it isn't sweet. And this is a powerful Powerful
wine, isn't it? This wine of the gospel. You see, He says, I will, in
verse 8. He says, I will go up and I will
take hold of, and then He says, I shall. by breasts shall be
as clusters. And what will then happen? The
roof of your mouth, your nose will smell like apples, the roof
of your mouth, your palate will be like the best wine. It goes
down sweetly and it causes the lips of those that are asleep
to speak." What a word of great hope, brothers and sisters. I
don't know I don't know all of your discussions with all of
the people that you love but how often are we speaking to
people and they seem completely dead and they are asleep and
we bring the sweet savour of the gospel to them and it just
is water off a duck's back. It means nothing to them. It
does nothing. But our gospel is the power of
God unto salvation. You see, the issue is not in
man and what man does. The issue is in God and His purposes. When He says, I will, it's done. He says, when they shall, it's
done. They shall. And it doesn't matter
if they're as dead as Lazarus. He speaks the word, Lazarus,
come out. And out he came. Stretch forth
your hand, he said to the man with the paralyzed hand. The
one thing the man with the paralyzed hand couldn't do was stretch
forth his hand. And what happens? With the word
of God comes the power of God to achieve his purposes. She says in chapter 5, verse
2, she says, I'm asleep. But then her heart is woken.
And her heart is woken, what? By what? Her heart is woken by
the voice of my beloved. See, people who are asleep are
unaware of what lies around them. So many people have an appearance
of life, but they are dead. They seem as if they're awake,
but they're asleep. They're unaware of the state
of their souls. They're unaware of the state
of this world. They're unaware of the nature
of God, His absolute sovereign dominion and rule over all things. People who are asleep have an
inability to do anything, have they? anything spiritually good
for themselves, which is why when he's taken her into that
garden in verse 16 and described that garden, he says, away go
north wind, come as thou flow upon my garden, that the spices
may flow out. You see, sinners are dead. They
cannot do anything spiritually good for themselves. They can't
redeem themselves. They can't fulfil any righteous
requirements of the law. They can't satisfy divine justice. They can't bring out or carry
out or begin any work of grace. They can't subdue their corruptions. They can't understand Satan's
temptations. They can't perform any religious
duties that have any meaning to God. And people who are asleep are
people who are often dreaming. Dreams are illusory, aren't they? It's not really what's happening. You see, people who are asleep
have delusions of who God is. They have delusions of who they
are and what they are. They have a presumption. So many people have a false presumption
based on an illusion. And in reality, they've seen
little of the beauty of the Lord Jesus. Such are the sleepers in this
world. But God's children, if you're like me, so often we need
to be woken up again, don't we? So often you feel sleepy and
lethargic. You see, this comes, doesn't
it? This whine of the gospel. comes, this wine that's prepared
for the beloved goes down sweetly and it causes the lips that are
asleep to speak. What words do God's children
speak when they are made awake? Just think of Acts chapter 2,
the remarkable words that they spoke. What remarkable words
do God's children speak again and again as He gives them utterance. What sweet, sweet words of consolation
to our brothers and sisters do we have from conversations with
God's people whose lips are made to speak. How often have you
been lethargic and down and you've been refreshed by someone, refreshed
in remarkable ways by someone coming to you and talking about
the wonders of the gospel, the beauties of the Lord Jesus, the
perfection of His completed work, the fact that we who have no
wisdom, find Him to be our wisdom because of God's making on us,
and that we need righteousness, and He is all the righteousness
we could ever need or desire. We need sanctification, we need
holiness, and we find that He is our holiness, and we need
redemption, and He is our redemption. I must close there. What a great
promise from our God. I will, they shall. Lips will be cause to speak. Speak wonderful and gracious
and delightful things to each other about the Lord Jesus Christ. Jeremiah said, thy words were
found I did eat them, and thy word was unto me the joy and
rejoicing of mine heart. Why? Because, says Jeremiah,
I am called by your name, O Lord God of hosts. I am my Beloved's,
and his desire is toward me. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you.
We thank you for everlasting, unchanging love. We thank you,
Heavenly Father, for a great shepherd who never loses sight
of his sheep and goes over hills and dales and nooks and crannies
and gathers his sheep to himself. And he comes again and again
and comes with refreshing and reminds us of who he is and what
he has done. The perfect, successful, finished,
substitutionary work which satisfies. Father God, we pray that you'd
cause us to drink this best wine often and find ourselves being
satisfied in the things that satisfy you and your dear and
precious Son. Help us to drink that wine often,
Heavenly Father. Help us to come again and again
and look to our Lord Jesus and what He has done and cause us
to have our eyes turned away from ourselves, but to him who
now, a wounded, resurrected man, sits on the throne of this universe
and is working all things for the perfect and complete and
spiritual good of all of his people. As we drink these emblems
that remind us of His broken body and His blood, our Father,
we pray that we think sweet things about Him. His words would be
sweet to our taste and like honey under our tongues. We pray Your
blessing on us, Heavenly Father. In Jesus' name, Amen.