The Lord Jesus, just to put us
back in the context, calls on this one who is a spouse to. He says, come with me from Lebanon,
my spouse. Come with me. He doesn't say, come away on
your own. He says, come with me. Come to be with me. Come to the
place where I am. Come from these mountains, come
away from these mountains, these mountains which surrounded Israel
in a sense, in the north and the west. They were called Goodly
Mountains, Mount Hermon in Deuteronomy 3.25. And they're called the
Pleasant Jews of Hermon, called the Joy of Hermon. Even from
the tops of these world's beautiful mountains, the Bride is called
upon to come with Him. But she's called upon to look
above and beyond. She's called upon to have the
conversations of heaven. She's called upon to sit loose
and not look on the pleasures of this world. These mountains
are mountains that look down on the land of promise. It can be seen there. But here
is a call, not just to look from afar, but to come away with the
bridegroom. And as we see from the mention
of lions and leopards, these mountaintops were places of beauty,
but also places of danger. The mountaintops in India that
I saw, it says in the scriptures that on every high hill and every
spreading tree, wherever you saw a mountain, most of southern
India, most of India is quite flat country apart from the sort
of hills that we lived in. But on those plains of India,
every time there was a mountain, and there didn't have to be a
big mountain, on the top of every mountain, was a Hindu shrine
and a temple. And the work that they put in
to get to the top of those mountains and build massive temples at
times on the top of those mountains, carrying by hand all the materials
up there was remarkable. And it says also, on every high
hill and under every spreading tree, wherever there was a big
and spreading tree like our Moreton Bay figs, underneath it again
was a shrine. And here he says, come with me. In fact, as we saw some time
ago, it's actually a promise. It says, thou shalt come with
me. And she says, draw me and we
will run after you. The Lord Jesus gathers his people
from out of these places. He says to the north, give up.
To the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from afar, bring
my bride from afar." He brings her to himself, come with me. Then he says of her, you have
ravished my heart, you have stolen my heart. Your love, your beauty
has pierced my heart. You've ravished my heart with
one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck, with one of the
graces that he puts upon her, with one of those eyes that see
with enlightened vision from God. His light, in His light
we see light. And then in verse 10 and verse
11, He begins more praises. He says about her, How fair is
thy love, my sister, my spouse." He praises her love and says
that it's much better than wine. He praises the graces that she's
adorned with, the smell of thine ointments more than all spices. He praises her words. Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as
honeycomb." He praises her thoughts. Milk and honey are under thy
tongue. And he praises her for the garments
that she wears. He praises her works. What a
remarkable passage of scripture we have before us. He praises
his bride for these things. But he begins with this remarkable
statement, how fair is thy love. We go back in Song of Solomon,
she begins in chapter 1 verse 2, and it is she who says of
him, in verse 2, the opening of the
song, let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth, for thy
love is better than wine. And then she says, the savour
of thy good ointments, thy name is an ointment poured forth,
therefore do the virgins love thee. And then she says, she makes
this plea to him, doesn't she? 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, the love of the Savior, the love
of the bridegroom. We will remember thy love more
than wine, the upright love thee. And here, It's almost remarkable,
isn't it? We can understand, we can understand
when we gaze upon the Lord Jesus and see Him in His glory. It's
easy for us to be captivated by the wonder of that man that
walked here for three years. What a remarkable, remarkable
man he was, the God-man. What remarkable words dripped
from his lips, words of truth, words of love, what remarkable
deeds. He says to those accusers of
him, can any of you accuse me of any sin? Never a word, never
a word that was untrue, never a thought that was wicked, never
a deed What a remarkable Saviour we
have presented before us in the Scriptures. All of it unfolding
who He was as He revealed Himself in the Old Testament. We have
every reason to be captivated by Him. But here, in these remarkable
words, he turns all that around completely and he says of her,
how fair is thy love, my sister, my spouse. How beautiful is the
love of his bride for him. As we saw earlier, he can call
her his sister. He does so in many places in
the New Testament. And he is the bridegroom, and
we are his spouse. He has, by right of creation
and redemption, he has the right to say those things. But here
he's praising something about her. how fair is your love, how
beautiful is your love to me. We know from 1 John 1.4 that
we love him because he first loved us. But how seldom do we
think of how much that love that he puts in us causes his heart
to be ravished, His heart to be captivated by us. We know that our love for Him
is a direct result and a direct working of Him in our lives.
We have no natural heart to love God. God is really clear about
it, isn't He? The carnal mind is enmity against
God, just enmity. We hate God. When you talk to
young people as I do, it doesn't take long when the real God is
brought before them as you declare the Gospel to them. The real
God who is absolutely sovereign is abhorrent to mankind. and it stirs up. You talk about
him and what he's done and who he is and how he created this
universe and the natural man runs to every rabbit burrow it
can find. But ultimately what it does is
it rises up in anger against God. The carnal mind is enmity,
but here the Lord Jesus sees love in his bride and he says,
how beautiful is thy love. Why? It's beautiful because it
cost him so much. It's beautiful because through
it she brings honour and glory to Him. He gets the praise for
taking she who declares herself to be black and He makes her
beautiful. So beautiful. Read it in verse
7 of chapter 4 with me. Thou art all fair, my love. You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in Thee. You are perfect in my sight. It costs Him a lot. It brings
great glory to Him. And it's going to be glorious
in its being and in its communications, both here and in the new creation. His love doesn't change. You see, one of the things that's
beautiful about Song of Solomon is it reveals that the true heart
of Biblical Christianity is a real and dynamic relationship. The new heart that God puts in
the creature, brings with it an understanding and a real experience. We know who we are in Adam and
we delight because of what he's revealed to us in the Gospel,
what he's given us in the new birth. We delight in him and
who he is. We delight to know, as we read
in Psalm 147, that His knowledge is infinite. We know that we
are sinful. We know that we are weak. We know that the world's lusts
are enticing. We know a little of Satan's fiery
darts. But here he looks at the new
creature, the person that we really are. When this flesh goes
away, when it's put in its right and proper place, the real Christian,
the real person who we really are will really be in the presence
of God and there will be a dynamism in that relationship. There is
real love. He's not playing games with words. There is real love. There's real
love given. There's real love received. There's real love that's experienced. How beautiful. How beautiful
is this love. Because of the beauty of the
creator. Because of the beauty of the
one whose object it is. Because of what it cost. Because
of what it will bring. Her love to him is pure love. It's acceptable because she is
all fair. It's all his work of grace in
his people, in his bride. This love is produced and he
says that it's better than wine. The Bible has many warnings about
wine and its excesses, but also it has many wonderful pictures
of wine in its refreshment. It's a source of merriment. When
the Lord Jesus was at that wedding, he took those jars and he made
maybe 150 plus gallons, 300 liters of fine, fine wine as a picture
of his delight in his bride and the work that he's done. He speaks, when we speak of wine,
we think of things that make the heart joyful. We turn in
Song of Solomon over to chapter 7 verse 9. The roof of thy mouth
is like the best wine for my beloved, that goes down sweetly,
causing the lips of those that are asleep to speak. You see, what he's saying here
is that whatever gives pleasure, whatever gives pleasure, it says
that her love is better than all of those things. This love
relationship is better than all the pleasures. Her love brings
him delight above all the pleasures that wine brings. It's His grace
adorning her. It's His love. It's His activity that He sees
in her, and why shouldn't He love what is lovely? His work is a holy work. His work is a pure work. His work is a sovereign work. And he asks a question almost,
doesn't he? He says, how fair, as if the
Holy Spirit is saying, we don't have words in English. to suitably describe how beautiful
it is. It is beyond our language to
put this into words and that's why Song of Solomon has these
beautiful pictures and each of these beautiful images opens
a doorway into a room full of other images. It is the most
beautiful of books. You can see why the Jews called
it the Holy of Holies. How fair, how fair. He alone, he alone can determine
how fair it is. Then he talks about the smell
of her ointments and all spices. How much better is thy love than
mine? How much better is the smell
of thine ointments than all spices?" He's talking about the graces
that he gives, that fruit of the Spirit, faith, hope, love,
patience, humility. Both wine and ointments were
used in the sacrifices. They were sweet smelling myrrh
and spices were used in the meat offerings. They went up to God
together with their sacrifices. And here he is saying something
remarkable again, isn't he? That all of these offerings of
wine, all of the burning of this incense, is nothing compared
to the graces that he sees in his bride. Your love is my wine,
your graces are my sweet-smelling They smell delightful to him. He takes them in and he delights
in that smell of what he sees in his bride, what he has made
her to be. It is interesting, isn't it,
because we look into ourselves and we see our life and we are
thankful that our Lord says and likens our faith, one of these
graces, he likens it to a mustard seed. None of you remember, I'm
sure, but I brought a packet of mustard seeds in here sometime
last year, spilled a whole bunch of them. Some of them landed
on the chairs and some of them on the floor. It's just a great
reminder, isn't it, that no one said a word about the mustard
seeds. It seems so insignificant. It seems so weak. We seem to have just enough faith. to know how unbelieving we are. We seem to have just enough love
to know how little we love Him. We seem to have just enough humility
to discover how proud we are. We seem to have just enough zeal
to know how cold we are. We seem to have just enough hope
to know how despairing and desponding we often are. We seem to have
just enough patience to teach us how often we murmur and complain. We talk about His absolute sovereignty. We like to quote Romans 8.28,
and yet, when things go awry, the first thing we do is complain
rather than look into the Lord. And he sees these little graces
inside his people and he says that his heart is ravished with
the smell of these ointments. He's saying to us, he said, you
smell of my righteousness. You smell of my sanctification. You smell of my setting you apart
for my own. Just like Aaron was anointed
with that oil and set apart. It's nothing that we have done. It's all of what he has done. He smells his righteous work. He smells his righteousness in
his bride and what real things he sees in her and it brings
him great delight. 2 Corinthians 1.21 says that
we are anointed by God. It's a great picture of that
anointing ceremony of the Messiah and all those who typified Him. That oil was poured over them. They were covered in it, as it
were. set apart by Him, anointed and
established. As Hebrews 1.9 says, we are anointed
with the oil of gladness. Because, one of the remarkable
things about the Gospel isn't it, is that His gifts are our
possession. In Colossians 1, 4 and 2, 5 he
talks about your faith as if it is really something that belongs
to us. It might, in our experience,
be like a mustard seed. It might be to the world something
completely insignificant. But he says it's yours. It's yours because he's given
it to us. Let's read, if you can turn in
your Bibles to Isaiah 14, but I can read it to you. It's just
the most wonderful passage. In verse 4 of chapter 14, he
says, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. No cause in them. I love them
because of who they are as my father's gift. I love them because
they are precious in his sight and they are precious in mine.
I love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. Then in verse 5 of chapter 14
of Hosea, I will be as a Jew unto Israel. He shall grow as
a lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon. His branches shall
spread and his beauty shall be as the olive tree. and his smell
as Lebanon. The mountains of Lebanon were
renowned for sweet smelling herbs that grew on them and as you
walked through them, as you do when you walk through some of
the Australian bush, you have those amazing smells that come
out of some of the heath type plants. They that dwell under
his shadow shall return. They shall revive as the corn
and grow as the vine. The scent thereof shall be as
the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim will say, What have I
to do any more with idols? I have heard him and observed
him. I am like a green fir tree. And then this wonderful statement,
he says, from me is thy fruit found. From me, our saviour,
is thy fruit found. This sweet smelling ointment,
the smell of thine ointment have ravished my heart. Then he goes
on to talk about the words that this bride who has ravished his
heart says. Thy lips, O my spouse, drop as
the honey came. I haven't had a whole lot to
do with these we have some friends here who have but when you actually
get some honeycomb the honey doesn't need to be squeezed out
of the honeycomb when it's broken and it's in the right attitude
it just flows out it flows out beautifully it flows out naturally
and it flows out beautiful golden drop by beautiful golden drop
He says, thy lips, O my spouse, drop as the honeycomb. He's talking about her words,
isn't he? The words that she speaks. the words in prayer, the words
in praises, the words confessing His name, the words that speak
of Him in our conversations. What words from the lips of the
bride delight the Lord Jesus? What words ravish His heart? Let's just go through a few of
them that we encounter in the Gospels. Words that tore his
heart, as it were, beheartened him. The man who went up to the temple
to pray, the publican, says, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner,
the leper, who came to him. But the Lord had come to him
first. He said, Lord, if you are willing,
you can make me clean. And the Lord Jesus moved with
compassion, put forth his hand and touched him and said to him,
I will be thou clean. Those words that Thomas spoke
when the Lord had come back to reveal Himself to him. My Lord
and my God. My Lord and my God. Those words
that came from heaven into Peter's heart and then into his lips.
Thou art the Christ. It's not revealed by men. These
words that we may say so often, Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. Jesus, son of David, have mercy
on me. Those words that rang out in
Jerusalem in that week of his crucifixion, Hosanna, blessed
is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Blessed be the kingdom
of our father David. Hosanna in the highest. And when
the Pharisees and the others said, stop these people making
all this racket and disturbing us in Jerusalem, the Lord Jesus
said, if they stop, even the stones will cry out to me. Peter, when he met the Lord,
and saw something of His glory in that remarkable catch of fish,
said, Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord. And the Lord's response is, I
will make you fishers of men. That centurion, who stunned the Lord Jesus, as
it were, and he says, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come
under my roof. Wherefore, neither thought I
myself worthy to come under thee, but say in a word, and my servant
shall be healed. Just speak a word, Lord Jesus,
and all will be well. That prodigal son the only time
we have a picture in the Bible of God being in a hurry. Father, I have sinned against
heaven and before Thee, and I am no more worthy to be called Thy
son." And the father didn't even let him get his little speech
out, and he robed him with that robe of Christ's righteousness.
He put that ring on his finger, that sign of the everlasting
eternal covenant, and he put new sandals on his feet. in Luke 17, there were ten lepers
healed. But one, a Samaritan, came back
to the Lord and he fell down on his face at his feet and he
gave him thanks. He was thankful to God. There was a man dying on a cross
beside the Lord Jesus and he said that remarkable Preach that
remarkable sermon, short but profound. We receive the due
reward of our deeds, but this man has done nothing amiss than
those great words from the lips of this member of his bride.
Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Peter. who had let him down so badly,
was asked three times, do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And Peter turned
to him and said, Lord, you know that I love you. Hebrews 13.15
talks about the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name,
acknowledging who we are and whose we are and what He has
done for us. The psalmist says, they shall
speak of the glory of Thy kingdom, Psalm 145 verse 11, talk of Thy
power to make known to the sons of men His mighty axe and the
glorious majesty of His The lips of his bride don't speak
about themselves, they speak about him. And it's called in
Ephesians 5.19, making melody in your hearts to the Lord. His words give light. And then David says in Psalm
119, verse 103, how sweet are thy words to my taste. Yea, sweeter than honey to my
mouth. Honey is a remarkable product,
isn't it? I have a little jar that Peter gave me from down
at Bermagui when he came and stayed. And I think I'm right
in saying that on the lid it says that one kilo of honey takes
bees four trips around the earth to collect. Sharon might correct
me if I'm wrong there. But it's just remarkable, isn't
it? This honey is a reference to the Gospel, isn't it? It's
gathered from the sweet flowers of the Scriptures. Honey is sweet. Honey is nourishing. Honey is
an antiseptic. Honey is reviving. Just ask Jonathan
that day he ate and his eyes were enlightened. And it was
gathered in those places out of rocks, little cliffs in rocks,
a reminder of our Lord Jesus. Out of that rock that followed
them, they found honey and water. And Samson found honey in the
carcass of a slain lamb, a lion. That lion of the tribe of Judah
was slain, and out of that carcass came sweet, sweet honey. By lips, O my spouse, his lips
The lips that sing his praises ravish him." And there are some
other words that God's children bring forth. They are lips that
drop as honeycomb. They are lips that speak of the
great truths of who our God is. That His Word is holy, inspired
and it's inerrant. That our God is absolutely sovereign. Our God made an eternal covenant. Our God keeps His Word. Those great doctrines which tell
us who we are, as totally depraved and dead in sins. Those doctrines
that come from the lips of God's people that talk about His electing
love. God chose some for salvation. those great doctrines, that great
truth which magnify the Saviour, how much God the Father and God
the Holy Spirit seek and delight in the fact that we proclaim
the Lord Jesus as a Redeemer who really redeemed. He redeemed
all of His bride. He has adorned this bride in
particular by His work and in particular His work on the cross. He will not fail. He did redeem
because He did love and He is successful. And then we have
those great truths of the fact that there is to those people,
there comes to those people the Spirit of God in irresistible
grace and He saves. He takes the things of the Lord
Jesus and He makes them, He reveals them to us. That great truth
that the Lord Jesus set His people entirely free from the law and
we are under no obligation to keep it. We look to the law of
God with delight and we look to our Saviour who kept every
jot and tittle of it and we are delightfully free. We delightfully
delight in the fulfilment of the law of God in our Saviour's
life and death. We also have to like to say that
every sinner that comes to Christ is saved by Christ. Those who
believe are saved, not because of their activities, not because
of their ability to witness to it all the times of their lives. They are saved by God perfectly,
completely. And they will persevere to the
end. The great doctrines of grace
are great doctrines because they talk about a great saviour. And they come from the lips of
these people with delight. Then he goes on to say, and I'll
just be as brief as I can, he says, honey and milk are under
thy tongue." His heart is ravished, it's moved, it's stirred by the
thoughts of his bride, the thoughts of his people under the tongue,
meditated on but not spoken. They're not natural thoughts,
are they? We know that we have in this
Adam flesh, as Mark 7 says, out of this heart comes the things
that defile man. God in judgment said that every
inclination of the thoughts of the hearts of those men at the
time of the flood was only evil continually and there is no difference
today. But the believer has a new heart,
a new heart that rests and looks to the Lord, looks to that bridegroom,
who loves his bride and will do good to his bride always,
despite what we are by nature, because of the work of the Lord
Jesus, not because of our work. It's all of grace. David could
say, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and see if there's
any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." David
wasn't boasting about his own righteousness. David wasn't wanting
people to look at him. He was just expressing a confidence
in the grace of Almighty God in the Lord Jesus. any wicked
way, any way that's not the Lord Jesus' way, any way that turns
away from Him. David had known what it was to
wander, but he'd known what it was for God to bring him back
into the way. God says, The thoughts of the
righteous are right. The thoughts of the righteous
are right. Why is that? Because we are cleansed
inside and out by the Lord Jesus, brothers and sisters. Just think
in the scriptures of some of those people who didn't express
anything in words and yet the Lord Jesus spoke of their their thoughts under their tongues
as honey and yoke. Remember Mary, she just sat at
the Lord's feet. She was listening to Him, gazing
upon Him, trusting Him to take care of things. What thoughts
went through Mary's mind that day as she listened to Him, talking
about His salvation, talking and preaching the Gospel to her. there was another Mary who sat
at the Lord's feet there's not a word recorded that she said
she was accused of being a sinner and he was accused of being ignorant
of her being a sinner and she sat at his feet and she wept
tears of gratitude and washed his feet and took her hair, her
glory, and dried his feet with her hair, what thoughts went
through her mind? Thoughts that delighted thoughts that we have. You know
what it's like to be in the presence of people and you long for there
to be a conversation and you are praying quietly to yourself,
Lord open a door. Can we talk about serious eternal
things to do with people's souls? And we come away from those conversations
so often just down. It's just gone nowhere, it's
dead, as if you're talking to a rock and here we have set before
us eternity. Here we have an opportunity,
one would hope, to talk about the glories of the Lord Jesus,
who He is and what He's done. And we're talking about everything
but Him, as if the conversation will turn anywhere but to the
Lord Jesus. God knows our thoughts at that
time. And what does He say? He says
these thoughts are a delight to Him. They are things that
ravish His heart and delight Him. We grieve, but He knows. He does really know. These thoughts
of our hearts are like that incense, isn't it, which came up with
the prayers of these saints and ascended to God. He knows what's
going on inside of us and he's delighted. The words of the Gospel
are honey and milk to the believer. They're meditated on. they are
delighted in, in the new heart that he's given us. And finally,
and just briefly, he says that the smell of thy garments is
like the smell of Lebanon. As I said earlier, those hills
of Lebanon had aromatic herbs on them. And in those days, people
often, probably because of the climate they were in and the
poor facilities they had for washing and other things, they
actually scented their garments with perfumes. And these garments
are references to things that are worn every day. And again the believer sees his
life. And like those who meet the Lord
on that last day in Matthew 26, 37, they say, Lord, when? When did we see you hungry? When did we feed you? When did
we see you thirsty and give you drink? And he says, I saw you,
I saw your garments, I saw your activity." He says to Philip,
he says, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. He says of the righteous in Ecclesiastes
9.7, Go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, drink thy wine with
a merry heart, for God now accepteth He accepts and He continues to
accept Thy work. He accepts us because we're accepted
in the Beloved. Accepted perfectly. So perfectly
that the Bridegroom is ravished in His heart by us. Let's finish
by reading Isaiah 57, 19. I create the fruit of lips. He
creates these things in His people. Peace, peace to him that is far
off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal
him. His people in heaven are robed
in this beautiful white raiment, the garment of His righteousness. As He is, so are we in this world,
Robed in His righteousness, hidden in Him.