We're into chapter 3 but I'd
like to take us back a couple of verses. and we'll go back and look some
more a bit earlier as we go through. Verse 16 of chapter 2 says, My
beloved is mine and I am his. He feedeth among the lilies,
or he feeds his flock among the lilies, but also he feeds himself
among the lilies. Until the daybreak and the shadows
flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young
heart upon the mountains of Bitha. By night on my bed I sought him
whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him
not. I will rise now and go about
the city in the streets and in the broadways, I will seek him
whom my soul loveth. I sought him, but I found him
not. The watchman that go about the
city found me, to whom I said, Saw ye him whom my soul loveth? It was but a little that I passed
from them, but I found him whom my soul loveth. I held him and
would not let him go until I had brought him into my mother's
house, into the chamber of her that conceived me. I charge you,
O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the rows and by the hinds
of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken my love till he
please. Here we have in God's Word, God's
inspired Word, another remarkable description of an event in the
Shulamites' life. We must remember that this whole
Song of Solomon is a picture of that love relationship between
the Lord Jesus and His Bride. And remarkably, as much as it
highlights the beauty and the wonder of the things that she's
led into. Imagine, we just sang about it,
being taken into his banqueting house, and his banner over me
is love. He took her into his chambers,
one verse four, His left hand is under my head, and His right
hand doth embrace me. The Beloved came, and He calls
to her, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away. Arise, my
love, my fair one, and come away. And then she's concerned about
the foxes that spoil the vines. Our vines have tender grapes.
And she makes this amazing declaration, my beloved is mine and I am his. But she, like us, until that
great resurrection day, we live in a land of shadows. We have, like the Shulamite,
we have our highs and we have our lows. We have our days of
glorious sunshine and we have our nights of darkness. And remarkably in these verses,
we find the Shulamite who has gone from these amazing positions
of intimacy seeking her beloved but not finding him. Seeking him again and not finding
him. I trust the Lord will take the
words of the Shulamite and make them alive for us today. That he'll give into our hearts
that experience that she had. So often we find ourselves feeling
strong and feeling invincible in the Lord and then we find
that he's gone, he's disappeared and we are left For all sorts
of reasons, we are left languishing. The psalmist says it in Psalm
30, verse 7. Lord, by thy favor, by thy grace,
you have made my mountains stand strong. I feel as strong as a
mountain in the Lord. Strong and invincible and standing
against the wind and standing against the world. And then the very next line,
Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled. Again and again throughout the
scriptures, we have descriptions of people who felt the same way. Job, as we know, a man who was
perfect in God's eyes. In verse 8 of chapter 23 it says,
Look, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but
I cannot perceive him. When he works on the left hand,
I cannot behold him. When he turns to the right hand,
I cannot see him. But, says the man of God, he
knows the way I take. When He has tested me, I shall
come forth as gold. Again and again, we find that
the people of God live in this world in some sense, in some
ways, like our Savior did on the cross. He was a man of sorrows
and familiar with suffering. There's nothing that we ever
experience in this world that our Lord Jesus has not experienced. My God, My God, why have you
forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping
me and from the words of my groaning? My God, I cry in the daytime,
but you do not hear, and in the night season, and I am not silent. So here we have the Shulamite
struggling. But in these struggles we see
in Song of Solomon an ever deepening love as she grows in the grace
and knowledge of Him. She grows in her love for Him. And it's interrupted. He's behind the lattices, and
at times, he's hidden altogether, and the sweetness of communion
is gone. And there are two reasons in
the scriptures generally, aren't there? One is that the Lord leaves
us, it appears. It just appears from our perspective. to remind us and to teach us
more fully how much we need Him, how much we depend upon His grace,
and to draw out from us an acknowledgement of that need. And secondly, He
hides and He withdraws because of our neglect of Him. Here we have the Shulamite. Let's
just look at these verses briefly this morning and we'll see the
Shulamite's plight, something of the reason for it and something
of the Lord's way of drawing her by grace to Himself. on my bed. Here she is who in the previous
chapter and in the following chapter shared his bed. She's now in a night season on
her bed. In other places in Song of Solomon
it is our bed. Our bed. And here she is at ease. ease on her bed the bed that
she has made comfortable for herself in chapter 5 we'll find
her in her bedroom again and he comes knocking on the door
and she doesn't want to be disturbed by him I've organised myself,
thank you very much, and I'm clean and tidy, and my feet are
clean. We'll deal with you another time,
just let me have my peace. And we'll find in Chapter 5 that
her response is similar to this. She's at ease on her bed, but
she's actually stirred from her bed. You see, it's the grace
of God that comes and interrupts the places that we feel comfortable
on. What are the beds that we make
for ourselves in this world? We know the beds, don't we? The
places where we feel at ease. You will be like God, says Satan,
knowing good and evil. You will sit on the throne. You
will sit on the throne of your life. And you will say, I know
what is good and evil. I will discern what is right
for me. I will do what I want to do.
I will be esteemed and rewarded for my work. For my worth, I'll have a bed
of my experience. I'll find a bed, by some diligent
study, I'll find a bed that's a bed of sound doctrine. I'm a Calvinist. I'll find a
bed, I'm not going to be like those dreadful Armenians, I'll
find a bed of sovereign free grace. I'll find a bed where
I am comfortable in the company of those people, I'll find a
bed where I'll boast about the things and the people that I'm
associated with. I had a friend many years ago
who ran a big business in Sydney, and every time he heard one of
his workers say, she'll be right, mate. He was terrified. He knew that a disaster was about
to happen. But it's the Aussie gospel, isn't
it? The Aussie gospel of the good bloke. She'll be right,
mate. I can go my own way. I can do things the way I want
to do them. I will make the bed that I lie
on comfortable. Proverbs 28, 26 says that he
that trusteth in his own heart is a fool. See there is a bed that people
make for themselves and many will lie on that bed. Billions lie on these beds of
carnal religious comfort. A bed where their own worth is
somehow esteemed. It's Jesus and my church attendance. Jesus and my devotion. Jesus and my witnessing. You see, there is just one bed. Isaiah talks about a bed. A bed that is too short to stretch
out on. Is your bed long enough to stretch
out on? And is the covering on your bed,
is it wide enough to wrap yourself up in it? Isaiah says, the bed
of most people, the bed of people sitting here, the bed of people
who are comfortable in their own activities, the bed is too
short to stretch on and the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap
himself up in it. A covering that leaves you with
your feet sticking six inches out of the bottom of the bed
on a cold night. And you pull it up, and you pull
it down, and you just cannot wrap yourself up in it. Your covenant with death. will be annulled, your agreement
with Sheol will not stand. When the overflowing scourge
passes through then you'll be trampled down by it. There is
a time, there is a time coming when God will stir people from
their beds. How great mercy it is that God
stirs by His grace His people here. Those He loves, He'll put
rocks in their pillows, He'll put stinging nettles and briars
in their bed. Whatever bed they make, He will destroy that refuge of
lies for them. We'll go back and we'll remake
it and we'll tidy it up again and we'll lie down on it and
God, in grace as He does to the Shulamite, will come and mess
up that bed and leave it so uncomfortable that we find no rest. We'll find
no rest in this world like the Shulamite. at night on her bed. Absence of the Lord Jesus, absence
of communion with Him is night time for God's people. His presence is light and His
presence is day. She's on her bed. She's sleepy. She's at rest. She's secure and
she's slothful. And it's just a reminder, isn't
it, of how changeable and fickle we are. The Lord knows that we
are but dust, just a puff of wind, and we're blown in the
direction that the dust goes. We are changeable. We've been
into the banqueting house Now he hides behind the walls and
through the lattices we see him, through his ordinances we get
glimpses of him. And then she has these transports
of delight, my beloved is mine and I am his. But now she's stirred
from her bed and she seeks him but she can't find him. You see,
for many people, His absence goes unnoticed. The scriptures
are full of examples of people who seemingly walked close with
the Lord, and when he withdrew, they were just asleep to what
was going on. Saul walked as God's anointed on this
earth. And yet he perished and has spent
this last 3,000 years knowing the folly of being on his own
bed. Judas walked with the Lord Jesus,
performed mighty miracles, preached the gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace. And yet, he was a lost man. See, I pray that God will stir
up the beds that we lie on. He'd stir up the bed that I wanna
make for myself. The bed of carnal ease, the bed
that says, me, me, me. He'd throw stinging nettles in
it on a regular basis. It's his grace at work. to stir
us up on our bed. He loves her with an everlasting
love. He's passionate about her. He
is ravished by sights of her. He just delights in her. But
here, for her good, and as a means of expressing his love to her,
he withdraws. and she's awakened to see him. She sought him whom my soul loveth. She sought him. Even though she
couldn't see him, she sought him. And what a great description
of the Lord Jesus. Him whom my soul loveth. at the very core of our being. We love Him because He first
loved us. She sought Him. She acknowledges
His absence. She expresses her desire and
she seeks Him. Why? She's not motivated by reward.
some prize at the end, some extra jewels in her crown. She's motivated
by love, this grace of love within her, even though she can't see
him. Peter describes it beautifully
for us, doesn't he, in 1 Peter 1, those verses that Alex once
read at his funeral. In this you greatly rejoice,
though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved
by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more
precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire,
may be found to praise, honour and glory at the revelation of
Jesus Christ, whom, having not seen, you love, though now you
do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible
and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation
of your souls. She sought Him, she keeps seeking
Him. In verse 2, she now no longer
rests on my bed. And even though it's nighttime,
she says, I'll rise now and go about the city in the streets
and in the broadways. I will seek him whom my soul
loveth. I sought him, but found him not.
See, the rest on her bed is no place to seek her beloved. He's woken her and stirred His
fair one, and He's worked in her soul to seek Him and His
grace. See, she's been emptied of herself. He's called to her in verse previous
chapter, arise my love, my fair one, and come away. And it seems as if the little
foxes have ensnared her in the time of shadows. But where does
she seek him? Where does she go? You see, in chapter one, she
asks a question, doesn't she? Tell me, O thou whom my soul
lovest, where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest
at noon? Where are you, and where is your
flock? And he says to her, Go thy way in the footsteps of
the flock, and feed thy kids beside the shepherd's tent. You
go where the Lord has promised to meet with his people, to deal
with his people, and to interact with them. She goes now looking
for him in places where she'll know that she'll find him. Seek
me while he may be found. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. Call upon him while he is near. She seeks him with diligence.
She seeks him with her whole heart. She leaves her bed of
ease and comfort. And she seeks him fervently. She seeks him with care. She seeks him with diligence.
She seeks him even though she hasn't found him. She seeks him
in proper places, at proper times. She seeks him in the city of
God. And she rises now. There is no comfort on this bed. You see, her disappointment and
her finding his absence for her is a motivation to go seeking
him ever more diligently. She searched the city. She searched the city in the
streets. She searched the city in the
broadways. She never gave up. The city might
be likened to the cities of this world. It might be likened to
the church of God in this world. God's people are a city, and
God meets with them in a city. But it's always a mixed multitude
in this city. She was going about. She would
go to one place and she would go to another. She sought him
not in the places of worldly business. She searched for him
where she knew he would show himself to be. She keeps searching. She keeps searching, she keeps
searching even though she can't find him. She says, I will seek
him whom my soul loves. You see, until we find ourselves
at rest in the arms of Jesus, we must, by His grace, be drawn
by Him, to seek Him, to seek Him. I sought Him, but I found
Him not. Though she'd been sincere, though
she'd searched diligently, she'd actually been out in the city
at night, she'd exposed herself to rebuke and endanger the possibility
of losing her good name. You see, she cast all of herself
aside. The strength of her love, the
strength of her love was motivated and energized by the beauty of
the communion that she enjoyed. And now it's gone missing, and
she's longing for that love relationship. And here in this city, she met
with the watchman. The watchmen in the scriptures
again and again are God's gospel preachers. Isaiah 62 speaks of
them, I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem. They
shall never hold their peace, day or night. You who make mention
of the Lord, do not keep silent. Give him no rest until he establishes,
until he makes Jerusalem a praise of the earth. Ezekiel was made
a watchman by God. We are now getting close to about
five years, I think, of this little fellowship operating. And for those of you who were
with us at the beginning, we spent a year or more listening
to tapes. And I had a great reluctance to take on this role that you
people believe God had prepared me for all of my life. I had several reasons for my
reluctance. One is that the Lord promises
that a watchman will have no honour amongst the people of
his own town. A watchman will find as all of
God's people eventually find that their enemies will be within
their own families. And so, to be in a place where the local community, as it were,
who knew me would reject and think it was idiocy what I was
doing, and to be in a place, to put myself in a place where
the Lord would take, in a sense, my family from me in spiritual
ways, was a pain that I found difficult to bear. I think the
other thing that causes great reluctance in the Lord's watchmen
is that they are aware and become increasingly aware of the frailty
of their flesh. how weak and unsuited they all
are to the tasks that God has given them. But God has promised that he
will give to his church pastors after his own heart who will
feed his people with knowledge and wisdom. God has promised to bring the
Gospel to His people and gather His people to that Gospel. And
He's promised to grow a body of people together, not around
a pastor. but a body of people gathered
to the Great Shepherd, a body of people knitted together by
Him and His grace, knitted together by the experience that they have
had of Him. And the mere fact that we are
here, we are making a statement. We're making a loud and clear
statement that you cannot worship God in spirit and in truth in
this town unless you worship God here. If that is not the case, Lord,
please close us down right now. If we find a place that preaches
the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace, that proclaims
to people, this is the Lord Jesus, this is how he saves his people,
this is what this book says, then we can go and join with
them right now. Right now. Not only can we go
and join with them right now, according to God, we must go
and join with them right now. Isaiah 8 says that the watchmen
are just to speak the words of God. Like Ezekiel, his forehead
was made hard, that we are to speak the words of God, to the
law and the testimony. If you can't find the things
that this church proclaims in this book, then we are what this
verse says, to the law and the testimony. If they do not speak
according to this word, it is because There is no light in
them. God says, if there is no light
in them, they are blind. And if the blind lead the blind,
where do they both go? I suppose what I'm trying to
say is the weight of the task of the watchman in this world
is a heavy, heavy burden. God's watchmen look out over
a flock of people who are a heartbeat away from meeting God, meeting
a holy God. In a heartbeat. I've told you the story. of one
of the times I was preaching in India and I was preaching
and the back doors of the church were open. I was here, congregation
was there and over the road was the place where they burned the
bodies. And down the road, which I could
see but they couldn't see, down the road came a funeral procession
and they came around and into the wasteland across the road
from the church and there they burnt the body. and burnt this
carriage that they make out of bamboo and all the flowers and
all the other decorations. And there I was preaching with
the congregation there with the body burning just 200 yards away. God's watchmen stand on the walls. God's watchmen say, flee to the
Lord Jesus. God's watchmen are to watch over
their own souls, and they're to watch over the souls of others. And the best way that we can
watch over the souls of others is to keep proclaiming the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus. You see, in verse 3 it says,
the watchmen that go about the city, they found Her. She was searching. They found
Her situation, didn't they? In their ministry or in their
preaching, they spoke to Her. They spoke of Her circumstances. Robert Hawker has a beautiful
comment. Perhaps there's nothing more common than this. In every
church where the pure gospel is preached, and he knew that
in his day in England, it was preached in very few of them,
which is why he was rejected in his time and he's been rejected
ever since. Wherever the pure gospel is preached,
for here the Holy Spirit will lead precious souls, and He,
by His almighty power, makes His own blessed word effectual
in the hearts of people. God will take his watchmen who
point to the Lord Jesus. They don't want to be seen. They don't want to be esteemed. They just want the Lord Jesus
to be honoured and glorified. And she speaks to them because
she knows that these are his watchmen. that they have met
Him, that they commune with Him, that He lives close by them and
watches over them and guards them. Saw ye Him whom my soul
loveth. She doesn't need to name the
one that she loves. They knew about it. They knew
about her love for Him. And she valued their advice,
and she saw them as worthy. And again, she sought. She sought
him whom her soul loveth, and she sought him who she found
not. But she sought him in the places
and in the means that God had provided for her. She'd sought
him on her bed and couldn't find him. She'd sought him in the
church and she couldn't find him. She sought him through the
appointed watchman and there is no answer recorded. But there is something that happened
in her dealing with the church and with the watchman that finally
brought her long sought reward. God will do things in His own
way, in His own time. That Ethiopian eunuch in Acts
chapter 8 had been in Jerusalem, had seen those remarkable things
happen, had heard all those remarkable testimonies from men and from
God about the Lord Jesus. And he was on his way home, seemingly
unchanged. And it just happened. to be reading
Isaiah 53 and it just happened that Philip was taken by God
to be with him. And the Ethiopian eunuch had
his eyes opened after all of that time and all of that means. God will do things in his own
time for his glory, but he will honour His means. He will honour His watchmen. He will honour His church. It was but a little while that
I passed from them, with no doubt their prayers following. But I found Him at last. She found Him whom my soul loveth. Jesus says, seek and you shall
find. And here she held him. See, the object was not to be
just in church. The object was not just to hear
the watchman's words. Her object was Jesus. She wasn't satisfied until she
had Him in her arms again. She held Him so that she couldn't
be parted from Him again. What wondrous grace that the
God of this universe allows Himself to be held by us. He allowed
himself to seemingly be defeated in a wrestle with Jacob. And
Jacob said, I won't let you go unless you bless me. I won't
let him go until he blesses me. Finding him is his grace gift
to us, to know him. To know Him is to hold on to
Him, and she wouldn't let Him go. Like Ruth with Naomi, she
wouldn't let Him go. You see, after so many disappointments,
so much time at night, and tossed out of a bed of ease, His presence
has become more precious, and His appearing is even more comforting. He was held by her because it
is His will and His pleasure. And she brought Him into her
mother's house. She brought Him into that house
of God, the place where souls are born again. born again and
nourished and grown by the word of truth and into the chamber
of her that's conceived me. We're born again and we're brought
forth by this word of truth. We're begotten again to a living
hope. In this chamber is the place
of intimate communion with Him. You see, our communion is now
restored. Our union has never been changed. Our union began in eternity,
and from His perspective, it never changes. But He draws out
love. He takes us through times of
darkness and brings us into the sunshine. And he takes us as
she allows him, she allows him, he allows her to take her into
the chamber, into that place, the place of God's ordinances
where he meets with his people. in baptism and the Lord's Supper. They typify that place where
we hold on to the Lord Jesus. We become one with Him. We are reminded again and again,
as we take the bread and drink the wine, that His life sustains
us. His death sustains us. In baptism we acknowledge that
that flesh that so wants to make its own bed and to lie comfortably
has been crucified with Christ. It is dead. Dead by the grace
of God to the world. And in that place of communion,
she charges the daughters of Jerusalem by the rows and the
hinds of the field, that you not stir up nor awaken my love
till he please. Don't disturb this communion. I have struggled so much. I have
been through so much pain. He's come again. He's come skipping over the mountains
and the hills of sin and difficulty and He's come bounding to me
and He's taken me in His arms and He's allowed me to take Him
and to call him mine again. Don't disturb it. O daughters
of Jerusalem, don't disturb him. Build up and exalt this union. Don't disturb it. As we have
the Lord's Supper now, let's pray that the Lord will cause
us to be reminded of who it is that we come to worship. to worship him in spirit and
truth is to know him as he's revealed in this word and to
know the way he deals with our souls. May he cause us to remember
him and may he work in our hearts that our meeting with him and
our union with him will be so sweet that the things that drive
it from us will be things that we turn from by His grace.