I'd like for a few moments this
evening to direct your prayerful attention to verse 4 in this first chapter
in the Song of Solomon, this Song of Songs which is Just as
we have the Lord of Lords and we have the King of Kings, this
is the Song of Songs. This is the greatest of the songs.
We read that Solomon wrote a thousand and five, but this is the only
one that's recorded. in the Bible, and this is the
greatest of them all. And in this chapter, in this
book, we have that relationship that there is between the Lord
Jesus and his people, and that interplay, that ebbing and flowing
of that love. And as we look then at verse
4, we have these words, This is the bride, this is the Church
of God, seeking that the Lord would draw them, a realisation
that they cannot bring themselves, and yet a desire that they may
come. And if we can say, draw me this night, if it is our desire,
there has already been something done in our hearts. You think
of the brothers of Joseph, They were far off from Joseph. They'd sold him into slavery,
and as far as they were concerned, he was dead. They didn't want
any more to do with him. They were happy, content to be
without him. But you see, it was going to
be God's work to first of all bring those brothers to realise
their sin and to realise their need of a saviour in a natural
way, in the sense of they were going to come into that place
of famine and they needed one to provide for them. And so,
you see, the Lord's people, we've read in verse 5 of this chapter,
I am black but comely. This is not talking about ethnicity,
this is talking about the picture here is of sin. I am black, I am filthy, I need
cleansing, but comely. You see this one recognises their
sin, and recognises their need of forgiveness. Their need, and
that they have, are accepted in the Beloved. But, you see,
if we have this, draw me. So if we have a desire this evening,
it is our heart's desire to be drawn, to be drawn by that love. We're told in John's Gospel,
chapter 6, verse 42, no man cometh No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him
up at the last day. The need for the Lord Jesus,
God the Father, to draw his people. And we read also in Jeremiah,
those beautiful words, Jeremiah 31, where it says, verse 3, the
Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, yea, I have loved
thee with an everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee.' Being drawn to the Saviour. And this is the
cry of a living soul. And if this soul is crying out
for this, it has first had already something of the work of God
to convince it of its need and to make Christ attractive. one who was as a root out of
a dry ground, no form nor comeliness that we should desire him, but
yet the bride here desires the bridegroom. Draw me, draw me. And so this is the prayer, you
see, in this verse, there's quite a tremendous breadth of experience
covered of the Lord's people. You see, it starts off with,
draw me, and then we will run after thee. You see, draw me
is a personal thing, and yet it says, we will run after thee. And so the whole church of God,
all the members of that body are drawn by the saviour, one
bride, and yet many individuals making up that bride, each having
an individual, personal relationship with Christ, the Heavenly Bridegroom. Draw me. The prayer of a child
of God. Is that in your heart? Have you
been led to see that there is something attractive in Christ?
That you have need of Him? That you, by nature, are unclean? And as Joseph's brothers came
to realise we are verily guilty concerning our brother, for years
they put it off, for years they ignored it. And then they were
walking far off from God. But you see, there was that time
when they came to realise their sin. God brought them into situations. What is this that God hath done
unto us? The experience they came into.
Draw me. We will run after thee. You see, there will be a response
when there will be that drawing. And it will be the desire of
a child of God, you see, to run towards. It's attractive. But their realisation that we
need first of all to be drawn from all our sin and uncleanness
and maid, to be given that ability. You see, in Philippians, Paul
puts it like this, in Philippians 2, verse 13, for it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. You
see, if we're going to cry from our hearts, draw me, God has
already touched our hearts and given us a desire for the things
which we would not desire by nature. But yet we're not to
rest there. We are to cry out, draw me. We
will run after Thee. Run in the ways of His commandments. Run and follow Him. Run to meet
Him. Delight in Him. draw me, we will
run after thee. This is true of the beginner
coming for the very first time to know the Lord Jesus and to
say, Lord, draw me to thyself. But this is also true of all
God's people, can pray this prayer, draw me. You see, if you look
later on in this verse, It says, the king hath brought me into
his chambers. That's a past tense. And so you see, obviously with
one coming for the first time, can't say that yet. But many
of God's people, when they have come into, they've come into
a wealthy place. The Lord has blessed them. But
they need to be drawn again. You see, there's something cyclic,
just as the day and the night in the creation. There's those
cycles. And the cycles in the experience
of God's people. You see, and we are to remember,
you see, what God has done. So this one that says, draw me,
we will run after. This is what we will do when
we're drawn. And then there's a remembrance
in the heart of the child of God. The king hath brought me.
into his chambers. We look at times past when the
Lord has blessed us, and that's an encouragement, isn't it? We're
to remember that the Lord has done these things for us, but
that doesn't stop us in the present saying, draw me, draw me again,
draw me closer. The Apostle Paul said that I
may know him and the power of his resurrection, not as though
I had already attained, there was a desire to be drawn. And
this is the desire then of the first coming child of God, as
they come to be attracted to Christ, but also of all the saints. The King hath brought me into
his chambers. You take the case of Joseph,
with his brethren. You see, Joseph's brothers came into Joseph's
house and ate with him and had that meal prepared for them when
they didn't even realise who he was. They'd already been in
his chambers in that sense. They'd already come into his
house. They didn't know who he was as yet. the two on the road
to Emmaus. He drew near and went with them,
but their eyes were holden that they did not behold him. They
did not realize who he was. And so how the Lord draws his
people. You see, this is what he is doing.
Therefore with everlasting love have I drawn thee. Joseph was
drawing his brothers. away from their own sinful lives,
convincing them of sin and showing them that He was going to be
their Saviour. He was going to be their absolute lifeline. It
was going to be everything that, because of Him, that they could
stay in the land of Egypt. And so it is with our Lord Jesus
Christ. Everything, it centres in Him. For God's people, everything
is centred in Him. And as they start to realise
that, this cry comes from them, We will run after thee. They
see an attractiveness in Christ. But the King hath brought me
into his chambers. You see, it's looking back at
what the Lord has done for us. We've known times of refreshing
from the presence of the Lord, perhaps. Well, the first time
you come, you can't say that. But you see, this is the experience
of God's people. It's not just once that they
pray to be drawn, and then it's just a linear thing, and then
they come to have communion with him, and that's the end. No.
There's this ebbing and flowing in this life. Yes, ultimately,
they will come into his chambers. They will be with him forever.
And Father, I will that they be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory. But here below, they have just
those visits of his face, they have those times, and we must
understand that as well. We need to respect that. In chapter 2, verse 7, it says,
I charge you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the rose and
by the hinds of the field, that you stir not up nor awake my
love till he please. And that refrain happens three
times in the Song of Solomon. It's as if this relationship
is all in the hands of the bridegroom. in the sense that we are to hunger
and thirst after righteousness, but the timings when he reveals
himself and when he brings us into his banqueted house and
his banner over us, his love, is in his hands. Our times are
in his hands. And there's a respect of that,
you see. In true love, there's a respect of one for the other. And so, draw me. we will run
after thee. When he draws, when he calls,
when he as it attracts us, then we will run in the ways of his
commandments. When thou hast enlarged our heart,
the king hath brought me into his chambers. But then you see
it goes back into what we will do, a future thing. We will be
glad and rejoice in thee. This is going to be an anticipation
of worship. As we come into those places,
there will be worship. You see, it is so. David picks
it up in the Psalms. Why art thou cast down, O my
soul? Why art thou disquieted within
me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him. There's an expectation
of the future blessing. We will be glad. and rejoice
in thee. This is going to be the end.
We will remember thy love more than wine. The upright love thee,
those who have been made righteous by the righteousness of Christ.
This attraction then, draw me. Is this your prayer tonight?
Has God caused you to pray it and to cry it out? And it's not
just for the beginners, it's for the whole of the Church of
God. Draw me, we will run after thee. Yes, can you also say the King
hath brought me into his chambers? I can look back at times when
I have known. His right hand is under my head,
and his right hand doth embrace me. Those times of fellowship,
those times of communion with the Church's living head. But
draw me, And there is this question, isn't there, in verse 7? Tell
me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou makest thy flock to
rest at noon? For why should I be as one that
turneth aside by the flocks of thy companions? There's an inquiry. How can I find this one? You
won't be crying out, draw me, and not take any notice of the
places where his people are. No, you're going to try and be with his people. Tell
me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest? Where is
the bridegroom made known? amongst his people. And you see
in verse 8 it replies, If thou know not, O thou fairest among
women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock. Go in
the way of the people of God, those who have gone before, those
who have shown the way in the word of God. Go thy way forth
by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy kids beside the
shepherds' tents. So there's a place where God
visits his people. And we're to be found in those
gatherings of his people, where he visits them. And this is where
he is to be found. He delights to be with his people.
Draw me. Oh, what a blessing to be drawn.
What a blessing, first of all, to know this desire. You see, this is first to will.
to desire and to do. To do is action, we will run
in the ways of thy commandments. Hebrews chapter 12. We have that
after that chapter of all the faithful in the Old Testament. We have that. Wherefore, seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race which is set
before us, looking unto Jesus. draw me, we will run after thee. The king hath brought me into
his chambers, not just some future thing, but he has, or we've already
known, perhaps you can say, times of nearness to him, or perhaps
you can't. But if you can't, don't be discouraged. It is there. Come unto me, all
ye that labour, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
And yet this is the way that all the Lord's people walk. Not
just the first time, but those that need to walk again and again.
They need to remember what the Lord has done. Thou shalt remember
all the way the Lord thy God has led thee. He hath, the King,
hath brought me into his chambers. The King has done it. He has
done it. looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. So in this precious Song of Songs,
which shows the relationship that the Lord's people have with
the Lord Jesus himself, there is this attraction, there is
this love, there is that desire to be together, Draw me. Don't leave me. And then there
will be, when there is that attraction, then there will be that running. That is the expectation. We will. This is something we'll
do once we're drawn. Then going back, as I say, it's
not linear. It's not in a straight line.
There's repetition. There's looking back. There's
looking back over past blessings. And there's faith going forward
to future trust. And of course, the whole of the
Christian life is like that. You see, everything we have here
below is but an earnest. of an inheritance which is incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away. All the visits that we
have in the chambers here below are fortes. You see, we read,
I hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor entered into the hearts of
man the things that are prepared for them that fear him. There
is these times of fellowship to be had which is beyond what
we've had, and yet we've had foretaste, we've had little times
when we've seen the King in his beauty, and then there is an
attraction to, oh, that my soul could know and love him more. Draw me, we will run after thee. The King hath brought me into
his chambers, something that God has done for us. We're to
look back and take courage. We will be glad and rejoice in
thee. We will remember thy love more
than wine, more than what the world says, the best things here
below, the wine, and yet more than wine. the upright love thee,
or may we be able to be encouraged. This is the path of the children
of God. Do we know it? Do we know that cry, draw me,
that God has put in our hearts? And can we look back at those
times and say, the King hath brought me into his chambers?
If you can't say that, press on still, because He is faithful. He does not say to the seed of
Jacob, seek ye me in vain. May the Lord have his blessing.