May it please Almighty God to
bless us as we're gathered here this evening to meditate in His
Holy Word. Let's turn to the Song of Solomon
and the last verse in chapter 5. And the Song of Solomon comes
before Isaiah. So the fifth chapter in the Song
of Solomon, verse 16, and remember it comes before Isaiah. And the verse reads, his mouth
is most sweet, yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and
this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. This is part of the answer that,
figuratively, the Church of God gave in answer to the question
posed in verse 9, which is, What is thy beloved more than another
beloved, O thou fairest among women? And the Church, or the
Bride of Christ, gives an answer. And the reason why the question
was put in the first place was because the Church had become
very lazy. And we're told in verse 2, I
sleep, but my heart waketh. It is the voice of my Beloved
that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew, and my locks
with the drops of the night. And the response is, I've put
off my coat, how shall I put it on? I've washed my feet, how
shall I defile them? you see the lukewarmness here
of the symbolic church of God and we should realise that such
words are written to alert us to the situation which can so
easily develop one of ease that we just can't be bothered about
the things of God we're just too content and as it were occupied
or lazy with regard to the things of this poor world. And so we
may be just like the Church of God or the the Bride of Christ,
as it really is here, set before us. And we're told then about
the Bride's Beloved, and that is, of course, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And we're told, My Beloved put
in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels, that's her
heart, her innermost being, were moved for him. And we're told,
I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands dropped with myrrh
and my fingers with sweet-smelling burr upon the handles of the
lock. I opened to my beloved, but my
beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed
when he spake. I sought him but I could not
find him. I called him but he gave me no
answer. So you see here we have again
a picture of the Bride of Christ and there she is now. When she
thinks she'll get out of bed and open the door in her time,
in accordance with her timescale, not in accordance with what the
Lord had spoken and she finds then that the Lord was no longer
there. The Lord was no longer asking
her to open the door and so we find this solemn situation and
as we read through here we see the response that she tells us
she opened to my beloved and my beloved had withdrawn himself
and gone my soul failed when he spoke
I sought him but I could not find him I called him but he
gave me no answer and sometimes that may describe our spiritual
situation we can allow things to separate between us and God. Separate between those things
which are real and important. We might take a very simple illustration. Instead of turning to the Word
of God in the morning, perhaps in the evening, we find there's
other things which we recognise are important and perhaps we
place them above and in the place of reading the Word of God. And therefore, we find that then,
when we want to read, we find we can't concentrate. Our mind's
taken up with all the things of time. And it's really like
that. I sought him, but I could not
find him. I called him, but he gave me
no answer. And again, you know it can be
with the situation of prayer you know we think perhaps we
can pray well of course we can pray but sometimes our prayers
are very mechanical we just follow a pattern we just follow a form
and there's no reality in them there's no real cry to God until
situations develop which make our need very great. And here
you see this bride's need was great but in accordance with
her timescale the Lord didn't hear and the Lord didn't bestow
answers to her prayers. And so we're told, I sought him
but I could not find him I called him but he gave me no answer
and these are very desperate times when we feel the Lord's
left us and the Lord's forsaken us and there we are in the wilderness
and as we analyse our own experience we realise that we brought the
situation upon ourselves we've allowed inferior things to occupy
our life to occupy our minds so the vital things of God have
been left to one side and then when we realise perhaps the reality
and then try to come to God we found that it's of no benefit
we find the Lord has withdrawn himself we find we're in a barren
place we find we have no prayer we find we have no access and
that should indeed cause distress well it did cause distress in
the example that we've got here and then we're told the watchman
and the watchman represent the preachers of the gospel the watchman
that went about the city they found me and they smoked me and
they wounded me it didn't give the blessing that no doubt she'd
expected and hoped for but the Lord was dealing with her and
the Lord was showing her how she departed from her God and
as she went to hear sermons preached it didn't do her any good in
fact there was the reverse she found there was more agony The
watchman went about the city, they found her. And you see the
preachers of the gospel, they do find out people who have wandered
away. People who followed their own
inclinations. People who've become far off.
And then in their time they think they'll turn unto the Lord. But the Lord's not there to be
found. and they smoked me, they wounded
me, the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I
charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, she's crying here, to the church
of God, the daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that
you tell him that I am sick of love. She longed for the blessing
of God to come upon her. Well then, they ask her, the
church has got to ask her an important question. And it's
good for us sometimes to have such questions asked to us. And the question that was asked
was, what is thy beloved? more than another beloved? O thou fairest among women, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost so charge
us? The question really is, put straightforwardly,
she was being asked, what is Christ to you more than the vanities
of time? What is thy beloved more than
another beloved? Well, she was able to give an
adequate list of what the Lord Jesus Christ meant to her. And it would be good for you
and me to follow down such a list and to analyse it in our own
hearts and to see exactly what it means. Well, it's the interpretation
of the blessed Word of God. And we're told, my beloved, this
is Christ, of course, she's referring to, is white and ruddy, the chiefest
among 10,000. Whiteness, of course, demonstrates
pureness. And Christ, of course, is pure. He's sinless. And Ruddy could
well turn to direct us to the shed blood of the Saviour. And then she says, He is the
chiefest among ten thousand. And that's a good statement. And it would be good if you and
I were able to come alongside such words as that and realise
how important Christ is. Can we say to our souls he is
the chiefest among 10,000? That means he is the most important
person in our life, the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, it's
good, you know, to be honest with ourselves and to check whether
that is so or whether we've allowed other things to dominate thoughts
and to realize the need there is to be brought into this situation
and to realize that he is indeed the chiefest among 10,000. She
goes on and says his head is as the most fine gold His locks
are bushy and black as a raven. Well, again, the head with fine
gold really indicates that the Lord's thoughts and dealings
from his gracious mind are perfect and precious and real. And there's
nothing in that which is at fault. And then his locks are bushy
and black as a raven. Just gives us some indication
that Christ is the eternal God. As black as raven, there's no
grey hair. Black as a raven. And you see
it is the eternal being of the Saviour. And again, it's good
to have our thoughts directed to such a God. Yes, one who is
perfect. One who knows everything. and
one who indeed is eternal. And then we're told, his eyes
are as the eyes of doves by the rivers of water washed with milk
and fitly said. Well, we can envisage that as
the gracious God looking upon us, watching over us, guiding
and directing us, to realise that Dove's eyes are
kind and indeed are fixed. What a mercy it is to have a
situation like that. They're ever watching. God's
eyes are ever upon us. How humbling that is to think
that we've forgotten God days without number. We've taken our
eyes off the Saviour. And our eyes have wandered far
and wide, but to realise that the eyes of our God are ever
upon us and they're fitly set. What a mercy to think that God
looks upon us. He knows where we are every single
moment of our life. What a God we have. What a gracious
and merciful God. And so, he says, his cheeks are
as a bed of spices, as sweet flowers, his lips like lilies,
dropping sweet, smelling myrrh. Well, that's a wonderful realisation,
to have the greatness of God. To come like that. His cheeks
are attractive, attractive. Christ is attractive. He is precious in all that he
does, in all his looks, as he looks upon us with love. And his hands are as gold rings,
set with a barrel with a gold ring again. It's a circle. It sets forth the eternity of
God. You see, all these directions
really give us a greater view of our God. Not a passing view,
an eternal view. What a mercy it is. His hands
are as gold rings set with a barrel. His belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphires. His legs are as pillars of marble,
strong as he never wearies upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance
is as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. Lebanon and the Cedars
are very beautiful to look at, and surely Christ is most glorious
to look at. And then we come to this last
description. His mouth is most sweet. From the mouth of the Savior
emanate gracious words, promises, perhaps times of correction,
But whatever it is, whatever emanates from our God to His
church, they're words of love. They're words of profit. They're
words of benefit. And again, the description here
is His mouth, it doesn't say it's just sweet, it's most sweet. And if you and I have received
a word from God, a sentence from God, which so suits our spiritual
experience. It is indeed most sweet, it's
most appropriate. It comes to us, it fulfils the
need that we have. And so the bride is able to come
to the Church of God, having given her description of what
Christ means to her, and then is able to say he is altogether
lovely altogether lovely there's no fault in the glorious saviour
his life his work is perfect in all that he does in all that
he says there's nothing wrong yea he is altogether lovely and
what a mercy therefore If we come to that conclusion, it really
fulfills that earlier statement, he is the chiefest among 10,000
and the altogether lovely. You know, very often we don't
have very high views of Christ. It's a blessing, my friends,
when the Holy Spirit moves us so that we do have high views
of Christ. and able to say, he is altogether
lovely. And then finally, she comes and
confirms, this is my beloved. And this is my friend, oh daughters
of Jerusalem. And really what drew me to this
subject tonight was this great and wonderful statement, he is
my friend. It's very humbling to think that
God is our friend. He's not our enemy. If we are
his children, he's our friend. I'm sure we
have some understanding of what a friend is. What a true friend
is. You know a true friend, if we
know what it is to have a true friend. They're always ready
to help us, aren't they? And so it is with our great and
glorious Saviour. He's always there. He's always
ready. to help us. He's always ready
to encourage us. He's always ready to stand by
us. He's always ready to help. I wonder sometimes if we understand
this in Jesus. But it's a blessing if you and
I sing it from our hearts. that we have such a friend who's
always ready to help us and it's naturally a friend if he's a
good friend he's concerned to look after us and to help us
to help us with those things which we're involved in our interests
to support us and to encourage us and so how wonderful that
is to think that we have such a saviour like that who knows
all about us and encourages us he leads us in the right way
he comes alongside us yes he doesn't leave us to wander a
long way away sometimes left to ourselves we do but if we
have this beloved as our friend to realise that he has our interests
at heart and also he keeps a close contact with us a friend will
keep a close contact a friend will no doubt phone us up or
write to us or encourage us and you see the gracious God he looks
upon us and he keeps contact he increases our desire after
union and communion with himself. What a blessing it is when he
brings us therefore into that personal contact like the Apostle
Paul desired when he wrote to the Philippians that he might
know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
with his sufferings and be made conformable unto his death. What a gracious and glorious
contact the desire is. What a blessing if you and I
desire that personal contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. Not
just a name, not just someone who is a far off. We realise
the benefit and the blessing of union with the Lamb from condemnation
free and then we come into times of spiritual sickness perhaps
natural sickness to realise the Lord comes and visits us in our
times of need yes what a blessing and how encouraging it is that
this gracious God comes to us This is my friend. You see, the bride here is able
to be very positive. And she says, this is my beloved
and this is my friend. Yes, what a mercy when you and
I have the wonderful evidence that Jesus, the eternal son of
God, is our friend. Wonderful, isn't it? We have
friends. Friends change. Friends perhaps
move away. Friends sometimes become upset. Friends sometimes don't understand
us. But this friend understands us. And this friend knows what
is occurring in our life because he is in charge of our life. Therefore, don't forget what
a friend we have in Jesus. This is my beloved and this is
my friend. To think that this gracious God
comes alongside us and encourages us when we're downcast. We are
downcast sometimes. What are we to do? We're not
to look down, we're to look up. We're to look up to the Saviour.
This is our friend who is there. to receive us he's there to rejoice
that we're looking to him what a mercy then to be found looking
up not looking down the devil would always have us look down
and grovel in the poor things of time what a mercy to look
up to those eternal realities and friends you know they enjoy
each other's company What a blessing, my friends, when you and I enjoy
the company of the Saviour. When the Lord Jesus comes and
visits our soul, when He speaks to our hearts from His Word,
a Word which comes to us just what we need, just at the right
time, because the Lord knows about us and surely what that
is is fellowship with the Saviour. You see, it so surpasses the
fellowship of natural friendship because it's pure. The Lord's
love is pure. And my friends, what a wonderful
thing it is that Almighty God should love such an undeserving
sinner We can understand, therefore, really what this bride of Christ
is able to come and say, this is my friend. Well, tonight,
can we truly come and say to the honour and glory of God,
this is our friend. Oh, daughters of Jerusalem, to
be able to testify to the Church of God the truth of this and
to realise that this friend is such a friend that he gave his
life. He paid the price to secure our
eternal home. He took away all our sins. All our sins of lukewarmness,
all our sins of coldness, all our sins of hardness, they were
all washed away in his most precious blood. Well, this is my friend. Oh, how glorious it is to think
that we do indeed have such a friend. And of course, this friend, then
he gave His life. He loved us so much that He gave
His life. He laid down His life that you
and I might receive the great and glorious gift of eternal
life. What a friend we have. This is
my friend And it's good you see that the description here comes
at the end of what she describes Christ as. She goes through all
the attributes of the Saviour and it's good sometimes to just
come aside and sit down and go through what the Holy Spirit
reveals to us as the wonderful attributes of our God. his compassion,
his mercy, his fellowship, his goodness toward us, leading us
in the right way and bringing us safely at last to our eternal
home. Friends may come, friends may
go, but this friend sticketh closer than a brother. He's always
there. And to think that he will always
be with us, throughout eternity. He will never leave us nor forsake
us. Therefore, may we boldly say
the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man should
do unto me. And again, the fear of man often
brings a snare, doesn't it? What a blessing to rest in the
finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, to realize that Because
He's loved us so much, this friend, no friend can love us as much
as the Saviour. We do have friends perhaps who
have loved us and we've loved them. But the Saviour loves is
far beyond natural love. It is an eternal love, loved
by our God. How wonderful and how humbling
it is to think that we have, therefore, such a friend. Such
a friend who will never leave us. Whatever the situation, however
far we may wander off, he never leaves us, nor forsakes us. But by his grace, by his love
and mercy, he brings us at last to our desired haven in glory. Well, what a mercy it is then
to realize that this is our friend. And in a personal way we can
say, this is my friend. Again, it's a very wonderful
thought, isn't it? as we may be able to, in some small way,
comprehend the greatness of God, the power of God, and yet to
think that that great God is willing to be our friend. And that you and I can walk with
that friend, and you and I can have converse with that friend,
And we can commit all our way to that friend. We don't have
to have any secrets because he knows all about us. He knows
all about us before we start speaking. This is the greatness
of our friend. There's no one like, no one like
Jesus, my friends. No one at all. No one comes anything
near. to this great and glorious friend.
This is my friend. Oh, what a mercy then, as you
and I journey on through life and the many difficulties that
life produces. And often the Lord brings these
situations into our lives so that we are brought nearer to
the Saviour. If we never had any difficulties,
if we never had any crosses, if our life was all just one
smooth way, we wouldn't pray, we wouldn't appreciate the goodness
of God, we wouldn't appreciate the mercy of God, we wouldn't
appreciate the love of God. And that's why we read those
beautiful words, He, Almighty God, led them forth by the right
way. a way to turn us away from all
the values of time, to trust in our friend. And oh may this
glorious Saviour not be just a friend, but my friends, may
He be our best friend, the one that we love to hear about. Can we say How sweet the name
of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear. Is it a sweet name? A name which is above every name. The name of Jesus. To you, well,
the bride was able to say, his mouth is most sweet, yea, he
is altogether lovely. No fault. Perfect. Glorious saviour. And it's a
wonderful thing if the Holy Spirit gives us an understanding of
the glory and beauty of the Saviour. And indeed, the preciousness
of the Saviour. You see the bride here recognised
the preciousness of the Saviour. And she was able to say, yea,
he is altogether lovely. She couldn't find anything wrong,
any fault with his dealings with her. And that would be wonderful,
wouldn't it? If the Lord deals with us in
love to our soul. So whatever the situation is,
we have to acknowledge the Lord is good. Good. He's dealing with me as a son. He's dealing with me as a daughter. I don't deserve it, but how kind
and gracious this friend is to me. Well, my friends, there's
a lot to think about. There's a lot to ponder about.
You can go home and you can go through this fifth chapter in
the Song of Solomon and ponder the great truths it contains.
And may we all be able to come to this final conclusion. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved and this is
my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. Amen.