May it please Almighty God to
bless our souls this morning as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the Song of Solomon in chapter 2 and we'll read verse
3. The Song of Solomon, chapter
2, and reading verse 3. As the apple tree among the trees
of the wood So is my beloved among the suns. I sat down under
his shadow with great delight and his fruit was sweet to my
taste. I'm always concerned in my own
spirit when the Lord lays a text in my heart in the Song of Solomon,
especially for our young people who I realise may not really
understand what is described in the words of Solomon. And I suppose that doesn't relate
only to our young people, perhaps to most of us. We may find the
Song of Solomon quite difficult to interpret and to understand. But the truth is, of course,
it does form part of the Word of God and we might say a very
special part of the Word of God because it's wonderful to think
that the Lord really has recorded in these chapters what we might
refer to as a conversation and a experience between Christ and
his church. Now really that is so relevant
for us in our lives today, and indeed always has been, always
will be. You and I need to understand the great blessing it is of,
we might say, having communion with our Saviour, communion with
the Lord Jesus Christ, and to think therefore that it is centered
really in such a book as this. And may it prove to be a blessing
for us even today as we meditate on this third verse. Now, this
book gives many illustrations. Solomon, as I hope you know,
was a king who was greatly blessed with wisdom Soon after, he came
to the throne. He was the son, of course, of
David. And he had a dream. And in that dream, God asked
him what he would want, what he would like. Well, he didn't
ask for riches or wonderful natural life. He asked for wisdom. And God gave him his request. And he was probably the most
wise person that has ever lived. He was very knowledgeable. And
we can read about some of his knowledge. He knew so many things. And he wrote, of course, not
only the Song of Solomon, but he wrote most of the Proverbs,
not all of them, but most of the Book of Proverbs were written
by Solomon. And if you read that, you will
see there are many, many wonderful statements, just in a few words,
controlled a great amount information. So we should be thankful that
God has granted us such accounts and we have then in this book
of the Song of Solomon illustrations and those illustrations produce
a picture that you and I can then understand what is being
brought to our understanding. Now sometimes I think of those
words that we read of in the Word of God and it speaks like
this, of a deep that coucheth beneath. That means there's a
surface and you and I can read the surface, we can read the
Bible, we can understand what it means on the surface. But
there is something deeper down, something to be spiritually enjoyed
and to rejoice in. And it's really that which you
and I should be concerned about, especially our young people.
When I say young people, it doesn't necessarily mean young people
in age. It may mean young people in spiritual
age. Because you see, all of us are
naturally born as babes, and we're all spiritually born as
babes. And as we're naturally born,
we need to understand things, and we're gradually shown things,
and gradually taught things, and we can feed and we can eat
very simple things, and as we get older, we can eat more advanced
things. Exactly the same thing it is
in spiritual things. We first are born by the Spirit
of God and we are babes in Christ. And we should not expect that
suddenly we become giants. No, we are babes. And we need
God, therefore, to treat us as babes and as children and to
graciously instruct us. It's a wonderful favour to think
the Lord God is dealing with us in such a way. Well we have
in here, in this verse here, a picture and the picture is
one that I'm sure we can really understand and it tells us about
an apple tree. Well I guess most of us have
seen apple trees growing and we've seen an apple tree is an
attractive tree. Apple trees tend not to be great
big trees. They tend to not be very high
and very broad. But nonetheless, they are attractive.
Attractive in two ways. First of all, when they have
blossomed, it's usually a very attractive blossom. An apple
tree blossoming is something lovely to look at. And of course,
there is then the fruit, the apple. And as we know, there
are various apple trees, and they all have slightly different
fruits. But all those fruits are good. An apple tree is an apple tree,
and a true apple tree is an edible fruit. And it is something we
can eat. Sometimes it may be very sweet.
Sometimes it may be more bitter. But nonetheless, it is something
which is edible. And so here, Solomon gives us
his illustration of an apple tree, and he tells us it's an
apple tree among the trees of the wood. So if there's a wood,
we don't see it so often, but we do sometimes see apple trees
in woods, in a wild wood, and there in the midst of a wild
wood is an apple tree. Natural trees, they grow, but
they are not really fruitful like an apple tree is. You know,
we see firs, and we see oaks, and we see cedars, and they're
all lovely trees, but they're not really of that true benefit
that an apple tree is to us. Well then, that's the picture,
that we have an apple tree. And then Solomon tells us this,
So is my beloved among the sons. So what do you think that means?
You young people, what do you think that means? So is my beloved among the sons. What it really means, the beloved,
if you were asked, who is the beloved of the Lord? Well, in a particular way, it
refers to the Lord Jesus Christ. So is my beloved among the sons. Well, as the apple tree stands
out in a wood. So, my friends, the Lord Jesus
Christ stands out very wonderfully and very gloriously among the
sons of men." What a wonderful thing it is. Then today, if you
and I may have a right view of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when I say that, you may
think, well, what does it really mean? We're all here as humans. The Lord Jesus Christ as we've
been recently considering, was born into this world as a normal
human being. To look at him, he would have
been the same as any human being. And yet, you see, he was also
God. A great and tremendous mystery
for our little minds, and yet wonderful to think that the Lord
Jesus Christ God himself came into this world for a divine
a very wonderful and a very glorious purpose and that was that he
would save his people from their sins. Well then here we have
this Lord Jesus Christ then among the trees of the wood, among
the people there, significant. And then we're told Solomon says,
I sat down under his shadow with great delight and his fruit was
sweet to my taste. Just think upon that. think that
there Solomon's depicting here a need to rest, a time to be
able to come and to sit down, a time to be able to come and
to ponder and to think upon the things of God and to partake
of the heavenly fruit. The natural figure here is that
we might think of a traveler coming seeing this wonderful
apple tree in the wood and rejoicing to see it and sitting down under
it and thankful for the shadow for the shadow that it cast upon
him because of the heat of the sun and not only the comfort
of the shadow but also to have the wonderful benefit of fruit
that they can eat and that's the picture then that we have
here And so says Solomon, I sat down. It doesn't say he just
rushed under the tree and then rushed away again. He came and
he sat down. Now it'd be a good thing, my
friends, in our lives, if God brings us to a situation where
we come into the presence of our God and we sit down. we sit down and there we are
able to meditate and consider the great and glorious truths
of God set before us here in fruit. Natural fruit of the apple
tree to a traveller, my friends, glorious fruit to the Church
of God to be able to come aside and to sit down under his shadow
with great delight. And we have a statement about
the fruit. The apostle, when he wrote to
the Galatian, the church at Galatia, and he wrote in the fifth chapter
about the fruit, and he describes it in the 22nd verse of the fifth
chapter of the epistle to the Galatians. And this is what he
tells us. But the fruit of the spirit and
the fruit of the spirit is set on one side as a difference between
the works of the flesh. the works of the flesh and the
fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh just to ponder this
for a moment I don't want to go into the details of it but
the works of the flesh are listed and he tells us what they are
and as I read this list you will know that they were not they
are not really beneficial to the health of our soul. And this is the list that we're
given. The works of the flesh are manifest,
which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,
strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revelings, and such like, of the which I tell you before,
as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such
things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. These things
will not furtherance us in our journey of spiritual life. they will move us away from the
things of God and yet they are very clearly the things of the
flesh and then you see the Apostle moves on to this wonderful truth
then he says but what a but it is but the fruit of the Spirit
the fruit of the Spirit now just imagine as it were, coming aside,
sitting down under the shadow of an apple tree in the figure,
and yet sitting down, as we might say, under the shadow of the
Almighty, the Great and Blessed God. And this is what he says,
but the fruit of the Spirit is, and let me just give you the
list first, love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance. Says the Apostle, against such
there is no law and they that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh. That means put to death the flesh. And let me just remind you, crucifixion
was and is the most painful death and therefore he tells us they
that are Christ's have crucified that means put to death in the
most painful way the flesh with the affections and lusts. See the great difference between
the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. And so as
we meditate on this verse this morning, to think, as Solomon
says, I sat down under his shadow, a time to come aside, a time
to rest, a time to meditate, a time to consider. I sat down
under his shadow with great delight, to the true child of God. It's
not something which is something they don't want to do. To those
who are only concerned about the things of the flesh, they
won't want such time to come aside and to sit down and to
meditate and to delight in these things but what a wonderful blessing
it is for you and me today if we are moved by the Holy Spirit
which it is the Holy Spirit of God and that should be exceedingly
humbling to think that God should bring us, should draw us to such
a position to come and sit down under the shadow of the Almighty
and to meditate upon His great truths and to delight in them. And as Solomon says, and his
fruit, the meditation on these great truths was sweet to his
taste. Didn't leave a bitter taste. You know, the things of this
world, as you and I may partake of them, they often leave a bitter
taste. But the things of God, the truth
of God, are sweet to our taste. We do delight in them. And therefore, as we perhaps
begin this year, this year 2022, that you and I may be found here
under the apple tree, under the blessed influence of the Holy
Spirit of our Saviour, and sitting there, sitting down, not rushing
all around, not going after this, going after another thing the
poor old things of time which perish with the using and which
of course Solomon himself tells us very clearly in the previous
book of Ecclesiastes he tells us all is vanity of vanity and
vexation of spirit it doesn't bring true delight it doesn't
bring true satisfaction But here, the blessed fruit of the Spirit,
we can believe, as King Solomon says, he says, with
great delight in his fruit was sweet to my taste. What a blessing, my friends,
if it is. And going back then to the fruits
of the Spirit that Paul illustrates to us to think and meditate upon
them. The fruit of the Spirit is love. Well, that's a good start, isn't
it? To think of, first of all, God's love toward us. God's love to us. The hymn writer tells us, he
saw me ruined in the fall, yet loved me notwithstanding all. That's a great truth, isn't it?
Because what it means is this, we all sinned after Adam. Adam and Eve sinned. They partook
of that forbidden fruit. They disobeyed God and they sinned.
And all of us have followed in their stead. We've all sinned
and come short of the glory of God. And yet to think then, that
notwithstanding that, God has loved us. Isn't that wonderful?
To think that God has loved us. Well, you can sit down And you
can truly meditate upon that wonderful truth that it is. And
Jeremiah picks it up very ably. And in the 31st chapter of Jeremiah,
he says this, the Lord, the third verse, the Lord hath appeared
of old unto me saying, yea, I have loved thee, loved thee with an
everlasting love, It's a very personal statement. You see,
God loves all his church. My friend, God loves all his
church individually. And what a blessing, therefore, if
you and I are able, as it were, to come aside from all the heat
of the things of time and to sit down under his shadow and
to meditate and consider His wonderful love. Yea, I have loved
Thee with everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
Thee. And this is a great and glorious truth. If you and
I sit down there for under his shadow. As it were, we've come
away from the heat of the day, the heat of the things of time,
the things which often distress us, often turn us away from the
things of God. But here the Lord has brought
us aside and here we are in the wood and yet under this apple
tree, the Lord Jesus Christ. and we are meditating upon this
great and glorious truth. The hymn writer says, doesn't
he, in hymn 766, on such love, my soul still ponder,
love so great, so rich, so free, So he was lost in holy
wonder. Why, oh God, such love to me. It really is worth pondering. It really is worth thinking about. And as he says, Solomon says, in that, what does
he do? He rejoices, he delights. He says, I sat under his shadow
with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. Well, my friends, it's a great
blessing, isn't it? If the fruit, this fruit of the Spirit, this
fruit of love is indeed sweet to my taste. Well, the Lord knows
where it is, but if we are a true believer, if you are a true believer,
the love of Christ to you and to me will produce a result. Do you know what that result
is? Well, the apostle tells us in
his epistle of John, not that we loved God, but that he loved
us. And that will produce love in
our hearts to the Saviour. And he always follows that pattern.
It's not reversed. It's God's love to us. which influences our love to
Him. And that's why the hymn writer's
got it right when he said, on such love, my soul will still
ponder. Well, you can think, can't you?
Sitting down under this shadow, this great and glorious Saviour,
who's caused us, called us perhaps, to come and to sit down It's
good, you know, sometimes to come aside and to sit down and to truly meditate on the
things of God. We live in a mad world, don't
we? A world where it's all rush and tear and this has to be done
and that has to be done and we rush hither and thither. But
it doesn't benefit our soul. But what a great favour when
we understand such a truth as this. Solomon describes it here
in this picture. I sat down, he says. We can believe
therefore that Solomon did come and sat before the Lord. Remember
David once, he tells us he had a difficulty and he tells us
he went into the holy place and he came and he sat before the
Lord. It's a good thing for you and me in our lives to
come and to sit before the Lord. Well, I don't know, but you know,
have you in your life come and sat before the Lord, sat under
his shadow, and it's been delightful to you? You see, it far surpasses
the vanities of this world because it produces an eternal blessing. It's fruit which never fades. Natural fruit we may enjoy, it's
good, but spiritual fruit, my friends, doesn't fade away because
it's eternal. And what a blessing, therefore,
if you and I are able to be those who truly partake of it. Well, says the apostle here,
but the fruit of the Spirit is love. And then he goes on to
say, and joy, joy. Surely this directs us to joy
in what the Savior has done. There we are, sitting down, meditating,
with joy to think that Lord Jesus Christ came into this sinful
world for the specific purpose to redeem my soul, to die in
my place, to take away my sins, to be washed in the precious
blood of himself. Joy. You know, it is a holy joy. It's not a frivolous joy. It's a holy joy because we can
rejoice in what Christ has done. Well, this is a time of blessing,
isn't it? Surely this is a time to delight
in, we can understand. What he says here, when he says,
under his shadow, with great delight, great delight as the
Holy Spirit directs us to joy in what the Saviour's done. As
I often say, and you all know what I say, the best place to
be is at Calvary. To view the Saviour dying on
our behalf. To realise that at Calvary, the
glorious light of the Gospel shines into our soul. Because it shows to us the love
of the Saviour. To think that He, the Second
Person in the Trinity, the Almighty God, condescended to die that
you and I might live eternally with Him. when our little life
on this earth has finished. So the Apostle says, the fruit
of the Spirit, sitting down under his shadow, rejoicing then in
love and joy. And what does that produce? Peace. We live in a restless world. We live in a world of turmoil. We live in a world of tempests. The hymn writer tells us, peace
by his cross as Jesus made. There is peace. If we might sit
down under his shadow and the Holy Spirit grants us
that peace, that peace of God, which passeth all understanding. Men and women, boys and girls,
are looking day by day for peace on this world. My friends, peace
is very elusive. But the peace of God is not elusive. And the peace of God passeth
all understanding. And what a blessing it is, therefore,
if you and I are brought to this place, that we sit down under
his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my
taste. We can indeed rejoice and bless
God if we understand and appreciate something in this wonderful peace It's not with regards to the
things of time. It is with regard to the eternal
realities. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy and peace. Well, we've really run out of
time this morning. But you can meditate as the Holy
Spirit may perhaps come and enable you to sit down under his shadow
with great delight and meditate and partake of this wonderful
fruit which goes on and it says, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law
and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with affections
and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let
us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain
glory, provoking one another, ending one another. Well, says
Solomon then, as the apple tree among the trees of the woods,
so is my beloved among the sons I sat down. You see, when you
sit down, you have time to think and meditate. I sat down under
his shadow, not outside, under a shadow, the blessed influence
of the Savior with great delight. And his fruit, his fruit was
sweet to my taste. Amen.