I'm very pleased, Almighty God,
to bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the Song of Solomon and Chapter 2, and we'll read
verses 10 to 13. The Song of Solomon, Chapter
2, and reading verses 10 to 13. My beloved spake and said unto
me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For though
the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers
appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree
put it forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender
grape give a good smell, arise my love, my fair one, and come
away. Well I expect you young people
realise that these words are spoken of course by the heavenly
bridegroom who is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ and
speaking to of the Church of God. And it's very wonderful
to recognise how the Blessed Lord speaks. He addresses the
Church and he says, My beloved, speak. Lord Jesus, the glorious
Beloved has spoken unto his church. And these few verses from 10
to 13, they really start with the same statement which it ends
with. And the statement is this, rise
up my love, my fair one, and come away. The last statement
is, arise my love, my fair one, and come away. In these verses we find there
are reasons for this, five reasons why this is so. Because the Lord
tells us, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and
gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing
of birds has come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the
land, The fig tree put forth her green figs, and the vines
with tender grape give a good smell. We could in actual fact
say, well, in actual fact, there's more than five reasons there. But in general terms, there are
five reasons. So remember that this is the
word of God, the words of the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking to the church. And really it is a wonderful
statement We can say it was a command of God to rise up, my love, my
fair one, and come away. So the Lord is addressing his
church as my love, my fair one, and to come away. They're not
words of harshness, they're words of grace. and mercy and love
to the Church of God. And we should be very grateful
that we have such an account as the Lord has ordained should
be recorded by Solomon in this book. And this morning as we
ponder these words, to rise up my love, my fair one, and come
away. And the statement is, for lo
the winter is past, Well, what does that mean? What is a winter?
Winter is often a barren time. It's a cold time. It's a frozen
time. And it's often a dark time. And
naturally speaking, it's not a very enjoyable time. And that's
in a natural way. And also, it is just the same
in our spiritual life. A winter time, you know, there's
no sign usually of hardly any life at all. There's nothing
springing up. Everything seems dead. And there
seems to be no life. And how true that is in spiritual
people, in those in whom the Lord does work, there is that
deadness, it appears to be. in the soul, no real warmth at
all, just coldness and hardness. Sometimes it's as though the
soul is frozen, untouched by anything. A winter can be a very
time of frozen situations. And yet you see the Lord comes
and he tells them, tells the Church of God, below the winter
is past. that which you've been in, that
which you had to endure, is now past. Yes, it's not now. And what a blessing that is in
our spiritual life as we'll come on to the evidence of it, that
we may know that Lord has graciously brought us through the winter,
through that coldness, through that hardness, perhaps through
that rebellion, that opposition to God. And there's no healthiness,
there's no liveliness. No, but there we've been in that
situation. Well, says Solomon, for lo, the
winter is past. And then he goes on to say the
rain is over and gone. Now, of course, we all need rain,
don't we, to to keep the ground moist and soft so that there
is that growth. But when it's raining, you know,
what does it mean? It means it's cloudy. The cloud
is over everything. And where is the sun? Well, we
don't see it. We don't see the sun, there's
no rays of the sun shining through and it's raining. And again we
perhaps find in that situation we become rather downcast and
rather miserable. And the sun is a very glorious
thing to observe, is it not? We've been wonderfully blessed
over the last couple of months of seeing so much, naturally,
of the sun shining in a blue sky. And of course how encouraging
that is, naturally, it makes us feel better to look at it.
And it is of course so in a spiritual state. And it refers really then
to the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is spoken of as the Son of
Righteousness. And there's been no sight, no
sight of the Saviour. there's been a cloud and there's
been that rain and no sight of the Saviour. There may have been
perhaps a little lightness in the cloud sometimes, but generally
speaking, there's no sun to have been seen. And so we can understand,
I hope, the position that Solomon is describing here. Winter is
past and the rain is over and gone. So if that is true in our
spiritual life, then how we can look forward then and observe,
because here the Lord is telling us to observe the situation. And what are we to observe? We
are to observe the flowers appearing on the earth. We are to observe
the time when the singing of birds has come. Well, I'm sure
again, in this springtime, it's been a very glorious springtime,
that we have been able to observe and naturally we have seen the
flowers appearing and how beautiful they've been how quickly really
some of them have appeared and also the singing of birds we've
heard the birds singing and what a lovely sounding has been therefore
the Lord says here the time the flowers appear the earth. There they are, they are to be
seen and the time of the singing of birds is come. Well what a
mercy that is and we may say well what does it actually mean
to us to observe in our own soul the flowers appear on the earth. It's the blessing experience
of the Church of God when the Lord reveals to his people the
great truths of the gospel. The flowers appear on the earth,
the great truths of the gospel. There they were hidden in the
winter, no evidence of them. We couldn't see anything at all
to encourage us. But now as the Holy Spirit of
God shows to us, reveals to us, the flowers, the truths of the
gospel, the greatness of the gospel. And what is that really? Well, first of all, of course,
the Holy Spirit shows to us our true, sad, lost, ruined condition
as an undone, and sinner of the earth, who deserves no favor,
who deserves no mercy, who deserves no goodness. You may say, well,
how is that a flower appearing? Well, what it is when the flowers
appear, first of all, there's actually no sign of the actual
flower appearing. There is just the, as it were,
the beginning, the shoot comes up, but then as the flower opens
out, What do we see? We see in nature, we see the
glory of creation and it's a wonderful thing to observe and it's a wonderful
proof for us to know there is a God in heaven. The flowers
appear and it is the same with regards to our spiritual life.
The Lord shows to us that which is within us and that which is
without us. the flowers appear on the earth. That which is within us is sin
and that which is without us is the great and glorious work
of the Lord Jesus Christ in salvation. Now then, if these flowers are
appearing how wonderful it is to observe. Doesn't it change
our position? No longer are we in a time of
winter, no longer are the clouds covering the sun about the sun
of righteousness. The Lord Jesus Christ is revealing
himself unto us as our great and glorious Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ. They don't appear. The flowers
appear. Flowers appear naturally, don't
they? You and I can't make a flower appear. The Lord brings it before
us. He brings the flowers. And so
he does in our spiritual life. He brings the revelation of himself. to unworthy sinners, to show
to them the wonder of salvation and the wonder of that great
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the more and more we look
at that work, the more and more we wonder at it, the more and
more we observe it, the more glorious it appears, just like it is naturally,
the more and more you and I look in a flower The more intensely
we look at it and the deeper we look at it, the more wondrous
it is. And so it is in the life of God
in our souls, that glorious work of redemption. How wonderful
it is, how marvellous it is to think that the Lord Jesus Christ
as that Son of Righteousness comes and shines into our heart. And what a change there is. And
what a warmth there is, the coldness of the winter you see, that hardness
against the things of God. There we are, we find now that
this blessed Holy Spirit then applies that warmth in our hearts
as we view what the Lord Jesus Christ has done to redeem our
souls. Well, it's a wonderful blessing,
isn't it, to have this revelation. And so the Lord tells us to rise
up, my love, my fair one, and come away to observe these great
and glorious truths contained in nature, which show to us a
picture of the blessings of God in redemption. Well, the flowers
appear, on the earth. What a mercy that is today. If
you and I have the blessed experience, the blessed evidence of the work
of God in our hearts, which has really brought to us the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ and the wonderful work that he accomplished
when he was on this earth. It's a work which you and I should
Never tire of meditating on the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When he did all that his father told him to do, planned for him
that he should do, he fulfilled it every single bit. Yes, however hard it was, he
never turned back. because he has given that great
and glorious work to redeem his church. And in order to redeem
his church, he had to give his life as a sacrifice for our sins. And so let us never underestimate
the cost of our salvation. Let us never tire of looking
more closely at the work of God in our souls, that which God
has done for us in revealing to us the Lord Jesus Christ as
our great salvation. Well, today, let us ask ourselves,
have we observed, has this flower appeared in our hearts? the flower
appear on the earth. And we can thank God for it.
There we were at one time in winter, dark, dead, no life really,
hard hearted, and yet the Lord brings this time of spring into
our hearts. The flowers appear on the earth. And then he goes on to say, the
time of the singing of birds is come. Well, what is the singing
of birds? Well, I believe as you and I
naturally hear the singing of birds, what does it really mean?
They're praising their maker, are they not? For what is done? It's lovely to hear the varying
songs of the birds. They all have different songs,
and yet they all are praising their maker. And so might be
so in the lives of the Church of God. to come with praise and
thanksgiving to Almighty God. It is the time of the singing
of birds, it has come. What a mercy that is, if that's
occurred in your life and my life. A time of praise, a time
of thanksgiving for his glorious favour and mercy toward us. in revealing ourselves to ourselves
and revealing himself to ourselves as that great saviour of sinners. The singing of birds, praise
and thanksgiving. They don't suddenly stop and
there's just a little song and then there's nothing more than
silence. Well, of course, there are those
times when they don't sing, but there is very much singing, very
much thanksgiving. We don't hear it much, do we,
when it's winter, when it's winter, but when the winter's past, when
the rain's over and gone, when the sun shines, That's when we
hear the singing of birds and surely that's the same in the
life of the Church of God, the time of praise and time of thanksgiving. It is a wonderful and a glorious
evidence of the work of God in the soul. Yes, the wonderful
evidence of the work of God in the soul. and how important that
is for all of us. And so I'll be able to observe
in our spiritual lives, there has been praise and thanksgiving. Now, what does the Lord say?
He says, rise up my love, my fair one, and come away. Yes,
there's now time to praise and thank God for his goodness and
mercy, which has been toward us. It's now time to hear this
great and glorious Word of the Saviour. Now we've been in this
sad time of winter with no evidence of the Lord shining upon us and
now we've come to this place where it is the time of the singing
of birds. It has come and it does come in the life of the Church of
God. Because our lives are for the
honor and glory of God. Our lives are to praise and honor
and thank him for all his love, for all his grace, for all his
mercy toward us. And so has that come now in our
lives, this time of the singing of birds. He has come. It does
come, my friends, you and I need to observe it in our own lives
and thank God for it and to be able to trace out therefore in
our spiritual life the wonderful work of God. Because this truly
is a picture of the work of God in the soul of his people passing
through this winter and this rainy time into the wonderful
blessing of God. The time of the singing of birds
has come. Well, do we have reason? I hope we do to praise and thank
God for that revelation. that he's given to us when the
flowers appear, when we've observed, when he's given us a spiritual
understanding of our great salvation, when we understand that Lord
Jesus Christ came into this earth as the Apostle said, to save
sinners of whom I am chief. This is good news. This is glorious
news. This is blessing news. And what
a change takes place. What a change takes place when
the winter's past and the rain is over and gone and the flowers
appear on the earth and the time of the singing of birds is come. Well, what a mercy then today,
if you and I find ourselves in that position and are able to
truly praise God because of it. And he comes on and he says,
and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. Well, the
turtle is, of course, a bird. It's the turtle dove. It's a
bird that doesn't reside in just one place in one country. It's
a migratory bird. But the time comes when the voice
of the turtle is heard. in the land. Yes it's come from
other parts and here it is and we hear it and it's good news
because it has something to speak about. The Lord again has preserved
these doves as they crossed many many miles and brought them back
to the place perhaps where they were born or where they migrated
from and brought them back The voice of the turtle is heard
in our land. And this must really reflect
surely in the life of the children of God. They have a voice. God has given us a voice. And
it's not a voice to be silent. The Lord has brought us as it
were, if we migrate in to this good land, to this land of life,
to this land where the Lord has graciously come and opened our
spiritual understanding. It's the voice of the turtle,
it's not silent, the voice of the turtle is heard. heard in our land and how good
it is to hear the voice of the Church of God testifying of what
he's done, testifying that the flowers have appeared, testifying
the singing of birds has come. What a mercy it is because it
is to bring glory to our God. He is worthy of all our praise
and all our thanksgiving. The voice of the Lord is heard
in our land. It's not somewhere else, it is
in our land. And we can think of that really
with regard to the Church of God. It's heard in the Church
of God and the Church of God are listening for it. The voice
of the turtle is heard in our land. It's a wonderful sign of
the Lord's goodness and mercy that the winter's past, the springtime
has come. The voice of the turtle is heard
in our land. Well, I wonder if that is so
in our spiritual life. If this voice is heard and if
we hear other people's voices, speaking of what God has done
for their soul, revealing Christ to them, the good news of the
gospel. This is what you and I want to
hear. We don't want to hear about all
the vanities of time. We want to hear the good news
of the gospel. We want to be able to hear of
what God has done for never-dying souls. The voice of the turtle
is heard in our land what a mercy that is and then it all goes
on to say the fig tree put it forth her green figs well fig
trees are referred to a lot of course in the word of god and
they have quite large leaves and the figs are of course green
to start with they're not edible when they're small and green
but there they are on the fig tree green figs. And again, what is that? Well,
it is a sign of life. It's a sign of health. It's a
sign of fruitfulness. You see, we do need to be fruitful
in the things of God. Sometimes there are fig trees
which are barren. They never have any green figs,
or if they do, they fall off before they have any maturity.
But the fig tree put it forth her green figs. And it is therefore
the evidence of the work of God. There is the evidence of it in
these green figs, naturally, and it is so in our spiritual
life. The evidence, the fig tree put
it forth, her green figs, the work of God. It is to be seen,
the green figs are to be seen, the work of God is to be seen. It's not something which is not
evident. There would be no glories of
God, would there, if there was no evidence of the work of God
in our souls? What a mercy when there is the
evidence of these green figs, this work of God, the beginnings
really of the work of grace and turning away as it were from
all the things which drag us down and turn into the things
of God. The wonderful blessing is green
figs, life. What a mercy that is when you
and I observe the life of God in these fig trees, the green
figs growing, and the wonderful work of God being observed. It all follows then, through
these words that the Lord speaks to the Church of God, rise up
my love, my fair one, and come away, because here there is this
fig tree, put it forth, her green figs. Not only life, but fruitfulness,
and necessary it is. that there is fruitfulness in
the Church of God. The Word of God tells us it is
by our fruit that we shall be known. And you may say, what
is the fruit? Well, it's the spiritual knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a spiritual revelation of
what is done for our souls, the evidence that we possess the
blessed life of God in our souls. green figs beginning what a good
sight it is when we see this life of God in the souls of one
another springing up. Put it forth, the fig tree put
it forth her green figs. See man doesn't have anything
to do with it does he? There they are these green figs appear
What a blessing it is spiritually when there is this fruitfulness
appearing. Yes, there have been leaves,
but now there's fruit. A big tree is worthless really
without any fruit. What a mercy then in our spiritual
life. If we don't just have a life
of leaves, but that we have a life which there is the evidence of
God's work in our souls of these green figs, as it were, appearing. What a mercy it is then. The
fig tree put forth her green figs, and then the vines with
a tender grape give a good smell. It's interesting that the Lord
should have ordained that such a statement should be made, because
you may know that a vine is very fruitful usually, but also it's
very weak, and it needs support, it needs to be held up, otherwise
it would just collapse onto the ground. The vines, well, in a
spiritual sense, what a blessing it is if you and I are held up
We're strengthened. The Lord helps us. The Lord strengthens
us. The Lord supports us. A natural
vine needs to be supported. You and I need to be supported
in our spiritual life. We should never rely on our own
strength. We should never think that we're
able to carry on. The Word of God tells us, no
man can keep alive his own soul. We need the blessed work of the
Holy Spirit in our lives to keep alive our soul. What a wonderful
evidence it is of true life within, if we are able to point to the
blessed work of the Holy Spirit within us, supporting our mind,
and then There is the tender grape, you see. As the grape
first begins to form, there is a good smell. Again, it's a good
sign of God's grace. It's a good sign of his work
in our souls. this initial, these grapes forming,
they give a good smell. You know, when the work of God
begins in the life of the believer, it's a good sign. It's a good
smell, isn't it? We love to see God's work appearing. What a mercy it is. And of course,
that work is supported by God himself. You and I don't aren't
able to support it. We're thankful we have a God
who does. So we see this picture then of
the vine, the tender grape giving a good smell. Therefore we come
back to the beginning when the Lord says for lo the winter is
past. Yes there's no green figs then,
there's no tender grapes then when the winter is there, but
when it's past When the rain is over and gone, then we can
see the evidence of the blessed work of a holy God in the lives
and souls of his church. May you and I truly be able to
see it and observe it in our lives. And then the Lord comes
on and concludes again with this gracious exhortation. Arise,
my love, my fair one, and come away. Here is all the evidence
I've given to you of the evidence that you possess the life of
God in your soul. Arise, my love, my fair one,
come away. Come with the Church of God.
Walk with the Church of God. Unite with the Church of God.
In spoken so beautifully, arise my love. To think that the Church
of God are the love of the Saviour. They are truly His bride. How wonderful for you and I,
unworthy sinners of the earth, not worth anything. My Lord,
you call us, my love. my fair one. It's a wonderful
mercy isn't it? Wonderful mercy to realize that
and the prophet Isaiah touches on this when he speaks in the
60th chapter he says arise shine for thy light is come. What a mercy if you and I can
trace out some of these things and observe yes the light is
come. And the glory of the Lord is
risen upon thee. So the glory of the Lord in salvation
is risen upon us. How very humbling and very wonderful. What a mercy it is to realise
we have such a kind and such a gracious God who blesses us
with these favours and doesn't leave us. In the fourth chapter
of this Song of Solomon, we read, Thou art all fair, my love. There
is no spot in thee. That's how the Lord sees us.
That's how the Lord sees us. Forgiven, washed, cleansed in
the blood of the Lamb. That's why we're all fair. Not
because of what we've done, but because of what he has done.
Thou all fair my love, there is no spot in thee. What a mercy
then, if the blessed Saviour should come to us today and speak
to us in such words like this. Thou all fair my love there is
no spot in thee. We might say what? Is that me? A sinner as bad as me? This is the glory of the gospel. You see the church of God is
washed, the church of God is forgiven, they are cleansed,
there is no sin. Thou all fair my love there is
no spot in thee and that is true of the whole church of God. May
we truly bless our God for it. Now having gone through this
like this I just want to touch on one further thing and that
is this is spoken also perhaps to those who are blessed and
enter in to their eternal state and these words are true They
journeyed on through this earth, and we can think of this earth
really in a general situation, to the blessed soul as a place
of winter, not a place of natural happiness. It's a winter for
the soul. The Lord comes at his appointed
time and says, rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. and takes his church, he takes
his people one by one, to himself, to glory, to be forever with
the Lord. And what a blessing that is,
when the Holy Spirit comes to us, as he will to all his living
church, to that great day, when time shall be no more for us,
and his words are spoken, rise up my love, my fair one, and
come away. And as I was just pondering that,
I thought of these words, which is in one of our hymns. I'll
just read it in conclusion. It says, there is a land of pure
delight, where saints see more terrain. Infinite day excludes
the night. pleasures banish pain there everlasting
spring abides and never withering flowers that's really what is
described here the flowers appear on the earth the time the singing
of birds has come etc never withering flowers death like a narrow sea
divides this heavenly land from ours so could we make Our doubts
remove these gloomy doubts that rise and see the canyon that
we love with unbeclouded eyes. No rain you see, there it is
pure and clear. Could we but climb where Moses
stood and view the landscape or not Jordan's stream nor death's
cold flood. should fright us from the shore. Well, may the Lord graciously
bless us each and may we enter into the fullness of these words
and hear the glorious command of God. Arise, my love, my fair
one, and come away. Amen.