Let us turn to God's Word again,
and directing you for a while tonight to words that we find
in the last chapter of the Song of Solomon. In Solomon's Song,
chapter 8. And I want to consider these
words in verse 5. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved? We find similar
words previously in chapter 3 verse 6. Who is this that cometh
out of the wilderness like pillars of smoke, perfumed with myrrh
and frankincense, with all powders of the merchant? So in a sense
it's a double text but I want to concentrate on the words as
we find them here at the end of the book in chapter 8 and
verse 5 and to consider for our subject as it were this question,
a question concerning the church, a question concerning the church. You will observe that the text
is very much in that form. Who is this? is the question
that is being asked. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness leaning upon her Beloved? And the answer of course is that
it is the Church. it's the Bride of Christ, it's
the Lamb's Wife and throughout this remarkable book we read
much of the Church under the imagery of the Spouse the Spouse
of the Lord Jesus Christ and as we come to consider then these
words and the subject matter for a little while tonight I
want to to begin by observing certain characteristics that
we say really belong onto the Church. How are we to describe
what the Church is? Well, the Church, of course,
is made up of believers. When the Apostle Paul, throughout
the New Testament, addresses his epistles in the main, they
are addressed to local churches. as they were organized in those
various cities where Paul had gone on his various journeys,
ministering and preaching the Word of God. There had been a
remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit, of course, in the
Acts, and how that ministry was clothed with such authority that
many were converted to Jesus Christ. They became believers,
and they were organized in local churches. And so, for example,
the Philippians, Paul can address himself to the bishops or the
overseers, is what the word really means, the overseers and deacons.
and to those who made up the church there at Philippi. But besides letters that are
addressed to particular churches, we also have a number of general
epistles. Again, for example, Peter's two
epistles are general. They're not addressed to a particular
local church, but they're addressed to the church in general, the
people of God. And remember how Peter opens
the second epistle, Simon Peter, we read, a servant and an apostle
of Jesus Christ to them who have obtained like precious faith
with us. So he immediately tells us what
is the mark of those who are the church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, as such, as have obtained, like precious faith with the
apostles." And as I said before, the verb that he uses here, to
obtain, does literally mean to obtain a thing by means of the
casting of the lot. On the surface it seems to be
such a chance thing that the lot falls where it does. But
we know, as the wise man tells us in Proverbs, that when the
lot is cast into the lap, the whole disposing thereof is of
the Lord. So what is Peter saying? It's
those who have obtained like precious faith according to God's
sovereign disposal. how the gospel had come to some
the savour of life unto life, and last to others it had been
the savour of death unto death. But those who knew the savour,
the saving, savour of that gospel, they came to believe. Here then
is the mark of the believer. And what do we read here concerning
this believer? Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness, leaning, it says, leaning upon her Beloved? What is this leaning? Does it
not remind us of what faith is? It's trust, it's confidence.
We have those words in Psalm 37, verse 5, Commit thy way unto
the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. commits thy way unto the Lord. Or the margin says, roll thy
way upon the Lord. It's a rolling of the soul, as
it were, upon the Lord. It's a leaning upon the Lord
that is being spoken of. And then in the next clause he
says, trust also in him. All that commitment of the soul
to the Lord, that rolling of the soul upon the Lord, His faith,
saving faith, that trusting in the Lord for the whole of salvation. And those who have that faith,
the gift of God, they see it as something that is very precious. As Peter again says in his first
epistle, unto you therefore which believe, it is precious. And the faith is a precious faith
because of the one who has bestowed it. It is the giver. Any gift
that we receive, surely the person who bestows that gift upon us
is one who is very much endeared to us. It's the giver who makes
the gift so precious, the gift of faith. Coming from God makes
God very precious to his people. because that faith is rooted
in love. When Paul writes to the Corinthians
in the familiar words of 1 Corinthians 13, he speaks much of that Christian
love, where we have it, of course, in the authorised version as
the word charity, how abideth faith, hope, Charity is, says
these three, but the greatest of these is charity. The greatest
is love. And what is that faith? It is faith that worketh by love. Oh, where there is faith then,
and trust in the Lord God, there must also be that very real love
to God. We love Him, says John. We love
Him because He first loved us. And there is such a dignity about
that love of God when it is shed abroad in the hearts of His people. And really this Song of Solomon,
as I've already intimated, in many ways sets before us the
great love between the Lord Jesus Christ and His spouse. The Lord
Jesus Christ and the Church which is His bride. and all the dignity
of that love that is being spoken of and we see something of it
in what we have in that previous reference that I referred to
chapter 3 verse 6 who is this that cometh out of the wilderness
like pillars of smoke perfume with myrrh and frankincense with
all powders of the merchants or here we see something of the
beauty of the church and what is that beauty that belongs to
the church? it comes by her meeting with Christ and that's the context
there in that third chapter in verse 4 the church says it was
but a little while that I passed from there 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 and into
the chamber of her that conceived me. I charge you, O ye daughters
of Jerusalem, by the rose and by the hinds of the field, that
ye stir not up nor awake my love till he please. And then those
words, Who is this that cometh out of the wilderness? Why, she
has found him. and she has found him because
he is that one who was sought after her and I'm sure we're
all familiar with the fact that here in scripture as we have
this book which is a song of loves we're told are we not that
Solomon composed one thousand and five songs 1,005 songs are spoken of there in
1st Kings 4.32 but we only have one song of Solomon in Holy Scripture
and the significance of course is that this particular song
has been inspired by God the Holy Ghost. He may have composed
others but this one is that that is not so much the word of King
Solomon, but it speaks of one greater than Solomon. A greater
than Solomon is here, the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a book,
we can read it, it celebrates the wonder of that love between
a man and his wife. And of course, when we go back
to the beginning, we see that this is what God himself instituted
and ordained. in creation. We know the words
that occur there at the end of the second chapter in the book
of Genesis. There was not fad and help meet
for Adam. God presents all the animals
before him. Adam names every living creature. What a man was this, you see,
as he comes pristine from the hand of his Maker God, he can
name and give suitable names to all the creatures that are
brought before him. He gave names to all cattle,
to the fowl of the air, to every beast of the field, but for Adam
there was not fowl and hound meat for him. And the Lord God
caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept, and he took
one of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And
the rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman,
and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone
of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman,
because she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave
his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and
they shall be one flesh, and they were both naked. the man
and his wife and were not ashamed or the purity of that love between
the man and the woman as we see it there in God's creation of
all things. But then alas there is the entrance
of sin of course into the world and all that comes as a result
of that transgression of God's holy commandment But when we
come to the New Testament, it's made clear that this relationship,
the most intimate of all human relationships, sets before us
the relationship between Christ and the Church. Again, I'm sure
at weddings many a time we've been reminded of the teaching
of the Apostle when he writes there in his epistle to the Ephesians. In the end of chapter 5 where
he's speaking of relative duties in life and he speaks of the
husband and he speaks also of the wife. And what does Paul
say concerning the duty of the husband? Husbands, love your
wives. He says, even as Christ also
loved the church and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of the word, washing of water
by the word, that he might present it to himself a glorious church,
not having spots or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should
be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. But then he goes on. This is
a great mystery. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the Church. Nevertheless, let
every one of you, in particular, so love his wife, even as himself
and the wife, she that she reverence her husband. Paul makes it so
clear to us then that This relationship that is celebrated here in the
Song of Solomon ultimately has a spiritual meaning, because
it directs us to the relationship between Christ and his spouse. And then when we come to the
very last book of Scripture, almost the very last chapter,
not quite but almost, there in Revelation 19 at verse 7 following,
we read of the great marriage supper of the Lamb. the great
marriage supper of the Lamb. And so here, in this Song of Solomon, what
do we see? We see Christ and His great love
for the Church, and we see the Church and her great love to
the Lord Jesus Christ, and that faith, that faith that worketh
by love. We're going to conclude our worship
tonight with that lovely 92nd hymn of Isaac Watts, who is this
fair one in distress that travels from this wilderness, impressed
with sorrows and with sins, on her beloved Lord she leans. This
is the spouse of Christ our God, bought with the treasures of
his blood, and her request and her complaint is but the voice
of every saint. How right is what's in his interpretation
and we're to understand this book as one that speaks to us
of the church and here we see that first mark of the church
she has faith, she is trusting, she is rolling her soul upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is this that cometh up from
the wilderness leaning upon her beloved the first mark then is
that the church is made up of believers but it's interesting
that the church comes out of a wilderness out of a wilderness
and what does the wilderness remind us of well it reminds
us something of from whence she was brought a desert place, a
barren place and how the question in a sense is repeated because
as I say we not only have it here at the end in chapter 8
and verse 5 we also have it previously there in chapter 3 and verse
6 and we think of the words that
we find in the book of Deuteronomy there in the song of Moses concerning
Israel a type of the church He found him in a desert land, in
a waste, howling wilderness, it said. He led him about. He
instructed him. He kept him as the apple of his
eye. Where does the Lord find his
people? In a desert land, in a waste,
in a howling wilderness. Oh, that's where we are by nature,
with those who are dead. in trespasses and in sins, alienated
from God, enemies in our minds, enemies by wicked works. And what does God do with us? When he awakens us, he causes
us to see and to feel what we are, and our sad condition. and the awfulness of that separation
and the impossibility of us ever of ourselves being able to come
to God. And sometimes He deals with us
in such a fashion that we feel so isolated and so alone and
so different. Remember the language of the
Psalmists. There in the 102nd Psalm, what does What does David say? Verse 6,
I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I am like an owl of the desert.
I watch, and am as a sparrow alone upon the housetop. Why? He's in a wilderness. He's in
a desert. He's all alone. And he feels
it. And God seems to be far off from
him. He's awakened now to his condition. But then, Doesn't the Lord God
come and minister to these whom he has awakened and shown what
a wilderness they're in? The language again of the prophet
Isaiah 43 20 he says, I give waters in the wilderness and
rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. Oh God will and does minister
to his people who are so desperate in their separation
from him. And we read that portion in the
35th chapter of Isaiah's prophecy. Here he speaks of the wilderness
so much. The wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them. The desert shall rejoice and
blossom as the rose. Verse 5. The eyes of the blind
shall be opened. The ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped. Then shall the lame man leapers and harp, the tongue
of the dumb sing, for in the wilderness shall waters break
out and streams in the desert, and the parched ground shall
become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the
habitation of dragons where each lay shall be grass with reeds
and rushes. And then again later in that
same book of Isaiah in chapter 51, and verse 3 it says the Lord
shall comfort Zion he will comfort all her waste places and he will
make her wilderness like Eden and a desert like the garden
of the Lord joy and gladness shall be found therein thanksgiving
and the voice of malady all that poor soul that was so barren
and so desperate and so alienated and feeling to be in a waste,
howling wilderness, in a desert land is brought to taste those
refreshing streams, even the gospel of the grace of God. But
then again, as the church is made up of believers and the
people are delivered from all their sins and all their separation
from God, so at times God's people feel themselves somewhat bewildered
even as they walk in that narrow way that's leading to life. At
times they find themselves in perplexing places. All there
are wildernesses that come into the lives of God's children even
after they are brought back to God, reconciled to Him. How many
wonder, how many are diverted? Remember how Bunyan paints the
picture in Pilgrim's Progress where he speaks of Bypass Meadow? Or how so often we fall because
of the legality of our old nature. How we're those who are so much
bound really to the law of God. And we think that we can do something
maybe for ourselves. and we trust too much in ourselves
in our duties, in our morality, in our good works we're not to trust in anything
of ourselves we're to be those who would see that all the fullness
of salvation is altogether found in another it is in the Lord
Jesus Christ that God has laid up all the fullness of His grace
And He is the only One. He is the only One. Who is this
that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her Beloved? What does Christ say? I am the
One, the Truth and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Me. And we sang it, didn't we just
now, in that hymn of John Sennett. Come hither, soul, I am the way."
Oh, that's the language of Christ in the Gospel. He will have us
come to Himself. Come hither, soul, I am the way. Amidst all our bewilderment and
all the confusion that sometimes we find ourselves in because
we're looking too much to self and not enough to Him who is
the only Saviour of sinners. Here then we see the person that
is being described. It's the believer. It's those
believers who of course make up the true Church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But let us turn from the person
and consider more carefully and more particularly the posture
that is being described. in these words at the beginning
of this verse. She comes up from the wilderness,
it says, leaning upon her beloved. And three things I want to mention
with regards to the significance of the posture that's being spoken
of. First of all, Here we see that
there is trust. In other words, there's real
faith, not just intellectual faith, not just mental ascent
to the truth of Scripture, but that real trusting, that leaning
upon the Beloved. Remember the language that we
have there in Psalm 37. Commit thy way unto the Lord. or as the margin says, roll thy
way upon the Lord, trust also in Him. All that commitment,
that rolling then, it is the same as trusting and it's the
posture of faith. And that faith then is really
an expression of trust. Trust in the Beloved as one leans
upon Him, confidence. that there will be continual
support and upholding from the Beloved. Again, we have the language
of King Solomon in the Proverbs. He says, Trust in the Lord with
all thine heart and lean not upon thine own understanding.
Not to lean in any way upon ourselves, but to commit our total trust
to the Lord Himself. Isn't that what faith does? Faith
is that looking away from ourselves. As we have it so clearly there
in Hebrews 12 and verse 2, it's that looking onto Jesus, the
author and finisher of our faith. And the strength of the verb
that's used, to look, literally, to look away. That's what it
means, you look away. You look away from self, you
look away only onto Jesus, one object. Looking away onto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. And it's interesting that their faith is associated with
the eye. We look with our eyes. And the
eye is always, of course, looking away from self. We never can see our eyes. We see a reflection of our eyes,
if we look into a glass, into a mirror, but the eye is always
looking away. And that's the confidence that
we have. It's looking to the Beloved and
to Him alone. Or we think of the language that
we have there at the end of Isaiah chapter 50, that contrast that
the Prophet draws, who is among you, he says, who is among you
that feeleth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that
walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the
name of the Lord and stay upon his God. Well, that's real faith,
you see. walking in darkness, walking
sometimes, as it were, through that waste, howling wilderness. No light. What are we to do? Trust in the name of the Lord.
Stay upon God. And then the contrast. Behold,
he says, all ye that kindle a fire, that accomplish yourselves about
with sparks, walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks
that ye have kindled, This shall ye have at mine hand, ye shall
lie down in sorrow. Oh, here are they, you see, who
can kindle their own fire, make their own religion, create their
own faith, or so they imagine. But it's all, the total folly,
there's no salvation there. This shall ye have at mine hand,
he says, ye shall lay down in sorrow. Ah, but those who are
trusting in the name of the Lord, those who are staying upon their
God, they're brought through. They're brought through all their
trials, all their troubles, all their difficulties. Why? They
have confidence and trust in the Lord. And their posture,
you see, indicates that. They're leaning, always leaning
upon the Beloved. But what else do we see with
regards to their fight? There's trust. But there's also
here companionship. They're friends. They're friends. Of course it's... It's that love between the husband
and his wife. They're the best of friends. Or can two walk together except
they be agreed? asked the prophets Amos. There's
closeness, there's intimacy. Why there, as we have it at the
end of Genesis 2, the two, the twain become one flesh. They're
man and wife. They're no longer two, but they're
one. This is the intimacy of the relationship that the believer
has with the Lord Jesus Christ. What companionship? Intimacy. Closeness. And we see
it, of course, in the experience of the beloved Apostle John. Or that one who at the institution
of the Holy Supper was there leaning on Jesus' bosom. And
he's described as that disciple whom Jesus loved. That disciple
whom Jesus loved. And here, what is the name that
is given to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why, He is her Beloved. He is her Beloved. He loves her
and she loves Him. Christ is the Beloved. And how
this name is constantly used here in the song. Look at chapter
2. And there, in verse 16 my beloved is mine
and I am his he feedeth among the lilies then in chapter 5
verse 9 the question what is I beloved more than another beloved
or thou fairest among women what is I beloved more than another
beloved that thou dost so charge us my beloved is white and ruddered
the chiefest among ten thousand. Then we have this remarkable
description of her Beloved in the verses that follow. Then again in chapter 6 and verse 3 it's
a repetition of what we had previously there in the second chapter.
I am my Beloved's. and My Beloved is Mine, He feedeth
among the lilies. And as the Lord Jesus Christ
is that One who is the Beloved of the Church, so of course He
is also the Father's Beloved. Doesn't the Father say as much?
At His baptising, This is My Beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. And then again there in the Mount
of Transfiguration, This is My Beloved Son, He repeats it. in
whom I am well pleased, and he says, hear ye here. Or changing
the figure, are we those who being his sheep want to hear
his voice? That's the mark of the sheep.
They know his voice. They follow him. Or they know
not the voice of strangers. Here is that idea then of companionship,
closeness. There's trust, there's confidence,
there's his blessed companionship. Isn't Abraham, who is the father
of all them that believe, isn't he also spoken of as the friend
of God? Abraham believed in God, and
he was called the friend of God. And so the believer is that one
who is the friend, the friend of God, the friend of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, there is this blessed companionship. And then, finally, there's deliverance. There's trust, confidence, companionship,
and there's also deliverance. She comes up from the wilderness. She comes up from the wilderness.
In chapter 3 and verse 6, it says, She cometh out of the wilderness. doesn't that speak of deliverance all there must ultimately you
see be that coming and as she comes up out of the wilderness
comes up out of all the desert of sin she comes to the Lord
Jesus Christ all that the Father giveth me he says shall come
to me and he that cometh to me I shall in no wise cast out. He that cometh to me, he says,
shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Oh, the Lord supplies all that
his people stand in need of. But what of the manner? What
of the manner of this coming? How does she come? Well, going
back to chapter 3 and verse 6. Who is this that cometh out of
the wilderness? It says, like pillars of smoke. Perfume with myrrh and frankincense,
with all powders of the merchant. Doesn't this tell us something
of the way she comes? She comes by prayer. The psalmist
says, let my prayer be set before thee as incense, and the lifting of my hands as
the evening sacrifice. It's prayer. The prayer coming
up as incense. There in the book of the Revelation
we read of the golden vials full of the odours which are the prayers
of the saints. In chapter 5 and verse 8, and
again in chapter 8, at verse 3 following, we read of the golden
censer that's full of incense in the hand of the angel and
it says the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of
the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand. Reminds us of that golden altar,
the altar of incense there in the tabernacle. And it's the
prayers ascending and that's what we see really back in chapter
3 and verse 6. It's the manner in which he comes
up. she comes up out of the wilderness and there we're told how in that
coming it's like pillars of smoke perfumed with myrrh and frankincense
with all powders of the merchant and that's what we're privileged
to do that's why we come together of course in this fashion Thursday
by Thursday we call it a prayer meeting we come to unite in our
prayers as well as in our praises, or that the Lord would help us
then to come. In this spirit that we see in
Christ's spouse here, in this remarkable blessed book of Solomon's
song, who it is that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning
upon her beloved. He says, I raise thee up under
the apple tree, There thy mother brought thee forth, there she
brought thee forth, that's where thou art. Well, the Lord be pleased
to bless His Word.