We turn to God's Word in the
portion of scripture we've just read, the Song of Solomon, chapter
2. And I'll read again the last
verse of the chapter, verse 17. Until the daybreak and the shadows
flee away, turn, my beloved, and be thou like a roe or a young
heart upon the mountains of Bethsa. Previously at verse 8 where we
began to read it says the voice of my beloved behold he cometh
leaping upon the hills, leaping upon the mountains and
skipping upon the hills some way I suppose we can say that
in verse 8 we have the answer to the prayer that is being expressed
in verse 17 in that 17th verse the request
is that the beloved would turn and that he would come that he'd
be like the row or the young hearts upon the mountains but
then in that 8th verse we see that that's what he is actually
already about that's what he's already doing before they call
I will answer says God was there yet speaking I will hear well
tonight I want to really concentrate on the prayer that we have at
the end of this 17th verse the words, turn my beloved and
be thou like a roe or a young heart upon the mountains of Bitha. So the theme is the mountains,
the mountains of Bitha, or as the margin says, the mountains
of division, the mountains of division. We don't often turn
to this particular part of Holy Scripture, the Song of Solomon,
but it is of course quite a remarkable book and we see the Lord Jesus
Christ in every part of the book. We're told back in the first
book of Kings chapter 4 and verse 32 that Solomon was responsible
for some 3,000 proverbs and 1,005 songs. Well, we have the book of Proverbs.
There are many Proverbs. I've never counted the number
of Proverbs that are found in that particular book of Holy
Scripture. But we only have one song. So
whilst he may have composed all those songs, over a thousand,
it was just one of them that was inspired by the Holy Ghost. And so he's found here in the
canon of Scripture. and it's not surprising because
of all those songs we read in the opening verse that this is
the song of songs the song of songs which is Solomon's and
Solomon of course very much a type of the Lord Jesus Solomon the
son of David and Christ is that one who is of the seed of David. He is David's greater son. Solomon,
whose name means peace, and the Lord Jesus is that one who is
the prince of peace. And at his birth the angel sang
peace on earth, goodwill towards men. He came to accomplish all
the terms of what is referred to as that counsel of peace,
that eternal covenant of grace. And so, when we come to read
of Solomon's song, we do well to take account of the Lord Jesus
Christ himself. Having said that, we also recognize
that it is a love song, And on a natural level, it is speaking
of that most intimate of all human relationships, that between
a man and his wife, the intimacy of that relationship. God, of course, at the beginning
created the male and female and brought them together and they
became one flesh. But when we come to the New Testament,
We're all familiar, I'm sure, with what the Apostle says about
marriage there at the end of the fifth chapter in his epistle
to the Ephesians. Remember what Paul says, having
spoken of the respective duties and responsibilities of the husband
and of the wife. He says there at the end, Ephesians
5, 31, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and
shall be joined unto his wife and they too shall be one flesh
repeating what we have there at the beginning in Genesis chapter
2 but then he says 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 see that she reverence
her husband so he's speaking of that intimate relationship
between the man and his wife but he says it's a mystery because
ultimately here we see the Lord Jesus Christ and his church and
so not surprisingly that's what we see here when we come to this
love song which is the song of songs speaking of Christ principally
but also speaking of his his bride which is his church Now,
here we have mention of His coming. Back in verse 8, Behold, it says,
He cometh. And when we think of His coming,
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're aware, I'm sure,
that there are different comings of Christ that are spoken of
in Holy Scripture. First of all, He came in the
incarnation. Well, that is the great promise
that we have in the Old Testament, is it not? The sureness, the
certainty that in the fullness of the time God would send forth
his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. And there, in
Isaiah 35, And verse 4, we have the promise say to them that
out of a fearful heart be strong, fear not, behold, your God will
come with vengeance, even God with a recompense. He will come
and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall
be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame and lepers
and heart and the tongue of the dumb sing. And we know how the
Lord Jesus Christ at that first coming did perform multitudes
of miracles, all a confirmation of that wonderful message of
the Gospel that He came to proclaim. He came in the Incarnation. And we have again that promise
there in Isaiah 7.14, Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and
bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which
by interpretation of course means God with us. For unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince. of peace. That is the incarnation,
that great mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He came. And he who came and
accomplished that work of redemption has now returned to heaven, risen
from the dead, ascended on high, but he has promised that he will
come again. There is that second coming that
we are to be those who are looking for, watching, waiting for His
appearing. And I wonder sometimes if we
do really give enough attention to that blessed promise that
the Lord is to come at the end of time. He will come in power,
He will come in glory. And remember the language that
we have there in the last book, Revelation 1 and verse 7. Behold,
it says, He cometh with clouds, And every eye shall see Him,
and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of the earth
shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen. And then at the
end of Scripture, Even so, come, Lord Jesus. Amen. Oh, we have
that promise then that He is to come a second time. As I say,
there are the several comings of the Lord Jesus. But then also,
we recognize how He does come to us here in Holy Scripture. We know that He is the Word of
God incarnate, and the Bible contains the Word of God in Scripture. and we sing those lines of heart
so often the scriptures of the Lord bear one tremendous name
the written and incarnate word in all things are the same and
so when we when we come to the scriptures it's the voice of
the Lord Jesus that we should be wanting to hear and he assures
us heaven and earth shall pass away but my words shall not pass
away Is it not the Word of God that we have here from Genesis
through to Revelation? It is the Word of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He comes. And when we come to the Word
of God, when we read it in our own homes, when we come into
the chapel, when we come to the service of public worship, we
read the Word of God and we look to the Lord that He will come.
by His Spirit in His words. And so as He comes in the Scripture,
so we desire that He might come also by His Spirit. Or does He not promise that the
Spirit will come? and He will come as that Spirit
of the Lord Jesus Christ. We want more than to have God's
Word before us on the page of our Bibles. We want that Word
to be brought home by the Spirit into our heart. We want Him to
come to us as the Spirit of Christ, to reveal to us the things of
the Savior. As those Thessalonians experienced,
Paul tells them, our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but
in power. and in the Holy Ghost and in
much assurance. Well, we need the Spirit to come
and to take the Word. The guide to the Corinthians,
Paul tells them, the Kingdom of God is not in word only but
in power. And what is the power? It is
the Spirit, the One who first gave the words, those holy men
of God speaking being moved by the Spirit of God. The Spirit
must come and come to us to take that word and reveal to us the
things of the Lord Jesus. So there are these different
comings. There's the first coming, the
Incarnation. There's the coming again, the
second coming. There's the Scriptures. There's the Spirit. And all of
these are comings of the Lord Jesus Christ. And here in the
words that I want to really send to your attention upon at the
end of this chapter we have a prayer as it were for Christ's powerful
coming to us. Turn my beloved and be thou like
a roe or a young heart upon the mountains of beef and upon the
mountains of division. Thinking then of these mountains
of division First of all, I want to say something with regards
to the mountains. They do form a barrier, as it
were. They divide us. They divide us
from the Lord. And then secondly, to consider
the manner in which Christ comes, the manner in which Christ overcomes
the mountains when He is pleased in His grace to come to us. First
of all, then, the mountains that divide. And observe their number. It's not one mountain, is it?
It's a plural. It's a plural here in verse 17.
It's the mountains. And it's the same back in verse
8. It's the mountains again. They are more than one. In fact, they are many. In fact,
Ralph Erskine, the old Scots preacher, says they are more
than can be numbered. these mountains of division.
And how the Psalmist evidently felt that there were many things
that were a great hindrance. He speaks of innumerable evils. There in the 40th Psalm, in verse
12, innumerable evils, he says, encompass me about or like the
mountains round about Jerusalem. Innumerable evils have encompassed
me about. My iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head. Therefore my heart faileth me. There are so many mountains that
are, as it were, a barrier and stand between our souls and the
Lord Jesus Christ oftentimes. And what are these? Well, you
can think, I'm sure, of many of them. There's unbelief. Oh, unbelief, that accursed sin
that besets us. There's that deadness that so
often we feel in our souls. There are those temptations,
the devil so wily a foe, and he comes and he assaults us and
he lays his snares for us. There are our backslidings of
heart, how we're prone to depart from the ways of the Lord. There
are those troubles, those tribulations, those afflictions. There are
innumerable mountains to be overcome. Their number, their quantity
is great. But then here we're also told
something of their nature in Scripture. And what are they? Well, they're diverse and they're
different. We read of mountains, and we
read of hills, in verse 8, it comes, leaping upon the mountains
it says, and skipping upon the hills. There are great mountains
we might say, and there are also small hills. And in the context,
in verse 15, We read of little foxes. Take us the little foxes,
it says, and spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes.
Now, you know the imagery of the vine in scripture. God speaks of bringing a vine
out of Egypt in Isaiah chapter 5 and setting it in the promised
land. And that vine, of course, is
the Old Testament church. That's Israel, a type of the
church. And when we come to the New Testament,
the Lord Jesus Christ himself says, I am the vine, you are
the branches. He is that one who is the head, and the church
is his body. He is the vine, he is the stem,
and there are the branches. And what are these vines? These vines in the plural are
the churches. The gatherings of the people
of God in certain localities. We believe in that principle
of the gathered church, that the The church in a certain locality,
properly constituted, is as it were THE church in miniature. But we read, you
see, of the little foxes that spoil the vines. There are tender
grapes in the vines. And what are the little foxes?
Well, we could think of many things. The little foxes might be understood
in terms maybe of little deflections from the true faith, little errors
that can creep in. And how those little errors can
become big errors in time. And even we see churches that
descend historically into great heresies. Oh, there are little
hills and yet the little hills are in some ways as dangerous
as the great mountains when it comes to the well-being of the
church. We have to watch for little divisions,
little differences. These things can cause much distress
to the tender grapes, those little ones who are in the churches
of the Lord Jesus Christ. There are little hills then but
they're also great mountains and what does the Psalmist say
as he comes before God with his confessions Psalm 25 and verse
11 O Lord he says pardon my iniquity for it is great for it is great
or do we feel the greatness of our sin isn't that sin sometimes
as a great mountain that brings only division between us and
God. But the comfort of the Christian,
of course, is that though our sins might be great, the grace
of God is so much greater than our sins. Where sin abounded,
grace did so much more abound, says the Apostle. All the aboundings
and the superaboundings of the grace of God. We're going to
sing that 212th hymn. In the second verse, what though
your numerous sins exceed the stars that fill the skies and
aiming at the eternal throne like pointed mountains rise. Great sins, but then it goes
on. Verse 4, see here an endless
ocean flows of never failing grace Behold the dying Saviour's
veins, the sacred flood increase, it rises high and drowns the
hills, as neither sure nor bound, nor if we search to find our
sins, our sins can ne'er be found. Oh yes, there are great sins.
but there is greater grace and we thank God for that. They are diverse and they're
different. We need to be aware of little
sins as well as great sins, of little errors as well as great
heresies, of little differences that can develop into sad, sad
divisions. And so we see here as these Mountains
are different and diverse. There is always that principle
about them. They are dividing. They are the mountains of Bitha.
They are the mountains of division. Now, we have to recognize that
there is a very fundamental division between us and God. Even in creation
we have to remember that because He only is the Creator. It is
He that has made us, not we ourselves. And there is that gulf that's
fixed, as it were, between the Creator and His creature. He
is the Eternal One. And we are feeble, frail men
and women, creatures of a day. And remember the questions that
are put there in Job 11. Canst thou by searching find
out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty
unto perfection? It is high as heaven. What canst
thou do? Deeper than hell, what canst
thou know? The measure thereof is longer than the earth and
broader than the seas. The vastness of God, the immensity
of God. The God who fills heaven and
earth. The one who fills all the vastness
of the universe. He is the great God. We have
to recognize that's a very fundamental difference between God and us. But then, God made man upright
He created man in his image, after his likeness. But the last
man is a fallen creature. Man has disobeyed. Man has sinned. And God is the Holy One. And
we are sinners. What a division that is between
us. Oh, he is that God who is of purer eyes than to behold
evil who cannot look upon iniquity. Isaiah says, your iniquities
have separated between you and your God, and your sins have
hid His face from you. We thank God that there is that
reconciling in the Lord Jesus Christ, or how He came to accomplish
that great work of reconciliation. to make sinners again at one
with God, or to receive that blessed atonement, to know that
we are those who can come and we can sincerely call upon Him
as our God, even as our Father which is in heaven. But these
diverse, different mountains, they are all mountains of grief,
mountains of division. But also They're dark mountains
to us. They're dark mountains. Our minds are so benighted that
we feel ourselves to be very much in the darkness, having
the understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God through
the ignorance that is in us because of the blindness of our hearts. And when the Lord God begins
to deal with his people, is it not a truth that when there's
a conviction of sin, it's like dark, dark mountains? And this is how the Prophet Jeremiah
speaks of conviction. The language that we find there
in Jeremiah 13 and verse 16 Give glory to the Lord your God, before He cause darkness, and
before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains. And while
you look for light, He turn it into the shadow of death, and
make it gross darkness." What language is this that the Lord God is speaking
through His servant the Prophet? give glory to the Lord your God
before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon
the dark mountains and while you look for light he turn it
into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness and when
God begins with us the strange thing is that that's the first
thing that we're made to feel that we're in the darkness and
God is light and it's as that light comes into our soul that
we feel the darkness, which is our alienation from Him, our
ignorance, our sin. And God comes with the conviction
of sin, but then God also grants to us that gracious promise of
the Gospel. And you remember how it's expressed
in the words of another prophet, Isaiah, there in chapter 6. We
read these words, Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the
glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, the darkness
shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people, but the
Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon
thee. He doesn't leave his people in
the darkness of their conviction. When he begins with us, he shows
us something of what our situation is. We have to learn that. I mean Christ comes not to call
the righteous but sinners. The whole have no need of the
physician but they that are sick. We go into no salvation and we'll
come to understand what it is to feel our utter darkness and
to see that there's light only in the Lord Jesus Christ who
is the light of the world. And those that follow him they
do not walk in darkness. They have the light of life. And how it cost the Lord Jesus
so dearly to accomplish that great salvation. Remember what
we're told when it comes to Christ himself paying the price of redemption,
there was a price to be paid. And we see it in the sufferings,
we see it in the death of the Lord Jesus. There in Isaiah,
there in Matthew, in Matthew 27 and verse 45 we're told as
he He's hanging there upon the cross
and from the 6th hour to the 9th hour there was darkness.
Darkness over the face of the earth and about the 9th hour
He cries with a loud voice, Eloi, Eloi, Lamas of Actana, being
interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Oh, what darkness had to come
into the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the price that He had
to pay. bearing the punishment of those sins of His people that
were laid upon Him. And as there is redemption by
price in what it cost the Lord Jesus Christ, so when He comes
to us there, there's redemption that is made known in a most
powerful way in our souls. It's the God who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness who shines in our hearts. to
give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. All that blessed redemption,
that great salvation has to be brought home then into the soul. And we have it in the Lord Jesus
Christ. And again, look at what it says
in the first part of our text, verse 17, until the daybreak.
And the shadows flee away, And another figure that we have
previously, the passing of the winter. Verse 11, Lo, 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. Oh, there are these figures
that speak of that great deliverance from darkness to light, from
winter to summer. all the great blessings that
come in the gospel. The darkness then must be overcome.
All the mountains, mountains that are great, hills that are
smaller, that are different, that are diverse, they all bring
division, they all bring darkness, but there is one who was overcome. And so, let's turn to consider
more particularly the manner of the Lord's coming. The prayer here is that he comes
like, the figure is used, be thou like a roe or a young heart
upon the mountains of Bethlehem. And see how it's the same figure
as we have previously there at verse 8. the voice of my beloved
behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains skipping upon the
hills my beloved is like a roe or a young heart what is the
manner then of his coming? I mention some five things briefly
briefly first of all his coming is sure all his coming is sure It's all in the Covenant. Remember
dear old Sidney Norton used to like to say that everything is
in the Covenant. And that makes everything in
salvation so sure and so certain. And we have it there in a verse
that we find in Isaiah 54 verse 10. It says the mountains shall
depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee. All the mountains of
Bethsa are going to be removed, but here is that that is never
removed, that never passes away. My kindness, he says, the covenant
of my peace, that shall never be removed. Here is something
then that is sure and certain, as sure and certain as God himself,
because when he gave promise, because he could swear by no
greater, he swore by himself. Oh, what a blessed promise is
that that we have then in the gospel of the grace of God. Oh,
remember those words of promise that we've already directed you
to there in Isaiah 60. Arise, shine, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold,
the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness of
people, but the Lord shall arise upon them. and His glory shall
be seen upon you." All these promises are gay and are men
in Christ. They're all the shalls and the
wills of God's everlasting covenant. And this is what we have to pray.
This is what we have to plead when we come to God and we feel
our hearts may be to be dead and dark. What are we to do? We're to plead with God. Christ
himself says if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed ye
shall say unto this mountain remove to yonder place and it
shall obey them and nothing shall be too hard
for thee you see faith has an overcoming power it triumphs
in the dying hour says dear Isaac Watts how true it is or the manner
of Christ coming then, here is something that is sure, because
it's all in the covenant of Christ. And then His coming is also majestic
and stately. There in verse 8, Behold He cometh,
it says, leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. One of the commentators, a Scotsman,
James Durham, says that this imports beauty, majesty, stateliness. Oh, remember there was one who
came as the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ. There was
that ministry of the Baptist, John the Baptist. And as it's
spoken of there in Isaiah chapter 14, Verse three, the voice of him
that crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make straight in the desert a highway for our God, every valley shall
be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. It is
a majestic coming, Oh, it's a coming in state, really. It's the glory
that is revealed in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
that then that is sure, it's that that is majestic. How does
the Lord come? How does He overcome? Well, He
comes in Scripture, doesn't He? He comes in Scripture and particularly
in the proclamation and the preaching of that Word of Scripture. That's
how the Lord comes. And again, we have the imagery. What we have there in Isaiah
52, in verse 7, is taken up by Paul when he speaks of the ministry
of the Word of God and the preaching of the Gospel. In Romans chapter
10, verse 14, "...O then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed, And how shall they
believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they
hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent, as it is written, and refers to Isaiah 52.7, how
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace
and bring glad tidings of good things. But if we go to the actual
text, he doesn't quote the text in full there, but if we go back
to what is actually said, in Isaiah 52 and verse 7, we see
that there are references there to the mountains. How beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings
and publisheth peace. that bringeth good tidings of
good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God
reigneth. Beautiful upon the mountains,
even upon those mountains of Bethan, upon those mountains
of division. Oh, there is a glory, you see,
when the Lord comes in the Gospel, when He comes by His Spirit in
the ministry of His own Word. Faith cometh by hearing. and hearing by the word of God
he overcomes he overcomes the sinner he brings the sinner even
to himself he calls and that call is an effectual call and
so as he comes in scripture so as we've already intimated it
is a spiritual coming it is a spiritual coming Zechariah The Book of the Prophet
Zechariah in chapter 4 and verse 6. Not by might, it says, nor
by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts. Do what thou,
O great mountain, before the rubble, thou shalt become a plain,
and he shall bring forth a headstone thereof with shoutings crying,
Grace, Grace, unto it. Oh, that's how the Lord comes,
by His Spirit, not by might nor by power. It's not anything of
men, it's not anything in the preacher with his clever arguments,
his persuasive preaching, it's none of that. It's not rhetoric. When Paul speaks of his ministry,
his presence amongst them was weak and despicable. But it was
all in the power of the Spirit of God. Oh, it's a spiritual
coming. And then finally, it is a swift
coming. The roe and the hearts, these
are animals that have swift of foot, aren't they? Have swift
of foot. The voice of my beloved, behold,
he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills, he's
like a roe, he's like a young heart how quickly, how quickly
he comes and again the language that we have in that evangelical
prophet Isaiah, his book so full of Christ, so full of the gospel
Isaiah 64, or that they would have reigned the heavens and
that they would have come down, that the mountains might flow
down at thy presence As when the melting of fire burneth,
the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known
to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence.
When thou didst terrible things which we look not for, thou camest
down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. The Lord overcomes
all the obstacles, nothing can stand before Him. Isn't that
our comfort then? We might feel sometimes that
there are so many mountains of these. So much that seems to
divide our souls from Christ. Maybe He seems far off and we
want Him to come very near. We want that the Lord would come
and appear for us and overcome all our enemies. And all those
things that stand between us. Well, can we not pray in the
language that we have here in our text tonight. And ask the Lord. Turn. Turn,
my beloved. Be thou like a roe or a young
heart upon the mountains of Bethlehem. May the Lord bless His Word to
us. Let us sing that hymn that I
referred to, 212. 212 Tunis Strasbourg 244