I think I should have had this
pulled up beforehand, huh? There it is. Song of Solomon, chapter 1, and
we'll be looking at the first four verses this morning. Get
my Bible turned over there. Song of Solomon. Verse 1 says, the song of songs,
which is Solomon's. Let him kiss me with the kisses
of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine. Because of
the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as an ointment poured
forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. Draw me. we will run after thee. The king hath brought me into
his chambers. We will be glad and rejoice in
thee. We will remember thy love more
than wine. The upright love thee." Now,
as we do with all Old Testament scriptures, we must, without
exception, Without exception, every time we look into the Old
Testament scriptures, we must first and foremost, above all
things, look for Jesus Christ. We should look for Jesus Christ.
The whole of God's Word to us is concerning Him. This book is a Him book. It is all about Him. It is. Everything. We read this
in Luke chapter 24, those disciples on the road to Emmaus, Jesus
preaching to them, He beginning at Moses, and all the prophets
expounded unto them all things concerning Himself. These things
are concerning Jesus Christ. And unless we see Christ, if
we fail to see Christ in the Old Testament, we will have no
profit for our souls. There will be no gain for us
if we do not see Jesus Christ first above everything. Men look
at the Old Testament law and they try to find a better way
to live. That's the natural view of the
Old Testament. They say, well, the law of God
is a way for us to get by better. And truly, if a man lives after
those things, he'll have better relations with people, he'll
have better physical benefits. But there is no lasting value
to the soul unless you see Jesus Christ as the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Unless you see
Jesus Christ as all the fulfillment of the law, the law will profit
you nothing. Men may look at the prophets
of God in the Old Testament and see the truth of God's predictions. Can't you see that in the Old
Testament prophecies? The Lord Jesus, the God in Isaiah
says, I'll call a man named Cyrus and Cyrus will come and he'll
build that temple that I told you, he'll free my people. Well
that came to pass, we can see that. But I'll tell you this,
if you don't see Christ in that, you've missed the whole point.
If you don't see Jesus Christ who is the deliverer of his people,
the temple of his people, you've missed it. And especially in
this book, in this book of the Song of Solomon, we must especially
see Christ because that and His church are the only two characters
in this book. Him and His bride. Those are
the only two characters that are speaking throughout this
whole book. I like this quote in many ways. The Song of Solomon is most precious
and refreshing book of inspiration. It is a book altogether about
the fellowship and communion with Christ. It is not in any
sense to be interpreted literally. It is a spiritual book, an allegory. a spiritual dialogue between
Christ, the heavenly bridegroom, and His bride. That's it. So
as we look at this book of the Song of Solomon this morning,
I want us to see that this is wholly about Christ and His relationship,
His union with His bride, the church, the elect of God. Spurgeon says this book stands
alone as a tree of life in the midst of the garden, and you
cannot take of this fruit unless Jesus Christ leads you past the
flaming sword of the cherubim. You're not going to be able to
understand this book of Song of Solomon unless you see it
as it is meant. It's Jesus Christ's relationship,
a loving relationship with His people. That's what this whole
book is about. Now as we look at these four
verses this morning, I want us to keep this in constant view. I want this to be the desire
of our hearts this morning. Is that Jesus Christ would manifest
his fresh tokens of grace to us. Do you need that? Do you need the experience of
it? Manifest His presence. I want Him to manifest His presence
to me. I want to know Him in a very
real and intimate way. I want Him to manifest His tokens
of love and grace to my cold heart this morning. So as we
go through this, I pray that this is your desire. And then
we'll see what his response is. Pray that we keep this in mind. First of all, look at this in
verse 2. Notice, first of all, the desire
of every believer in Christ. This is a desire of everyone
who loves Christ. Look at this. Let him kiss me
with the kisses of his mouth. This song begins without introduction. It begins with a cry, a plea,
if you will. It is like a woman that has been
separated from her husband for a long period of time. One whose husband has taken a
long trip and is about to return and as soon as he comes into
the door, the first thing his wife says was, I've missed Him so much. Let Him kiss me. Let Him show
me His affection. Believer, we often feel separated
from our Savior. Many times, either because of
our sin or because of divine providence, we feel separated. And I tell you, the times between
seem very long. I don't care if He manifested
His presence to me just two minutes ago, it seems like a long time
since I've missed Him. Sometimes He hides His face from
us. And we, like David, cry out,
restore to me. the joy of my salvation. Do you long to experience the
joy of your salvation? I do. I long to experience the
joy of my salvation. So I cry, restore It is when
our hearts are cold, our faith is weak, and the exercise of
grace is low. It's then we cry out, let Him,
not anyone else, let Jesus, let my Savior come and kiss me with
the kisses of His mouth. I miss Him so much. I miss Him. Here's a bride cry out for His
presence. that He restore the joy of our
salvation. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I will be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins, and blot out mine iniquities. Create in me
a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Is
that not our cry when we fall, when we're down? This is our
cry. This is the same cry of the bride,
let Him kiss me. Believers in Christ we must not
be content with past revelations of His presence. How cold do those become? I think
it's good we remember them I think it's good we remember that he
has manifest his presence to us in the past but truly we should
desire him we should constantly beseech him to give us ever fresh
tokens of his love and grace and I know this he will he will
give it to us because I tell you believer he loves you more
than you ever loved him More than you desire it, He desires
to give it. Is that not great? Is that not
gracious? I love that when Ruth was going
out and she was gleaning in the field and He told His servants,
He said, You let out a few handfuls on purpose. You let out handfuls
on purpose. He loves His people. And His
people desire Him. We desire fresh manna, don't
we? What happens to manna stored up? It rots and stinks. It does. I need His grace today,
don't you? I need Him now. I don't need
Him ten minutes. I need Him now. I want Him to
come now. Lord, come and deliver me, rescue
me, restore that joy that I had with Thee. How? By being present
with me. Being present. One thing David
said, I have desired of the Lord and that will I seek after. To
dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Not
just part of them. I want to be with Him in His
presence all the days of my life. I want to behold His beauty all
the days of my life. I want to know how beautiful
He truly is all the days of my life, especially today. I want
to know how beautiful He is today. and that I may inquire in His
temple." And you know what? You may inquire in His temple.
Is that not great? You may come now and ask. You
may come freely, you may come boldly, and you may cry out to
your bridegroom, kiss me with the kisses of your mouth. Now,
I need to see affections. Oh, please come. What are these kisses of the
Savior's mouth that we long to see? Is it not His word? Is that
not what comes from His mouth? It is a word of grace. I long
to hear a word of grace. I long to hear a word of mercy
because I don't need merit. I need mercy. I need grace and
I need it now. I need it now. I must have it.
Give me Christ or else I die. There is no other median. There
is no middle ground here. I must have Him and I must have
Him holy and how can I know Him? How can I know His presence?
But by His Word. His Word. We desire daily to
dwell in His presence and in prayer seek His Word. The kisses of His mouth are His
Word, the Word of God that comes in power of the Holy Spirit. It is by His Word we hear of
His sovereign free mercy. Where else are you going to hear
that? Are you going to hear that from your family, your friends?
Will you hear that from this religious world? No, you won't
hear that from them. They won't provide this joy.
They can't provide this comfort. Only the Word of God can provide
this for you. Only the Spirit of God can apply
it to you. It is by His Word we hear of
complete forgiveness. Do you need complete forgiveness?
I need absolute, complete, free forgiveness of sins. That's what
I need. Where am I going to find that?
Only in Jesus Christ. Only by His Gospel and only by
the Holy Spirit revealing it to me. He must come and speak to our
hearts of peace. It is the kisses of His Word
that by them we may see His love is immutable, His grace is eternal,
and His forgiveness complete. It's only by His Word you can
see these things. Is it not our desire to know
His love for us? That's what the kisses of His
mouth are, to know His affection to us. I know this, that I can tell
my wife all I want to, I love her, but if I show her no affection,
that is going to be a cold and dead language. And I tell you,
we read the Word of God, and lest the Spirit of God come and
show us affection, it becomes cold and callous in our hearts. It becomes nothing more than
a knowledge that we recite over and over again. I don't want
that. I want Him. I want to know Him. Now, I've known Him, but I tell
you, I want to know Him now. I want to know Him now. This
is our desire. And we are never satisfied but
by His presence. We are never satisfied but in
the knowledge of His love. And I know this, I'm not satisfied
with my knowledge of my love. Are you? Are you satisfied with
your love? Boy. If there's any joy in that, it'd
be very short. Our love is not very strong. Oh, but His love. Now there's
something you can rejoice in for a long time because His love's
eternal love, immutable, doesn't change for you. However high
God's love has been for you from eternity, it's still just as
high and as far and as deep as it ever was. It never changes.
His love for you never changes. This is His kisses to you. This
is His embrace, His affection. You know, the prodigal son was
not content with his own repentance, was he? When he came, he didn't
even know. He said, well, if I just beg
for forgiveness, maybe, maybe he'll make me a servant. But
I tell you, the prodigal son was not content until his father
ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. Then he knew he was
accepted. He knew. He was accepted of the
Father. Oh, now, now may Jesus Christ come and
kiss us with the kisses of His mouth. Secondly, know that His kisses
are better than wine. He said, Thy kisses for thy love
is better than wine. Wine in the scripture is a picture
of joy, a picture of joy. Now when Jesus comes to our weak
and wounded heart and kisses us with the tokens of His grace
and love, we are then able to rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. When He comes, when He comes,
we're able then, we're able then to be embraced by these things. These things are no longer just
doctrine on a page. They are real! His embrace gives
us such joy and His affection, His love for us gives us such
peace. And we say, Your love is better
than any earthly joy. Any earthly joy. Now physical
one, causes men to be joyful. Some men. Some men. It makes
them angry or bitter. But for the most part, wine is
supposed to be somewhat joyous. And it causes men to forget their
troubles. Sometimes they forget their own
name. But it causes them to forget. And wine may soothe a man's nerves. But this joy is soon gone. Physical
wine, it is soon gone, and he's left with what? Solomon says
in Proverbs 23, 29, he says, Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who hath contentions? Who hath
babblings? Who hath wounds without cause?
Who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine. But the kisses of Christ are
better than wine because His love is continuous joy. His love is not joy for the night. His love is joy for the night
and the day. His joy continues forever. His love has no sorrow. In His
love there are no contentions and no wounds. He bore our sorrows
on the cross. All our sorrows. You want to
see my sorrows? Behold the cross. My sorrows
became His sorrows. And He bore my sorrows on the
cross. The justice of God is no more
in contention with me. He hath made peace by the blood
of His cross. And the law cannot wound me.
because he hath met all the demands of the law. He said, I have loved thee. I have loved thee. How long,
God, have you loved me? I want to know. I have loved
you forever. I have loved you with an everlasting
love that will never depart from you. And with loving kindness
I have drawn thee. There's nothing more intoxicating
to the believer's soul than the everlasting love of God. There's
nothing more joyful than to know that Christ died for me. I tell you, sinner, it's not
joyful to know that Christ died for someone else. You must know if he died for
you. There is nothing more joyful
to a believer than to know that he is accepted of God. That he has been accepted. How
long have you been accepted? Forever. You've been accepted
forever. And number three, notice the
savor of his ointments. He says in verse three, because
of the savor of thy good ointments, the smell the smell of thy good
ointments. Thy name is as an ointment poured
forth, therefore do the virgins love thee." Do you love the Lord
Jesus Christ? Have you been kissed by the Savior? Scripture says, kiss the Son
of God lest He be angry with thee in the way. Has He poured
out His good ointment of the Holy Spirit on you? in Proverbs 1 it says turn you
at my reproof behold I will pour out my spirit unto you I will
make my words known unto you isn't this what happened on the
day of Pentecost when the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into glory
he sent his Holy Spirit down and the Apostle Peter he said
concerning the prophecy of Joel he says I will pour out my Spirit
upon all flesh." What does that mean? That means He'll pour out
His Spirit upon all manner of flesh, Jew, Gentile, bond, free,
male, female. His Spirit is poured out and
whosoever shall believe, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. This is the Spirit of God. And this great day has already
come. The Spirit of God has been poured out. The Spirit of God
comes to God's people, wherever they are, whoever they are, and He pours forth on them eternal
life. O sinner, why will you die in
your sins? Why will you die in your sins? Why will you not come to Christ?
Why will you not kiss the Son of God by faith and believe on
Him? Why? Is not all I told you great
things? These bad things? Are these evil
things? No! These are wonderful things. And all who believe on Him, all
who desire mercy from Him, He will pour forth a savory ointment
of His Holy Spirit. Do you need healing for your
sins? Healing from the leprosy of guilt
and shame? Have you been bruised by the
fall, cursed by the law? I tell you Christ hath redeemed
us once for all. Once for all. Therefore do the
virgins love thee. You see what he calls us? Virgins. What is that? That's one that
is pure. One that is acceptable. What an acceptable bride. A virgin
bride. This is acceptable. It's a wonderful
thing. A wonderful thing. He calls us
this. He said, therefore, do the virgins
love thee? We love Him and desire the kisses
of His mouth and the ointment of His Spirit because He hath
made us righteous. He's made us righteous. Righteous before God. We are in the eyes of God as
chaste virgins, pure and white, because He hath made us meet,
qualified to be partakers of the divine nature. You, believer,
have God's nature in you by the Holy Spirit. And truly,
this is the work of the Holy Spirit. All of these things I've
mentioned, I cannot give you and I cannot even give myself. This must be the work of God. If He is to come, we must see
that this is all the work of God. It's not anything we can
stir up in ourselves. It's not something like a football
game or a basketball where we get out there and we start cheering
and we get all excited. That's not what this is. This
is a work of God and He must do it if it is to be done at
all. And I want us to see that in
the next thing. Verse 4. Draw me and we will run after
Thee. We must have here an acknowledgement
and a prayer. We must acknowledge this, that
if we're going to come to Him, if we're going to experience
His presence and revival in our own heart, it must be Him that
draws us. Draw us. It must be God that
draws us. We would never, by our own striving,
work up enough desire to merit His kisses. We would never make
ourselves to seek after Him enough. We could not weep enough. We
could not repent enough. You could not languish enough
to merit His coming to you, or you going after Him. Though we
may know our need, and truly long for an awakening of our
souls, a reviving of our hearts, Christ alone can waken us. Christ alone. We cannot work
up a revival or pray it down. Revival does not depend upon
the actions of the church or the abilities of the preacher.
It is the work of Christ alone. Therefore, acknowledge this. that if we are to be or to experience
his presence he must draw us he must work on our heart if
we are ever to run after him and then pray acknowledge this
that unless He draw you, you'll never come. Then pray, draw me. Pray. Pray that the Lord draw
me to thyself. The Spirit must draw us even
as He did when we first came. You who came to Christ, He must
draw you even today. He must reveal to us the things
of Jesus Christ. He must teach us and give us
the affections of Christ. Believer, pray for this. Don't
stop praying for this. Does He seem to delay in His
coming? Does He seem to delay in His giving you the experience
of His presence? Keep on praying. Don't faint. In due time, He will come. At the appropriate time, He will
come. If Christ restrains Himself from
you, know this, it is for our good. It is for our good. Believer, pray for this and long
after Christ. Pray that God will give us revival
in our hearts. And you know what I pray? I pray
that God would give me revival. I need this. I need this in my
heart. I pray that I know more of Jesus
Christ. Not just in my head, in my heart. I pray I know more of his affection
and love to me. Paul said that I may know him.
Now I'll tell you, if anybody knew the Lord Jesus Christ, was
it not the Apostle? And yet he desired this, that
I may know him and be found in his righteousness. Now it's not
having any righteousness of my own. And I'll tell you, when
God comes in revival, everything else is counted as dumb. When
He comes in the floods of His love and mercy in our souls,
everything else is counted as worthless, garbage. The things of this world grow
strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace, don't they?
Everything else seems to be fades into the background and nothing
else matters but me and Christ, that I'm with Him. that I know
Him. Believer, let us pray for this
and we will follow after Christ. If He comes, we will follow Him.
The King hath brought me into His chambers. We will be glad
and rejoice in Thee. We will remember Thy love more
than wine. The upright love Thee. Believers,
let us rejoice in Jesus. who has brought us into the chambers
of God's own presence by His blood. Isn't that what the scripture
says? That the forerunner hath entered in to the veil, within
the veil, in the presence of God for us? Do you realize that
you, believer, are there with Him now? Isn't that something? You were
with Him when He lived. You were with Him when He died.
You were in Him. And when He rose again, you were
in Him then. And now He is in you and you
are in Him. Is that not miraculous? Well,
I don't feel that. It's true. You who believe in Christ, it's
true. He's brought you into His chambers and His banner over
you is love. If God has given us such a precious
gift of his son, how then do we think he would withhold himself
from us? I read that Wednesday evening,
I believe it was, about Joseph. Joseph, when his brothers were
in front of him and they were afraid, he couldn't hold himself
back any longer. He revealed himself. That's how
Christ is to his people. He is ready. At the appointed
time, he will kiss us. with the kisses of His grace.
He will reveal Himself to us. He will call us and draw us to
Himself and we will follow after Him. We are in His presence,
in His chamber and we do love Him. Is there anything else that matters?
But Christ, is there anything you want more than Him? Not if you've ever been kissed
by the Savior. There's nothing greater. I pray
that God fulfill this desire of our hearts and come even now.