This is what we're going to deal
with tonight. We've got some response. I love
to get response. And one of the ladies greeted
me tonight so enthusiastically about looking forward to this
when she got that text, looking forward to this message. I just
love that so much. That's hunger. That's what that
is. That's the best sign of life I know. The best sign of spiritual
life. Blessed are they that hunger. That means you love the food
and you look forward to eating it. Do you ever ask your wife
or maybe your husband if he does the cooking, what's for dinner
tonight? Do you? If you're real hungry,
you do, don't you? Well, so it is with these things. Some of
you do just that and it thrills me. It thrills me. What are you
going to preach on? But I'll tell you, good, I can't wait. Alright, Song of Solomon. Now,
first of all, let's read again Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5, because
this unfolds the mystery. In case you were not here last
Wednesday, we are going to go through not the whole book, but
some of it. And Ephesians 5, we open with
this, because this reveals what the whole book of the Canticles,
or Song, of Solomon is about. Ephesians 5, verse 25, husbands,
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it. Verse 28, so ought men to love
their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. Verse 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." This is a great mystery,
but I speak concerning Christ and the church. The whole thing
of marriage is a picture of Christ and His church. Nevertheless,
let every one of you, in particular, if you're married, So loved his
wife, even as himself. And the wife, see that she reverence
or respect her husband. So this is the mystery of Solomon's
song. Go back there. Song of Solomon,
chapter 2. This is the mystery of Solomon's
song revealed. It is Christ and His church.
That's what this whole thing is about. Christ and every believer. Every individual believer, I
hope this will be personal to us tonight, this is a love song.
It is His love for her which is greater, much greater than
hers for Him. We'll love Him someday as we
should with all our hearts, but not until then. But His love
for us and our love for Him. This is the most beautiful song
ever written. That's what God said. This is
the song of songs. Take all the love songs ever
been written in the history of mankind. Don't compare to this. They certainly don't even deserve
notice if they're not speaking of Christ, of God. He is love. If you don't know
Him, you really don't know love. You don't know love. And greater
love hath no man than this. So this is the song of songs.
And we talk of His love and we can boast in His love for sinners,
yet we don't We're very hesitant to talk about our love for him because we're ashamed of it.
I quoted that song, Our love for thee so cold, so faint, but
thine to us so great. But if you were asked like Simon
Peter, if the Lord asked you personally, Simon, lovest thou me more than
these? Do you now? You would admit. You have to. Paul said, know
ye not your own selves, as it Christ is in you, except you
be reprobate. If any man love not the Lord, he'll be accursed. So we should be able to say,
I hope we can say, if I ask, Lord, thou knowest. Yea, Lord,
I love you. I know Peter hung his head when
he said that. He just denied the Lord. Don't
you know? And the Lord asked Simon Peter, and he asked him
three times, remember that? And I know he hung his head.
But he said it. The Lord who knows the heart,
he had to say it because it was in his heart. Lord, yes, I love
you. Thou knowest. So, and I hope,
as I said, as I prayed, that the Lord will create love in
someone who does not yet love Him and increase the love, what
little love that we have for Him. Twelve times in these fifteen
verses, He mentions love or the Beloved. This is a love song. That's just the second chapter.
All through this book, love and the Beloved. The love of the
Beloved for His love. He calls her His love, His dove,
and she calls Him the Beloved. That's how you distinguished
them. Alright, verse 1 of chapter 2.
I am, Christ says, the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. I am the great God. Remember
our Lord said in John 8, if you believe not that I am, you'll
die in your sins. Christ is God, very God of very
God, who thought it not robbery to be equal with God. God even
said He was God, didn't He? Thy throne, O God, is forever,
didn't He? Unto the Son, He said, Thy throne,
O God, is forever. He's very God of very God. God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. The eternal God became a man
made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He was manifest as a rose,
as a lily. He came into this wilderness
of sin. Brother John read that in Isaiah
35, and I said, John, I'm glad you did that because I was going
to quote it. Isaiah 35 says a wilderness,
and that's this world. solitary place, shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and
blossom as a rose, like a root out of dry ground. It shall blossom
abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon
shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon. They shall
see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God." That's
Christ. He was manifest in the flesh. He came into this world.
As a rose, as a lily. Do you like roses? Do you know of anything more
fragrant than a rose? What do you give someone to show
your love? What kind of flower? Man, you
can only think of one, can't you? A rose. A dozen red roses. Red. What color? That was my
next question. When you think of a rose, what color do you
always think of? Red. Well, isn't that significant? Who is this that cometh from
Basra with garments dyed red? Our Redeemer. A rose for beauty,
for fragrance. That's His personality. That's
His characteristics. That's His attributes. That's
everything about Him. Red. The red rose. Thorns. Isn't it interesting that God
made this rose with thorns? Didn't our Lord wear a crown
of thorns? And Sharon, by the way, is a
plane. That's what the word means, a
plane. There's a scripture I love. I preached from it one time.
It says, he came down from the mountain and dwelled with them
in the plane. He came down. to dwell amongst
just plain, ordinary people, arose among thorns, arose. And he came down in this valley
as plain of Sharon. Sharon was the place where David
fed his flock. It's a well-known place to Solomon.
He probably grew up there watching the sheep being fed, the cattle.
He thought well of it, loved that place. Sharon. And these
roses that grew in the plain of Sharon were not planted by
man. They were wild roses. God planted
them there. Well, isn't that fitting? Oh,
no. He was made of a woman, but he
really had no beginning. Son of God, eternal. As the lily
of the valley, verse 2, verse 1, the lily of the valley, verse
1, what color lily do you think of? Always. By the way, don't
leave here without smelling me. I'm serious. It's the most fragrant
thing, that and a rose. And that's by design. Whose design?
God's design. Lily, you think of a lily always
as being white, don't you? Oh yeah, because that represents
our Lord's purity, His holiness. And those who love Him love that
about Him. The lily of the valley is fragrant. Fragrant. It makes me want to
smell it right now. I'd like to pass it around while
I'm talking about this. Fragrant, lily of the valleys.
The lilies grew so abundantly in the valleys of Sharon, like
the roses, among thorns. There were thorns. And these
roses grew wild in these valleys of Sharon, David's pastures,
and they were so fragrant I think it was Spurgeon that once told
this, that the animals of prey, like rabbits, the small animals
that were being chased by hounds or foxes, would run amongst these
lilies and the fragrance was so overpowering that it would
cover their scent and the foxes and hounds would give up. Isn't that good? When being pursued,
run to your lily. The lily of the valley. And verse
2 says, She is, this is our Lord speaking of her, His bride, as
the lily among thorns, so is My love among the daughters.
As He is, so are we in this world. Do you not feel that way about
your brethren? Don't you? About your sisters?
When you think of anybody in this room, And then you start
thinking about the people you work with, the people out there
in the world, and you think, man, the world's not worthy.
The world's not worthy of Irene Davidson. She's a lily among
thorns, isn't she? And I think that about every
one of you. And you me. We don't think that about ourselves,
do we? We think we're the thorn. No. That's not what our Lord
said. Didn't He? He's the one that
said that. of whom the world is not worthy." That's Hebrews
12, Hebrews 11. She's a lily among thorns because
she bears something of His likeness. She is made beautiful through
His comeliness. It's not her own beauty. She
didn't grow wild like this. She was grafted in, wasn't she,
John? She was made beautiful by Christ Himself, like that
child in Ezekiel's field. And so that's why she's a lily
among thorns, because Christ is in her. Christ is in her,
and her in Him. Verse 3, as the apple tree. Now,
she talks about Him from here on out, because He deserves the
preeminence. As the apple tree among the trees
of the wood, so is my beloved among the suns. I sat down under
his shadow, under that tree, with great delight, and his fruit
was sweet to my taste." You got any apple trees on your property?
Again, what tree can you think of that's more beautiful when
it's in bloom than the apple tree? Beautiful. What color are the blossoms usually?
Right. The apple tree is one of the
most beautiful and fragrant and fruitful and useful of all trees. He said, as the trees of the
wood, the apple tree is my beloved. As the trees of the wood, you
have your oaks and your pines and they have, you know, their
own beauty and use, the fir, the cedar. But he said, no, my
Lord, Jesus Christ, is like an apple tree. in that He blossoms
like the rose, like the lily. He produces great fruit. He's a fragrant character. He's beautiful. He's lovely. He's shade. She said, I sat down under His
shade and fruitful, fruitful. You know, in ancient times, since
ancient times, the apple has been always a symbol of love.
You know that? There's some goddess with that
name. But apples have always been a
symbol of love. Some of you old folks, Ed, will
remember this song back in the forties. When men were off to
war in the Second World War, they wrote this song, Don't Sit
Under the Apple Tree with Anyone Else but Me. That was a love
song. It was the man writing to his
future bride or his wife, writing home, saying, I'm coming home
and don't sit under that apple tree. Apparently, they'd sat
there together. and enjoyed one another together.
And he was gone. He was coming back for him. Isn't
that a good illustration? The apple tree has been a symbol
of love from the beginning. And can you picture this scene?
Two lovers, a man and a woman, a man and a woman. A man and a woman sitting under
this tree in love with one another in the shade and feeding one
another. I wish we didn't live in such
a vile world, don't you? Under the pure, all things are
pure. And people have so corrupted
what God has made beautiful that we can't hardly think about it
without some sin in it. That's awful. That's awful. But this is the scene here, two
lovers, a man and his bride lying under this apple tree in the
shade and enjoying one another. That's the sweet-smelling savor
of love is what it is, each other enjoying one another. Psalm 91
says, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High
shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. and has great delight in Him.
And for those who have tasted the Lord's grace, the gospel
of His grace is most sweetened. She said, I sat down under His
shadow, under His protection, under His protection from the
heat of the day, the weariness of the day, the rest, and the
great delight and the fruit of His grace and His gospel. It
was so sweet to my taste. That's why I love Wednesday night.
For your sake. For your sake, because I know
you've been working all day, and I try to gear it toward believers
that are weary and need a word of comfort and rest, and I hope
you get that when you come here on Wednesday. His fruit, the
gospel of God's grace, so sweet to our taste, to our palate,
if you have a taste for it. Verse 4, He brought me to the
banqueting house, the house of wine. And his banner over me
was love. He brought me. He brought me. You see, the gospel is this. Here's the gospel. Salvation
is of the Lord. God thought it. Christ bought it. And the Holy
Spirit brought it. He brought me. Blessed is the
man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee, that he
may dwell in thy courts. Behold thy beauty. He sought
me. He bought me. And he brought
me. Like Hosea, I started reading Hosea and Gomer as a result of
this, and I'm going to quote one verse tonight. Go back and
read that story. I hope I get to preach. Well,
I may not return. Somebody can preach from it.
But someday, if you haven't heard it, I hope you'll hear that.
Hosea married a wife of Whoredom. The woman who played the harlot,
not once, not twice, but several times. But he never left her. She left him, but he would not
leave her. And all the while she left him,
he's feeding her and wooing her back. wooing her back, old Hosea,
my, my. He sought her. He bought her
for silver and he brought her home, brought her home to his
banqueting house. This is a banqueting house. This
is one of many. This is a house of wine. He brings
a poor vile sinner, a poor black Shulamite maiden, She said, I'm
black, but comely. And He chose me. She never got
over that. He chose me. Of all the fair
maidens, He chose me. He brings a poor, vile sinner
into His house of wine, His church. Go with me to I Kings chapter
10. I Kings 10. If you haven't heard
this preached on, oh my, when the Queen of Sheba came to see
Solomon. This whole book is full of love stories in it. Well,
the whole book is a love story. A love story. 1 Kings chapter
10, I'll give you a little background. Queen Sheba came to see Solomon,
the greatest man on earth. Scripture says he was wiser than
any before or after, with the exception of one much greater
than he, the Lord Jesus Christ. And said, people came from all
over the world, wise men came to hear Solomon. And the Lord
gave him wisdom, exceeding much wisdom and largeness of heart.
meaning his heart was so full of compassion, love. He loved his wives exceedingly
much, and they loved him. Well, this queen who thought
she was pretty rich, who thought she was pretty glorious, I suppose,
until she saw Solomon. She came to see Solomon, verse
4, when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and
the house that he had built, and the meat of his table." Now,
we just read about apples and flagons. We're going to read
of flagons and all that. You have got to read for yourself
Solomon's table. Solomon's provision for one day
was thirty measures of fine flour, three score measures of meal,
one day ten fat oxen, twenty oxen of the pastures, a hundred
sheep beside deer, a heart and roe bucks and fallow deer and
fatted fowl. That's just the meat. That's
not the potatoes. That's not the bread. That's
not the fruit, that's not the vegetables, that's not the wines,
that's not the drinks, that's not the fruit drinks, that's
not the desserts, there's not room to talk about this table. And oh, all of that speaks of
the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, all that is in Him and His beauty
and His glory and the things that He hath prepared for them
that love Him. The hill of Zion, I love this
song we sing, the hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred sweets
before we reach the heavenly fields or walk those golden streets.
That's the church. And I'm doing a poor job of describing
it because no eyes seen, no ears heard, no heart hadn't really
entered into our hearts yet, but it will. But that was his
provision for one day. And why was there so much food? Because he fed everybody that
came to him. Anybody hungry. Anybody hungry,
Stephen, they wouldn't sit outside either. They'd come inside and
sit at his table. Eat up! King, that's a beggar. All the
more reason for him to be here. Huh? That's what it came for.
That's why He spread this food for those that didn't have any.
Come one, come all. Whosoever will, come eat at His
banqueting house. That's what we say when we preach
the gospel. Whosoever will. If any man thirsts,
any hungry, come. There's plenty to go around.
Christ is all. Of His fullness have we received.
But she said, look at 1 Kings 10, verse 5, "...and the meat
of his table, the sitting of his servants..." Oh, I love the
attendance, the sitting of his people, solemn and quiet and
respectful and reverent, and the attendance of his ministers.
God's men are not fools, are they? They don't look like it
and they don't act like it. They serve a distinguished Lord.
And their apparel, oh, the righteousness of the saints, the robe of Christ. And his cupbearers, his butlers,
his assent, she saw him going up to the house of the Lord,
and it just took all the spirit out of her. It took all the worth
out of her. She came rich and she thought,
oh, I'm poor. She came thinking she was wise
and she realized, I'm a fool. compared to him. So she said
to the king, it's a true report I heard in mine own land of thy
acts and of thy wisdom, how be it? I didn't believe it. I believed
not the words until I came, neither will you, until you come to Christ,
until he draws you. And mine eyes had seen it, and
behold, the half was not told me. Thy wisdom and prosperity
exceeded the fame which I heard." People, you've heard some good
messages, haven't you, over the years? You ain't heard half a
message. You haven't heard half a message.
What do you hear Christ start preaching? No man spake like
this man. Even his enemies would come.
They came to take him, and they had to sit down and listen. His voice so sweet, the birds
hushed their singing. Thy wisdom and prosperity exceeded
the fame which I heard. Happy, she said, verse 8, happy
are thy men, happy are these thy servants. Blessed they that
stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom. Oh,
how blessed we are, people. You know that. You go out every
now and then and listen to some of this stuff, the people that
are feeding on husks of religion and false religion. You hear
it and you come away thinking, don't you? You come away thinking
every time, oh, how blessed we are. And it's not us, it's the
Lord. It's His choosing, His revealing. Blessed be the Lord, she said,
thy God which delighteth in thee to set thee on the throne of
Israel. Oh, I love this. Because the
Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made He the King to do judgment
and justice. The Lord loved Israel, so He
made you King, Solomon. And since the Lord loved you,
He made Christ your Lord and your King. And He'll never leave
you. Never leave you. I started thinking
about Solomon's wives. You reckon they were all beautiful?
Oh, no. No, in Solomon, I reckon most
of them were not. The Shulamite maiden was pretty
black. He took her in. He loved her
dearly. Go back to our text now. Song
of Solomon, chapter 2. So, he brought me into his banqueting
house. His house of wine. His house
of wine. That's the church. That's where
the blood of Christ flows freely, doesn't it? Wine flows like water.
He turns the water into wine, doesn't it? The blood of Christ.
The water of His Word. And it says here in verse 5,
His banner over me was love. Now this goes back to the days
armies would camp out in their tents, pitch their tents in the
valleys and plains. And this was a very common thing. People were very well versed
in what armies and encampments were all about because there
were enemies everywhere. In David's time, not in Solomon,
But in David's time, there were battles and battles and wars,
and David was the king, and they were always pitching their tent,
and their enemies pitching their tents against them. And they
would be little flocks, tents, okay? And over any one little
encampment, they'd put up a banner, a flag. They did this in the
Civil War day. Company C. Or they'd have an
insignia that, you know, the boys from Savannah or something. It depends on which side you're
on. Or from Pennsylvania. But anyway,
they had these flags flying over their tents, wouldn't they? This
banner that would reveal who these people were and where they're
from and who they fought for and who fought for them, okay?
It says, his banner over his people reads this way. Love. Everyone in Christ, God loves. Right? Romans 8, 39. The love of God,
who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ. That banner doesn't fly over
every building, over every tent, over every dwelling. It's like
the blood on the doorpost in the houses of the children of
Israel in Egypt. Was that blood on the doorpost
of the Egyptians? No, it wasn't. But it was on
the house. the doorposts and lentils of
every single house of the children of Israel. Why? Because that's
where love, the love of God was. And whoever God loves, you know
what He'll show them? The blood. He'll feed them with
wine and His body and His shed blood. That banner over me was
love. If you love Christ's blood, if
you love the sound of His redemption, if you love His gospel, and hate
every false way, you're under the banner. That flag's flying
over. You can't see it, but it's there. Smile. God loves you. Christ is your King. Solomon
is your husband, a greater than Solomon. Look at verse 5. She said, Stay me with flagons,
comfort me with apples. I'm sick of love. This is beautiful. Stay me. That means satisfy me.
Satisfy me. Stay me. Comfort me with apples. He's under his tree. Where are
these apples coming from? Him. You know how you get God's
people to stay? You know who Christ loves? It's those that love Him. Those
that love His truth. Those that love His gospel. You
know how you can get them to stay? Stay? Stay me with apples. Stay me with things regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ. You keep preaching to me His
person, His work, His glory, His beauty, and I'll stay. John,
you tell me that all the time. You keep preaching that gospel.
And I'll stay. If not, I'm out of here. Stay
me. Satisfy me. Comfort me. That's
the only comfort food for God's people, isn't it? Christ Himself.
That which satisfies God the Father satisfies All these people. Stays the believer. He then is
all our hope and stay on Christ the solid rock I stand. All other
ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Rotten apples. And comfort me, stay me with
flagons. Comfort me with apples. This
flagons is really a cake of raisins. That's not a wine receptacle.
That's a cake of raisins. David took raisins to his... That's a very common thing. It's
just grapes. It's just crushed grapes. Fermented
grapes. That's what it is. They would
crush them into something that you could keep a long time. Pretty
much how raisins come in a container. You've got to kind of, you know,
dig them up and put them under warm water to separate them.
You can get a lot of raisins in one of those cans. Flagons. And they would carry these packs
of crushed raisins around. Oh, good for you. I remember
when I was a kid. I'm getting away from that. When
I was a kid, my brother was a football star and I overheard My dad talking
to him about needing iron for strength. And he said, where
can I get iron, Dad? And he said, raisins. I overheard
that. I think I ate the whole thing
of raisins that day. And do you know what happened
to me? I had to tell that. But I was
listening. I overheard it. Did that make
me strong? Did that make me like my brother? Did that make me
like my brother? I want to be just like him. Tame
me with flagons. Fill me with raisins. Satisfy
me. That's the only thing that will.
I'm sick of love. Have you ever been sick of love? It's not saying, I'm sick of
love, but I'm so sick, and what it is, is love. Have you ever
been sick with love? Most everybody has. We call it
love sick, don't we? I couldn't help but think of
some of those old songs back in the sixties. I'm not going
to bring that up. Get in the flesh. But true love
will make you sick. Yeah, it will make you love sick,
make you feverish, make you flush, make your head swim, make your
heart race. Tell me it ain't so. Can't eat,
can't sleep, don't want to, you're in love. Right, Stephen? I brought
up Stephen. He's not the only one that traveled
a million miles for his bride. That's being lovesick. Such is
the true salvation of God's people when they meet Christ, when they
hear His voice, when they hear that gospel for the first time. You're not going to be yourself
anymore. You're not going to want to be with yourself anymore,
but you're going to be with Him and His people. It's like you're
sick, and people will even ask that. What's wrong with him?
When the Lord meets one of His own, when the Lord starts bringing
about that change in the heart and the mind, the life of this
person, brings them back from the dead to life, reveals Himself
to them, they start becoming a new person, and people will
even ask that. What's wrong with her? Something's
wrong with her. Loves it. And may not even know
it. But she is. He is. The Lord has
come. The Lord has come. And true love,
those who are sick with love, true love forsakes all others. When you meet that one you love,
you forsake everyone else just to be with him or her. Don't
you? And that's the way it is. God's
people, they've got to have Christ. When they meet Him, when they
hear this Gospel and fall in love with Him, they've got to
have Him. And they'll leave everybody and everything just to spend
a few hours with Him. And true love loves to hear His
Word, loves to hear His voice. How much time did we spend on
the phone? If I wasn't with you, we were
talking on the phone, weren't we? We didn't have cell phones
back then. We would have texted and texted
and texted. I'm sure that's what love does,
isn't it? You want to talk to them. You want to hear their
word. You want to hear their voice. You're consumed with them. You're sick of love. He's lovesick. Look at this beautiful
picture here, and I'll close with these two verses. This is
Him there in love's embrace. His left hand is under my head,
and His right hand doth embrace me. His left hand is under my
head, that's Christ supporting us. His right hand embraces me,
that's Christ comforting us. His left hand under the head,
that's how He teaches us doctrine. His right hand embraces us. It
gives us affection. You can't have one without the
other. Well, you can too. You can have doctrine and not
have Christ. You can be a Calvinist, I was
that, and not know Christ. But you cannot know Christ and
not be a Calvinist. No, you can't. This is the doctrine
of Christ. So, His left hand supports my
head and gives me truth. And His right hand doth embrace
me and makes me love Him." The truth. The truth. His left hand
is under my head. And the Lord, you know, it's
nothing impure. It's all wonderful. What our
Lord says, this book will teach a man and a woman how to love
one another physically. That's exactly what's going on
here. With the left hand, He cradles her head. With the right
hand, He pulls her near. It's a beautiful thing. A beautiful
thing. If He lays hold of you, if Christ
lays hold of you, and you don't want to be disturbed, look at
verse 7, I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the rows and
by the hinds of the field, you stir not up, nor awake my love,
till He please me. I charge you. I thought about this. You know,
I've read many and couldn't get much satisfaction, but I thought
about how our Lord, in Mark's Gospel, it says when He went
to be tempted of Satan in the wilderness, He was there forty
days. It says He was tempted of Satan. He was there with the
wild beasts. He was out there for forty days
alone. But he wasn't alone, he was surrounded
by the deer and by the heart and by the wild beasts. This
is their creator. They're not afraid of him. This
is the second Adam. You remember the first Adam?
The first Adam came, was in the garden walking, and the animals
came right up to him. Every one of them. No fear of
man then before sin. You don't need to fear a man
who's sinless. He's holy, harmless, separate from sin. Harmless. Well, they came up to Adam, the
first one, and he named him Elephant, Giraffe. Do you believe that?
I'm sure you do. It's a type of Christ, isn't
it? He names every one of his. Porcupine. He named them all. They weren't afraid of him. He
wasn't afraid of them. And our Lord dwelt literally in the wilderness
with the beasts. They weren't afraid of Him. The
dove landed on His shoulder. A fish came when He called. Fish! He's the Master, isn't
He? The Creator. And this is a picture,
too, of God's people. They gather around Him, as it
were, the Rose and the Hines. And she says to them, I charge
you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you sit quietly. You admire
your sleeping Lord. I know this is a picture of Christ
who lived and died, as it were, slept and rose again. And they all stood there admiring
as He lay there until He awoke, until He awoke. Now, this song
is a song of love and sweetness, but it's also a solemn charge. It's also a solemn charge. He
said, I charge you, O daughters, and I'm going to close with this,
okay, because this is important. I charge you. It begins with romance, and it's
consummated in this loving union, this embrace, this intimacy between
Christ and His wife, like Adam knew his wife Eve. And this is
the whole reason for the way God meant for a man and a woman
to be together to produce life, because this is exactly how God
produces life in us, exactly. Christ knew His wife, knows His
wife, foreknew His wife, chose her before the world began. But
there comes a time when He comes to her and enters into her heart,
her mind, her affection, and plants the seed of His Word. This is called the incorruptible
seed. Christ in you is the hope of
glory. This is when life begins. Christ
said, He that hath my word abiding in them, and they in me, he it
is that loveth me. and has life and will bear fruit. So he comes to his bride, his
chosen one, and knows her intimately with this word and plants his
seed in her. The word seed means sperm. That's
exactly what it means. And he plants this seed of the
gospel, his word in, and life is conceived, and not until he
does. Not until he does it. And here's
the charge to unbelievers. Unbelievers. Like Naomi who said
to Ruth, she said, my daughter, I seek rest for you. This was
a young unmarried woman, a widow, a heathen woman. She did not
know the God of Israel. She did not know Boaz, her kinsman
redeemer. Naomi wanted her to have a husband
among the sons of Jacob. She wanted her to have rest. She wanted her to be restored
all that she lost. And she said, I seek rest for
you, Ruth, and here's what you should do, young lady. She said,
you wash yourself, put your raiment on, get down to the floor, the
threshing floor. Boaz. Boaz is going to be there
tonight. with His maidens. Christ is going
to be somewhere where His Gospels preach with His maidens. Don't
make yourself known unto the man. You're not there to be seen
or heard. You just sit quietly. You go down there and you find
the place where He lies down. And you mark that place where
He lies and go in and uncover His feet and lie down. And you
wait on Him to tell you what to do. And she went on to say
to Ruth, I know the man. He'll do whatever you ask him.
And he won't rest until he's finished the work. So I charge
you, those who may not know the Lord, you mark the place where
he lies and you go lie down at his feet. And you wait on a word
from him. You call on him. She did. Ruth
did. She said, oh, cover me. And she
told him, I'm Ruth. I'm a heathen woman. Would you
help me? Would you be my kinsman and redeemer? I will. So I charge you, O daughters,
like Naomi charged Ruth. You mark the place where he is.
You go lie down. You wait on a word from him.
I charge you, O sons of Eli, sons of Samuel, sons of Hannah,
like Eli charged Samuel. Eli charged young Samuel. Remember
that story? Young Samuel kept hearing the
Word of the Lord. And he'd go in and say to Eli,
do you talk to me? Eli said, no, I'm not talking
to you. Go lie down. And the Lord would speak to him
again, young man. And he'd wake up and come in
and say, Eli, Mr. Eli, were you talking to me?
Eli says, no. He knows now. No, I wasn't, son. Go in and lie down." And the
third time, he came and said, are you talking to me? And Eli said, no, but the Lord
is. And the next time you hear from
Him, here's what you do. You go lie down, and when He
speaks, you say, speak to me, Lord. Thy servant heareth. And he did. And he was his servant
from then on. So I charge you, O daughters
of Jerusalem, to lie down and wait for Him to speak to you.
Don't quit coming and calling until He is pleased to awaken
you. And I charge you, all professing believers, that you be as the
rose and the hinds. Shulamite Maiden here, who delighted
herself in the Beloved, who affection was set on him. Solomon wrote
in Proverbs 4, delight thyself in the Lord and he'll give you
the desires of your heart. Didn't he? She loved him. She desired him. And where true
love is, there's romance. There's a drawing. There's an
alluring. Like Hosea said of Gomer, he said to her, I will
allure her and speak comfortably unto her. There's a romance.
How long did you and Curtis romance? Was it a short engagement? It
was three years. Three years. But there's a romance
involved. There's an alluring. There's
a drawing out, isn't it? It's always that way. And boy,
I'd say this to a young lady, if that's not there, you'd better
ditch him quickly. A young man in love or a young
woman in love will climb the highest mountains and swim the
deepest sea. And it will never end until they're
consummated, until they're one. That's true love. And it never
ends. I charge you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, Don't let it in. This romance. Our Lord warned the church at
Ephesus. Turn there, Revelation 2. It happens
everywhere. And I worry. Revelation 2, and the gospel
is anywhere for a long period of time, you can pretty much
count on this happening. When someone hears the gospel
for years, you can count on this happening unless the Lord is
very gracious. Revelation 2, he said to the
church at Ephesus, Ephesians, what a book, Ephesians. And he
said, verse 4, I have somewhat against thee, you've left thy
first love. That's, Barnard used to call
it, sweetheart love and no more romance. It's not sweet to you
anymore. You take it for granted. There's
not much, well, affection there. Time spent
together, talking to one another, banqueting together, embracing,
kissing like Solomon and his bride. You've left your first
love, that sweetheart love. The gospel is not dear to you
anymore. When you first heard it, it was the sweetest thing
you ever heard. Same gospel, isn't it? Christ hasn't changed. Remember verse 5, "...therefore,
from whence thou art fallen, repent and do the first works."
What's that? Hunger, thirst, come early. We're going to read
how she lay on her bed thinking about her beloved. And one time
she laid there too long. And he came and he left. And
then she couldn't find him. And it tore her up. She thought
he was gone forever. That's what made me want to deal
with this book. And in Laodicea, the same thing happened. They
became rich and increased with goods. This happens in a marriage.
You get too much stuff and you forget that we got married for
each other. We lived on each other. And now
we've got all this stuff and we don't pay much attention to
each other. Can that happen to a believer
in Christ? It does happen. I charge you,
O daughters of Jerusalem, don't let this happen. Don't let this
happen. Husbands, and this is a good
lesson in love, you notice how When we read Ephesians 5, how
it was to husbands, wasn't it? It was mostly to husbands, because
the greater responsibility lies on Him. He's the one that does
the wooing. He's the one that does the alluring,
just like Christ and His church. He's the one with the greater
responsibility. He's the one that courts. He's the one that
goes after her, let a man leave his father and mother and go
to his wife and flee on to her. He's the one that supports her.
He's the one that caresses her. He's the one that comforts her.
He's the one. The greater responsibility lies on Him. Generally speaking,
if a marriage is going to do well, the man's got to love like
Christ loves the church, if he does. That marriage is going to be
wonderful if he loves her like that. Oh, my. I want to love
like that, don't you? Not just my wife, but you. One
another. I want to love Christ. Husbands,
love your wives. Woo, allure, romance. Don't let
it ever end. Desire, embrace, kiss, spend
your time with, speak comfortably to, lovingly with. Take her to the banqueting house.
Oh, yeah. with affection, and she'll stay. You stay her with flagons, and
she'll stay with you. Isn't that so? Christ and His
church. Let the banner that flies over
your house read, Love dwells here. Why? Because Christ dwells
here. If that man doesn't love Christ,
he won't love you. He won't love you like that.
And it won't last. That's why we just beseech these
daughters of ours not to even think about a man that doesn't
know the Lord Jesus Christ. I charge you, make sure your
spouse, make her sure, stay her. And every one of you,
if your spouse was not here tonight, make sure they hear this message.
And lastly, I'm telling you, I'm charging you, like Paul did
Timothy, preach the Word. I'm charging you to make sure
your spouse wasn't here. Make sure they hear this message.
They need to hear it. And your children, whoever doesn't
know the Lord, whoever does, need to hear this message. Okay,
stand with me. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank
You for this blessed book. This is the book of God, the
Bible, the song of songs, the song of love, the love of God
manifests in Christ for His people. How we thank You. Thank You,
Lord. O Lord, Shed abroad this love
in our hearts, we pray. We ask, we beg You, we beseech
You. Cause us to hear Thy voice. Speak, O Lord, Thy servant here.
May every person in here say that. Call upon You. And may
You call upon them and bring them into Your banqueting house
and spread that banner over them and stay them with flagons and
comfort with apples and embrace them and teach them their head
and put love in their heart. We pray. That's our prayer. In
Christ's name, Amen. Thank you.