Here in Song of Solomon, this
is a love story, one of the most beautiful love
stories in all the world, in the world, because it's a love
story between Christ and His people. She's called a Shulamite
maiden, the Beloved. And that's what He says three
different times in this book. I am my Beloved's and my Beloved
is mine. I am my Beloved's and I am His. And it's about our blessed Lord
Jesus Christ and our union with Him. Oh, what a wonderful book
it is. It's full of, you know, our Lord
Jesus said that, you know, He expounded in the Scriptures all
the things concerning Himself. And, of course, when He expounded
in the Scriptures and talked about all the things that concerned
Himself, that includes the Song of Solomon, all of the Scriptures.
And this book is full of our Lord Jesus Christ in so many
ways. You know, we know He's our God,
we know He's our Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord, our Master,
our Shepherd, our Substitute. He's our all in all. But here
we have this intimate personal relationship between the bridegroom
and his beloved. Here the Son of God is presented
in marriage union with His elect, with His precious people. And
this precious, sweet, intimate song of love begins with the
church, Christ's chosen. Now let's start reading here
in verse one. Read the first four verses. And
we'll set this up. The song of songs, which is the
song of solace. And this is the song of all the
songs he wrote. He said, this is the song. And
this is the church speaking now. This is the church. This is his
bride. This is his elect. 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 ointment
poured forth. Therefore do the virgins love
thee. Draw me, and 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. They are bright. Love thee." Now, you know, when you take
Ecclesiastes, it shows us, and we dealt with that week before
last, it shows us the emptiness of life without Christ, trying
to find satisfaction in this world. Vanity of vanities, all
is vanity, says the preacher. But the Song of Solomon is just
the opposite of that. It shows the fullness that we
have in the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessed union we have
with Him. And you know, and here in this
outline, it talks about how the Ecclesiastes, when the Lord Jesus
went to the woman at the well, she said, Ecclesiastes, is this
part of the message to her. Whosoever drinketh of this water
shall thirst again. When you're talking about Ecclesiastes,
this world. If you drink of this water, you'll
thirst again. But the Song of Solomon expresses
the second part of it. said, Whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. And that's what
Solomon is about. And you know when he talks about
this marriage union, when you go through the scriptures, and
Bruce Crabtree dealt with it so well during our conference,
the scriptures tell us that the highest union, the most blessed
union on the face of this earth that God himself sanctioned and
called to be is the husband and wife. You know, our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, He said, you know, that whatsoever God hath
joined together, let no man put asunder. And when He talked at
Eve out of Adam's rib, He says there, He said, The husband shall
leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife.
Now, that's what He says. You forsake everything else for
your wife, and they too shall be one flesh. And that's what
our Lord Jesus Christ, or the Apostle Man in Ephesians 5.22.
Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church. Wives,
honor your husbands, submit to them even as Christ, as we submit
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's no closer union. You know, when a person, they
become married, they become one. That's why Paul says, you know,
no man ever hated his own flesh yet. He don't hate his own flesh. And his wife, he couldn't hate
his wife. And the Scriptures tell us, and Paul said, Behold,
I show you a mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and His church. And he talks about this marriage
unit. He said, I'm just telling you, using this as an illustration
of how we in Christ are one. And I know people don't make
much out of marriage nowadays, but the Bible makes much out
of it, much out of it. And oh, whenever you see this
great union and relationship between the church and His people,
It brings on a whole new meaning. We see that the love of Christ
for His church is portrayed as a love for a man, for a woman,
in this blessed book. And I'll tell you, the love of
a man, all in the love of a man for his wife, is said all throughout
the Scriptures as a target picture of our Lord Jesus' love for His
church. Between Adam and Eve, Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and
Rachel, Boaz and Ruth, oh my, what a Blessed, and Hosier, Hosian
Gomer. All these beautiful pictures,
types, show us of our Lord's love for His church. And that's
why Paul said, I espouse you, told the prince, I espouse you
to one husband that I may present you a chaste virgin to Christ. And the Lord Jesus loves His
people. Oh, how He loves His people. And I do know this, that
all His people who know Him love Him. If you know Him, you love
Him. Now I know we don't love Him
like we should. We don't love Him as we would.
And we don't love Him as we shall, but we do love Him. One of these
days, love will be perfected. It'll be perfected. There'll
be no flesh, nothing to hinder it. And that's why the apostle
said, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be
anathema maranatha, let him be cursed at the coming of Christ.
John said we love him because he first loved us. And our Lord,
and here's the thing, our Lord loves us perfectly. Perfectly. Perfectly. I mean there is, when
you talk about the Lord Jesus loving his elect, his people,
his bridegroom, his church, He loves her perfectly. Perfectly. And we can love somebody, and
our love will just sometimes get so big and then it'll wane.
Sometimes you feel like you're going to just bust with it, and
then sometimes you feel like you don't want to have any at
all. But our Lord Jesus Christ's love is even and it's perfect.
No matter what we are in this world, He loves us, and we love
Him perfectly. We ought to say we want to love
Him perfectly. His love for us don't have no
variation in it. I mean, He don't get upset with
us the way we get upset with husbands and wives. Don't get
aggravated with us like we get aggravated with one another.
Don't get angry and say thanks to one and, you know, to one.
He don't say angry thanks to us like we say angry thanks to
somebody when they upset us. And our love for Him is like
our love here. It varies very greatly. But because
we have been forgiven of so much, we want to love Him much. We
really do. And so here, this study talks
first of all about how our beloved keeps us in His love. Let's talk
about redemption out of this book to start with. Look down
here in verse 5, chapter 1. And, you know, redemption is
not mentioned in this book, but you can't deal with Christ and
His church without talking about it. Now, here's the church. Here's us. I am black, but comely,
O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kadar, as the
curtains of Solomon. Here the bride confesses what
she is by nature. It's what she is by nature. She's black as the tents of Kadar. Her skin of her heart is black
as the tints of Kadar, with skins made of goat skins, and this
is our nature. And that's what she is by nature,
not what she is in Christ. And so in Christ, we may be black,
but it says here, but comely. We're black by nature, but in
Christ we're comely. In Christ we're comely. Look
in Ezekiel 16. Let me show you what I'm talking
about. Look at Ezekiel 16. We're black but comely. We understand
what we are by nature. We see what we are by nature.
And that's our nature. But yet, in Christ, we're comely. In Christ, we're perfect. Now, in verse 6, it says this.
When I pass by thee, talking about that infant, throwed out
to the loathing of his person. I passed by you, saw you polluted
in your own blood, and thy blood was polluted. And I said unto
thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live." And then he says, look
what he done to her. He says in Now down in verse
8, Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold,
thy time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. And yea, I swear unto thee, he
covered us with his righteousness, and I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord, and you became mine.
And then onward did I do that, and I entered into this covenant,
and made you mine, and covered you nakedness, and I washed you
with water. Thruly washed ye away thy blood from me, and I
anointed you with oil. Now look what He done for us.
I clothed you with brooded work. By nature we're black, but I
clothed you with brooded work. Put shoes on you with badges,
girded you with fine linen, covered you with silk. I put a jewel on your forehead,
earrings in your ear, a crown on your head, decked you with
gold and silver. Finally, in his self-broadened
work, he made the finest flour and honey. And look what he says
in verse 14. And thy renown went forth among
the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness
which I put on thee, saith the Lord God. Perfect through my comeliness
which I put on thee. And that's what he says. I'm
back. But in Christ I'm comely. Now look over here in chapter
2 and verse 14 with me just a moment. The blood of the beloved. Our
Lord Jesus Christ says here that His bride is hidden in the cleft
of the rock. Psalm 214. Oh my dove. That's what He calls us. Oh my
dove. Bowed in the cleft of the rock.
Cleft of the rock. In the secret place. Oh, you
see, beloved, he says we're hidden in the clefts of the rock, crucified
with Christ, in Christ. We've become dead to the law
that would condemn us, and the world that would lure us away.
We're hidden in that cleft of the rock. You're in that cleft.
He put us in that cleft, and as a dove, he put us there. And
look here in chapter 4 and verse 1, our Lord Jesus shows us here
our security and tells us again of our love for him. He says,
look here what he says, it says, Behold, you're fair, my love.
Behold, you're fair. Thou hast dove's eyes within
thy locks. Thy hair is as a flock of ghosts that appear from Mount
Gilead. I mean, beloved, he loves us
and he says, you're fair. And he says, oh, you're mine.
You're mine. And he says, that's what he tells
us. In verse seven, this is what he says about us. This is one
of the most glorious things you'll ever read in the scripture. Psalm
47, he says, Thou art all fair, my love, there is no spot in
thee. No spot. He tells us how we are right
now. I don't see me without any spots in me, but he does. No
spot in thee. That's why Paul said, Husbands,
love your wife even as Christ loved the church, and gave himself
for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the word that he might present it to himself.
A glorious church without spot, having no spot, no wrinkle, or
any such thing, but that'll be holy and without blemish. That's
what we are right now. And Christ says that He reconciled
us through the body and His flesh to present us holy and unblameable,
unreprovable in His sight. And beloved, right now in the
sight of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, and while we're in this
world, we're both justified and sanctified, clothed with His
righteousness. We're perfectly comely, all fair,
and have no spot. Oh, my. No spot. More these days, I'm going to
find a message. Somebody somewhere brought a
message on that. Behold, I inquire in there, I find no spot in there.
That's somebody's virgin, or law, or somebody. Robert Harper,
somebody got a message on it. If I find one, I'm going to preach
it. I'm not smart enough to come
up with one out of that myself. But, oh, I said, Thou art all
fair, my love. No spot in thee. Don't even count
there is no. Thou all fair. My love, no spot
in thee. No spot in thee. See, you're
perfect. Now, you look at yourself and you see spots. Old age spots
all over you. Sunspots all over you. But we're
talking about in the sight of God, spotless. No blemish, no
fault. And then he says, not only that,
but you're my love. Oh, and 22 different times Christ
is called my beloved. My beloved. He talks about His
majesty, His beauty, His excellency. Look over here in chapter 2.
Look in verse 1. Oh, how glorious He is described
in here. Now we sing songs about this.
Talking about our Lord. I am the rose of Shaman. The
lily of the valleys, as the lily among thorns, so is my love among
the dawns. As the apple tree among the trees
of the woods, so is my beloved among the suns. That's what He is to us. That shows His glory. Look over
here in chapter 5. Psalm of Solomon, chapter 5. Look in verse 9. And look what she asks. She asks
this question. They ask this woman this question. They ask
the bride this question. They ask her when she's running
around looking for him. She says, what? They ask her,
what is thy beloved more than another beloved? You say your
beloved is above every other beloved that there is anywhere. You talk about your beloved.
Your beloved talks about you. He describes you and you describe
him. What is your beloved more than another beloved? O thou
fairest among women, what is thy beloved more than another
beloved? That thou dost charge us when
you find him, tell him I'm sick of love for him." Well, she said,
I'll tell you what he's like. I'm going to tell you what makes
him better and more beloved and more precious and more glorious
than anybody other beloved in this world. I'm going to tell
you what it causes. Because my beloved is white,
spotless, pure, holy, and ruddy. Five, ten thousand, he's the
cheapest among them. Oh, his head is the most fine
gold. When you look at his head, it's
like looking at gold. It's so precious. It's more precious
than of all the gold. His locks are bushy. Got all
this hair and it's bushy. Curled. And black as a wreath. His eyes are as the eyes of the
doves. Dark, dark eyes. Set by the rivers
of water, washed with milk. They're real dark. Got all this
perfect white all around them. Set perfectly in his face. His
cheeks are as a bed of spices. When you get close to Him and
smell Him, you smell all these blessed spices. And His face
smells like sweet flowers. His lips are like lilies, dropping
sweet smell and smear. His hands are as gold rings,
said with verve. When you look at His head, you
think about gold rings. Oh, His hands are like gold rings.
His belly as bright as ivory, overlaid with sapphires. I mean,
he is worth more than you could ever imagine. His legs are as
pillars of marble, set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance
is as Lebanon, excellence as the cedars. His mouth is most
sweet. Yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this
is my friend, O God of such a roost. What's about Him that makes Him
so special? She said, I'll tell you. And
you know our Lord Jesus Christ, our love for Him, the longer
we know Him, and as we grow in grace, our love for Him and our
appreciation for Him grows more and more. You know, there's a deepening
affection, a deepening relationship with Him, and it just gets deeper
and stronger. And the more we know Him, the
sweeter our communion with Him is, and the more we grow in love
and devotion to Him as we get older, and the more we learn
of Him, the more we learn of Him. And it's like being married
for years and years and years and years and years. Your love
just gets stronger and deeper. More assured, and more confident,
and more restful, and more trustworthy. And that's the way it is with
Christ. And you know, there's two times that this fellowship
is interrupted. It shows us how desperately we
need Him. And we know this, that we want our Lord Jesus to make
Himself known to us. Sometimes we get in a sad state.
Sometimes we get cold and indifferent. But look what it says. We want
Christ to make Himself known to us. Back over in chapter 1
again. Oh Lord, make Yourself known to us. Kiss us with the
kisses of Your mouth. Let us smell You. The fragrance
of Your name is as ointment. The savor of Thy good ointment,
Thy name is as an ointment poured forth. And oh Lord, we know that
if He doesn't seek us, that we'll never seek Him. That He has to
draw us after Him. That's what He said here in verse
4. Draw me and we'll run after You. Now, sometimes He has to draw
us, cause us to run after Him. We won't embrace Him unless He
embraces us. And everything, everything depends
on Him. Look over here in chapter 2 and
verse 4, let me show you what I mean. Everything about our
relationship depends on Him. We won't embrace Him unless He
embraces us. The Lord, He said, draw me and
we'll run after you. We will be glad and rejoice in
thee. But everything depends on Him. And look what it says. He brought me to the banqueting
house. We didn't go on our own. He brought us. And His banner
over me was love. And then caused me to stay with
flagons, comforted me with apples, for I am sick of love. His left
hand is under my head and His right hand doeth embrace me.
He holds us and brings us and keeps us and feeds us and takes
care of us. Because there's times that we
don't. Now, back over here in chapter 5, let me go through
a few things here. And I'll tell you, a fellowship
and communion with our Lord Jesus Christ is found in the assembly
of His saints. This is where our Savior feeds
His blessed flock. You know, and He has watchmen.
He has watchmen. You know that the Shulamite maiden
went out in chapter 3. And she said to him, says, the
watchmen go about the city, found me. And they said, where is your
beloved at? And where is he? She said, I
want to find him. And they stopped him. And all
beloved, his watchmen are faithful gospel preachers. And there's
some things here in chapter five. And they're very important. First
of all, the beloved speaks first. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
first. He speaks to us. I am come into my garden, my
spouse. my sister, my spouse. I've gathered
my myrrh with my spice, I've eaten my honeycomb with my honey,
I've drunk my wine with my milk, O ye, my friends, drink ye, drink
ye abundantly, O my beloved." Now watch. That's the Lord speaking
to us. Then look why the bride responds. I sleep, but my heart wakes. Oh, I sleep, but my heart waits.
It's the voice of my beloved that knocks then open to me,
my sister. My love, my dove, my undefiled,
my head is filled with deer. My head is filled with deer,
and my heart's with the drops of the night. The bride answers,
Oh, I put off my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed
my feet. How shall I get up? Divide them. Well, my beloved
put his hand in the hole of the door, and my vows removed. Then
I rose up to my beloved. I opened to my beloved, but he
had already withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul fell when
he spake. I sought him, but could not find
him. I called, but he gave no answer." And let me tell you,
this is a common sin to us. Common sin to us. Now, if you
think I'm wrong about this, and you think this is wrong, I'm
sorry, but I know this is so. This is the thing. The Lord Jesus
Christ comes and knocks and says, open up to me." And what does
she say? I sleep. I sleep. That's the effect that a lot
of privileges, that's the bad effect that privileges have upon
our sinful hearts. Prosperity, prosperity, taking
things as commonplace, taking things for granted, being neglected,
How's he indifferent? Prosperity makes us that way.
Prayer becomes a burden. Worship becomes hard. And all
beloved becomes low mechanical. But this, look what he said,
and not only do I sleep, but he says that my heart wakes.
But here's our hope, our heart, my heart waking. It's a hopeful,
blessed sign that there's grace in the heart when the heart struggles
with the sinful tendency of the flesh. You're sleeping, and then
your heart wakes and says, oh, I don't want to be sleepy like
that. I don't want to sleep. I don't want to be indifferent.
I don't want to be neglectful. I don't want to be cold. So your
heart wakes, and you struggle against it. And oh, our sleep,
at least it's not the sleep of death where David talked about. And that is life. Wherever you
find life struggling against sin, and against neglect, and
against coldness, then you've got a heart that's got some life
in it, because both people don't care one way or another. But
I tell you, whenever you feel that heart start sleeping, you
start saying, Oh God, your heart waits. That's why Paul said,
I know that in my flesh that is in me dwelleth no good thing,
but O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this
body of flesh? And oh, and when He calls us,
He still knocks at the door, and He says, oh, look at the
excuses we make here. He called us with tenderness.
Our love is fickle, shameful, unworthy of Him. And we hear
His Word, and it knocks at our heart, and it speaks to us. And
look where some of the excuses. He said in verse 2, He says,
My beloved, knock. Open to Me, My sister. It's the
voice of My beloved. I sleep, and my heart wakes.
It's my beloved knocking open to me. Let me in. My head, I'm
out here in the wet. My head, I got dew all over me. The drops of the night are on
me. Look at the excuse. I've put off my coat. How shall
I? Oh, my heart is so old. I need
to rest. I'm so tender. Oh, and then I
put off my coat. How shall I put it off? I'm already
gone to bed. Huh? Look at his head. Oh, my. And I've washed my feet. You don't want me to get up and
get them dirty, do you? We prefer our rest, our fellowship
with the Lord Jesus Christ. But blessed be His name. In the
day of His power, His people are made willing. But look what
happens now. What does He do? You think He's going to take
no for an answer from His people? My beloved put His hand by the
hole of the door. And my bowels there, that means
my heart, my soul, my affections removed. Then I rose up. to my
beloved. I said, I'm getting up. Oh, but
when I got out there and I opened to my beloved, my beloved
had withdrawn himself and was gone. My soul failed when he
spake. Oh, I didn't get up. I didn't
listen. I didn't pay attention. I sought him, but couldn't find
him. I called, but he gave me no answer. Then look what happens
now. The watchmen that went by about
the city smoked me, found me, they smoked me, they wounded
me, the keepers of the wall took my veil from me. And she said,
oh, you know what the watchmen is? That's the preachers. Rebuking
us, reproving us, and telling us these things like this. And
then, look what she said, after that happened to her, I charge
you, O daughters of Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, tell
him that I'm sick of blood. I mean, beloved, he makes us,
well, get out of that bed! Put on them clothes. Open up
that door. He ain't here now. He's done
left me. Well, I'm going to go hunting for him. Well, they're
going to beat you. They're going to reprove you. They're going
to rebuke you. I'm going to go anyway. Tell me where he's at. I want to see. Oh, He makes us willing in the
day of His power. And oh, beloved, our only hope
is that we can find Christ for ourselves. Christ can certainly
find us. He can find us, and I tell you,
beloved, and you know where we'll find our beloved when we do find
Him? Over here in chapter six, in verse two. This is where we're
going to find Him. And you know, here's the thing about it. In
the saddest state as we get in sometimes, and I'm speaking for
myself. I wouldn't say it to you about you, but I'm speaking
for myself. Here's the blessed assurance we have. He said, I
made a covenant with you and made you my beloved. You're fair,
you're my beloved. You're mine. And He ain't never
going to let us go. He cannot deny Himself. Wherever
He's at in His people, wherever He's entered into that covenant,
wherever He's put His Spirit, wherever He's purged that conscience,
wherever He's got His righteousness on a soul, that soul, that soul,
but always be drawn after Christ. Christ will let him go so far,
that even while he's going, his heart is stirred with him and
says, Lord, please help me. Have mercy on me. And then he'll
cause us to run right back after him. And when we run after him,
guess where we find him at? Look here in Song of Solomon
6.1. Where is thy beloved gone, O
thou fast among men? Where is thy beloved turned aside,
that we may seek him with thee? Oh, my beloved's going down into
his garden, to the beds of spices to feed in the gardens, and together
lilies. Oh, wait a minute. I am my beloved's,
and my beloved is mine. He's going down into his garden.
And here in Solomon, I can't tell you exactly where it's at,
but he said his church, his people is as a garden enclosed. You
know, everybody, you know, when they had cattle and had chickens
and things like that, they'd put a fence around their garden.
A lot of people had fences around their garden. Fence in the garden.
Well, the Scripture tells us that we are a garden enclosed.
I mean, the deer ain't going to get in. Things going to spoil
the garden, ain't going to get in. Christ enclosed it. We're
His garden. And He goes down into His garden
to get His fruit. And oh, beloved, And that's three,
two different times. He says, look here in verse 16,
excuse me, 2.16 here of Solomon. Let me show you these three places
and I'll quit. Three times talking about assurance,
talking about assurance. Our marriage to the Lord Jesus
is firm. Our communion sometimes feels
broken, but oh my, our union is sure and steadfast. He said
in verse 16, My beloved is mine, I His. And He feeds among believers. Look in chapter 6 and verse 3. You know, I like to read it a
lot of times without the italicized word. I, my beloved's. My beloved,
mine. And again, he's feeding among
the lilies. He's right down among these flowers. Chapter 7 and
verse 10. I am my beloved's, and listen
to this, and his desire is toward me. His desire is towards me. And I'll tell you, and let me
show you this here. Our Lord, His garden, where the garden
is, is His place. He comes and feeds among us and
protects us and preserves us. But look what He says here in
chapter 8 and verse 6 and 7. Here we see the love of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We start in verse 5. Who is this
that cometh up from the wilderness, leaning upon her beloved? I raise thee up unto the apple
tree. there thy mother brought thee, and she brought thee forth,
that beareth thee." Then he says, now, listen, this is the life
of faith, and the love that he has towards us, set me as a seal
upon thy heart. As a seal upon thy arm. For love
is as strong as death. Love is as strong as death. You
know, You lose people that you love, but you never stop loving
them. Love is as strong as death. Jealousy
is as cruel as the grave. The coals thereof are coals of
fire which have the most behemoth flame. Now listen to this love
now. Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can the floods drown it. If a man would give all the
substance of his house for love, Try to buy it. It would be contemned. You just give it. You just give
it. I've been thinking since yesterday
about this marriage and love and people loving one another
and people say you can't live on love. I beg your pardon. You can't live without it. You can't live without. I'm going
to write an article on that this week's bulletin. You live on
love. In fact, you ain't going to live
without. Are you? Huh? Can't do it. Can't do it.