I'm looking forward to this study,
looking over these first verses I've read through the book, and
I see a lot of great blessings there I'm looking forward to
in the coming weeks. The Song of Solomon is a love story that's
been put to music. It's a duet that Christ and his
bride sing back and forth to each other. And this song is
written to give us a picture. of the intimate, loving relationship
between Christ and His Bride. This song shows us the intimate
communion that goes on between Christ and His Bride, and this
is a love that is best experienced. As a matter of fact, this love
can only be understood by experiencing Christ's love for His Bride.
Charles Spurgeon said this, he said, stands like the tree of
life in the midst of the garden, and no man shall ever be able
to pluck its fruit and eat thereof, until first he had been brought
by Christ himself, passed the sword of the chair of him, and
led to rejoice in the love which hath delivered him from death."
So the title of the lesson this morning is The Love We Crave. I want to give you four things
that every regenerate heart craves. The first one is this. The regenerate
heart craves to sing of the love of Christ. We just can't help
it. We just sing of his love. Now,
this song is written to show us the love of Christ for his
bride and her love for him. And it's written so that when
we read it, our hearts will be stirred up with love and desire
for Christ. Look what Solomon says about
this song in verse one. The song of songs, which is Solomon's,
Now, 1 Kings 4.32 says that Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs and 1,005
songs. But this is the song of songs. Solomon says, this is the best
song I ever wrote. The song of songs. As far as
I know, it's the only one that's recorded in Scripture. All the
other 1,004 are lost. But this one's recorded in Scripture.
Now, this is Solomon's best song. because Christ is the subject
of the song. Now, it's called Solomon's, the
Song of Solomon, but this song is about the one who's greater
than Solomon, who came to redeem his people because he loved them. This is the Song of Songs because
it's about the King of Kings. It's the Song of Songs because
this song is about the husband of husbands, the love of all
loves, and every believer craves to sing of this love. We crave
to sing of Christ's love for me. I will sing of my Redeemer
and his wondrous love to me. Every believer craves to sing
that song. It's the song we love to sing
and the song we love to hear sung. Secondly, we crave the
love of Christ in tokens of his love. Verse 2, let him kiss me
with the kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine.
Now, this is the bride speaking. She speaks like she hasn't seen
her love in a while. You know, I may have been gone
just a few hours, but when I come home from work, Janet expects
a certain greeting. She expects a kiss. She expects
a sign of affection. And that's what the bride here
is saying. She desires this kiss, a greeting that shows affection.
Now, a kiss shows nearness. You can't kiss somebody over
the phone. I mean, you can make the sound of it, but that's not
a kiss. You can't kiss someone from across the room. A kiss
is done face to face, in nearness. And a kiss is more than just
lips touching. When you kiss someone, you touch
their arm or their shoulder or their back. There's an embrace
that goes with it. And you're close enough to smell
their cologne, smell their perfume, to feel the warmth of their body.
Look over Genesis chapter 27. A kiss is how near blind Isaac
thought he could identify his son Esau. He thought he could
identify him with a kiss. In Genesis 27 verse 26. And his father Isaac said unto
him, Come near now and kiss me, my son. And he came near and
kissed him. And he smelled the smell of his
raiment, and blessed him, and said, See, the smell of my son
is as the smell of the field which the Lord hath blessed.
He was close enough to feel him and to smell him, and he said,
That's my son Esau." Now, you know that that was a deceptive
kiss by Jacob, but that is how Isaac thought he could identify
his son Esau. It was a deceptive kiss. But
none of our Lord's kisses are ever deceptive. The Lord's kisses
are the fruit of His lips. The Lord's kisses are the promises
of His grace that drip from His lips. The Lord's kisses are His
promises of the forgiveness of sin and acceptance in Him. A
kiss from the Lord is a token of reconciliation. We are not
separated by sin anymore. We're in fellowship one with
another. You don't kiss someone when there's a separation. A
kiss is a token of reconciliation. A kiss from the Lord is a healing
kiss. Our small children, they fall
and scrape their knee. We kiss their boo-boo to make
it better. A kiss from our Savior heals every wound the law ever
gave us. It's a healing kiss. Now it's
one thing to be enabled to bow before the king and to touch
the king's hand. That's one thing. It's another
thing to be kissed by the king. Isn't that what the prodigal
son wanted? He said, I'll just go back and
be a servant in my father's house. Maybe he'll let me kiss his ring.
But when that father saw that wayward son returning home, he
ran and kissed him. He kissed his neck. And that
kiss told that boy all is forgiven. You always will be accepted as
a son. After Joseph revealed himself
to his brothers, remember they'd come and he'd given them food
and they came back and he finally couldn't stand it anymore. He
revealed himself to his brothers and they were afraid. Rightfully
so, they were afraid. And Joseph told them, now don't
worry about this. It wasn't you that sent me here. The Lord sent
me here to save many people alive. To save you and to bless you.
And they listened to Joseph, just speechless. They were afraid
and maybe there was some hope, but they were afraid to really
hope in it. They were afraid to hope that
someone that they treated so badly could be so gracious to
them. And then in Genesis 45, verse 15, then Joseph came down
and kissed every one of his brothers, one at a time. Those kisses were
tokens he forgave them. I'm going to bless you. Those
kisses let them know, gave them assurance. I'm going to bless
you. All is forgiven. And then, after
they received those tokens of His kisses, then they talked
with Him. Then they communed with Him.
And that's what the regenerate heart craves. We crave tokens
of Christ's love. We crave His kisses. And then
we commune with Him. When the Lord kisses us, He's
near. So it's easy to commune with Him. Now, we say we crave
the kisses of our Savior's mouth. What we're saying is we crave
the kisses of our husband. The Jews, a boy and a girl, they
begin to have eyes for one another. Maybe they have arranged marriage,
whatever, but they're betrothed. But they wouldn't kiss each other
until they were married. A kiss was a kiss from your spouse. That's what the believer desires.
A kiss from our husband. And we don't want a kiss on the
cheek. We desire a kiss on the mouth from our husband. An intimate
communion and connection with him. Because what we desire above
all is his presence. The presence of the Lord is better
than anything. A believer will tell you that.
Take away everything else. Don't take him away from you.
I can do without anything else, but him I cannot do without."
Solomon said his presence is better than wine. Now, wine in
proper amounts, that's good for men. Scripture says wine makes
the heart glad. Wine revives the spirit. Wine
soothes the nerves and calms the stomach. The good Samaritan
used wine as medicine. He poured in oil and wine. All
that is pictures of Christ and His love to the believer. The
presence of heart not only makes our heart glad, the presence
of Christ gives us a new heart. And only Christ can make that
new heart glad. The presence of Christ gives
us spiritual life. He is our life. The presence
of Christ is the balm of Gilead for every sin sickness we'll
ever have. And it's the presence of Christ that soothes the nerves
when we're in the midst of troubled seas. Wine is a good picture
of Christ's love for His people. Old wine is considered to be
more valuable, especially if it was from a good year. Well,
that's Christ's love. It's ancient love. His love for
His people is eternal. And wine is pure. It won't spoil. Well, the love of Christ is pure.
And His love makes His people pure. But Solomon said, Christ's
love is better than wine. And that's true. Wine can be
expensive. The love of Christ is freely
given. Wine can be good for you, but don't drink too much of it.
It'll make you sick, make you an addict. But you can drink
of Christ all you want. Solomon talks about the kisses,
not kiss singular, the kisses plural of his mouth. Not just
one, but many, over and over and over again, every day. You
can drink of Christ all you want. The regenerate heart craves the
kisses of our Lord, craves His love, because we're intoxicated
with the presence of Christ. It's then that we're happy, when
we're just intoxicated with His presence. And if you're born
again, you know exactly what I mean. You know exactly that
reaches your heart, the love of Christ, how you desire his
love. Thirdly, we crave to be refreshed
by Christ's love for us. Look at verse three. Because
of the savor of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment poured
forth. Therefore, do the virgins love thee. Now, this ointment
is a perfumed ointment that Solomon talks about, and when it's poured
on us, we're refreshed. Just like the ointment Mary poured
on the feet of our Lord. She did that to refresh Him.
And that ointment is the Holy Spirit. And nothing refreshes
the regenerate heart like an application of the Spirit of
Christ. Look back at Psalm 133. I mentioned Wednesday night that
article I put in the bulletin. in a book John Flaming gave me. Whenever I read this Psalm 133,
I always think of John, how often he quoted it. Behold, how good
and how pleasant it is for the brethren to dwell together in
unity. It's like the precious ointment upon the head that ran
down the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the
skirts of his garment. Now, that oil that Aaron was
anointed is a picture of the Holy Spirit. And that's a picture
of Christ our High Priest who is anointed with that oil of
gladness above His fellows. Christ our High Priest was anointed
with so much of this precious ointment that it ran off His
head and down His beard and all over His clothes and all through
His feet. Well, maybe if we're near the
Lord, experience the kisses of His mouth, maybe some of that
ointment will rub off on us. We'd smell like him. And if we
smelled like him, I promise you, it'd be easier for us to dwell
together in love and unity if we smelled more like our Lord.
I want you to look here what the bride calls the ointment.
She calls the ointment the name of Christ. Because of the savor
of thy good ointments, thy name is as ointment. John Newton in
his song, How Tedious and Tasteless the Hour. wrote his name, yields
the richest perfume, and sweeter than music his voice. His presence
disperses my gloom and makes all within me rejoice. I should,
were he always thus nigh, have nothing to wish or to fear, no
mortal so happy as I, my summer would last all the year." Every
believer in this room, you hear that verse, you crave his love,
don't you? You crave to be refreshed with
his love. And nothing will refresh the
regenerate heart like the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. All
His names refresh us. How refreshing. Jehovah. God, my Savior. My Savior. That refreshes my soul. Jehovah's
Hikinu. The Lord, my righteousness. Jehovah
Jireh. The Lord will provide. Now, He's
going to provide. It's alright. He'll provide.
The Lord Jesus Christ. He's Lord. God Almighty. Yet, He's Jesus who became a
man. God became a man. Christ. The long-awaited Messiah. The
Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ. His name
is Savior. He shall save His people from
their sins. There is none other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Look back a
few pages at Ecclesiastes chapter 7. How the name of Christ refreshes
his people. Ecclesiastes 7 verse 1. A good
name is better than precious ointment. Now a good name is
the reputation that is attached to that name. And a good name
is like precious ointment. It's a precious thing to have
a good name. And I know men and women who
have a good name. But there is no rival to the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's our Savior, our Husband,
our Friend. His name is precious. And that's
what all the virgins say. Now, the virgins are those who
are pure. This is a picture of believers
who've been made pure in Christ. They've been washed in His blood,
clothed in His righteousness, and they're pure. And these virgins,
the pure in heart, are obsessed with the name of Christ. I hear
that this went on when I was a young boy, and I hear it still
goes on with young girls. They get a crush. They get a
crush on a boy in their class. And something in a girl makes
her like this. She is obsessed with his name. She'll get out
her notebook and she'll just write his name. Johnny Jones.
Johnny Jones. Over and over. She fills the
page. She loves his name. Janet did this with a boyfriend
of hers. And then she turns the page. She's obsessed with his
name. Then she writes her first name.
His last name. Sally Jones. Sally Jones. Sally
Jones. over and over and over again
until she fills the page, like she's dreaming. Oh, someday I'd
like to marry the hymn. I've got such a crush on him. The virgins, the pure in heart,
are obsessed with the name of Christ, just like that. Because his name is so refreshing.
His name, Jehovah Sikhinu, We write it over and over and over
again, don't we? Oh, how I'd like to be married
to him. Jeremiah says, don't you worry. This is the name we're
with. She shall be called Jehovah Sidkin,
the Lord, our righteousness. His name is so precious and so
refreshing. And what a miracle. He's made
that your name. If he's married to you, if he
set his affection upon you, he's given you his name. You're married
to him. This is the song of the bride,
the wife of the Redeemer. His name is refreshing. And fourthly,
we crave the love of Christ that draws us into union and communion
with Him. Look at verse four. 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. The upright
love Thee uprightly or perfectly. Now I like the way this verse
begins. Draw me. Because I know myself. I know
my fallen nature. So I know this. If the Lord leads
me to myself, I'll never follow Him. I'll never come to Him.
I'll never run after Him. I understand that. Because the
Lord showed me something about my nature. I know enough about
my nature to know I'm weak. Because I'm dead in sins. It's
not just that I'm weak. I could take a few steps, but
I couldn't come all the way. No, I'm dead. I don't have any
capacity to come to Christ. I don't have any capacity whatsoever
to even begin to make a motion towards Him. So if I'm going
to come to Christ, Christ must draw me to Himself. Now notice
Christ doesn't drive His people to Him. He draws them. He woos
His bride. by showing her who He is. And
she comes to Him willingly. But how does He draw her? With
His love. With cords of love. And the main
cord of the love of Christ is the cross. At the cross, we see
the love of Christ for His bride. What love that would compel the
Son of God to be my substitute? What love that would compel the
Son of God to be made sin for me, to take my sins and His body
on the tree to suffer and die for them. When I see the display
of that love, I need to be with Christ. I must come to Him. You just try to stop me. I must
come to Him. That's why we don't give an altar
call. We just preach Christ. When the bride hears it, you
ain't going to be able to stop her from coming to Him. She's coming.
She must be with Him. And the way Christ woos His bride
is the preaching of Christ by telling folks who He is. The
more I hear about Christ, the more I read of Him, the more
I'm drawn to Him. The bride is drawn to Christ
because her new heart, the regenerated heart that He gave her is ravaged
with Christ. Draw me. Run after Thee. This is an urgent matter. I'm
not walking. I'm running to Him. I must get
to Him. I must get to Him quickly. You
draw me and I'll come. You draw me and I'll keep coming.
You draw me and I'll run and I'll keep running. You draw me.
But listen. Don't just draw me to the front
door. Don't just draw me to the living room. Draw me into your
bedroom. into your chambers, into your
inner chambers. Now, why the bedroom? Because
the bedroom is where the secrets of the heart are told. That's
where when the lights get turned out and we're going to sleep
at night, that's where the husband whispers his secret thoughts
into his wife's ear. That's where the believer wants
to be. This is the place where the world shut out and there's
nobody but me and the Lord. That's what the believer craves.
That's where true union and true communion with our husband takes
place. And that's what the believer
absolutely craves. Union with Christ and communion
with Christ our husband. And our husband is not just any
old guy. The believer's husband is the
King. Christ the King. And the King
didn't just draw me into his courts, so I'd be impressed with
all the people that come to his courts. The king didn't just
draw me to his palace, so I'd be impressed with the big house
that he built. The king didn't just draw me to his banquet hall,
so I'd be impressed with the provision of his table. The king
drew me to his chamber, so I'd be impressed with him. Him. That's what the believer's heart's
taken up with. And when you consider That the
King draw someone like me into His chambers? The only explanation
for that is grace. What a miracle of grace that
Christ the King would set His love on a pauper like me. What a miracle of grace that
the King would draw a beggar like me from the dunghill into
His inner chambers so that He'd commune with me. His secret thoughts,
His love into my ear. What a mystery of grace that
Christ the King would draw a sinner like me and kiss the mouth of
a dirty beggar. That's His grace. The King did
that. I'm telling you, there are a
lot of things that make me glad. There really are. There are so
many things that make me happy. But nothing makes me gladder
and more full of rejoicing than being with Christ my Husband,
my King and my Savior. And then after the Lord communes
with us one-on-one, then we'll remember His love more than wine. We can't remember Christ's love
for us until He makes Himself known and reveals His love to
us. Then we remember. We can't forget. Well, we ought
not forget. We need to be reminded. We remember
His love. How do we remember His love?
Well, we hear the Gospel preached. We remember His love. We hear
the blood of His sacrifice. We hear of His broken body that
He gave Himself for His people. And we remember His love. We
are the Gospel priests. We remember His love when we
talk about the Lord with each other. We remember His love.
We remember His love more than wine. When we observe the Lord's
table, that's when we remember. Our Lord says, take this wine
and this dew. in remembrance of me. That's
when we remember the greatest display of love that's ever been
known to man. When our Lord gave Himself to
be sacrificed for His people. And when we remember the love
of Christ, we remember His love. Now, we don't just remember the
silly emotion we call love. We remember His love. We remember
the character of His love. His love is undeserved love.
He loved us. He loved us while we were yet
sinners. He loved us when we did not love
Him. He loved us when we were unlovely. His love is undeserved love.
We remember the character of His love, the eternality of His
love. His love is an everlasting love.
Therefore, He drew us to Him because He loved us eternally.
We remember that the love of Christ is infinite. You can't
measure it. You can't measure the length
of it, the breadth of it, the depth of it. You can't measure
it. It's untold. Yet every believer here knows
His love for you. You've experienced it. We remember
the character of the love of Christ. We remember how constant
His love is. Well, our love runs hot and cold,
doesn't it? His love is always perfect. Never wanes. And we
remember that it's the love of Christ that makes us love Him. Oh, we love Him. As we talk about
our Redeemer and His love and that close communion that you
have with Him. Does your heart burst with love
for Him? We love Him. That's a genuine emotion. We love Him. But we only love
Him because He loved us first. His love came first and His love
makes us love Him. Then we remember the power of
His love. The love of Christ was so powerful,
it compelled Him to go to the cross. It compelled Him to go
to the cross because this is the only way all of His people
could be made upright in heart by Him dying for them. And Him
coming in the person of His Spirit and giving His people a new heart.
Making those people chaste virgins for Himself. He loved her. He's going to have her. And the
only way He could do it is by going to the cross. The power
of His love for His people compelled Him to go to the cross. That's
the love that we remember. I hope that this morning and
all through this study and the Song of Solomon, this song is
written. So that when we read it, and
when we study it, it'll make our hearts burn with love. Burn with love for Christ our
husband. He's worthy of all of our love. Alright, I hope the Lord blessed
that.