Now turn with me in your Bibles,
please, to Song of Solomon. Song of Solomon. Now I'll give
you a tip. If you open your Bibles right
in the middle, you'll find Psalms. Go to the end of Psalms, and
you'll come to Proverbs. then it's Ecclesiastes, then
it's Song of Solomon. It's only a few pages in the
whole of your Bible, but that'll help you get there a little bit
faster perhaps. So just after the middle of your
Bible, we come to the book called Song of Solomon. And I'm just
going to read a few verses because this is the passage that Sheila
asked that I preach from this morning. Song of Solomon, and
we're going to chapter two, and we're going to verse one of chapter
two. I am the rose of Sharon and the
lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters. As the apple tree among the trees
of the wood, so is my beloved among the suns. I sat down under
his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my
taste. He brought me to the banqueting
house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons,
comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love. His left hand is
under my head and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge you,
O daughters of Jerusalem, by the rows and by the hinds of
the field, that ye stir not up nor awake my love till he pleas. The voice of my beloved, behold,
he cometh, leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills. My beloved
is like a roe or a young heart. Behold, he standeth behind our
wall. He looketh forth at the windows,
showing himself through the lattice. My beloved spake and said unto
me, rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. For lo, the
winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear
on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and
the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig tree putteth
forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give
a good smell. Arise, my love, arise, fair one,
and come away. Amen. May God bless to us this
reading from his word. It may surprise you to know that
the whole of the Bible is about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, some of you who have any
familiarity with the scriptures, some of you may say, well, we
know that Jesus is mentioned in the Bible. We know that his
words are recorded in the Bible. We know that the works of his
life, the miracles that he performed are found there. And we know
that the story of Christ, the story of his life, is all mentioned. But that's in the New Testament.
That's in the Gospels. He isn't in all the Scripture. Oh, but he is. He is. And just because we do not see
him mentioned by name, does not mean that the Bible writers were
not speaking about him when they wrote. In fact, the Lord Jesus
Christ himself says, all the prophets speak of me. And so from Genesis to Malachi,
from Matthew to Revelation, the extent of the two Testaments,
the whole of Scripture speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
if we are so short-sighted as not to be able to discern and
understand where He is in the whole of Scripture, then that
is our fault. But the testimony of the Son
of God is clear. He is in the whole of Scripture. And let me give you an example.
The Song of Solomon is a wonderful, intimate story of a king and
a lowly, common, but beautiful girl. It's a love story. And they talk
together in this story. It's like a piece of prose or
poetry. It is exalted language. It is artful language. They talk together of love. They speak of the deep stirrings
of their hearts, one for the other. And like all young lovers,
they have eyes only for each other. In some respects, as we read
the Song of Solomon, we ought to read it respectfully. We ought to read it like opening
someone's diary, someone else's diary, and finding there the
intimate things that they have written concerning the deepest
feelings of their hearts. We should come to this book with
a reverence, They describe their passions
for each other. They describe the feelings that
rise up in their souls, one for another. They look at each other,
and from the crown of the head to the sole of the feet, they
admire each other. There is a beauty about this
passage. But we would be wrong to limit
this love song to Solomon and the Shulamite girl whom he loves
and who loves him in return. This Shulamite, the word probably
means a daughter of Jerusalem, this Shulamite girl is a picture
in that relationship between Solomon and the girl of Christ
and his love for the church. It's an analogy, if you like,
a metaphor. It is a picture. And just like
an artist might paint a picture and yet secrete in that picture
a whole range of hidden meaning. So Solomon, in writing this love
poem, has been speaking of something deeper and more profound. Yes,
he had love for this girl, but he speaks of the love of Christ
for his church, and the church replies to him and speaks of
her love for him. My friends, this morning, Sheila
Kemmer understood this concerning Song of Solomon and Christ in
all the scriptures. So when she gave me the verses
she wished me to speak upon this morning, I knew exactly what
she meant for me to do and to say. She was looking for me to
find the Lord Jesus Christ in these verses that she gave to
me. On Friday afternoon, we buried
our sister. And I spoke a little of her love
for her Saviour. I said she loved the Lord Jesus
Christ, and we have heard that re-echoed this morning in some
of the things that have already been said and read to us. She loved the Lord Jesus Christ,
And I'm not going to say too much more about that today. Repetition
is not necessary. But I do wish to stress the importance
of tracing all spiritual grace, all spiritual blessing that God's
people possess. to its proper source and its
proper origin. What do I mean by that? Sheila
did not love the Lord Jesus Christ in a vacuum. That love which
she had for him had an origin and it had a source. And that
origin and source was outside of herself. It didn't arise in
her own heart or arise in her own soul. Let me give you an
example of that. Last week, just before Sheila
died, someone sent a large picture to her, a large picture of her
and her daughters, and it arrived in a big cardboard box at the
hospice. And everybody thought, what is
that? Who's that from? Well, we soon
found out what it was as the box was opened and the picture
was revealed. But there was no name accompanying
the gift. We did not know who sent it. Now, it was Sheila's picture. It belonged to her, and I'm sure
some of you have seen it over the past few days. It was Sheila's
picture, but she did not send herself the gift. And we all wanted to know where
this fine and where this thoughtful gift had come from. Who was it
that had given it? And that was the question that
intrigued us. It just arrived. Where did it come from? The Lord's people feel a lot
like that when they discover gifts arriving unexpectedly. They say, that was never there
before. Where did that come from? That love that I have for the
Lord Jesus didn't used to be there. That desire to be in the
company of His people didn't used to be there. That burden that I feel, to be
under the sound of the gospel, to be able to feed my soul on
the very gospel of the death and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is a new thing to me. I didn't used to feel like
that. In fact, I would have run a mile
from going to church on a Sunday morning. I would have had nothing
to do with that group of crazy people. And now all I want to
do is spend my time in their company and share together the
wonderful things of my Savior, Jesus Christ. Where did that
come from? The Lord's people desire to trace
the source and the origin of all of these spiritual gifts
to its rightful place. How is it that while I did not
used to love the Lord Jesus, now I love him? Now, what is
that to do with Solomon and his Shulamite bride? Well, quite
a lot, actually. Because that is a metaphor, it's
a picture, as we've said, of God's love to us. And understanding
these verses will give us a picture of Christ and his church. And understanding these verses
will show us the source of Sheila's love for her Lord. In the first verse of Song of
Solomon, chapter two, we read that the king identifies himself. Solomon, the writer, identifies
himself, but he doesn't use his name. He speaks of himself in
this elevated language. And then he speaks to his bride.
He speaks to the Shulamite. He says, I am the rose of Sharon
and the lily of the valleys. That's Solomon identifying himself. These are the words, the descriptions
that he uses to speak of himself. Remember, this wasn't for you. This was for her. This was intimate. He says, I
am the rose of Sharon. I am the lily of the valley. Solomon was a great king. He was a wise and powerful man. And these pictures that he uses
of flowers, they speak of beauty and grandeur. They speak of fragrance
and purity. They speak of holiness. And these
are qualities personified in the Lord Jesus Christ. Solomon
could say, I am the rose of Sheol and I am the lily of the valley,
but the holiness and the purities that these pictures speak to
are only truly and most fully found in one person alone, the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so we detect Christ in these
words. So we see that he is the one
that ultimately is being spoken of in this language. Then the great king speaks of
his bride and he speaks of her qualities and of his love for
her. And he says, as the lily among
thorns, so is my love among the daughters. And that's the verse
that Sheila gave to me. As the lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters. So take note of it, you girls,
you women out there, that's what your mother asked to be preached
upon. As the lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters. And that phrase says three things
about that Shulamite girl. It says three things about the
Church of Jesus Christ and it says three things about Sheila
Kemmer that I want you to know and notice. The first thing is
this, she is loved by him. Secondly, she is like him. And thirdly, she is distinguished
from all others. Now let me take these three points
one at a time and I'm not going to weary you I trust this morning
but I do want to make a few what I believe are pertinent points
with respect to an application here from this verse. Solomon
declares his love for the Shulamite and he calls her my love. my love. It's personal and we
see some of the intimacy of his speaking. He speaks of my love
and as we've said the picture is of Christ's love for the church. I have loved thee saith the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke often
and whether it's derived from the Old Testament scriptures
where, again, multiple times God speaks of his love for his
people as an everlasting love, an eternal love, or from the
New Testament as the words drop from the very lips of Christ
himself. He says to his people, he says
to his church, I have loved you. And this opens to us the source
and the origin of all true spiritual love. If you ever discover the
love of the Lord Jesus Christ, if you ever discover that you
have a passion for the things of the gospel, if you ever discover
that you have a delight in coming into the company of the saints
of God and spending time with them, That came from Christ. That came from God. That came
from the one who says of you, my love, my love. How did that happen? Was it always
so? No, something changed in us. We were given a gift. We were
given a blessing. Grace was extended, not something
that we earned. That would be wages. That would
be our just deserts. No, this is grace. This came
to the church. This comes from Christ. This
comes to individual believers as the Lord, out of his magnanimity,
out of his sheer goodness and kindness, out of what we call
mercy, graciously bestows his gifts. Something changes in a
soul. We call that conversion. You've probably heard that word
as well and oh how this old world and this old devil has taken
the language of Zion and twisted it and bent it and corrupted
it so that people use this language and invariably it means quite
the opposite from what the scriptures really mean by it. Most people
think that conversion is turning over a new leaf. and starting
to live a good life. Well, it's a spiritual change
that is enacted secretly and silently, that is like a gift
come unannounced. It is received within us and
we don't know where it came from and yet it has changed us. It has altered something in our
hearts and in our feelings and in our souls. It's a spiritual
change prompted by the discovery of the love of the Lord Jesus
Christ for us. Did I say that Sheila loved the
Lord Jesus Christ? Then it was because the Lord
loved her first. Because Like Solomon and the
Shulamite, he smiled upon this woman. He saw her as a lily among
the thorns, and he said to her, my love, I have loved you. In 1 John chapter 4, 19, we read
these words. We love him because he first
loved us. Second thing I want to draw your
attention to is this. Solomon called himself the lily
of the valley. That was what we read in the
opening verse. I am the rose of Sharon. I am
the lily of the valleys. And now he calls the Shulamite
a lily also. Now he's speaking to his love
and he calls her a lily too. And that too is a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ and his church. If we had looked back
into the opening chapter of Song of Solomon, we would have read
there in verse five that the Shulamite does not describe herself
as a lily. A lily is a, it's a beautiful,
it's a beautiful flower. It is, it speaks of purity. It's white and it speaks of purity. She calls herself black in chapter
one, verse five. But Solomon sees her as lily
white. Now let's move away from the
picture. Let me say it this way. She perceived
herself in one way, but he saw her as something else. He saw
her like himself. He called her the same name that
he took to himself. And that's another gift of grace. It's a gospel blessing. What
shall we say? Shall we not trace this purity
of Christ to him also? He makes us pure. He regards us as being pure,
pure as Christ. He is the lily of the valley
and you are my lily. And perhaps the greatest revelation,
the greatest message of the gospel is the believer's union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. Not simply as we've been thinking
over recent days in the flow of the annual calendar, that
God took flesh and spirit and became a man. That was so important. But it was a mechanism, it was
a means of accomplishing a greater union. that existed in the will
and the purpose, we call it the eternal will or the eternal purpose,
the covenant of God's peace towards sinners, that he joined himself
to us, that he took us to himself and he made us one with him,
made us a part of himself so that we cannot be distinguished
from him, Just like those lilies blowing in the field and one
becomes like the other and you cannot tell them separately apart. He is the head, we are the body,
we are united to him. In Romans 8, verse 29, the Apostle
Paul speaks of this, and he speaks of the love of God, and he uses
a word which is foreknowledge. That foreknowledge is God's love
for his people from before time. Whom he did foreknow, whom he
loved before time, he also did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of his Son. You get that? That people, that
church, Those of whom we see Solomon alluding to in this poetic
language, these people are being predestinated, are predestinated
to be conformed to Christ, to be made Christ-like. She was my Lily, just like me,
made like Christ. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. Because of Christ's love for
his people, he declares us to be holy. He declares us to be
perfect, us to be fragrant, beautiful as he is. And he calls us and
he makes us so. Solomon loved this Shulamite
girl. and Christ loves his people. There is a lovely parallel here
in these words. Solomon calls this girl after
his likeness, and so the Lord Jesus Christ makes his people
like him. 1 John 3, verse 2 says, Beloved,
now are we the sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And the final point
that I want to make from this verse is this, that Solomon distinguishes
the Shulamite from all around her. Among the daughters, he
says, she is my love. Among the thorns, she is my lily. Solomon's love was not given
to all the daughters of Jerusalem. What girl would want to know
that she had the love of a man and that he loved her just like
he loved all the girls in town? Just like he loved every woman
That's not love. That's not particular. That's not distinguishing. That's
not personal and intimate. That's a parody. That's a joke.
That's an insult. No, the love that Christ has
for his people is a love which is distinctive and personal and
intimate. And here Solomon distinguishes
his Shulamite from all the daughters of Jerusalem. She is the lily
among the thorns. And he placed that love upon
his bride and it rested on her. And so amongst the fallen children
of Adam, God has betrothed a people to himself. And Christ has redeemed
that bride of God's choice. And the Holy Spirit opens their
hearts, converts them through the preaching of the gospel,
and implants love in their souls that they should love and seek
after Him. So here then is the meaning of
our text. Here is the reality behind the
picture. Here is the revelation of the
Lord Jesus Christ to us, his gospel in all the scriptures. And that's what Sheila Kemmer
would have you know and understand today, that it's Christ's work
to her. It's his grace to her. All that she has today, and it
is a lot, All that she has is by the grace of her Lord Jesus
Christ. As the lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters. Sheila was beloved of the Lord,
and Sheila was distinguished amongst the daughters of this
world. And because he first loved her,
she in turn loved her Saviour. She saw his love and she saw
what he had done for her and her heart went out to him in
response. Sheila in her life was like her
father Abraham. but she was made like unto Christ. She was made a lily among the
thorns of this world. She was made pure and fragrant
and holy in this world. And she worshipped her saviour
in spirit and in truth. And though she carried around
with her the body of this death, as Paul calls it, the old man
with all of its weaknesses, faults and failures of her old fleshy
nature, she did so only until it pleased the Lord to come and
take her to glory. At a time appointed, at 12.33
p.m. on Thursday, the 27th of December,
2018. We read verse 10 earlier from this
second chapter. Here's what it says. Listen to
these words. My beloved spake and said unto
me, rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away. Rise up,
my love, my fair one, my lily, my lily amongst the thorns, and
come away. I'm going to take you out of
this world, out of this body of death, out of this hospital
bed, out of all the pain and out of all the suffering and
away from all the sin. Come. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Because he loved her, Almighty
God gave gracious promises of life and holiness in the Lord
Jesus Christ to Sheila Kemmer. And she believed him. She believed
those promises. She did. She spoke of them often
in those last months, weeks, days. She spoke of them frequently. It was all her joy. It was all
her hope. She believed him. and it was
no delusion, it's no wishful thinking, it's no false comfort
that we give to people at the end of their lives. This is such
an easy job I have today, such an easy job to preach this sermon
that Sheila gave me, not because she gave me the verses, but because
I can speak with an earnestness with a knowledge, with a conviction
that that lady who was my friend, that lady that I buried is in
the presence of her saviour and is far happier than she ever
was in this world. That's the gospel. That's the
gospel. Today, Sheila is alive and well
in her heavenly home. And I want to paraphrase a verse
of scripture and say to you that this is her personal testimony. I trust she will allow me to
do it. Hebrews 11.4 is the verse. By faith, Sheila Kemmer offered
unto God a more excellent sacrifice than the daughters of this world,
by which she obtained witness that she was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts, and by it she being dead yet speaketh. What does
she say to us when she speaks? She being dead yet speaketh.
What does she say to us when she speaks? She says this, to
know Christ is to love him. To love him is to trust him. To trust him is to enjoy him
forever. May the testimony of this gracious
saint continue to speak to our fellowship here, to her family
and to her friends that she has left behind. Amen.