Songs of Solomon, the sixth chapter. I'm sorry, I say the sixth. The fifth chapter. The fifth
chapter. The whole chapter. This chapter, as is all of the
Songs of Solomon, is a specific love relationship that Christ
has for His people or Christ has for His church, specifically. And we know that Christ does
not love everybody and He didn't die for everybody. And this is the inner court. This is what we're looking at.
It's this beautiful, wonderful relationship that exists between
Christ and His people. This love relationship between
our Lord and His Church. It also shows forth a wondrous
riddle of the characteristic that we have. This characteristic
is amply set forth, which I've come to find out when I was studying
for this message, by a man, and I'm sure the bulletins have read
different writers, a man named Ralph Erskines. Ralph Erskines,
he's the brother of Ebenezer Erskines, a Scottish preacher,
and he came out with a book, actually a poem, a long 34-page
poem, The Believer's Riddle, or The Mystery of Faith. And
when we get into this, you'll see exactly what I'm saying.
And every believer experiences this. Every believer understands
what I'm gonna be saying here. Because again, this is that unique
relationship that we have with Christ and that Christ has with
the church. So let's look together, starting
in verse one. This is Christ speaking to his bride, to the
individual elect, and to everyone who has called upon the Lord
in truth. I am come into my garden, my
sister, my spouse, that's us, I have gathered my myrrh with
my spice, I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey, I have drunk my
wine with my milk. Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink
abundantly, O beloved." This is a feast going on. We're invited into a feast, which
we have already, if we've tasted that the Lord is We have a union
with them, which can never be broken. Now it can be, it'll
be strained and we'll see who does the straining, but it can't
be broken. So there's a feast going on here.
We have a feast with our groom. What a privilege it is to come
and hear the gospel and understand it. To come and hear the gospel
and understand it. The gentleman I work with, went from
one religion to another religion to another religion and now he's
in another religion. He's fine. So he doesn't understand,
he doesn't understand what he believes. But we understand. And we're persuaded that he is
able to keep that which we've committed unto him against that
day. We know. We know who we believe. So there's
this feast going on, us and Christ. is set forth in and by his free
and sovereign grace towards us, it's very pleasant indeed. I'm
coming to my garden, he calls us a sister, he calls us a spouse,
I've gathered my myrrh and spice, I've eaten my honeycomb with
my honey, I have drunk my wine with my milk, eat, eat, feast,
dine with me, oh friends, drink, yea, drink abundantly, oh beloved.
eat. He calls us his friends and beloved
and so we are indeed betrothed particularly to him by that wonderful
substitutionary death on Calvary's tree, his death. Is he not called
the friend of sinners? He says there in verse 1, eat,
come, he says eat, oh friends. Drink, drink abundantly, oh beloved. So in Song of Solomons 5 and
verse 1, Christ is speaking. His first verse, He's speaking.
Now, here's us. Here's our response. Right after
we've feasted, and this is usually what happens, when we glut ourselves,
we become sleepy. We become lethargic. And this
is to our shame. This verse. I sleep. I sleep. Woe, he says, the scripture says,
to those who are at ease in Zion. Now don't go looking for trouble.
Like Donny Bell, don't go looking for trouble. Don't try to cause
trouble. Because trouble's going to find you. If you're doing,
if you're speaking of His glory, of His name, if you're saying,
you know, saying some things, or if you don't know what to
say, like I said, invite sinners in. You're going to, trouble's going
to find you. Now you can do like we all do, and we'll try to,
like Peter, we'll try to fit in Try not to make any waves. But the more we think of ourselves,
the less we think of Him. The more we think of our reputation,
the less we think of Him. The more we think of our money,
the less we think of Him. But here's the response. We just
got done feasting with Emmanuel. And here's our reply. The church
responds. Every elect responds. The first
phrase, I sleep. Oh, woe is us. Mercy abused and
mercy neglected. This is to our shame. This is
to our shame. This flesh would rather sleep
than run the race. It's hard to run race. It's hard
to be in warfare. It's like, give us a time of
peace. He says, I don't give you peace
on earth. Brother against brother, mother against son, daughter. There's no rest for the people
of God on this earth. This old man, the flesh would
rather sleep than run the race. This old man would rather slumber
than fight the good fight. This old nature would rather
take its ease rather than exercise itself in the ways and means
of grace and truth. That's just, this state is dangerous. I sleep. This state is dangerous
for us to be in. The scripture says in Proverbs,
a little slumber, a little sleep, a little folding of the hands.
It's like, you know, we come home from work, it's a hard day's
work, you know, maybe it's later in the evening, the kids are
off in bed, and you just want to let down. Well, Satan never
lets down. This world never lets down. We've
had people who have forgot to turn their phones off get phone
calls in services. The world is still functioning.
Places are still open. People are still doing things
to their shame. They don't understand. They don't feel shame. It's just
another day. This is a dangerous state to
be in. This state is unable. Have you ever seen anybody fight?
Physically a good fight when they're sleeping. That's called
surprise attack. You're gone. We can't resist our many foes
for we are asleep. We don't even know what plight
we're in. We're like dreamers. We're like
them that dream. You dream when you sleep. Unless
you're a daydreamer. And then people are like, are
you here? Are you here? And yeah, I was
just daydreaming. But when you're sleeping, you're
in a dangerous state. And you think about it, sleep,
it's a state of inaction. Inaction. No action. We cannot
walk or march to Zion when we're laying flat. We cannot preach the gospel when
we slumber. We cannot serve God in such a
state as this, sleeping and dreaming like the days away, may we arise
and wake, poor saint of God. But there's hope in the text.
Because I thought, you thought I said this was about, this is
the love relationship between the regenerated and his Lord. And it is. So we gotta keep reading
on. So read on. I sleep, but my heart
wakes. My heart wakes. Isn't that the
new nature? The flesh is, the spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak. Isn't that what Christ said?
When his disciples fell asleep. You couldn't watch with me one
hour. So they didn't understand the gospel. They were totally
lost. No, our Lord gently reproved them, but they were still his
people. And this is true. This is the
dual nature. I sleep. and yet I'm awake. This is the new nature, it's
alive, it's blessed be God. He has not left us to ourselves. Here's the riddle that Mr. Erckstein spoke of. Charles Hadley
Spurgeon said, a man is a mass of contradiction, but a man in
Christ is far more so. You can't explain it to anybody.
I mean, far more so. Got a little section picked out
here. I only got to page eight. Mr. Irkstein. And this
actually, you can get this online because it's out of copyright.
So from the National Library of Australia, you can get this.
I am sinful, yet I have no sin. All spotted over, yet wholly
clean. Blackness and beauty both I share,
a hellish black and a heavenly fair. There of the devil who
sin amain, but I am of God, yet sin retained. This traitor vile
the throne assumes, prevails, yet never overcomes. I am without
guile and Israelite, yet like a guileful hypocrite, maintaining
truth in the inward part with falsehood rooted in my heart.
Two masters, Sure, I cannot serve, but must from one regardless
swerve. Yet self is for my master known,
and Jesus is my Lord alone. I seek myself incessantly, yet
daily do myself deny. To me, it is lawful evermore
myself to love and to abhor. In this vain world I live, yet
see, I am dead to it and it to me. My joy is endless, yet at
best, does hardly for a moment last. He's got 30 pages of that. And the neat thing is about this,
after every line, he's got scriptures showing where he's getting it
from. I think it's well worth looking at. But this is the riddle. This is the mystery of faith.
I sleep, but my heart awakes. The inner life will never die.
It cannot sleep. It is, scripture says, living
water, a well spring, springing up within. It is that lively
branch that's always connected, fused, and in union with the
vine, so it can't die. Sins, the scripture says, shall
not have dominion over you. And like we looked at a couple
weeks ago, that dove at Noah's Ark, it found no rest. We don't
have rest here, and yet we rest. We sleep. I'm asleep, but yet
our heart waking. As Newton said, I'm not what
I want to be, I'm not what I ought to be, but by the grace of God,
I'm not what I used to be. Grace reigns through righteousness.
That's the riddle. We, though half asleep, still
know our Shepherd's voice. I sleep to our shame and our
danger and our inaction, yet my heart waketh." My heart waketh. We cannot hear another. You go
here, and I was reading somebody, I don't remember who it was,
he said, you can't, if it was possible, if it was possible,
the Very Elect would be deceived. It can't be. Because that seed
remains in us, that new nature. And you hear something and you're
like, that's the truth. And you don't hear it and you're
like, something's not right here. We, nay, we will not, says, Christ
as our shepherd, we will not follow another. They know the
voice of the shepherd, the good shepherd, and will not follow
another. We will follow the one true living
and loving Lord and Savior. Keep reading. It is the voice
of my beloved that knocketh, saying, open to me, my sister,
my love, my dove, my undefiled. Look at these phrases that he's
using to describe his people. For my head is filled with dew,
and my locks the drops of the night." And here's our response. I've put off my coat. Should
I put it on again? Should I put it on? I have washed
my feet. How shall I defile them? What? This is just exactly the opposite.
He's still sleeping here. He's in a state of spiritual
lethargy. Slumber, slowfulness. Where is
this, where, says, Lord, you know, well Samuel, you called
our, yeah, Samuel. Lord, here am I, I'll go. Or
David, I'll go. I'll go to battle. Let me, let
me, let me at that uncircumcised Philistine. We're laying down. Just probably turned off the
TV. How should I put my coat on? I've washed my feet. But blessed be persistent, sovereign,
irresistible grace. Verse four, my beloved put his
hand in the hole of the door and my bowels were moved for
him. He's gonna have us. He shed his
blood for us. I rose up to open to my beloved
and my hands dropped with my fingers with sweet smelling myrrh
upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved, but my
beloved had withdrawn himself." That's scary. Withdrawn. He does. This is what Octavius
Winslow would say, declination or declining of soul.
Contemporary terms would call it backsliding. I don't like
that word. I don't know. I've done studies
on it, I'm not sure that it properly applies to a believer, but anyway,
he's withdrawing himself. And just reading this text, we
know this is us. He's called, and he's too busy. He's either sleeping, in the
context, or the world had our attention, or I'll get to it
in a minute, and you know as well as I do, so I gotta, We
try to read every night, you know, whatever. And if we get
tired, we don't do it. We'll put it off. But we won't
put off food, we won't put off our meal, we won't put off this
activity, that activity, all these different things. We've
got to do them because people expect us to do them. But we
put this off. He had withdrawn Himself and
was gone. My soul failed when He spake. I sought Him, but I could not
find Him. I called Him, but He gave me no answer." See, here's
the soul that's in love with Christ. Though He hides His face,
maybe a cloud, we're still trying to find Him. We've got to hear
the Gospel. We've got to gather together.
We've got to find Him. But He's withdrawn Himself. Not
as in lost or cut off because it can't
happen. The believers will continue in
grace because that's not how grace works. It turns it on and
turns it off. the watchman, the preachers, or however you want
to phrase it, they went about the city and they found me, they
smoked me, they wounded me, the keepers of the walls took away
my veil from me." This is basically the rebuke of the preaching of
the gospel, the rebuke of the word, whatever it may be to shake
us up. And then the church calls again,
I charge you, O daughters of Jerusalem, the preachers, your
best friend who understands the gospel. They could be a watchman. Your wife, who's a believer,
could be a watchman. Your husband, who's a believer, could be a
watchman. Set you down and say, you know, enough's enough. This
is interfering. We've got to stop this. My beloved,
we need to reunite. We need to have communion. And
you know it in your heart, you already do, but you've just got
to find Him. She says, I charge you Well,
God says, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I'm sick
of love. You tell him, what did Christ,
he said, Peter, Peter, do you love me? He knew he loved him,
but he's saying this for Peter's sake. Just like Adam, where are
you? He knew where, God knew, I'm
missing him, he's omnipresent. He knew where Adam was, did Adam
know? Do we know where we're at? Do we know whom we believe? Do
we know, we say we believe a lot of things, do we truly believe
what we say? This is where the rubber hits
the road. You can't fool, I guess we can,
but you can't fool somebody who you truly love. You don't want
to. And He knows all things and we can't fool Him. So she's saying
to these people, whoever, these other believers, if you find
Him, that you tell Him, that I love them. I'm sick of
love." And so they ask again to elicit a response from the believer
What is your beloved more than another beloved? Well, the last
verse says, this is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters
of Jerusalem. This is my answer. What is your
beloved more than another beloved? O thou fairest among women, what
is thy beloved more than another beloved that you charge us? You
charge us. Basically, there's no priesthood
here. I'm not going to be the go-between.
You know, Matt comes to me and says, tell my dad this and that.
And then Bruce comes to me and says, tell Matt. And then it's
like, he's your dad. And dad, he's your son. Why do
you need me? And that's a poor example. And
maybe there may be some times when that's such that you say,
I don't know. But it's like, there's no go between. There's
no mediator. There's only one mediator. Why are you telling
me this? Why are you charging us? You
said you love Him. You said you're sick of love.
Can you describe Him for me? I'll never forget. I know where
we were at. I know who was involved. I'll
never forget when somebody told this man, said, tell about Christ. And he said, well, that's the
preacher's job. He had a friend, and he was trying
to get him to come to church. And he said, well, just tell
him, you know, just tell him the truth. And he's basically, basically
what he's saying is, I'm in religion, but I don't know the truth, but
why, you know, you're getting kind of personal. You're asking me
these personal questions. Sometimes it's good to ask personal questions.
He couldn't answer. He said, well, that's what we
pay the preacher for. I thought, wow. That's sad. That's sad. Well, this is my
beloved. Verse 9 through 16. Verse 10. My beloved is white. Sovereign. Beautiful. There's no spot in.
Ruddy. Blood, which is red. Chiefest
among ten thousands. There's a lot of people, but
he's the chief. His head is the most fine gold. You can't, you
know, when you talk about precious jewels, gold, that's what you
talk about. You go right to gold. You may talk about silver and
onyx and stuff like that, but gold is it. Gold is the mark.
His locks are bushy, black as a raven. His eyes are the eyes
of doves by the rivers of waters washed with milk and fitly set. His cheeks are as the bed of
spices As sweet flowers, his lips like lilies dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh. His hands are as gold rings set
with the barrel. His belly is as bright ivory
overlaid with sapphire. His legs are as pillars of marble
set upon sockets of fine gold. His countenance is as levitant,
excellent as the cedars." So I don't know about you, but he
went here and he went all the way down. He's thoroughly acquainted.
Are we thoroughly acquainted with Christ? Now, if you've just
come to know Christ, you're not thoroughly acquainted with Him.
And that's understandable. That's why I just tell people,
I don't know Christ's doctrine. I don't understand a whole bunch
of doctrine, but I know this is my Redeemer. And come and
hear the preacher. Come and hear if you don't know. But that's why we gather together. That's why you read the Word.
That's why we pray publicly and privately. Serve him from head
to toe. And you know, if somebody asks
you to describe that, I don't know, it seemed like there was
like maybe it was a newlywed game or something like that.
And you know, they take him away and then they say, OK, tell me what,
tell me if, you know, and they'd have to say something to describe
about their spouse that was pretty well nobody else knew. Well,
if our spouse went in another room, could we start the head?
and go all the way down to the toe. I believe I could. You may not
want to hear some of the things, but I believe I could. And when
you first get married, you probably just got, you know, I could be
main features, but as you gather, as you grow together, you could say a lot more. But look at the closing. This
is actually the passage of the verse I was going to go to, but
I got enamored with the others. Well, it bothered me because
I know I sleep. I sleep. But thanks be to God,
my heart is awake. My heart is awake. It's like
that bruised reed and the smoking flax. You blow on it, you blow
on it, and then the embers become flame. And I'm sure I'm guilty
of this and I've seen, not any grace preachers, but I know preachers
that just break you over the coals and lay you out. You know,
they're not blowing that, they're just stomping it out. Twisting
it, bending it, the broken reeds, not broken all the way through,
it's kind of hanging over. Instead of trying to mend it and preach
the gospel and feed and dung around it. I'm helpless. This is what I'm
supposed to do. It's just preach the gospel. And in preaching the gospel,
the flesh will be rebuked and the spirit will be satisfied. But look at this last phrase. His mouth is most sweet. Yea, in these last words, He
is altogether Lovely, that's what I was going to get to, but
I'm getting to it now. He, and the word is, is in italics,
he, altogether lovely. Altogether, what's that mean?
Webster says it completely, totally, absolutely, entirely, and perfectly. There's nothing in Him that is
not perfect. There's nothing in Him that's
not complete. There's nothing in Him that's not lovely. This
is the voice and the heart murmurings of one who loves Christ because
he's been loved by Christ first. We have blemish. What's the scripture
say about him? In him there's no spot or blemish. He's holy,
harmless, undefiled. But myself, my wife, all of us,
we got blemish. Even the best person. I think about something that
one of my bosses said. He's talking about professional
athletes, baseball players in particular. He says, what's a
good batting average? 300 something? Yeah. So that means every three, every
ten times that guy gets up, he's only getting on three times.
That's pretty pathetic. I got thinking, wow, we're paying
him millions and millions. Think about it. I mean, really? Three times? Basically, if Nathan
went into work and every ten computers and network systems
that he looked at, if he only took care of three, I mean, really? Think about it. He's complete, altogether and
completely lovely in His essence. God, divinity, sovereignty, in
His nature, He's Emmanuel. In His person, He by Himself
put away our sin, nobody else. In His accomplishments, He saved
His people. His name will be called Jesus.
He saved His people. He shall save His people from
their sins. Perfect, complete. So He's absolutely altogether
lovely in His person, in His accomplishments, in His essence,
in His nature, in His perfections, absolutely fulfilled everything
that was against us, truly, surely, and resolvedly, without error. He is altogether lovely. This
is my person. This is my beloved. And this
is my friend, since you asked pastor, since you asked brother,
since you asked sister. And then the two, when they walk
into Emmaus, when they walk on the road to Emmaus, they're fellowshipping,
they're talking about things. And then Christ just took that
conversation up, up, up. And they, oh, our hearts, not
heart, our hearts. See, our hearts are one. We have
one purpose. We have one God. We have one
faith. We have one baptism. We're unified in Christ. We go
out to our different jobs. We're as varied as the sand in
the sea as far as our likes, our dislikes, our jobs, our bills,
all these things. We go out, but we come back.
And we're unified. Our hearts, plural, beat as one. This is my friend. This word, he's altogether lovely,
the Hebrew is delightful or pleasant. These two words cannot be used
in someone that we do not hold in the highest esteem and have
the humblest adoration for. You can't delight in a person
who is not pleasant. You can only say that about someone
that you are enamored with, you're taken with. And the beautiful thing is even
like Mr. Erckstein, Even when I feel my
love waning for Him, when I sleep, His love for me and for you does
not. That's amazing. It does not. Three times. And I know, I know
Peter. I feel like I'm quite like him.
I've talked a lot of times before, I think. Three times. He'd been with them three years,
walking with them, Listening to him preach, preaching, do
you love me? Yeah. It's a reasonable question. Do you love me? Second time,
I don't know. Why would you ask me that? He didn't say that,
but you know, I know me. Third time, he said, Peter, I
think he was grieved. He says, Peter is like, you know,
yes, Lord, you know I love you. Then learn more about me and
tell others. And I try to honor and glorify
me. But I expressly say, when we
feel our love waning for Him, that's what sovereign, immaculate,
perfect grace is. His love for us will not. Now, I'm not doubting He won't
withdraw like He did in the passage. He's always there. I always hear
Puritans say, when a cloud comes between us and the sun, when
the sun's still in the same spot, It's usually us. It's usually
us. So I ask myself and I ask you,
is He altogether lovely to you? And is He altogether lovely to
me? I pray so. And I'm so thankful that it's
not my hold upon Him that keeps me, but His hold upon me. Bless His holy name. Bruce, would
you close us? I have the honor and the pleasure
and the grace to do this by a few. And there's only one we can go
to.