Well we come back this week to
Song of Solomon and we're going to focus on chapter five but
beginning in chapter four. true christian experience is
based on objective facts okay so let me get that in your mind
true christian experience experience is what you feel but it's based
on things that are solid and objective objective facts you
know we often quote happy jack remember happy jack who was quizzed
by the church as to whether he was fit to join the church and
what was happy jack's testimony I'm a poor sinner and nothing
at all, but Jesus Christ is my all in all. As simple as that
testimony is, Happy Jack knew why Jesus Christ was his all
in all. He knew why. He knew something
of the person, and nature, and holiness, and sinlessness, and
glory of God. He knew something of the justice
of God. He knew something of his sin. You know, a sinner is a sacred
thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
He knew that his only way of acceptance with God, and his
only hope of eternity, was if one should redeem him, buy him
back, pay the penalty for his sins, atone for his sin, and
make satisfaction to the justice of God. And he knew that his
Lord Jesus Christ had done all those things for him and in him
on his behalf. But that knowledge, that objective
knowledge in the head, leads to emotion, leads to feelings. It produces a sensation of joy
within when you see these things. It produces a sensation of peace,
where there had once been a sensation of dread and of wrath, the fear
of God. The beginning of wisdom, the
fear of the Lord, to know who God is, but to know peace with
God on account of the gospel. to feel comfort in your very
soul at what God has done in Christ. You see, if I might liken
it to music, it's possible to know all the right notes. but
the performance can leave you absolutely cold. On the other
hand, it can send shivers of emotion down the spine. You know
I love classical music and I remember once we went, some of us here,
went to a performance of Mahler's Fifth Symphony which is one of
my favourite pieces of music in the Albert Hall. What, everything
going for it. And I don't know what it was,
I won't name that conductor, but I don't like that conductor.
But the review in the newspaper the next day said that he'd never
been so underwhelmed by a performance of Mahler. It was absolutely
flat. And then on another occasion,
in the festival hall, I heard Vladimir Ashkenazy conduct the
same piece. Oh, wow. Shivers down your spine. Real, real emotion. Do you know
what I mean? You've got to know the facts. You can't play Mahler's
Fifth Symphony unless you know exactly the right notes and in
the right order. But there's a difference between
just doing that and playing it with emotion. And the true knowledge
of the gospel He's based on head knowledge for sure, but that
must turn into heart knowledge. Feelings, feelings. And this
book of Song of Solomon is a love story of salvation. It's full
of feeling and emotion because that's the believer's true experience. of God, of the Lord Jesus Christ. True believers are in love with
their God in Christ. That's how we know God is in
Christ. We know him no other way. And
to know that he is in love with us. This is what this book is
about. It's the words of the most intimate love story of a
man and a woman. but picturing Christ and his
church. And it's the most intimate words
of affection and warmth and tenderness. Now last time, we saw the beloved
Christ describe his sister, his spouse, his church, in verse
12 of chapter 4, as a walled garden. A garden enclosed is
my sister, my spouse, as a spring, as a closed up private spring,
a fountain that's sealed from the outside. This garden, then
he goes on in the next few verses, down to the end of chapter 4,
to describe the plants of the garden. So my first point is
to look at the Lord's garden. Now what is a garden? What is
a garden? It's a place that has been cultivated. It starts out as barren wasteland. There's nothing there. The weeds
grow there. There's poor fertility. Nothing other than pernicious weeds grow
there, a barren wasteland. But with work, and with time,
it becomes fruitful. It bears fruits. It becomes fertile. It becomes green, rather than
a barren wasteland. It's got order to it, rather
than chaos. It's beautiful. Why does the
Holy Spirit choose to inspire this description in the Word
of God? Because as sinners in the flesh
as we are by nature, we are a wasteland. The natural man, you and I, as
we're born, as we grow, were like hard, unproductive ground,
bearing nothing other than weeds and briars, and no fruit, were
fruitless. Despite human acts of kindness,
of which there are many, no doubt, you see them all the time in
the news, despite human acts of kindness, In reality, in relation
to God, we are all naturally fruitless. Because what does
God count as fruit? You know the description in Galatians
chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. The fruit of the Spirit, the
fruit of God's Spirit, is love, joy. peace. These are the fruits
that grow out of this barren ground that has been changed
by God, has been cultivated by God, has been made into an enclosed
garden with its fruits. Long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance, against such there is no law.
This is the character of the new man, born again of the Holy
Spirit. The new man. You must be born
again, said Jesus to Nicodemus. You must be born again. Except
a man be born again, he cannot see. You can't have an opinion
on the kingdom of God. You've got no experience of it.
You must be born again. You must be born of God's Spirit.
This is the man that knows the truth of God. the holiness of
God, knows what it is to be a sinner, knows what it is to experience
repentance, that which even itself is a gift from God. Grace experienced
bringing true humility and selflessness. The sinner saved by God's grace
is one who was chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world, was redeemed by Christ from the curse of the law when
he came as a man to stand in the place of his people. was
regenerated by the Holy Spirit. You, who were dead in trespasses
and sins, hath he quickened." Who? The Holy Spirit has quickened,
made alive, given you spiritual senses, given you the sight of
the soul, that you can see the truth of God, sanctified by him,
given a new holy nature and holy desires and the desires of the
things of God and inclinations away from the things of this
world. This one is the delight of God's heart. This one on whom
His Spirit has worked in regenerating grace is the delight of God's
heart. God delights, the God of the
universe, the God who is judged, the God who is holy. delights
in his people, in his believing people. He describes his people
in such affectionate ways, he talks about his people being
all lovely, you're fair my love, you are fair, you have dove's
eyes, all those descriptions in chapter 4, the delight of
the heart of God. He describes his people as a
garden of spiritual fruits, springing out of what? Out of salvation
and that accomplished. You know, that's a big difference.
We preach salvation accomplished. We don't preach salvation which
is an offer for you to choose. We preach salvation accomplished. We declare salvation accomplished. And in verse 15, of chapter four, he describes
his people as a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and
streams from Lebanon. Because as Jesus said to the
woman at the well in John chapter four, verse 14, he said to her,
give me a drink from this well. And she said, why are you a Jew
asking me, a Samaritan, a drink from this well? And he said,
if you knew who it was that was speaking to you, then you would
have asked him. The woman would have asked Jesus.
the God-man, please give me that life-giving water from on high,
because Jesus said, the water that I shall give him shall be
in him a well of water springing up to everlasting life. Have
you experienced that well of living water in your soul? I know you live in the flesh,
I know you constantly fail, I know you constantly lament what you
are by nature in the flesh, but as God by his Spirit given you
that knowledge of a well of bringing up spiritual life within that
comes from his spirit. Not mere head knowledge, but
a lively, refreshing experience And what's the believer's response
to this? This work, this garden work of God in his people, the
plants that he puts there, the fruits and all of that sort of
thing that he puts there, the trees of frankincense and myrrh.
Verse 16, the believer's response is this, Awake, O north wind,
and come thou south. Blow upon my garden that the
spices, the aromas, the scents thereof may flow out. Let my
beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits. It's a prayer from the believer
for communion with the living God. Let my beloved come. What's
the wind? The wind is the spirit. It's
the same word in the original. It's the spirit. blowing, the
breath of God blowing, the Holy Spirit of God coming. Let me
experience the felt presence of Christ in my soul, is what
that verse is asking for. Let me sense it, that the spices
may flow out. If I, the more I know of the
experience of the Holy Spirit within, that wind of God, that
breath of God blowing in my soul, in that garden that He has created
there by His Spirit, oh, that the spices may flow out. You
know I love, we're getting to that time of year when everything
is coming to fruition in the garden and we have some, if you
look in our garden you'll see lots of very nice flowering plants
and things doing their job and that's great. There are some
plants there that look very, very little at all. They just
look like straggly weeds, and if you didn't remember you'd
put them there, you'd pull them up as weeds. They're called night-scented
stock, and they have tiny, tiny little pinky-purple flowers on
them. And you go outside at nine or ten o'clock in the evening,
on a warm July evening, and you're just overpowered by this gorgeous
scent that's wafting around. That's the picture, if I've conjured
up in your mind, that's the picture that's envisaged in these verses. Those scents, those aromas, those
spices flowing around. Come, wind, stir it up that we
might be aware of it. When the wind moves, when the
air moves amongst these plants, we sense that beautiful smell. And this is what the believer
is calling for. Holy Spirit, come, stir me up,
stir me up. Move those spices, those aromas
that are generated by your grace in the soul. So there's a prayer
that Christ would come, and Christ answers immediately. Look in
verse one of chapter five. I am come into my garden, my
sister, my spouse. As soon as she prays, oh, let
my beloved come, I am come into my garden. He's come amongst
his people. He's there. Isaiah 65 verse 24
says this, before they call, I will answer. God knows the
longings of our hearts. What was it that David said?
God has put it in my heart to pray. God has put it in my heart
to pray. Not my sinful flesh is so spiritual
now that it's decided for itself. No, God has put it in my heart
to pray. Before they call, I will answer. And while they're yet speaking,
I will hear. He has promised never to leave
his people. He said, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. I am come into my garden, my
sister, my spouse. He's here with us. Jesus has
promised the indwelling of God. Turn to John chapter 14. John's gospel and chapter 14. If I can find it. John chapter
14 and verse 18. John chapter 14, verse 18. I
will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you, yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more. But ye see me. Where is your God? Where is your
Jesus? The world doesn't see, do they?
The world doesn't see. But you know, if you're a true
believer, he's here in our midst. Ye see me. Because I live, ye
shall live also. At that day ye shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath
my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And
he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love
him, and I will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him,
not Iscariot, because there were two Judases, not Iscariot who
betrayed him, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself
unto us and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, if a man love me, he will keep my words, and my father
will love him, and this is it, listen to this, we, we, the Godhead,
will come unto him, and listen to this, we will make our abode
with him. You are the temple of the Holy
Spirit, says Paul to the Corinthians. You're the temple of the living
God. Don't defile your bodies with the things of the world,
you're the temple of the Holy Spirit. And this presence of
God, I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse, it isn't
a grudging presence either. It's a willing presence. It's
a presence of one who possesses something he loves and cherishes. Nine times in that verse, verse
one, the Beloved uses the word my, my, concerning his church. Corporately, the church, as his
body, as his bride, but each one member of that church individually. I am coming to my garden, my
sister, my spouse. 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, beloved." Nine times he uses the word my concerning
his church. And it's a constant experience
being possessed, not an occasional one, a constant experience, possessed
of God, the personal treasure of Christ, his beloved friends,
he calls us, my friends, my beloved, his beloved friends, the possession
of Christ. In what way is the church, in
what way are you, if you're a true believer, the possession of Christ?
In what way are you? You're the possession of Christ.
because he was given you by the father before the beginning of
time chosen in christ before the foundation of the world those
whom the father has given me what did jesus say about the
will of what is the will of the father that of those he has given
me the gift of the father to the son are his people chosen
in christ before the foundation of the world of those given to
him he should lose none Oh, not even one? No, not even one. He
should lose none, but raise it up at the last day. As a gift
from the Father, then, were the possession of Christ. As the
purchase of Christ himself, by his redeeming blood, were the
possession of Christ. Not only are his people, his
church, a gift from the Father, but he's bought his people. He's
bought them with a price. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 19, you
are bought with a price. You're not your own, you're bought.
He's paid for you. What's he paid with? His own
precious blood. Why did he pay it? To cleanse
you from your sins. To satisfy the law's demand.
on your behalf that the soul that sins it shall die and so
with his precious blood his infinitely precious blood he bought you
he bought your freedom he ransomed you from the curse of the law
by himself being made a curse for us he says in Ezekiel 16
and around that area verse 8 he talks about finding his people
and you can imagine finding a newborn child and it's mother's gone
and left it and it's there and it's covered in blood and it's
not a very nice scene that's the scene in Ezekiel 16 read
it for yourself it doesn't sound very pleasant and delicate but
he says I found you like that and I got you and I saved you
and I washed you and I clothed you and I covered you I covered
you with my skirt he says and being there abiding within He
invites his friends, his beloved, to eat and to drink. Eat, O friends,
drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved. What is he telling
us to eat and drink? Those of you that were at Merton
last Sunday, I read these verses for the communion service at
the end of proceedings. John 6, 53-57, Except unless
ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink his blood, ye
have no life in you. Eat, O friends, drink, yea, drink
abundantly, O beloved. What are we to eat? Eat the flesh
of the Son of Man, and drink His blood. If you don't, you
have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood hath eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last
day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.
He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me, and
I in him. as the living father has sent
me and i live by the father so he that eateth me even he shall
live by me what is it to eat the flesh of the son of man and
drink his blood it isn't cannibalism not at all there's no such thing
as transubstantiation as the catholics claim not at all those
symbols are just simple reminders of the facts simple reminders
but what it is is by faith by that sense of the soul that is
the gift of the Holy Spirit, we feed by faith on the finished
work of Christ, which has accomplished the salvation of his people.
That's what we feed upon. That's what we drink. That's
what it is to drink the blood of the Son of Man. It's to know
that that blood paid the law's price for the salvation of my
soul, that God will look on me in that day when I must stand
before the judgment seat of Christ and say, Come ye blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world, for there is no condemnation now to those who are in Christ
Jesus, who walk not according to the flesh, But according to
this leading of the Spirit, what a blessed state that is to be
in. A blessed state of communion
between the believer and Christ. Oh, that it might continue. Oh,
that it might never wane. Oh, that it might never diminish
in any way. Oh yes. We're talking about the
believer's experience of a willing spirit. The believer has a willing
spirit of the new man, the new man born from on high by the
spirit of God. But the spirit is willing, oh
but the flesh is weak, is it not? The flesh is so weak. There's a hymn that says, prone
to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love. Prone to wander. Lord, I feel
it. The weakness of the flesh. We
see this from verse 2 down to verse 8. The weakness of the
flesh. I sleep, says the Beloved. He
says, come and drink. I sleep, says the Beloved. I sleep. You see, we can be in
such a blessed condition conscious of the presence of the living
God, making his abode within his church. In each believer's
individual heart as well as in the church generally, but we
still inhabit flesh with all its weakness. Those of us that
were at Merton last week for whatever part of it, you know
when when you've got a good number of the Lord's people there and
you're so conscious of the Lord's presence and the preaching is
anointed by God's spirit and there is not the slightest doubt
about the truth and the vivid experience of what it is to be
in Christ and to believe the gospel of his grace and then
we come away and we go our separate ways and the things of the flesh
and of the world rise up and the distractions and the The
things that take your mind off that blessed condition in so
many ways, the things that distract, the things that set your thoughts
on the things of this world, and of the things that you have,
and the things that you possess, and the things that you want,
and all of these other things come to the fore. intense spiritual experience,
it's like we've gone to sleep. I sleep. What is it to be asleep? Sleep is good. It's good for
the body. It relaxes the body. It refreshes
the body. It rebuilds the mind. You can't
go more than a day or so without sleep, and you will start to
feel seriously unwell. You need your sleep. I need my
sleep. I love my sleep. It's a good
thing. But what is sleep? When you're
asleep, You are unconscious to reality. You're unconscious. This is spiritual sleep. I sleep. You're unconscious to spiritual
reality. You're unconscious to the things
of grace and of the gospel. You're unaware of your immediate
condition of blessedness. All that blessedness of being
the garden of the Lord, the enclosed garden of the Lord. You're asleep,
you're unconscious to it, you're unaware of it. You're not immediately
sensing it. What has caused it? Why, why
are you asleep spiritually? Why are you unconscious to these
things spiritually? Look at verse three. I have put
off my coat. How shall I put it on? I've washed
my feet, how shall I defile them? I've gone to bed, I'm at carnal
ease, I'm fleshly at ease. I'm not thinking on the things
of eternity. I'm comfortable with my fleshly,
worldly distractions. Is that not what it is? That's
what it is, that's what causes this soul sleep, this sleep,
this diminution of the experience of the blessedness of knowing
the living God. I'm comfortable with my fleshly,
worldly distractions, lulled into insensitivity to the things
of Christ. But the voice of Christ awakens
me. Open to me. Open to me. Verse 2. Open to
me. It's the voice of my beloved
knocking. Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. I'm outside. I'm in the night.
Open the door to me. Open the door to me. Jesus said
to the Laodiceans, You know, in the letter to the Laodiceans
in Revelation chapter three, you know, the Laodiceans who
said, we are rich and full of goods and we have no need of
anything. We're such an affluent church. We need nothing. We're so well-placed. We're so happily in our current
situation. And Jesus says, you don't realize.
The risen Lord Jesus Christ said to them, you don't realize that
you're poor and blind. You're not rich, you're poor
and blind and naked because what's filling your heart with satisfaction
is the things of this world and you have lost sight, you've lost
that first love of affection and love for the Lord Jesus Christ
and that spiritual relationship with the living God and at the
end of that little few verses to the Laodiceans where he's
told them that if they don't repent he will spew them out
of his mouth Because they're like lukewarm water. They're
not nice. They're neither one thing nor
the other. And he says, you can't stay like that. I'll remove your
candlestick. I'll take you away. But he says
this, to any that believe, to any that are truly his, behold,
I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my undefiled, for my head is filled with dew, and
my locks with the drops of the night." Just as the Laodiceans
had become so comfortable in their material well-being, they'd
lost all sense of the felt presence of the living Christ. And that
was cause for alarm. Is that you? Is that me? Is that
ever us? Are we too worldly comfortable? Have we, as it were spiritually,
put off my coat? How shall I put it on? I've washed
my feet. I'm set for the night. I don't
want to disturb myself. I don't want to go out. I don't
want to go out and meet the one who is the lover of myself. No,
I don't want to do this. Are we too worldly comfortable?
if we're truly Christ's, he will not let you stay there. Look
at verse four. My beloved put in his hand by
the hole of the door, my bowels were moved for him. He won't
let us stay in that condition. He'll cause us to sense our need
of him. He'll cause us, by His Spirit's
work, to sense our need for Him. And so verse five, she says,
I rose up, having sensed her need, I rose up to open to my
beloved. My hands dropped with myrrh,
in other words, full of feeling, and my fingers with sweet-smelling
myrrh upon the handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had gone. He'd withdrawn himself and was
gone. He's gone. Those of you that are old enough
to will remember that Joni Mitchell song, The Big Yellow Taxi, and
there's a line in it that puts it exactly right. Don't it always
seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone?
Isn't that right? You don't know what you've got.
You don't know the value of what you've got till it's gone. And this is exactly what's here.
You don't know the value. of sweet spiritual fellowship
with the living God in Christ, till he withdraws himself. Have
you ever experienced that? Have you ever had times when
you've said, I've realised that I've fallen into a backslidden
state? where I'm not conscious constantly of the felt presence
of the living God. I must find him. I must go for
him. I must seek him out. He's withdrawn
his presence, and I didn't know what I had until it was gone,
and now I realize what I had. This is the way that Christ often
alarms his believing people concerning worldly carnal ease. The way
he does it is to withdraw his felt presence. If you've ever
truly experienced his presence, you'll feel that withdrawal of
his presence very sharply. This is how he chastises his
people. He causes them to feel keenly
the poverty of losing his immediate fellowship. Look in verse 7,
the watchmen that went about the city found me, they smoked
me, they wounded me, the keepers of the wall took away my veil
from me. He gives watchmen. Watchmen?
Preachers. Messengers. to smite and to wound
the conscience by the message preached. I don't know, maybe
there are some for whom this message will ring those alarm
bells. Preachers with a word of rebuke,
not from themselves, not legalistically, but because this is what God
does in Christ. When people, his people, have
gone to sleep spiritually, in terms of sensing his presence,
his felt presence, his immediate presence, He withdraws himself
so that we might feel the pain of that loss, so that we might
know something of what it is. Ah, remember what I had. Remember what I had. I need to
come back, you see, to that situation. Verse eight, she charges fellow
believers, if that's what the daughters of Jerusalem are, if
ye find my beloved, tell him I'm lovesick. I'm lovesick. I'm churned up inside because
I love him and I can't find him. I need him to come back to me.
There's William Cooper's hymn which says this, where is the
blessedness I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the
soul-refreshing view of Jesus and his word? Oh, that he might
come back to me. And so stirred up with consciousness
of your soul's poverty without Christ, the question is prompted
from these daughters of Jerusalem, verse nine. These daughters of
Jerusalem Ask the question of the child of God who's suddenly
come to realize, I've lost what I had and it is so precious to
me. How can I get it back? I must
find it. I must find him. I must know
that I'm in his presence and in his care and in his embrace
for all eternity. I must know that. Where is he?
Find him. Help me to find him. Why? They
say. Why? Why? Why do you need to find
this beloved? There are other beloveds, there
are other things that you can spend your affection on, aren't
there? Are there not other things that will equally make you happy?
There's all sorts of things. What is it about this beloved
that you're seeking more than another beloved, O thou fairest
among women? What is thy beloved more than
another that thou dost so charge us, that you ask us? If you find
him, tell him I must have him. And so she, in the last few verses,
She pours out her soul, and this is what the true believer does.
If you're asked, have you lost that blessedness that you first
knew when you first saw the Lord? Have you lost that so refreshing
view of Jesus and his word? Why is it so precious to you?
Ah, ah. Listen, listen. The virtues of
Christ, look what she responds. I know I'm skipping over this,
but you mull it over for yourself. I'm not going to go in and give
you a meaning for every bit of this. You look at all the different
commentators, you come up with all sorts of different interpretations
that are all equally plausible in my mind, but I'm not going
to do that. I'm just going to leave you with the overall impression
of this. The Shulamite, the church, the
sister, the spouse of the Lord Jesus Christ replies this, why
is your Lord Jesus Christ so special to you? You know when
somebody doesn't need to look up and quote from a piece of
paper what they want to say, it's in their heart, when they
immediately say, what is it? Ask me about Mahler's Fifth Symphony, ask
me about the Lake District Mountains, ask me about the beauties of
a rose. I won't need to look it up, I'll
tell you from experience. And this is the response of the
believer. What is it about your Lord Jesus
Christ? Oh my Lord Jesus Christ, he's
white and ruddy, the cheapest among 10,000. What does that
mean? He's white. He's God in purity
and holiness. He's red. Ruddy, he's red. What
does that mean? He's man. My beloved is truly
God and fully man. He is the God-man. Do you know
Adam? You know Adam, the first man created? Adam means red earth. Red earth. Here is the second. He's my God who became man. He's the chiefest among 10,000.
There's nobody, his name is above every name. Every knee shall
bow to him. His head is as the most fine
gold. Oh, can you just see? I'm not going
to try and spiritualize everything. Let's just stick with the poetry
of it. His head is as the most fine
gold. He's incomparable. There's nothing
like him. His hair is bushy and black as
a raven. His eyes are the eyes of doves. Doves, peaceful eyes, peaceful
eyes, gentle eyes. The God who is a consuming fire. In the one who is white and ruddy
has eyes of doves, by the rivers of waters washed with milk and
fitly set. His cheeks are as a bed of spices
as sweet flowers, his lips like lilies dropping sweet-smelling
myrrh. This one who is my Lord Jesus
Christ, my God, who became man to save me from my sins, is everything. His hands are as gold rings set
with beryl, gold, you know, richness beyond compare, dripping with
value and glorious majesty. His belly, his torso is bright
ivory, overlaid with sapphires, precious beyond measure. His
legs are strong, they're pillars of marble, set upon sockets of
fine gold. His countenance is as Lebanon. Lebanon was where the cedars
came from that built the temple, where the wood was indestructible. It did not rot like other woods.
His countenance is indestructible, excellent. His mouth is most
sweet. His mouth, the words that he
speaks. You have the words of eternal life. To whom shall we
go?" said Peter. Where shall we go? Will you also
leave? You have the words of eternal life. Where can we go?
He is altogether lovely. Is that your experience? Is that
my experience? That compared with everything
else in this world, All of it can be taken off us, but don't
take that away from me. He is altogether lovely. This
is my beloved. This is my friend. Jesus in verse
one, the bridegroom, talks about his church being his friends.
and his beloved. In verse 16, the church speaks
back. This is my beloved. He is my
beloved. This is my friend. O you others
who have asked me, what is he to me? This is who he is. This
is him. He is my God, who became man
to redeem me and make me his bride for eternity. Christ, Ephesians
5, 25-27. Christ also 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, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
This is my beloved. This is my friend. He is altogether
lovely. Is the God of the universe your
friend? Is He your Redeemer? Is He your
Beloved? Oh, have you ever experienced
it? Do you feel that you've lost
it? Do you feel that you must find it and that you must find
Him? Well, I'm telling you, don't
despair. Return to Him because His purpose
in withdrawing from you is only that you should know what you've
lost and that you should know where to find it and what He
is. May God bless these words to us. Amen.