Well, I want you to look with
me at Song of Solomon, chapter three, and the first five verses
this morning. Chapter three and the first five
verses, and I've entitled this message, Seeking the One I Love. Seeking the One I Love. The Song of Solomon is a song.
It is a song, but it's also a drama. It's like a musical drama. You
know how West End musicals, they have tremendous power to move
and stir the emotions because they set a story to music. And the whole situation and the
whole scene is one of tremendous emotional effect. I defy anybody
to go and see something like Les Miserables and not come out
of there, powerfully moved by the musical experience, the dramatic
experience. Well, we have here in the Song
of Solomon a musical drama, but it's a drama of Christ and his
church. It's a picture, it's a story
in music, in song, of Christ and his relationship with his
church, both corporately as the church as a whole, his elect
in every generation throughout all time, those he chose in Christ
before the foundation of the world, and in the experience
of every individual believer. You and me individually, if we're
his people. This has the power to stir the
emotions. It shows us It shows us, if you're
a believer, it's not just mental ascent, it shows us what the
relationship is like between Christ and every one of his believing
people, individually and corporately as his church. It's a story of
love. It's a story of strong emotion. We tend to fear this sort of
thing because we have such a fear of charismatic excess. There's
so much charismatic excess, the wrong use of the apostolic gifts
of the early church, which were gifts of authentication. And
we're so fearful of those getting out of control that we tend to
shy away from emotion. But you know, It's so important. We're not saved by emotion. We're not saved by how we feel. We're saved by that which we
know, which is knowing Christ and the power of his death and
of his resurrection and of what he accomplished. The power of
his shed blood to save his people from their sins. The power of
what he has done as the substitute for his people. Being the one
who is our all in all. He is everything to his believing
people because he is all our standing before the God of the
universe. What is it to exist and have
life? You must know God. We saw that in Ecclesiastes.
But oh that we might be bound up with him, that we might be
intimately involved with him, that we might not only know his
salvation, but also feel that love. have emotions. You know, you'll often find the
old writers talking about the true experience of a believer
and the tears streaming. That involves emotion, doesn't
it? Tears? Tears? Your affections have been moved. I'm not talking about soppy softness. I'm talking about the power of
the message of salvation. Moving a strong, hard soul to
tears. That's feelings, that's feelings.
So it's all about the believer's experience of our God in Christ. And last week, in chapter 2,
we saw a picture of salvation and the gospel call. Rise up,
my love, and come away. And it was pictured in Solomon
and the Shulamite, picturing Christ and his church. She's
come up because the winter is gone, the flowers appear on the
earth, the birds are singing, and is all in the garden, Rosie? Is that it? Is that the end of
the story? Does it just finish there? No, it goes on into chapter
three and the rest of the musical drama. All in the garden is not
constantly rosy. This is an allegory of the church,
of individual believers. It's like the big picture of
the church, and it's periodic episodes that come and go in
the life and experience. of each individual believer.
They say the course of true love doesn't always run smoothly,
and that's absolutely true. It isn't always the case. Again,
you read the experience and the testimony of those that have
gone before us who had a true experience of Christ, and they
will tell you. If ever you've been down and wondering if you're
a true believer, You read some of these people from the past,
people like John Warburton and Huntingdon, and people like this,
and they will tell you of times when their souls were yearning
to know the experience of God, because they had, and then they'd
lost it, and he'd gone away, and it was as if they were praying
to a brass ceiling that their prayers were not getting through.
You see, it's not always the mountaintops of loving experience,
like it is in any relationship. The very best of marriages have
their ups and their downs. They have their times of great
delight in one another and times of distance and of coldness. This is the experience of the
church and of believers. So what do these five verses
say to us about seeking Christ? Look at verse one. By night,
on my bed, I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him,
but I found him not. This is a night on my bed. It
doesn't have to be. I think what it's picturing is
when you are alone in your soul with only the consciousness that
is you. And you could be in a great crowd.
You could be on a crowded train. You could be in a crowded place.
but you yourself, in your soul, are alone with the consciousness
that is you, and you're conscious that, him whom my soul loveth,
I haven't got him with me. I sought him but I found him
not. You're feeling a need, a soul
need. We all know about thirst. When
you're thirsty, you're just dying for some nice cold water to quench
your thirst. When you're hungry, you know,
to the hungry man, pretty unappetizing food is to be desired because
you're so hungry. There's a hunger. This is a picture
of soul hunger in Psalm 63. Look at these verses with me.
Psalm 63. verse one, the first six verses there of Psalm 63. This is a soul that is seeking
the living God. He cries out, O God, thou art
my God. Early will I seek thee, my soul
thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee, in a dry and
thirsty land where no water is, to see thy power and thy glory,
so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary. I want to experience
that again. I've seen you in the sanctuary,
in the types and the pictures, I've seen the plan of salvation
and the way it affects me, and I want to see it again. Because
thy loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise
thee. Thus will I bless thee while
I live. I will lift up my hands in thy name. My soul shall be
satisfied. See, it's not now, because we
don't have the experience of God. We need to seek him. And
when we find him, we know, my soul shall be satisfied as with
marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful
lips when I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in
the night watches. There we are, feeling a need,
a spiritual need. This is the believer's experience. It's a believer's experience
before finding Christ, conscious of sin and of who God is. It's
a believer's experience throughout their Christian life, their Christian
experience, at times, certainly, at times, throughout that experience. In need, we seek Christ. We're conscious that something
is missing. Have you ever felt that? You
know that you're a believer. You know you believe the truth.
You know you believe the right things, but you know, I'm not
right with God in my inmost being, in my soul. Something's missing. I'm not enjoying that intimate
relationship with him. There's a soul need that only
he can satisfy. There's a thirst for living water
that's found only in him. There's a spiritual hunger that
only he can satisfy as the bread that comes down from heaven.
He is that bread. He is that living water. He alone,
in all of his saving power and glory, is the only one that can
quench your soul's thirst and your soul's hunger. And there's
a promise of satisfaction. Does God ever tell us to seek
him and not promise satisfaction of course he does blessed are
they which hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall
be filled Jeremiah turn here these are lovely verses I know
I turn you to them from time to time Jeremiah 29 and verse
10 Jeremiah 29 and verse 10 this is talking about the seventy years of Babylonian captivity
that was to come and by the prophet Jeremiah before it happened he
says this for thus saith the Lord that after seventy years
be accomplished at Babylon I will visit you and perform my good
word toward you in causing you to return to this place now listen
verse 11 For this is what God says to you. If you're his believing
child, this is what God says to you. Whether you are on one
of the mountaintops of loving experience of your relationship
with Christ or whether you are conscious that there is a dryness
and a dearth and an absence. He says, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon
me and ye shall go and pray unto me and I will hearken unto you.
These are promises of God to his people. And ye shall seek
me and find me. This is what God says to us.
You will seek and you will find me. And when you shall search
for me with all your heart and I will be found of you. Child
of God, God says I will be found of you. I will. I will turn away
your captivity. I will gather you from where
I've driven you and cause you to be carried away captive. In
Isaiah, Chapter 45, verse 19, he says this, I did not say to
the house of Jacob, seek me in vain. No, he said, seek me because
it won't be in vain. You will find me. To Christians
who have grown cold, To unbelievers who have a sense of the need
of God, the promise is the same. If you feel a need for Him and
you seek Him in the way His Word prescribes, you will find Him. Do you know why? I'll tell you
why. Because it is He who has put that need within you. This
is spiritual seeking, not physical seeking. There's no pilgrimage
required. You know people, religious folks,
love to go on pilgrimages. Oh, we must go to the Holy Land.
There's no such thing as the Holy Land. There's the geographical
place where the literal, physical Lord Jesus Christ walked as a
man, But that's not the holy land. It's no more holy than
this room that we're in now. There's no cathedral or temple
that's any more holy than anywhere else. No pilgrimage required
at all. Those who... Jesus said to the
Samaritan woman, those who worship God must worship him in spirit
and in truth. She said, you say on this mountain,
and we say here, and you say there, and he said it doesn't
matter. In spirit and in truth. There's no pilgrimage involved.
What is involved is this. It's knowing the one I love. How many times did you see it?
I sought him whom my soul loveth. I sought him but I found him
not. The one whom my soul loves. I sought him but I found him
not. Verse four, I found him whom
my soul loveth. It occurs four times in that
passage. As a believer, you may not always experience his presence,
but your soul truly loves him. Why do you love him? Tell me,
why do you love him? Why do you love him? The scripture
tells us. We love him, John tells us, 1
John 4, 19. We love him because he first
loved you. He first loved us, that's why.
That's what it is. It's not that you were a more
loving person than anybody else. You love him because he first
loved you and he showed you who he is and what he has done. It
is him that we love, not just his doctrine. Oh, you might find
the doctrine of salvation to be an academically impressive
piece of thought. You know, they say the Apostle
Paul was a magnificent mind, one of the cleverest, smartest
brains that ever existed. But you know, it's not just the
doctrine, it's him that we love. It is his felt presence. His
felt presence. There's a chorus, I know we don't
sing choruses, but you know, there's one that used to say,
He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me
and He talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives, He lives,
salvation to impart. You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart. That's it. He lives within my
heart. To you who believe, said Peter,
do you believe? If you believe, He is precious. Oh, the religious builders, Peter
tells us, have rejected Him. But to you who believe, He is
precious. He is precious. The one that
is precious is dear to you, you love him, the one whom your soul
loves. He is the pearl of greatest price. You know that Jesus told the
parable of the man who was into pearls but one day he found the
gem, the absolute gem. And he then had a great big box
or a great big bucket of other pearls and they quite frankly,
you could tip them down the drain, he'd found the one. And that's
what it is. You can lose all else, but you
cannot lose him. This is why he says that his
people must love him more than all others in the world. If it
was a person saying that, that would be an awfully selfish,
jealous thing to say. But this is the living God says,
you must love me. Jesus said, if any man love mother
or father or husband or wife more than me, he is not worthy
of me. He's not telling you not to love
your near and dear relatives and friends. He's not saying
that. What he's saying is he must be at the head of everything
because he is God. He must be at the, and only when
he is at the head of everything are all other relationships good.
You could gain the whole world and yet be in soul poverty. He
said that, didn't he? What shall a man advantage if
he gained the whole world and yet lose his soul? If you haven't
got him, you're in poverty. If any man, says Paul to the
Corinthians, if any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let
him be anathema maranatha, I think it is, something like that, accursed
in other words. What does he mean? He means those
who are saved, those who are the objects of the saving work
of what Christ accomplished at Calvary, those who are, on the
count of that, going to stand on that day of judgment and say,
who shall lay anything to my charge? Christ has died for me.
They love the Lord Jesus Christ. You love him. You love him. Peter,
do you love me more than these other disciples? Lord, you know
that I love you. We must have him. for without
him we can do nothing oh yes you can be saved but you can
lose that intimate loving feeling of relationship with him as the
Shula might add I sought him but I found him not him whom
see she is a believer him whom my soul loveth I sought him but
I found him not have you had those experiences I know you
have I have I know I'm saved, I know I'm his, I know my soul
loves him, but I'm not conscious of his presence with me at times.
I'm not conscious of that loving, intimate relationship. And why?
Why had she lost him? All sorts of reasons. We could
surmise from Ephesians chapter four, around verse 30, Paul says
this, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed
unto the day of redemption. How can believers grieve, upset? Can you imagine that? It's difficult
to understand, isn't it? Here is Paul saying that it is
possible for you and me as believers to cause grief to the Holy Spirit
of God? Wow. You look at the context,
you read it for yourself. It's the sins of the flesh. We're
not talking about legalism here, we're not talking about living
imperfection, which we know we cannot do, but those characteristics
of the old man that come to the fore. Anger, wrath, Paul mentions
them, pride, lack of love, worldly care, neglect of communion with
God, the means of grace privately and publicly. Whilst he has promised
believers never to leave them, he said, I will never leave you
nor forsake you. he does withdraw his felt presence
for his own purposes. And what are his purposes in
doing that? Surely, is it not chastisement, as a loving father
chastises his child to train, to provide that guidance in the
right way to go, so he does, he withdraws his presence for
his own purposes that we might feel our need of him and that
we might seek him. She's troubled by his absence. You ought to be concerned, I
ought to be concerned if ever I find that I'm not conscious
of the presence of Christ and that loving relationship, and
I'm unbothered by it. I'm unperturbed by it. Oh, she's
troubled. She's troubled. And being troubled,
it's time for action. Look at verse two. I will rise
now. I can't stay in bed. I will rise
now and go about the city streets. I don't care what time of day
it is. Middle of the night, I'll go about the city streets and
in the broad ways, looking for him whom my soul loves. I sought
him. But I found him not." There's
urgency there. To get up in the middle of the
night, to go about the streets and the squares, she must find
him. And so it is. With the child of God who has
lost the felt presence of Christ. My soul is troubled. If you have
lost the felt presence of Christ, believer, your soul should be
troubled. You must, you must make it your
objective to find him. Because You know you can't survive
without him. You need to feel his presence. You need to feel his embrace. You need to know the warmth of
knowing that he has made you his righteousness in him, that
he's paid your debt to the law, that he's actively, day by day,
leading you. that he's actively, eternally
blessing you, that he's causing all things to work together for
your good. You know it in your head, but oh, how you want to
feel it. You need to feel it. So you go
looking for him. I go looking for him. I'm not
happy with this. I go looking for him. We must,
we must find him. I remember many, many years ago
when God was leading us, we were in a situation which was religious,
we had good friends, we had a good social life. Everything you would
think in the garden was rosy, but we knew, both of us, we knew
that there was something seriously lacking in our relationship with
God, because we didn't have that felt presence of Christ. However
good was the religious, you know, They were moral people, they
were decent people, they were friendly people, we had fun together,
we did all sorts of things, but there was no Christ there. And
what did we do? We went looking. And where did
we look? We looked to those who we knew
in the past had guided us in the right way. And just as when
somebody gets lost, you know, there's We hear about when somebody
goes missing, there's a missing person and what the police do
and how they go into action. Where do they go? Let's go first
of all to all the places that they are likely to go. And we
go looking in the places where we think they might have gone.
So with Christ, where am I going to find him? I go where his name
is mentioned. I go where his people are. I
go where the people are who I know, they know him. They've got this
warm relation. Let's go there. Let's go with
them. I read things. I stopped reading some things
and I read things which will turn my attention away from the
cares of the world and focus on him and where I might find
him. I seek him in private prayer.
Lord, you know my need. You know everything about me
before I know it myself. Lead me and guide me that I might
find you. I seek Him in the Scriptures.
I seek Him in the means of grace. And it still may be that here
I sought Him but I found Him not. I still may not find Him
there. It's possible to go to all these
places, to be among Christians, to go to churches, be among so-called
Christians and yet not find Christ. There are so many in seemingly
large and active churches who feel socially fed, but they don't
find Christ, and they don't know Christ. So, what does she do? She goes on. While she's looking,
verse three, the watchmen that go about the city found me. To
whom I said, saw ye him whom my soul loveth? The watchmen,
the watchmen. Who are these? Who are these? Believer, child of God, the one
who loves the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and in truth. Who
are the watchmen? These are God's gift. to his
church Ephesians chapter four verse eleven he gave some prophets
and apostles and pastors and teachers their gifts of ministry
Ezekiel 33 verse 7 says this, this is God speaking to Ezekiel.
So thou, O son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the
house of Israel. Therefore, this is what these
watchmen do. Therefore thou shalt hear the
word at my mouth and warn them from me. They're preachers. This
is preachers who get a message from God, from the heart of God. to pass it on to the souls of
his people. Hebrews 13, 7. Remember them
which have the rule over you. Why? Because they're called pastor
this and pastor that. No, no, no, no, no, no. Because
they speak with the Good Shepherd's voice. I've said to you many
times, please don't call me pastor. Please don't. You can regard
me as pastor if what you hear from my mouth while I stand here
sounds like the Good Shepherd's voice. But don't think that anybody
has ordained or put me in authority over anybody whatsoever because
it's not true. The authority stands in that
which I say. Is it a message from God? If
it is, If it is, treat that message as if it truly is from God, and
not just the opinion of a man. Remember them which have the
rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose
faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. Obey
them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves, for
they watch for your souls as they that must give account.
If you are really seeking Christ, Christ, the lover of your soul,
the one whom your soul loves, this is where you look, to those
who speak with the shepherd's voice. You see, you try all the
means of grace, but there's nothing quite like preaching. This is
why preaching is so important. Preaching. Not fellowship's good,
but preaching above all else, the watchman, the watchman, preaching. And we've got such riches in
these days. There's so much falsehood out
there, but oh, praise God. In our wilderness separation
from this world, I don't think there's ever been a richer time
when any one of us can just immediately get access to powerful, Christ-centered,
godly preaching. it's so important it's not oratory
it's not charismatic speaking in the sense of you know the
way that a powerful orator or politician might sway a crowd
but it's that which points us to Christ and stirs our emotions
to seek him these watchmen they can't find him for you no you
must find him yourself by faith and soon she did she found him
verse four it was but a little that I passed from them but I
found him whom my soul loveth she found him so we gather together
for worship and maybe you come with a cold heart conscious that
all is not well and if the sermon lifts Christ up to your eye of
faith Your faith is enlivened. Your emotions are stirred. You
think on him, you meditate on him, and not on worldly things.
And you know his felt presence again. You feel his love, you
feel the everlasting arms embracing you. And finding him, she held
him. Look in verse four. I held him
and would not let him go. Finding and holding. He will
go away if we do not hold him. As I said before, he said, I
will never leave you nor forsake you as far as salvation is concerned,
but you can lose that felt presence. And so she held him that she
might not lose that felt presence. How is he to be held by us? By
prayer, by faith. by love, by obedience, by study
of his word, by availing yourself of the means of grace. That's
how we hold on to him. That's how we hold on to him.
Just as when Joshua said to the people, he said, this is what
God requires of you. And they all said, yes, that's
exactly what we'll do. And he knew them. And he knew,
no, you won't. No, you won't. You're doing this in the power
of your flesh. You haven't got the strength
to do any of this at all. But nevertheless, he said to
them, choose you this day whom you will serve, really. You might
say with the lips that you mean this, but choose you in your
hearts whom you will serve. But he said, as for me and my
house, We will serve the Lord. I will be determined to hold
on to him. I will be determined. I'm not
just going to be passive. I know God is sovereign over
all things, but I'm not just going to be passive. I am going
to grasp hold of him and keep hold of him. Jacob found Christ. Jacob found Christ when he was
in fear of his brother Esau, and he wrestled with him all
night long. Strange picture, isn't it? But
it's one of clinging to keep hold. I will not let you go unless
you bless me, he said. Genesis 32. I will not let you
go. Found him and clung on to him
and held him and would not let him go Look, until I had brought
him into my mother's house and into the chamber of her that
conceived me. What's that talking about? What
is it, to bring him into my mother's house and into the chamber of
her that conceived me? You know the picture of the church
in Revelation is a woman. Revelation 12, I saw a woman
arrayed with the sun and she brings forth a child and the
dragon is going to eat, consume that child as soon as it's born.
That's a picture of Satan trying to destroy the Christ child before
he's able to come and do the work of redemption of his people.
But from the church, All, all of God's people are born in the
church, by which I mean not a particular building, not a particular denomination,
not a particular group of people, but the people of the living
God, the elect of God, chosen in Christ from all, from before
the beginning of time, from every tribe and tongue and kindred.
That church is the mother of all who believe, in the sense
that true believers are born in the church. How is it that
it pleased God to save those who believe? By the foolishness
of preaching. Where is that? In the fellowship
of the church. Where God blesses a people by
giving them a man who he gives a message from him to give to
their souls and feed them. That's my mother's house. My
mother's house is the one who conceived me, the one who bore
me spiritually, is the church. into the chamber of her that
conceived me." Having found and held, we bring Christ into that
gathering of the church, into the fellowship of the saints,
and we enrich the fellowship as we bring him with us. Have
you ever thought about this? I know we're a very small gathering
and I know there's a lot more that join with us and use this
as their church service online later and that's great but have
you ever thought, all of you, those of us gathered here and
those out there on the internet, have you ever thought that you
enrich this gathering as you bring Christ here with you? Do you prepare to come? Or do
you just think, oh, it's Sunday, never mind, it's the preacher's
job, he'll have got a message, and it's all down to him, and
he'll stand up and lead everything, and we'll just turn up if it's
convenient, and if it isn't, we won't bother. No, do you know
something? That is not the right way. This
is telling us that each individual believer enriches the fellowship
and the worship of Christ as we bring him with us into my
mother's house and the chamber of her that conceived us. Take
time, take trouble to prepare for worship, to get ready so
that your heart is prepared. Bring him with you to participate
in the singing, in the praying, you know, in the praying, amen,
amen, to enrich with the Christ that we bring with us into that
situation. Do you see? Coming to church
is not passive, it's active. Bring him with us, bring him
with you. Until I brought him into my mother's house and into
the chamber of her that conceived me. Well, this is what it is,
to seek him, and to find him, and to cling on to him, and to
hold him, and to bring him with you. Do you know it's a serious
thing, and with this we'll close, it's verse five, I charge you.
O ye daughters of Jerusalem, by the rows and by the hinds
of the field. This is just a way of saying that you really mean
it. That you stir not up nor awake my love till he pleas. Difficult verse. Difficult to
understand. Commentators say that it's a
warning not to disturb the settled, contented state of love between
Christ and his church. Don't disturb it, don't disturb
it. And that's true, and that's good.
It's a serious thing. Don't do anything that disturbs
it. But is there not also a hint
of warning to any who might be thinking of seeking him? to first
count the cost of seeking him? Do you know it's not a light
thing, isn't this? Oh, salvation, oh, I'll have some of that, along
with everything else that I want to keep going. No, can't serve
God and mammon. No, count the cost. Don't seek
Christ flippantly, don't stir him up, don't awake my love,
till he please, don't seek Christ flippantly, or for social reasons,
or for whatever other motive there might be, count the cost
of seeking him and weigh it against the cost of not seeking him don't
stir up nor awaken love until it pleases but I'll tell you
this if he has stirred your heart if he has moved your emotions
if he has shown you his saving glory and all that he's done
for you in loving you from before the foundation of the world it
will please it will please and you will delight in his presence
and you will seek to know him. Oh that we each might seek him
and might find him whom my soul loveth.