Chapter 5. Song of Solomon, Chapter
5. Song of Solomon, Chapter 5. Everybody found it? Let's begin reading at verse
2 and read down through verse 8. You know, this book of the Song
of Solomon, it's Solomon and the Shulamite, but it's a picture
of Christ and His church, and His never-failing, never-ending
love for her. And here she speaks, the Shulamite
or the church, and she says, I sleep. But my heart waketh. It is the voice of my beloved
that knocketh, saying, 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. I have put off my
coat. How shall I put it on? I have
washed my feet. How shall I defile them? My beloved
put in his hand by the hole of the door, and my bowels were
moved for him. I rose up to open to my beloved, and my hands dropped
with myrrh, and by fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the
handles of the lock. I opened to my beloved, but my
beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone.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. The watchmen
that went about the city, they found me, they smoked me, they
wounded me. The keepers of the wall took
away my veil from me. I charge you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am sick
of love." You notice the last verse of the song that we sung.
We enjoy singing that song at our place where it says, prone
to wonder. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love, take my heart, O Lord, and seal it, seal it
for Thy courts above." And we that are God's people understand
what that is. We see this here in verse 2 where
she said, I sleep. We are, believers are a paradox. In another part of this book,
she said, I'm black. Talking about her sin, she said,
I'm comely. She said, I sleep, but my heart waketh. We are sinners
by nature, by practice, by birth, but if we are His, we are the
righteousness of God in Him. What a paradox. What a paradox. That old man, and he's an old
man. He's been around here a long
time. He was born first, that old man, and he will never cease
to be the old man. We will never get rid of him
as long as we are on this earth. Though we wished we could. You
know, Paul, I'll get over there in just a few minutes in Romans
chapter 7, but he said, Oh, wretched man that I am. He didn't say,
Oh, wretched man that I was. He said, Oh, wretched man that
I am. But here in our text, we see that it portrays the horrible
condition of the bride of Christ, the state of indifference regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ And this is one of the most worst conditions
a person can have in this world, to be just indifferent when she
said, I sleep. And there's many pictures of
this in the Scriptures. Remember when our Lord went into
the Garden of Gethsemane, He took Peter, James, and John with
Him. And He was just a stone cast away so they could probably
hear Him praying. He went and prayed and came back,
and He was praying in such agony that His blood was as great drops
of... His sweat was as great drops
of blood. When He came back, what did He find? He found them
asleep. He said, sleep on now, take your
rest. And you remember the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.
It says, when the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and
slept. And you remember Samson, that
Nazarite, laid his head in the lap of Delilah, and when he woke
up, she'd cut off his logs. We are all prone to This describes
us all by nature. She said, I sleep. And you know,
I heard Henry say something one time, it really stuck to me.
He said, we won't get anywhere with God till we're just honest.
Most people just don't want to be honest. They want to try to
cover up and they want to try to hide it somewhere. But we
just got to be honest. By nature, it's just lazy. It wants to sleep. It slumbers.
When our fellowship and communion with Christ is broken, because
of our ingratitude, neglect, and indifference. The only remedy
is we see the cause and we see the results in this scripture.
But the only remedy we can find is not in us. But it's if Christ
comes to us by grace and like He did this woman, knocks on
her door and awakens her. That's the only remedy. It's
not in us. It's not what we do. But you
know, religion Tells people what they can do. Now, if you'll just
do this, if you'll just do this. I mean, Gary was just talking
a few minutes ago and he said, well, I about went to sleep just
coming over here and I said, I did too. And it was all I could
do to stay awake. Physically, but there's also
a thing in any spiritual sleep. Sometimes it's a struggle with
that old man, isn't it? A struggle with that old man.
He scribes. He's just like that old... He's
Ishmael. He's always standing around somewhere mocking you.
He's always wanting his own way. He's always wanting the credit.
And that's what she's saying here, I sleep. Very common saying, I sleep.
This describes the old man. Describes him. They are indifferent
and lukewarm. about divine things. It's like
the church of Laodicea. So they think they're rich and
increased with goods, but they don't think they have need of
nothing. If they did, they would be seeking Him. They're content. When we're asleep,
when religion's asleep, it's bare externals of religion. They
have a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. without
the lively exercises of grace, without fervency and spirituality
in them. And they seem willingly to just
go on sleeping. What did Paul say? It's high
time for us to wake out of our sleep. Our salvation is nearer
than when we first believed. High time to wake out of our
sleep. But let me tell you, it's not the sleep of death as lost
men sleep. It's just a slumber. Psalms 13, 3 says, Consider and
hear me, O Lord my God. Lighten my eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. When we indulge ourselves in
carnal ease and security, our hearts become cold, drowsy, and
indifferent to the things of God. How we know this by experience
too often. And when this happens, Religion
just becomes a routine. We come in, we sing songs, and
you ever feel like it's just a routine? Amen. Devotion is just lifeless. Service
is drudgery. Worship's just form when zeal
was gone. She said, I sleep. She admitted,
she said, I sleep. I like what she says next, but
my heart waketh. That heart that God gives a sinner. That heart as it speaks in the
epistle of John says that cannot sin. It will never sleep. It's always awake. It's always,
he listens to the voice of God. It's that new nature that God
gives an individual. When he's born again by the Spirit
of God, my heart waketh. I saw a marquee out in front
of a so-called church the other day. Make Jesus your Valentine. Give your heart to Jesus. First
of all, you don't make him anything. God made him Lord. And what does
he want with our old corrupt heart? He must give us, he said,
I take away stony heart. Give you a heart of flesh, a
heart that yearns after God. It beats for God. That's that
new nature. That's the only reason a sinner
ever comes and cries out and seeks God. It's because God gave
them the ability. If God never gives them the ability,
they'll never come. They'll never seek. But she says,
I sleep, but my heart waketh. That new nature, that new man,
which is created in righteousness and true holiness. I tell you,
this is a hopeful sign that there's grace in a person's heart when
there's a struggle. When that heart that's always
awake struggles against that part that's sluggard and sleeplessness,
this new heart will never slumber or sleep. It's always thinking
of Christ, our beloved. I want you to turn, I told you
we'd try to turn over in Romans chapter 7, Romans 7. I used to be in religion. The
people that always take this passage here, beginning at verse
15 in Romans 7, they say, well, it's talking about a carnal Christian,
you know. I believe it's just the opposite. I believe it's someone that's
describing what they want to do and they just don't do. You
know what I'm saying? Somebody that wants to please
God, seeks after God, strives after Him, But then that part
that just keeps raising up its head. In verse 15, for that which
I do, I allow not. For what I would, that do I not. But what I hate, that do I. Verse 16, if then I do that which
I would not, I can send unto the law that it is good. Now
then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in
me. I know that is in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not, but the evil which I would not, that
I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law that when
I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the
law of God after the inward man, that new man, that my heart that
waketh. And here we see in verse two,
I sleep but my heart waketh, it is the voice of my beloved
that knocketh. He came to her. God always takes
the initiative, always. We were saved, we are being saved,
and we shall be saved. It's Him that's doing the saving. He had to save me yesterday from
myself and He has to save me today from myself. I have no
ability. We don't. That's why we need
Him. We don't get to the place where
we don't need Him and quit looking to Him. We look to Him every
day. I sleep but my heart waketh. It's the voice of my beloved
that knocks. He knocks and wakes us up. He gets our attention. How does He get our attention?
Sometimes it's through providence. through maybe a message of the
gospel through his word, he knocks and she knew who it was. She
said, it's the voice of my beloved. This book says, my sheep hear
my voice and they follow me. He said, they won't follow a
stranger. Why? They know his voice. I can't
explain it. I just know that they know his
voice. There's a difference. We used
to follow in religion every strange voice, every wind of doctrine
that come by. But if God ever gives you the ability, ears to
hear and eyes to see, you know His voice. The Scripture talks
about God sending strong delusions and men believe a lie. And He
said, if it were possible, they would deceive the very elect
of God. But how can they not deceive
the elect of God? God gives them ears to hear.
Ears to understand. She knew that this was Christ
knocking at her voice. Said, who is that? I know exactly
who it is. That's grace and mercy that He
came to her when she was asleep. Those that He loves, He rebukes
and chastens. Those that He don't, He just
leaves them alone. I'll tell you a good example
of that was David. He committed murder, or committed
adultery, and he committed murder to try to cover it up. And he
went on for a long time until God sent Nathan to him. And you
know what that was? God knocking on his door. And
when, you know, Nathan used illustration of a man, he went to a man's
house and took his own little lamb and he killed it and, boy,
it made David so mad. So David said, that man ought
to die for doing such a thing. And he said, that was you, David.
You know what that was? That was God waking him up. That's
exactly right. God loves with an everlasting
love. We see this tender call. It's
the voice of my beloved. All is not gone. Though our love
is so fickle, so shameful, so unworthy of Him, how little we
do love Him. But when you hear His voice,
You know it's His voice. The sheep hear and know His voice.
They know the voice of the shepherd. And you know what He says? Open
to Me. You know, and everybody perverts
this scripture in Revelation 3.20 where it says, Behold, I
stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and
open the door, I'll come in to him. Everybody has this picture
on the wall of Jesus, the eternal light of God standing there with
the lantern. And the door don't have a doorknob on the outside,
you know, it's just cause he can't get in. He can get in. He can get in. We're gonna say
he got into her heart. But let me show you this, God
is completely and totally sovereign. But you know where he comes in?
Where he's wanted in. He makes us willing in the day
of his power. Who made us willing? He made
us willing. Don't you wish you could persuade
men? We can. Only God has the ability and
God, He is able. He's not some little grandpa
sitting upstairs somewhere with his hands tied behind his back
and just can't do what He wants to do because somebody won't
let Him. He comes, He knocks and He gains entrance. Picture
Him, if you can, standing at the door of His church. The door
is shut against Him. But thanks to being the God,
he won't be turned away. If we're his, he won't take no
for an answer. If you're his, you know why?
He loves his people. Loves them. Perfectly. Completely. He calls sinners
into covenant with him and saints into communion with him. Those
whom he loves, he will not let alone in their carelessness.
He'll find a way to awaken them. Peter denied Christ. Didn't seem
like he was asleep. He said, I don't even know Him.
Not just once, not just twice, but three times. And he just
said just a few moments, maybe a few hours earlier, said, everybody
else might leave you, but I won't leave you. And I believe he meant
it. But here he says, I don't even
know Him. And all it took was our Lord that said He turned
and looked at Peter, never even said a word. And Peter did what? Peter remembered the words that
Christ spoke to him. He woke him up. Woke him up. He who sues for
entrance, who may have demanded it, who knocks, who could easily
knock the door down. That's right. He knocked. He
said, open to me, open to me, enlighten me into your soul.
Christ is sovereign. He can open any door He wants.
But like I said, He only comes in where He's wanted. People don't understand that. Not only knocks, but He calls. How does He address this person
that sleeps? How does He address her? opened
to me my sister, my love, my undefiled." He could have said,
you lazy, good-for-nothing, but he didn't. My sister, my love,
my undefiled. He shows her tender affections
under her. His love is an everlasting love.
And that's how Christ saw her, undefiled. She is still righteous
in his sight. It never changes. Isn't that
your hope? Look what he said. My head is
filled with you, my locks with the drops of the night. He is
saying, consider what hardship I have undergone to merit you. which surely may merit from thee
so small a kindness as this. The drops of the night could
represent the sufferings that he endured in order to bring
blessings to his bride. His locks are filled with the
dew of the night." Look at verse 3, the excuses she made. Here he stands, knocked on the
door, said, open to me, my sister, my love, my undefiled, And she
comes back and says, I've put off my coat. How shall I put
it on? I've washed my feet. How shall
I defile them? Poor people filled with excuses. The awful example of ingratitude. She refused her Lord's gracious
invitations. She didn't wish to trouble herself.
Didn't wish to be troubled. Her heart was so cold that she
preferred her ease to the fellowship of Christ. She said, I've took
off my coat. I've laid aside my responsibility. I've washed my feet the way they
did in Eastern times. They wore sandals and they had
to go to public places to take a bath. And when they walked
back to their house, all that got dirty was their feet. She said,
I've done washed my feet. I've done laid down. It's just
too much trouble. Reminds me of, I think it's in
the Gospel of Matthew where it says, go out and bid those people
to come to the marriage. And when they bid these different
types of people, they all begin to make excuse. One man said,
I bought a piece of land and I gotta go look at it. Who buys
a piece of land without going looking at it first? One said,
I've married a wife, I can't come. All begin to make an excuse. You know why people make excuses?
to try to ease their guilty conscience. I want to blame somebody else. I just don't want to get up.
I've laid my coat off. I've washed my feet. Her heart
was so cold. So cold. I've laid aside my responsibilities. Let me tell you what it says
in Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 23. You remember the book of Nehemiah
was about when Nehemiah came back and they were rebuilding
the walls around Jerusalem. And everybody tried to hinder
the work. Everybody tried to stop it. And
then Nehemiah 4.23 says, "...neither I, nor my brethren, nor my servants,
nor the men of the guard which followed me, none of us put off
our clothes, saying that every one of them put off for the washing."
What's he saying? They slept in their clothes.
They wanted to be ready at a moment's notice to serve God. And here she makes excuses. Doesn't that sound like us? Frivolous excuses are the language
of prevailing slothfulness in religion. Christ calls for us
to open the door, and we pretend we have no mind, no strength,
or have no time, and therefore think we're excused, as the sluggard
is when he won't plow because it's cold outside. And let me tell you this, our
Lord could have left right there. But He didn't. It said in verse
4, My beloved put His hand by the hole of the door, and my
bowels were moved for Him. He made her willing. He touched
her heart. And if He ever touches your heart,
It also says in this book, he says, if you draw us, we'll run
after you. Run. He motivated her. She's laying there and says,
can you just imagine it? She says, I've done laid down.
I've done took my coat off. I've done washed my feet. I just
don't want to get up. She knew who he was and who he
was at the door, and she just wouldn't get up and go to the
door. But he didn't take no for an answer. He wouldn't leave her alone.
He is long-suffering, patient, and gracious to His people. Even
in our most sinful rejections and denials of Him, He's still
gracious. This is effectual grace. What
does that mean? He gets the job done. It's effectual. People hate that word effectual.
hate it. All calls, all entreaties, they
seemed of no avail. But our God, He calls and makes
us willing in the day of His power. When He reaches His sovereign
hand of mercy into the door of our heart, that bolt that was
shut and locked He's able to open it. Able to open it. It says, my bowels were moved
for Him. Kind of reminds me of those two
disciples that was walking on the road to Emmaus that day.
He walked right up with them. They didn't even recognize Him.
Didn't recognize Him. And He said, why are you looking
so sad? And they said, have you not heard what happened in Jerusalem?
We thought this Jesus was going to be the one that was going
to come deliver Israel. And it said, He began at Moses
and the prophets and expounded to them and showed them in the
Scriptures where they spoke about Christ. And they said, did not
our hearts burn within us? These old hearts that grow so
cold and so indifferent, when they are touched by His grace,
become warm. And only He can do it. Amazing
grace. Effectual grace. Everlasting
love. She had no rest in her spirit. She had tried to find rest in
her carnal ease, and you'll never find it. You know, that's probably, I
guess another good example this would be would be Elijah. Elijah
stood up against 400 and some prophets, had every one of them
killed, and Jezebel said, I'm going to do the same thing for
you. So what did he do? He started running. He got out
there under the juniper tree and started feeling sorry for
himself. And he said, there ain't nobody else loves God. And God
said, I got 7,000 that you don't even know about. It ain't bad
to the image of Baal. He knows what they're in. He
knows how to talk a fire that's almost gone out. It won't go
completely out. He said, smoking flax, he won't
quench. He'd maybe just got a little
smoke, but where there's smoke, there's fire. And all he has
to do is blow on it and fan it. And he does it. Kind of like the prodigal son,
he came to himself and said, what have I done? He touched
her heart and she said, what have I done? That was my beloved
at the door. So she gets up. She goes to the
door, verse 5, I rose to open to my beloved, and my hands dropped
with sweet-smelling myrrh, and my fingers with sweet-smelling
myrrh upon the handles of the lock. She gets up and goes to
the door, expecting to find him. Says this sweet-smelling myrrh,
as myrrh is always represented in Scripture as grace. Psalms
45, 8, all my garments smell of myrrh, and now the castle,
and now the ivory palaces were by they have made thee glad.
He left the token of his grace, said, my hands just dropped for
this grace. He's been here. He's been here. But she was disappointed. Can
you imagine what she felt when she opened the door and he was
gone? She expected to find Her heart was broke. John Gill said, it was a sad
disappointment. She expected to have seen him,
had been received in his arms and embraced in his bosom. But
instead of that, he was gone out of sight and out of hearing
and was withdrawing. This withdrawing was to chasten
her for her former miscarriage and to show her more the evil
of her sin. and his resentment of it, to
try the truth and strength of her grace, to inflame her love
the more and shape her desires after his presence, and to prize
it more when she had it. You know what she did? She took
him for granted. Didn't she? She just said, well,
I'll get out. He'll be there. And he wouldn't. She feared he'd never return
again. You know what David said after
he sinned? Lord, take not your Holy Spirit from me. He was gone. It showed her haste
in speaking. The confusion she was, the strength
of her passion, the greatness of her disappointment and sorrow.
It is as if she was represented wringing her hands and crying,
he's gone, he's gone, he's gone. Something's happened. This is
the same person that was just moments earlier was saying, I've
done laid down, done took my coat off. And now she's looking
for him. She's looking for him, said,
open to my beloved. My beloved had withdrawn verse
six and was gone. My soul failed when he spake.
I saw him. I couldn't find him. I called
him, but he gave me no answer. She's looking for him. He put it in your heart to seek
Him. Because He first sought you.
She's looking now. She's trying to find Him. She's
looking for Him. Why? He is the chiefest among
ten thousand to her. So only in this chapter they
said, what is your beloved more than anybody else's beloved?
Everybody's got a beloved. She says, He's altogether lovely.
She never Fails, she can describe him. She knows what he's like.
And verse 7 says, the watchmen that went about the city, they
found me, they smoked me, they wounded me. The keepers of the
wall took away my veil from me. There's many interpretations
or men give for this verse and some say this could be men using
the law to wound her and beat her over the head and say, you're
just getting what you deserved. And I could probably fit. They
misunderstood her. Some thought that she was just
a street walker. They saw her walking. And as I thought about
this, I thought about another woman that was misinterpreted
one time. You remember a lady named Hannah, which was Samuel's
mother? She'd been barren for years and
she had went to the temple, prayed many times that God would give
her a son. And in 1 Samuel 14, And Eli said unto her, he came
in and saw Hannah praying and said, How long will thou be drunken? Put away thy wine. He thought
she was drunk. Her heart was so heavy and she was so broken.
Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful
spirit. I am neither drunken, neither
wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the
Lord. So I'm looking for him. Do you know where I can find
Him? And the only thing that matters to your soul is finding
and being where He's at. And you know why He withdraws
Himself? It seems like times you ever
sought Him and couldn't find Him. It seems like the heavens
are His brass so that we will seek Him. Verse 8, she desires the assistance
of others. I charge you, O daughters of
Jerusalem, if you find my beloved, that you tell him that I'm sick
of love. She says, if you find him, tell
him I cannot rest until I know that I have his pardoning mercy
and renewing grace. Tell him that while he's absent,
I can neither find peace within or comfort She thought, you know,
she can lay on the bed, man, I can just take it easy. Isn't
that the old nature? But find no peace. No peace. No comfort. No rest. No rest. Could this be the same
person that only a few moments earlier wouldn't even get up
out of bed, but now is longing for the very presence of her
beloved? If you tell Him, if you see Him,
you tell Him, I'm sick of love. I need Him. We sleep, but our
heart awaketh. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank You for
Your grace and Your tender mercy, that You love Your people with
an everlasting love. and that when you draw us, we
will run after you. Oh, that you might speak to our
hearts, touch the feelings of our emotions and our affections,
and that we might yearn after you. We thank you, Lord, for
your loving kindness that you have displayed toward your people.
And Lord, for raising up this place where your children can
come and gather and worship you and seek your face. And we praise
you in Christ's name, amen.