Let's turn to the psalm of Solomon
chapter 2. Have you ever experienced love
sickness? Now, I'm not talking about some
silly thing that, you know, you think you experience when you're
13, the first time you have a little relationship with a boy or a
girl, then they find somebody that looks a little better than
you do. That's all I'm talking about. I'm talking about love
sickness. It is that sickness that you
get in your whole being when someone dear, precious to you
is absent and there's nothing you can do about it. You love
them dearly. You want them all the time. and
they're away and you can't do anything about it. It's that
sick feeling you get when the one you love is absent, but worse,
the one you love is absent and just before you parted you had
words. You got a wedge between you. Or maybe
they're sitting in the same room with you and you got a wedge
between you and you're sick. because you can't stand the waves
between you. That's what I want to talk to
you about this evening. Only the lovesickness I have
to describe is not that between a man and a woman, but rather
it is altogether spiritual. It is the lovesickness of a believer's
soul when Christ withdraws himself and we're aware of it. Let's
read beginning at verse Lord Jesus speaks here and says,
I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so
is my love among the daughters. And then the bride responds,
the believing heart responds, As the apple tree among the trees
of the wood, so is my beloved among the thought suns. I sat
down under his shadow with great delight. His fruit was sweet
to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting
house, and his banner over me was love. Stay me with flagons,
comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love. his left hand is
under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. I charge
you, O you daughters of Jerusalem, by the rows and by the hinds
of the field, that you stir not up nor awake my love till thee
please." Now, let me make these statements at the outset. I am
fully aware that our souls, that is the souls of God's elect,
every redeemed sinner, every sinner chosen by God's grace
and called by his spirit, is infallibly, absolutely secure
in the grace of Christ. But that security does not breed
a carnal indifference to him, but rather an earnest desire
for him. I'm fully aware that Christ is
always present with his people. I'm fully aware that he promised
where two or three are gathered in his name, there he will meet
with them, and always does. He is always for us the Lord
who is at hand. He loves his people always and
loves them completely at all times and in all circumstances.
Oh, how my heart rejoices to declare that there is nothing
you and I can ever do. to cause Him to love us less
than perfectly and absolutely. No love like His. There is no
love like His. I'm fully aware that our Lord
Jesus always does what is best for His people in all things
and in all circumstances. And ultimately He will bring
every soul loved by Him, chosen by Him, redeemed by Him, called
by Him, will bring them at last into glory, in the perfection
of absolute holiness, in all the fullness of salvation. And
yet, I'm also aware that there are times when our Lord graciously
and wisely, for our sakes, withdraws from us the manifest presence
of his smiling face. There are times when we're unable
to sense or to perceive the reality of his presence with us. Look
over in chapter 5, I'll show you. Chapter 5, we'll get to
this a little later, but here in chapter 5, verse 6, the pictures
of the Savior knocking at the door, and the bride responds,
I put off my coat, how shall I put it on? I'm already in bed,
don't bother me now, with neglect and indifference. And then he
caused her heart to be moved toward him by putting his hand
into the hole of the door. And in verse six we read, I opened
to my beloved, but my beloved had withdrawn himself and was
gone. My soul failed when he spake. I sought him, but could
not find him. I called him, but he gave me
no answer. There are times when the Son
of God hides his face. There are times when he chooses
for our good not to make himself known. There are times when he
causes us to be blinded, as it were, to him. Incapable of seeing
him, incapable of laying hold of him. Now he does so for many
reasons, principally because of our sin, our unbelief, or simply our neglect. He won't allow you to neglect
him, not if you're here. He won't allow it. He withdraws
and hides himself in order to increase in us the awareness
that we truly He intends by withdrawing from us, by hiding his face from
us, to awaken us, to draw out our heart's love for him. He
intends then to return to us when he has shown us how desperately
we need him and drawn out our heart's affection for him. For
he says plainly, if I go away, I will come again and I will
comfort you. I will not leave you comfortless.
But for us, It is a sad, sad time when Christ withdraws the
sweet manifestation of his presence. Sometimes it happens to us collectively,
more often it happens individually, but at such times our worship
is it there. If you've experienced it, you
know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, there's no way
I can make you know what I'm talking about. You try to worship
God and you're just dead. You try to commune with him and
there's no communion to be had. You try to pray and there's no
prayer. Our usefulness at such times
is diminished and certainly our joy is gone so that we're made
to cry like David, restoring to me the joy of thy salvation. John Newton expressed it this
way. How tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer
I see. Sweet prospects, sweet birds
and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me. I'm sick
of love. There is this heavenly lovesickness
in my soul for Christ. Oh, how I want is immediate,
constant. One of these days we're going
to have it, but here I'm going to have to struggle with this. I want more, more. Now in this passage of Scripture,
let's look at these seven verses together and let me show you
five things that are very plain. First, a loving comparison. It's very common with lovers
to use poetic comparisons to describe one another. Back in
the days when we had music rather than noise, and folks wrote songs,
even if they were songs we might not agree with as far as the
message is concerned, at least they wrote songs that had lyrics
that expressed passion. And passion is often expressed
by comparing the object of your passion or the object of your
love to some particular object that's obvious and familiar that
complements the one you're speaking of. In these verses, both Christ
and his people use such comparisons of poetry to describe their love
and esteem for one another. First, in verses one and two,
the Lord Jesus speaks. In verse one, our beloved Savior
describes himself in his particular blessed relationship with all
his people. He says, I am the rose of and
the lily of the valley." The Lord is, in that statement, describing
what he is to those who love him, and more importantly, to
those who are the objects of his love. He says, I am the rose
of Sheogod. Now that speaks of redeeming
blood. I know so for the The rose of Sharon in its crimson
color represents that red line throughout all the scriptures,
proclaiming the sacrificial atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ by which
our sins are washed away. Now though in the eyes of the
world it is obnoxious, all to the believer it's precious. The
rose of Sharon gives off the sweet-smelling nectar of redeeming
love, pardoning grace and complete atonement. The believer looks
to Christ and hears him declare, I am your redemption. And the
believer, oh, thank God for that. I'm the rose of Sharon and the
lily of the valley. Though the righteousness of Christ
is altogether that which he has established as a man. It is our
righteousness as well. And through his righteousness
being imputed to us, we have been made as pure and white as
the lily of the valley. The word translated lily, it
really comes from a root word which means white. That's what
Christ is essentially. He's perfectly pure. No spot
of darkness in But more than that, that's what he made of
it. Whiteness. Absolute purity in the eyes of
God Almighty. The lily is in the shape of an
umbrella. And so Christ's righteousness,
like an umbrella, covers us. In our many valleys, Christ is
our lily, both to cover us and to cheer us. To cover us from
the storms and to cheer us in the midst of the burning heat
of the day and fiery fire. Then in verse 2, the Lord Jesus
tells us that we are, as being believers, beloved, united to
him, we are the lily among thorns. You see that? He says to you,
as the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters.
Man looks out, he's got one woman, the object of his love. And in
his eyes, she's prettiest they knew. I mean, she's just, she's
just pretty. Everything about her, all the
features, all the characters of this woman are those things
that cause her to stand out to him. And to him, all of the women
compared to her, why, they're like thorns. She's the little
one. That's what the Master says out loud. He says concerning
you, who have been made pure and white by his blood, by his
righteousness and by his grace, all the daughters are just thorns,
your beloved to my love, like the lily among thorns. By the
mighty operation of his grace, the righteousness of Christ has
been imputed to us in justification and imparted to us in sanctification
so that we bear a likeness to our Lord even here among the
peoples of this earth. The church of God in this world
Again, as compared to a lily among thorns in this regard,
we live here and bloom. The wild lily just,
we put them in our gardens, you know, we put all the lilies here
and all these flowers there and all those there, but in the wild,
you see that lily spring up among thorns. And oh, how beautiful
she is. the thorns make her beautiful
appear even more. Other lilies would detract from
it, but thorns make it appear manifest and beautiful. But in
this world we live with thorns of care and trouble. Among the
thorns of unbelieving men and women, and the thorn of our own
sinful nature. But still, among all these thorns,
The Lord Jesus declares that we are by his grace like the
lily of the valley. He looks at you and smiles. Not because of what you do, not
because of your imaginary will, not because of your imaginary
goodness, oh no, but because of his goodness and his beauty
and his glory that he's put upon you. Now look at verse 3. Here
is a tender comparison of Christ, our beloved Savior, as a fruitful
apple tree. He is the tree of life in the
paradise of God. The bride speaks and says, as
the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my beloved
among the sun. I sat down under his shadow with
great delight and his fruit was sweet to my taste. She's describing something past. Now, we must
not look back to yesterday as the ground of our hope, but let
us not forget our yesterday. Let's not forget those first
early experiences of grace. She says, I sat down under his
shadow, and his fruit how sweet it was to my taste. The Lord
Jesus is a fruitful tree, so fruitful that all his people
have all the fruit of his grace in all its fullness, and his
fruits never diminish. He says in Hosea chapter 14 and
verse 8, From me is thy fruit found. So that the fruit of the
spirit that's brought forth in the believer's life, love, joy,
peace, faith, meekness, long-suffering, gentleness, those things, it's
brought forth in the believer's life and brought forth from the
believer's life, it's from him. It's not the work of our flesh,
not something we conjure up, not something we work up, but
rather what he produces by his spirit within, his shade. Oh, how delightful. I sat down. under his shadow with great delight. The Son of God's wrath was burning
hard upon me, and I came here to this tree of life, and I sat
down under his shadow. And the Son of God's wrath no
more burns against me. Oh, what delight! His fruits,
life, pardon, communion, grace, mercy, his fruit. Oh, how sweet
the name. I hear him speak and he declares,
your iniquity is gone. Oh, how sweet the taste of forgiveness. How sweet the taste of free grace.
How sweet the taste of goodness and his glory bestowed upon us. Now then, look at verse four.
That's the loving comparison. Here's the loving remembrance.
He brought me into his banqueting house. The king, nothing's done
with this king with a niggardliness. There's nothing miserly about
him. He brings me into his banqueting
house and his banner over me. the banner by which he identifies
me, his banner over me was love. Here the bride lovingly remembers
and gratefully acknowledges that she has all the blessings of
the king's bountiful house only because of the king's grace.
Notice she does not say he invited me to come into his banqueting
more than that. He took me by the hand and brought
me, effectually by his grace, into his banqueting house. The
house of wine is the place of feasting. Of course, she's talking
about the church of the living God. It is the banqueting house
for the bride of Christ. The table of feasting spread
before us is the gospel of God's free grace and the ordinances
of the gospel. The wine of that house is the
sweet fellowship and communion of Christ himself. I've quoted this passage so many
times, preaching from Hosea and Gomer. Hosea brings Gomer back
into the house, and he brings me into his banquet. His banner
over me is love. And everything he does to his
elect, with his elect, for his elect is a display of his love
as it were. Electing love, redeeming love,
distinct love, special love, everlasting, persevering, infallible
love. Having loved his own, he loves
them to the end. He loves his own and loves them
distinctly. Well, we don't hesitate to declare
the distinguishing character of God's love in this place,
this silly religious world where folks paint signs, smile, God
loves you and we do too. Jesus loves you. Jesus loves
everybody. That's nonsense. That's utter
nonsense. Can you imagine Brother Noah
on the day when the flood comes? And he puts a bumper sticker
on the back of the ark while those folks are gurgling, taking
their last breath, and says, smile, God loves you and has
a wonderful plan for your life. That's stupidity. That's utter
stupidity. No, he doesn't love everybody.
And if he loved everybody, his love's meaningless. If he loves
folks in hell, like he does those he brings to glory, then his
love is meaningless. Oh, but he says, she says, is
that over? was love. He marched through
the land of his enemies in terror, but his banner over me was love. He dealt favor in the armies
of Egypt in the river, but his banner over me is love in everything
he does. All right, look at verse 5. Let me say a word or two here about
a loving sickness. Remembering that which I've experienced
and of my Savior and of his grace toward me, realizing that which is lost when he withdraws
himself, knowing the bliss and the joy of his presence. When
he hides my soul, or hides his face from me, my soul faints
within me with a heavenly lovesickness. Here in verse 5, it's expressed
this way, Stay me, strengthen, uphold, support me with flagons,
flagons of wine, comfort me with apples, for I am sick of love. That expresses a longing for
his presence, a longing to know him. as Paul expressed it in Philippians
3.10, all that I may know here. And the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his suffering being made confirmable unto his
death. I want to know the intimate fullness
of his love by experience. I want to know the sweet communion
of his love continually. I want to know that fruitfulness
of his love, which is the power of his resurrection, bringing
me up to glory. I long for his return, and I long to be with him. The Apostle said, we're confident,
I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to
be present with the Lord. For I am in a strait between
two, having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is
far better." How can you describe these things? The believers in a position in
this world where he wants Christ, he wants Christ more than life
itself, communion, fellowship conformity to Christ, oh, to
have healing. And yet we live in this world
of sin and sorrow, and we do what's needed to do to act with
reason to preserve life in this world, because we're responsible
to do so. Brother Mahan, I heard him one
time describe, he'd come in early one Sunday morning to services,
and there was a man sitting down, always said about where Shelby's
sitting there tonight, And he just walked over and sat down
and started chatting with him. The man was 74, 75 years old. And Henry
asked him how he was doing. He said, well, I'm doing all
right. It was just nothing special,
a newborn child. He said, you know, Brother Henry,
he said, we've got things backwards. He said, we rejoice when a child's
born into this world and weep when an old man leaves. He said,
we ought to weep when that child's born. He said, I'd whole lot
rather be leaving this world than coming into it. Whole lot
rather be leaving. Not just sickness of the world. Not just sickness of the trials
and troubles and difficulties of the world, but sickness of
Satan. And love for Christ causes the
believer to say, I'm willing rather to be absent from the
body and to be present with the Lord. But if I have to remain
here, let me have the refreshing comfort of his grace. Stay me
with flagons. The flagons of wine represent
the love of Christ that give rest and relaxation to my soul. Stay me with the knowledge of
his love. Comfort me with apples to give
strength and help to me. apples of gold are the promises
of his gospel, the doctrines of his gospel, and there's apples
of gold and pictures of silver according to Proverbs 25 11.
And then in verse 6 we see a loving comforter for a picture. You can picture now, just look
at me now, look up this way now, you can picture a young lady
who just, she's so heart sick, she just thinks. And just as
she thinks, the one that she loves catches her with his left
hand under her head. With his right hand he embraces
her. Here it is. His left hand is under my head
and his right hand does embrace I thought about that, thought
about that, thought about that. Here's the sense of it. If I
must faint, let me fall in his arms. That's what he said. If I must
faint, let me fall in his arms, the arms of his tender love and
care, his intimate, intimate communion, his safety and security. And then here is a loving admonition. verse seven, I charge you, O ye daughters of Jerusalem,
by the rose and by the hinds of the field, by the most sensitive
of creatures, that you stare not up, nor await my love to
be seen. You see, when we are brought to our utter and swoon into his
arms, then we have that which we most desire, his left hand
and the right hand, his right arm, embraces me. Having experienced,
then, the sweetness of Christ's communion and the manifestation
of his love, we desire that we may continue so long as we are
upon this earth in this blessed, blessed, blessed state of communion
with him. I hear fellas, and I had myself
talk about Peter, and he said, when he saw Moses and Elijah
with the Lord on the map transfiguration, let's build three tabernacles.
Man, that's what I say. Let's stay right here. Let's stay right here in this
mountain. I don't want any more of that
down there. Let's stay right here. But it's not there. It's
not there. Soon we would spoil on the mountaintop. I know this. The Lord Jesus Christ
will come to us and will withdraw himself from us according to
his own wisdom and his own pleasure. Again, stir not up nor awake
my love, till he please. He knows best. But let us be careful. God is
a Let us be careful, my brothers and sisters, that we do nothing
to stir him up and drive him away. This is what the Scripture
says, Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
unto the day of redemption. Our Father, give us grace that
it may be so. keep us from the evil that's
in us, and let us not grieve your Holy Spirit. Amen.